Wizards of the Lost Kingdom (1985)

 

Simon is the son and student of Wulfrik, the court wizard in the idyllic kingdom of Axeholme. But this peaceful life is not to last. Egged on by the treacherous queen Udea, the evil sorcerer Shurka murders the king and imprisons his daughter, Aura. Like the king, Wulfric is slain in the coup d'etat. But before he dies, he manages to teleport Simon, whom he also gives a powerful magical ring, out of the castle.

Unfortunately, Simon loses the ring during his escape, and so his quest to save the kingdom and rescue Princess Aura must seemingly rely only on his own (rather limited) magical prowess and on the combat skills of Kor, a warrior Simon meets soon after his escape.

As Simon and Kur begin the long journey back to the castle, they will face dangers including insectoid monsters sent by Shurka, a family of cyclopses with a grudge against Kor, and wicked practitioners of black magic.

Rarely has a film's promotional imagery, such as the picture above, made so many promises the movie has no intention of fulfilling.

I saw this film back in the late 80s, and remembered it as being "pretty bad". On the re-watch, it emerged that my memories were egregiously rose-tinted, because this is several orders worse than that.

The film's list of flaws can be boiled down to a fairly short list. One item, in fact:

• Everything

But while absolutely true, that list's not very informative, so let's drive in a little deeper and explore some of the most egregious issues.

Starting with the biggest: the production was a mess, on every front.  Writer Ed Naha later recalled "When they whittled it down to what was useful from the footage, it only ran 58 minutes".  This was obviously not enough for a feature film, but producer Roger Corman, master of cost-saving antics, had a simple solution: yank a bunch of footage from some of his earlier films (primarily Sorceress and Deathstalker) and edit them in wherever they would fit.  The fact that Wizards of the Lost Kingdom was clearly pitched at a family-friendly PG rating, and those earlier movies had both been R-rated 'sex and violence' fests would not be allowed to stand in the way.  The resulting unsubtle padding stands out jarringly in both visual style and tone.  The main sequences have a deliberate orientation toward a slapstick, PG rated, kid friendly adventure, with lots of silly pratfalls and other comedy tropes ... and then there are the inserted scenes that are much more grim and intense.

The script also has some nonsensical moments, perhaps as a result of the clumsy editing job. For instance, ultimately Shurka and Queen Udea turn on one another. Shurka magically binds her and is going to kill her. But then he doesn't and wanders off instead. So a servant rescues her ... and then they both follow Shurka. On meeting him, they ... stare at him for a bit. And then he kills them after all. What was that all about? Except possibly "adding another minute to the run time"?

Another production failure occurs with the creature costumes. For instance Simon has a big furry friend/pet (how intelligent it is isn't really clear) named Gulfax. If you imagine Chewbacca, if Chewbacca was modelled after an overweight white poodle, you've got some idea of the overall look. As Simon's pretty much constant companion, Gulfax is in a lot of shots: and in every single one of them, it is patently clear that the performer inside the costume has almost now ability to actually do anything.

The other monster costumes are no better.

The problems certainly don't end there: Wizards of the Lost Kingdom has some of the worst action staging I have seen in some time, and the acting is not much better. It is a failure on pretty much every front ... except the commercial, that is. It did well enough on video that Corman produced a sequel a few years later.

I recommend you let this kingdom remain lost.

Welcome to Wrexham, Season 1 (2022)

 

Founded in 1864, Wrexham A.F.C. is the third oldest professional association football (soccer) club in the world.  Though based in Wrexham, Wales the club plays in the much more competitive - and financially demanding - English leagues.  

During the 1960s and 1970s Wrexham enjoyed considerable success.  But following a series of poor seasons on the field, and financial difficulties in the back office, the club tumbled from the second tier of English football to the fifth; putting it outside the fully professional bounds of the "Football League".  In English soccer, you see, as in many association football leagues around the world, there are not just many levels of competition, but clubs that succeed or fail move up or down in those levels.  Moving up means more prestige, more money and more pressure.  Going down means less prestige, less money ... and perhaps even more pressure!

In 2011, in the face of liquidation, the club's supporters formed a Trust that purchased the ailing club to keep it functioning.  However the club's coffers were never very full and the financial impact of the 2020 COVID lockdowns left Wrexham A.F.C.'s existence in once more in real danger.

And then, in September 2020, Hollywood actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds announced their intention to buy the club.

