Media Notes: Roundup for August 2023

 

  

 

This is a somewhat random selection of the movies and series on DVD and/or online I watched during August 2023.I did not watch a whole lot this month other than binge watching Hamish Macbeth (see below). However, fall season is about to arrive, and then Halloween season, so perhaps I will watch a few more movies then.

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). In addition, I will try to add other trivia notes, such as when a film is based on a book adding the information about the book (at least the WorldCat record if available):

• Vampire Virus (2020. Horror. Thriller). Plot description: "A young woman contracts a deadly virus after an unusual sexual encounter, and soon develops a taste for human blood." Naturally, because it is a vampire movie, it does have a start somewhere in Eastern Europe, Romania to be precise. An experiment goes wrong, one of the researchers in a somewhat dingy lab gets bitten, and manages to escape. From there, the movie begins, and we are now, as the movie states, "somewhere in America." Our protagonist is a typical cute girl, but average and a bit blah, but happens to have more aggressive girlfriends who talk her into going out for a girls night out in a fancy city club. Jennifer, our protagonist, has a very seductive interlude with a lady at the club (the one researcher from the opening), and finds herself in an alley the following morning, with some kind of bite mark on her side. Things get going from there as Jennifer starts seeing the hints. She may not know, but the audience does: her desire to keep her apartment dark, no reflection on a mirror for starters. Meanwhile, cops are trying to solve the mystery of a virus originating in Romania.  Overall, this is not a bad little vampire thriller. The whole virus element was a bit of a red herring; they could have just made them vampires that bite to get others without the whole medical angle, which is somewhat tangential. Plot otherwise is a fairly standard vampire thriller where the protagonist is being seduced to join the other vampires, will she or not? You will have to watch to find out. The pace for the most part moves steadily. Film is not too gory, has some light seductive elements, especially early on. The acting is adequate. I am willing to give it 2.5 out of 5 stars. Via TubiTv. Watched 8/12.
• Vampire War (2017. Original title: Montrak. Horror. Fantasy. Action. German film). Plot description:  "In Germany, more and more people are disappearing. Behind the mysterious missing person cases are no suspected wolf attacks, but vampires, which have their origin in the Middle Ages.." The plot is a bit more complex than the description. Montrak is a noble who has turned vampire and evil after a deal with Lucifer, who gives him a ring. When he realizes the hunters will come for him and outnumber him, he gives the ring to one of his men to seek out a successor. This successor has to be an innocent human who turns to darkness. The plan is for his followers to create an army for the successor to lead them in the future. After two segments in the Middle Ages, we move on to the modern era, where people are disappearing. There are two more segments (chapters) after this. If you can get past the third chapter, the pace somewhat picks up, but that is not saying much. The concept of the vampire story over time has potential, but the execution on his is bad. The film is seriously slow, and for the most part not that interesting. You feel more a need to hit the fast forward and get it over with. The film is dubbed, but the dubbing to be honest is not great. In fact, it is pretty bad, and it does the film, already bad, no favors. They should've subtitled it instead but let us be honest. Not even watching this in the original German with subtitles saves it. The vampire lore is not quite consistent, and the vampire army alluded to at the beginning, well, you never really get to see it or even sense it is out there. Overall, a 0 out of 5 stars. This is one to definitely skip. Via TubiTv, watched 8/16. Tubi often has some pretty good schlocky films, but this is not one of them. 
• Apollo 18 (2011. Horror. Mystery. Science Fiction). Plot description: "Decades-old found footage from NASA's abandoned Apollo 18 mission, where three American astronauts were sent on a secret expedition, reveals the reason the U.S. has never returned to the moon."  The mission starts seemingly normal but soon small hints start that something may not be right. When they find a Soviet module lander, empty with evidence something happened but not quite sure what, things really start getting interesting so to speak. Among the small details, by now, Watergate has happened, so the astronauts worry the Department of Defense, running their secret mission, is lying to them as well and may have known about the Soviet moon program (in the film, the Soviets scrapped their program in 1969, but here is a landing module in 1974). About 55 minutes in, we get a bit of a clue there may be something else on the Moon, besides a dead cosmonaut and an abandoned Soviet lander. The film starts a bit slow, builds up the suspense as the astronauts begin to doubt what the government is telling them and finding hints and then evidence the Moon is not an empty place. It's in the last 25 minutes or so the pace picks up speed and the end. I am not a fan of the "found footage" genre, but this movie is one of the better efforts. It plays well with the alien terror and the government conspiracy elements, and it works well enough. This film to be honest turned out better than I expected it to be. The production looks pretty good, better than most other footage films, and the acting performances are good too. If you are a fan of the "found footage" terror genre, you may want to try this one. I ended up liking it, so willing to give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars. Via TubiTv. Watched 8/13.
• Riddick (2013. Action. Adventure. Science Fiction). Plot description: "Left for dead on a sun-scorched planet, Riddick finds himself up against an alien race of predators. Activating an emergency beacon alerts two ships: one carrying a new breed of mercenary, the other captained by a man from Riddick's past."  As the film opens, we harken back to previous films where Riddick needs to escape a hostile planet while trying to avoid bounty hunters after his head. In this case, the bounty hunters literally do want his head. The movie is very much like the numbers, a bit reminiscent of Pitch Black, the first film. It does lack the suspense of that first film, in part because we've already seen the idea. In the first film, it was darkness. In this one, the nasty creatures come out in the rain. Other than that, it becomes a race for survival and to escape the planet as before. While the movie has some good action, a lot of it is towards the latter part of the film. It does start a bit slow until about 2/3 in. At times the movie does feel a bit long. Overall, a semi-decent action film, but to be honest, the first one was a lot better. Vin Diesel as Riddick does a good job with the character as before, again, nothing new here. He is definitely made the role his, but aside from there, there is not much more in this film. I'd say 2.5 out of 5 stars. Via TubiTv. Watched 8/19.   

