Star Fleet (1980)

When a powerful alien fleet sweeps into the solar system in 2999 and promptly smashes aside the military forces stationed on Pluto, humanity's only hope is the secret X-Bomber project.  Three of the best and brightest cadets from the Space Academy are sent to crew the vessel, even as the aliens approach Earth and begin issuing demands that Earth hand over "Eff Zero One".

If anyone had any idea what that was, maybe we would, but since the alien commander refuses to believe in human ignorance, it seems that a mighty interplanetary battle is imminent.

I have fond memories of this Japanese marionette show from my early childhood.  Watching it as an adult dims the lustre of those kid-sized, rose-tinted glasses a little.  The script is often very hokey and it is filled with people being uncommunicative and mysterious for no good reason. Also, having two clip show episodes in your single season is a bit cheeky (though not as cheeky as the original Japanese broadcast, which had three).

And yet ... I am still fond of it, and suspect that if you go into it willing to accept its flaws, you might enjoy it, too.  For one thing, the visual design is neat.  Yes, the X-Bomber itself owes a lot to Star Wars, but the aliens and their ships mostly have this neat insectoid thing going on (except their capital vessels, which remind me of catfish).

Yes, that is a centipede on his face

Plus there's the Dai-X, a giant robot that assembles, Voltron-style out of three spaceships.  This is a guy in a suit, of course, who rampages through scale models of alien planets, smashing stuff like a mechanical Godzilla.  It warms the heart of my inner eight year old.

And then there's the music.  Oh my, the cheesy, synth-tastic pop anthem style music.  It is gloriously over the top.  Particularly the end credits theme.  How gloriously over the top are we talking?  Brian frickin' May did a cover of it, that's how gloriously over the top it is.

This has ALL the earworms.  You have been warned.

Major Dundee (1965)

While the American Civil War rages, Apache warriors raid a homestead, killing most of the people there and abducting three young boys.  Though it's not his job or responsibility, Major Amos Dundee, the commander of a local army prison decides to put together an expedition to track the Apache, kill their leader, and recover the boys.

Dundee's motivations for this expedition are not altruistic.  He's resentful over being relegated to his current role, and is gambling that success will make his superiors forget the sins that got him assigned to it in the first place.  His gamble faces fairly serious challenge though: he has nowhere near enough men in his garrison to actually do it.

His solution?  To take volunteers from the pickpockets, thieves and Confederate soldiers that are the inmates of his facility (interestingly, recruitment of Confederate troops to fight native groups is something that actually happened in real life).  Of course, this is a movie so that can't be complication enough: it also just happens that the most senior Confederate officer in the camp is an old friend, and now bitter rival, of Dundee's.

Production on Major Dundee was notoriously troubled, and the film sank badly at the box office upon release.  I think that's a shame, as the performances are strong and director Sam Peckinpah (who would later go on to fame with The Wild Bunch and Straw Fogs) has an eye for great visuals, particularly in the outdoor scenes.  Still, it's easy to see that the final film is a compromise and patchwork affair, with a wonky sense of pace and subplots that don't really seem to develop as they were intended.  Tonally, it's also not likely to be to all tastes: the central characters are not very nice people, and don't behave like they are.

A flawed but interesting film, worth checking out if you are interested in Peckinpah's career, or in westerns that try to break out of the standard mould.

The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970)

Nearly fifty years before The Tudors introduced modern audiences to a sexy, sensationalistic account of Henry VIII's political and romantic escapades (and also alerted us all to just how good Natalie Dormer is at this acting thing), the BBC rolled out a mini-series of six telemovies, each focusing on one of the (unfortunate) brides of this frankly odious man.

Australian actor Keith Michell plays Henry in the series, and by virtue of being front and centre in every episode, carries by far the lion's share of the weight of the performance.  Fortunately, he is more than up to the challenge, portraying the petulant and tempestuous monarch with just the right blend of bombast and vulnerability.  You're probably not going to like his Henry very much (and nor should you, to my mind), but he gives the role enough dimension that you can see why in his youth he was considered to have great potential as a man and King.

As far as the rest of the production goes, all the leading women (a different one in each film, obviously, since there's a new wife each time) give good performances.  There is a very "stage-like" feel to the whole thing thanks in large part to what was obviously a very constrained budget.  There are very few scenes set outside, the interior sets see a lot of re-use, and in lieu of crowd scenes there are often sequences that are tightly shot on the leads, with them looking off-screen at the (non-existent) crowd around them.

