Well, a serious bout of carpal tunnel syndrome and/or tendonitis made me push this post back until I could sit and type for a while without a lot of pain. But… Here we (finally) are!
This month we start with some animation, add in a few classic films — one of which I found randomly but now love forever (with Edward G. Robinson) — dive in to the Sylvester McCoy Doctor Who series (which I seem to have missed some of the first time around; darn TV antennas back then!), move on through a new Lynley mystery series, hit a bunch of classic Tarzan flicks, complain about a paranormal show that somehow I continue to watch, enjoy the second season of a TV SF classic, spice with the usual monsters and mutants, and then wrap it all up with dinosaurs. Must be a good month!
So, without further delay, off we go!
Here’s the usual ratings system:
* – This film is not good. Avoid it unless you tolerate dreck well.
** – A flawed film. You may enjoy it if you like this genre or the folks in it.
*** – A good solid film. If you like this genre, you’ll probably like this film.
**** – A superior film within its genre. Thoroughly enjoyable.
***** – An outstanding film on many levels. A great example of its genre.
Note that some shows I’ve given a parenthetical star rating, usually adding (occasionally subtracting) stars, depending on how your amusement may differ from mine. I’ve explained the meaning in the reviews themselves. Mostly.
Bad Guys, The (2022) **** In a fairy-tale-like modern world where people mix with talking animals, every one lives in terror of the Bad Guys, a band of criminal animals consisting of: Mr. Wolf (pickpocket, leader), Mr. Snake (safecracker), Ms. Tarantula (hacker), and Mr. Shark (master of disguise). But when a scheme to heist the Golden Dolphin award goes wrong, the Bad Guys are given a chance to reform by the altruistic Guinea Pig, Marmalade, and Wolf finds he kind of likes being good. Naturally, the reform doesn’t work out as hoped, there are several twists, and soon the Bad Guys must escape from the authorities and try to prove that they’re really not bad guys after all. I enjoyed this amusing, action-filled animation and look forward to seeing the 2nd one.
Ice Age (2002) **** Climate change in the Ice Age forces ancient animals and humans to migrate to warmer climes in search of food. Among the migrants is a loner mammoth, Manny, who becomes stuck with a nutty ground sloth, Sid. When the pair rescue a human baby whose mother has died, they become de facto parents against Manny’s wishes. They also hook up with a rogue saber-tooth tiger, Diego, who offers to help them track the human pack the baby belongs to, while actually scheming to steal the baby to please the leader of his own Smilodon pack. Their wanderings are punctuated by the wordless comedy antics of Scrat, a scraggly saber-toothed squirrel, as he tries to gain possession of a nut that always slips out of his grasp just when he seems to have won it. Despite the age of the CG animation in this movie, it still holds up well because the characters and situations are engaging. The first of the Ice Age animation franchise.
Bad & the Beautiful, The (1952) ***** Three friends, a director (Barry Sullivan), an actress (Lana Turner), and a famous writer (Dick Powell) meet in the home of a studio producer (Walter Pidgeon) who wants to reunite them with his fellow producer and once partner, Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas), despite the fact that all of them have vowed never to work with Shields again. In a series of flashback, we then find out how Shields at first befriended each member of the trio, only to later betray them. As in Citizen Kane, which this echoes, the flashback form the majority of the film. I won’t ruin the twists and turns, except to say that like the characters themselves, you’ll probably find yourself alternately loving and hating Shields. The cast is outstanding, but especially Gloria Grahame, who justifiably won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as the writer’s wife. I really liked this movie when I was watching it, but it was the end that sealed the deal for me, making it a 5-star picture. Excellent.
Tarzan Escapes (1936) *** The MGM Tarzan series continues into the Production Code era, still trying to have exciting, sexy jungle adventures, but with a lot less skin showing. Jane’s loincloth is now a much less revealing dress, and Tarzan’s trunks no longer show any side skin, either. The water ballet seems to have become a regular part of the series’ “foreplay,” but Jane’s not swimming in the nude anymore, as she did in Tarzan & His Mate. More’s the pity, but our heroes’ romantic life in the jungle continues. And naturally, a party of greedy folks climbs over Tarzan’s escarpment to try to make their fortunes. In this case, one of them is a real bastard, looking to cash in by putting Tarzan out of the way and taking advantage of two warring tribes. He manages to capture Tarzan, and convince Jane that her husband is dead, and therefore she should go back to civilization. You already know from the title that Tarzan escapes, and… This has dangerous animal action, hostile African natives, and all the usual jungle adventure stuff you’d expect in a Tarzan. But though it’s a good production, the Code definitely hurts it and the installments to come.
Tarzan Finds a Son (1939) *** In the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels, Tarzan & Jane get married at the end of the first book. For some reason, the MGM series never actually portrayed their wedding. (Why?) So naturally, they can’t have a son the way married couples do, because that would be scandalous. Instead, in the film a rich family is flying over Africa with their newborn son when their plane goes down and all the adults are killed. Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) & Jane (Maureen O’Sullivan) find the surviving child and decide to raise him on their own, naming him “Boy.” (In the novels, their son is named Korak.) The three live an idyllic life in the jungle — including the now-obligatory water ballet — as Boy grows, until, year slater, an expedition comes to the jungle, looking for survivors from the plane crash. Though the older man in the bunch is interested in the actual lost people, two of the folks with him just want to confirm the deaths so they can claim their inheritance. After a close scrape with a wild animal, the two crooks convince Jane that Boy should go to civilization and be safe, where they’ll use Boy’s money to care for him. Jane traps Tarzan in a chasm at the bottom of a waterfall, and only as they’re on the road to send Boy to England, finds out the truth. Luring Jane back to civilization, or trying to, has been a point in the last 3 films (2, 3, and 4 in the series), and I’m glad that trend didn’t continue beyond this film. Otherwise, it’s another fine (if somewhat colonialist) jungle adventure.
Tarzan’s Secret Treasure (1941) *** Tarzan, Jane, & Boy continue living their idyllic existence in the jungle. And naturally, early on we get a family water ballet, which — as always — is really beautiful and helps serve up the natural setting. Since Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan) was an Olympic champion swimmer, it’s hardly surprising that this series uses every chance it can to show that off (including wrestling a crocodile in the water, though likely footage from a pervious film). After hearing about “civilization” boy sneaks away from camp, avoids wild animals, and makes friends with an African native boy. Only to have the usual white guys show up and make a mess of things. This time they’re looking for a “lost tribe” that Tarzan knows where to find, but before they find the tribe, the mostly shifty white folks become fixated on the gold nuggets in Tarzan’s domain that the ape-man and family have little interest in. Still, Boy helps the outsiders take gold from the lake, and of course they then learn that Tarzan knows where there’s a “mountain of gold.” Soon, members of the expedition and Boy fall sick with the plague, and though Tarzan knows a slower cure, the bad guys convince Jane to send Tarzan for faster modern medicine. While he’s away, the bad guys kill the expedition leader and kidnap Jane & Boy, to make Tarzan reveal the location of the gold mountain. (Naturally, they plan to kill Tarzan after they know the locale.) Another good if predictable Tarzan movie, with the usual strengths and (colonial-type) weaknesses. Tarzan, Jane, & Boy remain charming, though.
