Angel: The Magic Bullet

"I've been so alone, so scared. I'm not like you. I'm not a champion."

The first few minutes of this episode are deeply effective; an old fashioned, happy LA with a prominent ‘50s car and a Beach Boys soundtrack. It all looks idyllic- until we see that Fred is being chased and is lucky to escape. Winifred Burkle, alone, against not only her friend but a city that is slowly becoming a hive mind, where everyone is the eyes and ears for Jasmine. Things seem hopeless, but despite the quote above Fred is a hero.

This is the episode that shows what a completely Jasmine-controlled LA is like, with the hotel crammed full of worshippers and a terrifying, stultifying conformity that is bad enough before we even start asking about the people Jasmine seems to take to her room. And when Connor asks where they went she simply says “I ate them”. She can do whatever the hell she wants and is clearly evil.

I like the interlude with the hand-eating demon, butvthe sheer hopeless drives Fred to seemingly surrender- only to shoot Angel Through Jasmine, thereby mixing their bloods and reversing the spell. It’s clever, she’s clever, and she and Angel are able to do what’s necessary for the plot and free the minds of the whole gang. Yes, it’s a stretch that the blood of Cordelia, comatose mother of the goddess  (what about Charisma Carpenter?) will do the same thing, butbthe rpisode gets awY with it, and is a bloody well-crafted 42 minutes of television.

It’s depressingly predictable, of course, that Connor should betray them even after they’ve seen the light. What are we going to do with that boy?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Empty Places

"I keep waiting for my other senses to improve 50%. That'll kick in any day now."

The end is nigh, and after six previous seasons we know that the narrative requires a wedge between the Scoobies in afvance of the final battle. We’ve already seen a bit of this with the ongoing estrangement between Buffy and Giles, but the end of this episode sees this sort of thing taken to its devastating extreme, with Buffy being kicked out of her own home by her own sister.

It’s made very clear that things are dire. There’s a mass exodus from Sunnyvale, including Clem. School is closed. No one has any way of fighting back against the horrible misogynistic Caleb, whose dialogue is horrifying and who represents an acting triumph from the great Nathan Fillion.

There’s a little humour early on, yes, with Anya’s lecture which ends up with Andrew writing “break-up sex on the board, but otherwise things are unrelentingly grim. Thevdull teality of Xander losing an eye really hits home; it’s devastating to see Willow about to cry when Xander makes a quip about being spared Jaws 3-D, and Xander simply saying “Please don’t.”

Morale is rock bottom, and Faith’s attempt to cheer up the troops by taking them to the Bronze goes horribly wrong. The police are carefully stated to be “Hellmouthed” and shown to be brutal and corrupt so that we root for Faith against them. Fair enough. But I still expect her to return to prison when this is all over. As we established long ago, slayers are no better than other people and shouldn’t have privileged status.

Faith and Robin seem to connect. And Spike and Andrew go off on a mission that may provide useful knowledge against Caleb. But things are miserable, especially after Xander Returns with that horrible injury. So the response to Buffy’s plan- to attack the Vineyard again because it’s obviously important- meets a negative response from even those closest to her. Buffy doesn’t help herself by saying the wrong things; slayers are no better than other people. It’s a hard hitting ending, but Buffy gets the last word, pointing out that Faith now has to cope with the burden of leadership.

Angel: Shiny Happy People

"Even before you were born, I chose you to be my father."

Just as with two seasons ago, with the adventures on Pylea, the status quo has changed utterly for the last few episodes, with the baby of Cordelia (asleep all episode) and Connor turning out to be Jasmine, a good-nature’s paragon of virtue and a goddess whom everyone feels the urge to worship, including our heroes, who under her leadership swiftly free LA from all the vampires and demons which are oppressing it. Or is she?

This episode feels weird; first Angel and Connor fall under her spell, returning to the hotel to the horror of their friends, with Wesley trying to convince them they’ve been manipulated. Yet, as soon as Jasmine arrives, they all drop to their knees. It’s deeply disconcerting, as well as unusual to see Gina Torres (Firefly has just been cancelled) in a part like this.

Of course, a chink in her armour soon appears as just one of many worshippers suddenly shouts that she is a “monster” and “deserves to die”. This is rationalised as hate... until Fred randomly sees Jasmi’s probable true face, with maggots everywhere. This breaks the spell for her and she ends up on the run, the only person in the whole city not under Jasmine’s spell. Yep; finally we get a situation in which Fred is unambiguously the hero. The scene in which first Wesley and then the whole gang turns against her is chilling.

This episode consists mainly of set up and establishing a new status quo, so it’s best, I think, to reserve judgement for now. But yet again we see why Angel, with no status quo that can ever be relied upon, is indeed the televisual equivalent of Chris Claremont’s run on X-Men. And that is high praise indeed.

Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell to Earth

“Sorry. Half an hour ago I was a white haired Scotsman...”

No opening title sequence. No reprise of the regeneration. Just the above line, some interesting dialogue about the process of adapting to a new persona, and Peter Capaldi’s clothes. Those aside, we have only the perennials of the programme to guide us into what does indeed look very much like, ahem, a “jumping on point”.

We’ve had few spoilers and an incredible vagueness in publicity; personally, I’ve never known less about a new season of Doctor Who. I mean, beyond next week we don’t even know the episode titles. We know to expect easier-to-follow storytelling and no old monsters for this season, but that's it.

So what did we get? Well, I'm impressed. Chibnall's stuff has been variable in the past to say the least, as least with Who (I haven't seen any Broadchurch but will remedy that very, very soon, trust me), but here he nails it. A simple plot (a policy aim, I understand; I yield to no one in my Moffat fanboyishness but even I will accept that his complex plotting, brilliant though it is, is wont to drive away the kids), likeable characters in Ryan- a decent kid held back by his dyspraxia; Yasmin, his old school friend and now rookie copper; and Graham, his cancer survivor step-grandad- and of course his Nan, who dies heartbreakingly by falling off a pylon thingy while saving the day. Such a very Tom way to die, as we old fans know, and the culmination of some very good writing to get us (and the new Doctor, of whom more in a bit) to like these four (soon to be three) new friends.

The whole thing looks amazing, indeed cinematic, although there is perhaps a darkness to the visuals which isn't necessarily there in the script. I can't deny that the direction is superb; I can, however, worry that the veering towards a horror film style may drive away younger viewers as surely as complex plots. That shot of the baddie with teeth all over his face terrified Mrs Llamastrangler.

And Jodie Whittaker? She is, simply, the Doctor. Her every line, her every act, is Doctorishness incarnate.She's superb. There's nothing more to it than that. The fact that she happens to be this or that gender is completely and utterly meh. It's interesting that, a token short period of unconsciousness and lots of exposition about how she's still forming aside (and that nice subtle touch of the little bit of regeneration energy) she's up and running and active and Doctoring from the start, much as Matt Smith, and is very much the more broadly Doctorish type- a Tom, or a Tennant, or a Troughton rather than one of the irascible ones. But we shall see.

Interesting that we start without a TARDIS- it appears that this will be resolved next episode, along with an explanation as to what happened; fortunately the Doctor ends up,with the dead alien's transmat thingy in order to get her to the necessary planet. Along with Yasmin, Ran and Graham. Oops. We also get a new sonic screwdriver, "now with added Sheffield steel", a very Sheffield feel with some awesome shots of the Peak District, a traditional debut episode confrontation scene, and a joyous new costume scene. Overall this is an impressive new debut to the new era and the new Doctor. And Chibnall? He done good, and his strong point seems to be characters over plot. Let's hope that being able to create everything to his liking continues to play to his strengths. For now, though, I'm excited.

Love the theme tune and closing sequence too- very Tom, but very modern.

Batman Returns (1992)

"I'm tired of wearing masks."

I haven't seen this since 1992, at the old Cannon cinema in Hinckley. I don't much remember what I thought of it then, but I like it a lot now. It doesn't quite beat its predecessor for me (sorry, Nick!)- it doesn't quite have the depth, visual elegance or Batman screentime- but Tim Burton leaves the franchise with two superb films under his utility belt.

Batman’s lack of screen time here is a surprise- Batman and Bruce Wayne are little more than a plot function here, with Michael Keaton not given much interesting stuff to do, especially as compared with the first film. But then we must remember that this isn’t primarily a franchise film but a Tim Burton film; the film is about the Penguin and Catwoman.