Welcome to Wrexham is the tale of that unlikely purchase, and of the even more unlikely love story between two Hollywood outsiders and the passionate local community that has supported the club for over 150 years.  It charts the duo's initial acquisition of the club, the completion of the 2020/21 season, and their investments toward seeing Wrexham A.F.C. promoted out of the fifth tier of English football and into the fourth; a promotion challenge commonly considered the most difficult in the English system.

In the process, the show explores Welsh identity, the community of Wrexham itself, the lives of the club's fans and personnel, and the vicissitudes of fate both on and off the pitch.  While in the process I felt it sometimes lays on the efforts at humour a little too thick, it's mostly a very engaging and seemingly authentic depiction of events, and does a good job of giving you an insight into the thoughts and lives of the people involved.

I also appreciated that that show frankly addressed the problem of football hooliganism and the security issues when holding matches.  This is not at all a positive aspect of the game, and the show does not shy away from that fact.

If you actively dislike sports (particularly soccer) Welcome to Wrexham is probably not going to change your mind, but for anyone with even a neutral attitude to the game, it's an entertaining and engaging watch. You may well find yourself becoming strongly invested in the fortunes of the club.  Particularly since this is all real: however 'fairy tale' the idea of two famous actors buying a struggling club might be, this is the real world, and football is a cruel game.  A triumphant finish cannot be guaranteed.

Werewolf by Night (2022)

 

Monsters stalk the shadows of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Hunters stalk those monsters.

For years, the leader of these Hunters has been Ulysses Bloodstone, but with his death, the position is now open.  Five experienced monster hunters, including a man named Jack Russell, are summoned by Ulysses' widow, Verussa, to Bloodstone Manor. There, they are instructed to participate in a competitive hunt to determine their new leader, who will wield the powerful Bloodstone. Gate-crashing this competition is Ulysses' estranged daughter Elsa, who - despite Verussa's clear hostility - also demands the right to compete for the Bloodstone.

The hunt begins in a large maze on the grounds of the manor, with a captured monster that has been implanted with the Bloodstone as the hunters' quarry.  Kill the creature, retrieve the Bloodstone, become the boss.

It all seems very straightforward, except that not everyone at the hunt is there for the reasons they pretend ...

This Marvel special presentation is a one-hour one-shot that draws a lot of inspiration from - and includes a lot of references toward - the Universal Films monster movies of the 1930s and 1940s.  As an aging, long time film geek, I enjoyed and appreciated these elements.  I do wonder how of it they will translate for a younger, more casual audience.  While I think that Werewolf by Night is entertaining on its own merits, I do wonder if people will be confused by some design choices when they don't have the context of those (now nearly 90-year old!) films.

The most obvious design choice coming from this inspiration is that the show is filmed almost entirely in black and white.  I think it's a good choice.  It looks great overall, with lots of excellent shadow work.  It also allows the show to really highlight the Bloodstone, which is left a bright ruby red and thus really stands out in the footage.  It also allows the final coda of the film to be in colour, providing a nice contrast to the gloomy proceedings that preceded it.

It turns out that Werewolf by Night is as much Elsa Bloodstone's story as it is that of the titular character. Elsa is played by Laura Donnelly, who was one of the two best things about Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands (Ed Speelers was the other, thanks to actually having a character arc to work with).  I hope we will see more of her in the wider MCU - possibly in the upcoming Blade movie?  I certainly don't intend to take anything away from the rest of the cast in this, though - everyone does a good job.

Overall, this is a howling good time.

The Wilds, Season 2 (2022)

 

After an apparent plane crash, seven young women spent fifty days on a deserted island before being rescued. As we continue to learn more about the trials they faced on the island, the group much face the truth that their 'rescue' is merely the next stage of a strange (improbable and unethical) social experiment. They - and the group of young men who went through a parallel experience - must now decide how to respond to the fact that they are still, essentially, captives of a murky conspiracy.

In my review of the first season of The Wilds, I observed that it ran the risk of falling into the "Lost trap" of seeing an intriguing premise squandered in aimless water-treading plotlines.  It turns out that this second season is a smidgen disappointing after the highly effective opening series, but not for that particular reason.  Instead, The Wilds stumbles into a different problem: plot developments that take its already far-fetched premise and stretch my suspension of disbelief to snapping point.

As an example, there was literally a moment in this season where my wife said "I think [plot point will happen]", and my reply was "That makes no sense.  I think they will, too." ... and yes, they did it, and it made exactly zero sense and actually had zero relevance since it never came up again.  Nor will it now ever come up, as the show has been cancelled by Amazon and will never see a season 3.

