Stold Corage

It's a horror! It's a comedy! It's a horror comedy!

NASA sent some organisms up into space, and when the ship went to pieces, some pieces came down, and the organism was different. Fortunately, it was contained in time, and stored away, but hey, line items, costs, gotta sell off properties, and the storage unit becomes... a storage unit. And then the alarm goes off that the something special has been released, and minimum wage stooges and retired military figures need to stop the fungus from spreading more.

Basically, this is the common trope of "what if virus got out of hand" with a couple of extra steps in the set up. It's... fine. It's based on a book, and I can't imagine the book is that much more exciting. The horror is mainly around the effects of the fungus on the body, and the comedy is... that no-one is really treating this seriously? Yeah, it's not really going with a lot of jokes, just a light tone.

We have Joe Keery, who isn't exactly escaping the Stranger Things line of being in weird sci-fi things. Liam Neeson is trying to play "gruff military guy" who gets jokes by undercutting things with a tough tone. And Georgina Campbell is also in this movie.

It's just... fine.

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Long Waaaaaalk

We've had first King, but what about second King?

It's another dystopian future where in order to make money you need to do something stupid for the public. It starts out fine... but it gets grim. When you know what happens after three warnings, and you know the game is on until there is only "one left", then... 

This is a group picture, with relying more of group dynamics that one particular hero (although we do have our hero character). But... I can't say I recognise any of them. Indeed, I didn't even know who played the Major until I looked him up.

Let's be honest, I would be dead before even making mile 1. But I wouldn't be picked. But something else that would be different these days... why just men? There are plenty of women who could out walk these men (although they wouldn't be able to pee so easily).

This is just a bleak movie that gets worse. And one of the worse things is this is nearly two hours!

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Runninninninng Man

He's a man. He runs. Checks out.

Hey, dystopia, we don't know what that's like... but in this one, when you can't get a job, you go on tv and do something stupid. Like get hunted for 30 days to win money so you can afford medicine for your baby. But it's all good... for the network. You die? Ratings. You live? Even more ratings. And no-one wins the full 30 days, what sort of man could do that? Not with the network in control.

Well, you can't accuse this movie of subtlety. This is a terrible thing happening to people? Yep, just outright state all that. Still, the movie looks good, so Edgar Wright has that going for him, if not much else as this is not a deep picture like others he's done. But, hey, it's Stephen King, so you do what you can.

Glen Powell is fine, and... it's William H Macy, Lee Pace, Michael Cera, and even Joss Brolin. Only small parts, but names enough, and the rest of the cast is fine as well.

If we ignore the story, this is a good movie... if we ignore the story.

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Best Maddy Album?

I watched this Zebra Charts video about Madonna and it made me wonder... how well did the albums do? So this means... statistics!

First of all, I'm just going for the main albums, no compilations, no part contributions, with the one exception being I'm Breathless, which is all Madonna songs. Then I'm looking at the US Billboard Top 200 albums for the album rank, and for each released single the US Billboard Top 100. (Not all songs have a listing there, especially in the latter albums, so I do wonder if I should be looking at something else.)

And all numbers based on what Wikipaedia has, so I'm assuming they are accurate.

I looked at: how many songs did the album have (first release, no special add ons), what rank did that album get, how many singles were released, of those how many got to Top 10, and how many got to Top 1.

We can look at percentages of singles that got top, and all that, but it's pretty clear... True Blue is the winner! So she peaked in 1986... well, it does have my two favourite songs of hers... Huh.

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Blak Phon 2

Sequel? Don't need it... let's do it!

The kids from the first movie (I assume, I can't remember) are called, via dreams, out to the lake where it just so happens that a) their mom was there, and b) the Grabber started there. They join up with the camp owners and seek out the kids who were killed there previously, to take away the Grabber's power.

From IMDB: "the sequel was not based on a specific Joe Hill story" and yeah, it shows. This movie has nothing to do and spins its wheels not doing anything. The kids "powers" (talking on the phone, having visions in dreams) are cranked up to 11 to give some excuse for having any old phone ring and to have her have weird dreams they can use to be "scary" (but not actually scary).

Why did Ethan Hawke come back for this? Did he have nothing better to do? I can't recognise the other actors from anything else, so I'm guessing they didn't. Certainly there isn't a lot of budget to splash around, the biggest effect they do is put some post processing filter on the dream segments, which is nice, but otherwise was this filmed all at a backlot? I'd believe it.

We didn't need 2, so I'm sure they'll wring a 3 out of this...

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Doc Martin

I've done it, I've seen it all!

He's a fish out of water, he's a doctor is a small town village... that could describe a lot of series, but in this case it is Doc Martin, starring Martin Clunes. Who is kinda based on the character in the two tv movies, which was based on the character from the even earlier tv movie... but they couldn't spin up a tv series with that character (who is far too chill) and made him more uptight.

This is ten seasons, however as this is British tv, these are around eight episodes per, which the US wouldn't hit for several years. Often at the end of each season he is no longer able to be the village doctor... and then in the next season they work out how he can doctor again. Also I watched the beginning of each season wondering who came back. There was a big break after four seasons where several main characters don't return, so they quickly slot some other characters into those positions. (Oh, he gets another inexperienced secretary... oh, he has another aunt!)

There is definite character change, but more to the other characters than him. He does get married and has children, but still remains uptight and outspoken and with a bloodphobia (although the last episode quickly tries to pivot that to something else).

With Martin Clunes we get Ian McNeice, Stephanie Cole, and Katherine Parkinson (who is competent with computers... what?). Aside from those known, we get Caroline Catz, Joe Absolom, Selina Cadell, John Marquez, Jessica Random, and who turns out to be the absolutely lovely Eileen Atkins. And cameos from Ben Miller, Jeff Rawle, Chris O'Dowd, Louise Jameson, Caroline Quentin, Sigourney Weaver (!), and Rupert Graves, amongst others.

The reason I went into this is because there is now a US reboot, Best Medicine. The pilot episode is pretty much the same. There are different stories in there, but again some borrowed plots (such as one involving the doctor's father... who is played here by Martin Clunes!). But because this is a tv series in this current year, it's just ten episodes. Ah well, something else they got from the UK!

A fun wee series, ends on a Christmas episode. Definitely rewatchable!

 

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Bone Temple is Ready!

Some period of 28 later, the companion film!

The Jimmys are a bunch of complete a-holes, at least the lead Jimmy is and everyone else follows his lead. Alternatively, Ralph Fiennes is nearly naked and gets drugged up with the lead zombie. Eventually their paths cross, and it can only go one way, especially as we know how things are heading from the last movie.

Despite this being close to the previous movie, I can barely remember any of it, so much so that I wasn't sure if Spike was from it or not. The two main plots proceed pretty much as you expect, so much so that I was thinking it was retreading stuff from the previous movie. Although I watched it one my main screen, I may not have picked up on everything.

Ralph is fine, and the rest of the cast is decent, and... it's a well made film. But I am probably not giving it the justice it deserves.

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