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The Dragon Pearl 2009 Story by Ron Saunders, John Armstrong and Mario Andreacchio, screenplay by Philip Dalkin, directed by Mario Andreacchio.
A PG film about a trip to China. A couple of young kids meet on their parents archeology dig in China. They meet a dragon and have an adventure.
It's about average for what it is. I enjoyed it but wouldn't necessarily watch it again.
Lockwood & Co Series 1 Based on the first two novels in the Lockwood & Co series by Jonathan Stroud, developed by Joe Cornish, written by Joe Cornish, Joy Wilkinson, Kara Smith and Ed Hime, directed by William McGregor, Catherine Morshead and Joe Cornish. The first two novels are The Screaming Suitcase and The Whispering Skull. There are 3 more novels in the series and I've read them all. I plan to read them all again soon.
Ruby Stokes, Ali Hadji-Heshmati and Cameron Chapman are Lucy Carlyle, George Karim and Anthony Lockwood. Anthony started his own ghost fighting company, George has been with him for a while, Lucy is the new girl. She'd worked for a small outfit in a small town but a ghost clearance job killed everyone in her group but her. She left town and arrived in London looking for a job. No one would hire her except for Lockwood & Co.
Lockwood is the sort of teen that acts without thinking, George enjoys research more than ghost fighting, they live in a house that was Lockwood's parents house. The parents had died some years before. The company barely gets by, it gets worse when a clients house burns down. Now they owe £60,00 and have little way of raising it.
Nigel Planner is Sir John Fairfax, he hires them and promises to pay the £60,00 if they'll remove an angry spirit from a big old mansion he wants to sell. It's all a set up job by Sir John and they nearly die. Sir John turned out to be the murder and he doesn't get out of the house alive. At least they didn't burn the place down.
I enjoyed the heck out of the series. Good story, good cast, good characters, good music. My only complaint is having to wait ages for more episodes. Provided they renew the program. It seems to have been well received so there's hope.
Doctor Who 2 Series 4 Specials
The End Of Time Part 1 & 2 Two part story that aired December 25 2009 and January 1 2010. Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Euros Lyn. The last of the series with David Tennant. I'll miss him but I'm looking forward to Matt Smith.
The Doctor gets a visit from Ood Sigma warning him about the Master. The Master returns with the help of some of his acolytes but his wife nearly ruins it, releasing the Master with a ferocious appetite and great powers. The Doctor finds him in an industrial area eating hobos. The Doctor gets found by Donna's grandfather Wilfred.
Joshua Naismith is a maniac billionaire, he's got some alien tech that he glommed onto when Torchwood fell. It's some sort of healing machine that he wants to use to make his daughter immortal. The Doctor and Wilfred break into his mansion and meet up with two aliens. They get noticed and use a teleporter to escape to the aliens ship.
Naismith captures the Master, hoping to use him to make the machine work. That doesn't go well and the Master turns everyone on Earth into himself. Only the Doctor, Wilfred and Donna remain unchanged.
The Time Lords are planning to escape from the time bubble that holds them. The Doctor put them there at the end of the time war. The Time Lords implant the drumming into the Master's head, the sound that has been driving him insane for hundreds of years, in order to bring Gallifrey to Earth and escape the time bubble.
The Doctor, the Master and the Time Lords have a bit of a dust up. The Time Lords and Gallifrey are sent back into the time bubble, the Master escapes and the Doctor sacrifices himself to save Wilfred. The Doctor doesn't want to die but he can't save himself. He visits all his old pals for one last time and regenerates into Matt Smith.
It was a humdinger of an ending and I was sad to see David Tennant go.
There's a couple of commentaries and a lot of making of material. It took hours to go through.
Dreamland November 21 - 26 2009 Written by Phil Ford and directed by Gary Russell. There were 6 episodes, the first 12 mins, the rest 6 mins each. The parts were broadcast daily on BBC's Red Button, the official Doctor Who site and BBC iPlayer.
The Doctor visits Dry Springs Nevada and has an adventure with aliens. He stops at a diner to get some chili. He meets Cassie Rice and Jimmy Stalkingwolf and finds an alien artifact on display. His sonic screwdriver activates the artifact.
Shortly after a couple of Men in Black arrive and try to take the alien artifact. The Doctor escapes with Cassie and Jimmy. They encounter a big bug like alien and some American soldiers. They are taken to Area 51, the Doctor calls it Dreamland.
The Colonel in charge puts them in a room and gases them with an amnesia gas. The Doctor gets them out of that before they lose their memories. The encounter an alien and an alien spaceship. They steal the later.
The spend the rest of the story running about the desert. The bug like aliens are looking for the grey type aliens, there's a second one that was secretly hidden by the local natives. Jimmy didn't even know.
Eventually the Doctor sorts it out like he wants it to be and moves along.
It was a fun story but I wasn't sold on the drawing style. The animation is fairly limited. There are no extras for the animation. A separate disc has three hour long programs titled Doctor Who Greatest Moments. The three programs are The Doctor, The Companions and The Enemies. Lots of clips and short interviews with cast and crew.