Murdoch Mysteries (S2) *** The 1890s Canadian “modern detective” mystery series continues with fairly standard but often amusing mysteries, but also expanding on Murdoch’s personal life and his struggles finding a woman who will live up to his rather strict standards. Of course, he has to live up to hers as well, and Murdoch struggles with his feelings toward two quite different women, one with standards more contemporary to suffragettes or our time and the other more traditional. I enjoy this series, but it doesn’t totally ring my chimes. If you like standard cozies set 100+ years ago, you may dig this.
Secret of Skinwalker Ranch (S6) **(*) My wife says I “hate watch” this show, and that’s kind of true, at least half of the time. And the friend who “watches along” with me and I often debate whether we’ll continue watching this sucker. What’s frustrating is that sometimes the science is good… Until it isn’t. Where it isn’t usually involves conclusions from inconclusive experiments at the ranch, including “the mesa,” “the triangle,” and other spots. Is there something odd going on here? Certainly, but my friend and I both felt like the recent Expedition X in Norway solved the mystery in one show, without resorting to supernatural or alien explanations. Basically, that the geology and Earth’s geomagnetic fields cause strange effects in this spot. Sadly, the experiments they do here never focus in on finding causes; they just look for “weird results.” And as James Randi would point out, the world is full of them. Theorize, test, refine, repeat. Not test and then speculate endlessly. If you want weird (fictional) supernatural, give this the extra star. Oh, and they need people that actually know how cameras work.
Orgy of the Dead (1965) *(**) A young couple’s car gets stranded in the country, per the usual horror movie trope. When they try to find help, they discover a graveyard with strange ceremonies by a man who looks like a vampire (the Amazing Criswell). The dark rites being performed are basically 1960s striptease dances, by various performers allegedly called back from the grave — or something like that. Eventually, the couple is discovered and made to endure more topless dances before they will be sacrificed before dawn. Basically, the film is just an excuse for 1960s striptease, topless, and G-string dances. But, its “story” is by Ed Wood, so if you like Ed’s silly films and pretty semi-nude dances in color, you can give this those 2 extra stars.
Devil’s Men, The (1976) **(*) Attractive 1970s vacationers come to Crete for a good time, and end up being killed and/or kidnapped by a mysterious cult led by Peter Cushing (among others). The cult is sometimes described as devil worshipers, though they actually worship a statue of a minotaur that breathes fire, a not-very-convincing prob that’s supposed to be the actual ancient god/devil, I guess. Anyway, that’s the reason that this film is also called The Land of the Minotaur. The plot is both straightforward (for the cult) and confusing for the protagonists, none of whom really hooked me into caring for them. Well, except for one of the kidnapped ones who goes missing for most of the plot only to be killed before being rescued. It’s kind of a mess, but it’s got a ncie blu-ray restoration. If you’re a Cushing fan, you can give it that extra star.
Tarzan’s New York Adventure (1942) *** White hunters come to Tarzan’s plateau (which is never a good thing) looking for wild animas to capture and take back to their circus for new attractions. The least scrupulous of these bad guys thinks that Boy (Tarzan’s adopted son) would be a gangbuster attraction. So, he arranges for Tarzan and Jane to be killed in an “accident” during a battle with natives. Thus, Boy is spirited away to New York, without knowing his parents aren’t really dead. Tarzan and Jane track the culprits, not all of whom are bad people, to New York City and then try to get the legal system to give Boy back to them. When that doesn’t work out, Tarzan must take justice into his own hands. Some fun stuff with our jungle hero running across rooftops and swinging from flag poles, but all these later Weissmuller films lack the charm of the early pre-code ones.
Thursday Murder Club (2025) **** When a man with a stake in a posh old folks home turns up dead, his unscrupulous partner plans to bulldoze the local cemetery to add to the community Fortunately, a group of oldsters band together to figure out who killed the (first) victim and with luck put a stop to the rapacious development. These retirees, members of what they call the Thursday Murder Club, spending one day a week looking into cold cases, have some useful skills for crime solving. There’s a former spy, a psychiatrist, a nurse, and a union organizer, and heaven help anyone standing in their way. With a blockbuster cast topped by the amazing Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, and Pierce Brosnan, this made-for-cable flick is a good adaptation of the even-better book. At the end, I was wishing we could have this group in our house every week. Fingers crossed for a quick sequel.
Creature Walks Among Us, The (1956) ***(*) People won’t leave the poor Creature from the Black Lagoon alone! Another group containing scientists, sportsman, and a sporty girl travel to the monster’s home in an attempt to study or capture it or something. Naturally, when you mess with the creature, things go wrong — and this time they go really wrong for the monster himself. Skirmishing with the intruders gets our scaly anti-hero set afire (again) and badly burned. The team decides surgery is the best way to save him from their folly, and discovers that he has human-like skin and lungs beneath his gillman exterior. Sadly, all this cutting means that the creature’s iconic look is blunted, and somehow he gains a wrester’s shoulders and build. The science-types then take him back to California to study, where things naturally go wrong, too. We’re definitely rooting for the gillman in this last creature movie, but things still end up on a pretty gloomy note. It’s not terrible, though, and if you’re a fan of the gillman, you can give it that extra star.
Lynley 1-1 A Place of Hiding **** There’s a new Inspector Lynley mystery series with a new younger and pretty preppy-looking cast. The upper class vs. working class friction between Lynley and his DC Havers from the books and previous series continues, but seems a little less convincing because everyone is so pretty here. The story has the owner of an island turning up dead on the island shore. Everyone seems to think well of him, including the archaeology students working on the island. But of course, all is not as it seems in any given mystery show. This mystery has some decent twists and turns, though the resolution isn’t entirely unexpected. Not a bad relaunch of a new Lynley.