Despite the storyline getting very silly and over the top, I am disappointed by the show's cancellation.  The cast - including the numerous new young male actors - are excellent.  And scripts do a pretty good job of handling what is ultimately a large expansion of the cast: we have nearly twice as many major characters in this season as in the first.

I think there was a very high possibility that a third season of The Wilds would have gone horribly off the rails and been very disappointing, but it could also have been great.  It's a shame we won't find out.

I look forward to seeing the cast in their future projects - they are, as I said, all very good.

The Wilds, Season 1 (2020)

 

A group of young women depart for an empowerment retreat in Hawai'i, but their plane develops engine failure.  As it plunges toward the ocean, they all black out, awakening later either on the shoreline of a small island, or in the water close by.  The small group of strangers must now try to survive until rescue can find them.

We learn all of this in flashback, as the young women are questioned by the authorities about their ordeal.  These question-and-answer sessions also reveal more about the survivors' lives before they arrived on the island.

Something else that we in the audience soon learn is that the young women don't know the whole story of their experience, and that there is much more going on here than they might realise.

The basic setup of The Wilds is almost certainly going to bring to mind Lost.  Both shows focus on a group of strangers who crash onto an island with secrets, and both also focus the story as much on their lives before the crash as after.

Lost, of course, has become something of a by-word for "intriguing premise squandered in aimless water-treading plotlines".  Whether The Wilds has a better plan for developing its scenario is yet to be seen, but I thoroughly enjoyed these first ten episodes, so it is off to a good start.

A key component of the show's success is a great core cast, playing fun characters.  Each of the eight crash survivors brings their own brand of trauma and hang-ups to complicate their time on the island, while also being capable of evidencing strengths and skills that compensate.

Throwing this volatile group into the show's intriguing if implausible scenario provides for plenty of entertaining drama, a few laughs, and several genuinely emotionally difficult moments.  It's an entertaining ride.

I do worry about how The Wilds will continue to deliver twists and turns without collapsing under the weight of its own contortions; it seems to me there is a high chance of the show's plotlines becoming more and more absurd (and let's face it, it starts at "highly improbable").

I'm also concerned that about the possibility that we're ultimately going to get a "feminism gone mad!" angle to the storyline, which will definitely irritate me if it happens.

Despite these concerns, however, I definitely want to see season two.

A World of Worlds (2020)

 

When an evil warlock conquers her magical planet, Commander Sofia Hayden sets out to find the legendary "Royal Four" in order to take it back.  Travelling to Earth, she finds Eric Wilson, who may be the reincarnation of King Zahyian Crehin, and the first of the Four.  Unfortunately, Eric has no idea what she is talking about, and even less interest in being dragged into some kind of magical war.

A World of Worlds began as a series of four 'episodes', which basically covered the plot outlined above.  This 'movie' (it's actually about fifty minutes of new content, followed by the original 'episode 1' to take it up to around 75 in total) follows on from that.  I'm not going to summarise its plotline any further since whatever I write would make it sound far more coherent than the disjointed series of vignettes that actually comprise the film.

To get the basics out of the way up front: this is a bad film.  The acting varies from poor to dire.  The script mostly consists of characters yelling exposition at one another before engaging in badly choreographed fights.  Characters appear and disappear from the narrative with about as much logic as in Tommy Wiseau's The Room.  The effects are bargain basement stuff.  It ends - after only fifty minutes, remember - on a transparent cliffhanger for the next film, and is in no way a complete work on its own.  There's really nothing to recommend it as a work of entertainment.

Which is something of a shame, since as far as I can tell, this is a genuine passion project for the creator, Barry Gaines.  If you look up the full credits for A World of Worlds on IMDB, you will find Mr Gaines's name appearing no less than eight times.  He produced, directed, wrote, shot, edited and cast the film, as well as coordinating the stunts and appearing  on screen in a minor role.  He clearly worked long and hard to turn his creative vision into a sort-of film, and he has since managed to produce a sequel (A World of Worlds: Rise of the King).  I admire this dedication, and I wish it had resulted in a film I could genuinely praise.  Alas, it most definitely does not.

Wandavision (2021)

 

Newlywed superheroes Wanda Maximoff and Vision move into their new home in the small town of Westview.  But something is wrong; something to which they are oblivious.  I mean, for one thing, we last saw vision getting his head torn apart by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.  So he's very, very dead.  Also, there's the fact that their life is in black and white and has a 50s sitcom laugh track.

