TV Shows #32

Constellation Season One (2024)
Developed By: Peter Harness
Starring: Noomi Rapace, Jonathan Banks, James D'Arcy, Rosie Coleman, Davina Coleman, William Catlett, Julian Looman, Barbara Sukowa, Henry David, Sandra Teles, Carole Weyers

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 50-58 Minutes per Episode (approx), 8 Episodes

Tagline: "Reality is a conspiracy"

I've never been particularly good at reviewing films and TV shows but I can at least usually explain the backstory concisely enough without giving away spoilers. Then a show like this comes along where even attempting to outline the basic premise is likely to result in a spoiler (or several)! It's a show that was recommended to me and one I was immediately interested in because... sci-fi. At first it seemed like it might be a reasonably normal such thriller, too. It stars Noomi Rapace, who I have previously not seen in anything, as Johanna Ericsson, a Swedish ESA astronaut aboard the International Space Station. She has a husband and daughter at home with whom she is chatting when... SUDDENLY!!... Shaking, alarms, loss of power... something has collided with the ISS and it has caused havoc!

TV Shows #31 - Part 1

Halo Season One (2022)
Developed By: Kyle Killen & Steven Kane
Starring: Pablo Schreiber, Natascha McElhone, Yerin Ha, Kate Kennedy, Olive Gray, Shabana Azmi, Natasha Culzac, Bentley Kalu, Charlie Murphy, Danny Sapani, Jen Taylor, Bokeem Woodbine

Certificate: NR Running Time: 40-59 Minutes per Episode (approx), 9 Episodes

There are some films/shows that I follow the development of and eagerly await right from them getting greenlit all the way up to their release, especially examples of the sci-fi genre. Halo was not one of these. I ultra-know about the games, of course - I've even played one of them a little (the first one for the original Xbox, as detailed here) - but the show? I didn't even know there was one until it had already been out for a while, and when I did find out, I wasn't super excited since videogame adaptations generally suck donkey balls anyway, and any residual excitement I might have had for the show was quickly tempered by the almost-unanimously negative reactions it had earned online. These things happen often I suppose, especially to things with existing 'fandoms', but it still wasn't a good sign.

Film vs Book #1

I have long been one of those people who loves books, has many books, buys new books often, but doesn't actually get around to reading them that often. The Japanese even have a term for people like me: tsundoku. Short attention span, hand aches from holding book, easily distracted - these are all reasons/excuses for my idiotic behaviour, but I have been improving of late. I also realised I have a lot of books that were adapted into films or were inspired by or related to films, so I've concentrated on these in order to make a few posts here. In pretty much all cases I will have seen the film before reading the book so the emphasis will be on the former. First up is the book that accompanies one of my favourite films, and it had an unusual start.

Contact (1985 - book, 1997 - film)

Book By: Carl Sagan Film Directed By: Robert Zemeckis Starring: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, John Hurt, Tom Skerritt, Angela Bassett

Certificate: PG Length: 144 Minutes / 429 pages

Tagline: "A message from deep space. Who will be the first to go? A journey to the heart of the universe" (film) "We are not alone" (book)

I'm usually slow to adopt new technologies - I fear change, I guess, to paraphrase Garth from Wayne's World - but one notable exception was DVDs. I forget the year now. It must've been 1997 or 1998, but whenever it was, I was almost immediately taken by the new movie format and spent a fortune (credit card, of course) on what was probably the best player available at the time, the Sony DVP-S715. At the time there were only about 20 films available on the format and not too many interested me, but the shop where I bought the player had three titles that looked acceptable - Face/Off, Assassins and... yes, that's right, Contact! I didn't know much about it prior to buying it, I just wanted a few new films to play on my shiny new player and a sci-fi selection is usually a safe bet for me. Plus, you can rarely go wrong with Jodie Foster, right?