Beast with Five Fingers, The (1946) *** The remote mansion of an eccentric pianist is filled with an eclectic group of characters, including his admirers and his future heirs. It’s an Old Dark House setup, and not unexpectedly, the old musician soon turns up dead. Less expected, though is when people keep hearing his piano playing and other ghostly goings on. Soon, some of the cast, including Peter Lorre, become convinced that the old man’s missing hand is alive and stalking them all — the titular beast with five fingers (and no body). With echoes of Mad Love and Hands of Orlac, The Beast with Five Fingers has some nice scenes of hallucination and madness. Well worth seeing.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (S2) ***(*) The crew of the Seaview is back, and this time in color with more monsters and less spy stuff. As a kid, this second (and future) seasons would thrill me, though as an adult I miss the more serious SF of the first season. (Similar thing happened with Lost in Space. Trend, Irwin Allen?) Still, there’s plenty of adventure to be had on the submarine so cool that we still call the show “Seaview” in my household, plus they’ve added the Flying Sub, another amazing large-scale prop to the cast. If you don’t like the design of both these 2 submarines, I guess you’re just too hung up on realism, and the fact that the FS seems like it takes up the entire bridge section of the main ship when docking and undocking. So, ignore that, go with your inner kid, and enjoy a show that falls somewhere between Star Trek and Lost in Space in tone and content. If you can do that, give it that extra star. The only drag is that only S1 is available to buy on streaming. Thankfully, MeTV continues the adventures of Seaview on Saturday late night / early Sunday morning. Dig those 1960s vibes!
Gay Falcon, The (1941) *** George Sanders plays detective/con man/adventurer Gay Laurence (a.k.a. The Falcon) in the first film of this series loosely based a book, but intended to replace RKO’s series of movies about The Saint, to which they’d lost the license. So, basically, it’s like The Saint series under a different name, and since it’s a B-Movie detective series made by a reliable studio, you know that the quality will be good — at least until the budgets drop too much. In this installment, we meet the Falcon, his long-suffering fiancée, Elinor, and his comic-relief sidekick “Goldie” Locke (Allen Jenkins). In this episode, the Falcon, at the urging of Elinor, has become a stockbroker and given up his devil-may-care lifestyle. But the couple attends a party thrown by a woman who’s had trouble with jewel thefts at her events. During a dance, a woman hands the Falcon a fabulous diamond, much to his surprise, and she is soon found dead, with Goldie as a suspect. The Falcon must unravel the connection of the parties to the jewel thefts, clear Goldie’s (and his own) name, all while avoiding Elinor’s wrath as he flirts with any young thing in a skirt along the way. (Why they’re insisting on getting married in these films baffles me, as they fight like cats and dogs, and being during the Code era, they can’t be having great makeup sex.) Anyway, it’s an enjoyable start to the series.
Legend of Boggy Creek (1972) *** The original bigfoot-type “documentary” still holds up pretty well, with its often-imitated narration and recreations of “true events” that really look like they were shot at the time with the actual people involved — and for all I remember, maybe at least some of them were. Basically, the film tells the folk tales/legends of the Boggy Creek creature, also known as the Fouke Monster, down in Arkansas. The recreations are crude but effective because of the aforementioned verisimilitude, and I generally enjoyed this. It’s better than any of the many, many bigfoot docs that follow and has an historic charm, too.
Ingagi (1930) *(**) Early exploitation movie about exploring the African jungle, allegedly, but really an excuse for some topless native sequences. Has plenty of footage stolen from Grace Mackenzie’s 1915 film, Heart of Africa, which has some historic value. But then added its own footage of an alleged African tribe allegedly sacrificing semi-nude women to be mates to the Ingagi (allegedly a type of gorilla, but really a guy in a costume, probably well-known “gorilla man” Charlie Gemora, or possibly Hilton Phillips, one of the film’s actors). The film also claims to show, in the distance, the half-human children of these unnatural couplings, as well as the Ingagi’s brides. Eventually, the white hunters kill one of the apes and return with the carcass to civilization. Alternating between boring, absurd, and racist, you should probably avoid this film unless you’re interested in the historical value of such exploitation nonsense.
KPop Demon Hunters (2025) **** Three female teenage music stars, Rumi, Mira, and Zoey comprise the K-pop (Korean) sensation Huntrix, beloved worldwide. Unknown to their fans, though, they use their amazing musical and martial arts skills as part of a long line of demon hunters. So,l they kill demons in between (and sometimes during) their sold-out stadium shows. Naturally, the demons aren’t too keen on any of this, so they form their own competing boy band, to try to take over the world. Unknown at first to either faction is that one of the Huntrix members hides a dark secret, and one of the demon-boys may not be as bad as he seems. It all ends with a highly amusing series of apocalyptic battles. I dig it. The music is fun and the animation cool and funny. Recommended.
Boggy Creek II: The Legend Continues (1985) **(*) How do you follow up a successful monster documentary? Well, clearly, you then do a completely scripted low-budget film to follow in its footsteps. I guess maybe that’s easier than trying to catch lightning in a bottle the second time, at least that’s what the makers of this sequel decided. Were they right? Well, sort of. A professor and 3 students come to the Fouke, Arkansas area in search of the legendary monster. There, they encounter dangerous hicks, a rabid dog, and similar sorts of perils. Of course, they also conduct interviews with witnesses, leading to recreations, as in the original film. Eventually, they take a swamp boat to a ramshackle cabin where Old Man Crenshaw lives. They are then attacked by the monster, as the old man has its child captive. Not a great film, but if you like such drive-in fare, you may decide to give it another star.
Wind in the Willows, The (1995) *** How I had never heard of this film, I’m not quite certain, because it’s populated with the Monty Python troop in animal makeup, adapting the classic tales of Wind in the Willows, specifically Mr. Toad’s madcap wild ride. When Mole (Steve Coogan) is driven out of his home by the weasels’ construction/demolition, he joins Ratty (Eric Idle) in trying to convince Mr. Toad (writer-director Terry Jones), local rich guy, to take the scoundrel weasels in hand. Unfortunately, Mr. Toad has become obsessed with motor-cars and has become deeply indebted to the weasels who are supplying him with new cars for every one he crashes/destroys. (Which is all of them.) Filled with terrific British actors, plenty of silly action, and even a song or two, I really enjoyed this live-action adaptation. I wish it was currently available on HD or blu or something. Sadly, we will all have to settle for YouTube until the rights holder (Disney, IIRC) decides we deserve something better. Madcap, family friendly fun.
F for Fake (1973) ***(*) Orson Welles, having trained as a magician, was always fond of deceptions, and he appears as the narrator and performs in this “documentary” about several famous frauds, including painting forger Elmyr de Hor (a fascinating character), and de Hor’s biographer, Clifford Irving, was also a famous hoaxer himself, having forged an autobiography of Howard Hughes. Oja Kodar, a Croatian actress and model (and the film’s co-writer) accompanies Welles in the cast and tells the tale of her father, also a famous forger. But as we get to the end of the film, Welles reminds us that he only promised to tell the truth for “the next hour,” and since the film is longer than that, his reminder of the time limit in the end casts doubt about at least some of what he’s told us is “true” before. A fascinating film, and if you like fakes and forgeries, give it that extra star.