Crabs 2021 Written and directed by Pierce Berolzheimer. It's his first movie.
The small coastal town of Mendocino California gets invaded by some deadly horseshoe crabs. A lot of the locals die. Then the crab's giant big brother arrives. A group of teens put up a fight using some high tech.
There's a fair bit of crab action and gore. The physical crabs were pretty good, the gore drippy. There's a fairly good amount of humor but not all the jokes land well. It's 80 mins but seems longer. The story lurches to a crawl during some of the character development. I enjoyed it well enough but I'm doubting the need to add it to my collection.
The Alphabet Murders 1965 Based on The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie, screenplay by David Pursall and Jack Seddon, directed by Frank Tashlin. The name was changed to avoid any connection with the British theater chain ABC Cinemas in case the film flopped while playing at the ABC theaters.
Tony Randall plays Hercule Poirot. Originally Zero Mostel was intended to play the Belgian detective but Agatha Christie objected to the script having a bedroom scene with Hercule. That was several years before the film got made, Seth Holt was to be the director.
Tashlin came aboard and rewrote the Pursall and Seddon script with Robert Morley. They added a lot of slapstick and made Poirot a bit of a bumbler. Christie was said to have loathed the resulting movie. I can't blame her. The story in the film bares little resemblance to her novel.
I've seen a lot of adaptations of the novel and this is the oddest. Poirot bowling? Despite all that there's still some entertainment value in the film. It's unique at least. You can find out if you like it at the link in the title above.
Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde 1941 Based on the Robert Louis Stevenson story Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde, screenplay by John Lee Mahin, Percy Heath and Samuel Hoffenstein, directed by Victor Fleming.
Spencer Tracy plays Dr Jekyll, he's got an idea that he can separate the good and bad in people. We all know now how that's going to go. His experiments lead him to taking his serum and Mr Hyde is born.
He likes the night life, visiting the musical halls, and taking a fancy to Ivy, played by Ingrid Bergman. Hyde provides her with an apartment and sexually abuses her for his fun. Things get worse and worse and Hyde eventually kills Ivy. His transformations are out of control and that eventually leads to his death.
Hyde has some interesting visions when he takes his serum.
It's a fairly good adaptation. Before watching this I watched the 1911 and 1920 silent versions. Those were not anywhere near as interesting. Tracy is good but his Hyde isn't as repulsive looking as many of the other adaptations. Despite the lack of ugly his Hyde is still a monster. I'll want to watch it again sometime. Maybe have a Jekyll and Hyde marathon.
The Jester's Supper 1942 Based on a play called La cena delle beffe by Sem Benelli, screenplay by Sem Benelli, Renato Castellani and Alessandro Blasetti, directed by Alessandro Blasetti. The play was later turned into an opera.
In 15th century Florence aristocrat Giannetto Malespini is being bullied by aristocratic brothers Neri and Gabriello Chiaramantesi. That's Giannetto, he's played by Osvaldo Valenti, in his off screen life he was a fascist, in 1945 he and his wife Luisa Ferida were executed by partisans.
The lady is Clara Calamai, she plays Ginevra, a servant in the Chiaramantesi household. Neri brought her to a party at Giannetto's as an insult. Giannetto fell for her and Neri didn't care for that much. Gabriello is also interested in the woman but Neri controls her for his own sick pleasures.
That's Amedeo Nazzari as Neri and Alfredo Varelli as Gabriello. Neri is the worst of the two and he's the one that abuses Ginevra. The film has one of the earliest nude scenes in Italian cinema, Neri rips off her nightgown in front of his pals and Giannetto.
Finally having enough of Neri and his brother Giannetto plots his revenge. He convinces others that Neri has gone mad and they chase him through the city and up a bell tower. He escapes and attacks a lot of people. He's recaptured and tortured by some of the people who hate him so much. Luisa Ferida plays one of the many women treated poorly by Neri. Giannetto tricks Neri into killing his brother. Neri is driven mad by the deed.
I found it quite entertaining. The DVD looks fairly good, be nice if they restored it. I got it at Hamilton Books for 6 bucks. Well worth it.
On December 1 1976 the Sex Pistols made a live TV appearance on Thames Television's Today Show. They were on a segment with host Bill Grundy. Here's a clip of that appearance. Their appearance caused great public outcry and lead to much publicity for the band.
In 2017 Sky Arts started a comedy series called Urban Myths. In series 2 they did an episode about the Bill Grundy show appearance with Steve Pemberton as Bill. Here's that episode. I remember reading about the incident years ago but hadn't thought about it much again. I got a laugh or two from it.
I do remember being so excited on hearing the first Sex Pistols album in the record store. I immediately bought the album and played it over and over. I eventually moved onto someone else to be obsessive about. Occasionally I play one or another of their tracks on YouTube. I don't think I own any Sex Pistols CDs but can't be sure, all the CDs are in boxes and I don't feel liked digging through them.
Doctor Who 2 Series 4 Specials
The Next Doctor December 25 2008 Written by Russel T Davies and directed by Andy Goddard.
