Media Notes: Roundup for August 2018

These are the movies and series on DVD and/or online I watched during August 2018.

Movies and films (links to IMDB.com for basic information unless noted otherwise). Some of these I watched via TubiTv.com or other online source. The DVDs come from the public library (unless noted otherwise):

• Panzer Chocolate (2013. Horror, Mystery). Interesting detail is that the movie has an app element. At the beginning of the film, they encourage you to download an app to go along as you watch the movie, making for an interactive element. They do note you do not have to download the app to follow the movie. I chose not to attempt to find the app. Anyhow, couple of archeology students are attempting to find art stolen by the Nazis stashed somewhere in the Pyrenees. Their evidence is thin, and terms like hermetic cartography get tossed in (apparently the Nazis were big on that). One of the students goes to a library (one with not very good service) to find some rare book, where they send her to the basement to "see Joe" who apparently keeps the old books no one wants to deal with it. She finds it, but has pages missing, and things start getting silly from there as the student gets various signs to warn her off, but she perseveres (of course). Since they are in Barcelona, getting to the site is just a convenient drive up to the mountains on the Spanish side. Then nothing pretty much happens. They do find an old Nazi bunker in the woods. About only thing they find are cases of Nazi chocolate (the titular candy), which of course, some of the group proceed to eat because, you know, why the hell not? Otherwise, seriously, nothing much happens until barely the last 20 minutes when the evil in the bunker awakes, and by that point you are saying "about fucking time." The mystery unravels in the last fifteen minutes or so. The ending was not that great neither. Overall, the movie was as kids would say "meh." The idea had potential, but it is mostly wasted. You can probably skip this one. Via TubiTv. 
• Harlock: Space Pirate (2013. Animation, Adventure, Science fiction). Movie description: "Mankind is dying. Only one man can do anything about it, Space Captain Harlock, but the Gaia Coalition will stop at nothing to end him." This is the latest take on the Captain Harlock legend. Basically, mankind heads to the stars, and as mankind tends to do, fucks it all up out in the colonies due to pollution, overexploitation of resources, so on. Suddenly, Earth is the last resource. The Gaia Coalition, the ruling body of Earth, emerged after a war where they managed to keep those wanting to return out. It manages to plant a mole in Harlock's ship hoping to stop him. However, as Earth and mankind are dying, turns out Harlock may be the hero they need. The movie does have quite a convoluted plot that at times is not easy to follow, and it does have some slow moments. But it does have a pretty good ending. 
• Curse of the Puppet Master (1998. Horror. Fantasy). One of the many Puppet Master sequels. I have not seen these movies for a while, so when I saw this one on TubiTv decided to take a chance. Dr Magrew now has Toulon's puppets and runs a show with them. He hires Robert "Tank", who may be a bit "slow" but has great carving talent, to carve a new puppet. Magrew hopes to replicate Toulon's work. However, there is the mystery of what happened to his first assistant. Keeping his experiments a secret gets complicated for Magrew with his daughter back from college, and the local corrupt sheriff nosing around looking for that missing assistant. Meanwhile, the hot to trot daughter takes a liking to Tank; this whole part of the plot is just mostly filler. And that is a problem since most of this movie seems to be more about Tank than about the puppets. To make it worse, nothing pretty much happens until the last part. Overall, the human characters are fairly forgettable, and other than Tank, not terribly sympathetic. The movie stands on its own from the series it seems; it leaves questions unanswered for those following the series, and in the end, pretty forgettable. One thing this movie kept was the haunting puppet music. 
• My Bloody Valentine (1981. Horror. Thriller). 20 years ago in Valentines Bluff, a mining accident took the lives of five miners. It is 20 years later, the town is having their first Valentines Day dance in that time. 20 years ago, the survivor killed two supervisors responsible for the accident and forbid the town to never have another Valentines Day dance again. However, now, a new dance is about to take place, and the miner returns to kill those who did not heed his warning. This was one of the many slasher films that came out of the 70s and 80s. For what it is, it is fairly decent, and it does have a twist at the end. Via TubiTv. On a side note, the movie was remade/rebooted in 2009.

Television and other series (basic show information links via Wikipedia unless noted otherwise). Some of these come in DVD from the public library. Others may be via YouTube, which, as noted before, I keep finding all sorts of other old shows in it, often full episodes.

