PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 923

Seobok Project Clone 2021 Written and directed by Lee Yong-ju.

Seobok is a new species of human created by cloning and genetic manipulation. The process gave Seobok some mental powers but the companies goal is to tap into his bodily fluids and use that to create a longevity serum.

Seobok becomes the pawn of the old man who runs the company and one of the people in the intelligence agency who wants to sell Seobok to the Americans. Stuck in the middle is an ex-agent of the intelligence agency called Min who's supposed to get Seobok to his new digs. The transport is attacked by mercenaries and Min and Seobok go on the run. There's some fish out of water stuff and some gun fights along the way to the end of the movie. The factions interested in Seobok battle it out until most everyone is dead.

It's a longish movie, 115 mins, and it takes a while to get going. There's a few action scenes along the way but at it's core it raises questions of ethics in medicine. Is it OK to create a human clone for the purpose of harvesting it's biomass for medicine like an insulin pig and is it OK to kill everyone who opposes your plans. I enjoyed it for the most part but would have enjoyed it more if they had picked up the pace a bit. It's not going to get added to my library unless it's a free download which I probably wouldn't ever get around to again.

The Munsters 2022 Written and directed by Rob Zombie.

It's the Munster's origin story. A mad scientist puts Herman together and sends him out into the world. Herman gets some success as a comedian and meets Lily Gruesella and her father the Count. They get married and Lily's brother Lester tricks Herman into giving away the family castle to the Count's ex-wife. Herman, Lilly and the Count move to Hollywood, winding up at 1313 Mockingbird Lane.

There's plenty of gags and slapstick, all briskly paced to keep the story moving. Some of them work well, other's pratfall. I got plenty of laughs from it and will eventually pick up the Blu-ray so I can watch it again someday. I need to re-watch the original show, I haven't seen much of it for years and years.

Shakespeare and Hathaway Private Investigators Series 2-4

Shakespeare and Hathaway Private Investigators Series 2-4

I started enjoying the 2nd series of the show despite some of the dumb antics by the two main characters. In the 3rd and 4th series they ramped up humor to the detriment of the show. Frank and Lu act a lot dumber and more inept than they did in the first series. It really took some of the enjoyment out of the show. I had been thinking of picking up the DVDs but now I doubt that I'd ever get back to them.

Mortuary 2005

Mortuary 2005 Written by Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch, directed by Tobe Hooper. Tobe's second last movie.

Here's another movie where the main character takes over a dilapidated property only to find out it's haunted by some sort of supernatural something or other. It's Denise Crosby, playing a recent widow with two children. She thinks she's going to run a funeral home there but that's not going to happen. Crazy stuff happens and eventually everyone dies.

It's barely average, the effects ares nothing special, the characters aren't that interesting. I picked up the DVD on clearance for a couple of bucks, I doubt I'd watch it again.

The Squeaker 1937

 

The Squeaker 1937 Based on the novel of the same name by Edgar Wallace, screenplay by Edward O Berkman and Bryan Edgar Wallace, directed by William K Howard. A British film that's known in the US as Murder On Diamond Row.

A fence called The Squeaker has the London underworld at his mercy. He knows all about the big robberies. If he doesn't get a nice cut he'll turn the crooks into the police.

Edmond Lowe is Inspector Barrabel. He's after The Squeaker. Ann Todd, Robert Newton and Alastair Sim are the cast members I knew. It's a fairly entertaining story that is about average in it's telling. Worth a look for those that like a mystery.

Ghosts - 2022 Christmas Special

Ghosts - It's Behind You - 2022 Christmas Special Written by Matthew Baynton and Jim Howick, directed by Simon Hynd.

Alison has given all the ghosts a Christmas present so they decide to put on a panto for her to enjoy.

I find the show still delightful and don't mind the sentimental stuff when it's mixed in. There's plenty of jokes. I was happy to watch it.

Doc Martin Last Christmas In Portwenn 2022

Doc Martin Last Christmas in Portwenn 2022 Written by Jack Lothian, directed by Nigel Cole. It looks like this is the last episode of Doc Martin. I'll miss the series but there are plenty of episodes to re-watch.

It's a hectic week before Christmas in Port Wenn. The Doc shuts down Santa's grotto because the Santa has a contagious rash. Later Santa gets drunk and climbs on the Doc's house. After Santa gets a telling off, the Doc's son James runs away to find the real Santa. He only gets as far as his Aunt Ruth's but he's missing for a while.

Louisa decides to have a lantern parade. There used to be one but it got stopped some time ago. DC Penhale really wants to be Santa so he's down with the parade. The sick Santa calls the Doc for help, he's poked a hole in his leg and the blood is coming quickly. The Doc races to see Santa and crashes his car when he slides off the snow covered road. While in shock he hallucinates his newly dead mother and banishes her to the ether. He saves Santa and they race back to town to celebrate.

Mrs Tishell's neck is healed and she has to deal with removing her neck brace. She gets a hand from Aunt Ruth. Morwenna tells Al they are expecting a baby. DC Joe asks Janice to marry him and, despite all the poultry, she agrees.