Interestingly, though, neither of the two traditional villains are wholly evil; that accolade goes to the splendidly named Max Shrek, a corrupt and morally depraved businessman whose Nosferatu-inspired name fits well with the film’s aesthetic for Gotham. He’s the catalyst for Catwoman. Selina Kyle, a downtrodden and humiliated secretary, single, alone and browbeaten by all and sundry, finds out stuff she shouldn’t and is thrown out of a high window, losing the first of her nine lives, and something snaps. At first it looks as though there’s a bit of a feminist message here, especially as Catwoman’s first outing is to rescue a woman from a man in a dark alley, but this doesn’t go anywhere. Still, Michelle Pfeiffer is pretty good and the kinky latex costume and whip looks cool- although it sort of takes over from the whole cat thing. Still, an impressive treatment of the character.

The treatment of Danny DeVito’s Penguin is much more radical; this Oswald Cobblepot grew up in the sewers, abandoned, and the only cigarette holder to be seen is that of his father, glimpsed early on. The umbrellas and monocle are present and correct, but this is a much more feral Penguin, no angel but genuinely vulnerable, and bordering even on likeable if he were not so lecherous.

These characters are fascinating, and what the film  is about, much more so than Batman or even Gotham. This is notably much more of a Tim Burton film and less of a Batman film than its predecessor, and the respective values you place on those two categories will probably decide which of the two you prefer. Personally, I may like this one less but it is nonetheless superb.

Psycho (1960)

"We all go a little mad sometimes..."

Wow. This film is a bit good, innit?

I suppose what strikes me, aside from the sheer power of the shower scene and the suddenly artier camerawork with  Marion’s corpse, something which is profoundly effective- and brave, doing something so arty in a film pitched at such a mainstream audience.

But the genius of the film isn’t limited to individual scenes or shots, or indeed to the gloriously radical decision of killing off what we’re implicitly told is the main protagonist halfway through. No; it’s the masterful code-switching between parts of the film which feel like ordinary drama and parts which ramp up the tension and unease- and the sheer mastery of switching between them.

This is a Hitchcock film, of course; you expect tension. Janet Leigh is superb, and carries the film, in thosezearly scenes where she’s on the run and evading the ever-present police. But once we reach the Bates Motel, the mood changes- or rather, it doesn’t, at least not immediately. The excellent Anthony Perkins comes across as lonely, weak, a little dorky perhaps, but he feels normal at first, and we (and Marion) feel at ease.

And then we don’t.

The sudden switch where Marion says the wrong thing to Norman- about putting his mother away- is deeply effective, and that’s certainly down to the performance but also down to the direction; suddenly the entire visual grammar of the film changes and the way the camera is used- the very thing that controls our sense of reality- suddenly becomes uncomfortable, unnerving. And stats that way whenever Hitchcock wants it to.

What lingers, though, is that extraordinary final shot of Bates looking as scary, through sheer acting, as anything in all of cinema. Superb.

High Noon (1952)

"I've got to.That's the whole thing."

It's been far too long since I did a classic western so, well, here's one. And let's not beat about the bush; it's a superb piece of cinema about one man who chooses to stand and fight even though no one else will. It's been said (interestingly given the story behind it) that this is an allegory for McCarthyism but it stands as a monument to non-conformity of all kinds- as well as those perennial Western values and doing the right thing no matter what the potential cost.

Gary Cooper looks old as Will Kane but, oddly enough, this works; Will is retiring as marshal on the day of his wedding to his young bride (and weddings in the old West seem crap; in the morning, no music, no booze...!) until he hears that a killer he once put away is returning to terrorise the town- and kill him. So Will turns around and the clock starts ticking- literally: we constantly see clocks and the film runs down in near real time until the arrival of the baddie by train at noon. And Gary Cooper looks ever more old, tired, hopeless and sweat-ridden as the minutes go by and the hope drains away. As he admits to a shockingly young Lloyd Bridges, he's scared. But he does the right thing.

And he does so alone; his new wife has seemingly abandoned him and, unexpectedly, the film consists not of action- in fact, until the last few minutes, there isn't much of this, but of slow, desperate debate as Will spends most of the film trying to get someone, anyone, to stand by him as he's stood by them. And no one does- except his wife, at the last minute, after she's had a good talking to. It's a fascinating point both of the moral cowardice of the majority and the nobility of doing the right thing even, indeed especially, if no one else does.

All this is superbly shot with plenty of tension and restrained terror. This film is justly revered and makes me want to see more acclaimed westerns.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dirty Girls

"Why would Faith kill a person who studies Vulcans?"

Wow. That’s an amazingly compact but efficient “previously on” that manages to cover an awful lot of ground. I’m impressed.

Everything about this ominously serious episodes points to something shocking terrible happening. From the constant reminders of how the Potentials are untested, to Xander’s rousing speech about how Buffy cares about their lives which makes it certain that something bad will happen to him, to the atmosphere of doom and gloom, we expect something tragic to happen.

In the meantime we get introduced to the darkly misogynistic and manipulative Caleb, a superb preacher-like villain played by the ever-superb Nathan Fillion, recent refugee from Firefly. Caleb gives a face and personality to the First, somethingbthat was previously missing, and is both enormously charismatic and (as we shockingly see at the end) strong enough to swat away slayers like flies. We also have Faith’s awkward return to Sunnyvale, where under the circumstances she’s certainly welcome but doesn’t fit in. But she and Spike bond over their shared bad past, their shared kinky natures, and the revelation that they have in fact had some incredible sex in the past when Faith was pretending to be Buffy. First impressions and all that...

It’s weird, although inevitable, to see Faith and Dawn recognise each other though.

We also see Buffy and Robin reconcile, although he fires her; she has far more important things to do.  But much of the interaction concerns the wisdom of Buffy’s proposed attack on Caleb- both Giles (still in the doghouse) and Xander disagree, which I’m sure is something we will return to next episode. But we end with the assault on the First and, of course, evedything goes wrong as a redshirt Potential is killed- and Xander loses an eye.

A tensexand superb bit of telly, then, that makes it clear we’re now entering the final stretch.

Angel: Inside Out

"Guy steps out for a few hours, half the place goes supervillain."

This episode is about as much a game changer as it’s possible to be. Cordy has been exposed and confronted as the baddie and is freed to spend all of her time quite openly mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ing. Except, that is, she’s still grooming (the word gets used) and gaslighting Connor.

Ah, Connor. We’ve discussed how annoying he is before, but he creaky crosses a line here, and seems as though he’s genuinely meant to come across as an annoying little shit. Even his mother’s ghost, sent by the Powers to speak to him, are unable to get through. He’s completely under the spell of whatever’s controlling Cordelia, and goes as far as to be an accessory to the cold-blooded murder of an innocent girl. His hands are quite literally dipped in blood.

We learn a lot, too; the thing controlling Cordy has been manipulating events for a long time, including Cordy’s ascension and an awful lot of recent events. Much seems to be depressingly pre-ordained, although Gunn gets a wonderful speech about how some amount of agency still exists. Skip, of course, has always been in on it and is, in fact, evil.

We also get a big montage of how it was in fact Cordy who did all sorts of unexplained things over the course of many episodes, and Wesley comes to realise that it was her who killed Lilah. It’s moving to see the renewed friendship between Angel and Wes here as Angel cares because Wes does, a nice moment.

It all ends with a flash of light as the baby is born and turns out to be Gina Torres, getting a compensation role after the cancellation of Firefly. And everyone kneels before her. Yet another twist in a series that glories in having no status quo. This is brilliant stuff and it’s looking awfully like a rather brilliant series with not long to go.

Carry On Nurse (1959)

“The sex-mad fools!"

I never did intend to marathon the Carry On films. But here I am accidentally doing the first two in succession so I suppose I am. Just expect it to go rather slowly.

Just as with Carry On Sergeant, a film with which it shares an awful lot, this isn’t yet quite what we think of the franchise. Yes, there is a little in the way of mild double entendres but sex is actually, while important, still treated in a picture postcard and, well, 1959 way.

And it has to be said that there’s an uncomfortable scene early on where sexual assault is casually treated as comedy. This was a comedy commonplace in 1959 but is not nice to see today and, although I can never know, I like to think I would have said that before #MeToo.

There’s no justification for that sort of thing, then or now, but we can at least describe it as an isolated scene. The rest of the film is not, perhaps, quite as good as it’s predecessir and not, certainly, quite pointing to the greatness ahead, but it’s interesting. Interesting to see Kenneth Williams playing another intellectual and, rather than being at all camp, being given a heterosexual romance. Interesting to see Charles Hawtrey being given a highly visible yet rather minor role. Interesting, still, that Sid James isn’t there at all. Yet a young Joan Sims impresses in her debut, Hattie Jacques is wonderful, and Bill Owen is quite shockingly and unrecognisably young.

