Media Notes: Roundup for October 2018

These are the movies and series on DVD and/or online I watched during October 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):

• Punisher: War Zone (2008. Action. Adventure. Crime. Comics). The 2008 take on the Punisher character of Marvel Comics, with Ray Stevenson in the title role. In this outing, the Punisher goes after a mob family, taking all out but one enforcer who survives but is disfigured. Becoming Jigsaw, the enforcer moves to exact his revenge. To complicate matters, one of the men the Punisher kills was an undercover federal agent, unknown to the Punisher, so the authorities' attention is on him as well.  Overall, of the takes on the chraracter, this one does pretty well. A lot of action and violence, which goes with the character, and entertaining. Via TubiTv.com.
• Rise of the Foot Soldier (2007. Crime. Action. Biography). Movie based on the life of British criminal turned writer Carlton Leach. Leach came up from football hooligan to become a career criminal. The film is based on his book, Muscle, which is his memoir of his time as a criminal.Watching it, initially it reminds me of the play and book Among the Thugs by Bill Buford. I was fortunate to see a theater performance of Among the Thugs some years back when I was in graduate school. The thug scenes of the film reminded me of Buford's book. Soon, Leach finds work as a bouncer due to his tough reputation. He sets up a "firm," a business of a group of bouncers to "fix clubs" so they could get the right clientele. In the process, he discovers hired muscle is valued in other places, like drug deals, and that is his way in. However, as many of these stories, once the drugs come in, things start going out of control and spiraling down. When a triple murder of Carlton's friends is discovered, the gruesome act wakes him up to get out of the life. He was lucky. Overall, it is an intense movie looking at a series of events in the 1980s and mid 1990s. It is violent, gruesome at times, but also engrossing to watch. Via TubiTv.
• The Rise of the Krays (2015. Crime. Drama). This is the story of the Kray Brothers, Reggie and Ronnie Kray, who rise up to be prominent gangsters in London in the 1960s. Film is based on a true story. Reggie and Ronnie rise in power through extreme violence, violence that Ronnie not only uses but even cherishes to a mad degree. It turned out he indeed was mentally ill, schizophrenic. However, his illness just added to his violent reputation as rivals became afraid to cross him. His brother was barely able to keep him in check. The movie follows the brothers and the descent of Ronnie into madness and extreme violence. For the viewer, much like those around Ronnie, you are just not sure what extreme act he will do next. It is a pretty basic movie, nothing fancy, but it does draw you in. As an additional feature, it does have a pretty good music soundtrack reflective of the time period depicted. On a trivia note, this was one of three movies about the Krays that came out in 2015. Overall, the movie was alright but as I said, nothing great. Via TubiTv.
• Europa Report (2013. Science Fiction. Thriller). A science fiction entry into the by now popular genre of "found footage" films. Six astronauts travel to Jupiter's moon Europa on a mission to see if life can be sustained there or not.  The mission was privately funded, and for six months or so, watched on Earth, then the ship vanished, its fate unknown, until new footage is received and declassified. Movie is pretty slow overall. Plus you already know the mission is doomed; we are watching their lost footage, so it is matter of finding out what happened, and it drags on its way to the final reveal in the last couple of minutes. They do try to make it look very realistic,  but if you are attentive you can spot various misses, not to mention there are moments when the astronauts seem to miss what seem like basic safety rules. Not to mention, if you really think about it, the ship seems somewhat shoddily made (what? the corporation spent all those billions of dollars, and the ship seems to fall apart when someone sneezes?). Still the effort was there to make it look realistic, but in the end, this movie is just no big deal. It turns into a boring experience where you do not really care about the characters and can't wait for it to be over. Via TubiTv.
• Alien Covenant (2017. Horror. Science Fiction. Thriller). We return to the Alien franchise once more in this somewhat slow and predictable film. The colonist ship Covenant suffers a major accident in space. They come across a world that looks like it could be a good place to settle down, only to find the horror of the aliens after discovering a survivor from the Prometheus ship. I could not help but see some parallels between this and The Island of Dr. Moreau of all things. Movie looks good, but pretty soon you get a good idea how it will end. Pacing is fairly slow, and the jump scares pretty minimal. Suspense is not that good neither since you figure out the villain pretty early on. This is overall pretty forgettable. DVD via Berea branch of the Madison County (KY) Public Library.

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:

• Supermarket Sweep (Game show. 1965-2003). I continue watching the 1990s run, with some 2000s, 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 10 episodes. 
• Iron Chef (Japan). (1993-2001). I keep watching these via YouTube. 
• "Natto Battle." This was around the time Tadamichi Ohta forms the faction bearing his name to preserve traditional Japanese cooking. They are the nemesis of Iron Chef Japanese Masaharu Morimoto. They challenged once before, and lost, so this is their second challenge. Challenger this time is Tatsutoshi Kumamoto.  
• "Natto Battle 2." This time, another big Japanese cuisine group sends a challenger. The group is the Japanese Cuisine Seminar Group, founded in 1930 to preserve traditional skills like knife work. Turns out Iron Chef Japanese Rokusaburo Michiba headed the group at the time. Another member comes to challenge, Kuniyuki Ishikawa.
• Sherlock Holmes (1984-1994. Granada Television Series). As I noted in the September roundup, the main branch of my local public library had the run of the "Return of Sherlock Holmes" part of this series starring Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes, a favorite of mine. The "Return of Sherlock Holmes" set features four volumes, and they start when Holmes returns after the fall at Reichenbach Falls. (On a side note, I have found other episodes online as well, and I will note when I watch those).
• "Wisteria Lodge."  Mr. Scott Ecles is the guest of a Mr. Garcia at Wisteria Lodge. Overnight, the host and servants disappear. Ecles goes back to London, hires Sherlock Holmes. When they go back to Wisteria Lodge, the local inspector says Garcia has been murdered, and Ecles is the prime suspect. It falls to Holmes to solve the mystery, which reveals a lot more depth than the local inspector thinks is there, including a fugitive Central American dictator.
• "The Priory School." The son of a duke is kidnapped from his preparatory school, and it falls to Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson to find him. Story is not as deep as others, but it does have an interesting twist with the Duke and his family. 
• Mafia's Greatest Hits ( Documentary. True Crime. Biography. 2012- ). I commented on this series in the June 2018 roundup. 
• "Sam Giancana" (Season 1, episode 1). A look at Chicago boss Sam Giancana. This episode also look closely at how he was related to the Kennedys and Giancana's influence that helped the Kennedys along. That notion is in dispute, yet the questions remain. And then, there was the CIA, Giancana, and the U.S. wanting to get rid of Castro. Let's just say Giancana had a lot of fingers in a lot of places. In the end, he had a 50 years career, rare for any mobster.