Castle of Evil (1967) ***(*) After a creepy prologue where a blackmailing undertaker is killed by a mansion’s housekeeper, 6 people arrive on a remote island, heirs to a dead man’s possible fortune, in a familiar horror movie set-up. The dead man from the prologue, Kovak, had allegedly wronged the people on the island, and to make it up, he is giving big bucks to these heirs, IF they can find his murderer. The implication is that one or more of those present is the killer; thus, all are endangered by the enemy in their midst. Soon, though, it’s unclear whether Kovak is actually dead, because somehow people are hearing him and even seeing him. And what about that evil housekeeper? This film, made at the same time by the same company that made Destination Inner Space, has some fun twists and turns that genre fans are sure to love (extra star). It also has a great restoration blu-ray put out by Vinegar Syndrome. Check it out.]
Dominique (1979 aka Dominique is Dead) *** Speaking of Vinegar Syndrome releases, that restoration/production also has a very good blu-ray of Dominique, which many of us will know from TV (and low-budget DVD) as Dominique is Dead. And she is. That’s the whole premise of the movie; Dominque dies right early on after some spooky sequences, but her scheming husband (Cliff Robertson), who drove her to kill herself, keeps seeing her. Is he going mad? Is he really being haunted? If you’ve seen enough of this type of film, you can probably figure out what’s going on, but when this was made, it didn’t seem quite so obvious. But with a good cast and production, the film is still enjoyable.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (S3) **** The early day crew of the starship Enterprise is back, with younger actors portraying Captain Pike, Spock, Number One (Una), Uhura, a young Kirk, etc. And if you’ve watched previous seasons of this, you know the series has done a great job casting and the actors are all good. The production level is always high, and we even get some in-series continuity this time, not only with character relationsh9ips, but also with an ancient evil, buried race, echoing H.P. Lovecraft and others. There are some strong dramatic moments and some good comedy, too, though it did seem to me that this season goes heavier on comic episodes (the wedding, the one where everyone becomes a Vulcan) than earlier seasons. Some of this may have been to balance out a couple of eps that were really dark (stranded on a planet with a Gorn, that Lovecraftian stuff), but the mix still felt a little off to me. However, I’m still enjoying this series more than any other Trek since TOS and look forward to it coming back for 2 (IIRC) more.
Cryptids (2024) *** This recent film centers, as you might guess, around cryptid animals, that is creatures that may or may not exist in our world and are hunted by self-titled crypto-zoologists. What I didn’t’ expect was that this would be an anthology flick hosted by Joe Bob Briggs as radio host Major Harlan Dean. The other surprising thing is that the segments about each cryptid — with a story called in to the fictitious radio show — would be fairly short, and there’d be a lot of them. There are so many, in fact, that they tended to all blur together for me, which I guess is appropriate for monsters originating in urban legends, largely. This is a low-budget horror-comedy, so you know for sure that you can count on plenty of gore effects to excess. Among the critters, we get: bigfoot, a frog-man, goblins, the Chupacabra, and more. It’s all pretty fun, and I’ll probably rewatch it at some point soon. The bid drawback for me is that it reminded me too much of A Christmas Horror Story, which is a much more polished production, and worthy of annual rewatches at Christmastime.
Don’t Fuck in the Woods (2016) **(*) Just finding this movie online can be problematic because of the expletive in the title. I think I’ve seen it given a number of asterisk censorship variations, as well as something like “Don’t Go IN the Woods,” which I think is the title of a different film, too. The flick is free to watch on Vudu/Fandango and maybe some other places, too, so hopefully you can look it up, if you want. The premise is familiar: group of teens go out to the woods to fool around, get drunk, have sex, the usual, unaware that the woods are the hunting grounds for a horrible monster which then starts to kill them off in gruesome low-budget gory ways. Will anyone survive long enough to kill the monster? If not, who will be in the sequel. (Haven’t watched that yet.) If gore, nudity, and vulgarity are not your thing, then avoid this flick, but I liked it enough to give it that provisional third star — because low-budget horror deserves some support, and some of the cast are kinda cute.
Battle for the Lost Planet (1986) *** Special effects man and stop-motion animator Brett Piper has made a number of interesting low-budget films over the years, and this is one of his earliest. In it, rogue thief Harry Trent manages to steal an experimental space ship, but shortly after he leaves Earth, the planet is attacked and overrun by evil aliens. Trent finds himself stranded in space for ages, almost until his supplies run out. He makes it back home, only to discover a post-alien-apocalypse world. He then battles through various special-effects bad guys, joins up with resistance fighters, and tries to retake Earth for humankind. Shot on 16mm with his own rigs, the special effects are usually amusing, especially considering the budget here was so low as to me almsot non-existent. It’s pretty rote in a lot of ways, but if you like low-budget SF, you’ll probably dig it.
Mutant War (1988) *** Harry Trent from Battle for the Lost Planet returns in this sequel that finds our ersatz hero trying to help a girl find her sisters, who have been kidnapped for some nefarious purpose by a madman (Cameron Mitchell) looking to consolidate his power on an Earth still overrun by aliens and mutants. Because this is a Brett Piper film, it has pretty good special effects and stop-motion sequences, though Piper complains on a blu-ray commentary that they would have looked better if he’d been able to use all his own 16mm set-ups, rather than having this film shot in 35mm, as the producers demanded. Since this was another direct-to-video production, Piper may have been right, but before knowing about the film upgrade, I did think that this flick looked better than the last one. So, right in some ways, because on video it wouldn’t have mattered, on blu-ray, though, it does. As to the story, again, it’s pretty rote, but made with low-budge enthusiasm, and we even get a “big star” for the villain. If you liked Battle… you’ll probably like this. I did. Both films are on a great double-feature blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.
Bad Seed, The (1956 – Sven) **** I thought I’d seen this film previously, but obviously I knew the premise and had seen similar films previously. The “evil child” is a classic premise, and this is an early take on it, if not the first. A “perfect family” starts getting stressed out when the parents discover their perfect, top of the class daughter may not be what they think she is. The downward slide starts with the death of a boy, who had previously bested the girl in a school contest she’d “always” won before, at a school outing to a park. The family handyman realizes the daughter is two-faced, acting nice while actually being cruel to people, but the parents don’t believe him, because he’s a bit of a creep. And how could their perfect child have had anything to do with her classmates death? But as the girls hidden crimes mount, her mother becomes suspicious, too. There are plenty of creepy suspense bits in this, and an unforgettable ending (which the Production Code certainly had a hand in. A buddy of mine thinks this flick is too stagey, even including a cast call at the end, but that didn’t bother me.
