PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Murdoch Mysteries Season 11

Season 11 of Murdoch Mysteries has another 18 episodes and they started airing in September 2017. There was a third Christmas Special called Home For The Holidays. They sure don't apply the same quality to the Blu-Ray covers that they do the series. Those are the same pictures and they aren't the only covers that the pictures appear on.

The 10th season ended with Murdoch in jail, his wife, Dr Ogden, was kidnapped, Inspector Brackenreid is missing, Constable Crabtree and two other officers were shot down in a church. All that only takes an hour to clean up then it's back to the usual stuff. Murdock and the coppers have cases involving the Ontario wine industry, Helen Keller, organ transplants, a high speed underground train and a cooking contest. One episode takes place in real time during a car accident. A poor man is pinned against the train by the car, if they move the car he'll die.

Besides Helen Keller the show gets a visit from Alexander Graham Bell, Theodore Roosevelt and the Jolson Brothers. There are some good laughs and some sad stuff, usually with a bit of moral message. I could do with less of the sad stuff but there you go. That's what the fast forward button is for.

The Christmas Special finds Murdoch and Dr Ogden visiting Murdoch's brother on Victoria Island. They get involved with an archeologist's murder and wind up in the middle of a dispute between the Songhees and Haida. When Dr Ogden and her niece's autopsy the family dog the girl's mom wigs out. It's a nice mix of drama and comedy. I'll have a long wait until I get season 12.

The Broker's Man Series 1

I found a copy of the first series of The Broker's Man for 3 bucks and picked it up even though I didn't know anything about it. The first series has 6 episodes and they aired back in 1997. Each story is 2 episodes long and they're all written by Al Hunter Ashton and Tim O'Mara. Al also stars in the series. Bob Blagden directed the first two episodes and Roger Garland directed the last four. 

Kevin Whately is the Broker's man, he's an insurance investigator who works with Al Hunter Ashton and Sarah-Jane Potts. They work freelance for insurance companies and get a lot of their assignments from Michelle Fairley, Jill Baker and Peter Firth. Annette Ekblom is Kevin's ex-wife and Danny Worters and Holly Davidson play their two children. There's a lot of focus on Kevin's family problems. He's often broke and he works odd hours. Keeping appointments with his family is hard and there's a lot of tension between the couple. I have to admit those were the least interesting parts of the show, I'd often hit the 1.5 button when they were arguing. Get that shit over with. 

I did like the day to day insurance investigating. Kevin and crew aren't opposed to a bit of B&E or telling a bit of a lie to get at the truth. They aren't quite clever enough to stay out of trouble. At least they're entertaining while working.

The first story is about a stolen shipping container. A man was killed during the robbery, the villains are scumbags. The second story has a couple of main plots, a motorcycle and car accident and a water treatment plant that had the wrong chemicals put in one of their processing tanks. People got sick from the chemicals. The third story has the family on holiday. They've just settled in when work comes calling. Kevin just can't say no and that brings the criminals right to him and his family. It's not a business that I would want to be in, that's for sure.

On the whole I enjoyed the series. I have series two in the wings.

Science Fiction Sunday 525

Beyond The Trek started out under the title Teleios but they changed it for some reason. I don't like the new title much but the DVD was only a buck so I thought I'd take a chance. I thought the cover was very similar to the cover of the 2015 season of The Expanse. The cover on BTT doesn't represent anything from the movie. No one gets spaced. Beyond The Trek came out in 2017 and it was written and directed by Ian Truitner. In 2020 a corporation genetically modifies humans and in 2047 five adult GM humans man a spaceship heading for a deep space mining ship that's in trouble. Their mission is to find out what happened and retrieve the special cargo. There's only one survivor and he's all crazy and hairy. They shave his head and try to figure out what the series of word puzzles he's giving them mean. At the same time the GM humans are having some issues. They find that the corp is another evil bunch of fucks. Who's tired of movie corporations with black agendas? The corp had installed a bio code in the GM humans and it's reacting with their systems. It eventually will destroy them. They can slow the process down with un-GM human blood. Who's the only guy with that? The crazy guy and they'll need all his blood. Then on top of that the special cargo is bio-hazard and dangerous to everyone on Earth. The corp has a cure for it already ready to sell. That's the least interesting and cliched part of the story. There's plenty of talking and a bit of action before things turn to shit and everyone dies. It looks pretty good, especially since the budget was only a million smackaroonies. Nicely designed sets and spaceship activity. When it was all done I didn't seem to care much. I doubt I would watch it again.

