PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 801

Supacell Series 1 Created by Rapman, written by Rapman and directed by Rapman and Sebastian Thiel. The six episodes just aired on Netflix.

A supacell is a mutation of Sickle Cell, a mutation that bestows super powers on the person. Micheal is a delivery driver, he can teleport and travel through time. Sabrina has telekinesis, Rodney has super speed, Andre has super strength and Tazer can become invisible. They're all regular black people from South London.

They all react differently to getting powers. Michael traveled to the future and found out his fiance is going to die in 3 months. He's got the major plot line with him trying how to save his fiance. It involves getting the five of them together and changing the future. The trouble is they've got different levels of knowledge, self interest and thinking ability. Things don't go to well in the working together area. They can hardly figure out how to tell each other what's going on.

There's a major plot device involving the local gangs in South London and another involving a secret organization that's spying on the mutants. The secret organization gathers up mutants for their nefarious interests. They've got several people in glass prison cells in a basement somewhere. The gang thing is tedious and unpleasant. I'm oh so tired of the secret organization running things behind the scenes.

I got through the series with my finger on the FF button. I wished it was more engaging but so many things the main characters do are so poorly thought out and ignorant it was hard to like them. I wouldn't watch it again and I doubt that there will be a second series.

Friday Night Movies 1001

The Guyver 1991 Based on Bio Booster Armor Guyver, screenplay by Jon Purdy, directed by Screaming Mad George and Steve Wang. A joint US and Japan production that was produced by Brian Yuzna.

David Gale runs an evil corporation that makes bio weapons for money. They've got an alien artifact that they can't figure out how to turn on. A researcher steals it with the intention of giving it to an FBI guy played by Mark Hamill. The researcher is killed on delivery night by minions from the evil corporation. Michael Barryman plays the leader of that gang of minions. He can change into a monster at will, he kills the researcher and brings the alien artifact to Gale. It turns out the researcher had exchanged the alien artifact for a toaster. You'd think they would be happy, they know how to work a toaster and they'd have some toast, but Gale is steaming and promises certain death if Barryman doesn't get it back.

Mark has been to see the researcher's daughter at the dojo where her boyfriend trains, the boyfriend follows Mark and his girlfriend to the location where he finds the alien artifact. On the way home the boyfriend is attacked by some thugs, he accidentally activates the alien artifact and becomes the Guyver. After the fight the armor retreats back into his body.

The rest of the movie is the two sides battling it out for the Guyver unit. The boyfriend is killed and the girlfriend kidnapped. Mark gets experimented on and the boyfriend is revived in the form of a clone. He fights some more monster mutants and eventually things work out in the end. Except for the dead people, they're all still dead.

I'd first seen this in 1993 but hadn't seen it in a long while. I could not remember anything about the movie so it was like new to me. I seemed to recall enjoying the initial watching but  this time I didn't think it was as entertaining as the impression in my head. The acting is way over the top and some the actors aren't too good at their jobs as others. It's like the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers with more violence and gore. I don't know that I'd need to see it again.

The Old Ones 2024 Based on Lovecraft, screenplay and direction by Chad Ferrin.

A sea captain was kidnapped and possessed by a great Old One. Ninety three years later he's freed, now he wants to travel back in time to change the past and stop himself from being possessed. The old ones send a gang after him. The sea captain gets help from a father and son, they pulled his body from the water and saved him. The father is killed but the sea captain is sure if he gets back in time and changes things the father wouldn't be killed. The sea captain leads the son on an adventure to achieve his goal.

It's a fairly decently made film on a small budget. Even the acting was better on average than the previous film. For the most part I enjoyed the movie but I'm not drawn to wanting a copy. I doubt I would watch this one again either.

Bethune: The Making Of A Hero 1990

Bethune: The Making Of A Hero 1990 Screenplay by Ted Allan and directed by Phillip Borsos. Ted Allan meet Bethune 5 years before Bethune's death in 1939, he wanted to make a film about Bethune as early as 1942. Allan submitted scripts to major studios but nothing ever happened. Allan got nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing and won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film for Lies My Father Told Me.

Donald Sutherland plays Bethune for the third time with this film. Unless you are Canadian or Chinese you probably haven't heard of Norman Bethune. The Chinese still revere him, General Mao wrote his eulogy, Canadians were taught about Bethune in school in the 60s. I don't know if they still teach about him anymore.

The film covers Bethune's life in Canada's medical profession, his work doctoring soldiers in the Spanish Civil War and his work doctoring the soldiers of the Eight Route Army. He died of sepsis after cutting himself while operating.

Bethune is seen as an important factor in nationalizing medical systems and advocating for the health of the poor. He joined the Canadian Communist party and wasn't too well accepted by the upper echelons of the medical profession. He was a troubled man with grand ideas and no patience. Complicated guy, not someone I would want to work with.

There are plenty of good locations in Canada, Spain and China. There's a good cast with Helen Mirren, Colm Feore, Ronald Pickup, Geoffrey Chater, James Hong, Anouk Aimée and Helen Shaver.

I mostly enjoyed the biopic, I gave it a 6 out of 10 but decided I didn't need to watch it again. You can watch a nice copy on the Internet Archive.

Murder City Series 1 & 2

Murder City Series 1 & 2 Created by Robert Murphy, written by Robert Murphy, Stephen Plaice and Danny Miller, directed by Richard Spence, Ashley Pearce and Ian Knox. A cop show set in London.

Amanda Donohoe and Kris Marshall are co-workers in a police station. She's a DI and he's a DS, they investigate murders and have different sorts of working techniques. She's more methodical and he's more impetuous. They work on cases together and with the other officers in the team. Usually there's a couple of subplots going and often they converge into one case. The murders are of a good variety.