Still, this film is entertaining enough but never quite catches fire. Why it was the only film in the series to be successful in America is beyond me.

Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983)

“Let the heathens spill theirs
 On the dusty ground
 God shall make them pay for
 Each sperm that can’t be found.”

There’s a sketch on That Mitchell and Webb Look which shows our two eponymous writer-performers sorting out the order of sketches for their comedy sketch series, which is of course very much in the lineage of Monty Python. The joke is, of course, that they try to arrange the hits and the misses in the correct sequence so there are equal amounts of each, as every sketch show has to be hit and miss; it’s a fully fledged cliche. And one often made of this film.

Thing is, though, this criticism is somewhat dodgy. Of course the Monty Python telly series could be hit and miss; they had to fill thirteen episodes a series at the pace of telly, where union rules meant the studio lights went off at 10pm no matter what. But it’s commonly a criticism not made of The Holy Grail or The Life of Brian, both more narrative and less explicitly a series of sketches. Yet The Meaning of Life gets these criticisms full force.

But this is absolute pants. Yes, this film isn’t quite as good as the other two; I accept that. But how many individual telly episodes have this kind of hit rate? I mean, Every Sperm Is Sacred, sex education, a run of excellent war sketches, the Galaxy Song- this would have been a critical hit if it were the only Python film.

It’s also a lot more explicitly political, a sort of last hurrah for the Beyond the Fringe generation, as it gleefully skewers the church, public school, the armed forces and all sorts of upper middle class pretensions. Even Terry Gilliam’s glorious opening feature with its accountants raiding international finance on the high seas, a live action version of one of his own animations, is aimed squarely at Thatcherism. But more than that, it’s hilarious. And so is the film as a whole. So forget all this hit and miss stuff; this is classic, superb Python for the very last time.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lies My Parents Told Me

"Darling, it's who you'll always be- a limp, sentimental fool."

Yet again, as we often see this season, an episode has a title that is dnably clever, the more so the more you think about it. Parents lying to their offspring, real or symbolic, is at the heart of everything.

Plot-wise, of course, this is the heavily-signposted episode where Robin finally attempts to get revenge on Spike for his mother Nikki’s death, enabled by Giles (whose attitude is again heavily signposted), who betrays Buffy in doing so. In doing so, of course, what Robin achieves is only to finally cure Spike of the First’s trigger.

But beyond these bare facts it’s all about parents lying to their children. In flashbacks from
The 1880s we see young William reading bad poetry to his doting mother, and then again we see him newly camped by good old Drusilla, eagerly giving everlasting undead existence to his beloved mother. But then, bereft of a soul, his now evil mother says deeply wounding things to him, so effective that the First is able to use her lullaby as a trigger even today.

And yet this is, of course, a lie. Those things were not said by his mother but by a demon. That’s fairly obvious. More subtle, as Spike says, is what Nikki says to Robin; like Buffy, she is in the final analysis alonevin the decision she makes and, as per the phrase that both she and Buffy use, “the mission is what matters.” I’m sure she loved her son, but he certainly didn’t come first, and that must hurt.

Finally there’s the symbolic father/daughter relationship between Buffy and Giles, who have been particularly close lately. It’s not the first time he’s betrayed her, of course, but this time he isn’t being forced to do so, which makes it worse. Yes, he has his reasons, but he goes behind Buffy’s back and lies to her. She clearly finds this hard to forgive, as the final symbolic closing of the door shows.

All very impressive, then, even if a lot of regular characters get rather little to do. But it’s worrying that a central relationship between two of the Scoobies is seriously damaged just before what looks like the biggest armageddon yet...

Deadpool 2 (2018)

“It's a little hard to hear you with that pity dick in your mouth."

 I admit it; this sequel isn't quite as good as its predecessor. But who cares, frankly? It's awesome; witty, funny, and full of glorious violence, not least the violence done to the fourth wall. It may, shockingly, be the only film I've seen so far from this year, but I'm sure it would be a strong contender for most enjoyable film of the year in any case.

It's an action film that mocks loads of the tropes, as we'd expect, taking delight in action sequences with fancy action film camerawork and syncing them to unexpected soundtracks, and gloriously undercutting Deadpool's super-team (X-Force- ah, those halcyon Rob Liefeld days) by having almost the entire team die hilariously after a parachute jump, including Shatterstar (ha!) and the briefest ever cameo from Brad Pitt. Once again we have Colossus as the goody two shoes, once again we have (brief cameo aside) a mysterious scarcity of X-Men, and some tough but fair metatextual commentary from Wade Wilson himself ("You're so dark! Are you sure you're not from the DC Universe?"). All this plus Domino, who's rather cool. Josh Brolin may be just a little miscast as Cable, but you can't have everything. The Bond-style titles alone excuse a multitude of sins.

Of course, even better than that is the timey-wimey stuff at the end and what happens about Green Lantern and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Just bloody watch it. Unless, like me, you haven't seen Logan; spoilers abound.

Onibaba (1964)

"I've never seen anything really beautiful since the day I was born."

Mark Kermode, in his recent BBC4 documentary on cinematic genres, said that this was one of the most terrifying films ever. Having seen it, I quite agree.

Not that you'd think so, in spite of the disturbing camerawork and cinematography throughout, playing on the long grass and that deep, ancient hole; for most of its length, this film is a drama centred around but three characters, seeming almost to be a stage play if not for the cinematography and the deep, disturbing mood of the long, long grass.

The mother and daughter-in-law around whom this film centred are not named, but when their son/husband's mate arrives, back from the war, self-centred and uncaring about the death of his friends, so important to the two ladies. And yet the widowed daughter-in-law soon starts an affair with this unmannered brute, much to the profound horror of her mother in law. Oh, and, incidentally, there's a never-ending civil war (it's the 14th century), and the two ladies are killing wounded samurai and selling their stolen possessions for millet. It's war, brutal war, and morality s long gone in the desperate urge to survive. None of the characters are likeable, but the fact that much of the film has the intimacy of a stage play with its limited cast of (pretty much) three characters, none of whom are likeable but all of whom feel real and are compelling.

It's kept ambiguous whether the mask that forms the horror is supernatural or not, but that's as it should be as unease erupts into terror. This film is superb and truly horrifying.

Angel: Players

"He's just making it up as he goes along!"

To some extent this is a quiet episode with time to breathe and enjoy a mini-break from full-on arc stuff, an episode the like of which we haven't seen much lately. But it's also cleverly titled, with both episodes about people being played.

This is first and foremost a Gunn episode, as Gwen (remember her?) suddenly turns up and asks for his help in a caper that she assures him is all in a good cause. The tricks him, a little, but he still has fun, and Gwen tells him firmly that he's far more than just the muscle, as he's been recently told by a manipulative Angelus and an angry Wesley. Even better, the damsel in distress turns out to be Gwen herself and the MacGuffin that is the subject of their heist turns out to be a devise that can cut off her electric charge, at least for a while, so for the first time in her life she can have physical intimacy. And she wants that to be with Gunn.This must be a rather confidence-boosting night for Gunn, and the fact that he gets no-strings rebound sex with a rather attractive and highly intelligent virgin who has risked her life to sleep with him can't hurt either.

Meanwhile, the gang all learn that Cordy is pregnant, Connor is the father and the pregnancy is abnormally far along, all very suddenly, and are somewhat taken aback. Given this baby's heritage, I'm not surprised. Cue lots of research, including a subtle scene where Fred and Wes discuss relationships, and why he got with Lilah. They are slowly coming to understand each other.

We get lots of disturbing gaslighting scenes between Cordy and Connor, and Cordy wandering around pretending not to be evil. But, as the last scene shows, she's been played, and is caught red handed. It's quite the hook, and quite the episode.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Storyteller

"Why can't you just masturbate like the rest of us?"

We’ve just had an episode of Angel all about redemption; now it’s time for Buffy, and Andrew, to do the same. And who better to handle the required mix of comedy and serious themes than Jane Espenson?

It’s always risky to handle a character like Andrew who is, as we are forcefully reminded, a murderer,   and use him as a comic foil. It’s to Buffy’s credit that, looked at overall, they get the balance right. It’s clever to frame the episode around Andrew filming the Scoobies for a supposed documentary, to have all kinds of funny and court-wall breaking fun, but then to undercut that, as the episode does, that Andrew is simply playing the outside observer role to escape from the terrible thing he did when being active. He tells stories to his own advantage, and this is where Buffy forces him to face up to the truth.