Date with the Falcon, A (1942) *** George Sanders returns as Gay Laurence, a.k.a. The Falcon, in the second of this mystery series. Here, a balding inventor has come up with a way to make artificial diamonds, which he intends to market for industrial uses, so as not to ruin the diamond trade. (Which I now think would probably be a good thing, but I digress…) Unfortunately, crooks (and the Falcon) get wind that the cheap-to-produce fakes are pretty much impossible to distinguish from actual diamonds. Naturally, this leads to the formula being stolen, the inventor being kidnapped, and possibly killed. Naturally, the Falcon gets mixed up in all this early on, being some combination of detective and con man, as well as a man that no women can resist (and vice versa). So, while he’s mixed up with the formula thieves/kidnappers, his long-suffering fiancée is complaining every time he looks at a woman or another woman looks at him. It’s a male-female trope that hasn’t dated well, but the B-movie mystery formula still works just fine.
Legends of the Hidden Temple (2016) *** Based on the Nickelodeon game show, this made-for-TV movie features 3 kids on vacation who find their way into the titular hidden temple and then become trapped and must solves clues, puzzles, and fight their way through a series of traps to escape. There’s also some stuff about saving an ancient civilization, and pursuit by some mystical-type bad guys, but mostly it’s just a kid-type Indiana Jones/Lara Croft run through obstacles. But I was in the mood for a light adventure film, and this fit the bill. I assume that a lot of the perils and trappings are based on the game show, but I don’t think that matters much — though maybe watchers will enjoy it more.
Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado (2025) *** It’s been a couple of years since the last Dora the Explorer movie, so it must be time for a new cast, new CGI, etc. Here, Dora and her companions (cousin & friends, some of whom work at an amusement park) head off on a quest to find the lost Incan city of Sol Dorado, which contains a fabulous treasure that will grant one wish. Naturally, there are bad guys on their trail, including the thieving fox who’s the villains” counterpoint to Dora’s helper monkey, Boots. But will our TV-inspired heroine be able to complete her quest when she loses her two most valuable assets: map and backpack? This is a fun family adventure, and the CG animals look much more real this time around, though I didn’t mind the cartoonish animals in the last installment. A fun if somewhat predictable adventure.
Lynley 1-2 The Body of Death *** When an attractive young estate agent goes missing, Lynley and Havers quickly discover that she may have been stalked because of her profile on a dating app. They track down the stalker, who is a photographer and has many pictures of her taken on the street, along with other women’s photos in similar situations. The stalker seems like a shoe-in, but Lynley isn’t convinced, and the man goes free, only to be beaten nearly to death by thugs because of a media link. When the missing woman’s body turns up, murdered, our heroes discover that she may have been involved in a blackmail scheme concerning a previous death. Amid all this, Havers’ dad has continuing health issues, and Lynley hooks up with old school friend Helen Clyde (who watchers of the previous series or readers of the books will know is the love of his life). Complicating all this is Lynley and Havers’ boss, who just doesn’t like them. Some stupid mistakes in this case make everything much harder for the characters. Amusing, but not great.
Bridgewater Triangle, The (2013) *** There are a lot of “true mystery” documentaries on Amazon Prime, and this is another one of them. It tells tales and legends of the so-called Bridgewater Triangle, an area of southeastern Massachusetts that allegedly has more instances of the paranormal than just about anywhere else. Ghosts, UFOs, bigfoot, weird elves or brownies… You name it, the BT has something for you. And like most shows of this nature, there are some intriguing local legends and eyewitness accounts of strange things happening. Personally, I was even more amused by all this stuff, because until I moved to Wisconsin at age 21, I lived right next to the alleged center of paranormal activity and never heard ANYTHING about it. I have cousins in West Bridgewater; I’ve driven through the area more times than I can count or remember; the school I went to is in the Hockomock League for sports (or was, at least), named for the famous “haunted” swamp in the area. But… Nothing. And remember that I was into this kind fo stuff since fifth grade or even earlier. So, it puzzles me that an area that’s been “haunted” for centuries never attracted the attention of me or my likeminded friends. Now, having seen the swamp in this and other shows, I admit that I definitely missed something there. Maybe one day I’ll go back east and check it out. In any case, whether real or whipped up by publicity-seeking ghost hunters, this doc has some interesting tales. Might be worth a look.
His Master’s Voice (1925) *** In the silent era, Rin Tin Tin made dog heroes a big thing in the movies, and a lot of Rin-Tin-Clones popped up. Thunder the Marvel Dog is one of them. Here, Thunder helps his master become a brave man when master is called up for WWI. The dog travels to Europe with master’s fiancée to help in a medic unit, but then seeks out his master and finds him at the front as the man gets into various jams, including when his courage completely fails and he hides out, potentially going AWOL, and later when he needs to make sure an explosive keeps the Germans from overrunning the allied lines. Framed by a “father and son” talk between Thunder and his pup. “What did you do in the war, Daddy Dog?”
Sign of the Claw (1926) *** Peter the Great, another Rin-Tin-Clone, helps his cop master track down and apprehend a gang of bank robbers and criminals, one of whom is the dog’s former master. Concludes with the villain kidnapping the hero’s girlfriend, and a long car chase with Peter on foot, cutting across the countryside to keep up. The villain crashes, and Peter arrives to apprehend him. The hero arrives to help the girl but then there’s a weird cut — at least in the print I was watching — and the hero, heroine, and the dog drive away in the hero’s car, without us seeing the villain’s final fate. (I’m assuming there’s some lost footage there.) Other than that, another amusing dog movie.
Red House, The (1947) **** One of the joys of TCM is that, because it’s a curated movie channel, you’ll sometimes stumble across things in their programming that you’ve never heard of before. This Edward G. Robinson flick is one of those hidden joys. Robinson is Pete, a farmer who’s missing a leg. Pete lives with his sister, Ellen, and his adopted daughter, Meg, who has recently blossomed into a young woman. They’re a happy family, but have some strange rules, which Meg is now rebelling against. When Meg’s classmate, the handsome Nath, comes to work as a farmhand, part time, he and Meg become intrigued by the forbidden “haunted” woods at the edge of the property and the even more mysterious Red House hidden within. Pete, though, forbids Meg — or anyone — to go into those woods, save for the creepy woodsman, Teller, who keeps people from trespassing on Pete’s property. Teller has eyes on Meg, too (and any girl, really), and tension soon builds between everyone involved, because clearly there are secrets hidden in the Red House. I recorded this flick to my DVR because Robinson was in the cast and the plot description seemed spooky, and boy, did I hit the jackpot with this one, which is a suspense mystery that’s well made on every level. Great moody photography, great production, great acting. A real treat.
Fanny Hill (1964) *** Based on a “classic” naughty novel, this early Russ Meyer flick tells the story of an innocent young woman who ends up in the hands of the scheming madam of a high-class whorehouse, determined to get top dollar for the girl and her virginity from the local nobility. But somehow, fate always intervenes to save Fanny, and the titular character remains blissfully unaware of the plots against her, even when her true love is Shanghaied before the two of the can run off together. The whole is played for laughs, and seems quite innocent by today’s standards, even eschewing any real nudity. It looks good on a recent Vinegar Syndrome blu-ray, double-billed with The Phantom Gunslinger (qv).
