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Birdman (2014)

January 11, 2015, 3:03 am
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This is a little delight; a clever, spiky, laugh out loud look at the world of acting and the fragile egos involved in it. Michael Keaton plays Riggan Thomson, who 30 years ago gave up playing superhero Birdman (an obvious nod to Keaton's past as Batman). Now past his best and largely forgotten, Riggan has put all his money and effort into opening a Broadway version of a Raymond Carver short story in which he stars, produces and directs. All is not going well: his co-star can't act, his daughter Sam (Emma Stone) - newly out of rehab - is his assistant and his girlfriend Laura (Andrea Riseborough), also in the play, tells him she's pregnant. When his co-star gets a lighting rig on the head, Lesley, the fourth member of the cast (Naomi Watts) suggests her boyfriend, the temperamental but well regarded actor Mike (Ed Norton), joins. Mike brings with him a great talent but a host of additional problems and soon the play looks set to be a disaster. If that wasn't bad enough, Riggan appears to have developed superpowers, can levitate and has the voice of the Birdman castigating him in his head. Will Riggan survive opening night?


Birdman is filmed in a very clever way, with very long scenes edited together in a way where you don't see the join. This gives the film an immediate, almost dreamlike quality and also makes the audience a voyeur, drifting from one scene between two characters along the shadowy corridors of the theatre to spy on someone else. At times the camera just glances to the side, catching a technician at work or just sitting on a break. It's as if you're an invisible visitor. Even when time passes, the camera rests on a view of the sky, fixed on the same tops of building as night gives way to day. Never has a film set in just a few mostly enclosed locations felt so full of movement. The flights of fancy that Riggan experiences are well realised too, Keaton suddenly just levitating or, in one bravura scene, taking off and flying around the streets of New York. The film makes it pretty clear these are the hallucinations of a fevered mind, with Riggan on the verge of a nervous collapse yet also leaves a small touch of ambiguity. At the heart of it all, Keaton is utterly brilliant and deserves to win awards. This is a performance without vanity, the actor playing his age and acting with an honesty and a vulnerability. His play is an attempt to be taken seriously but risks total humiliation, sour critic Lyndsay Duncan sharpening her knife before she's even seen the show. Writer/director Alejandro G Inarritu has some fun pot shots at the snobbery of the theatre, Duncan's critic hateful because the former Hollywood star would dare to think he could be a success in the theatre. To her - and to an extent to Mike - Riggan's former success is a reason to hate him. A 'real actor' slaves away on the boards, not living it up in the multiplexes.


Though very applicable to actors, a fragile breed at best, Riggan's need for validation is something many people crave. At one stage, Riggan's ex-wife kindly chastises him for always mixing up love with adoration. Riggan is so desperate to be taken seriously and validated as a proper actor that he can't see past his own reviews. He knows he could be a better father to Sam and that he could have been a better husband but this self-knowledge always takes second place to his own desires. If Keaton is brilliant, Norton is, if anything, better. What is genius about this piece of casting is that Norton is basically playing the kind of actor most believe he really is, a difficult, temperamental egoist who can't help but say and do things that antagonise others. That Norton manages to make Mike borderline likeable is some testament and he gets the film's most poignant moment, when Sam comes onto him, asking him what he'd like to do to her. He replies that he'd pluck out her eyes and look through them so he could recapture the way he saw New York at her age. Emma Stone has never been better, one scene when she lays into her father for his selfishness is so raw and truthful that you look on, slightly open mouthed. All this makes Birdman sound worthy but, while it does have some important themes, it is also relentlessly funny. From Norton getting an erection on stage to Keaton getting his robe stuck in a stage door while having a crafty fag, having to walk around Times Square in his pants to get back into the theatre for his final scene, Birdman is laugh out loud funny. A moment when the pair engage in one of cinema's poorest fights is also extremely funny. Take my word for it, Birdman is a treat of a film. Go see.

GK Rating: *****

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Taken 3 (2015)

January 11, 2015, 12:45 pm
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We laugh at the old aged pensioners currently doing a tour with The Expendables but Liam Neeson is now 62 as Bryan Mills once again displays his particular set of skills to some more shady types who try to mess with him and his family. Taken 3 realises there's only so many times you can have one of his two family members kidnapped so this time steals the plot of the Fugitive instead, framing Mills for murder and setting dogged detective Forest Whitaker on his tail. However, we don't go to watch a Taken movie to admire the intricacies of the plot, do we? No, we go to watch Liam use his skills to beat up deserving candidates in as many inventive ways as possible. Alas, much as with the previous film, director Olivier Megaton is an appalling action director, the sequences ridiculous, chaotic and edited to the point of real incomprehension. Overall, Taken 3 is better than the previous one but not a patch on Luc Besson's pulse-pounding original. It has all the signs of a studio demanding a film and an uninspired and jaded cast and crew knocking one out.


The film opens with the usual cloying family scenes which tell us nothing we don't already know. Bryan still buys his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) crap gifts while ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) still fancies him. Lenore is also having troubles with her husband who seems to be a completely different one to the ancient hubby in Taken 1. That girl gets around! When did she get through the old guy and marry this one then? From what's said on screen, they've been together for a considerable time, being in counselling for two years. It doesn't add up in the internal chronology of the movies really. Worse, the second we see that the latest one is played by Dougray Scott, you spend the next hour or so twiddling your thumbs waiting for the shock reveal that he's behind it all. This isn't a spoiler - truly - they might as well play sinister music when he enters every scene. Forest Whitaker brings a veneer of class to proceedings but he's no Tommy Lee Jones, never getting anywhere near arresting Mills and spending more time fiddling with an elastic band and a knight chess piece. That's tremendous character development there.


Action wise, Taken 3 is also a bust. There is one car chase in particular that could be one of the worst I've ever seen; with editing so quick and cameras so shaky, I genuinely couldn't even work out which car Mills was supposed to be in. Our hero also causes a heck of a lot of collateral damage in this film, with one bit having a lorry swerve and its laughably CG rendered container fly off, crushing several cars with presumably people in them. These aren't Algerian French traffickers, they're families on the way to the shops. The fights are also disappointing with nothing to match the first. Realism goes out the window as literally thousands of bullets manage to miss Liam Neeson (he's hardly a Hobbit, is he?). It doesn't help that, quickly edited as it is, Neeson really doesn't move that fast. If Liverpool think Steven Gerrard is past it at 34, how are we meant to take a 62 year old man fighting four or five ripped thirty-somethings seriously? To add insult to injury, there's a penthouse shootout where Russian villain Malankov struts around in his tighty-whities firing the biggest gun ever and still misses and an ending in an airfield that was done better in the pilot episode of the original Knight Rider back in 1982 - and even with the same stunt. If, like me, you have a cinema pass and it costs you nothing, go along. However, if you've got limited funds, why would you waste it on this pap?

GK Rating: **
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Doctor Who - Enemy of the Daleks

January 12, 2015, 12:02 pm
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The middle part of this audio trilogy for the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Hex (Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred and Philip Olivier) is the kind of meat and potatoes, base under siege, action tale that the company like to churn out on a fairly regular basis. It's decent but undemanding entertainment, written by David Bishop and directed by Ken Bentley. The time travellers arrive on the planet Bliss which is not the beautiful world the Doctor remembers. At the height of the wars between humanity and Daleks, Professor Shimura (Eiji Kusuhara) has diverted his research into silkworms to a more deadly route, combining them with the local Piranha Locusts to create a hybrid creature the military hope will be able to wipe out the Daleks. Called the Kiseibyaa, these insectoid monsters have been engineered to eat metal. However, has the Professor just created an even bigger threat than the Daleks? With a beleaguered crew of Valkyrie warrior, led by the traumatised Beth Stokes (Kate Ashfield), seek sanctuary also, the Doctor has his hands full trying to avert a bloodbath when the Daleks arrive while also trying to ensure that an established atrocity takes place...