The ending is edgy, of course, as Buffy seems about to kill him- again emphasising the hard edge she’s had of late, with the prospect of the biggest armageddon yet. And we end with the unanswered question of “What if the tears didn’t work?”

This is all cleverly mixed in with the urgent need to close that door in the cellar, of course, which is causing unsustainably enormous Hellmouth activity. This loose end is tied up, but Robin’s vengeful hatred for Spike continues. And it appears that Anya and Xander may be reconciling as they have some good sex- is this a one-off, or...?

Jane Espenson seldom disappoints. Is this her last episode? Is this the last light-hearted episode? It’s tome to ask those questions: not too long to go now.

Angel: Orpheus

“You tell me, it’s your flashback!”

Angel has been awesome over the last few episodes, so it’s quite something to say that this episode stands out as being superlative. But it does. The structure seems simple at first and is easy to grasp; Faith is dying from the mystical opiate she ingested to trick and spike Angelus, while Angelus is under a lot of tranquillisers. They share an extended flashback of Angel’s twentieth century while guest star Willow (yay- it’s fantastic to see her interacting with everyone) re-ensouls Angel while evil Cordy tries to stop her.

But of course it’s more than that. It’s about redemption; the big twist is simply that the flashback of Angel’s redemptive life is not for the benefit of Angelus, but entirely for Faith. Dying is easy; redemption is hard. But these sequences work mainly because of the coolness of Faith, and the awesomeness of Eliza Dushku. Angel will miss her, but never mind; she’s off to Sunnyvale soon.

Incidentally, I thought that crossovers has been a big no-no ever since Buffy and Angel have been on different networks. What’s changed here?

There’s a lot else going on, of course. There’s the chat between ex-baddie Willow and Wesley that puts his dark side into perspective. There’s the increasingly and worrying nature of the relationship between the manipulative Evil Cordy and young, naive Connor, which this episode extends to physical abuse and unambiguous gaslighting. The kid may be annoying, but no one deserves that. There’s ‘70s Angel, with the hair.

Then there’s the last scene, with a rather kinky looking Cordy emerging. Is she about to drop that sprog? I for one have no idea what’s about to happen, which is precisely what I love about this season.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Get It Done

“Did you know that the ancient Sumerians did not speak English?”

“They’re worse than the French...”

A subtle, interesting and quietly packed episode this time as we start out all light, fluffy and full of Whedonesque with until, suddenly, the mood completely changes with Chloe, a Potential, being found hanged after being talked to death by the first, an event which is profoundly unbearable in all sort of ways.

Even worse is Buffy’s harsh speech about everyone not pulling their weight. Which is somewhat hypocritical (as Xander implies) after her recent antics, and certainly not respectful of the dead, but seems to be the much-needed shock everyone needs, which the absent Giles’ gentler rebuke last episode seemingly wasn’t.

This is the episode where Principal Wood both gets fully introduced to the Scoobies and acquires a first name, Robin. I like him a lot as a character. He has, of course, an ulterior motive in avenging his mother against Spike, but he is genuine and his wit fits right in. It’s also showing Andrew, yet again, as a comic foil.

The main event, though, is the bag bequeathed by Robin from his mother to Buffy, which uses magic puppetry to send her to a magical evocation of the past, although not without some sudden and impressive Sumerian linguistic skills from Dawn. Here she finds the three ancient me. Who created the first Slayer and reveals the whole set-up, and implicitly the whole infrastructure of slayers and watchers, to be deeply patriarchal and to involve the violation of non-consenting young girls, a rather damning indictment which simply has to be followed up. Buffy angrily rejects their help butvis left wondering if she did the right thing, being given a glimpse of the massive army of the First, which looks just like hordes of orcs in Mordor. The stakes could not be higher.

On the plus side, Willow is also tested and manages to use magic to bring Buffy back, even if Kennedy is somewhat shocked at the power she has. But both Willow and Spike are rebuked throughout for holding back and, with the First looming, the overall impression is that “it’s not enough”.

Tron (1982)

"I took a wrong turn somewhere..."

This is a strange film to see for the first time in 2018. It’s groundbreaking. It’s unique. It’s triumphantly of its time. And it’s utter pants.

Oh, it looks great. Unreservedly so; it captures the aesthetics of 1982 vintage computer graphics with perfection but is also, importantly, good to look at and of utility foretelling the story- although characters can be hard to tell apart in cyberspace. Then there’s Jeff Bridges’ rakish charm and David Warner’s desperate baddie.

There’s ever a surprisingly metaphysical side, as the baddies dismiss programs who have faith in “users” as religious fanatics. This line of thought may not be taken very far, but it’s indisputably there. I also don’t mind the total lack of realism in showing 1982 vintage computer programming in this almost proto-cyberspace way. Realism is boring, and this is a fascinating bit of the zeitgeist two years before William Gibson writes Neuromancer.

Unfortunately, though, the script, plot and characterisation are poor, and not even a generally high standard of performance can save them. Yes, the visuals are amazing and the look of the film is justly Famous. But I’m the end what we have is a turd which has been polished to a legendary standard. No wonder the visuals are all that ever gets talked about.

Fantastic Voyage (1966)

"The antibodies will attack as if she were bacteria!"

This is a very silly film, played incredibly straight and, what’s even weirder, what looks and acts like a sci-fi B Movie is helmed by a proper Hollywood director and seemingly lavished with cash..

The performances are a cut above what you can expect from a B movie, with Donald Pleasance standing out as (spoilers) the baddie. We sort of know we’re not supposed to like Dr Michaels when he suggests that the wonders of the human body may have arisen through evolution, as confirmed many times over by empirical observation, as opposed to being a literal “miracle”.

The whole thing is surprisingly focused, with very little framing device; with the minimum of fuss a team is put into a submarine, shrunk and injected into the bloodstream of the ill man who absolutely must be cured because plot reasons. It begins quickly, ends abruptly and consists of various perils from the human body in-betweeen, with the realisation of the bloodstream, the heart and various organs being actually pretty impressive. Meanwhile there’s a bunch of fretting military types watching their progress, in scenes that must surely have inspired Airplane!

It’s all very ‘60s spy film, sent in the present day in a large government facility with massive corridors that looks like a Bond villain hideout, complete with those cool little cars. There’s only one token woman, of course, and she’s an assistant. And, er, Raquel Welch is playing a character called Cora. Yes, Cora.

But what’s extraordinary about this film is, firstly, that it actually looks pretty damn good and gets away visually with the premise, but mainly in the way it carries out the Lost art of doing something very, very silly with absolute seriousness. They don’t make them like this any more...

Angel: Release

"You made me lose my shopkeeper!"

Another gripping and desperate episode here as a badass, damaged Faith and a badass, damaged Wesley team up to hunt Angelus all the way to a vampiric opium den while competing entertainingly to see which of them is the most badass. Unexpectedly it turns out to be Wes who stabs a junkie for information and goes disturbingly intense on Faith. Ouch.

Meanwhile, Cordy is doing silly voices as the baddie whenever she's not manipulating the very teenage Connor with his silly grown-out hair (when I was his age at least I did long hair properly and, indeed, still do) and constantly mentioning that she's pregnant with a baby who seems to be growing at an abnormally fast rate.

Meanwhile Fred tries to get back together with Gunn, they kiss, and... it's still really awkward. That's awful, but what often happens when a couple split up and regret it; it can never be as though the bad stuff never happened.

We get an interesting cliffhanger, as Angelus seems about to bite Faith in the neck and sire her. This seems to cry out for a bit of a cheat resolution, but we'll see. I'm not sure how long this Angelus stuff will last, but I for one am hugely enjoying David Boreanaz's deliciously evil performances.

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

“I’ve got to do a wee first.”

It’s hard to write objectively about a film you’ve seen as many times as I’ve seen this one. I saw it at the pictures back in the day and make no bones about the fact that I love everything about it. It’s funny, it’s brilliant and I’m two years younger than Shaun; this is my generation.

Obviously the whole thing is a tribute to George Romero, with zombies standing for both consumerism and the autopilot nature of the rat race; several times Shaun gets up and gives a zombie-like yawn, and in the background of the early scenes there are many instances of blatant zombie behaviour that look normal in the context of the morning commute. This is at once very funny and making an effective point. This sort of thing punctuates the film.