Welcome to the weird and wacky fever dream that is much of Wandavision, as these two super-powered lovebirds navigate dinner with the boss, neighbourhood politics, sudden parenthood and oh yeah - the fact that their world is spiralling through a series of TV's best known sitcom settings, from I Love Lucy to Bewitched and The Brady Bunch and then on to Family Ties and Full House.

The true story of what is happening here is an intriguing one, which is revealed only slowly, as we get to see more and more of what is happening outside Westview.  Secrets aplenty will be uncovered, and new villains - and heroes - revealed.  The truth is also not exactly a 'sunshine and rainbows' kind of thing, and I think that the fact that it is revealed through the lens of sitcom silliness is a genuinely very clever storytelling device.  The madcap antics and slapstick situations help balance the show, preventing it from becoming too grim without undercutting the emotional heft of what's actually happened.  Clever stuff.

It also helps, of course, that the show has a very good cast, who all do good jobs in their roles.  And then there's the weight and connectivity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe behind it, too.  WandaVision is not afraid to bring back familiar faces from the wider MCU, such as Kat Dennings's well liked Darcy Lewis - frequently the most entertaining person in the first two Thor films - and to trust that its audience are sufficiently familiar with the wider setting that they'll get that little thrill of recognition from realisations like "Oh! This is the grown up version of the little girl from Captain Marvel!".

Even if you don't have that thrill though, the show still works.  My wife is a casual fan of the MCU, enjoying most of the films and shows as we watch them but not at all familiar with the comics or really paying attention to 'oh this is that person from a movie they made ten years ago', and she enjoyed this.

Another solid MCU offering.  I look forward to seeing how the repercussions play out in future films and TV shows.

We Can Be Heroes (2020)

 

When Earth is threatened by an alien spaceship, no-one is much concerned. Miracle Guy will handle it. When it turns out to be an entire alien armada ... people still aren't that concerned. Earth has a whole team of superpowered heroes like Miracle Guy, "The Heroics". They can handle anything, right?

As it turns out, not so much.  More focused on their rivalries and grievances with each other than on the alien menace, the Heroics all end up isolated, outmatched and captured.

With Earth's greatest defenders out of the picture, the authorities are scrambling, locking down everything they can - including the children of the defeated Heroics.  Said children, however, are not interested in sitting in a bunker somewhere while the parents - and also the planet - are in danger.  Led by Missy Moreno, the only one among them with no powers, they break out of their secure location and take the fight to the aliens.

Robert Rodriguez is best known for violent action movies like Sin City and Once Upon A Time in Mexico, but We Can Be Heroes is actually the sixth family-friendly film he's written and directed.  Like the previous five such films, it involves kids with unusual abilities taking on a strange, often surrealistic menace.

The best of Rodriguez's family-friendly films is the first: the original Spy Kids.  I think the difference between that and this film - and all the others, for that matter - is that Spy Kids is more than just kid-friendly gags.  It's got plenty of little references and visual puns that adults can enjoy, making it genuinely a family film.

To be fair to We Can Be Heroes, it does work in a few such 'grown-up friendly' elements.  Overall though, it is definitely heavily-slanted toward a tweens-and-younger audience.  On that basis, it's a decent enough little movie, with a likeable young cast.

The Watch, Season 1 (2021)

 

In the sprawling fantasy metropolis of Ankh-Morpork, all business - including criminal business - is regulated by the guilds.  You can book a mugging for a time and place that's convenient to you, and get an official Thieves' Guild receipt for your trouble.  You can also be sure that said guild will dynamically address any unregulated crime that is committed against you.

Unsurprisingly, this means that there are few jobs in town with less prestige than being in the constabulary.  Who cares about the police when they basically can't actually enforce any laws and aren't needed to investigate any crimes?

As you might expect, this doesn't exactly make the Watch an attractive employment prospect, and it has become more or less a place of refuge for those who don't fit in anywhere else.  They're not the most prepossessing lot, but when a real life Dragon threatens the city, they may be its only hope ...

This series was inspired by the "City Watch" books from the Discworld series of fantasy novels by Terry Pratchett. Even before it came out, it provoked a hostile reaction from fans of the novels for departing too far from the books' medieval origins, delving into "punk rock" visuals, and changing or removing characters.