TV Shows #27

Night Sky (2022)
Developed By: Holden Miller & Daniel C. Connolly
Starring: Sissy Spacek, J. K. Simmons, Chai Hansen, Adam Bartley, Julieta Zylberberg, Sonya Walger, Rocío Hernández, Kiah McKirnan, Angus O'Brien

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 55 Minutes per Episode (approx), 8 Episodes

New sci-fi shows always get my attention, but one starring J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek? Yes please! The former is always great, or in every role I've seen him in at least, and the latter has recently impressed me greatly in Castle Rock, so the prospect of the two of them leading the cast of a mysterious new sci-fi show was a splendid one. They are Franklin and Irene, an old married couple still masking grief over the sudden death of their son some years before, but who also share an amazing secret known, as far as they know, not to another soul. Namely, that lying hidden beneath their shed is a spooky device that allows them to visit... an alien planet - crikey! The planet in question is just a barren, rocky world with no discernable settlements and the atmosphere is assumed to be unbreathable for humans, but there is a nice viewing chamber that allows them to sit, relax and marvel at the sights beyond, including a spectacular spacey sky.

Film Round-Up #39

Planet of the Apes Trilogy (2011 - 2017)

Directed By: Rupert Wyatt / Matt Reeves Starring: Andy Serkis, James Franco, Toby Kebbell, Jason Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Gary Oldman, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Karin Konoval, Nick Thurston, Judy Greer, Brian Cox, Keri Russell, Terry Notary, Amiah Miller, Tom Felton, Steve Zahn, Sara Canning, Michael Adamthwaite

Certificate: 12 Running Time: Approx 375 minutes

Like many around my age, I suspect, I grew up with Planet of the Apes movies on TV now and then, particularly the first one starting Charlton Heston. I don't think I realised it at the time but there were actually five films in that series, and following those there were two TV series', neither of which lasted long, and of course Tim Burton's remake in 2001 which I never got around to watching for some reason. THEN!! News arose of a reboot. Is that what the movie-going public wanted? If you're going to reboot a franchise like this though, why not really reboot it? What's the most popular way of doing that these days? Yes that's right, an origin story! This is actually an ultra-skillish premise. I'm not an expert on the franchise but I'm not sure the original series of films ever explained how our poor planet came to be overrun by talking chest-beaters, did it? So, let's find out.

Film Round-Up #38

The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005 - 2012)
Directed By: Christopher Nolan Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, Anne Hathaway, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Katie Holmes, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard

Certificate: 18 Running Time: Approx 457 minutes

If there's one thing I've noticed as a movie fan over the last decade or so, it's that superhero movies are big business, and if you go virtually anywhere online and talk about them, you'll find two main groups - Marvel fanboys and DC fanboys - who seem to enjoy spending their time insulting each other and trashing each other's movies. Despite being dismissed as childish by the DC fans, I think it's safe to say that Marvel fans have had the bragging rights as far as the overall quality of their movies is concerned. As I've mentioned here before, I've never really read any of the comicbooks and hadn't even heard of at least some of the characters that have risen to prominence in recent years prior to them appearing in movies, so it would be a reach to call me a Marvel fanboy, but I've certainly enjoyed their films more. The DC fans have had one line of defence against their nemesis over the years.

Film Review #120

Stowaway (2021)
Directors: Joe Penna Starring: Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, Toni Collette, Shamier Anderson

Certificate: 12 Running Time: 116 Minutes

Tagline: "Millions of miles from home. Survival comes from sacrifice."

You could be forgiven for thinking a film with a title like this might be about one of those attempted-immigrants who sneak into the landing gear of airliners or something. I suppose it could've been a good premise for a film but it's actually about a very different kind of stowaway. Presumably set some time in the near future, this stowaway story, much like the TV show I recently took a look at here, concerns a manned mission to Mars; the first such mission I believe. This would've been reason enough for me to watch it but it also stars the adorable Anna Kendrick as well, who I'll watch in virtually anything (not Twilight though, no no no). Her endearingness and often-quirky demeanour can light up any film, but would she suit a sci-fi drama. I was ultra-interested to find out, especially since she was heading a very small cast.

TV Shows #25

Away (2020)
Developed By: Andrew Hinderaker
Starring: Hilary Swank, Josh Charles, Vivian Wu, Mark Ivanir, Ato Essandoh, Ray Panthaki, Talitha Bateman

Certificate: 12 Running Time: 44-57 Minutes per Episode, 10 Episodes

Tagline: "Home Can Never Leave You"

My previously-glowing opinions about Netflix have slowly been changing over the last year or two but back in 2020, the news that they were working on a brand new, original sci-fi series made me giddy and excited and I had to sit down and think about fungus and other things of an oozy nature in order to calm down. I was going to start by saying it's set in the near future but do they ever actually state that in the show? I can't remember now, but I assume it must be as it's about the first manned mission to Mars. The crew due to make this historic flight is, naturally, one of a multi-national nature but I'm sure it won't come as a shock to find the mission commander is an American; namely, NASA astronaut Commander Emma Green played by the excellent Hilary Swank, which is great since she is an actress I haven't seen in anything for a while.

