TV Review: Doctor Who Series Nine Episode Two "The Witch's Familiar"

"Anyone For Dodgems?"

The fundamental strangeness to this years' two-part opener of Doctor Who stems from the notion that it feels way too much like a series finale, something of which can't be said of any of the eight series' previous of NuWho, with the return of "arch-nemesis" Davros being one the most shocking and unexpected characters to return this early on in the series. Where "The Magician's Apprentice" essentially allowed the audience to witness the return of the Doctor this year in proper rock n' roll fashion with a heap of effective buildup and plot development, "The Witches' Familiar" takes a whole step further by delving deeper into the relationship between two contrasting couples; Missy and Clara and Davros and The Doctor, whilst continuing to play on the established riffs set years earlier of genocide and choice in the Tom Baker serial "Genesis of the Daleks". Where last years' series finale double-header of "Dark Water" and "Death In Heaven" started off brilliantly yet ultimately fizzled out by the time of its' conclusion, the start to this years' series has been a brilliant and welcome return for The Doctor, with "The Witch's Familiar" not falling behind its' predecessor at all and instead wholly surpassing it.

Within the depths of greatness present in "The Witch's Familiar" lies ultimately, a fantastic lead performance from Capaldi as The Doctor, who surely now has shrugged off the little criticism he had at the start of his tenure and has taken to his new persona with aplomb. Not only does Capaldi address both the darker and lighter sides of the Doctor better than possibly any before him, (with Ecclestone a close second) with scenes of sheer hatred towards Davros being contrasted with scenes of a much more comedic nature, particularly when Davros' mode of transport is duly repossessed, much to the audience's and the Doctor's enjoyment. Not only does Capaldi shine, but so too does the return of Julian Bleach, whose portrayal of Davros surely must rank as one of the greatest of all time in the mythology of Doctor Who, with the scene in which tears and compassion trick the Doctor into helping his evil plans being wholly majestic from start to finish. 

In terms of the overall layout for the season, the organic plot point of the Doctor's involvement in a supposed Time Lord/Dalek hybrid automatically grabbed my attention, with the reasoning for the Doctors' departure from Gallifrey perhaps being the reaction to such, a storyline that is inevitably set to be expanded upon over the course of the next couple of months or so, whilst the foreshadowing of Clara's imminent departure surely must have been played upon during the heartbreaking scene in which she attempted to stop the Doctor from killing her when inside the Dalek (a hark back to "Planet of the Daleks"), a scene in which had a range of different symbolic interpretations ranging from Clara's first appearance in "Asylum of the Daleks", to the underlying genetic makeup of the Daleks and their quest for hatred rather than compassion. "The Witch's Familiar" ultimately proved that two-part Doctor Who serials are not wholly dead and buried, setting up the series with a bang and reviving everyone's love for the most famous time-travelling madman. 

Overall Score: 9/10

TV Review: Doctor Who Series Nine Episode One "The Magician's Apprentice"

Enemies Reunited

After a wholly unbearable wait of almost nine and a half months, Doctor Who has finally returned to our screens with the wonderful Peter Capaldi reprising his role as the 12th (13th or 14th depending on your own POV) Doctor with trusty Jenna Coleman keeping her place as loving assistant Clara Oswald, albeit for the time being with it being confirmed that she is set to leave the programme at the end of the series. Her departure will be examined at a much later date but for now, the return of Doctor Who featured everything you could possibly desire from a programme that even in its' ninth season since its' return in 2005 is running strong and arguably, is better than ever, with the overly dark, adult tones prominent in series 8 being continued upon, with themes of genocide, child killing, and regret all resulting in "The Magician's Apprentice" being a booming, if rather eerie, return for the Doctor and his TARDIS.

