PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 827

El Refugio TV Mini Series 2022 Written by Francisco Ortega, Julio Rojas and Enrique Videla, directed by Pablo Fendrick. A Mexican 6 episode mini series about an alien invasion.

Something is going on in the sky and it's affecting people's phones and TV. People living on a ranch in the country see weird lights in the sky. Locals in the nearest town start going crazy, they get violent as the food gets scarce. The family manage to keep people off their farm but there are casualties. Eventually it gets to the alien and their ugly dog like creatures with big teeth. No big whoop there.

Most of the screen time is spent on the family and their day to day personal drama. After a few episodes you see the alien ship and near the end you see the alien attack dog. The CGI and practical effects were fairly good. I don't see much of modern Mexican TV. Decent looking program, much like the productions of many other countries. I didn't care that much for the story, there was a cliffhanger for every episode and then an abrupt ending. I don't know if there are anymore eps coming? Probably wouldn't care if there were.

Friday Night Movies 1027

Alienoid: Return To The Future 2024 Written and directed by Choi Dong-hoon. A Koreaan SF film that is a sequel to Alienoid. 

Pretty much picks up where the last one left off. The aliens have plans to kill off the human race with poison in the present. A group of humans and robots fight to stop that. It jumps around from the present to the past. It's packed with plenty of battles, there's lots of sword fights, explosions, gun fights, noise, leaping about and death. They do save the world.

It was entertaining. I might be interested in watching the pair of movies again but I've no plans to buy the Blu-rays.

The Hitman's Bodyguard 2017 Written by Tom O'Connor and directed by Patrick Hughes. We'd watched the movie back in December 2018, FNM 715.

Ryan Reynold's has to protect Samuel L Jackson from a Belarusian dictator who's on trail at the International Criminal Court. Samuel is the witness who could put him away. It's packed with action, noise, gun fights and plenty of chases.

I enjoyed it all over again. There's a plan to watch the sequel soon.

Emergency 1962

Emergency 1962 Written by Don Nicholl, Jim O'Connolly, Lewis Gilbert and Vernon Harris, directed by Francis Searle. A remake of Emergency Call from 1952.

A girl is hit by a truck, she's got a rare blood type and the blood bank is out. The possible donors are an odd lot, a murdered waiting to be executed, a scientist who's been selling secrets to foreign agents and a soccer player who's got a big game coming up. The murdered doesn't want to do it. The scientist thinks the police visiting him at work are after him for being a traitor so he goes on the run. The soccer player's manager hides the request from the player until the last minute.

It's fairly touch and go for the little girl and there's a bit of tension. I enjoyed it but it's only about average. It's only an hour long and the time passes quickly.

Enter Arsene Lupin 1944

Enter Arsene Lupin 1944 Based on character created by Maurice Leblanc. screenplay by Bertram Millhauser, directed by Ford Beebe. An American adaptation with Charles Korvan and Ella Raines.

Arsene robs a pretty heiress then helps her out when someone in her family tries to kill her. Arsene is usually a couple of steps ahead of the French policeman Inspector Ganimard, played by J Carrol Naish. 

I thought it was alright, not as good as some of the French adaptations I've seen. I enjoyed it enough to watch it again someday.

Night And The City 1950

Night And The City 1950 Based on the novel of the same name by Gerald Kersh, screenplay by Jo Eisinger with additional uncredited contributions by Austin Depster and William E Watts, directed by Jules Dassin.

Dassin was being being talked about at the US House of Representatives House Un-American Activities Committee while he was directing the film, he wasn't allowed to finish editing the film or supervise the music. The British version has a score by Benjamin Frankel, the 5 min shorter American version has a score by Franz Waxman. Dassin said he feels the US version is closer to his vision. I do like the Waxman score better. After Night And The City Dassin worked in the US for a short while before taking a job in France. He never appeared before the HUAC. He wouldn't return to the US until the 1970s.

I saw one of his later pictures on TV, Topkapi from 1964, without knowing anything about him. It starred Melina Mercouri, whom Dassin later married. I liked the film, it was a rather adult heist film for a 12 or 13 year old. Peter Ustinov won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, his second in four years. I should watch it again sometime. It's been a while since I've seen it.

Richard Widmark plays Harry, an American living in London. He's a schemer, he's got plenty of ideas to make money, he's not good following through. Trouble is Harry's ideas always need a lot of someone else's cash, then they fail. Harry regularly lifts cash from his girlfriend, played by Gene Tierney, he never plays it back. He gets involved with a wrestling scheme and that will be the end of Harry. He's a stupid man who treats people like garbage. He deserves some payback and he gets it. Nice when a film pays off well in the end.

I watched both versions. Besides the different score there are a few scenes trimmed from the British film. It's a good number of short trims. There's a 111 minute version also. Both the 95 min and 100 min versions are in a Criterion Blu-ray set.

I liked the film but hated Harry. He's a weasel that teats people so poorly he deserves his just rewards. There's a good cast and Widmark stands out. He's makes it easy t hate him. The script is good, most everyone is a villain, some deserve their fate. I'd watch it again.