Phantom Gunslinger, The (1967) **(*) This is a very odd comedy about a naïve young man (Troy Donahue) who becomes the sheriff of a western town overrun by ruthless bandits. Despite his best bumbling efforts to restore law and order, our hero soon finds himself very convincingly dead. You’d think that would bring the film to a crashing halt, but it doesn’t. In fact, things just keep getting crazier from there, as the sheriff almost becomes a human equivalent of the coyote in a Road Runner cartoon. Shot in a color format and style that reminded me of the Monkees TV show, at first I thought this film was just bad — boring, predictable, and not very funny. But after the hero dies (the first time, becoming the title character), the longer the flick went on, the more it veered into “so bad it’s good” territory. So, if you dig nutty 1960s flicks, give it that extra star.
Terror in the Skies (2019) *** Another “true paranormal” documentary that I found on Amazon Prime, this one focuses on creatures that fly, including thunderbirds, the Piasa from near Alton Illinois, and even Mothman in Chicago. As you probably know, I love tales of folk monsters, and this fits right in with that. Are the stories here actually true? Hard to tell. Strange things happen in the world, and strange things happen to people. Would it be cool if giant thunderbirds are out there somewhere, riding the storm fronts and roosting in inaccessible locations? Sure. But I’m not counting on it. Tune in if your fond of such monsters.
Wednesday (S2) **** The second season of Wednesday has a lot more of her brother Pugsley and their parents, Morticia and Gomez Addams, too. This season, we get an annoying new principal for Nevermore Academy (Steve Buscemi), Pugsley works on his electric powers, and Wednesday tries to prevent her best friend Enid Sinclair from dying according to a prophecy Wednesday receives at the star of the show. We also get pet zombies, mysterious schemers, a return of the hulk-like Hydes plot, asylum escapes, and secret pasts revealed. All in all, it’s another amusing season of this Tim Burton-led series, with Jenna Ortega getting to stretch a bit as Wednesday, while still retaining her dark, Gothic charm. Fun!
Lone Ranger, The (1938 serial) *** Restored by the Serial Squadron and shown on TCM, this is the first film adaptation of the Lone Ranger (which originally started as a radio show), so far as I know. As such, it has some familiar elements, like the origin story with all of a Texas Ranger’s patrol massacred by ambush, the ranger being rescued by his soon-to-be-heroic companion, the Indian Tonto, and his white horse, Silver. But it diverges from the original story by presenting a “Who is the Lone Ranger?” mystery and giving us a number of heroic prospects for the job. (None of who are John Reid, by the way.) The villain in this serial is a former Confederate captain who assumes the identity of the Texas Finance Minster after murdering the real official. The villain’s master plan is to take over all of Texas and kill anyone who gets in his way. He does this quite effectively, as the body count in the serial is high, with the five men originally suspected of being the Lone Ranger narrowed down one at a time. The occasional heroic death makes this more interesting than many serials, though there’s still a lot of repetition and slack spots, unlike later serials. In all, an interesting effort and worth seeing if you like western serials. Oh, and the Lone Ranger’s “true identity” is revealed at the end. There’s a sequel serial, but I haven’t seen it. (Yet.)
Tarantula (1955, Sven) **** Classic Universal big bug movie, and one that I can watch time and again. In the desert southwest, a scientist’s experiment with growth formulas to feed the world goes wrong. His assistant goes mad from taking the formula himself, and sets fire to the lab, letting loose all the experimental animals, among them, the titular spider. Leo G. Carroll is the original scientist, Mara Corday his new assistant, and John Agar the town’s young doctor who no one really believes at first. We get the usual mysterious deaths of animals and such, people going missing, and then the tarantula, now bigger than a house, rampaging across the desert countryside. The special effects are good overall, though there are a few matte problems that bug me (ha ha) every time I see them. Acting is solid, and we even get a glimpse of the young Clint Eastwood at the end. White not as good as THEM! — and my 3rd favorite giant spider movie behind Earth vs. the Spider and the more recent The Giant Spider — this is still a lot of 1950s fun.
Professor T (S4) ***** Ben Miller returns as the emotionally damaged, introverted but yet charming title character in the series 4th season. Last season ended with tragedy, and so we get even more emotional turmoil to start the season, not just with Prof. T, but also his supporting staff at the police station. This makes the subplots this season strong, and certainly more memorable than the mysteries themselves — which remain very good. We also get a switch out as T’s aunt comes to town, and there are romantic subplots for many of the cast, including T himself… In a way. All this ongoing stuff leads to a very strong and satisfying season finale. Really, it could be a series-ender, but I hope not. I’ve grown fond of these characters.
What We Do in the Shadows (S4) **** The vampire comedy continues with the usual vampiric-fish-out-of-water for Nandor, Laszlo, Nadia, Colin, and their undead cohorts. The main subplot this season involves Nandor’s familiar, Guillermo, who, despite being a descendant of vampire hunter Van Helsing really wants to be a vampire. Tired of waiting for Nandor to turn him, Guillermo has gotten a scuzzy vampire friend to bite him, with strange and unpredictable results. Amid the main plots (one per show, as usual), Guillermo spends time trying to master his new powers (with mad-science experimental help from Laszlo), and conceal his dirty little secret from everyone possible, including his vampiric housemates and his own human family. It’s all good, silly fun, and if you’ve enjoyed the previous seasons as much as I have, you’ll probably enjoy this one, too.
Alien 2: On Earth *(**) This weird Italian “sequel” to alien posits that a spacecraft returning to (present day) Earth brings with it seeds or eggs or something from space that then cause hideous damage to humans and threaten to overrun the planet. Yet, somehow, while all that is going on, some of the seed/egg things have gotten into a series of caves and caverns under the earth, so we have an underground monster/alien invasion, too, with foolish spelunkers caught in their own hubris. Will there even be anything left once they return to the surface. Cheap and ill-conceived on nearly every level, I somehow found this cheapy somewhat charming in the end. Definitely a “so bad it’s good” pleasure, so maybe it gets that passing 3 stars if you like suck dreck.
Beaks (1987) **(*) Never let it be said that the Italians don’t know how to rip off better films. In this take on The Birds, a reporter travels over the world, looking into increasingly hostile relations between birds and humans. Birds are attacking and killing people. Why? (Not sure we ever get an answer to that.) What we do get is a lot of fairly stock sympathetic human families being set up to be cut down by flocks of birds. The birds aren’t a special effect, though. Rather, they’re cleverly captured — I assume for this film — footage of birds flockintg and moving together, cut in such a way that they seem to be attacking people. I have to admire the balls of the people producing this low budget film. It looks nice in the blu-ray restoration, and as with many Itialian knock-off horror films, I ended up kind of linking it. If low-budget animal-attack films are your bag, give it that extra star, too.