When a programme such as Doctor Who has been running for longer than half a century, certain plot threads and storylines are inevitably going to either end up tangled up in knots or re-visited, something of which can be said of "The Magician's Apprentice", an episode that borrows heavily from themes first presented in Tom Baker's classic episode, "Genesis of the Daleks", a story in which the Doctor is sent back to Skaro by his fellow Time Lords in order to prevent the creation of the Daleks from ever occurring, yet instead of simply hiding from such, series nine's opening episode takes one step further from the Fourth Doctor's attempts by asking the question whether the Doctor would kill the creator of the Daleks if he met him as a child? The revelation of Davros in the opening scene in which the creepy, yet rather brilliant hand-mines are the cause of almost certain death for the young creator of the Daleks was simply excellent particularly if you, like me, refrained from spoiler-tastic Twitter feeds and journalists who stupidly revealed the return of one of the Doctor's biggest enemies before the episode's launch.

Of course, Peter Capaldi is excellent as the aging Time Lord running from the threat of Davros' hate, whilst the rather anti-climactic return of Michelle Gomez as Missy sought to highlight the rather bonkers approach she has taken to the role of the Master who even through their many battles, still remains one the Doctor's oldest friends, evident with Missy receiving the last will and testament of the Doctor, something of which was not sent to Clara, much to her distaste. If their are problems with the episode, these include the rather overlong guitar-wielding scene, and the cringe-worthy, almost wooden performance of Jemma Redgrave as UNIT Director Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, but with these being swiftly looked over, "The Magician's Apprentice" is a solid return for the Twelfth Doctor, with the return of Davros being a rather unexpected bonus resulting in an eagerly anticipated climax to the story which is set to air this coming Saturday. Welcome back, Doctor Who!

Overall Score: 8/10 

Film Review: Everest

Snow, Lot's of Snow

When a challenge with an intensity such as climbing Mount Everest is set upon us humans by the greater gods, aliens, those weird blue things from Prometheus, or whatever you believe in in regards to our creation, the natural response from almost everyone on Earth is to stay as far away as humanly possible from almost what is near-certain death, but in the case of the mad minority, a chosen few in the last century or so have decided to attempt such a feat in climbing safely to the top of Earth's highest mountain, with the latest popcorn-fueled, 3D epic in the form of the aptly named Everest, attempting to tell the tale of the real events of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster in which SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. Obviously if you are well versed in the National Geographic channel or other alternative options to observe our recent history, such spoilers limit the film's appeal in some sense, but if unbeknownst to the facts, like myself, Everest brings a sharp cinematic appeal to one of the world's most spectacular wonders. 

Boasting a cast so A-List top-heavy, you could have been fooled for thinking actors such as Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Josh Brolin, were set to appear in a arctic spin-off of Avengers Assemble, Everest's first half consists of both character development and build-up to an almost inevitable conclusion, particularly if you had seen the trailer, regarding the group's attempt to accomplish their goal of reaching the top of the mountain, Not only does Everest suffer from the familiar movie trait of giving too much away in its' pre-release trailers resulting in a feeling of, "oh, just hurry up and reach the top," but subsequently suffers from an almost cramped amount of characters seemingly all played in cameo fashion from A-Lister's such as Gyllenhaal and Brolin, without having one solid lead or hero, even if it is suggested that Clarke's role as Rob Hall was the intended recipient of such with the movie switching from focus between Clarke and Brolin in the first and second acts.

If the first half of Everest is somewhat lacklustre, the second half of the film more than makes up for it and undoubtedly saves the film no-end, with the sheer horror of survival in the face of certain death being expertly displayed across gorgeous cinematography whilst scenes of sheer horror in which the effects of such perils are unpleasantly displayed result in a heavy sense of squeamishness. Although scenes in which the true horror and danger of climbing such a feat could have been added to, the film did at times leave me with a sense of vertigo but not in a fashion I would have deemed adequate from a disaster movie in which the tension should definitely be current throughout, something of which cannot be said of Everest, even with the mountainous terrain being constantly adhered to by the film-makers. Everest is a film that aspires to be a metaphorical equivalent to its' title, with an A-List cast undoubtedly boosting the appeal but it suffers heavily from a slow first half and too many characters with none sticking out from the crowd in an attempt to form any meaningful emotional bond with throughout the course of their life-or-death situation.