But of course this is a comedy, and a very good one, the first of Edgar Wright’s trilogy featuring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and the last one of the three that I’ve blogged. It’s not so long, this being 2004, since Spaced, so it’s good that Jessica Hynes makes an appearance and indeed is the hero of another film- a nice touch; Shaun and co don’t save the world; other people do. They just want safety,  comfort and a pint until this all blows over.

The British TV comedy cast is uniformly brilliant, and both Pegg and Frost are superb. Kate Ashfield deserves praise for her performance as Kate; the straight role is often underappreciated in a comedy. There’s lots of visual comedy for which Wright deserves much credit. And the script is bloody genius- I love the moment when they’re choosing what records to throw at the zombie. And, of course, there’s the heartwarming ending. I’ve seen this film about half a dozen times and, yes, I will see it several times more.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: First Date

"Like a bidet of evil..."

Jane Espenson writes again as we get a light-hearted episode before things are clearly about to get very desperate as the First has returned from its plot-convenient mid-season hiatus. This is so obvious that Giles spends the entire episode acting as Greek chorus and bollocking everyone about not taking it all seriously enough.

So we have a light-hearted plot in which Xander gets a date with a nice girl who turns out to be nice, sort of, but also homicidally and kinkily demonic. Oh, and Buffy gets asked out on an awkward date with Principal Wood. The script seems to gloss over the power imbalance of dating one’s boss, and Willow even suggests he may be asking her out to offer a promotion without suggesting this may be in any way a bit dodgy but hey, it’s 2003.

Anyway, we slowly find out that he has a load of weapons hidden in his office, he can fight camps, knows Buffy is the Slayer and- the bombshell- is the son of a Slayer himself, orphaned at four and raised by his mum’s Watcher. It’s a compelling backstory, and soon he joins Buffy and (awkwardly) Spike in resolving the Xander plot.

However, we get quite a conclusion in which the First reveals that, as we saw in Fool for Love, his mother was killed by none other than Spike. Ouch.

Elsewhere, we finally get a rather cheaty resolution to that Giles cliffhanger, Andrew gets to prove his loyalty to the Scoobies, there’s some comedy with the Scoobies being vaguely racist to a Potential from China, and Giles is appalled that (surprise) Buffy chose to have Spike’s chip removed. It’s an excellent episode but a foreboding one.

Except... is it me or is Xander’s tirade about only ever dating evil types so Willow should turn him gay a little bit not at all ok? At least Alyson Hannigan has the sense to act appalled. But you certainly wouldn’t get a scene like this in 2018.

Friday the 13th, Part III (1982)

“How come you never scream when we have sex?"

"Give me something to scream about..."

 I've said it before, and I'll say it again because it's still very relevant; watching the Friday the 13th films after the Scream films is probably not for the best. Once you've seen all those slasher tropes deconstructed time and time again it's a little bizarre to see them played with a straight bat, as they are here. As it happens the film is well made (the hilariously unconvincing popping eyeball aside...), and probably the best so far, but still...

We get a bunch of teens headed to a cabin by the lake in the woods. We get a weird old man warning them off. People do genre unwise things like having sex, smoking dope and carrying out practical jokes about being gruesomely murdered. There's no subversion of the cliches at all, just constant leaning into them. But, you know what? It works. Well, mostly.

This is the third film in the series and the first to feature (with no explanation) the hockey mask, which is a good idea and rather effective. As, on the whole, are the set pieces. I like the dart in the eye. The characters are a bit generic and blend into each other, but you expect that. But some of them are likeable and, like poor doomed virgin Shelly, some even have pathos. There's sex in a hammock, and a shower scene which probably counts as misdirection. It's an entertaining 90 minutes that holds the attention. But, well, surely in 1982 this had been done a million times or more? Three films in (after a bit of a hiatus) and I'm still concluding that the films are, yes, perfectly decent, but it's hard to understand what makes them so iconic.

Iron Man (2008)

“I’m just not the hero type. Clearly.”

 Obviously I've seen this film before. It's just that it was before the blog, and I didn't blog the two sequels at the time because I hadn't blogged the originals- incidentally, that's why I haven't yet blogged Captain America: Civil War. But now it's catch up time.

This is, of course, the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film. The fact that it was awesome has a lot to answer for. But awesome it is, largely because it's a solidly executed, scripted and realised action film. But there's more. To begin with, here's a triumphant piece of casting at its centre. This is the film that resurrected the career of ex-junkie Robert Downey Jr, returning him to A list status by giving him the role of Tony Stark, the part he was born to play.

It's also a rare example of a film making the correct choice in doing the origin story- usually a bad move for a superhero film, But Iron Man's origin is not too long-winded, full of action, and easily updated from Vietnam to Afghanistan. But mostly it's about Downey's perfect Tony Stark, the superb rock soundtrack, the solid storytelling. But it's more than that. This is a carefully constructed start to a cinematic universe, with SHIELD subtly introduced with Agent Coulson and, in the first MCU post-credits sequence, Nick Fury. And then there are the little things- Pepper, played by a major star; Happy; "Ten Rings", Jeff Bridges as an authentic Obadiah Stane. This is easily the best Marvel film up to this point- still one of the best- and the harbinger of great things to come.#

All this, and Stan as Hugh Hefner...

Angel: Salvage

"You ok?"

"Five by five..."

Talk about spoilers. When you click on this episode on the Season Four DVD you get a massive great big pic of Faith. Never mind; it’s great to see her.

It’s good to see the episode start by not minimising Lilah’s death;  of only does Stephanie Romanov get a screen credit but there’s an interesting sequence with Wesley prevaricating before he beheads her possibly vamped body. Did she love him, and is he in denial about it? Did he perhaps have hopes of reforming her? These are interesting questions, deepening Wesley’s character further and showing us what an actor Alexis Denisof is.

Anyway, Faith. The attempt to assassinate are her in prison may have more to do with what’s going on in Buffy, but she’s as badass as ever. Importantly, she’s determined to continue serving her sentence and atone for what she’s done, and it’s only when Wesley reveals the full seriousness of the situation- Angelus is loose- that she realises she’s needed and breaks out. Easily.

The first time I saw this I had objections; wasn’t this undermining Faith’s whole redemption arc by saying that she was, after all, above the law because she’s a super being? This time round I don’t see it that way. She’s truly needed. I just hope she returns to prison after all this is over.

It’s great to see her with Wesley, too; through her eyes we can see just how much her ex-Watcher has changed.

Angel may now be on a different network to Buffy these days, so it’s surprising to see some borderline crossover stuff as Angel rings Dawn briefly. But such things are brief as Faith swiftly meets the gang and takes charge, impressing Gunn by putting Connor firmly in his place.

Meanwhile, Cordy is usually “resting” upstairs in the hotel and during those times she’s off being the Beast’s evil “master”. We get to see the two of them together briefly, ending in her commanding the Beast to “give mama some sugar” and sings him. Urgh!

The climax is doubly interesting. The Beast defeats Faith, badly, and it’s Angelus who kills the beast and restores the Sun, not her, and for his own less than noble reasons. And then the big reveal- Cordy is pregnant not only in real life (apparently leading to big rewrites) but with Connor’s child...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Killer in Me

"Who you gonna call... God, that phrase is never gonna be usable again, is it?"

What an unexpected excellent episode. A heartbreaking but also lovely Willow A-plot, a cleverly set up Giles comedy subplot, and also some stuff about Spike's chip. It's cleverly constructed, full of great lines, warm, affecting, funny; all the things we know about Buffy. Yes, last episode was so-so, an inevitability for even the best series when you have a ridiculous 22 episodes per season. This is the opposite, an encapsulation of the things we so love about Buffy.

The silly Giles sub-plot, as ever presenting much-needed levity and balance, is clever, explaining why that cliffhanger several episodes ago was never resolved. It gives the remaining characters something to do by giving them a reason to suspect Giles of being the First. It leads to the classic line “You think I’m evil if I bring a bunch of girls on a camping trip and don’t touch them?” Of course, it also gets those bloody annoying Potentials out of the way.

We also get Spike having potentially fatal issues with his chip, culminating in some people we don’t know from the Initiative giving Buffy a choice between repairing the chip and getting rid of it. We don’t yet find out, but I suspect she’ll choose the latter.

