Bevvy Hills Cop

With the "sequel" just out (there were many sequels), I decided to check out the original first.

It's a classic (well, classic now) start with Foley doing a deal, the police chase him... and he turns out to be a cop! Wow! That's been used to much now! Heading home after the failed bust (theme tune count: 1), there's an old friend waiting for him, but after some banter, he gets taken out, and Foley decides to look into the case... in Beverly Hills, that's where he wants to be! He Axel's his way into a hotel and later into the bad guy's lair (theme tune count: 2), and yes, it's obvious this is the bad guy. He's arrested by the local cops (theme tune count: 3), and meets the other buddy cops. After banana'ing their car, he heads to the warehouse (theme tune count: 4) where he finds the plot. He gets the minions to do his paperwork, but that scene goes nowhere. He swaps out buddy cops for a second pair, tails the bad guy (theme tune count: 5) but is arrested again. Axel gets all the cops together, explains the plot, barely gets one buddy cop on side, and goes back to the warehouse (theme tune count: 6) where the token woman of the movie gets kidnapped. They all head to the bad guy's place to rescue her (theme tune count: 7) where they have a full on 80s gun fight. The bad guys gets shot, and fortunately everything turns out all right, huzzah!

Most people remember Eddie Murphy (of course) and Judge Reinhold, but we also have Ronny Cox, Steven Berkoff, Jonathan Banks, Bronson Pinchot, Paul Reiser, and one Damon Wayans. And a full on soundtrack of 80s hits that would overflow a CD.

Still enjoyable, even today, it's a fun movie where even the bumbling cops aren't terrible. I'm going to jump over all those other sequels and go straigh to the Netflix movie...

And I'm not sure I caught all instances of the theme tune, but you know it:

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Doctor Who Exhibition

We had a Doctor Who Exhibition come to town, so of course I had to go! While there certainly were props from the show (and I took lots of photos), this was also a chance for them to get into various bits of science, and about a 1/3 of the things were science related, with maybe a Doctor Who link.

They did get Mark Gatiss to do some host segments, and Zoe Wannamaker to do a Cassandra cameo, so that's nice.

There was a good mix of classic and new Who stuff, with an understandable focus on the more recent series (because that would be an easier source of props).

Full collection of photos here.

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Monolith Monsters

I was listening to Hypnogoria talk about this movie in his Universal Horrors series, and it appealed to me as something to watch!

A meteor strikes down in the desert, scattering black rock around. It seems harmless enough until someone gets a sample wet, and then the stone grows until it falls down, shatters, spreading more of it. And people become petrified by it. Geologist Dave Miller gets onto it, but can he work out what is causing it? And more importantly, how to stop it? And then it rains...

This is a cracking wee adventure. No bug eyed monsters or enlargened insects, just some "natural" events happening. It's only 77 minutes, but it keeps up the pace and is better than many a movie one could name today.

It's probably due to what I've been consuming recently, but this could have easily been a Doctor Who adventure, of the Third Doctor and UNIT. This would be right up their alley.

Some times, the oldies are goodies.

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Furry Osha

No, I didn't see it in the theaters, but it already has come out on VOD!

There was one overriding motive for Furiosa in the previous movie, and here we find out how that all started. And it's a long road (sic) to get from here to there. We see the five stages of grief (probably, I'm sure someone made that analogy), as young CGI Anya Taylor-Joy goes into non-CGI Anya Taylor-Joy... and it's a story of killing one man because of a life she made.

And yes, let's be honest, this looks fantastic! George Miller knows what he is doing, of course, so it's all very stunning to look at. Although... *looks around warily* the story is a bit on the basic side. Not that this needs to be Shakespeare, but we get the basic idea, and that's all there is.

ATJ is ... I'm just going to go with fine. She sits, and stares, and that's about the extent of it. Chris Hemsworth is having fun. Tom Burke is decent, but rather one-note.

Overall.. yeah, it's fine. People have already raved enough about this, and more will. But... to me, it's just fine.

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Generic Train Shuttle Robot Toy...

As a kid, I had an Astrotrain. Great 'bot. Is it the size of a train? The size of a shuttle? Who cares! But that was then... and this is now. Where knock off versions are available!

Who's the mean machine in grey and green.. er, purple?

Could you, would you, fight him as a train?

Could you, would you fight him as a plane? (okay, a shuttle, but that doesn't rhyme as well).

Well, he'd fight a Dalek for ya!

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Eyeph

Was this a John Krasinski vanity project or a Ryan Reynolds vanity project? Why not both!

While dealing with her dad in hospital a young girl (she's 12... is she a kid? is she a young adult? the movie goes back and forth depending on the emotion of the scene) finds some Imaginary Friends and tries to help them. Which no-one questions what's going on, or why this young girl suddenly turns up all over the place.

John Krasinski is in total sweet mode here, being the dad as well as writer and director (the mum dying was pretty much telegraphed during the opening montage, so I wasn't surprised she didn't make it). Ryan Reynolds is very much trying to be a kid friendly star here, with lots of slapstick and schtick to have something he can show kids that isn't just him swearing... and nearly does it. Cailey Fleming has the star role and she's fine.

And there's, of course, a whole slew of big names as voices of the IFs, because recording lines in a booth is pretty easy work in comparison. And let's have a shout out for the CGI crew that put everything together for the screen.

It's fine, but it's no Drop Dead Fred... and yeah, I saw the twist coming a mile away...

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Wonky

It was there, so I watched it.

Timothée Chalamet is a chap in a purple jacket that can bend the laws of reality around him, and we're supposed to be amazed when he ends up in a wash house. Which isn't a problem, but there's this Chocolate Cartel and corrupt cops because of course there are (although there is only one corrupt cop, who becomes fat, because as we all know people in fat suits are funny!). But everything is fine, because the secret is it was the friends we made along the way.

This is a twee movie. But it is American twee... which means it's not a good twee. Even though this is English. Certainly there are a lot of big English names in this, Olivia Colman, Paterson Joseph, Rowan Atkinson, Simon Farnaby, Charlotte Ritchie, and of course Hugh Grant in an abomniable CGI performance. And Keegan-Michael Key for the USians. Great names, great actors, what the heck are they doing in this? Cashing an easy paycheck, hopefully.

It looks all right, quite pretty... and there are the songs.. I don't mind the songs themselves, but I don't like being teased with Pure Imagination every five minutes. Get your own music!

But after all this.... hopefully we won't get the Wonkaverse now?

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