I upgraded my copy of A Clockwork Orange. The movie is from 1971 and I had a laserdisc, from the 90s, which I had copied to a DVDr in 2005. It looked pretty fuzzy when I looked at the disc recently. Hamilton Books has a $6.95 double disc DVD so I bought that. It looks much better and there's a commentary by Malcolm McDowell and film historian Nick Redman. I found the movie still entertains and the commentary was a nice bit of icing. Malcolm has plenty of stories to tell. The second disc has some documentary stuff that I haven't watched yet. Well worth the add to my collection.

Friday Night Movies 716

Cold Skin is a 2017 horror movie about a stupid guy who goes to be a weatherman on the island near Antarctica. It's not near any regularly operating shipping lines so there's little chance of getting off the island. It's also 1914 and they have no radio. The current weatherman is missing and the only other occupant of the island is the lighthouse keeper. Ray Stevens plays the lighthouse keeper. He's not very communicative and doesn't bother to fill the stupid guy in on the situation.

Stupid guy is played by David Oakes. Little does he know on his first day that the night will bring some humanoids from the deep. They attack his little house and David hides in the cellar. The day has him fortifying his house and the night brings an inferno as his flaming moat sets his place on fire. He goes to live with Ray and finds Ray is a pretty horrible person. He has one of the amphibious creatures. He treats it like a dog, a dog he's fucking. Ray's pretty fucked up. The creatures attack and attack and attack. It all gets sort of tedious and the ending isn't much of a treat.

It's based on a Spanish novel by Albert Sánchez Piñol, the screenplay is by Jesús Olmo and Eron Sheean, the director is Xavier Gens. Xavier also directed Hitman in 2007 and The Divide in 2011. Hitman was more entertaining than this movie and The Divide about the same. I won't be getting a copy of Cold Skin, I just wouldn't want to watch it again that much.

Return Of The Killer Shrews is a 2012 sequel to 1959 The Killer Shrews. The 54 year gap between films makes it the 4th longest time between sequels. Bambi, Fantasia and Gone With The Wind are the first three. The script is by James Best, Steve Latshaw, Pat Moran and Patrick Moran. Steve Latshaw is the director. James was in The Killer Shrews and he's in this sequel. Sadly the sequel isn't quite as good as the original.

James Best plays the same guy as in the first movie. He takes a TV Reality show crew and star to the same island so they can shoot some crap. John Schneider plays the reality star and he was in The Dukes Of Hazard with James Best and Rich Hurst. Rick's also in the sequel. They even have a little jokey scene alluding to that. Bruce Davison plays the scientist from the first movie, now older, who's been living on the island since the first movie. He's batshit crazy and he controls the killer shrews. The killer shrews in the sequel are CGI and they look awful. They do kill a lot of people but it looks so embarrassing. It's the same for some of the CGI blood sprays and the like.

Generally, it's just not that good. I gave it a generous 3, it's current score is a 2.8 and there are plenty of 1s and 2s in the votes cast. Out of it's 271 votes, 22 of them are a 10. I bought it on a whim, I had recently seen three movies by Steve Latshaw and while I wasn't that excited over his films I did have some enjoyment from listening to his commentaries. ROTKS has a commentary. I'll get around to that at some point, perhaps when I watch the two movies on the same day. It could happen.

The Black Cat 1981

The Black Cat is a 1981 Italian horror film that was written by Biagio Proietti and director Lucio Fulci. I'm not a big Fulci fan as far as it goes but I mostly enjoyed this one. It's an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat but fairly different.

Patrick Magee is a medium who's trying to talk to the dead. He's somehow connected himself to his cat and the cat's out killing the people Patrick dislikes. What a prick, huh.