Jurassic World Rebirth (2025, rewatch) ****(*) I enjoyed this film even more when I watched it after it came out for home video. With my preconceptions about what it should be left in the movie theater, now I could just relax and enjoy it for what it is. And that is: a well-made action film with attractive and compelling stars (Scarlett Johansson & Mahershala Ali) and top-of-the-line special effects. Sure, I’d rather they kept to real dinosaurs — even ones they’ve exaggerated for size — rather than throwing in a few mutants, but all things considered, this is a pretty cool flick. If you like dinosaur adventure films, give it that extra star. And if you want to see a film that cares more about whether its dinos are “real,” go see PRIMITIVE WAR. (Reviewed next month, October 2025.)
Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949) ***(*) The second of Abbott & Costello’s “meet the monster” series of films deviates from the classic formula laid down in …Meet Frankenstein. Rather than go the full horror route, this film goes the murder mystery noir route, with people dying off in a mysterious hotel — though of course, nobody believes Costello at first and then blames him for the bodies later. We also get Karloff as a swami crook who specializes in hypnotism. That results in a very funny scene between Karloff and Costello, but then sadly Boris’ character is absent from nearly all of the rest of the movie. We do get a very fun climax to the story in the tunnels and cavern beneath the hotel, but I can’t help but being disappointed that the King of the Monsters isn’t more involved, after being in the title. Karloff fans can still give it another star for the time he’s onscreen, though.
Superman (2025, rewatch) ***** Like the recent Jurassic World, I like the current Superman even better on a second watch, which made it jump up to the top of my Superman movies list (along with the original Christopher Reeve film). Is it perfect, maybe not, but it’s got so much good and memorable stuff in it, and it seems a perfect Superman for our times — the optimistic hero who does the right thing just because it’s the right thing to do. (An ethos it shares with the Fantastic Four film from this summer.) We get great takes on a lot of iconic characters, including the “Justice Gang” (who we’ll see again in Peacemaker S2), Perry, Jimmy, Lois, etc. Plus Krypto and a few other surprises. What’s not to like?
Doctor Who: The Horror of Fang Rock **** I know people consider the original Doctor Who episodes to be cheesy compared to the current shows, but I just have to say… Those people are wrong. Watching random shows on Prime’s Doctor Who streaming channel, I stumbled across this gem. Leela and the Doctor (Tom Baker) mistakenly land on a small, isolated island contianing a sole lighthouse, enshrouded in mist and mystery. What at first seems like a ghost story featuring the beleaguered lighthouse keepers eventually turns into (spoiler!) an alien invasion story — because DW is all about SciFi, right? Anyway, it’s another very creative DW serial set in a very cramped location with few sets but smart concepts and good performances. You almost never go wrong with Baker’s Doctor Who!
Lynley 1-3 Careless in Red **** On a morning run, DI Lynley comes across a man in red, face down in a marsh, dead, an apparent drowning victim. He and Havers then have to sort through the local suspects, because the man was hit on the head forcefully before his death, with the death apparently staged to look like a kayaking accident. The man worked at the local canoe/kayak rental place, and opinions about him seem very polarized. Naturally, not everyone our heroes question is telling the truth — we’d have a lot fewer hours of mystery shows if they did — but eventually they turn up a relationship between this death and a past one. The mystery elements are all pretty good, but I was disappointed that I didn’t feel the solution was really “fair play,” that is, something we’d be able to dope out as viewers if we paid enough attention. Still, one of the better stories in the new series.
Doctor Who 24-1 Time & the Rani *** The first adventure of the Doctor in his Sylvester McCoy incarnation, finds the Timelord confused by his regeneration, and renegade Timelord the Rani at odds again. The Rani pretends to be companion Mel to mislead the Doctor to helping her with a cosmic power grab for “strange matter.” Meanwhile, she’s subjugated a planet of slightly scaly yellow people, and the vampire-bat-faced Tetraps as her minions. She also has set out traps that capture those tripping them in Prisoner-like bubbles and then hurl them into mountain slopes to explode. Nicely gruesome. Part of the Rani’s plan includes transferring the Doctor’s intelligence into a massive brain where she’s put other great intelligences from history to help her scheme to control time. A good re-start after the rocky Colin Baker years, but the Baroque 80s synth music and CG titles haven’t aged well.
Doctor Who 24-2 Paradise Towers *** The Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Mel (Bonnie Langford) decide to stop at Paradise Towers, which from its electronic brochure seems a perfect place for a short vacation. It even has a huge swimming pool. Once there, though, the are quickly captured by the red Kangs, a group of female punk warriors, living in the towers’ graffiti-filled corridors. The Kangs are struggling to stay alive, caught between the strange (possibly cannibalistic) rezzies (residents), the towers’ fascistic security enforcers, and monstrous mechanical cleaners. Separated, the Doctor is held by the head of security, who mistakes him for the Great Architect who created the towers — and also wants to kill and feed the Doctor to a mysterious master. Also in the mix is Pex, a Rambo-type who fancies himself protector of the weak, though he’s really something of a coward. It’s an interesting mix of characters, and situations, but the 1980s production values and melodramatic “heavy on the noise hits” synth track hold it back.
Silent Madness (1984) *** A paperwork mix up at an overworked and understaffed asylum allows a psycho killer, Howard Johns, who has a similar name to another patient to be released instead of the John Howard. The hospital then covers up the release, saying the man had actually died, while Johns returns to his old stomping grounds, looking for revenge on the sorority sisters who humiliated him — or their lookalikes in the current sorority house. A doctor with a conscience (Belinda Montgomery) tries to track the killer down, but she’s also being pursued by amoral asylum guards who wouldn’t mind raping her before making sure she can never tell anyone what she’s found. Originally in 3D for the 1980s era of that craze, this flick has what are probably pretty good 3D scenes, while not being crazy stupid about it. It’s rote but enjoyable with a wild finish. Blu ray has a 3D option.
Night Strangler, The (1973 Sven) **** Kolchak is back in his second TV movie, a sequel of sorts to the original Night Stalker. This time, our disheveled reporter hero is in Seattle, investigation a series of mysterious murder that (t turns out) seem to happen every 20 years, extending back into the 19th century and maybe even earlier. As with the first film, we get a clever script, plenty of spooky noir settings and murders, and the always charming Darren McGavin as our stalwart hero. The climax of the film takes place in the catacomb-like setting of Old Seattle, a (real) part of the city buried long ago under the modern city. While not as good as the first tele-film, this is still a fine outing, and led to the creation of the short-lived Kolchak TV series.