As you might expect, the tone and pace (and content!) is much more sedate than that of The Tudors, and it is overall significantly less likely to embellish the commonly accepted history of events.  The major exception to this is in its depiction of Anne of Cleves, though I must say I rather like the decision to make her a clever, self-assured woman who recognises that marriage to Henry will be miserable and cajoles him into thinking it is his idea that they get an annulment and she goes to live a comfortable life in the English countryside.

If you've an interest in the period and want something a bit more cerebral (and family friendly) than The Tudors, this may well suit your needs.

The Devil's Machine (2019)

Antique expert Brendon Cole is hired to authenticate a 200-year-old clockwork mannequin known as "the Infernal Princess".  The Princess is reputed to be cursed; the young woman on whom it was based died shortly after its creation, and numerous other people who knew her or were close to her family went on to suffer grisly or suspicious deaths.

Not that talk of curses worries Brendon.  He doesn't believe in them.  Heck, he doesn't even believe there really was an "Infernal Princess", or that this is it if there were.  Which is probably why he feels entirely safe bringing his step-daughter Rose with him on the assignment.

Suffice it to say, Brendon definitely doesn't know as much as he thinks he does, and what he doesn't know can hurt both him and Rose ...

The Devil's Machine (or Automata, as it was titled when I first heard about it) is a Kickstarter project that I originally backed in April 2018 and which recently delivered.  It probably profits from the fact that I'm writing this review a few days after I watched it, and in the meantime I've seen a film that reminds me of just how bad low budget indie fare can be.  Which means that I really feel I should note that this film is competently lit, shot and performed (at least by the two main cast members - some of the secondary performers aren't so good).  When you're dealing with the end of the industry where $150,000 on Kickstarter makes a difference, these are by no means certain things.

Note that this doesn't actually mean I would recommend the film.  You see, although it's competently made from a technical perspective, and offers a potentially interesting if not especially novel premise, it felt to me that the script rather lost its way: first because it suddenly has a massive info dump that basically reveals the whole hinted-at backstory in one rather turgid lump, and then it plays lots of "what is real?" games that feel more like padding than anything else.

Also there's a running theme of (step-)father/daughter sexual tension that might be a bit uncomfortable for some viewers.

The Venture Bros., Season 3 (2008)

The dysfunctional Venture family and their motley collection of friends and colleagues - and even more motley collection of enemies - are back for another thirteen episodes of anarchic adventure, ranging from dealing with lycanthropic, hairy crocodile creatures to the horrors (expected and otherwise) of running a summer camp for boys.

One of the interesting things about The Venture Bros. is that despite the surrealist nature of its setting, the frequently bizarre dysfunctions of its characters, and the many times an episode relies on "here's something that happened thirty years ago in that we never mentioned before", it maintains a solid continuity and sense of cause and effect as you watch it.  Things that have happened in prior episodes stay happened and have repercussions down the track.  Often wild and silly repercussions, because this a wild and silly show, but repercussions that nonetheless conform to the admittedly oddball parameters of the setting. 

Will you like season 3 of The Venture Bros.?  Well, if you liked seasons 1 and 2, then almost certainly.  It's very much more in the same mould, though the (slowly) changing status quo that comes from retaining and building on prior events helps keep it from feeling like it is nothing more than a retread of the earlier stuff.  If you aren't a fan, though, it's not going to change your mind.

Fast & Furious (2009)

Some time after the events of the first two films in the franchise, but before those of Tokyo Drift, Dominic Toretto and his girlfriend Letty are boosting petrol tankers via crazy high speed hi-jinks (crazy high speed hi-jinks being the raison d'être of the entire series, after all).

Being a man and therefore stupid, Dom decides that as the authorities are really gunning for him, it is too dangerous for him and Letty to remain together, and walks out in the middle of the night. Surprise surprise, this backfires horribly, and Letty ends up dead (spoiler: she gets better in a later film).  Dom goes on the warpath to find her killers, who just happen to also be the criminal gang that Brian O'Conner is trying to catch.  Bromance and car chases will doubtless ensue.

Fast & Furious appears to be the point where the franchise creators started to accept that they were basically making superhero movies, only everyone's superpower is "fast cars".  It ramps the stunts up to 11 on a 1-10 scale (later movies will need entirely new scales) and goes all in on the pedal to the metal action.  And also on the booty, because the camera in this film sure does love it some lady butts.