Film Review #119

Cosmos (2019)
Directors: Elliot Weaver & Zander Weaver Starring: Tom England, Joshua Ford, Arjun Singh Panam, Ben Vardy

Certificate: PG Running Time: 128 Minutes

Tagline: "Only they will hear. Only they will believe."

Every now and then, when I'm struggling to find something I feel like watching, I'll scan through the offerings on the streaming services to which I currently subscribe, as many others also do I'm sure. A frequently perused genre is sci-fi which has probably been my favourite genre since I first discovered Star Trek as a child. Most efforts that show up in searches that I haven't already seen are ones with such catastrophically bad ratings that I don't even chance them, but one hitherto unknown film recently caught my eye during such a search that sounded very intriguing. It may be worth pointing out at this point that Contact, the 1997 sci-fi film starring Jodie Foster, has long been among my very favourites. For those who don't know, Ms. Foster plays a radio astronomer who intercepts a signal from another world - a subject that has captivated me for many years - and it was this premise that also formed the basis for Cosmos, a fairly recent British indie film made with literally no budget at all.

Film Round-Up #35

Back to the Future Trilogy
(1985 - 1989 - 1990)
Directed By: Robert Zemeckis Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Thomas F. Wilson, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Mary Steenburgen, James Tolkan, Claudia Wells, Elisabeth Shue

Certificate: PG Running Time: Approx 343 minutes

A couple of weeks ago now I decided to do a 'Top Five Movie Moments' post for the original Back to the Future, and in order to do 'research' for this I thought it was best to watch it again. This was of course just an excuse to... well, watch it again! It must be one of my top ten most watched films of all time already, and was also one of the first films I watched many times along with Star Wars and No Retreat, No Surrender. Unsurprisingly therefore, I enjoyed it immensely this time as well. So much so, in fact, that I ended up watching the sequels too, which I rarely do as they never quite did it for me the way the original does. I mean, I enjoy them for the most part, but more because I get to spend more time with the great characters from the first film rather than them being great films in their own right. I suppose they are at least good films, they just pay the price for being sequels to a far greater film. Anyway, however possibly-foolish this opinion may be, I figured I might as well make a brief post here about them here! To that end, I present:

Film Review #117

Birds of Prey (2020)
Director: Cathy Yan Starring: Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, Ewan McGregor, Chris Messina, Ella Jay Basco, Ali Wong

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 109 Minutes

Tagline: "Mind Over Mayhem"

Many moviegoers found DC's Suicide Squad to be rather whiffy, myself included, but with one exception - namely, Margot Robbie and her great performance as The Joker's main squeeze, Harley Quinn. Also like me, many were hoping to see more of her, but in a better film; perhaps a solo film where the focus would be (even more) on her. Happily, it didn't take long for just such a film to be announced. It may not have been called Harley Quinn: The Movie but the emphasis was without doubt on the loopy psychiatrist with the dazzling ass this time, although she wouldn't be on her own by any means. As even I know, the 'Birds of Prey' of the title are an all-female group of superheroes but, to my admittedly limited knowledge regarding the comicbook world, they don't count Ms. Quinn among their members, so I was a little confused as to the format this film would take. Birds vs Quinn, perhaps?

TV Shows #22 - Part 1

The Boys Season One (2019)
Developed By: Eric Kripke
Starring: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Elisabeth Shue, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Kapon, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell

Certificate: 18 Running Time: 55-66 Minutes per Episode, 8 Episodes

Tagline: "Never Meet Your Heroes"

One of the positives (or indeed negatives depending on how you feel about the subject) of the enormous popularity of TV/film comic-book adaptations over recent years is the vast range of source material that can and is being plundered for our viewing pleasure, including some that many of us probably hadn't even heard of before. The Boys is a great example of this. I certainly didn't know of it until Amazon unveiled it as the latest of their 'originals'. It is a fairly recent example though. Originally created in comic form by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson and released between 2006 and 2012, it's set in the real world (mainly the US) and is, as far as I know, the first realistic look at what a world with superheroes might really be like. The result wasn't remotely surprising either, considering what our society has become.