All in all a nice way to end the stories of these characters I've been fallowing for 18 years. At it's best it's some of the best TV there's ever been. Even after all these years it still scores a 8.4 on the IMDb. I'll want to start watching them over again at some point.

Science Fiction Sunday 722

Doctor Who 2 Series 4 Episodes 1-3

 

Partners In Crime April 5 2008 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by James Strong.

 

The Doctor and Donna Noble meet while they are investigating Adapoise Industries and their new magical weight loss pill. Donna tells him at one point she had a change of mind about going with him in the Tardis.

 

Turns out the pill was alien technology and and one million Londoners have been taking the pills. The head of the company is using those Londoners as incubators for aliens infants that were created out of fat cells from the host. The Doctor tells her this is illegal and it needs to stop. His message falls on deaf ears.

 

The baddies almost get away with it. The Doctor interrupts their plans and the million turns into a few thousand when the effect is nullified. The Doctor lets the alien babies get picked up by the aliens. The aliens kill the woman who headed the company. No sympathy from me. Donna joins the doctor for some more adventures.

 

An entertaining and fun episode with plenty of noise and action.

 

The Fires Of Pompeii April 12 2008 Written by James Moran and directed by Colin Teague. Partially filmed in the Cinecittà Studios in Italy. They have a Roman city set that you can rent. The production shot there for 2 days. I did not realize the studio was founded by Benito Mussolini, his son Vittorio and Luigi Freddi.

 

The Doctor and Donna arrive in Rome only to find out it's Pompeii the day before volcano day. Donna wants him to stop the eruption but he says he can't because it's a fixed point in time and it can't be changed.

 

On further investigation it turns out that the Doctor is faced with a tough choice, kill the people of Pompeii or let the whole world's population turn into stone creatures called Pyroviles. It's always something with the Doctor, isn't it.

 

A really great looking episode with a tough story. The Roman set really adds a lot of production value.

 

Planet Of The Ood April 19 2008 Written by Keith Temple and directed by Graeme Harper.

 

The Tardis sets down on the Ood's home planet. A human company has been selling the Ood as slaves and the Doctor isn't much liking that. He disrupts the companies plans and frees the Ood.

 

Another good episode.

 

The commentaries were alright. The deleted scenes and BBC Trailers were about average.

Friday Night Movies 922

The Humanoid 1979 Written by Adriano Bolzoni and Aldo Lado, directed by Aldo Lado. Aldo used the George B Lewis name in the US release. It's an Italian film and that sort of name change was really common to disguise the films origin. They didn't disguise any of the ideas they pilfered from the first Star Wars film.

That's Graal, he's the brother of The Great Brother who rules Metropolis. Graal wants to kill TGB and take over Metropolis. It's far in the future and Metropolis is the new name for the Earth.

Graal has escaped from a prison planet. Aboard a stolen warship he's enlisted Dr Kraspin to help him in his plan. Graal sends some troops to steal a supply of Kapitron. He's going to use it to change the citizens of Metropolis into a Humanoid army. Barbara Bach plays Lady Agatha, the Queen of Noxon, she's a bad bad lady. She wants to be Graal's wife and share the power. I didn't think Graal was the marrying kind.

Graal tests the Kapitron on a guy called Golob, who's played by Richard Kiel, and it's a success. The Kapitron turns Golob into a clean shaven killing machine. That's Golob with his robot dog. I did like the robot dog. The robot dog is no K-9 but Golob enjoys his companionship on long space trips.

Kraspin has been giving Lady Agatha anti-aging treatments. The core of the daily treatment involves killing a young woman everyday and using something extracted from her body for the serum. Graal, Kraspin and Lady Agatha are a trio of scumbags that need putting down.

Leonard Mann plays Nick, he's the hero of the story, he joins with a scientist called Barbara Gibson and a boy with powers called Tom Tom. Lucky for them Tom Tom has a couple of pals with bows and light up arrows, they are quite good at dispatching Graal's soldiers.

The two sides battle it out in space and on Noxon. The film uses locations in Israel for Noxon. It's very Tunisian. Eventually the baddies are defeated and Metropolis is saved.

For an Italian space opera is pretty darn good. It's not Star Wars good but the sets and effects are decent. The script is it's weakest element but it still gets you to the end of the story. I enjoy it more than most Italian SF and would watch it again.

Sint 2010 Written and directed by Dick Mass. I'd seen this several years ago and enjoyed it. Here's that 2016 post.

Saint Nick is the US title of the 2010 Dutch film Sint (Saint). It's written and directed by Dick Mass who had made videos for Golden Earring and several feature films I haven't seen. Sinterklaas is the Saint Nick of the title and he's a right bastard. We meet him at the beginning of the movie, it's December 5 1492 and ex-bishop Nick and his gang of thugs are visiting the town for their usual killing and looting. Some of the villagers get riled up and attack the men. They burn the ex-bishop's ship. He returns any time December 5 has a full moon.