The police are investigating the deaths but it takes a while to connect them to each other. David Warbeck plays the police inspector and Mimsy Farmer is a tourist who likes photographing grave yards. The cat scratches on the victims leads them to the cat and he don't like that. It's mostly OK. I liked it better than most of the Fulci movies that I've seen. I'll keep the DVD, I might watch it again sometime.

Young Sherlock: Mystery At The Manor House Granada Television 1982

Young Sherlock: The Mystery Of The Manor House is an 8 part Granada Television production from 1982. The episodes were written by Gerald Frow and directed by Nicholas Ferguson. For some unknown reason the first episode is double the length of the all the others. It's like there are 9 episodes, time wise. Sherlock is played by Guy Henry and he's 17 at the time. He's returned home from school to find that his parents have moved out of the manor house and gone to France. They'd suffered financial ruin and Sherlock must board with the Turnbull family. A right horrible bunch they are, let me tell you.

A different family of a horrible nature has moved into the manor house and their actions rouse Sherlock's suspicions. There's a good bit of sleuthing and a good bit of family drama. Sherlock finds friendship in the housekeeper, Mrs Cunliffe, and Doctor Sowerbutts and family. At the end of the series Mrs Cunliffe gets married to a man named Hudson and moves to 221B Baker's Street. Sherlock eventually uncovers a devious plot and works to foil it. He gets some help from the Doctor and family and a young woodsman called Newbugs.

The story is OK, the details a bit sloggy. The bit with Mrs Cunliffe/Hudson is weak but other bits are better. I was glad to see it but doubt I would shell out some cold hard cash for a set of the DVD. It's out of print but you can still get a set for $20-30, depending on the disc quality. You can see the lot on YouTube by clicking these links. Episodes 1-5 6 7 8

Repossessed 1990

I remember seeing Repossessed back in 1991 and liking it. The movie was released on 1990 so I'm guessing I saw it on VHS, rather than cable. I was going to the theater back in  the 90s but not as often as the 80s. Repossessed is written and directed by Bob Logan. He's spoofing The Exorcist with Linda Blair playing a mom, with a couple of kids, who get repossessed by Satan. He comes from the TV and he's a dick. There's a lot of split pea soup spraying and Satanic trash talkin'. Leslie Nielsen and Anthony Starke are the priests come to help. Ned Beatty plays a TV evangelist who wants to put the exorcism on the air. He wants to make a bundle from donations. There's a lot of noise and things breaking. I didn't find the jokes to be that funny and it moved really slowly at times. The cast does a good job but you can only go so far with a weak script. It's part of a four pack that I'm keeping so I might get around to seeing it again someday, or not.

My Best Friend Is A Vampire 1987

I hadn't seen My Best Friend Is A Vampire before. It's a 1987 horror comedy that was written by Tab Murphy and directed by Jimmy Huston. Thundercats fans might know Tab from that series but I knew him from the Disney films Tarzan and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He wrote the story to Gorillas In The Mist just after MBFIAV and he wrote and directed Last Of The Dogmen after that. Jimmy had four films before this one, I hadn't seen them, he directed a bit of TV after and then no other credits. Robert Sean Leonard is a high school student. He gets seduced by a pretty gal who bites and turns him into a vampire. Rene Auberjonois is an older vampire who helps him get used to the idea of his new lifestyle. There's a subplot with David Warner and Paul Wilson as incompetent vampire hunters. There's a few gags and a bit of romance. It made me laugh and I'd put it away, I might want to watch it again.

Science Fiction Sunday 524

I watched a three pack of SF movies today. It's called End Of The World - Post Apocalyptic Triple Feature. All three are on a single disc from EONE Films. There are no extras.

Goodbye World 2013 Here's a modern take of the 1955 film Day The World Ended. A bunch of friends gather at the cabin of one their number just as some terrorist group screws up things. It's all pretty vague concerning what happened out there, the real focus is on the lives of the friends and the changes in the local population. I was bored for a lot of it, it's a drama first and SF second. I wouldn't watch it again.