Film Review #113

Ad Astra (2019)
Director: James Gray Starring: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland, Donnie Keshawarz, Sean Blakemore

Certificate: 12A Running Time: 124 Minutes

Tagline: "The Answers We Seek Are Just Outside Our Reach"

It's a good time right now to be a sci-fi fan. There are several great TV shows on the go and high-profile films seem to be popping up more regularly than I can last remember. One particular example I've been waiting patiently-but-eagerly for is Ad Astra. It's an original story written by director James Gray along with Ethan Gross and is set in our planet's near future. It's a time when we've developed sufficiently advanced technology, in particular a new propulsion type, to have explored and colonised our solar system, but no further. The existence of alien life is still a question that remains unanswered and one man in particular is obsessed with finding an answer - famed astronaut H. Clifford McBride (Jones) who, 29 years prior to the events of the film, is sent by SpaceCom (U.S. Space Command) to Neptune in command of the Lima Project with the job of finding out if anyone else is out there.

Star Trek #14

Voyager Favourite Episodes - Season Seven

Great Scott, it sure has been a while since I did one of these! If fact, it has been so long I've had to rewatch the whole of Voyager's seventh season in order to make my selections! As I now recall, it was a pretty good final season for Janeway and Co too, though the fifth season remains the best I think. Nonetheless, I had to leave out a couple of episodes I really like in addition to the ploppier offerings.

B'Elanna and Tom prepare for the race...

Unsurprisingly, we start the season with the conclusion to Unimatrix Zero, a two-parter about a virtual reality place where Borg get to hang out as individuals. In another splendid Seven episode, she finds her life is at risk when her cortical implants start to malfunction. We also get to be dazzled by Tuvok's investigative skills following some mysterious attacks on ex-Maquis members of the crew, while the Doctor is kidnapped and forced to work in a poorly-equipped hospital. We also get an interesting episode where Tom and B'Elanna enter the new Delta Flyer in a space race (look at their fancy race suits!). Must be tempting to just shoot everyone in front of you though! The bumbling Lieutenant Barclay also returns, albeit in holographic (and less bumbly) form, to party with the crew and help get them home. Or does he? And in a rather amusing episode, the Doctor gets Seven all hot and bothered when he gets uploaded into her implants and makes her horny (snigger!).

Film Review #108

Bumblebee (2018)
Director: Travis Knight Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg, Jr, John Ortiz, Jason Drucker, Pamela Adlon, Dylan O'Brien, Angela Bassett, Justin Theroux

Certificate: 12A Running Time: 114 Minutes

Tagline: "Every adventure has a beginning"

Like many 80's kids, I was very excited when I heard Michael Bay was making a Transformers film back in the mid-2000's. As it turned out, also like many 80's kids, I was distinctly underwhelmed and didn't even bother watching its sequels after hearing virtually unanimous vitriol directed towards them. However, announced around the time the fifth film in the series was in the cinema was Bumblebee which was, surprisingly, being touted as a reboot. Whatever they decided to call it though, I wasn't really interested in watching it back then. After all, Transformers films suck - that was, by this point, the rule. But then, reports began to surface that it was, in fact, not crap. Could it be true? Well, Michael Bay didn't direct it so there was at least a chance. Could there really be a Transformers film that doesn't suck ass?

Top Five Princess Leias

Those of you around my age will very likely have had at least some Star Wars figures lying around your bedrooms when you were growing up, specifically those from the range of 90-ish figures released by Kenner. I certainly have fond memories of them, even if I never quite managed to collect them all, and one character whose figures I seem to remember better than most is the lovely Princess Leia Organa.

