Caught Stealing

The trailer was definitely leaning towards lighter fare.

Now admittedly, did I go see this movie purely to see Matt Smith punked out from head to toe? Yes! Was I happy with the final film notwithstanding his presence? Oh absolutely! But maaaaan, this is some heavy shit. It has moments of comedy and enjoyment but it's a serious tale with very realistic serious consequences. Set in the great year of our lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight we follow everyman Hank who upon being tasked with watching his punk neighbor's cat gets embroiled in a stolen money caper with several interested crime parties pretty much going at him non-stop to get it, leading to an array of chases, deaths, and making peace with the past in the process. Once again, Austin Butler our friggin' guy, has yet to miss! The entire movie is carried on this performance, great supporting cast though without question, but he plays it pitch perfect in my opinion! Hank is a very damaged man and you see great pain throughout and not just from the gruelling scars he accumulates, it really is gonna be one of those sleeper performances of the year in my estimation! Zoë Kravitz gets some time to shine and while admittedly I wish she got involved more in this dangerous situation she still did good work. Do I even have to talk about Matt? He's in the movie roughly as much as Zoë, but needless to say I was revelling in every minute of it and of course being the nerd I am it's funny how easily I see things like his stride or his little finger twiddling and just think yep that's Eleven, just with soooo much more swearing and aggression. He's a true punk, he's a cat person, he's a family man himself, pure 10/10! Oh yeah and we get to see a wee baybah the whole movie, ho ho ho ho he's a fluffy boy and I must pet him! You know me and cats, you don't fuck about with them in my presence unless you want to eat lead and...yeah they hurt the little one's paw so I was craving blood to the climax. Though I will admit the movie threw me for at least two loops, I caught one mere seconds before it was sprung, but yeah it's nice to be surprised at the movies from time to time considering the obelisk of media I've consumed. It's very solidly directed, the cast brings it all the way, the action though limited is more candidly shot truth be told with a wide enough angle to where you can see everything which I like, soundtrack was pretty good but I just wanted to hear more punk songs, it's got a very good pace and the time flies by, you do get invested and it keeps you invested till credits, so I can sure fire recommend this. 3 stars, 7.5/10, and that about does it for this month. What will next month entail? Who knows, not me, I make this up as I go along.

Morbius

Guys it really isn't as bad as people make it out.

Coming from an individual who isn't a big Marvel fan, knows nothing about Michael Morbius, and walked in with nothing but an open mind, I thought it was decent. I thought it would be more supernatural how he gained his vampiric powers with him going to some tropical forest and finding something that was best left alone, typical silver age origin story, but I like the scientific reasoning behind it even if it does still lead to superhuman abilities. It gets a little disjointed with the flashbacks but after that it works fairly well. Just telling this story of how a dying man gains these abilities and is trying to make sense of it all while trying not to take human lives to sustain his own is a good story and it's handled well. I thought Jared Leto did fine work, he has a leading man prescence, can be funny, nails the dilemma aspect of his character, and fits dead center in a morally gray superhero light. Of course I have to love Matt Smith, even though I don't like seeing him in an antagonistic role, and it is very basically written but the friendship dynamic clicked for me and it was believable. And yes I did catch that Doctor Who reference you cheeky bastards. Adria Arjona was bugging me the hell out cause I was like, I know you! But where?? She was my witch crush in Good Omens, and the romance aspect felt very sudden and so was her ending yet I still thought she gave a good performance. Also props to making two investigating agents not be blithering morons and mostly useless, thank you for that writers. I very much digged the hell out of the visuals and makeup, properly making Jared and Matt look deathly ill and when the vampiric stuff kicked in I was like, wow that's such an interesting effect. With the flight having trails of colors, the echolocation having a sort of vibrating water effect, and I like they didn't chicken out and show some blood. It isn't gory as hell, but you do see it. Apparently this takes place in the same world as both Venom movies, and I'm not even attempting to connect all the Marvel movies. Sure, fine, whatever, go for it. Why not have them all mix and meld so you can see Michael Keaton as Vulture? It's neat. So it was a decent okay movie, nowhere near a 4.8 on IMDB. I give it 2.5 stars, 7/10.