Big Finish is a broad church when it comes to story styles and that it how it should be; however, the producers do seem just a little too fond of the overly macho war tales that typified the Eric Saward era of the original show such as Earthshock and Resurrection of the Daleks, full of amoral or traumatised characters that will die horribly. Obvious mass exterminations come with a Dalek tale but this is a type of Doctor Who that lies pretty far down the list of my preferred styles. Taken for what it is, Enemy of the Daleks goes about its business efficiently with our three leads all getting something to do. Ace is more the tough, Dalek killing warrior of the New Adventures line while Hex gets to be the bleeding heart, mourning the loss of so many and pondering whether he's cut out for the life the Doctor and Ace lead. Ashfield is fine as Stokes, though her redemptive sacrifice was oh so obvious, and Bindya Solanki is tough as soldier Khan. Bishop gets to revisit some of the themes of Who classic Genesis of the Daleks, Professor Shimura being a kind of benign Davros, creating a monster to kill the Daleks that could end up being even worse. However, how stupid is Shimura? What kind of genius would miss that creating a metal eating creature that first needed flesh to incubate and feed their young was probably not a great idea?

GK Rating: ***
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Broadchurch - Series 2, Episode 2

January 13, 2015, 12:51 am
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The nagging feeling that this series of Broadchurch isn't going to be half as good as the first continues with an episode that relies too heavily on revisiting old ground and expecting the audience to accept wildly implausible actions and events. With Joe Miller's trial starting, all of Broadchurch is agog. Prosecutor Jocelyn (Charlotte Rampling) is worried that Ellie attacking Joe once he was in custody could jeopardise the confession he gave Hardy earlier. Meanwhile, irritating young journo Ollie can't wait to start his hourly blog updates. "It's gonna be sick," he crows. Jocelyn urges all the witnesses not to lie. "You're fine," says Beth (Jodie Whittaker), tempting fate, "none of us have anything else to hide." Well, until nasty defence counsel Sharon Bishop brings up the fact that Mark Latimer was having an affair and that he once hit son Danny. "Who is on trial here?" Beth asks. "Is it not enough that I lost my son?" Then, Hardy gets a grilling and Bishop manages to get the confession struck from the record. Whoops. Would the judge really disregard a confession, subsequently filmed? It seems all rather contrived to me to build up some tension. As the judge, Meera Syal made a welcome debut though. As usual, the principals did good work as they digested events and soul searched but haven't we been here before? Beth upset and Mark blaming himself were core staples of Series 1. Deja vu is setting in, I'm afraid.


In the other plot, Hardy is still trying to hang the Sandbrook murders on Lee Ashworth who has come to Broadchurch looking for his wife. "I lost my whole life because of you," Lee tells Hardy. "I want it back." Could Hardy be wrong about Ashworth? Could he be innocent? "What if he didn't do it?" Ellie asks him. "What if you're wrong?" Hardy sees an opportunity to film Ashworth if he can get Claire to agree to see him. Eventually Ellie convinces her in the best scene of the episode, where the two sit by some beach huts, eating chips and revealing how they met their husbands. "Look at what these men have done to us," Claire says. I warmed more to Eve Myles's wife this week but once again it was Ellie who stole the show, her endearing, vulnerable, ordinary woman melting our hearts all over again. Writer Chris Chibnell also scripts her well, giving her the mundane little touches - such as her revealing all she'd eaten was "a kit-kat and a scotch egg", that make a character feel real. However, Chibnell is struggling elsewhere as he makes characters act oddly to forward the plot. Having Hardy use Ellie's old house for Lee and Claire to meet was totally based around the ending and to facilitate a way for the pair to abscond. Hardy may be occasionally tactless but to make Ellie go back there is not just thoughtless but an act of wilful cruelty. He would just have found another place - his, for instance. The ending was also like a bad soap opera - Beth arriving to berate Ellie and then her waters breaking, distracting everyone enough for Claire and Lee to disappear. You half expected the Eastenders''Dum Dum Dum' to kick in. Let's face facts, shall we? This series just isn't as good.

GK Rating: ***
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The 100 - Season 2, Episode 2

January 14, 2015, 3:19 am
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The action continues on the ground, underground and in space for the 100 cast, now heralded in, for the first time, with some snazzy opening credits and a very dull theme tune (only took them a series). Camp Jaha, led by Marcus Kane, is having a busy old time of it; if it wasn't tough enough establishing themselves on the Earth, Grounders have also decided to crucify their security teams. This means Kane is hardly in the mood to listen to Abby and send teams out to look for the missing teens. Abby, however, has problems of her own - Raven's bullet will paralyse her if it stays in but she could die having it taken out. Hello - have we ended up in a daytime medical soap? Of curse, Raven being the plucky thing she is goes for the op without any drugs and survives - however, she has only partial feeling in one leg after. Will it return or is she crippled? Tune in next week for 'Post-Apocalyptic ER'. Surgery done, Abby conspires in helping Finn get Bellamy and Murphy out of lock up so they can go on a search and rescue mission. "Bring them home," she tells the buff brothers. Bellamy's sister Octavia is saved by a hairy Michael Madson lookalike called, er, Michael. However, she holds him hostage to use in exchange for Lincoln. It was, then, a tad inconvenient that, just as the exchange was done, Reapers attacked and captured everyone. D'oh!


Up in space, Chancellor Jaha finds a baby in a drawer (as you do) and decides he has to save it, coming up with a plan to fire them down to Earth in a missile. This, however, involves a spacewalk with a dodgy visor. This series seems to like ramping up the spurious jeopardy a bit more than last year - isn't spacewalking with a baby jeopardy enough? Alas, said baby isn't real but an oxygen deprived hallucination. Jaha then sees dead son Wells, who urges dad not to give in but to live. "Our people still need you," fake Wells urges. Jaha gets in his missile and ends up on some beach. Probably not Clacton. Finally, Clarke and 47 other members of the original 100 are still guests of Mount Weather although Clarke remains suspicious. Why are the medical teams lying abut the cause of death of a patrolman? How did a man suffering from radiation recover so quickly? Her friends, however, are sick of her, worried they'll be turfed out of their safe paradise. "Clarke, you sound like a crazy person," Jasper says to her latest suspicions. Why do you want to screw this up for us?" The others agree. "The biggest threat to us now is you," he adds coldly. Of course, we know Clarke will be right and, getting admitted to medical, she sneaks through a convenient ventilation shaft to follow the trial of the pipes that supply the blood for the patients. What a surprise: Mount Weather is capturing Grounders and using them as unwilling donors, bleeding them dry. Clarke finds her attackers from last season in cages, including leader Anya. This won't end well.

GK Rating: ****
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Doctor Who - The Angel of Scutari

January 14, 2015, 12:08 pm
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After the horror companion Hex (Philip Olivier) experienced on the planet Bliss, as innocent patients were slaughtered by Daleks, the TARDIS's next arrival allows the lad to go off and make a difference, as he's dropped off in the Crimean War in 1854 at the Scutari field hospital. However, when the Doctor and Ace (Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred) arrive a month earlier in Sebastopol, they inadvertently get caught up in cannon fire and then separated, the TARDIS apparently destroyed. While Ace is arrested by ensign Leo Tolstoy (yes, that Leo Tolstoy) the Doctor is accused of being a spy and persecuted by Brigadier-General 'Barty' Kitchen. While the Doctor attempts to talk his way out of execution with Tsar Nicholas I (a nice cameo from Hugh Bonneville) and Ace tries to escape while still enjoying the attentions of Tolstoy, their actions have implications for Hex, a month or so in the future, although he's just as preoccupied not blushing whenever a certain Miss Florence Nightingale (Jeany Spark) comes to Scutari. Can the time travellers escape their various dangers and meet up? However, is that the remain of the TARDIS being used for firewood?