Science Fiction Sunday 826

Metamorphosis 2022 Directed by Liangyan Chen. The film and the IMDb list no writer. An Asian dinochomp film that's mostly people running in corridors.

A scientist has created a T-rex that can turn invisible. It gets out when the cleaning lady opens the cage to clean up the meat blobs on the floor. The beasty pops into view and gobbles her up right quick. Given free range of the lab the T-Rex starts chomping on the other scientists. People run around yelling and trying to escape.

Besides the T-Rex there are two giant snakes to run away from. Hardly anyone survives but it's not overly gorey. It's like a PG rated film, maybe it was made for TV. It scores 4.8 on the IMDb. I gave it a 3 because of the giant snakes. They were entertaining. The story on it's own would get a 2 from me.

Danger! Danger! 2021 Written and directed by Lexie Findarlee Trivundza and Nick Trivundza. A time travel movie with too little time travel and too much blather.

A guy parachutes onto a tiny island near Africa. He hopes to find a time machine in a temple. Trouble is there are Nazis there looking for the same device. He gets shot by the Nazis and rescued by a couple of Americans. He manages to find the machine and the movie ends like it's part one.

It scores a surprising 2.8 on the IMDb, I gave it a 3 but only because of all the nice location shooting at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park. I love that place, I don't care for the movie that much. I'm not going to watch it again, that's for sure. This one was on free with membership on Amazon Prime.

Friday Night Movies 1026

The Snow Woman 1968 Based on the stroy Yuki-onna from Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn, screenplay by Fuji Yahiro, directed by Tanaka Tokuzō. A Japanese horror fantasy set in feudal times. Tokuzō's first assistant director job was on Rashomon, on his own he directed a good number of movies, including 3 in the Zatoichi series, before working in television in the 1970s and 1980s. The second film in the Radiance Box Set.

A wood carver and his apprentice are traveling through a forest looking for a special tree to use in the carving of a statue. They find one and rejoice. A sudden storm has the two men camp over night in a abandoned house. That night they are visited by the Snow Woman, she freezes the old man and tells the young apprentice she won't kill him if he never tells anyone he saw her. The young apprentice heads home the next day.

The young apprentice gets the commission that was to be his masters. The local temple wants the sculpture, the wood arrives but needs 5 years to cure. A young woman comes into his life, they marry and have a child. Five years pass and the young apprentice starts the carving. A local Lord wants the young apprentice's wife for a bit of rape. The Lord does some underhanded things to ruin the life of the young apprentice. He's not getting his way and the Lord becomes impatient, his attempts to rape the wife go poorly for him when it's revealed she is the Snow Woman. We were all suspecting that. The Lord and his scummy retainers are all frozen to death. The Snow Woman leaves the young apprentice and their son and disappears into the snow storm.

It's a rather sad tale. It usually is in feudal Japan. I'm reminded how awful it was in feudal Japan. The film looks nice. I enjoyed it but it's the weakest of the stories in the Radiance box set. You can see a watchable copy on YouTube in the link above.

Riddick 2013 Written and directed by David Twohey. The third of the Riddick films. We watched a 4K disc. We watched it back in 2014. Back then there was talk of a 4th film, I hoped it wouldn't take 9 years like it did between 2 and 3. I didn't get my wish but I'm told there should be a fourth film next year.

Riddick gets double crossed by the Necromancers and is abandoned on a crappy planet. He uses a distress signal to call in a ride. Two rival teams of bounty hunters show up and Riddick has to kill a bunch of them before he can escape in one of their ships. Hopefully to destroy as much of the Necromancer society as possible.

I enjoyed the movie but not as much as I did The Chronicles of Riddick when we watched it a few weeks back. I'll still want to watch it over again someday.

Mr Wong Collection

Mr Wong Collection It's a 2 disc  Blu-ray set with 5 films on two discs. Only the 5 Boris Karloff Mr Wong films are included. Monogram Pictures made 6 Mr Wong films, the 6th, The Phantom Of Chinatown with Keye Luke isn't included. The films look nice.

Mr Wong Detective 1938 Based on the Mr Wong stories by Hugh Wiley, screenplay by Houston Branch, directed by William Nigh.

A man asks Mr Wong to protect him but he's found dead before Mr Wong can act. He was alone in his office and the door was locked from the inside. The police thought he died of a heart attack but Mr Wong finds evidence of poison.

It's a decent who done it. I'd seen it a couple of times and it still holds up for the most part. This is the only movie to have a commentary, not one I can say I care that much about. It's by Tom Weaver and Larry Blamire. Why they keep asking Tom Weaver to comment I don't know? He's often saying he's not that fond of the films he comments on, so why does he take the job.

 

The Mystery Of Mr Wong 1939 Based on the stories of Hugh Wiley, screenplay by Scott Darling, directed by William Nigh.

A gem collector buys the largest star sapphire in the world. It was stolen in China and it's stolen from the collector after he's murdered. The thief was planning to return the gem to China but she gets murdered. It's up to Mr Wong to find the killer and the gem and return it to China.