Personally, I'm okay with all those changes.  The punk-style visuals work okay, and the changes in character gender and details are all actually relatively okay: at least they haven't taken minority characters and made them all white dudes.  Plus the cast all work really hard to sell the roles.

Instead, my issues with The Watch are entirely about the plot.  For some reason, the writers appear to have decided to drag in elements from multiple different novels from the series - certainly at least three, possibly four or five - and in an eight episode season it's just way too much stuff.  The show's early momentum is frittered away by the constant diversions needed to jam in yet another story element, and the final two episodes are a complete mess as the writers try to juggle way more balls than they can actually handle.

Willy's Wonderland (2021)

 

When his car catches a flat tire on a remote country road, a silent drifter ends up stranded outside of Hayesville, Nevada. Local mechanic Jed Love picks him up and tows his car into town, but the drifter doesn't have enough cash to pay for the repairs, and credit cards aren't accepted.

Fortunately - or so it seems - there's a job available that would solve the drifter's problem.  All he has to do is work as a night-shift janitor at Willy's Wonderland, a once-successful abandoned family entertainment centre, in exchange for repairing his vehicle. 

Does it seem odd to you that cleaning an abandoned business is so valuable to the locals?  Well, of course it is.  The animatronic characters of Willy's Wonderland are all homicidal maniacs, and the locals keep them satiated by tossing them an annual sacrifice.  The drifter's flat tire was no accident.

The planned blood sacrifice is going to run into two complications, this year. First, there's a local teenager who is determined to see the place destroyed rather.  Second, the drifter is not an easy man to kill.

Willy's Wonderland is a decent if not exactly innovative concept.  As anyone who has seen one traumatise a child, animatronic characters can be pretty creepy.  They do after all have unblinking eyes, flappy mouths and unflinching grins.  It's not that hard to imagine them turning into pyscho-killers behind our backs.

The problem with the movie is that, having established this concept, it has absolutely nothing else to offer.  The entire thing is the same scene over and over again: 'animatronic character animates and attacks; drifter smashes it".  Adding in the teenager and her friends is presumably intended to mix things up a bit (and incidentally, to give the bad guys some victims they actually can kill), but it doesn't really work.  Which means that even at a scant 88 minutes long, including credits, Willy's Wonderland feels long and repetitive.

Fingers crossed the similarly themed Banana Splits movie does a better job of the killer animatronics concept, because this one malfunctioned.

Wynonna Earp, Season 1 (2016)

 

Wynonna Earp is the great-great-granddaughter of the legendary Wyatt Earp.  Growing up in the rural town of Purgatory, she was a notorious wild child and troublemaker, and both she and the town were pleased to part ways as soon as possible.

Now 27, Wynonna reluctantly returns to her hometown for the funeral of her uncle.  The number of people who are unequivocally happy to see her back - including Wynonna herself - is exactly one: her sister, Waverly.  The number who are very much not happy, on the other hand, is far larger.  For some this is simply that she isn't inclined to be nice to people she doesn't like - which is most people.

For some others in the town, though, the reasons for their dislike run much deeper: they are literal revenants from hell, the demonic physical forms of the spirits of the 77 outlaws Wyatt Earp killed with his legendary revolver.  And Wynonna is The Heir, the latest in the Earp bloodline to have the ability to actually send them back to Hell.

Honestly, Wynonna would prefer not to have this whole demon-fighting destiny and just leave Purgatory in the dust, but Waverly, recent arrival Deputy US Marshal Xavier Dolls, and a handsome stranger with some distinctly old-fashioned attire all seem keen for her to take on the task.  As for the revenants themselves, well ... they have plans of their own, and you can bet none of them are good news for the Earps.

Wynonna Earp is an urban fantasy series developed by Emily Andras, based on the comic book by Beau Smith.  Andras previously served as executive producer and showrunner of Lost Girl seasons 3 and 4, and there are definitely some strong similarities between the two shows.  Deeper than the fact that they are both urban fantasy shows, mind you: each features a strong, feisty brunette with a special bloodline.  Each features a strong emphasis on relationships featuring non-romantic love between women.  Each features non-heterosexual women.  Each features a female lead who is unapologetic about her own sexuality and sexual choices.

Now none of this is to say that the shows feel the same, or to suggest that they don't have their own identities.  They are definitely different in many of their details, and Wynonna's sexuality (and cleavage) is not so central as Beau's in Lost Girl.

If you did like Lost Girl, though, you should definitely at least give this one a look.  It's a fun urban fantasy show with smart, capable - but definitely not infallible - main characters, and it doesn't take itself too seriously.