Last Night In Soho

Oh my God. Where do I start?

This is easily one of those movies that I have a lot to say but can't. It's truly a film that must be experienced, and it surpassed greatly what little expectations I had for it. It follows a young girl named Ella who moves out of the quiet countryside straight to London to become a fashion designer, and starts to have strange dreams of a young performer in the mid 1960s, as reality and dreams shift, merge, and stir madness. I swear if this movie does not nab best director, cinematography, editing, picture at the Oscars I will f***ing riot. It has been too damn long since I have seen a film this good looking. The colors are nothing short of kaleidoscopic, the editing and framing is a masterclass, the performances are so engrossing, the music selection is very good, just all the technicals are top notch. Speaking of performances, I would die to protect Thomasin McKenzie she is so sweet and charming, such a great lead for this film and she carried it brilliantly. Believe it or not, I'm gonna have a hard time seeing Anya Taylor-Joy as anyone but aspiring star Sandie, she could not have looked better and more suited in 60s style and fashion if she tried, despite me seeing her in other stuff. Her story only gets more involved and it had me hook, line, and sinker. Matt Smith is a dashing young man in a plot involving time travel, I'm trying so hard not to go there, and boy is it wonderful to see that handsome man again. Oh, I need to watch The Crown to see more of him. It would take me longer than the movie to gush about these visuals so I'll just say, holy shit. Edgar you mad lad legend, just how did you get it this psychedelic yet refined? Unbelievable. And it dips it's toes into the horror genre without question, though it focuses more on mystery and a severe psychological thriller side of things. All of it plays brilliantly, it's one part The Lovely Bones, one part The Night Walker, with a dash of Mean Girls, and a twist of Cruella, with a cherry on top of Corpse Bride. As last reviews go for October, this was great! 4 stars, 8.5/10, some people will bitch and moan that the plot makes no sense, or it's just artsy for artsy sake, well you can't have too much positivity in the world. Go see it! It's a wild time.

Doctor Who: 50th Anniversary Specials

I'm throwing in the Christmas special with this one.

Normally I don't talk about the Christmas specials unless something happened story wise but since The Time Of The Doctor was Matt's final episode I feel obligated to see him off of course. But in good time. I was very fortunate to actually see the 50th anniversary special in a theater surrounded by mega fans of the entire series, it was great fun and an occasion worthy of memory. Needless to say we were all very impressed, I mean they played their cards just about as perfectly as you can get, a multi-Doctor story based around the one thing we've heard about for nearly a decade, The Time War. Just to see it on the screen at last was a big moment, but it goes deeper than that. To see a war torn Doctor played wonderfully by Sir John Hurt accompanied by our beloved 10th and 11th incarnations was amazing! They work together so well and we've never seen this War Doctor before but they flesh his character out very well in an hour long special, and to see them treat such a massive thing like The Last Great Time War with such weight and importance feels genuine. It took up a position to tell the most epic story in Doctor Who history and make the celebration of 50 golden years truly spectacular. Which is exactly what they did, while throwing in Kate and a new character Osgood who shrieks fangirl like nobody's buisness and I will forever love her, a return of the Zygon's who haven't been seen in 40 odd years, and it all feels just right. It has it's comedy, it's drama, some major surprises and is still a love letter to the series. The fact that it opens with the 1963 titles immediately lets you know what you're in for. It was a huge deal back then 6 years ago and it still holds up even now and will continue to do so. And last but certainly not least we have the 11th Doctor's final adventure, and it does it so well. It juggles being a regeneration story, an actual plot important story, and a Christmas story damn near perfectly. It has a few very sweet and loving moments that make you feel that Christmas warmth even if you don't watch it around December. The story focuses on a mysterious message from a planet that draws every adversary from The Doctor's history to it, forcing the Time Lord to protect the town from an imminent war while slowly dying of old age because he has no more regenerations to use. It's a very good story and one last great hurrah from Matt Smith, my Doctor. His regeneration still brings a tear to my eye, and his last words ring true for any individual. It's a heartbreaking end but I'll always remember when The Doctor was Matt. I really felt he was going to go the distance, topple Tom Baker's incredible 7 year run since he was the youngest actor to play The Doctor and he had that energy and acting talent to do so, but sadly it only lasted 3 years. But I loved those 3 years, I used to watch his series with my mom, she knows Matt's stories best and he really was the reason I went from being a fan to huge fan. My love for Doctor Who has waned slightly since those years but I really was invigorated again despite my nagging, and I cannot wait to see Peter Capaldi rock on in series 8.