In Victorian London the Doctor runs into a man called The Doctor. The Tenth Doctor thinks this is a future version of himself but it turns out to be a regular old human who got screwed up by malfunctioning Cyberman technology and the murder of his wife.
A horrible woman makes a deal with the Cybermen and gets turned into the Cyberking. The Doctor helps the fake Doctor regain his memory and together they blow up the Cyberking and the Cybermen.
A good story and a nice musical program with music from the show played by an orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall. There was some original content in the music program with the Doctor appearing on video because David Tennant was working and couldn't appear live.
Planet Of The Dead April 11 2009 Written by Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts, directed by James Strong.
A thief steals a gold chalice and escapes with the police on her trail. She boards a bus just before the Doctor does. The bus is chased by the police but a chance wormhole puts them on a desert planet somewhere across the galaxy.
The Doctor gets a plan going to return. They also find they're in danger from a horde of destructive stingray like creatures that destroy everything and turn it to dust. The aliens are headed for the wormhole and Earth. They meet some humanoid flies who are also stranded on the planet.
The flies don't survive the stingrays but their ship gives the Doctor the ability to make the bus fly. The bus makes it back to Earth. The Doctor has some help from a brilliant UNIT scientist who closes the wormhole.
An entertaining story with some fun bits. There's an hour long Doctor Who Confidential for an extra.
The Waters Of Mars November 15 2009 Written by Russell T Davies and Phil Ford, directed by Graeme Harper.
In 2059 the Doctor arrives on Mars the day that the tiny colony of humans blows up. He knows he can't change that bit of history but with a bit of megalomania he interferes and it ends with him fearing he's gone too far.
It's a sad story. The disc has a Doctor Who Confidential that was entertaining.
L A Wars 1994 Screenplay by Addison Randall and Tony Kandah, directed by Tony Kandah and Martin Morris.
There's a drug war going on in Los Angeles. Heading up some stereotypical Italian Mafia types are Carlo Giovani and his insane henchman Vinnie, they're up against some aggressive Latinos under the control of Raul Guzman. Raul wants the business and he's ready to kill everyone in his way. He'll get a fight from Carlo, that's for sure.
The police can't seem to do anything to get ahead of the gangs and Captain Roark is desperate. Desperate enough to hire ex-cop loose cannon Jake Quinn to infiltrate one of the gangs. Jake lucks out, he's in the right place at the right time to save Carlo's daughter Carla from being kidnapped by Guzman's thugs.
Once Jake's in the house he talks Carlo into hiring him to be Carla's bodyguard. Vinnie isn't too happy but Jake kicks his soldier's to the ground and Carlo hires him. Vinnie has designs on Carla but she's not digging him at all. She's got her sights on Jake and soon enough they're in bed together.
Things deteriorate and there's a good bit of battling between the gangs. Bodies litter the streets and the violence escalates. Eventually things get sorted out by Jake.
It's a ridiculous story with some action and lots of yelling. Everyone yells, all the time. It's barely average and there's nothing new here. You can see a copy on YouTube in the link above.
Bodies Bodies Bodies 2022 Story by Kristen Roupenian, screenplay by Sarah DeLappe and directed by Halina Rejin.
A group of rich 20 somethings gather in a nice big house for a vacation in a remote location that due a hurricane. There's plenty drinking and drug taking. Everyone, except for one gal, gets fucked up a good bit before the storm knocks out the power. It gets all Lord Of The Flies in the house after the biggest asshole is found with his throat cut.
Sadly I found most of the partiers so horrible that I couldn't stand being around them. They are so awful that they can't even stand being around each other. They turn on each other fairly quickly. Now one of them is a killer and between them they haven't got enough little grey cells to solve the crime, even if they were sober. When they do stumble onto a particle of rational thought it's almost too late. The reality in Mike Judd's Idiocracy doesn't seem so farfetched.
It's supposed to be a black comedy about some shallow Gen-Xes who can't survive without their social media. I was hoping for more humor, many of the good gags are in the last few minutes. Gleiberman described the film as "And Then There Were None staged by John Cassavetes for the age of Instagram."[41] That's a better joke than most in the movie. I thought it was more Real Housewives in the Big Brother house and that would be no joke. Those housewives are some nasty nasty people, barely human, they can turn on each in a heartbeat. I don't see me needing to watch it again.
Amanda And Alan's Italian Job Series 1 Eight part BBC series with Amanda Holden and Alan Carr in Sicily to renovate a couple of 1 Euro homes.
Their plan is to renovate the place, sell it with the profits going to charity. The pair do a bit of work themselves and have plenty of help from the locals. There's plenty of home improvement with breaks to go buy tiles, learn to cook Sicilian food, visit vineyards, and frolic in the sea.
It's a nice place but way too hot and hilly. Getting material to and from the renovation site is all done by hand or with small golf cart size vehicles. It was fun to hang out with Amanda and Alan. I had a few laughs. They never tell you what things cost nor what they sold it for. I'd watch a second series.