Amityville 3D (1983) ** After debunking another psychic, a researcher (Tony Roberts) gets an offer to buy the cursed Amityville house (from previous films), where many murders have taken place in the past. He doesn’t believe in anything supernatural, but soon a priest dies in the house (overwhelmed by flies), a co-worker is spooked by a blast of steam, and then another is killed in a fiery car accident. Weird, but Roberts’ character is still not convinced. Then his daughter drowns outside the house, driving his ex-wife mad. So, he finally consents to have psychic researchers come in, and then… Maybe the 3D effects looked okay on the big screen, but on TV they don’t look any better than the fake psychic effects. Also, very little of the supernatural things seem to actually happen in the house, despite there being a bottomless well in the basement (which later fills with “scary” water). Most of the spooky things — and 3D shenanigans — happen near the end of the film. Probably they showed the best parts in the trailer. Not terrible if you like this kind of stuff, but not good. With a good cast and director, disappointing.
Help Me… I’m Possessed (1974) **(*) A maniac is on the loose, and while local law enforcement suspects the asylum housed in a (modern) nearby castle, the doctor their insists it’s not possible. Meanwhile, he’s running a mad scientist’s torture dungeon in his basement. Therapies include whipping, guillotine, and put in a coffin with a snake, plus the dungeon cells, of course. He’s doing all this to drive evil out of his patients and put it into solid form, so he can control it, and thus banish it from mankind in some kind of pseudo-religious notion. Soon, the doc’s wife, who is unaware of any of this, shows up and becomes suspicious of all the weird goings on. Did I mention that the doctor’s mentally ill sister seems to have befriended this personification of evil? An dis that the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or a Lovecraftian horror that we never quite get to see? This is goofy and low-budget, but if you’re like me, you may enjoy it. Part of the Blood-A-Rama Triple Feature blu-ray.
Unforgotten (S6) ***** In the return of this great mystery series, a body that’s been cut to pieces turns up, in a bog near a boardwalk. The body is old, but our intrepid detectives soon turn up the victim’s identity, a former tavernkeeper, who disappeared years ago, while married to a respected college professor. The professor and her daughter are shocked by the horrifying discovery, though its soon revealed that the victim was not a good family man, or much of a good man at all. He had bullied a neuro-divergent worker, had an affair with a right-wing opinion influencer working out of Ireland, and bullied struggling immigrant families. The suspects include all those people, the immigrant social worker defending the immigrants, mobsters, and more. Additionally, our two main heroes struggle with their personal lives — one trying to get back into dating, the other with a failing marriage. All in all, it’s another really good series of this excellent show. Oh, and a satisfying and pretty surprising ending, too.
Marlowe Murder Club (S2) **** Our three women heroes — the archeologist, the dog walker, and the vicar’s wife — return, this time with a series of shorter mysteries, rather than one longer tail. They continue to help the local police (much to the chagrin of some), though their unofficial status means that they can bend laws that the cops can’t. (Though I wonder how that stands up in court.) Cases include a man found dead on his wedding day, a murdered body found in the terminal circle of a close (dead end street) where most of the houses are scheduled for demolition, and a man found killed near a sailboat by the waters of a posh yacht club. The mysteries are good, especially “Death on the Close,” and we get some interesting complications in the social lives of our heroines, including a possible romance for one. Overall, entertaining with good actors, though how much what these amateurs discover would hold up in court bothers me.
Lynley 1-4 With No One as Witness **** This episode starts with a combative vicar chasing some youths from her church. When a young man turns up dead nearby, it turns out he had a connection with the church, which caters to recovering addicts, among others, and has a strong youth outreach program. Naturally, Lynley and Havers come in to investigate. They soon turn up that the youths chased from the church were known drug dealers, and part of an unsavory group trying to take advantage of the addicts’ predilections. The death is even more complicated than that, eventually tied up with ritualized murder that may have a religious motive. Not only that, but Helen gets kidnapped because of Lynley’s involvement in the case and faces being murdered herself while our heroes race to rescue her. One of the new season’s highlights. I was skeptical, but by the end, this reboot definitely seemed headed in the right direction — even if a different one from the original show or the books.
Doctor Who 24-3 Delta & the Bannermen ***(*) One of the weirdest of the Sylvester McCoy Doctor Who episodes, and one that I don’t remember catching in its original run. The Doctor and Ace throw in with an intergalactic tour bus promising to take aliens to Disneyworld in the middle of the twentieth century. Either because of a mix up, or because aliens can’t tell the difference, they actually end up in a pretty shabby British amusement park/resort (holiday camp?). Things get complicated when it turns out one of the aliens is actually a pregnant princess on the run from military forces looking to end her government, her live, and her family line. The alien is defended by our heroes along with some 1950s-60s type rock and roll characters — think Elvis on a motorcycle, etc. There’s a lot going on in this DW serial, but it’s wacky and mostly fun, and I’m giving it an extra star for trying something new and different: a DW rock and roll show!
Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous (S4) **** At the end of last season, the kids from Camp Cretaceous — Ben, Brooklynn, Darius, Kenji, Sammy, and Yasmina — finally escaped the perils of Isla Nublar only to be shipwrecked on another distant island shore that also happens to be inhabited by dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts. What are the chances? Actually, pretty good, I guess, as most of the islands in this area seem to be owned by the same mysterious corporation that took over once the whole Jurassic World thing fell apart. It turns out that this island is an advanced testing ground, with many biomes on it, from desert to arctic, to prefect some new scheme using dinosaurs. In addition to the reptilian hazards, there’s also a legion of dangerous robots controlling this experiment to contend with, plus a perhaps sympathetic scientist and a positively not trustworthy simulation programmer guy. A fun expansion, leading the series into new directions.
And with that, September 2025 is finally finished (and posted). Total for the month is a very respectable 65 shows, Which brings the 2025 TOTAL to 521 films, series, & notable other programs. How soon will I hit 600 for the year? Tune in and find out!
NEXT MONTH: First, I try to catch up with the October reviews before the end of November! (Wish me luck and me and mine good health!) Then, we’ve got a whole bunch of Halloween-type viewing, starting with a Scooby-Doo Halloween flick, plowing through a whole bunch of Universal and Hammer classics, and finishing up with — what else? — a couple of the Halloween movies. There’s a whole lot of monsters and mayhem in store ahead! See you then!
Covid is still here — & other diseases we thought were licked are back — so YOU can still help!
Please… #VaxUp! #BoostUp! #MaskUp! And get your kids & family vaxed, too!
Let’s Make the World Safer for Everyone!
Remember, you can support this and all my other writing work, including Frost Harrow, Dr. Cushing’s Chamber of Horrors, Monster Shark on a Nude Beach, and more, by joining my Patreon for a couple bucks a month, or by dropping me a tip on my Ko-Fi page. Thanks!
Be the first to comment