Doctor Who: Series 7

Oh I have such mixed opinions on this series.

I really enjoy the majority of it but the things that are wrong really, really, like really ×1000 just infuriates me! It already starts off with a serious headscratching decision for bringing Amy and Rory back. Why? Their story is over, we had that wonderful goodbye in The God Complex for a reason, The Doctor did not want to see them be killed in front of him and they were ready to start a normal life. So why bring them back, and to add insult to injury they decide that they need to be divorced. What?? The reason itself makes no sense and the "divorce" lasts all of one episode, it is both introduced and ended in one single episode. Oh boy that was suuuure a smart decision, oh man that had such weight to the story. It is made of stupid! I still enjoy their company, they bring a unique dynamic to the show, having a home life while still adventuring, they are great fun and how can I hate Mr. Weasley being Rory's dad? But then and I've already talked about it enough, they die. For absolutely zero reason. Less than zero reason! Why bring them back for like 5 episodes then just kill them off? And don't tell me it was for story arc purposes of this series because I've come up with a better chain of events and still keep the continuity! Keep the Doctor travelling on his own, keep the whole asylum of Daleks, have him meet Oswin, and then keep him going solo. Come up with a story where The Doctor gets careless and emotional and comes within a hair's width of destroying the Earth, a second Gallifrey, and he is ashamed of himself because he almost lost the only family he has in the universe, he refuses to ever see Amy and Rory again and basically retires. We go to The Snowmen and buisness as usual. Done! Perfect! No senseless killing for no reason whatsoever. Yet the episodes before that are done well, absolutely superfluous but has good writing, great effects, interesting stories but it all culminates with The Angels Take Manhattan. Their deaths are still a bitter sting but I feel that the Weeping Angels took it full on up the ass, to the point where they lose all mystique and horror. So can they inhabit statues or not? I always saw it as the Angels are well, angels and that there is a possibility that a statue in a major city could be an angel but not all of them are. Yeah this episode has the balls to claim the Statue Of Liberty itself is a Weeping Angel....in the city...that never sleeps, in a city with millions of people in it, regardless of day or night, there is not. One. Single. Ffffff***ing EYEBALL on the Statue Of Liberty!!? Get f***ed! I call infinite amounts of bullshit on that! First the whole Demons Run thing and now this cockamamie waste of time and writing. Ugh, I'll be back.