Finally, we get Kennedy’s rather lovely and romantic pursuit of a Willow who, in spite of everything and all her power, is touchingly innocent. This is what starts their relationship going but it’s also clever to have Amy curse her in such a way that, guilt-ridden, her subconscious chooses her own punishment- to turn into Warren. It’s nice that Amy gets a nuanced motive- “She almost destroyed the world and everyone just keeps on loving her?”, but perfect that the whole thing is solved, like the magic fairy tale Kennedy keeps talking about, by love’s true kiss.

Can we have loads more like this, please?

Angel: Calvary

"Those evil geniuses- get you every time."

More Angelus fun this episode, so more menace, more discord, more superb oozing of evil from David Boreanaz, more despair. But we also get a twist- the Beast has a boss. Then, at the end, well... a bigger twist.

It's an awfully well-structured episode in highlight, with some superb scripting- Angelus' subtle racism to Gunn is as bad as anything he does, and the developments between Fred, Gunn and Wes are nuanced. The clash on the stairs between Cordy and Lilah harbingers stuff later on, of course, and Connor is a little snit but a useful one. A script like this needs both well-defined characters and a great cast, and it has both.

Angelus is in control here, pulling the strings, and we find that all reference and, indeed, memory of the Beast has been magically erased by something bigger, the actual Big Bad. And then the final shock; we think Angelus is going to kill Lilah... and Cordy does. What's going on? Is she the Big Bad? Whatever happens this season is on fire, never standing still. I love it.

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

“Well, at least we can all agree the third one's always the worst...!

 Yet again an X-Men film that isn't supposed to be all that great turns out to be pretty damn good viewing. Oh, I know that the continuity has been pretty dodgy anyway and at this point they just give up and blatantly contradict stuff about all kinds of characters. It's also awkward having two alternate casts, the less expensive of which we see here. But it's nice to get an X-Men film where Scott gets to be a likeable hero for once. It's also nice tht Wolverine, rather than hogging the limelight as usual, only gets a Weapon X cameo.

Apocalypse is a solid villain, with  suitably epic backstory and oodles of power. The film has metatextual fun with its 1983 setting, hence the line above, ostensibly about Return of the Jedi but, well, you know. It’s also fun utilising the freedom to make characters like Angel (him off EastEnders), Psylocke and even Storm be baddies for a bit. There’s the obligatory “how Charles lost his hair” bit. Of course there is. There are the obligatory philosophical scenes with Charles, Eric and Raven, but not too much. But most of the time it’s what we want to see: cool set pieces. And few are cooler than Quicksilver, even if he is dead in Marvel’s other celluloid universe. This film is quite simply just fun to watch. The timeline  and cobrinuity may be utterly broken but the film makes the right decision to ignore all that and just go with it. Quite right too.

Is it just me, though, or are we all fed up of Colonel William bloody Stryker...?

The Death of Stalin (2017)

"I’m sorry you heard that, but he is a camel cock.”

This is my first opportunity in this blog to praise the great Armando Iannucci. I have, of course, seen all of The Thick of It, Alan Partridge and The Day Today, as well as some more obscure and older stuff. I am, it’s fair to say, quite the fanboy. And this film is in Iannucci‘s usual improvisational style and is rather good. So don’t expect a hatchet job.

It’s all historically accurate barring the odd bit of artistic licence- in reality Beria was executed a full six months after his downfall- and the inspired decision to ban cod Russian accents helps the film enormously. The cast is superb, with Steve Buscemi perfect as Khrushchev and Simon Russell Beale utterly evil as the loathsome Lavrentiy Beria. But it’s Michael Palin’s Molotov who steals the show, in a perfect bit of casting, as the fogeyish but utterly fanatical Vyacheslav Molotov, whose loyalty extends to believing his arrrsted wife must indeed be a traitor.

We begin with clear demonstrations of the evil of the regime, with one of Stalin’s “lists” being enacted as another load of random people are “disappeared” into Beria’s torture chambers, where he enjoys himself far too much for comfort. He’s an utterly repulsive and dangerous human being, yet it’s creepy that his downfall is in the end because of trumped up treason charges, with his very real history of extreme murder, torture and paedophilia a mere afterthought.

What disturbs, yet rings very true, is the sheer laddishness of the committee as a whole. They all plot for power, yes. They’ve all done terrible things for the party. But they’re nevertheless (the humourless Malenkov excepted) a bunch of immature “lads”. And yet there’s a fanatical groupthink here that is a scary ondictment of unchecked power with many lessons for us today. A superb film.

Update

You may have noticed I haven't posted for a while, which is partly because of being away last weekend and partly because of life being (temporarily) busier than usual. This state of affairs will be continuing for another week or so, although I hope to sneak out the odd blog post, but fret ye not: normal blogging service will then resume.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Potential

"You're not special. You're extraordinary."

Not all Buffy episodes can stand out. Yes, Buffy is an extraordinary series, but you can't fill 22 episodes a year without pausing for breath. This episode pretty much admits that, as Buffy tells us the First is in temporary, plot-convenient "remission" So we get a somewhat going-through-the motions in which Buffy teaches the potentials how to fight, Dawn thinks that for a moment she might be a potential, and Anya gets some cracking lines.

It's not an episode, in contrast to usual, which lingers in the memory or adds many memorable scenes, that wonderful moment at the end excepted where Xander and Dawn get this wonderful scene together about being the only two Scoobies without superpowers. It adds nothing to the arc either, really, although it's obvious that Andrew is gradually shifting as a character from threat to comic relief.

Still, even an eminently skippable episode is never actively bad, and certainly kept me entertained. I still worry that the presence of the potentials means we spend a bit less time with the characters we know and love, yes, but I'm very much warming to this season.

Angel: Soulless

“Boning your mom and trying to kill your dad? There should be a play...”

And suddenly things get brilliant. The season was looking a bit aimless for a while, I admit I spent a couple of episodes getting a bit worried, but this episode pays off a lot of the things that seemed aimless at the time and does so in a way that gives each and every character some real development. The “previously on” at the beginning makes it clear just how much of a build-up there’s been, with the Gunn/Fred/Wes triangle and the Cordy/Connor shagging.

Cleverly, the pre-credits scene is entirely devoted to bugging up Angelus and how devious and evil he is, how he will use his verbal dexterity to sow discord and weakness so he can kill everyone. And the episode sees this largely play out as Angelus picks at various scabs. The love triangle is an obvious one, quickly leading to Gunn catching Wes kissing Fred, fisticuffs between the two men and Gunn accidentally hitting Fred. Then there’s the outing of the Cordy/Connor comshocking and of course the easy e ploitation of the ever-snotty Connor who, revealingly, sees Angelus as his real father; Angel is “just something that you’re forced to wear”.

Worse, though, is the eexploitation  of Cordy’s general ugliness; he will give them information to save the world and he can have her for whatever depraved purposes he wishes. Ouch. Of course, his information proves useless, but we get the definite sense that he’s going to be asserting his claim.

And he certainly can, as the cliffhanger shows: Angel’s soul is missing, and it looks as though he’ll be sticking around for a while...

Man of Steel (2013)

"What are you smiling about, Captain?"

"Nothing, Sir. I just think he's kind of hot."

Usually I'd write a review based on the general premise of the film in question being good, bad, or indifferent. That's a rather challenging thing to do here. I mean, yes, ok, the film is good. It works. It's a solid start to the DC universe. But there are flaws, real flaws. The film gets away with it, in no small measure because of a solid script by the ever-dependable David S. Goyer and, interestingly, Christopher Nolan and the inspired casting of (thankfully moustache-free) Henry Cavill. But...

Here's the thing. Zack Snyder is technically a superb director. The whole thing is well shot in the extreme, even if it's CGI'd to death. It looks amazing. But it all feels (Russell Crowe as Jor-El aside, oddly) not quite persnal enough. There's just enough charm to get away with, but no more. And the direction: yes, it's clever. But at the expense of the storytelling- not enough to damage the film, but I'd say Snyder needed to watch it if not for the fact that #MeToo seems to make any such advice irrelevant.

There's a lot to praise, though. Traditionally dull Krypton is given CGI alien beasts of burden, an internal politics and a genetically caste-based culture against which Kal-El's birth is a rebellion in the name of freedom. I like that. I also like the characterisation of Zod here; he isn't a moustache-twirling baddie but a general, with his fanatical followers, who only wants to save Krypton. At the expense of our little human species, naturaally.

Lois Lane is presented well here, as a tenacious journalist who figures out who Clark is early on, saving us an awful lot of tiresomeness. Perry White is a bit more nuanced. Jimmy Olsen, er, isn't in the film. But it's a well-done and thoughtful approach to Superman's origins and the ideal first film for the new DC Cinematic Universe. They need to run  with it, so what next. Batman? The Dark Knight? No, those are both taken. So how about Batman: The Dark Knight? Yes. Colons are good. And the next film is in no way going to be a disaster. Right?

