As this is my first review of an ‘early adventure’; I’ll talk briefly about this range.
It’s been really good to see classic doctors revived and companions brought back in the ‘early adventures’. There were some really nice companion chronicles, but Big Finish doing full cast audio adventures have slightly ruined me for narration when we can hear a story with a full cast acting it out. These early adventures are mostly acted out with a full cast, with occasional narration to set the scene. The companions like Frazer Hines as the Second Doctor and William Russell as the First do such a good job you feel like they are there and I’m really glad they made the brave decision to do early Doctors replacing the actors we miss so much.
It’s really nice to still see a story come up in any part of the Doctor Who world that is based on real historical events and especially when it’s a part of history that is maybe less well used in modern fiction.
Now when you are dealing with a history based episode you have a few choices. You can go for a straight telling of the events and get the Doctor and companions mixed up in established events, like classic DW story ‘The Romans’. You can create a secret threat to history that the Doctor must defeat to save the timeline a-la ‘The Unquiet Dead’. Or you can add in a supernatural element that the writer makes part of the original events as they did in the ‘Fires of Pompeii’. This story tries to have its cake and eat it too on this front.
It’s another moment when Big Finish find something new to do you never would have thought of and you suddenly realise it’s what you never knew you always wanted.
Since they have gone down the road of ‘The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield’ it’s been great to see the Doctor paired with Bernice and how they have managed to keep Bernice as the central character without lessening the Doctor. But to then throw in a whole new universe from a range that hasn’t had a release in 8 years, it’s both insane and genius!
“This really feels like an ambitious collection of stories that each work on their own but also feel like part of one bigger story that doesn’t get lost in the mix. The whole cast and crew behind this story are on their A game to say the least.”
In a voyeuristic world that at any time someone could be watching you from your laptop, inside your car, from their window into your home perhaps even across a field comes the powerful tale of revenge, fear and dealing with guilt from FINAL DESTINATION and TAMARA scribe Jeffrey Reddick entitled the GOOD SAMARTIAN. Known for smart screenwriting that established one of the most successful film franchises in the last twenty years (FINAL DESTINATION series). Reddick takes the helm on this project writing and directing his first short film which focuses a sharp and dark eye on the news/multi-media spin machine’s perception of what is right and wrong in today’s society. The GOOD SAMARTIAN shows us the horror of a generation that would choose to not get involved rather than be able to help those in need. Continue reading →
This new thriller from writer/director Ken Sanzel follows the story of two illegal gun fighters (the type of fight where they use live rounds and wear bullet proof vests for spectator sport).
The film stars Mickey Rourke, Freida Pinto and Ryan Kwanten.
From writing/directing duo Howard & Jonathan Ford comes the sequel to 2010’s The Dead. Whilst the original was set in Africa we switch continents for this film which has a similar story but set (and shot) in India this time. Released on DVD in the UK by Altitude.
An American engineer (Millson) teams up with a surviving orphan street kid (Goyal) to trek 300 miles across stunning but deadly rural Indian landscapes to the now infested slums of Mumbai to try and save his pregnant girlfriend (Mishra).Continue reading →
From director Dave La Mattina, I Am Big Bird is a documentary that tells the story of Caroll Spinney from his upbringing and youth, his career in entertainment and right up to the present day. Released on DVD in the UK by Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment. Continue reading →
From new director Dammie Akinmol and writer/cinematographer Kazi Zaman comes a brand new British noir short; Board to Death. It is produced by a collective called ‘Broken Lens Productions’.
We follow a husband (Joshua Expositio) who is incredibly paranoid and vengeful. He suspects his wife (Victoria Ashford) of being unfaithful and we follow him as he hunts down those who have he feels disrespected his wife and his marriage. Performed mostly as voice-over; Expositio does a great job of creating the seeds of a complex character that is one part villain and one part victim in a larger game that we discover later in the piece.
This alone is enough to maintain interest; supported by some other pop-up characters that range from bar-tenders to priests. The flow is also propelled by a constant techno/ambient score that carries the piece along and builds momentum to the inevitable conclusion.
The noir genre has had somewhat of renaissance in recent years; thanks in part to big-budget film’s such as Sin City (Robert Rodriguez); it is once again stylistically acceptable. A lot of effort has been made in this piece to create this especially with the cinematography and it is very successful in this respect. Visually it maintains a consistent black & white noir look with a generous use of backlight. It also has that dark and menacing feel we have come to expect.
However; I can’t help but feel this is noir for noir’s sake…and it would be nice to see some of the film-makers own creative flair come into play. All that said, this piece shows some promise and I look forward to what this production team will do next.
Notorious serial killer Elizabeth Bathory (Louise Griffiths) believed that bathing in virgin blood would keep her young and beautiful forever. Still alive in present day America she’s found a perfect hunting ground promoting celibacy in the young girls at San Griento High School under the banner of the V.A.G. society.
Indie Mac User 