Overall Score: 7/10

Film Review: The Visit

The Elder House Rules

A bit late I know for a review of The Visit, M. Night Shyamalan's return to the land of movie-making, but due to an all work and no play way of life at the moment, a trip to the cinema now feels more like a holiday instead of a bi-daily occurrence of which it once did. When before if I ever missed the pit-stop of being on-time with reviews of the week's movies I would simply move on and allow better, and much more educated, viewpoints to have their say without my own personal feelings on the matter surfacing onto the web, yet the release of The Visit put me in such a deep coma of confusion that I felt compelled to relay my own opinions onto you wonderful people who take the time to read my sometimes bloated, yet wholly organic take on the week's new movies. Whereas in the past director M. Night Shyamalan was lauded for critically acclaimed movies such as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, his recent performances have been somewhat pants with straight-down-the-toilet releases such as After Earth and The Last Airbender tainting his reputation two-fold resulting in his return in the form of The Visit, a film so confused by its' own creation that it seemingly crosses between the boundaries of horror and comedy in such stark fashion that it fails to distinguish itself as nothing more than a movie that's smothered in marmite, and feels happy to be so.

Produced and released by those behind the downfall of horror cinema as we know it at Blumhouse Productions, The Visit attempts to distinguish itself from the annoyingly overused theme of found-footage by establishing itself as a pseudo-documentary, focusing on the reunion of both grandchildren and grandparents, whilst forming an overly confusing combination of cliched horror tropes, of which, are not very frightening, and black comedy, of which, isn't very funny, with crude toilet humour and the image of a naked elderly woman being the highlight of the film's comedic standpoint. With a supposed "twist" being not only a complete and utter let-down, but being seen from a mile off, it begs the question whether Shyamalan will ever return to the high watermark set at the early beginnings of his once promising career. The Visit isn't on the level of After Earth at least, but it's miles off the brilliance of The Sixth Sense and can only be regarded as a movie lost in its' own attempt to be both funny and scary but ends up not being entirely either.

Overall Score: 4/10

Film Review: Legend

The Twin Dilemma

When looking at lists of the greatest movies ever made, films like The Godfather, The Godfather: Part Two, and Goodfellas always seem to be strongly cemented into such, with Francis Ford Coppola's masterful crime epics particularly usually chopping and changing between who rules the cinematic world (The first one is the best one IMO). What links these movie masterpieces together? Gangsters. Lots of gangsters, a topic so undeniably infamous that it is no surprise some of the greatest films ever deal with mass murdering, foul mouthed, psychopaths for the sake of the gracious cinematic audience who seem to swoon at the sight of sharp suits and even sharper tongues. Whereas the syndicate of crime families in the US has been well and truly examined through such films like Goodfellas etc, the UK crime scene tends to be wholly seen as an afterthought in the terms of crime movies on the level of The Godfather etc. My own favourite UK gangster movie? Well, I undeniably have a huge soft spot for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' dark comic humour and twisty plot, but Gangster No.1 also stands out as a solid cornerstone of UK crime films, and it is here where Brian Helgeland's new crime biopic Legend seemingly takes solid ground from. 

Following in the footsteps of actors such as Spandau Ballet's Kemp brothers (Ha.) is Tom Hardy as the Kray Twins, the infamous crime-infused brothers who rise and fall in the 1960's East-End has already been examined through a wide range of documentaries and fiction, no more so than in ITV's Whitechapel which for me, was my introduction into the criminal enterprise of one of, if not, the, most notorious English gangsters ever. With Hardy already portraying one of the most notorious jailbirds in the form of Charles Bronson in the magnificent Bronson, Hardy's famous motif for portraying characters of a more physical demeanor suits the role of Ronnie and Reggie to a T, with the differences between the two being strongly played upon by Hardy's natural born talent whilst scenes in which we witness each brother lose their cool and unleash their violent streak undeniably terrifying, presenting the fear and hostility of the Krays' criminal reign in the 1960's. Where the film ultimately fails however is the criss-crossing between the fearfulness of the Krays' and the emotional core between their relationships with each other and other external factors, resulting in a division of views from the filmmakers in whether sympathy or hate is the main response towards the actions of these notorious criminals. 