Paul Sutton structures his adventure over two time periods which is clever but, to be honest, rather confusing. It could do with a second listen but I didn't really enjoy it enough to bother. Take out the timey-wimey elements and The Angel of Scutari combines the new show's fashion of the celebrity historical figure with the split narrative aspect of the old black and white historicals of the 1960s. For Hex, this is a chance for him to prove his mettle but, great as Philip Olivier is, Hex continues to be a bit useless, able to clean a wound but hardly get a sentence out to Florence initially. Spark, though great as the formidable Florence, never comes across as anything other than a cliché. The Ace strand is better, with the more ASBO teenager aspects of her character toned down for a genuine frisson of romance with Tolstoy (well, she always had a thing for Russians). She even gets to kiss him! The Doctor gets to talk to the Tsar but there are just far too many scenes of people talking without much momentum, a problem with Sutton's previous plays. The dialogue can also be a little too on the nose - a scene between Barty and the Doctor on the merits of war is cringe worthy while some of it is just unintentionally comedic, at one stage the burly Times correspondent William Russell (no, not Ian) actually uttering the line: "shooting this boy will not appease your own demons!" Oh dear. A decent enough play though, with some hints that the tricky Doc is up to something. Is his explanation of why the TARDIS has suddenly turned white the whole truth?

GK Rating: ***
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The Musketeers - Series 2, Episode 2

January 15, 2015, 3:41 am
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The premise for this one sounded like a recipe for a classic with the King's attempt to be one of the lads and going out for a night with the Musketeers leading to him and D'Artagnan being kidnapped by traders to be sold to Spain as galley slaves. Alas, the end result ended up squandering the majority of this potential, mostly down to a script that had an unforgivable amount of laying out the plot dialogue and some very limp action scenes. Things started well enough with King Louis (Ryan Gage) drinking, gambling and having two wenches sat on his knees. However, things went awry from the kidnapping as we were given scene after scene with characters telling each other things they already knew. The nadir was a scene in the morgue with first the mortician, for no reason, starting to talk about strange disappearances which then sparked a recollection of a slaver in the Musketeers' minds. Convenient, that. Meanwhile, Rochefort (Marc Warren) metaphorically twirled his moustache and plotted to get closer to the Queen, realising that Constance could be a real problem for him. Once the devious Spanish Ambassador was told of the King's kidnap he saw a chance to be rid of the King with a vulnerable Queen and an infant on the throne. Rochefort got Anne to write a letter to her Spanish brother. That'll come back to haunt her in a few weeks, no doubt. Aramis also started showing an interest in the Dauphin's Governess, though his reasons were to get closer to his son.


There was real potential in having the King out of his comfort zone and seeing how the other half live but this was largely wasted. There was one nice scene when D'Artagnan and Louis talked of their fathers and of how Louis lost his when he was nine but this wasn't the character changing opportunity we would have hoped for. Instead, by necessity of Capaldi jumping ship, Milady De Winter (Maimie McCoy) had to be somehow shoehorned back into the plot. Here, she was very coincidentally part of the kidnapping gang and spied an opportunity to get close to the King, releasing them and helping them escape. The moment she fake swooned into the arms of Louis and then kissed him was the episode's highlight and gives our chief villainess a new lease of life. How long before she makes Rochefort's acquaintance, we wonder? A subplot regarding another victim of the gang, the noble Pepan, was dull as it was so obvious he'd die by the end that he might have well have had 'dead' tattooed on his forehead. D'Artagnan was angry and grief stricken, even though they'd known each other all of a day. The failings in the script were compounded by some lacklustre direction, especially some very comical 'can't be arsed' extras this week who kind of half slumped when shot. Definitely not The Musketeers' finest hour.

GK Rating: ***
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Agent Carter - Season 1, Episode 3

January 16, 2015, 3:36 am
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Peggy Carter continues her double life, working for SHIELD forerunner the SSR while also secretly trying to prove Howard Stark's innocence. This was a serviceable, enjoyable episode that didn't really do anything wrong but felt distinctly average. On the plus side, we got one great scrap, as Peggy squared up to a heavy guarding Stark's stolen tech on a ship. What's refreshing is that Hayley Atwell's Carter feels more realistic than many other heroines, not just because Atwell's dimensions more resemble a normal, curvy woman and not a stick insect but that her fighting moves are less the frantic, martial arts style we've got used to in Avengers and SHIELD but more down and dirty. Atwell continues to shine, actually, more than justifying a show of her own. I'm less sure of James D'Arcy's Edwin Jarvis. While Peggy feels real and rounded (in all senses), D'Arcy feels like a total stereotype. Some attempts were made to round him out this week - it was revealed that he was charged with treason - though the reason was to get a Jewish girl, now his wife, to safety. It would be good if D'Arcy were allowed to show more than the diffident butler side; his work on Broadchurch reveals he's an actor who can generate real menace as well as detachment.


Elsewhere, the plot was forwarded slowly. The SSR found the odd typewriter transmitter at the Leviathan agent's hotel and that the dead agents were Russian soldiers thought dead. Other than that, however, we learnt very little. More time was spent on fleshing out Peggy's new home life, introducing Dotty Underwood, a fellow resident. Whether friend or foe we'll have to wait. Peggy's tentative friendship with waitress Angie was also pushed along a little. What else was made clear in this episode is that Peggy's double life has consequences. Because she couldn't phone in the location of Stark's tech as it would give her away, she got Jarvis to anonymously ring the SSR. However, this led to one of the agents getting killed when he, and the thug guarding the tech, were both assassinated. As episodes go, this would be fine in a 22 episode run but a little underwhelming in an 8 episode one. What is good is that Atwell was given more to do than surf easily along, her humiliation in front of her colleagues (she had to make a deliberate error to get Jarvis out of questioning) and her felling about her colleague's death denting some of the pluck that can make Carter seem a trifle indestructible at times. Hardly classic, but fun nonetheless.

GK Rating: ***
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Doctor Who - The Crawling Terror by Mike Tucker

January 17, 2015, 1:20 am
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While I was pleasantly surprised by the improved quality of the first two books in this initial Twelfth Doctor trilogy, Mike Tucker's offering is a bit of a let down and more in keeping with the dumbed down, kid friendly novels of the Tenth Doctor I've been ploughing through recently. The Doctor and Clara arrive in modern day England in Ringstone. They soon find a man trapped in a giant spider's web in an underpass and hear the droning of giant mosquitoes. With the help of local vet Angela, young Kevin and elderly WW2 veteran Robin, the Doctor has to figure out the connections between the local stone circle, a science park run by a mysterious man who wears a mask over half of his face and an incident that happened in Ringstone during the Second World War that spoke of soldiers fighting giant monsters. With the village sealed off by webbing, the villagers taken over and acting as a zombie army and a giant spider, beetles, ants and mosquitoes patrolling the area, can the Doctor and his friends stop the second invasion of the scorpion like Wyrresters before the army order a bombing raid that will destroy them all?


I have a lot of time for Mike Tucker; he's worked in the model effects unit on both the classic and revived show and been writing books on the side since the early 2000s. However, Tucker is not the range's strongest writer, either in terms of plot or prose. The plot throws everything in bar the kitchen sink, with giant insects, a disfigured scientist, stone circles, army versus monster action, possession and a time trip back to the 1940s. It's almost as if Tucker has put all the various elements of Who in a bag and then picked out the first ten and tried to fashion a story. Tucker's prose style is also rather simplistic when compared to Justin Richards and James Goss who penned the other two. Though this isn't necessarily a bad thing, evoking the spirit of Terrance Dicks at times, it does feel a bit of a step back after the more complex novels that were released with it. It can't be ignored also that Tucker has already penned one villagers versus creepy crawly monsters book already and it feels like the writer is running low on ideas. His Doctor and Clara are also less like their screen counterparts and more like a generic Doctor/companion pairing. If I'd read this before the other two, I'd probably have enjoyed it more but, in comparison, The Crawling Terror lacks spark.