 

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

 

More than sixty years after the events of the first Wonder Woman film, Diana of Themiscyra still yearns for the man she lost in 1918.  In between bouts of wistfully remembering him, she's working at Smithsonian as an expert in antiquities and moonlighting as a costumed superhero.  When she thwarts a robbery at a jewellery store, it turns out said store was a front for an antiquities smuggling ring.  The FBI asks the Smithsonian to identify the smuggled artefacts and one item in particular comes to the attention of both Diana and her new colleague, the socially awkward geologist Barbara Minerva.

This artefact also comes to the attention of glitzy, charming "entrepeneur" (actually, grifter) Maxwell Lord.  The financial house of cards that is Lord's "business" is about to collapse, and - this being a comic book movie - his plan to rescue it is to gain control of a magical artefact that grants wishes.  No prizes for guessing that the item Diana and Barbara have is the very one he wants, and that actually utilising it is a very bad idea indeed.

I'm not generally a fan of DC's po-faced, grimmity-grim superhero films, finding them dour and dull.  So the first Wonder Woman was a nice surprise package for me, and I was hopeful that this sequel would also prove an entertaining watch.

Alas, it's a disappointing.  I lay the blame for this heavily on the writing, which makes a wide variety of mistakes, starting with the contrivance of Diana still being all hung up on Steve Trevor, six decades after his death.  Yes, it let them get Chris Pine back.  Yes, it thematically ties into the "get what your wish" thread of the plot.  It is nonetheless very ham-handedly done, and leads to some questionable behaviour by the main characters.  Also, maybe don't make the most important thing in a woman's life be the man she knew for a few months a literal lifetime ago.  

"Very ham-handedly done" is something of a recurring issue, in fact.  The script mishandles almost everything.  Vital plot elements are hand-waved in without any foreshadowing or grace.  The pacing is wonky, with overly drawn-out special effects sequences that achieve no narrative point.  But most of all, the emotional beats are both over-the-top and undercooked at the same time.  They're very loudly communicated, but not given time to breathe.  It's like the movie is shouting the cliff notes of the script it should have had.  "DIANA IS SAD!  DIANA IS HAPPY!  EVERYTHING IS AWFUL!  EVERYTHING IS OKAY NOW!"

The cast work hard, and it's just about watchable as a result, but ultimately, this film is a significant misfire.

We Are Lady Parts, Season 1 (2021)

 

Amina would probably describe herself as a pretty conventional British Muslim woman.  She is sincerely but not fanatically devout, dresses conservatively, and is attempting to find a suitable life partner through the auspices of a Muslim-specific dating app.

About the only thing Amina does that's a little unconventional is teach guitar to kids.  When her young charges experience a severe case of stage-fright, she agrees to accompany them to ease their nerces.  Though only from off-stage, as to appear in front of an audience would be immodest.

Of course, an accident ensues and Amina's secret playing is discovered.  But that actually proves to be as much an opportunity as a humiliation, because in the audience on the day is Saira, the leader and lead singer of "Lady Parts" a punk band comprised entirely of Muslim women.  Lady Parts desperately need a lead guitarist, and Saira is convinced that Amina is exactly the person they need for the job.

The other members of the band, and Amina herself, are less convinced.

We Are Lady Parts is a fun comedy about finding yourself, your voice, and possibly even your passion.  It's got a great cast and it rolls along as a nice clip.  It's perhaps not especially ground-breaking in its themes, but its choice of point of view characters is a fairly novel one in western media and helps it feel fresh.  At six roughly half-hour episodes, it also doesn't draw out its storyline, and it ends with a rousing finale.

Recommended.

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

 

In 1987, Jordan Belfort lands a job as a Wall Street stockbroker. He is a quick convert to the sex-and-drug-fuelled stockbroker culture and the cynical ethos that a broker's only goal is to make money for himself. When then he loses his job following Black Monday, the largest one-day stock market drop in history, which you would think might bring an end to that.

You'd think wrong.  Belfort and takes a job at a boiler room brokerage firm on Long Island that specializes in penny stocks, and rapidly realises that this end of the market is more or less completely unregulated.  Through deeply unethical business practices, he's soon raked in enough cash to set up his own brokerage firm, giving it the 'respectable sounding' name of Stratton Oakmont.