I just, nevermind. Nevermind. You done f***ed it up and you decided not to unf*** it, just nope! Let sleeping dogs lie, son of a bitch! Okay, got to move on for the sake of my sanity. After that it's all still pretty damn good! Clara is such a good companion, she's just a wonderful match for this Doctor and their relationship and chemistry is flawless. All their episodes are good and the mystery surrounding Clara keeps you guessing until the end. And the payoff is pretty good I think. I love the fact we have Richard E. Grant, a wonderful actor and one I am very fond of gets to be a bit of a recurring villain, he plays this part so well with such malice and becomes an unstoppable and formidable foe. Hell to the yeah! I think they took notes on this for future villains. We even get a sterling addition in my opinion with the daughter of Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, oh Kate how I adore thee. She's truly wonderful and fits right in with the cast and stories, and I love it so much! Will admit however the Cybermen just don't work for me, in just about every aspect. Design wise the whole Cybermen style has been based on a progressive format, they gradually became more advanced and better each time we see them, but then they just went a bit off course. Not only do they look like Iron Man, arc reactor and all, but the face design screams more japanese chibi style cuteness than terror. Plus they are way, WAY too overpowered! I mean the whole point of Cybermen is kind of a zombie thing, they get you by their overwhelming mass amounts of numbers, now one single Cybermen can convert or delete the entire human race, Flash style superspeed, ability to adapt to attacks much like the Borg in Star Trek, can detach limbs to kill or convert people, has advanced weapon systems, and they can fly, again very much like Mr. Stark, repulsor hands and all! Now fine, you need to up the badass quality of them, make them more deadly, sleek, and more difficult to destroy, but this goes so far out there I can't even see it anymore. And they only get worse from here. They did the Daleks the same too! Oh my God, I almost forgot! This made me rant for like an hour, okay so the concept of Daleks using human slaves is totally cool, I can see that idea, it has been mentioned many times they use slave labor of some variety, but the way they try to do it here just makes you want to pistol whip the writers in the dick. Oh God...you're going to think I'm just lying straight to your face but it's true! Okay, so they take a human and convert them into essentially a Dalek, not in the shell where they are these gooey tentacle creatures, no no no no no, a fraking eyestalk juts out from their forehead and the death ray erupts from their hand kinda like with Scorpion in the Mortal Kombat movie. Everything else is human. Annnnd my IQ is dropping by the milisecond. Why not just use brainwashed humans? What's with the frankly ridiculous transformations? Why do they have these Dalek/steampunk S&M bodysuits? Why do they act like a Dalek's secretary??! I am dead sucking ferious right now. Oh holy crackers with cheese, this series is a walking nightmare sometimes! Which is odd because the writing is good for the most part, character development and interactions are still great, I still enjoy the majority of episodes, the second half of the series is great! Yet it just keeps shooting itself in the gnards and I will never know why! Screw it, watch the series from The Snowmen onward, it's short but it's sweet. Hardly any stupid nonsense, good moments, great character interactions, fun but interesting stories, and it all leads up to an epic occasion. Join me next time for the 50th anniversary specials!

Doctor Who: Series 6

See this is where and more importantly when I was a big fan.