GK Rating: ***
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Star Trek - First Contact (1996)

January 17, 2015, 11:24 am
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First Contact isn't just the best of the Next Generation cast movies by far but one of the better Star Trek movies full stop. Generations had been a funereal, dull affair and most of the cast and crew knew this (the audience certainly did). Because of this, you can feel everyone working extra hard to make this follow up a success and that comes through in the writing, the direction and the acting. Star Trek 8 is a clever, muscular, fast moving piece, with plenty to appeal to the fans and, more importantly, for the more casual viewer. The first masterstroke is bringing back TV foe the Borg, the cybernetic assimilators who famously turned poor Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) into one of them. Six years later, the Borg attempt an attack on Earth. Picard's knowledge of the Borg allows him to coordinate a way to destroy their distinctive Borg Cube but not before a Borg Sphere (we don't get a Borg Triangle) time travels into Earth's past. The Enterprise follows and ends up in their past but the audience's future in 2163. The Borg's plan is to destroy Zefram Cochrane's fabled first warp flight that led to Earth being noticed and visited by the Vulcans, which itself led to the birth of Star Trek. While a group of the crew help Cochrane repair his ship so history can stay on course, Picard and Data (Brent Spiner) have to fight an infestation of Borg who have got aboard the Enterprise, including the Borg Queen...


Many things work well on First Contact. Firstly, the script - by Ronald Moore and Brannon Braga - is clever and well thought out. One of the big problems of Generations was Picard having to play second fiddle to an old, overweight William Shatner. Here, instead of being an amiable diplomat, Picard is transformed into an action hero, getting down and dirty fighting the Borg. Like Doctor Who when he meets the Daleks, the Borg bring out that rage in Picard. In the TV show he was effectively raped by the Borg and now he burns with the need for vengeance. This is exemplified in the film's best scene, a two-hander with the excellent Alfre Woodard who plays 21st Century gal Lily. Picard refuses to sacrifice anything else to the Borg, saying a line must be drawn and then smashing his gun into a display cabinet of models of past Enterprises. "I will make them pay for what they have done!" he shouts. Lily calls him on this and brings him to his senses. "Captain Ahab has got to go hunt his whale!" she retorts. The relationship between the pair of them is well handled and much better than the romance plot that the writers planned for Picard on Earth in their first draft. Stewart grabs this chance to be a tough Picard with both hands and has never (and will never be again) better as the Captain. His retort to Worf: "You're afraid... you coward! Get off my bridge!" is electrifying as it is so out of character.


The sub-plot of Cochrane's flight is also nicely developed. Cochrane (James Cromwell) is a legend to the crew (Dwight Schultz's Barclay gets a great cameo as a star struck fan) but in reality a drunk. He can't take the adoration being sent his way. He confides to Riker that he built the ship to make money so he could retire to an island with naked women. "This other guy, this historical figure? I never met him." Riker quotes Cochrane's own words from ten years hence back at him: "Don't try to be a great man, just be a man and let history make its own judgements." Lastly, Data (Brent Spiner) also gets a plot, being tempted to turn to the dark side by the Borg Queen (Alice Krige). In a wonderful effects shot that lowers her head into her robot body, Krige goes on to manage somehow to make the Queen sexy in a most disturbing way. Whether Data gets to prove he's 'fully functional in a variety of techniques' is thankfully left to the imagination though the great scene where the android has had skin grafted to his arm on which she blows on the hairs, asking huskily "was that good for you?" is genius. I'll less sure of the later repositioning of the Queen as an almost spurned lover as Picard wouldn't willing give himself over to the Borg when he was assimilated. What is especially gratifying, however, is that all the plots work without detracting from each other, leading to a climax that brings all three together skilfully.


Much of the success of First Contact has to go down to debut feature director Jonathan Frakes. Having been Will Riker for over a decade and having directed numerous TV episodes, the lack of interest by action directors in a Trek movie became his gain and the film's too. Having worked with these actors for so long, Frakes teases out some brilliant performances as well as from Woodard (his real life Godmother!). He revels in the budget and additional shooting time, giving us dizzying shots around the corridors, a great distorted point of view shot for the Borg and an opening shot of the camera moving from Picard's eye to the heart of a huge Borg ship that shows from the start - this one is going to be good. The action is crisp and exciting with several stand out scenes including a walk outside the spaceship and a fight on the deflector dish. The tone  is a much better balance of thrills, scares and laughs and the Next Generation ensemble all get their moment of charm, from Worf's 'perhaps today is a good day to day' to Troi's drunken antics. For fans of the show there's a brief return to the Holodeck and the world of 'The Big Goodbye' while Voyager's holographic doctor gets a cute cameo ("I'm a doctor, not a door stop"). We even get the perfect ending, the Vulcans landing and meeting humanity, the event that would lead to the Federation and the whole world of Star Trek. Brilliant stuff.

GK Rating: ****
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The Musketeers - Series 2, Episode 3

January 18, 2015, 2:53 am
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Someone misspelt a memo asking for more guest stars this week as we had a double dose of actors of colour playing Moors to add a touch of Othello to proceedings. Colin Salmon, complete with dodgy beard and even dodgier accent played Spanish general Alaman defecting to France with a precious cypher that could make super gunpowder. He needed the Musketeers to rescue his daughter, held captive by his former friend, now race hating, Iago like enemy. Tonight's A plot was about as subtle as the accents the actors playing Spaniards sported. Why give them accents anyway? The French characters all speak in English accents, why have stereotypical Spanish ones? Shouldn't Queen Anne have one then? Why not go the whole hog and cast Andrew Sachs in full Manuel as the Ambassador? Imagine the scene as King Louis demands to know what the Spanish are up to. Manuel could draw himself up to his full height and declare: "I know nothing." As you can probably tell, I was less than impressed and I found the constant capture, escape, recapture rather wearing. The poetry spouting daughter trying to get Porthos to question who his people were also seemed a trifle off to me, as racist as if a white character had said it. There was mention of his absent father again, a plot that is rumbling in the background. The nadir of this thread was Colin Salmon's clichéd plea for racial tolerance just before he blew up everyone with his handy gunpowder which no-one had thought to search him for.


Thankfully, the supporting plots were better. After coming back on the scene last week, I expected several episodes of Milady on the periphery, getting closer to the King. How wrong I was! After a mere thirty minutes she was having her wicked way with him under the table! That said, who could say no to the delicious Maimie McCoy? The Queen also saw them together so that opens up the other plot, that Rochefort (Marc Warren) is in love with her. Since coming in as Peter Capaldi's replacement, Rochefort is developing in unexpected directions, his apparent loyalty to Spain possibly at odds with his desire for Anne. Having prostitutes dress up as Anne for the bedroom was bad enough but the moment he and Anne were sat together, Anne distraught as the Dauphin was seriously ill, and he let slip the simple words "I love you," I took a breath, the arch manipulator almost caught out until he hastily followed it up. Perhaps the season will give Warren more to do than just twirl his moustache. Could we have a villain who is genuinely conflicted? It would help the show to reach a complexity that justifies its time slot. In other news, Constance managed to sneak the Royal Prince out of the palace to a local laundry to get the child some healing steam. Really? How bad must their guards be? Do they not have any boiled water in the palace then? I'm with the King - she should have been executed - regardless that it turned out alright in the end. A decent episode but this current run isn't really offering us enough that is different. It feels like the first series with the occasional slightly raunchier moment. It's in need of some real character development and complexity and feels more like a stable mate of Merlin and Atlantis but fifteen minutes longer.

GK Rating: ***
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The Theory of Everything (2015)

January 19, 2015, 9:19 am
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To be honest, I was in no hurry to watch this one, going purely because my Cinema Buddy fancied it. Yes, Eddie Redmayne is up for the Oscar but disease movies are one of my least favourite genres, the whiff of 'TV movie of the week' usually hanging around them. With an academic genius at the centre of it, I was dreading I'd get A Beautiful Mind with dribbling. However, thought it loses momentum in the last third, The Theory of Everything is surprisingly good, boasting two great central performances and maintaining a healthy sense of humour throughout. Redmayne is Stephen Hawking, working for his PhD at Cambridge in the 1960s. He meets Jane Wilde at a party and they start to date but then he is dealt a terrible blow, finding out he has the degenerative motor-neurone disease and given just two years to live. Jane, however, is determined that they will stay together, even if it's just for two years. They marry and soon have children. Both have to deal with Stephen's worsening condition, which robs him of mobility and eventually his speech. Two years becomes a decade and then more. While Stephen throws himself into his work, outlining an ambitious theory of time and black holes, Jane finds herself struggling to endure a life as a full time mother and a full time carer.