Of these external factors is Emily Browning as Frances Shea who presents herself as the viewpoint of the audience by having a front-row seat into the world of guns and geezers that Reggie places upon her, much to her distaste, and although the film bases itself on the notoriety of the Krays, it almost feels as if Browning takes the lead with her own rise and fall at the hand of both Reggie and Ronnie Kray. Whilst more of Browning would have been more than sufficient due to her humanity and role as a walking conduit into the Krays' livelihood, at least her screen presence is more than that of Christopher Ecclestone's Leonard Nipper, whose presence as the hell-bent police detective seems overly shoe-horned in in order to examine they way in which there was an overly bad side to the workings of they Krays. Aside from Ecclestone, both Thewlis and Bettany both have roles that subside themselves with being utterly pointless on the face of it in terms of their pedigree as actors, with the only reason I can think of of their inclusion is their involvement in Gangster No.1, a film that although Legend takes a lot of solid ground from, ultimately doesn't scratch the surface of in terms of quality and culty appeal. Legend does indeed deal with the violence and terror of the Krays in the 1960's but it does it in a by-the-numbers approach with outbursts of quality which presents remorse at a version of a film which could have been much much more. 

Overall Score:7/10

   

Film Review: American Ultra

Natural Bored Killers

So here we are with our 250th blog on Black Ribbon Reviews and instead of having a mind-blowing, totally amazing, triple whammy style review to craft out, we have a singular, rather timid and overly anti-climactic take on American Ultra. a film so strung up on its' stoner/b-movie conventions that the only advice I can give is to watch the trailer and embrace in its' rather lovely 120 second runtime instead of watching a rather drawn out, overly stupid, and senselessly violent forgettable mess which, I assume, will quickly be transferred to a discount DVD bucket near you. Although American Ultra does boast a significantly impressive cast, with Twilight's Kristen Stewart and The Social Network's Jesse Eisenberg being the film's lead roles, the wide range of flaws that encompass the movie throughout prevent it from being the complete stoner action flick writer Max Landis must have originally wanted it to be. 

Not only is the level of senseless violence completely off the chart, but the film is ridden with cliches, from the script to the characters, whilst the constant need for the characters to interject the already meaningless lines of dialogue with tiresome swear words made the film a painful experience in a similar vein to this years' Spy, with both seemingly forgetting the power of a well-written speech and instead flooding our characters with the vocabulary of a 14 year old who has just realised how naughty such words are when used. Within all the negativity is a power couple comprising of the leading stars with Steward and Eisenberg obviously making the most of their dire script which makes their on-screen relationship the only positive aspect of the film, something of which doesn't save American Ultra from what it overly is; a forgettable mess.

Overall Score: 4/10

Film Review: Straight Outta Compton

California Dreamin'

Let's get this out of the way first before any problems or missteps arise within this review of F. Gary Gray's new film Straight Outta Compton. when it comes to the rise of prominent hip hop in the early 1990's, N.W.A, and the story of their own personal rise and fall, I am not exactly the most well-informed person regarding such, with my only reference for music of that particular genre being the wonderful GTA: San Andreas (Thank god for Radio Los Santos). Pitiful I know, but whilst I was only aware briefly of the impact of the N.W.A in the 1990's, Straight Outta Compton proved to be an eye-opening biographical epic focusing on the early outset of the group and their titular debut album, focusing most prominently on our "heroes", Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Eazy-E. Although the key concept of the movie may indeed not be for everyone, with me being classed as an outsider myself, Straight Outta Compton proved to be one of the most incredible journeys in film I have witnessed this year, following in the footsteps of The Social Network in telling a story not exactly with widespread appeal, but resulting in something rather brilliant. 