Sadly the show only lasted a couple of series. I can understand, there's nothing that elevates it from the average cop show. I liked it well enough but doubt that I'll get around to it again.

Manhunt Series 1

Manhunt 1970 Created by Rex Firkin, written and directed by various. One series of 26 episodes.

A long winded and rather dull story of a pilot who gets shot down in France during WW2. He's avoiding the Nazi scum and trying to get some help from the French Resistance. HE gets an assignment while there to collect a woman called Nina and take her back to Britain. It takes forever and I was just not into the drawn out story or the characters. I wouldn't need to see it again.

Bat Out Of Hell 1966

Bat Out Of Hell 1966 A 5 part TV mini series created and written by Francis Durbridge and directed by Alan Bromly.

A rich man called Geoffrey has an assistant who's having an affair with Geoffrey's wife. John Thaw plays the assistant Mark, Sylvia Syms plays the wife Diana and Noel Johnson plays Geoffrey. Mark and Diana plot to bump off Geoffrey and Diana shots him. The body disappears out of the car it was stuffed into. Later they start getting calls from the dead husband and a blackmailer.

It's all pretty average. I got to the end and decided I didn't need to see it again.

Tiger By The Tail 1954

Tiger By The Tail 1954 Based on Never Come Back by John Mair, screenplay by John Gilling and Willis Goldbeck, directed by John Gilling. The film was produced by my favorite producing duo, Robert S Baker and Monty Berman.

Larry Parks plays an American Journalist called John. He's in London investigating some crooks when he gets involved with a woman, they date but fall out over his inquiry's into her life. When he picks up her diary she pulls a gun, in a struggle the guns discharges and she dies. He grabs the diary, cleans up his presence and flees. The rest of the movie is him running about trying to keep ahead of the police and the baddies. 

It was about average but mostly entertaining. You can test drive it by following the link in the title above.

Science Fiction Sunday 800

Arctic Blast 2010 Written by Jason Bourque and directed by Brian Trechard-Smith. An Australian Canadian co-production that was filmed in Hobart Tasmania and Ottawa Canada. It was the first full length feature film to be filmed in Hobart.

Another low-budget disaster film that's more Fantasy than SF. This time it's a hole in the ozone layer that's causing drops in temperature as cold falls from space and freezes everything it touches. Science is something to put out of your head on this one. Plenty of goofs in the script that have to do with science.

The main character is the scientist that no one believes. Bruce Davison is the scientist that's in charge, he's later humbled when his plan, the one Bruce steamrollered through, doesn't work. He has to call on the main character who has family trouble. There's a huge death count as more holes open up. Despite all that there's a happyish ending.

It's pretty much a stinker for me. It's like an echo of all the other similar disaster movies that freeze people, even if it preceded them. At least the actors were working. I wouldn't want to watch it again, I wish I hadn't watched it the first time.

Dune 2 2024 Based on Dune by Frank Herbert, screenplay by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spalhts, directed by Denis Villeneuve.

More adventures on Arrakis as the family Harkonnen take over. Paul is out int he desert with the Fremen and his mother. There's lots of scenes of the desert and plenty of battles.

It took a long time to get to the end of the movie, 166 mins, and I was starting to get bored near the two thirds mark. It piqued my interest when the Emperor came to Arrakis. I bet he didn't think he was going to be defeated. Sucks to be him. The movie ends with the promise of a holy war against the other house.

I enjoy watching David Lynch's Dune more than this production and I can say the same thing about the 2000 TV production with William Hurt.

Friday Night Movies 1000

Godzilla x Kong - The New Empire 2023 Story by Terry Rossio, Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett, screenplay by Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett and Jeremy Slatter, directed by Adam Wingard. A sequel to Godzilla vs Kong from 2021.

Kong is adapting to life in the Hollow Earth and Godzilla is still bashing monsters on the surface. Kong finds an enslaved camp of giant gorillas under the thumb of Skar King. Kong gets Godzilla to help battle Skar King and free his people. Some humans get tossed in the battle blender and eventually find a colony of humans who live in the hollow Earth. Their descendants lived on the surface but were all killed off in the first film, except for one telepathic girl who calls up Mothra.

There's plenty of battles and big blasts, there's lots of noise and oodles of collateral damage. Mixed in is a lot of personal baggage. The monster fights were good but I'm not getting much out of the humans. It was OK but not as entertaining as Godzilla Minus One.

The Valley Of The Zombies 1946 Story by Royal K Cole and Sherman H Lowe, screenplay by Dorrell McGowan and Stuart E McGowan, directed by Philip Ford. Another film from the Republic Pictures Horror Collection.

A dead man called Murks returns to life with the help of voodoo and blood. Murk's  seeks revenge on the men who locked him up in an asylum and the doctor who killed him on the operating table. Murks had faked his death and his body was revived by his brother. A doctor and his fiance help defeat the insane man. There's some police help.

Sadly it's rather slow despite being 56 mins. I'd seen it before and since I bought the Blu-ray collection I'll watch it some more when I get around to the commentaries on the four films.

Stuff The British Stole Series 1 & 2

Stuff The British Stole Series 1 & 2 An Australian Canadian co-production. Hosted by Marc Fennell. That's him below.

The show has a look at a lot of things the British government stole, or allowed to be stolen, during the colonial era. It's an incredible amount of stuff and the 14 episodes so far have barely scratched the tip of the iceberg.

Episode 1 in Series 1 covers a small item, the Koh-i-Noor diamond, episode 1 of Series 2 covers something much bigger, the Elgin Marbles. It asks a lot of questions on rights and ownership. The various stories are maddening, infuriating and joyous.

I really enjoyed them and thought the series was worth watching.