What saves The Theory of Everything from being a misery memoir is the well judged script from Anthony McCarten, adapted from Jane's autobiography. Hawking's disease is truly horrible but while there are some excellent scenes that show Stephen's reactions to this, especially the moment he is the bath shortly after being diagnosed or later, trying to climb the stairs while his baby son watches from behind a stair gate, he also maintains a sense of humour and a desire to live a full a life as possible. Eddie Redmayne is very good and deserves an Oscar nod and, with some bad specs and a bad hairstyle, it's truly astonishing how much the pretty boy actor looks like Hawking, but - and I feel bad for writing this but it's what I'm thinking - how hard is it really for an actor to recreate how a disabled man sits in a wheelchair? I actually thought his best work was earlier on, perfectly capturing a shy, socially awkward young man that stands out like a sore thumb because of his intellect. The early scenes with Jane are very affecting and, though the romance develops a little too quickly, it's done well and is believable. David Thwelis as his mentor and Harry Lloyd as best mate provide some able support too.


As Jane, Felicity Jones has the less showy role but does good work. Her Jane is a strong, determined character but one who gradually buckles under the relentless pressure that is looking after a man who is paralysed. The two years turn into two decades and we see the toll it takes on her. When she starts to take an interest in choirmaster Jonathan (Charlie Cox), the film doesn't demonise her but elicits our sympathy; who wouldn't be tempted in her situation? Jonathan becomes an unpaid helper to the family, an able bodied male for the kids and the attraction between the two develops. It is left ambiguous whether this attraction was acted upon while the Hawkings remained married, the irony being that it was Stephen who moved on first, trading in Jane for Elaine (Maxine Peake) a specialist bought in to be his carer. The film, however, isn't too interested in allocating blame or guilt, showing us that Stephen and Jane remained friends, the boffin taking her along to meet the Queen when he was given his OBE. As directed by James Marsh, The Theory of Everything is a handsome looking picture which evokes the halcyon day of 1960s academia and the buzz that Hawking's ideas generated. It is also, however, an intimate portrait of a marriage of two well meaning souls who try their best for as long as they can against a most terrible illness. That the film can make us laugh so much - Hawking impersonating a Dalek when he first got his famous voice box is brilliant - is testament to the film's lightness of touch. Well worth a watch.

GK Rating: ****
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10 Reasons Why The Flash is Brilliant

January 20, 2015, 9:54 am
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If you compare the screen versions of the DC and the Marvel Universes, one thing sticks out like a sore thumb every time; while the Marvel versions are mostly fun, enjoyable affairs - Guardians of the Galaxy was the most fun you could have at the movies last year - DC's output has got trapped in the gritty, true life ghetto established by the hugely influential Christopher Nolan Batman films. Man of Steel was a torturous, loud, joyless experience that seemed determined not to give the audience one single laugh.

The DC TV universe has also been infected by this desire to be adult and dark. Gotham exchanges the chance to tell us the larger than life tales of Batman's world for a dull police procedural focused on Jim Gordon and thinks its a crime drama not a superhero show, while Arrow has a lead who never smiles, instead looking vaguely constipated as he joylessly dispatches villains with his bow. What happened to the primary colour style of the original Superman films of the 1970s and 80s or the wholesome, corny fun of Smallville?

Thank goodness then for The Flash. Since debuting on the CW, the show has been a breath of fresh air in the TV superhero world, finally giving us a DC hero who is fun and friendly not dark and brooding. While some consider The Flash childish, others cherish it for returning the superhero to its more childlike origins, providing consistent fun on a regular basis while still giving viewers all the action, threat and drama as well. Still not convinced? Then read on as I prove to the cynical why The Flash is brilliant and why it looks set to get even better.

10. A Great Supporting Cast

The CW
 
Casting a great lead is key for any show but just as important is surrounding your hero with a likeable supporting cast of characters. The Flash hasn't put a foot wrong, bringing together one of the best ensembles in years. To support Barry Allen at home is Detective Joe West, a surrogate father, while the TV Flash of the 1990s - John Wesley Shipp - plays his real dad Henry, convicted and sentenced to prison for the death of Barry's mother Nora. Rounding this out is Candice Patton as Iris, Joe's daughter and the object of Barry's affection. Being Joe's partner and Iris's boyfriend also brings Eddie Thawne into Barry's orbit too.

Barry also has his family at STAR Labs, with Dr Caitlin Snow and Cisco on hand to assist the Flash in his missions. Cisco is so good he warrants an entry of his own later on, while Caitlin is turning into a resourceful and endearing character with her own heartache over the death of fiancé Ronnie, who was revealed mid-season to be still be alive and now Firestorm! Overseeing STAR labs is the enigmatic Dr Harrison Wells, a man with an agenda all of his own. As part of the CW family, the Flash family also get visits from their friends from Starling City. As well as guesting in Arrow, Flash has also had a full visit from Oliver Queen and his crew while Felicity Smoak's recognition of a kindred spirit has led to her and Barry becoming firm friends. The Flash has its hero but the show is definitely, and triumphantly, an ensemble effort.

9. Optimism

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The Flash bucks the convention of current superhero TV by having an inherently optimistic outlook. Barry Allen isn't a vigilante, meting out harsh justice. He doesn't aim an arrow intended to maim or kill. One of the best things about The Flash it that it shows us a young hero who has experienced horrible things in his life and yet he still chooses to look on the bright side of things and to believe the best in people. His aim when donning the suit isn't to get the chance to beat up villains but to help people and to make a difference. This difference between heroism and vigilantism is brilliantly highlighted when Barry meets up with Oliver Queen. Yes, Arrow may have the cool toys and the experience and yes, Barry may be impetuous and occasionally cocky but Barry's moral code is clear. Torturing people for information is wrong. Deliberately killing people, even if they deserve it, is wrong. It may be Arrow's way but it certainly isn't the Flash's.

The show has an optimistic view of the world. Yes, there are meta-humans out there who want to do harm but there's also a dedicated police force, and Barry and his associates. Even those that should be bitter in Barry's life, especially his imprisoned father, don't let anger and regret ruin their lives further. There is always hope in Flash's world.

8. Unrequited Love

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From Romeo and Juliet to Clark and Lana and Oliver and Felicity - you can't beat a bit of unrequited love. In the grand old tradition of beloved superhero tropes, Barry must keep his identity secret from the girl he loves while the girl he loves is rather keen on his costumed alter ego. As played by Candice Patton, it is easy to see why Iris has captured Barry's heart; she's beautiful, loyal, resourceful and compassionate and can make a mean cappuccino as well.

Coming out of his coma to find that Iris had started a secret relationship with her dad's police partner was bad enough but once the object of his affections started writing a blog about his superhero antics the complications just keep getting bigger and bigger. It seemed fine to meet Iris as the Flash once but this soon became an addiction. What young man wouldn't love to impress the girl of his dreams, even if she doesn't actually realise it was him?

With a meta-human bringing out Barry's frustration and resentment, leading to the Flash attacking Eddie in front of Iris, her affection for the Streak has waned. Eddie has also asked her to move in with him. However, what will happen now Barry has revealed he has always loved her? Will those feelings finally be reciprocated?

7. A Diverse Rogues Gallery

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Because Barry is a meta-human, the show requires that his foes must also be similarly powered and with the Macguffin of the Collider explosion, there is a blanket explanation for any power the writers can dream up or pluck from the vast array of villains in the Flash comic books. In just nine episodes, the Flash has already faced a memorable bunch. From meta-humans who can turn themselves into poisonous gas or create fierce weather storms to a woman who is a human bomb and a childhood bully who can turn himself into living metal, there's never a dull moment in Central City or a chance for Barry to catch a coffee before another one bursts into view.

Among the best have been Wentworth Miller's Captain Cold, a sardonic career criminal with a freeze gun. He's back to plague Barry again - this time with his heat generating old partner - in the first episode of the returning run at the end of January. Danton Black and his ability to clone himself into multiple versions of himself was also a memorable foe for Barry. With another 14 episodes of this first season to go, who else will we see and will General Grodd finally put in an appearance?