Now his own boss, Belfort is able to expand the size and scope of his unethical trading practices.  Even an expose by Forbes magazine doesn't dent his success: on the contrary, it brings a host of greedy, equally unethical brokers to his door, looking for work.

For most of the 1990s, Belfort's wild ride of drugs, sex and illegal deals spins on in ever more extravagant manner.  Of course, that also means it is getting more and more out of control, and eventually - eventually - the authorities are sure to come knocking.

Jordan Belfort is a real person, and The Wolf of Wall Street is based on real events.  It's anchored by a charismatic performance from Leonardo di Caprio and a whole lot of nudity.  This latter is a big factor in what I consider the film's key flaw: it's glamourising of Belford and his lifestyle.  In the real world, Belfort's criminal activities destroyed people's lives.  The movie very much treats this as 'suckers deserve what they get'.  The very real costs of Belfort's life of fancy cars and sex with models are not depicted, and there's no effort to engage with - or even acknowledge - the misogynistic underpinnings of that lifestyle.  Women in Belfort's life were just another commodity to be traded, used and discarded.

This is a technically well-made film, but I wish it didn't feel so much like it thinks Belfort is a cool guy, sticking it to the man.

The Whole Nine Yards (2000)

Nicholas "Oz" Oseransky (Matthew Perry) is a mild-mannered American dentist who lives in Canada with his deeply unpleasant wife and her equally unpleasant mother.  Despite frequent vocal suggestions from his assistant Jill that he 'ditch the bitch', Oz feels trapped by his financial debts and personal commitments.

Things become rather more complicated when a new neighbour moves in next door and Oz recognises the man as Jimmy 'The Tulip' Tudeski, a former hitman for the mob who turned informer against his boss.

The mob has a big bounty on Jimmy's head, and - after 'The Tulip' refuses to whack her husband for her - Oz's wife demands that Oz travel to Chicago and try to cash in.  Oz pretends to comply, travelling to Chicago with no intention of following through, but the mob have no intention of letting go of any chance at revenge on Jimmy Tudeski.  Oz quickly finds himself way out of his depth, desperately struggling to not get killed while also not betray all of his principles.

Oh, and there's the little matter of meeting the woman of his dreams while all this is going on.

The Whole Nine Yards is (despite the number of people killed in it) a light and breezy crime comedy. It's not a complex movie: the plot's pretty simple and straightforward and most of the humour derives from Matthew Perry's Chandler-esque flailing at the outrageous situation in which he finds himself.  But it's certainly not a hard time to spend ninety minutes with this cast, who are all competent and seem to be enjoying their roles. Amanda Peet, as Oz's assistant Jill, is particularly fun.  

Anti Matter (2016)

Ana is an advanced student at Oxford University when she stumbles across a strange phenomenon in her scientific research.  Working with her close friend Nate and, more reluctantly, with their mutual acquaintance Liv, she comes to the realisation that she has stumbled across a means of instantaneous teleportation!

Obviously this is a potentially world-altering discovery, but there are some barriers.  Principally, the computing power required to handle the necessary calculations to transport anything larger than a hairclip.  That's where Liv comes in: she's a skilled programmer, and she's able to develop a worm that leaches a tiny bit of processing power from millions of computers across the world.  With this resource, the trio can teleport first larger inanimate objects, then small animals like a caterpillar and a mouse.

When the worm is discovered, however, and a security patch announced to delete it, Ana and her colleagues decide to plunge forward with their final, most vital test: a human trial.  And that's when things start to get weird ...

Anti Matter (AKA Worm) is a film of small budget but considerably larger ambition.  It's refreshingly well acted and well shot for an independent film, and the script concept is an interesting one, though perhaps the run time is a little long: cutting 10 or 15 minutes would probably have helped.

Check it out if you're in the mood for some more thoughtful SF.

Extinction (2015)

When a zombie apocalypse sweeps the planet, old friends Jack and Patrick, as well as Jack's baby daughter Lu, are among the few survivors.  Jack's wife, alas, doesn't make it.

Nine years later, Jack and Patrick live in neighbouring houses in the tiny town of Harmony.  Their properties are separated by a chain-link fence, and Lu is living with Patrick, whom she believes to be her biological father.  As the film will (eventually, glacially) reveal, Jack became an alcoholic after his wife was killed, and neglected his daughter.  Patrick took her away and has raised her as his own ever since.

The one positive thing is that they haven't seen a zombie in years.  Possibly the undead were wiped out by the ice age that seems to have swept the planet?