Bloodrayne: The Third Reich 2010 The third Bloodrayne film was written by Michael Nachoff and directed by Ewe Boll. This time Rayne is fighting Nazis in WW2. It's not that good a movie but there are a lot of Nazis getting sliced up by Rayne's twin swords. It's not a comedy but I did laugh out loud a couple of times. Not at jokes. Michael Pare plays a Nazi who becomes a Dhampir like Rayne. She takes it upon herself to put an end to him. There's a lot of fighting and Nazi killing. There's a fair bit of nudity, part of the movie is set in a brothel. No real reason to see it, I doubt I'd bother with it again, though it's the most watchable of the lot. Amazing, what with it being a Ewe Boll movie and all.

After The Dark 2013 The movie is set in a school in Jakarta, the philosophy teacher has an exercise for the class on their last day. He's a dick, through and through. The idea is there's a nukefest and the group has to pick ten, from the 20 students, to survive in a bunker for a year. The students pick identities from a box, then add more detail for the next two scenarios. I didn't find it that interesting. I doubt I'd watch it again.

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The Hitman's Bodyguard is a 2017 crime comedy with Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L Jackson. It's written by Tom O'Connor and Patrick Hughes. They have done little other work and I've not seen it.

Ryan's a security guy, he keeps his customers safe, until that one guy got shot in the head. Three years pass and he's down at the bottom of the security heap. He gets a call from his ex-girlfriend, she's an Interpol agent and she's in deep shit. A team of mercenaries have attacked her convoy, everyone's dead and she's on the run with Samuel L. She can't trust Interpol, there must be a leak, so needs Ryan to come rescue her. Then he's got to take Sam to the Criminal Court in The Hague. They have until 5pm tomorrow and there are a pack of murderous scumbags hounding them.

There's plenty of nice scenery as the movie travels about Europe. There's plenty of action, car chases, boat chases, foot chases, guns blasting and bombs exploding. The only thing missing would be a parkour dog. There's a huge body count. even Sam and Ryan get shot up a bit. Gary Oldman plays a Serbian War Criminal and Salma Hayek plays Sam's wife. Both are entertaining. I thought the movie was even more entertaining and I put it on my wish list. I'd watch it again. The Blu-ray is only 8 bucks on Amazon. It might turn up cheap in a place like Walmart.

The Ghost Of Sierra De Cobre is a 1964 TV movie that started out as a TV show pilot and now it's on a Blu-ray. The producers were going for a Twilight Zone or Outer Limits kind of anthology show but with a more supernatural and horror theme. The story was the pilot for a series called The Haunted. The show was not picked up. They shot more material and it played on TV as a movie.

Typical in Hollywood, pilots get made, no one ever hears about them again. Most don't get made into TV movies. That probably helped it's visibility but it's got less than a 100 votes on the IMDb. Since the movie is B&W it stopped being shown as people demanded color productions. I think what really helped make this available now is the film makers.

The Ghost Of Sierra De Cobre was produced by by Joseph Stefano of Outer Limits fame. The OL wasn't being picked up after the 1963 season and Joseph created The Haunted. The pilot got made and the Blu-ray we watched has it as an extra. We only watched the 80 minute feature film this night. Robert Stevens was the director of the pilot. He got ill and Joseph had to direct. It's his only directing credit.

There's a good cast, Martin Landau, Judith Anderson, Diane Baker, Tom Simcox, Leonard Stone and Priscilla Morrill. Martin plays an architect who dabbles in the occult. He also an expert building restorer and he's work has put him into contact with the supernatural before.

He gets asked to look into a phone call from a dead woman. A blind guy's mother has died and she was afraid of premature burial. She had a phone installed in her crypt, so she could call for help if she woke up in her coffin. She's been dead for nearly a year before the phone calls start. The investigation takes us to a dark past with murder at the heart of haunting. The end seems a bit downbeat for TV at the time.

It was entertaining but kind of pokey. You don't have to frisk the movie to find the padding, you could see it. It might play better in the short version. I might want to have a copy but it's a $20 Blu-ray, so I might wait to see if I find it cheaper along the way.