6. Firestorm

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If it wasn't already cool enough to have one DC legend in the show, another one is being introduced as well. The reveal that Ronnie Raymond, the fiancé of Caitlin Snow who was supposedly killed sacrificing himself to seal off the Collider, now has control over fire and has referred to himself as a 'firestorm' brings another member of the Justice League of American to the small screen.

How this Firestorm will resemble the comic incarnation is too early to tell. He's unlikely to put on a bright red and yellow costume or to start sporting a flame hairdo. However, his flame powers could prove invaluable to helping the Flash and, like the comics Firestorm, this version can already fly. Of course, there's no guarantee this version of the Nuclear Man will end up a hero.

Ronnie's resurrection also promises further emotional turmoil for poor Caitlin. Will she feel a conflict of loyalties and what impact will this have on the STAR labs team? Here's another plotline that promises to keep us guessing.

5. Flash's Evolving Powers

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Bored of the same old punch ups and shootouts in Gotham, or the bow and arrow martial arts of Arrow? Perhaps even the top class fights in Agents of SHIELD have got a little same old, same old? The Flash is an action packed show, one that is literally, always on the move. Whereas, in the good old days of Smallville, you'd wait 40 minutes for one minute of Clark Kent running fast, the Flash is not afraid to give the audience what they want - which is the fastest man alive being fast.

The Flash is a hero who has a highly exciting and visual power set. Like when Clark tore along those cornfields in Smallville, there's something just inherently cool about heroes who can move fast and the Flash in action looks great, a yellow and red blur of motion. Watching Barry blaze through the streets or seeing the world speeding past from his point of view never gets old. It's also cool when we see Barry's heightened perceptions slow the world around him, people seemingly frozen in amber as he moves at his leisure.

But Flash is also a new hero and one sounding out his abilities. As the show progresses so does Barry's exploration of what he can do. From running fast, Barry has also realised he can run on water and up the sides of buildings. He has also now worked out that being able to vibrate at superspeed also has its advantages, from opening a door to disguising his face and vocals chords so he can meet Iris without being recognised. How long before Barry works out he can vibrate his molecules to move through solid objects? As far as his powers go, the best is yet to come.

4. The Mysterious Agenda of Dr Harrison Wells

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As the wheelchair bound owner of STAR labs, Dr Harrison Wells serves as the boffin best equipped to help Barry deal with his powers and even act as another father figure to him. However, the viewers know that Wells is a lot more than that. Wells has a secret room with a computer that has knowledge of the future and a newspaper headline from the year 2024. Wells is also not a paraplegic at all, being able to rise up, Andy style, whenever no-one is watching.

We also know that Wells is instrumental in the formation of the Reverse-Flash and is secretly working to assemble technology that will help him time travel. So, Wells is the big bad then, right? Not necessarily. With knowledge of the future, perhaps Wells is working for a positive agendas that forces him to do questionable things. Perhaps, in his mind, the ends justify the means.

At the moment, Wells - played with delicious ambiguity by Tom Cavanagh - remains an enigma. He could be Flash's greatest threat or potential saviour. What we do know is that he is a man full of secrets. Potential time traveller, creator of Flash's powers, engineer of General Grodd - who knows what else he has up his sleeve.

3. The Reverse-Flash

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Every great hero needs a brilliant super-villain and the Reverse-Flash is shaping up to be one of the best. Somehow responsible for the death of Nora Allen and therefore the subsequent wrongful conviction and imprisonment of Henry Allen, Barry's father, the Reverse-Flash has already caused Barry considerable pain and anguish before Barry even got his powers. From the off, the mysterious yellow blurry figure has intrigued viewers and this reached a new peak when this blur stole all Joe's research and left a chilling warning to back off or risk Iris's life. However, it wasn't until the mid-season finale that we got our first proper glimpse of Flash's nemesis and what an impression he made! Easily outracing Barry and beating him in combat, Reverse-Flash is everything Barry is and more.

His agenda remains mysterious. What is his long term plan? Why did he kill Nora Allen? Who is he? At the end of the finale, Dr Wells was revealed to have the yellow suit in his secret room but does that mean he is the Reverse-Flash? The timey-wimey aspect of the series means that Wells could be setting up the very circumstances for someone else to become Reverse-Flash in the future to then time travel back. The comics give Eddie Thawne a sinister alter-ego but will the series necessarily follow suit? We do know, however, that there is more to come, Cisco working out that, at the time of Nora's death, that there were two speedsters present.

2. The Legendary Cisco

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One thing The Flash has that makes it such a pleasant change from other spandex shows is that it's funny and a large part of that is owing to Carlos Valdes who stars as the marvellous Cisco Ramon. if there's a joke to be made or a moment of light relief required we can depend on Cisco to provide it. However, Cisco is not just the joke character, his mechanical know-how creating the Flash suit and all manner of useful devices to aid the Flash in his battles.

Cisco is also the one who gives the increasingly large rogues gallery the Flash meets their codenames, often after going through some amusing alternatives. His fanboy joy at meeting the Arrow and asking whether he can see the Arrow Cave or the Arrowmoblie is infectious; Cisco represents the fan in all of us and that's why he's so loveable. From his Yoda impressions to falling for every beautiful woman who comes to STAR labs (his reaction to Plastique was hysterical), Cisco is one of the show's greatest assets. Is there more to come as well? In the comics mythology, Cisco Ramon is the name of Vibe, a meta-human, and one-time member of the Justice League with powerful vibration powers, powers that could even defeat the Flash...

1. Grant Gustin

The CW
 
The Flash's most brilliant selling point is its lead, the charming Grant Gustin. Unlike the more traditional beefcake actors such as Stephen Amell on Arrow or Ben MacKenzie over in Gotham, Gustin, though toned, looks like a real person and not an underwear model. This is someone you might pass in the street not walk past in a gym as they look at themselves in the mirror. Gustin also really sells the emotional moments in the show. Barry is a positive man but faces great tragedy, especially the death of his mother and imprisonment of his father. When Gustin cries we all feel it, so good is the actor's crumpled little face and teary eyes. He also is utterly adorable whenever in Iris's company. Never has unrequited love been portrayed so sweetly.

Gustin's experience on Glee has been useful too. The Flash is a consciously lighter show than Arrow and requires a lead who can do funny as well as steely. We invest in the antics of the Flash because Gustin's Barry Allen feels real. As a lead the actor is so easy to like and invest in, so much so that it doesn't matter if he's in the suit or not. Long may he continue.




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Broadchurch - Series 2, Episode 3

January 21, 2015, 3:35 am
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Either this week was better or I've finally accepted this series on its own merits and not by constantly comparing it to the first. Writer Chris Chibnell made up for his OTT cliffhanger last week with a brilliant Hardy and Miller moment, Alec blasting her for getting distracted and letting the Ashworths abscond, saying: "What is the point of you, Miller?!" Ellie (Olivia Colman) fires back: "I'm sick to the back teeth of taking flak for stuff I haven't done!" before flinging her keys at the detective and shouting: "Fine! You have the keys! I hope you bloody well crash! And have a heart attack while you're crashing!" Genius. Alec zooms off while Ellie helps Beth home to have her baby. "I don't want you here," Beth grumbles through contractions. "well, tough sh*t," Ellie responds. If there were a poll for best TV character ever, Ellie Miller would have to be up there somewhere. Beth has a girl - Lizzie - but later, when Ellie comes to visit, she turns her away. "Get that woman out of our home," she says to husband Mark (Andrew Buchan). Later, the vicar comes a calling but Mark stops him making the sign of the cross on the baby's head. "God's not in this house," he says quietly but resolutely, "surely that's clear by now?" Mark's promise to protect baby Lizzie and his declaration to Beth that they'll do better this time was poignant, messed up by the insistence to flash to Danny's picture on the mantel, in case we were all a bit thick.