What makes Straight Outta Compton work so well is the effortless fashion in which our young actors portray their characters on-screen, with Jason Mitchell's Eazy-E in particular being one of the many standout performers, whilst Paul Giamatti as the slimey corporate megalomaniac, Jerry Heller, doing exceptionally well in trying to be as shadowy and ambiguous as he possibly can. With all the on-screen cameos featuring actors portraying younger versions of famous faces such as Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur however, characters were so-often lost and forgotten about within the space of minutes, resulting in minor plot threads seemingly going awry, suggesting that sometimes the scope of Straight Outta Compton was in fact too big to handle, resulting in a film that wants to say more, but ultimately can't due to restrictions on its' time length, something of which was already too long to say the least at a mortifying two and a half hours. 

Of course the music is great, with track after track being blasted out through the cinema speakers, and even though my minor hip hop knowledge was brought to the table, it didn't stop me from enjoying every single beat, rap and lyric that boom-boxed it's way onto me at a volume turned way past eleven, whilst the concert scenes were managed triumphantly, unlike the misogynistic portrayal of women that unfortunately crept up on occasion throughout the course of the film's runtime. The acting is wonderful, the story, inspiring, and although Straight Outta Compton has some rather dashing flaws, I indeed enjoyed it more than I thought I would, and probably more than I should, with N.W.A locking firmly in my playlist for the next couple of weeks or so. 

Overall Score: 8/10  

Film Review: Hitman: Agent 47

Bald Stone Killer

When it comes to big-screen adaptations of world-famous video games it is well established that such films tend not to do so well both in the critical and commercial sense with the biggest examples being the terrible Silent Hill series, the shockingly dour Max Payne, and the Resident Evil series, which although stands out as being one of the better transformations from console to cinema, has slowly been hung, drawn and quartered resulting in its' most recent entries seemingly being squeezed so far from its' original format, they are only a shadow of the much more superior games in which they first were presented upon. Adding to the spectacular face-palm-esque bundle of video game movies this week is Hitman: Agent 47, a film which follows in the footsteps of its' brothers' in arms by being not only shockingly terrible, but single-handedly tainting the excellence of the video games in which it is based upon (I mean Hitman: Blood Money was rather brill right?). Remember the first Hitman movie adaptation released a few years ago? Well that is Citizen Kane in comparison to this dull, lacklustre excuse of a movie in which its' only real purpose in life is to pursue the bucks of those who desire the original games so dearly.

So in terms of plot, Rupert Friend plays Agent 47, a joyless, lifeless, emotionless, hairless killer raised under the wing of geneticist Dr. Peter Litvenko (Hinds) who after years of hiding is located by Syndicate leader Antoine LeClerq who sends T-1000 rip-off John Smith (Quinto) to track him down in order to use his vast knowledge of the Agent programme and create his own personal army of silent assassins. Boring, boring, boring. Also in there somewhere is a plot thread about Litvenko's daughter but to be honest, I care as much about the plot of this film as the team obviously did behind making it with Agent 47 being a constant cycle of cliche after cliche, cringe-worthy speech after cringe-worthy speech and acting so wooden, I was surprised none of the actors came out petrified at the end of it. Add into the mix awful CGI, a overload of pointless violence, and quotes (The "what you do that defines you" speech from Batman Begins), scenes (The metal detector/gun scene from The Matrix) and characters (T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgement Day) just stolen from other, and subsequently better movies, Hitman: Agent 47 is nothing more than overlong Audi commercial which just happened to find the rights to one of the biggest video games since the birth of gaming. Incredibly awful.

Overall Score: 2/10