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

“Humanity has always feared what is different,"

 I've read a lot of Chris Claremont's run on X-Men (the comic book, of course) but not this seminal storyline although, of course I have a broad awareness of it. It’s a good choice of storyline for the next film and, course, offers a great opportunity for a bit of sneaky retconning; welcome back, Jean and Scott.

It’s all very much what we Doctor Who fans call “timey-wimey”, of course; Wolverine is sent back in time to 1973, with shades of Life on Mars, in order to prevent a Sentinel-riven hellish dystopia, and we follow the twists and turns as he does so. It’s an enjoyable concept and one not slavishly following the comics, as we find a disillusioned Charles who has clearly been taking hairstyle tips from me, while Magneto’s allegiances are again ambiguous and interesting. Michael Fassbender is, of course, superb, and it’s a shame we don’t see more of Ian McKellen but this film is crammed to the rafters with characters jostling for something to do.

The cast is superb, to the point that I’ve had to leave the likes of Elliot Page, Halle Berry and Famke Janssen off the tags through lack of space as the boys, alas, drive the plot and hog the screen time. There are some magnificent performances, though, the highlight being the interaction of James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart as the two Xaviers talk. Plus of course we have cameos from so many characters including an awesome-looking Bishop, Kitty Pryde and Colossus, and Peter Dinklage being superb as the villainous yet idealistic Bolivar Trask.

This may not be the greatest film of the series but it’s solidly entertaining, well-acted and full of surprises, so the Utopian ending comes as a surprise. The post-credits sequence suggests trouble to come, though...

The Night Caller (1965)

"And if that is an atom bomb, and you drop it, I'll 'ave you on a charge!"

Yes, the premise really is as said on the poster, if not quite as lurid. In truth, this is an odd conflation of Quatermass II and Alfie and very, very, mid-'60s. If that sounds like an extremely bizarre concoction, it is.

A very young John Saxon stars, and his acting is such that I'm not 100% sure whether he's trying to do a British accent or not. The predictable cast of British character actors add solid support, but the film feels oddly disjointed in spite of some good scenes- the dialogue between the parents of one of the missing girls is delightfully real and naturalistic, and the downbeat ending is deeply effective. Lots of the characters feel real yet, Saxon and Patricia Haines' characters aside, there's little continuity between the cast of the first part of the film in the scientific establishment and the police procedural which then ensues, and that means the film lacks a certain unity. It's also undeniable that, while this is certainly science fiction, for most of the film we see nothing of the alien but its claw, and the final reveal of its appearance is disappointing. It's all very odd, very interesting, but doesn't quite work.

It's also very much of its time, which adds to the interest. Everybody smokes, and Aubrey Morris plays a gay bookseller in those dark pre-1967 days, with his bitterly nuanced relations with the police. Worth seeing for those of us with a particular interest in these sorts of films although not, it must be said, for everyone.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Showtime

“I’m the thing that monsters have nightmares about...”

Part two of an implicit two parter plays out this episode as Buffy finally defeats the Turok-Han, beheading it with the help of some handy CGI. It’s not just about the fighting, though; a clever flashback shows us that the point was also to raise some much-needed morale for the growing and increasingly annoying presence of loads and loads of “potentials”. It’s a well-crafted and strong episode, but are we going to have a house full of teenage girl redshirts for the rest of the final season?

Only one of the potentials- Kennedy- is getting fleshed out, and it’s clear that she, older than the others, is being developed as a love interest for Willow, as part of her gradual healing process. On a similar note Willow also gets to use a shielding spell, using magic in combat for the first time since all that unpleasantness.

Meanwhile Andrew is shifting into the role of comic relief, explaining to an unimpressed Dawn how Timothy Dalton is an underrated Bond. All this is very Buffy. Perhaps more pertinent is Giles’ and Anya’s little sideshow, where they consult a convenient oracle about the First’s weaknesses, only to find that it has none and cannot be defeated. Ouch. Even worse, the reason the  First is only striking now is precisely because of the Scoobies’ decision to resurrect Buffy last season- will we be getting any more detail on this? Either way, it’s a bombshell; bringing Buffy back has potentially doomed the world. I’m sure there will be reverberations.

The season is, I think, on an upswing, with a clear threat and big stuff happening. It’s just that, we’ll, can’t we cull a few potentials please?

Final Destination (2000)

“In death, there are no accidents, no coincidences, no mishaps, no escape."

 I was a little wary to see a "horror" film with so many cast members and so many signifiers from all those godawful teen "comedy" movies that so blighted the turn of the millennium: if there's one film I can assure you I will never, ever blog, it's There's Something About Mary, the worst film I've ever seen. And yet this film, by not trying to be funny, manages to simultaneously be pretty decent, if not great, and feature Seann William Scott. I never imagined such a thing would be possible.

The concept is excellent, though; seven survivors of a plane crash have dodged their appointment with the Grim Reaper, but death s after them, inexorably, suspensefully and, on occasion, hilariously. My favourite death is Mrs Lewton's, delightfully thorough though it is. Yours may differ. But there's plenty of thrills suspense, just about enough of it to justify the inclusion of a character called "Billy Hitchcock".And I wouldn't particularly expect to see this as an in-flight movie.

For a film with no real stars and with a pretty obscure director this film did pretty well and, although it has no real stars and no great budget, it holds up passably well today. Death itself is certainly a pretty good horror villain, and the whole concept is sufficient excuse to give us a parade of deaths the like of which we hadn't seen since The Omen. This is a solid and entertaining horror which doesn't quite fully ex[loit a great concept but makes a decent stab.

Bend It Like Beckham (2002)

"Even these mosquito bites will look like juicy, juicy mangoes..”

I used to follow football a bit. At least international. Then the 2010 World Cup happened and I stopped watching football in disgust at England’s shameful display. The only football match I’ve watched since 2010 was the recent World Cup semi-final, and even that was only because it happened to be on. And I Never was anything more than a casual follower.

So the nice little fourth wall breaking bit at the start, for me, was a nice but if nostalgia for the days when I recognised the days of players and pundits- whatever happened to Alan Hansen? It’s a strong, fun start to a fun little film.

Yes, the film is formulaic to a large extent. A girl from a traditional Punjabi family struggles to get her traditional Sikh parents to accept what she wants to do with her life, football; it’s all a melodrama, albeit at the more restrained end; and there are lots of little references to culture clashes, racism, and sexism within the Indian and gora communities. It’s all done so well though, and the cast is superb, even if you do wish that Keira Knightley would just bloody have something to eat. All this to a soundtrack of Basement Jaxx and Mel C; you can certainly tell this is 2002. Such innocent days, long before Brexit, and when we all thought US presidents couldn’t get any worse than Bush. Hah.

Also, it’s about  fathers and daughters, which I like. This film may not be my usual fare but Mrs Llamastrangler and I very much enjoyed it.

The Flintstones (1994)

“Yabba dabba doo!”

 This film may be technically set in the Stone Age, vaguely defined, but we all know it's actually set in those early years of the '60s that were very much still the '50s. It's to the credit of this '90s adaptation that, seen today, it’s very Mad Men in its ‘50s social mores, although in this case without the racism.

This is a very faithful adaptation, right up to the point of recreating variations of the original cartoon title sequence several times. It’s perfectly cast with John Goodman and a just pre-retirement Rick Moranis. It’s so well-realised, with copious dinosaur animatronics from the school of Jim Henson, that this is a rare example of a film with a rubbish script being worth seeing.  It’s rare that it’s worth polishing a turd, but here the polishing is truly magnificent.

The plot is ok- Free gets promoted, betraying Barney in the process, living a life of luxury until it turns out that he’s being set up by the villainous Cliff, a splendidly and surprisingly villainous Kyle MacLachlan. Oh, and Halle Berry is the early 1960s sexy secretary, done with just enough of a nod and a wink.

Yes, the script is pants. It really is. And this may be a rare example of an adaptation being too faithful to the source material. But the whole thing looks amazing, the casting is inspired, and the whole thing just feels right.

It’s worth watching, honest. You won’t laugh much, but you’ll feel a nice nostalgic glow.

Angel: Awakening

“What is it about evil that jacks up the IQ points?”

Ah, I begin to see where this season may be going...