Hardy found the Ashworths back at Claire's house and gets knocked on his ass by Lee. James D'Arcy is a revelation in this part, so different to the affected butler he's playing in Agent Carter. He exudes a constant menace and violence yet also a complexity that suggests he could indeed be innocent. I found myself caring for the first time about what happened in Sandbrook, which makes up the mystery element of this series. Hardy thinks Claire is hiding things from him while Lee approaches him - after having him humiliated by making a complaint that led to Hardy having to apologise to him - with evidence Ashworth himself has collated over the years to prove his innocence to Hardy and to who killed the missing girls. "you missed something," he states simply. Flashbacks suggest Ashworth may be more guilty than he says, giving the 19 year old babysitter a knowing look, and showing us Claire accusing him of doing something. Hardy tasks Ellie with getting close to Claire and the pair end up on the town and bringing two men back to Claire's house. Ellie gets game but feels worse, not better. However, Claire confides that Lee drugged her the night of the disappearances and she woke up to find him cleaning the house. Truth or lies? How far can Claire be trusted? Hardy knows there's more than she's saying. Who sent her the pressed bluebell, for instance?


The weakest part of the episode were the trial scenes which just don't ring true for me. I'm not an expert but I find it hard to believe that the judge, or prosecution counsel Jocelyn, would let nasty Sharon Bishop (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) get away with all the tricks she keeps pulling. Fair enough to cast doubt as to whether someone else could have sent the texts or emails that Danny received but the ending, which had Sharon accuse Ellie and Hardy of having an affair and subsequently framing Joe was farcical. Isn't there something you need called evidence? What is Jocelyn doing just sat there while Sharon berates Ellie and makes these unsubstantiated claims? It just stretches credibility too far and that makes Broadchurch just another potboiler and not the cut above that we expect and demand. As usual, Colman does her best to make this scene powerful but they can't kept relying on her to bail them out of some dodgy plotting and scripting. While we're on this, the half-hearted attempts to flesh out Jocelyn and Sharon seemed like padding. Why do we need to feel some sympathy for Sharon? She works fine as the antagonist we love to hate. Jocelyn's fatigue/illness that caused her to prang her car also felt unnecessary. Still, those issues apart, I thought this was the best episode since the show returned and one that finally dragged me fully back into this world.

GK Rating: ****
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Doctor Who - The Company of Friends

January 21, 2015, 9:51 am
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While only getting one full outing on the telly, Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor has prospered in a range of media from countless novels to comic strips to Big Finish's own audios. After the intensity of the four series with Lucie Miller the producers of Big Finish have a bit of fun by giving voices to some of the Doctor's most popular non TV companions in four short stories. While this is mildly diverting, The Company of Friends ends up being less than the sum of its parts. Benny's Story by Lance Parkin brings back favourite novel and audio character Professor Bernice Summerfield. On an excavation deep underground for the Countess Venhella, she realises that she has found the Doctor's TARDIS key. How did it end up there millions of years ago? Then the Doctor appears, the TARDIS is attacked and creates a dangerous time bubble in defence and a strange interdimensional creature attempts to break into our galaxy. While there's a lot going on the highlight is the easy and flirtatious relationship quickly established between McGann and Lisa Bowerman as Benny. There's a definite spark between them and further adventures with this pairing would be welcomed. Fitz's Story teams the Doctor with long running BBC Books character Fitz Kreiner. Fitz's blokishness worked a treat in the novels but with Matt Di Angelo's dull cockernee delivery the character is reduced to a cliche. The story, by Steve Cole, is a bit of a plodding runaround featuring a special needs cleaner (a tad tasteless) that turns into an alien. On this evidence, best to leave Fitz in the novels.


Izzy's Story, by Alan Barnes is a total waste of time, bringing back Doctor Who Magazine comic strip character Izzy. As played by Jemima Rooper, Izzy appears even more special needs than the cleaner in the previous story, fixated with old comic characters and sounding as if she's channeling Bonnie Langford. As with much of Barnes's work, it seems to have been written for his amusement rather than the listener, with lots of lazy digs at 2000AD. Easily the worst of the bunch. Luckily, they saved the best until last with Mary's Story, a great little chiller that brings a heavily wounded Doctor to Switzerland in 1816 just as Lord Byron is challenging his friends, including Mary Shelley, to come up with a ghost story. What follows is a new spin on Frankenstein. While Barnes would make this all clever clever, Jonathan Morris, one of Big Finish's best writers, makes it scary, affecting and a cracking listen. We also get two McGann's for the price of one. Better yet, the very endearing Mary, played by Julie Cox, departs with the Doctor at the end, opening the way for the next set of Eighth Doctor adventures. So, one awful story, two average and one good - not a great return, but useful if you want to see the first meeting between the Doctor and a new companion.

GK Rating: ***
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Wolf Hall - Episode 1

January 22, 2015, 12:51 am
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With much fanfare and declarations that this will be the best BBC drama EVER, the adaptation of Hilary Mantel's chronicles of Thomas Cromwell's rise to power as adviser and fixer to Henry VIII begins. Mark Rylance plays the lawyer and confidante to Cardinal Wolsey (a dignified Jonathan Pryce) at the time where the King finally tires at Wolsey's failure to secure him a divorce from wife Catherine of Aragon so he can go and make male heirs with Anne Boleyn. Much of the pre-broadcast publicity has been about Damian Lewis as Henry but he made only a fleeting appearance in tonight's opener, the focus being more on how Cromwell came to work for Wolsey and his loyalty to his patron once he falls from grace. Along the way, Crowell suffers the tragedy of losing his wife and daughters to fever while trying to keep his non-conformity a secret. Now I haven't read Mantel's novels and my knowledge of the Tudors isn't tremendous (a bit of a sad admission as I'm a history teacher) so I won't be able to comment on how close this follows the novel or the finer details of established history. As a piece of drama it was handsomely made and filmed, managing to seem real while everyone wandered around in funny hats. It was, in my mind however, a little on the leisurely side pace wise and seemed to chop and change time periods without really convincing me why it needed to.

At the heart of the drama is Cromwell and Mark Rylance is absolutely tremendous in the part. An actor of great skill and nuance, Rylance is always a pleasure to watch and his Cromwell is a man who blends into the background yet has the knack of getting noticed. The great pleasure of this opener were Cromwell's wry observations and comments, especially his caustic put down of Thomas More at dinner and a scene with Claire Foy's frosty Anne Boleyn when she asks him tartly if he thinks she is simple, to which Crowell replies as he doesn't know her she may well be. As is usual with BBC costume drama there was an impressive cast on display from Joanne Whalley as Catherine to Bernard Hill as a bolshy lord. Not everyone was brilliant - I found Mark Gatiss basically doing what he normally does, i.e., being superior and smug, irritating - but most of the performances were spot on. Of course, this first episode just chronicles the start of Cromwell's journey with the best stuff still to come. This part's main job was to establish Cromwell as a protagonist we want to spend time with and this it succeeded in admirably. Some of it was a little too on the nose, especially the flashbacks to when his pantomime bad blacksmith dad beat him as a lad, but overall the script was as deft and subtle as Rylance. Quality stuff.

GK Rating: ****
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Get Smart (2008)

January 22, 2015, 9:29 am
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With both Kingsman and Mordecai arriving on our cinema screens shortly, the spy spoof is very much back in vogue, joining the illustrious company of Austin Powers and, err, I-Spy. Get Smart is a 2008 film adaptation of the 60s comedy show where a brilliant female spy is partnered with a klutz. The film version is an amiable if pedestrian Steve Carell vehicle which is pretty enough to look at without ever really being that funny, exciting or involving. Carell plays Maxwell Smart, an analyst at spy organisation CONTROL, led by an acerbic Alan Arkin. Searching for nuclear bombs being made by rivals KAOS and led by Terence Stamp's Siegfried, CONTROL's office is attacked and the identities of their agents blown. The only solution is to promote Max to Agent 86 and partner him up with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), who has recently had plastic surgery. The pair set off to investigate leads in Russia which involve all manner of complications, including avoiding a giant henchman (the monumental Dalip Singh), and jumping out of a plane without a parachute. Max has the skills but none of the experience; can Agent 99 tolerate him long enough to foil a threat to the life of the President of the USA?


