Batman: The Animated Series- Zatanna

 "This never happens to me in Vegas!"

This is a real first for the animated series- an appearance by another DC superhero, in this case Zatanna, whom I must confess I don't know very well. I understand that, in the comics, she has real magical powers, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. But the character is fun and engaging, and this is a fun little tale. 

The story- Zatanna being framed for a bank heist, Batman helping to exonerate her and grab the real culprit- is quick and simple, as the twenty minute run time demands, although the set pieces are particularly fun, with a couple of splendidly cliched death traps. It's also nice how Zatanna is inserted into Bruce's backstory, her dad teaching him escapology.

It's not a particularly pivotal episode, perhaps, but there's nowt wrong with that. Good fun, and Zatanna herself is extremely likeable.

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

 "You know, what's remarkable is how much England looks in  no way like Southern California."

I'm not in the mood for anything serious, so this it is then. It is, of course, just more of the same sort of stuff from the first film with pop culture jokes combined with lots of metatextual fun, but I for one am not complaining. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

This time we're introduced to Mini-Me as well as Fat Bastard, a third character to be played with aplomb by Mike Myers. We get rid of Vanessa with hilarious simplicity and then get introduced to the wonderful Felicity Shagwel and... well, it's an Austin Powers film. You know the drill. It's very, very silly indeed.

What's interesting, though, about a film from 1999 being all nostalgic about thirty years earlier is how very '90s it all is from a quarter century later. Even this version of the '60s is very much a version of the decade curated to '90s sensibilities, more Oasis' "All Around the World" than "Yellow Submarine" in aesthetic. But we get the late Jerry Springer, absolutely in his pomp and a reminder of how even trash telly back then had a layer of basic decency to it that would eventually be got rid of. Even Starbucks was sort of newish back then.

The film works so well because it knows full well how daft it is and leans into that, with the time travelling shenanigans and the best knob, fart and poo jokes in cinematic history. The script is magnificent. So is the cast. But praise has to go especially to Mike Myers, absolutely at the peak of his career here. Brilliant stuff.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

 "That's right, buddy. You show that turd who's boss."

It's 1997, Cool Britannia amd that. That brief period of time when the Union Flag meant Noel Gallagher's guitar, not fascism. Where the flag of our nation was not considered as a sign of fascism by the dimmer kind of right winger, as though conceding the key national symbol to nationalists who are in no way patriotic is a clever thing to do. Sigh.

Anyway, isn't this film fascinatingly dated while still being awesome, bearing in mind that today's "dated" is tomorrow's "period"? I mean, let's look at the version of 1967, through the prism of 1967. It's shown as a decade of universally accepted free love drugginess and grooviness that bears zero relation to the actual decade in which my parents both grew up, in Leicestershire. Which is, of course, part of thejoke.

Indeed, while Space appear in the closing credits, this is not a Britpop reimagining of the decade. This is a '60s of Burt Bacharach and Nancy Sinatra.

This is a bloody funny film. Obviously, it's the same style as Wayne's World, but better. The James Bond pastiche is on point. Austin Powers is in no way like James Bond in character, puns excepted: he's more obviously the popular image of the decade. But Doctor Evil, the consummate pastiche Bond villain, is exquisite pastiche. The laughter scene alone is priceless. An then we have the comical canonisation of the deceased henchmen.

Groovy baby. Sgagadelic.

The Island of Dr Moreau (1977)

"Are we not men...?"

...We are Devo. Sorry, although I'm told the film was an influence on said Ohio geniuses.

Anyway, It's a long time since I read H.G. Wells' novella and I remember nothing of it; let's just say that I'm forty-two and the copy I read belonged to the school library. So I'm unaware, after all these years, how faithful the film- made, after all, in 1977, thirty plus years after the dodginess of eugenics was very clearly shown- is to the novel. But it seems, on the face of it, to be a fascinating little look at the ethics of science, of eugenics, of reactions to the idea of evolution, which reminds one that the original novella was published but thirteen years after The Origin of Species.

There's a small main cast. The fairly elderly Burt Lancaster has real presence as the charismatic and chippy scientist, exiled from the academy to an island where he is boss and there are no ethical naysayers- certainly not the drunken and cynical mercenary Montgomery, or the mysterious and trophy-like Maria, who seems very much the token female. Into this comes the young Michael York, more D'Artagnan than Basil, shipwrecked and stuck on this island and acting as the eyes, ears and conscience of the audience- and yet, fascinatingly, when we first see him he performs his own ethically dodgy act in pushing a dying fellow survivor from a boat into the sea. That's a fascinating writing choice.

We gradually discover what Moreau is up to, undisturbed by Harvard's prying eyes- injecting animals and turning them into semi-human beast men in a quest to find ways to cure human ailments- what no one in 1896 would have called genetic experimentation. Such ethical areas, while not quite so dramatic, are an increasing part of life today and it's fascinating to see such ideas discussed by Wells so soon after natural selection was promulgated- although here it's assumed that, rather simply being the fact of the best random mutations passing on advantages, which over geological time causes differentiation of species, there is some kind of directional purpose to evolution, with humans at the top of the scale. This is, of course, not necessarily true, and nor is there any kind of barrier between humans and other animals- when Moreau turns Braddock into an animal towards the end he's not imparting any quality that he didn't already possess.

Nevertheless, this is an excellent and thought-provoking drama of ideas- not only of the above but of laws and justice-, with excellent acting and script, including the splendid line "You've been drinking for two days, Montgomery. I suggest you continue". A quietly superb film if you like yur science fiction to be about ideas as well as explosions.

The Three Musketeers (1973)

“You cannot go to the Queen with dirty legs...”

I hadn’t seen this before, amazingly, so I certainly raised an eyebrow when the opening credits revealed this film to have been scripted by George MacDonald Fraser. This gives certain expectations and, true to form, the film turns out to be a highly entertaining and rather bawdy comedy that has a lot of fun with the culture of realpolitik and duelling that prevailed in the France of Louis XIII. This is a rather straight adaptation of the novel, albeit one in which Faye Dunaway as Milady gets oddly little screen time, but one that adds a splendidly comical gloss to what was hardly the most serious novel to begin with.

This is a decadent France reigned, but not ruled over by the feckless Louis XIII, not half the man his father was or, indeed, his son will be, leaving a vacuum to be filled by the ambitious Cardinal Richelieu, a competent but oddly miscast Charlton Heston, with the far more suitable Christopher Lee in a lesser role. Perhaps they just needed a big Hollywood name, but why hardly use Faye Dunaway?

Regardless, the whole thing looks gorgeous, odd though the Hong Kong martial arts opening may be, and the cast is quite magnificent. Michael York is the perfect bumbling D’Artagnan for this film,  Raquel Welch is the perfect sultry Constance, and Christopher Lee mystifies is all A’s to why he isn’t playing the Cardinal. The film is pretty much stolen by the splendid comic acting of Spike Milligan though, who shoes us what a bloody comic genius he is.

I don’t think I’ve seen a finer version yet than this.