This could be because she was one of my first crushes (especially after seeing Return of the Jedi - snigger!), even if none of her numerous figures really looked like her. Not that any plastic figure would be capable of capturing her beauty anyway (simper)! So here's a largely-pointless look at my five favourite Leia-guises and comparisons with the equivalent Kenner figures. Long may her illustrious hotness live on :)

5. Bespin Leia

The first chance Leia had to get out of her skanky Hoth outfit, have a shower, and enjoy a change of clothes, resulted in this arrangement, possibly chosen by the charming/slimy (delete as appropriate) Lando. I was never the biggest fan of this look, worn during her stay in Cloud City, but hey - it's still Leia!

PS4 Purchases #5

No Man's Sky by Hello Games (2016)

Despite having posted about most of my recent PS4 acquisitions, I'm still rather behind on posting about the earlier ones, so I thought I'd go right back to the beginning with this one. As long time readers may know, I was ultra-excited about No Man's Sky - the promo blurb and screenshots made it seem like a game that would appeal to me enormously, but as it turned out, it failed completely to live up to its promises. I still wanted to try it anyway but at the time of its release I didn't have a PS4 and my PC apparently wasn't capable of running that version, so I missed out. Upon unexpectedly getting a PS4, however, it was one of the first titles to pop into my head. Supposedly it was superior to the PC version anway, and after buying Driveclub with my new console, the next purchase I made was this one.

Film Review #104

Suicide Squad (2016)
Director: David Ayer Starring: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Scott Eastwood, Cara Delevingne, Karen Fukuhara, Adam Beach

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 123 Minutes

Tagline: "Justice has a bad side."

For their first two 'cinematic universe' movies, DC wisely chose to focus on their two best known characters, but this third offering is a bit different. It features a cast of characters that will probably be mostly unknown to non-comic buffs (like me), and that's a pretty brave move considering how many options they must've had. The characters in question are basically a bunch of the ghastliest supervillains being held in supermax prisons around the US. Rather than waste their 'talents' in squalid 7x12-foot prison cells however, government agency A.R.G.U.S. (kind of like DC's equivalent of Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D. I believe) feels they could be put to better use as a special task force - the creatively named Task Force X no less - to be used under strict supervision to tackle threats beyond the abilities of the normal agencies. I'm not sure how sensible that sounds but it apparently made a pretty great comic-book series!

TV Shows #16 - Part 2

Wayward Pines Season Two (2016)
Developed By: Chad Hodge Starring: Jason Patric, Nimrat Kaur, Josh Helman, Tom Stevens, Kacey Rohl, Hope Davis, Djimon Hounsou, Charlie Tahan, Shannyn Sossamon, Tim Griffin, Melissa Leo, Carla Gugino, Toby Jones

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 42-44 Minutes per Episode, 10 Episodes

Tagline: "Who shall inherit the earth?"

Even though the first season was expected to be the only season, and despite it ending with what could be considered a (fairly) satisfactory conclusion, a second season of Wayward Pines did nonetheless stagger into view eventually. As we discovered around the middle of the first season, the shocking truth mentioned by Sheriff Pope was indeed 'worse than anything we could imagine', or worse than the poor old residents of the town could imagine at least - namely, that it's now the year 4028 and the human race is all but extinct, having evolved (or devolved?) into snarling carnivores with sharp claws and fangs known as 'abbies' (short for aberrations) who now run rampant over, presumably, the entire planet.

TV Shows #16 - Part 1

Wayward Pines Season One (2015)
Developed By: Chad Hodge Starring: Matt Dillon, Carla Gugino, Toby Jones, Shannyn Sossamon, Reed Diamond, Tim Griffin, Charlie Tahan, Juliette Lewis, Melissa Leo, Terrence Howard, Hope Davis

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 42-44 Minutes per Episode, 10 Episodes

Tagline: "A place to die for."

With some TV shows it can take a lot to secure your interest but with others it's incredibly simple. This was the case, for me at least, with Wayward Pines. It's based on a trilogy of novels by Blake Crouch and also bears the name of M. Night Shyamalan heavily on promotional material who was indeed involved in the project to bring the novels to our screens, acting as executive producer and also directing the first episode. That already made it sound promising and I wouldn't have blamed myself for being pulled in by that superb cast either, but it was actually just a brief 10 second synopsis that did the trick. I can't remember exactly what it was now, oddly enough, but it was something along the lines of "Guy wakes up in some weird town and is unable to leave again" and that does kind of sum up the show, or the first half of the first season anyway.