This is the series I watched from the beginning live every week until the very end, with every twist, revelation, and foreshadowing moment fresh to my eyes. And I do still really enjoy it, for Matt's second series it does do everything on a bigger scale but is it better? Well we first start off with a rather interesting two-parter that was actually filmed in America, the first time in the show's history, set in Utah where The Doctor is rather shockingly killed before his companions and I don't mean regeneration, I mean he's a corpse now. But since we have time travel in the mix the same Doctor from the past appears and we follow the adventures and figure out (kinda) what exactly happened to result in his death. It's a very clever way to start the series because we've seen many movies start off with a huge climax but then we rewind and follow the series of events, so this is a unique take for the show that really hasn't happened since Trial Of A Timelord which is excellent by the way, go watch that, so we know how it ends yet it still grabs you. We kick off with a very interesting story based around the Apollo 11 moon landing which introduces us to a new alien under the monicrum of The Silence, who cannot be remembered if you stop looking at them, a kind of warped Weeping Angels system. We'll get back to them in a bit. After that we have a mixed bag of adventures, Curse Of The Black Spot is a bit of fun with pirates in tow. But the Rebel Flesh is absolute garbage and I have no problem saying it, mainly because it surrounds around clones of people who retain the memories of the original host and they try to fight for survival. This story has been told 10 million times better in many different sci-fi books, with better writing, characters, and dilemmas, it is so shoddily written with no real threat or importance except for pretty much a shock twist ending. It is the only reason it exists, and I can fully say you can skip it because I told you the premise. But it almost gets swept away because of the perfection that is The Doctor's Wife, a wonderful episode written by Neil Gaiman, he of the masterfully written Sandman series and American Gods and he even wrote Coraline. And if you know anything about his writting he is basically the supreme king of personifying ideas and objects, so what if the Tardis itself was infused with a young woman and her and The Doctor have a fun, lovable, and truly heart wrenching adventure? Well I'll give you a hint, I could praise it all damn day. The writing and character interactions are outstanding, going from sweet and loving to surprisingly dark and screwed up. Throw in the villain voiced by Michael Sheen who is quickly becoming one of my boys, an absolutely sublime actress who plays the human version of our beloved time machine, and a quite frankly emotion crushing ending makes this one of the best Doctor Who episodes we've seen so far. You can keep your Girl In The Fireplace, I will take The Doctor's Wife thank you very much. Then we have another new addition to the show format, we have a mid-season break after the really good but also really maddening episode A Good Man Goes To War. Now this hits spoilers a tiny bit but you'll still be fine. So let me lay this out and see if you can spot a problem: So it turns out before Amy and Rory even went to America, Amy was replaced by a clone and while the clone was travelling about, Amy was pregnant and is about to give birth. She has been kidnapped by this.....I don't even know, because she wakes up in like this super secret military base, and there is an army there dedicated to fighting and killing The Doctor and the more I think about it I'm having Arkham Knight flashbacks with this little plot point, like they have intel, are armed to the teeth, and have no doubts about ending this man's life. However! We don't know this militia's name, intention, their origins, or anything. It is literally just an army who want The Doctor dead. No reason why! None. At all. So instead of facing him head on or setting a trap, they kidnap his preggers best friend which shock of all shocks pisses him off! Heavily. So much to the point he starts calling in favors all over in time and space to siege the base and rescue his friend. I'll give you a million bucks if you can guess who loses. Now on paper this sounds awesome, The Doctor calling in favors and amassing an army to battle this unknown force to rescue his friend, but they do precisely dick to explain this opposing force. They handwave it away later on in the last frick fraking episode, but wait there's more! This series is trying soooo hard to CW, 90210, Gossip Girl this f***ing series by eluding that maybe Amy doesn't love Rory and that she and The Doctor made a half Time Lord baby. FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUU-

I'm back. Just......really? R-really? Might one inquire as to why this decision was made? Because me in my stupid little ape mind just wanted to watch a fun sci-fi adventure show meant for all ages, but there I go again being a silly old bean!

Okay. I'm fine now. My head hurts, there's a little blood, but I'm completely fine now. So, where was I? Oh right, the episode is okay let's move on to the second half. Let's Kill Hitler is a decent follow up to that episode, good plot stuff there. Night Terrors is an okay episode, just something normal. The Girl Who Waited is kind of fascinating with Amy trapped in a faster timeline so she grows older and older while Rory and The Doctor try to get her back, but the episode is so inhumanely slow that it was really hard for me to stay awake through which is a shame cause Karen acts her heart out in that. The God Complex is outstanding in content, and actually has one of the best and yet depressing endings to an episode ever. I'm serious this episode is like 9/10 just for the ending, it's so reminiscent of classic Doctor Who and the final shot still brings a tear to my eye. We have a lovely return from Craig, taking place a few years after The Lodger before the big series finale. Which they kinda screwed up but nevertheless is a really good ending and sets up future events fairly well. And I'm going to be real with you, I never anticipated the ending but it filled me with theories galore after it was over the first time I saw it. So how was this season? In some places, it was amazing! In some places, it made me want to pour bleach into my brain! Take from that what you will.

I think series 7 is an improvement. But I don't trust anything right now.

Doctor Who: Series 5

Oh memory lane here we come.