• Inspector Lewis, Series 7 (2014. Link to Amazon record). I picked up the next installment of this spinoff of Inspector Morse, which I am enjoying very much. By now, Lewis is retired, but the police can't quite let him go yet. Short on manpower, Chief Innocent brings him back on a flexible contract to work once more. Meanwhile, Hathaway is now an Inspector, and he has his own new sergeant, DS Maddox. Borrowed DVD from Berea branch of the Madison County (KY) Public Library. This DVD contains three episodes.
• "Entry Wounds." Hathaway gets to work his first case as an inspector. A neurosurgeon is murdered, and there are also animal rights activists and a hunting estate to complicate things.
• "The Lions of Nemea." A classics scholar is killed, and she may be the connection to another murder as well as a con man.
• "Beyond Good And Evil." 13 years ago, Lewis caught Graham Lawrie, the "hammer killer" convicted of killing three police officers. However, the convict wins an appeal, and meanwhile murders resembling those of Lawrie start happening again. 
• Supermarket Sweep (Game show. 1965-2003). I continue watching the 1990s run hosted by David Ruprecht, which ran on Lifetime Channel and later on Pax TV, on YouTube this month. See the June roundup post for more comment on this show. Watched 4 episodes.
• Iron Chef (Japan). (1993-2001). I keep watching these via YouTube. 
• "Strawberry Dessert Battle." This is one of the Christmas specials. Challenger, Ms. Masayo Waki, is the director of the international department at the Hattori Nutrition College.She also happens to have been trained in France at the famous Cordon Bleu, and worked in various three star restaurants in France before returning to Japan. She challenges Iron Chef French Sakai.
• "Stingray Battle." Noburu Inoue, a pioneer of French cuisine in Japan says taste is more important than any performance, and that he's more important than the Iron Chefs. Them's fighting words (which he denied saying when he got to the show). The man counts Iron Chef French (honorary) Ishinabe as one of his disciples. However, Inoue instead of going himself is sending one of his top apprentices (that is a common theme in these grudge matches, some old "Mustache Pete" talks big, but usually sends his peon to do the work) to challenge (and more often than not, the Iron Chef proceeds to hand said apprentice and master their asses on a plate). So Yoshihide Koga gets to challenge Iron Chef French Sakai. This was a bit of an awkward episode as Inoue gets a glass of wine too many, and even punches one of the cooking assistants. So, I usually do not "spoil" in commenting, but here I will say I was glad Sakai did hand them their asses.\
• "Squid Battle 2." Tetsutoshi Shimazu, a Japanese chef specializing in Italian cuisine, especially pizza, challenges Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi.  
• "Squid Battle." Kyonori Miura, the "Conjurer of Garlic," a Japanese chef specializing in Italian cuisine, challenges Iron Chef French Sakai. 
• "Spinach Battle." Katsuaki Mori, a Japanese chef specializing in Italian food and known for his use of cheeses and salads, challenges. He has earned a Cavalier medal from the French government for his expertise in cheese. He challenged Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi.
• "Soy Bean Battle." Toshiro Kandagawa, often nemesis of the Iron Chefs and don of the chefs in Western Japan, wants to send a female chef who is his protege. Chairman Kaga accepts the challenge, and so chef Yoshie Urabe, head chef of her own top restaurant in Osaka challenges Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi.
• "Shiitake Mushroom Battle." Takaya Nakazawa, a Japanese chef master of Chinese sauces, challenges Chen Kenichi. Nakazawa was mentored by Kenichi's father. On an interesting note, this battle was the one right before the one where Iron Chef Nakamura, who replaced Michiba, would be announced. 
• "Scampi Battle." Masahiko Sagiwara, a top Italian pasta chef in Japan, challenges. He takes on Chen Kenichi, the Chinese Iron Chef.
• "Scallop Battle." This was the time when vacuum cooking, a technique invented by the French, was emerging as a trend, and Chairman Kaga even installs the equipment to use it so they can try it out in this battle. Japanese chef Senji Osada, an expert in vacuum cooking, challenges Iron Chef French Sakai.
• "Saury Battle." Kazumi Nagayama, head chef of a university restaurant, Shochiku, a very nice one with a lot of history part of Tokyo University in Hongo, Tokyo challenges. Iron Chef French Sakai accepts the challenge. 
• "Sardine Rematch." The return of the Italian Sabatini restaurant clan. They previously fought a sardine battle against Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi and lost. That was three years previous to this episode. This time they send another master chef of theirs in Japan, Hideki Maruyama. Maruyama challenges Chen, making it a full rematch, even using the same theme ingredient. 
• "Salmon Battle." Joel Bruant, a French chef disciple of Paul Bocuse and now working in Japan, challenges hoping to topple Iron Chef French Sakai and replace Sakai. 
• Mobsters (Documentary. True crime. Biography. 2007-2012). I continue watching episodes of this series via YouTube here and there. See the June roundup for previous commentary on the series overall.  
• "Tony 'Joe Batters' Accardo" (2009. Season 2, Episode 6). Accardo worked his way up to being Al Capone's bodyguard to eventually running the Chicago Outfit during prime years of the 1930s and 1940s, transitioning the mob out of Prohibition and bootlegging. He managed at one point to control territories outside of Chicago including Indiana and Wisconsin, and eventually parts of Las Vegas, including the Stardust (later fictionalized in the movie Casino as the Tangiers). He managed to be successful in large part because unlike so many mobsters he was business smart, savvy, and knew to keep a low profile, still running the family, albeit not so directly, into the 1980s. He died of heart failure in 1992, and he never served time in prison, a feat for a mob boss. He was the last of the Al Capone era mobsters. 
•  "Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti" (2009. Season 2, Episode 2). Nitti was Al Capone's successor after Capone got put in jail for tax evasion.Nitti in real life was not like he is portrayed in the movies. Sure, he was ruthless, but he was also much more businesslike.