Mr Wong In Chinatown 1939 Based on the short stories of Hugh Wiley, screenplay by Scott Darling, directed by William Nigh.

A Chinese woman comes to seek help from Mr Wong, she's killed in his house before he can learn much. He learns she was a Princess and the sister of a powerful General in the Chinese Military. She was in the US to buy planes for the Chinese Military. Mr Wong has to find her killer and where the money for the planes went.

The Fatal Hour 1940 Based on short stories by Hugh Wiley, screenplay by Scott Darling, directed by William Nigh.

A dead policemen is found in San Francisco Bay, his captain asks Mr Wong and a reporter to help him find the killer. The dead policeman was working on a smuggling assignment. The trio set out to catch the killer and that leads to a crooked jeweler and his cronies. Before they can catch any of the gang their bodies start turning up dead. It looks like the son of the jeweler did the killing. Mr Wong and his gang suspect a frame and work toward helping the young man.

Doomed To Die 1940 Based on the short stories of Hugh Wiley, screenplay by Michael Jacoby and Ralph Gilbert Bettison, directed by William Nigh.

A shipping magnate is murdered, suspicion falls on the son of a competitor who is engaged to the dead man's daughter. Mr Wong teams up with her to find the real killer. Their investigation leads them to the Chinese Tong and a pile of stolen money.

All these films are mostly about the same quality, there's a fairly solid but simple plot with a bit of murder and a bit of humor. Boris does OK as a Chinese guy, he has slightly Asian features from his Indian mother. He's played Asian's in other movies like The Masque Of Fu Manchu.

The Phantom Of Chinatown 1940 Based on the short stories of Hugh Wiley, screenplay by Ralph Gilbert Bettison, direction by Phil Rosen. It was the first film with an Asian actor playing a lead role.

Dr Benton is giving a lecture on his recent trip to the Mongolian Desert when he's murdered. Dr Benton had asked Mr Wong to be at the lecture. He works with the police to solve the crime.

Another decent film. Sadly, the studio canned the series, the theaters became less interested in the series after Karloff left. They never made anymore films. No matter, they're good enough to watch more than once.

Witchhammer 1970

Witchhammer 1970 Based on Kladivo na čarodějnice by Václav Kaplický, written and directed by Otakar Vávra. A Czechoslovak drama about witch trials in the 1670s.

After being caught not eating the communion bread a woman admits wanting the bread to help a milk less cow start giving milk again. Thoughts of witchcraft fill the heads of the local land owner. An inquisitor is called in and soon there's torture a foot. The inquisitor's thugs use torture and brain washing techniques to make her admit to being a witch and engaging in sorcery and all sorts of sexual activities. It's easy to get confessions out of their victims with a few more turns of the thumbscrews or the foot press. First they burn one lady, then three ladies and finally there's hardly any room on the large field to set up another stake to burn more women at one time.

The inquisitor bothers a local priest, he pushes back and gets burnt at the stake for his sex crimes. The inquisitor is so full of himself he starts to believe he's better than everyone else. The movie is seen as an allegory for the 1950s show trials perpetrated on the Czechs by the Russians. It reminds me how easy it is the get citizens to do stupid and cruel things. The movie was pulled from the theaters shortly after release and not shown until 1989. It's a decent film but not the sort of thing I seek out. It's more political drama than horror film, that's less interesting to me.

Sherlock Holmes 2013 Russian TV Series

Sherlock Holmes 2013 Russian TV series. Created by Ruben Dishdishyan, written by Andrey Kavun, Leonid Porokhin and Igor Pogodin, directed by Andrey Kavum. A 16 episode series that features 8 stories. I found this Russian TV adaptation on Amazon. The 2 DVD set is a bootleg with four 90 min stories on each disc. The 2 episodes for each story are edited together, a common practice with two part stories.

The first episode is their origin story. Watson had served in the military in Afghanistan, he'd gotten wounded and returned to England to recuperate.  Months later Watson heads to London to start a practice, the day he arrives  he stumbles into a murder investigation where he meets Holmes. He learns of a room available in Mrs Hudson's boarding house on Baker Street. Watson moves in and their partnership develops.

The second story has Holmes and Watson drawn into the murder of an young Indian prince. He was gunned down by some cabbies. Turns out one of the cabbies got wounded and he goes to visit Dr Watson for medical help. He dies shortly after he  gets there. Lestrade shows up, he's been trailing the wounded man. He suspects Holmes and Watson are up to something but he has no proof. It's a complicated story of nationalism and racism. There's a fair bit of violence and some gory bits.

It's well produced, there are great sets and locations. I liked the characters, especially Dr Watson, I was sad to hear actor Andrey Panin passed away before he could even dub the last of his lines. Igor Petrenko plays Holmes, Mikhail Boyarskiy plays inspector Lestrade and Ingeborga Dapkunaite plays Mrs Hudson. That's them in the picture at the top of the post.

Just based on the 2 stories I've watched so far I'd recommend the series. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.