The next time we see Nick it's 1968 and then it jumps to the present day. People don't believe the Saint Nick legend but some of them get pretty fucked up just the same. One teen fights back and there's a huge body count.

It's was pretty entertaining in a monster killing folks kind of way. It was interesting to see Amsterdam in a horror movie. It's kind of gory and definitely not a Christmas movie for kids. In fact Maas had a complaint filed against him. Here's the bit from the Wikipedia.

While children are not permitted to see the film, parental concern arose over the film's poster, seen in the streets and in the lobbies of movie theaters. It shows Sinterklaas with a mutilated face and a malevolent look. Some people were concerned that this could be confusing and frightening for little children that still believe in Sinterklaas. A legal complaint was filed in October 2010, requesting the removal of all posters. In the subsequent court case, director Dick Maas argued that if parents could make their children believe that Sinterklaas existed they could also inform their children that the man on the poster was not the real Sinterklaas. The court ruled in favor of Maas, noting that the mutilated face was not visible enough on the poster, and rejected the complaint.

Child's Play 1954

Child's Play 1954 Written by Don Sharp, Peter Blackmore and Margaret Thomson, directed by Margaret Thomson. Don was also second unit director on the film. He had a fairly decent run as a director starting in 1955, his last film came out in 1989. He worked for Hammer films directing The Kiss Of The Vampire in 1963 and on their TV production Hammer House Of Horror in 1980. He directed The Face Of Fu Manchu and The Brides Of Fu Manchu for Harry Alan Towers. Margaret only had a few entries on the IMDb and I couldn't say any were familiar.

 

In a quiet little English village some kids make a bomb and blow up their club house.

 

The inclusion of a piece of lava from Krakatoa creates an atomic explosion.

 

The only casualty is a doll.

 

The local constabulary is disturbed and sets out to find what's going on. The kids move their experiment to an old quarry where they set out to make a product using their new machine and the Krakatoa lava. The new product is popcorn, branded Bangcorn, which they sell through the local sweet shop.

 

That's the popcorn making machine. The nice lady in the candy shop is Mona Washbourne, she's playing Miss Emily Goslett. The man in the picture is Ballard Berkeley. Some might remember him from Fawlty Towers where he played the major.

Peter Sallis plays the local van driver who sells Miss Goslett's candy apples on his route around the villages. The young girl in the picture on the right is Anneke Wills, some might remember her from all sorts of British TV including Doctor Who. Bangcorn proves popular and they can hardly keep up with the demand. Eventually the secret gets out but by then the last of the Krakatoa rock is used up. The village turns back to normal again.

It's a good story with fun kids and atomic powered popcorn. There's plenty of noise and a few explosions. What's not to like. I picked it up on a whim at the MVD clearance sale for a couple of bucks. Well spent.

Shakespeare and Hathaway Private Investigators Series 1

Shakespeare and Hathaway Private Investigators Series 1 Created by Paul Matthew Thompson and Jude Tindall. The show was produced by BBC Birmingham and set in Stratford-upon-Avon. The show has a Shakespeare theme going through it. The first series aired February 26 to March 9 2018.

That's Jo Joyner as Luella Shakespeare, Patrick Walshe McBride as Sebastian Brudenell and Mark Benton as Frank Hathaway. I didn't really know any of them but I see from Jo's Wikipedia page that I had seen her in a couple of episodes of Doctor Who, ones that I had watched about 2 months ago, I had to look the role up but I do remember it. The Doctor rescued her from the Big Brother style show. Other than Murdoch Mysteries she's mostly in stuff that I don't watch.

The same can be said for Jo's TV partner Mark Benton. He's done quite a bit of film work but most of it's not familiar to me. I have seen Ratburger, a TV movie that which was adapted from a David Walliams novel for SkyOne. I know I have the Booze Cruise trilogy to get to sometime. I see he's in a handful of TV shows I have seen, a few more TV shows that I have on hand to watch and plenty more episodes that I doubt I'll bother with, mostly dramas in that last lot. Poor Patrick doesn't even rate a Wikipedia page. He does have an IMDb listing and I see I haven't seen any of the few shows he's been in.

Amber Aga plays Detective Inspector Christina Marlowe, Tomos Eames plays Detective Sergeant Joseph Keeler and Roberta Taylor plays Gloria Fonteyn. The first two are the local cops and they do OK. Gloria is costume shop owner who lives above her business. That's where Sebastian has a room. Gloria supplies the detective agency a lot of their disguises. Sebastian uses several costumes each episode.

The show's pretty light-hearted and fun despite the occasional dead body. It's airs on daytime TV on the Beeb and you can't get too crazy there. Think Agatha Raisin or Rosemary & Thyme but with more Shakespeare references. It's a nice mix of mystery, murder and humor. The main characters are fun to watch and the jokes are usually fairly decent. I'm looking forward to the next three series. I wonder if they'll make a 5th series. Time will tell.