This is a silly, schlocky movie with a paint by numbers main narrative, that is carried along by the casual charisma of the main cast and the frenetic pace of its action sequences.  And I'm perfectly okay with that.  If you're looking for some 'switch your brain off' easy action entertainment, Fast & Furious delivers in style.

M*A*S*H, Season 2 (1973)

The men and women of the 4077th MASH unit are still in Korea; still dealing with the frequent floods of injured from the ongoing conflict, with the biting cold and howling winds, and with the frictions and foibles that arise of being stuck in enforced proximity to people you don't necessarily like.

Remembered today as an iconic giant of television history, M*A*S*H actually got off to quite a slow start, only rising to wide popularity in this second season.  And honestly, I think there is a reason for that: this season is significantly better than the first.  The comedy is better judged and targeted; less mean-spirited in general and even a smidge less sexist (it's still pretty sexist, though: this was made nearly fifty years ago, and "he's cheating on his wife!" was apparently considered deeply hilarious back then).  Heck, the writers even manage to slip in some "racism and homophobia are bad" moments.  A lot more of the former than the latter, it is true, but a positively-depicted homosexual character in a mainstream comedy - even as a one episode guest spot - is still a fairly noteworthy thing in 1973.

There are still better episodes and worse episodes of course; not every installment of this season is an unmitigated winner; but the overall tone and quality is in my opinion an easy notch or two higher than season one.  I'd call out "5 0'Clock Charlie", "Carry on Hawkeye", "For Want of a Boot" and "George" as some of the highlights of the 24 offerings here.

Darkman (1990)

When attorney Julie Hastings discovers an incriminating document that proves her employer has been bribing members of the zoning commission, he explains to her that it was necessary to ensure the renewal of the city, and warns that her possession of the memorandum is dangerous, because mobster Robert Durant also wants the document.

Unfortunately, this warning comes to late for Julie's boyfriend, Dr. Peyton Westlake (an oh my god so young Liam Neeson).  Peyton is working on a new type of synthetic skin to help burn victims when Durant and his cronies burst into his lab, beat him up, steal the memorandum, and then blow the place sky high.  The good doctor's ear is the only part of him found at the site and he is announced dead.  Of course, we the audience know that the other 99% of him went flying into the river.

Some time later, a doctor delivers a long lecture that is basically a massive exposition dump to justify why the John Doe at her facility is superhumanly strong and almost impervious to pain.  Obviously, this is Peyton, who has been hideously scarred from the explosion, but who - with the aid of the still unstable synthetic skin he has developed - will now begin a one man war of revenge on Durant and all his friends.

Darkman is a bad film.  The story is weak; the dialogue histrionic and overwrought.  And while the make-up effects aren't bad, but almost all of the others have dated poorly (but then, it was made for less than half the cost of the previous year's Batman).  Despite all those issues, its clumsy but earnest enthusiasm for its comic book genre makes me want to like it, but unfortunately Sam Raimi would need another decade or so years before he would finally make a superhero film really work on screen, with 2002's Spider-man.

Want a second opinion?  Comics writer Peter David has much more eloquently dissected the film than I ever could, right here.

The Walking Dead, Season 1 (2010)

Deputy Rick Grimes is shot in the course of action and lapses into a coma.  When he awakens some weeks or months later, it is to find a world transformed.  The hospital is ruined and empty, with one wing barred off with the warning "Do not open; dead inside".  The things behind the door growl and slather with hunger.

Yep, it's a zombie apocalypse, and so far, so 28 Days Later (though let's be honest, a certain book by John Wyndham is the real patient zero here).  Fortunately, at least in this first season, Grimes is a much more engaging protagonist than the one from Danny Boyle's film, and he's given a larger and more interesting group of other survivors with whom to interact.

And of course I am writing this in 2019, when The Walking Dead is in production for its tenth season, and is nearly as much of a cultural touchstone as that show with the dragons, so you're probably at least passingly familiar with what it is all about, and may well already have opinions about whether the show is worth watching.

For what it's worth, my opinion is that this opening season, which runs a scant six episodes, is worth a look if the whole zombie thing is at all in your wheelhouse.  It's true that the undead are a bit over-exposed by now - and if you are familiar with the zombie genre but a newcomer to this specific show it might feel like it's re-treading some well-worn paths.  But let's face it, The Walking Dead can justly claim a big chunk of the credit for the plethora of zombie media floating around these days, and it didn't become as big a deal as it did without bringing something to the (flesh eating dinner) table.