 

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:

• Hamish Macbeth (1995-1997. Police procedural. Mystery. Comedy. Drama). Plot description: "A young, laid-back policeman puts his shrewd knack for crime-solving to use in a sleepy Scottish village plagued by bizarre cases." TubiTv suggested this for folks who liked Midsomer Murders, so I figure why not give it a try. It is only three seasons with 20 episodes, which they got them all, so a short binge. The series combines some humor with some drama, not as much mystery. Macbeth has found his niche and happy place as the lone constable in the village, and though the city police at times think he is lazy and not too bright, turns out he is quite smart, humane, and does the work. In some ways I found the series similar in appeal to Doc Martin in terms of the small village and a cast of eccentric villagers. The filming locations in Scotland are quite nice too.
  
• The series is loosely based on a series of novels by M.C. Beaton (Marion Chesney). It seems they kept the main character, Hamish, and the village name but did not draw much from the books otherwise, or they combined elements of various books in a single episode. For me, the books do sound interesting, and I may give at least the first in the series a try. 
• Apparently, christofascists were a problem even back in the 1990s when the series was filmed. A few episodes feature plot lines with obnoxious Christian extremists who usually came and made others' lives miserable or tried to make others miserable; although in season 2, episode 1, the fire and brimstone guy was more hiding a semi-ridiculous secret of affairs and misunderstandings. The banker in season 1, on the other hand, he really was a christofascist asshole, but he did get his comeuppance once his hypocrisy was exposed.
  
• In the first season, the village's small police station finally gets a computer to be able to process and file reports as well as get connected to the net. In that episode, turns out Hamish's civilian assistant, TV John, who seemed to want to avoid the computer, was illiterate. It was a moving moment in the series as this is addressed. I also found interesting the reference to bringing computers in. On a side note, TV John is a bit of a psychic and believer in visions and premonitions, which he often has.  
• The last two episodes of season 3, which are also the last of the series, are a bit on the ridiculous. Kenneth McIver, the unlucky and deadbeat brother of TV John, is taken out of a South American prison to help find the Stone of Destiny, that some in the village have a clue. The whole hypnotist angle is a bit of a stretch, even for this quirky series. The Stone of Destiny is a Scottish artifact, stolen by the British in the 1290s. During World War II, the parents of some of the men in the village, stole it back and hid it somewhere in northern Scotland. This semi-quest for an artifact mystery is a bit out of character for everything else in the series that has come before. Still, the episodes make an effort to wrap up some loose ends, and it kept a bit of the humor the series had overall. 
  
• The series overall is a delight to watch. Some episodes are stronger, but as a whole a good watch. It combines humor, some drama, small town quirks, and a bit of what we may call now a bit of magic realism in the form of TV John's psychic gifts and some other small manifestations. For me, this was a nice new to me discovery.