Actually, no they weren't, they've just evolved into a new form, white-skinned, blind and possessed of hyper-sensitive hearing.  How dead things can evolve, how this can happen in a mere nine years, or why there was any need for them to be zombies in the first place, and not scary spindly monsters all along, are all questions for which the film will offer no answers.

Anyway, eventually the new monsters turn up, and then a new character arrives to explain things to Jack and Patrick, and there's finally some action to enliven things, but it's very much too little too late.  It's a shame, because the main cast here are all capable of solid work and I'd be interested to see them in something with a bit more oomph to it.

Fate: Winx Saga, Season 1 (2020)

 
Bloom has always felt awkward and alienated, even more-so than for a typical teenager.  When a furious argument with her mother leads to Bloom psychically igniting their home, and Bloom discovers she is a fire fairy, secretly dumped on unsuspecting human parents whose own daughter had died, it becomes clear that there were good reasons for that sense of disconnection from her life and peers.

The Fairy authorities enrol Bloom in Alfea College, where she can learn to control her powers and not accidentally burn things down any more (her human parents think she won a scholarship in Switzerland).

Adjusting to Fairy life is not entirely easy for Bloom.  Not all the other students are welcoming, the school authorities seem very evasive about the subject of Bloom's real parentage, and there are murderous 'Burned Ones' in the woods that surround the campus.  On the other hand, some of the other students are welcoming, including this one cute boy ...

Much like Riverdale is a sexified version of the wholesome Archie comics, Fate: Winx Saga is a grittier, naughty words and violence re-envisioning of early 2000s cartoon Winx Club, with secrets and conspiracies and murders, oh my. 

The original Winx Club.  Apparently big-heeled sandals were a thing in the mid-noughties

If you're looking for a brief and fast-moving urban fantasy fix, Fate: Winx Saga may provide the sudsy supernatural shenanigans you're seeking.

Warehouse 13, Season 5 (2014)

After five years of hunting artefacts with strange and dangerous powers, the Warehouse 13 team rolls into this final season facing - yet again - the destruction of everything they have worked to preserve.  I wonder if they will manage to eke out a win from this apparently hopeless situation?

Well, of course they will, or season five would be even shorter than it actually is.  Because after the 50%-longer-than-normal season four, this final series is only half the length of the others, with a paltry six episodes.  Apparently this was the result of falling ratings after the show was shifted to a later timeslot, though I do wonder if the ratings had started to slip anyway: season four was a bit of a slog at times.

This season on the other hand, isn't long enough to become a slog.  That's not to say that the shortened run doesn't create other problems, of course.  There's definitely a strong tonal whiplash as the show goes from start-of-season-crisis to two episodes that are utterly goofy to end-of-season-crisis without any kind of buffer between them.  It all feels very rushed.

Also feeling very rushed is the entirely unnecessary and frankly rather disappointing romantic pairing of two characters.  Seriously, if your only plan for having a couple form is to have everyone keep telling them they're in love with each other until they give up and agree, maybe just don't go that route?

Despite these issues, this last hurrah from the Warehouse team is generally low key fun, and if you've stuck with it this long, I don't see any major reason not to follow it to the end.

Warehouse 13, Season 4 (2012)

Season 3 of Warehouse 13 ended with a major "all is woe" cliffhanger, so as you might expect, this season kicks off with the warehouse team employing desperate measures to correct the situation.  They succeed in this, of course - there wouldn't be much of a show if they did not! - but such drastic actions carry their own adverse side-effects that will soon force them all to confront a whole new series of threats.  And will confronting those threats lead to new dangers?  Well of course it will!  The Warehouse - it's like a perpetual motion machine for trouble!

This is the longest single series of Warehouse 13, with two major plot arcs running through it; one leading into the mid-season "the world is doomed" cliffhanger and one leading into the end of season "the world is doomed" cliffhanger.

... you may be noticing something of a theme with how this show likes to punctuate its major plots.

You may also notice something of a "guest stars from other genre shows" thing going with the show, too.  There's been a fair bit of that already, mind you, with the Eureka crossovers and guest spots from at least three different Star Trek actors, but this season hits a whole new gear on this front.

Despite the repetition of certain story beats, season four of Warehouse 13 is I think a stronger offering than the previous series (just as season 2 was a step up from season 1, come to think of it).  Hopefully this down-up-down-up pattern won't continue with another down for the fifth and final series.

If light adventure genre TV is in your wheelhouse, you will probably find yourself entertained here.