I think I finally remembered how I was introduced to the show, how it all started. I kept seeing adverts for the new episodes of Doctor Who, and they were late adverts too, nearing the end of this series. But nevertheless I was intrigued and maybe caught a bit of an episode though I can't remember which, and I started watching the marathons while this series was still going on. And yet I feel Matt is my Doctor, and in a way it's true, I remember watching his series one after the other, there on my sofa at 8:00 for every new episode! And honestly after all this time I still love this series and every episode is well done and should be watched. So, new Doctor, new companion, new opening, new everything! After a rather aggressive regeneration our new Doctor crashes into a young girl's garden and discovers a visible crack in the universe, and through a severely wounded Tardis he comes back over a decade later with the young girl grown up and so they travel amongst the stars on adventures and try to discern the cause for the cracks in the very universe itself. I think now that writing has shifted from Russell T. Davies to Steven Moffat, you'll notice a new storytelling aspect, Davies dropped hints here and there about the ultimate endgame for the series finale but Moffat centers the series around a conflict and the resolution of the conflict by the series finale. More of I guess a modern take where there's a huge event which is the result of a master plan that must be unfurled by our hero, and it's not bad at all because it causes speculation, theorizing, and something extra to provide the show beyond the elements we already love. I'm fine with that, and the adventures are so varied in time and setting and situation it never gets dull or predictable. Granted it slightly bites the show in the rear later on with the expanding mysteries, but for now it works. And I know so many people who just quit after David left, and I feel that to be such a shame cause Matt's first series is a damn good one! I love Matt to the moon and back for his potrayal of The Doctor, more fun and energetic like a child but still holds great wisdom and spirit. Which makes sense cause Matt is the youngest actor to play our favorite Time Lord since Peter Davison, and he is adorable sometimes! He really can play that full gambit from cute and fun to serious and dramatic and everything in between, I just love him. We have another ginger companion, this time so scottish it would almost put Jamie to shame and Karen Gillan is a dream, I adore her so but I feel her character is just a bit off. It starts out as adventures with friends and then out of nowhere she just wants to snog him. Hwhat?? I take such a grievance with this new companion viewpoint, can't companions just be friends with The Doctor and they both care about each other greatly and leave it at that? You don't need this bullshit romance, it will never happen so why even try? Just cease and desist! Aside from those quite frankly kind of uncomfortable character slips, I love her! Though her boyfriend is a tiny bit of a whiner, does this show just hate male companions? Captain Jack at least was game, I mean he did try to hop in bed with everything but you can't deny his likeability! Rory gets better though about halfway through the series, so I can't complain much there. River comes back and Alex Kingston...she is absolutely smashing in this series, in the acting sense and the looks sense, this woman is amazing and I fully ship her and Matt's Doctor hardcore, bit cougar-ish I know but they're cute dammit! Oh God, I'm rambling. Gotta get back on track. All the episodes are really good, we get the Daleks back with some rad new designs, the Silurians return not seen since the 80s if memory recalls with sleek new designs, an interesting return for the Weeping Angels, and much much more. Best episode hands down, Vincent And The Doctor. God dang it, that ending is still too much for me, it was already a very good episode but the ending just made it excellent. Just thinking about it now makes me want to weep, just flat out ugly cry because it touched my heart deep in the feels and I will never recover! Also The Lodger gets massive brownie points because it is so funny, and such a different episode but so so very welcomed in my eyes. Though I will freely admit I wish they just dropped a flippin' bomb on the audience for the finale, now I won't spoil it but for those of you who know it well and for those who will see it just remember these thoughts: Could you imagine if there was no second part to the finale? It just ended right there and you had to wait until the next entire series for a resolution. Oh my God. It would be talked about for years to come, people would be blowing up message boards and fan sites throwing theory after theory out, think The Reichenbach Fall but with Doctor Who. Maybe that's where Steven got the idea. I mean it gets dark and looks pretty much hopeless, Doctor Who rarely ever gets the chance to just stun the world into silence with an ending. The only time that really happened was Earthshock, in more ways than one, that ending.....you could hear a pin drop at the end of that. People still talk about it, and for good reason, it did the unthinkable in a groundbreaking and incredible way. We need more of that! If we didn't even have music over the credits, just text crawl on pitch black background it would have been a big moment. Not complaining but come on, you have to give me a bit of credit! But anyway, awesome new everything, fully recommend it, Matt will always be nearest and dearest to my heart and we have quite a bit of time with him yet.

Next series, get ready for another real bomb this time.