I'm embarrassed to confess that I've never seen the TV Get Smart so cannot comment on how faithful this film is to the show. Carell looks like the pictures of lead actor Don Adams while the inclusions of a red 60s convertible and gadgets such as the shoe phone and the cones of silence hail from the original. The music also makes an appearance and there is a cameo from TV Siegfried Bernie Kopell. Taken on its own merits, Get Smart never really gets going, feeling very episodic in nature. Some of these work better than others: the scene where Carell is making his way through a series of lasers when a rat gets down his shirt is very funny as is his dance routine (spoofing True Lies) with a very overweight partner, while others, such as Max continually shooting himself with a small dart goes on for far too long. Action wise, the set pieces are surprisingly Bond like in their development, with knowing riffs on the parachute jump scene from Moonraker for instance (Singh is basically Jaws in all but name). In support, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is really good as slick Agent 23 while Arkin is a constant scene stealer as the Chief. James Caan is the President while David Koechner, Terry Crews and Bill Murray cameo. I found it entirely watchable if unmemorable but my two sons loved it.

GK Rating: ***
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The 100 - Season 2, Episode 3

January 23, 2015, 12:22 am
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Another incident packed instalment. Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor) has discovered Mount Weather's dark secret - they're using the blood of captured Grounders to heal their weakness to radiation. In a room full of Grounders caged like animals, Clarke finds Grounder leader Anya and frees her. They escape down a shoot where the people of the underground city dump the drained Grounders to an even worse fate - lunch for the cannibalistic Reapers! To survive, Clarke and Anya have to play dead until they get a chance to slip away. Anya, however, goes her own way and it's not long before Clarke is recaptured by the soldiers of the base. Inside, fellow 100 members Monty and Jasper are being lied to - told that Clarke has gone doolally and is in the psych ward. Will Jasper's sweetness for Mia blind him to what is going on? Clarke, meanwhile, has been rescued by Anya and the pair have to do a Richard Kimble and take a jump off the top of the dam to escape. Anya rescues Clarke from drowning so the pair are now friends, right? Wrong. Anya clumps Clarke with a rock, intending to take her to her people to pay for Clarke's part in the death of so many Grounders at the end of last season.


Elsewhere, Finn, Bellamy and Murphy have gone off to locate the rest of the 100, with guns supplied by Clarke's mum Abby. At Camp Jaha, Chancellor Kane knows this and is faced with a dilemma - being urged by his gung-ho Major to punish Abby with ten lashes of the ol' shock lash (or standard sci-fi glowstick to you and me). Kane is reticent, telling his Major: "On the Ark, we had to be ruthless... but down here, we have the chance to start over." However, with tensions high, he goes along with the punishment to enforce order. He hopes there can be a different way and later relinquishes his Chancellorship to Abby and goes off with a small group to make contact with Grounders and to try to broker a peace (good luck with that one). Finn, meanwhile, has gone all native, suddenly attacking and torturing a Grounder as if he were Bellamy. Could it be because the Grounder had Clarke's father's watch around his neck? It's a bit of a role reversal when Bellamy urges restraint and then Finn shoots their hostage dead! Have the two got their lines mixed up in the script? Finally, after being chased around for a while, Octavia manages to broker a truce with Lincoln's people to help rescue him from Reapers. However, when the group manage to free their people, Lincoln is not among them. Huh? Turns out our hunky Grounder with the ten mile stare and the big abs has been captured by the Mount Weather forces and selected for the Serverus Program. Well, that can't be good, can it? Another full on episode of action and revelations. Entertaining stuff.

GK Rating: ****
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Doctor Who - The Emperor of Eternity

January 23, 2015, 8:49 am
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A decent enough historical from writer Nigel Robinson read by Deborah Watling and featuring Frazer Hines. After hitting a meteor, the TARDIS brings the Doctor, Vicki and Jamie to a village in China in 200BC. The land is under the rule of Emperor Qin, feared by all they meet. When news of the travellers reaches the Emperor, it is believed the trio are Gods from the nearby sacred mountain. The Doctor is taken off to the imperial city and is fated to remain a prisoner until he reveals the secret of everlasting life to the Emperor. When suspicious 'monk' Qon leaves the village, Victoria and Jamie fear he may be an assassin, with a mission to assassinate Qin. Together with some of the villagers, the time travelling companions undertake a dangerous quest to reach the imperial city and rescue Qin, hoping that the Doctor will be released in return. However, Victoria and Jamie are very wrong about Qon's identity and also about who the real assassin is...


Nigel Robinson is an obvious fan of the pure historical and brings research and atmosphere to this tale of an ancient civilization that is every bit as alien as the farthest planet. However, much as I admire his script it is rather dull, unfortunately recreating the leisurely feel and lack of incident that often typified these early tales. My other real problem is with Watling's reading of the story. Unlike some other companions, Watling's voice has changed so much since her time on the show that she sounds little like the girl we met in the 1960s and it's hard to imagine the young Victoria here. It's also a shame that, even though Victoria is given more to do than on TV (which was normally to get chased and scream loudly), she's still rather a shrill and insipid companion. Even the usually reliable Frazer Hines sounds a little bored and he doesn't even get to give us his brilliant Pat Troughton impersonation, Watling getting the Doctor duties and sounding nothing like him. This is a well written tale but not one to get the pulse racing or really keep the interest.

GK Rating: ***
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The Flash - Season 1, Episode 10

January 24, 2015, 4:35 am
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The speedster returns after the show's Christmas break in a fun enough episode that was perhaps just a tad too daft even for this show. Barry Allen has got a lot on his mind: he's met the Reverse-Flash, a mysterious nemesis who is faster and stronger than him, and also facing the awkward aftermath of confessing to best pal Iris that he's in love with her. While avoiding the subject is the best he can do with his friend, he's thrown himself into extra training to try to increase his speed and reactions to combat his deadly enemy. Behind him all the way on this is Harrison Wells, but we all know he has a vested interest in seeing the Flash mature. Surrogate dad Joe, however, is concerned that Barry is being too influenced by his scientific mentor, Barry saying he has to 'prioritise' and not answer every call for help sounding too much like the calculating Wells and not the lad who wants to help everyone. Joe is also having to face up to Iris moving out and going to live with Eddie. Members of Star Labs have their own problems to face, Caitlin having found out her dead fiancé is very much alive and can now fly and catch fire! Barry works out Firestorm is in fact an acronym for an experiment in changing materials at a sub-atomic level. What is the connection to Star Labs? Is the wily Wells involved? Is Firestorm part of his agenda related to events in the future? Will Caitlin's investigations put her in danger?


Well, get in line. Caitlin finds herself in plenty of danger when Leonard Snart, Captain Cold, returns set on another show down with the Flash. Worse, he's brought along his old, arsonist colleague Mick Rory who wields a heat gun (Cisco quickly dubs him Heatwave). In a nice bit of TV homage, the producers rope in Snart actor Wentworth Miller's on screen brother from their long running show Prison Break, Dominic Purcell, as Heatwave. Both are enjoyable enough villains but the truth remains that they really shouldn't pose much of a threat to the Flash. They're not meta-humans, just blokes with ray guns (and Rory's is an embarrassingly crappy looking kids' gun too). If Flash can dodge bullets why can't he just nip around them and knock them out in a micro-second? We can probably excuse this as this logic would basically undermine every encounter with anyone bar Reverse-Flash but the dopey solution of getting the pair to cross their energy streams was just plain daft - they even eluded to this in the episode, comparing it jokingly to the crossing of the streams from Ghostbusters! The finale, however, did give Eddie an opportunity to show his bravery, running in to protect the Flash when the pair have the drop on him. I really like Eddie but worry he is going to turn out to be the Reverse-Flash in the future. Overall a decent instalment, if a bit hokey, and it's nice to see Barry move in with Joe at the end. It's also great to have the show back.

GK Rating: ***
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