The whole episode is a splendid piece of misdirection; first Angelus is coming back, then he isn't, then he is. And it's happening because Angel and Cordy finally get their moment of perfect happiness is perfect. Shame it was (mostly) all a dream, though; not sure how I feel about that. Still, putting that Dallas moment to one side, it's a good episode. And even the dream has a twist in Angelus returning precisely when he's no longer needed.

Interesting that the episode starts with Wes as only semi-part of the gang. And Connor has never been such an obtuse, annoying and unlikeable brat. But the episode oozes camaraderie, mainly because of Angel's charisma and will to keep the gang together- precisely the things that they've just lost.

It;s ironic, I suppose; this episode has one job, to turn Angel int Angelus at the end. But in order to get there it trolls us, manipulates us, just like Angelus himself. It's effectively done, if evil. And I'm getting the distinct impression that the Beast may not be the season big bad after all...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Bring on the Night

“Sorry to barge in. Afraid we have a slight... apocalypse.”

This is, there's no doubt about it, an Important Episode. In fact, it's quite bewilderingly eventful and changes the status quo quite dramatically. I know it's just pre-Christmas (with the briefest of nods to the season) and there would have been a wait of a couple of weeks until the next episode, but so much happens, it ends in Buffy doing a big speech, it's all rather well done but still trying to squeeze in an awful lot, and feels awfully like more of a mid-season break is about to happen.

Still, stuff happens, and while episodes with loads to do are never amongst the greatest they seldom disappoint. This episode certainly doesn’t, and is something of an assault on the senses. Giles’ Return is somewhat overshadowed by the fact he brought with him two “potential” slayers- Kennedy and the British and somewhat anonymous Annabelle and Molly. It seems the First is out to destroy the entire infrastructure of slayerdom, destroying the Watchers’ Council (so what were Travis and co up to when we last saw them?) and all the potential slayers, hence all those scenes of running girls being pursued by monks. One has to ask why no previous Big Bad has though of doing this over the last several centuries. Still, for now, there are four extra people in Buffy’s crowded house and the whole dynamic is suddenly very different.

Oh, and the First is busy pretending to be Joyce. Drusilla and all sorts as it tortures Spike, Who is a is to endure because of Buffy’s faith in him; corny but it works.

And that ancient creature resurrected last episode was a Turok-Han, a kind of Neanderthal Vampire which so far seems unbeatable, although if it’s extinct there must be a reason why? Still, Buffy doesn’t win, and is badly hurt. Cue an episode ending with a big inspiring speech then. It all dies the trick, but things suddenly feel rather odd.

The Wicker Man (1973)

“We’re a deeply religious people...”

 This is the second time I've seen this film, and the subtext truly grows with reviewing. The tale of Sergeant Howie (decent Scottish accent from Edwood Woodwood, says the Englishman), policeman, virgin and devout Christian who investigates a young girl’s disappearance on a Pagan island in the Highlands of Scotland that turns out to be a terrifying trap.

We all know the simple plot, I’m sure; what matters is how it unfolds until the iconic ending, with Howie slowly finding how very different this island is. But this is also a film about, to use a contemporary phrase, the “permissive society”; Howie stands for 1950s Christian values and is horrified by the free love and young people’s music he finds everywhere. Interestingly, the film presents neither side with much positivity- Howie may be a prig, and the islanders a lot more fun, but there’s a very dark practice at the heart of their beliefs.

Interest to declare; I’m an atheist, but one with no particular beef with Christianity, itself a huge range of beliefs. But I’m happy to see this film not falling into the lazy thinking that Christianity is bad and vaguely remembered Paganism was much cuddlier and more tolerant; that’s a very shaky notion. Pagans may have sometimes (not always) been more relaxed about sex, and less keen to police the beliefs of others, but there were some very dark rituals and, sadly unaddressed here, just as much institutional sexism. None of which means that a singing, naked Britt Ella d is not, er, pleasant to behold.

Christopher Lee’s role in this, his favourite of his own films, is surprisingly modest but essential for the backstory, and his charismatic presence is central to everything. But Edward Woodward gives a less likeable but superbly convincing performance which makes him the true hero of the film. One of this country’s greatest cinematic achievements, then, and certainly a film which rewards repeated viewings.

Justice League (2017)

“What are your superpowers again?”

“I’m rich.”

 I'd intended to start this blog with a quip about that notorious moustache. After all, I mentioned it to Mrs Llamastrangler and she was amused to find the CGI on Henry Cavill’s upper lip so very obvious. But sadly I can’t continue along those lines as this film is an utter mess. It’s a turf, a stinker, a mind-bogglingly bad film. What went wrong?

D.C. can make good films. I enjoyed Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman. But they simply have no Kevin Fiege. There no quality control, no consistency of tone, no building up the characters in their individual films first. So we get these big epic films about iterations we don’t really know of characters who have barely been introduced to us in this version of the D.C. Universe. The pacing is atrocious and the script is lacking in sparkle. And the odd wittty line, presumably late additions by Joss Whedon after Zack Snyder was sacked, just jars with the po-faced and dull tone. This is a film about superheroes that fails to be fun. That’s quite an achievement.

Oh, some of the cast are good. Henry Cavill is well cast, and Ezra Miller is an inspired choice as an awkward young Flash. But Ben Affleck is both bad and wrong as Batman, Jeremy Irons is good but miscast as Alfred, and Ciaran Hinds gives us a generic and forgettable villain. And Jason Momoa’s Aquaman, incredibly, gets most of the best lines. And the amount of exposition just beggars belief. And don’t get me started on the sheer quantity of poor CGI.

This is, hands down, the worst superhero film I’ve ever seen.

Angel: Long Day’s Journey

“We need Angelus..."

Obviously there's a lot of plot here- this big, apocalyptic demon is still loose in LA and up to stuff, rather fortunately giving our heroes room to mope and have character stuff happen, making this a good episode. It's unclear where all this is heading, though; it's done with skill and wit, but at this point the season arc feels a little... aimless.

Character-wise, though, a lot happens, not least a load of awkward but unavoidable conversations between Angel and Cordy. As predicted, Wes is now part of the gang again, smoothed over by a subtle comment by Lorne, and the verbal sparring between him and Gunn is toned down accordingly. Instead, Gunn feels very uncomfortable with Fred and Wes spending so much time researching together.

Oh, and our electric friend Gwen is back; it seems she wasn’t just a one-of character after all. I bet she dies next episode as her plot function seems to be for Angel to ostentatiously spend time with her to make Cordelia jealous.

Deliciously, though, all these little arguments between the characters add extra frisson to the probability that one of the gang is a fifth columnist working with the Beast, currently very busy murdering a bunch of typically Buffyverse eccentric yet powerful cultists of the god Ra, so he can blot out the Sun and make a more demon-friendly LA, as you do. And he succeeds completely, with a little help from his friend. Who is, it seems... Angelus. That explains Angel’s blackouts and gives us s better inkling of exactly where this season is going. We finish with Wes proposing a rather daring plan. Good stuff, but I have no idea what the season arc is going to look like at nearly the halfway point. Is good characterisation of scriptwriting hiding a cobbled together arc or are they being clever?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Never Leave Me

"That.s the worst attempt at pig slaughtering I've ever seen..."

So the big bad gets a name: the First, a one off baddie from way back in Season Two, which I blogged many years ago when I was single and childless. Something tells me this time round that snow and Christmas miracles may be in short supply.

This is a big arc episode with a job to do in moving the arc plot forward- the Scoobies need to learn who they’re up against, Andrew needs to become a comic relief prisoner of theirs (love the interrogations) and Spike needs to be captured by those monks for his blood to be used to resurrect that ancient vampire thing. All of this is achieved with some witty dialogue, a top comedy scene where Willow totally owns Andrew, and a lot of deep and superb dialogue between Buffy and Spike, who now knows self-loathing.

The cliffhanger with Giles isn’t resolved; we’re left hanging a while longer. But Quentin Travers and the WTchers’ Council appear, they’re hiding stuff from Buffy, and they’re off to Sunnydale to face the First. They all wear extremely old-fashioned, tweedy clothes that were last popular, pheasant-shooting types aside, with my grandparents’ generation, the ones who fought in the war. As late as 2003 this is a stereotype Americans have of the British, arguably much less so now.

Meanwhile, we get to see the Principal being cool but also see him discovering the body of The unsuccessfully sacrificed Jonathan, whom he buries. We now know there’s more to him than it seems... but what?

A very functional episode on what it has to do, then. But Buffy does functional with aplomb.