DCU Blog - June 2025 Edition: Superman World Tour, The Batman Sequel Script Completed and Clayface Cast

When I say this was the busiest month for DC this year, I mean it. So much information came out. There's a lot to go over.

The World Tour for Superman (July 11th) kicked off with cast and crew visiting various countries to promote the movie.

Additional cast members for this movie include Bradley Cooper and Angela Sarafyan as Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van. Alan Tudyk, Jennifer Holland, Michael Rooker, Pom Klementieff, Grace Chan and Michael Rosenblum will voice robots in the movie. Stephen Blackehart will also appear as Sydney Happersen.

Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow will now be titled Supergirl (June 26th 2026). The movie is currently in post production.

James Gunn has confirmed that a Wonder Woman film is in development being currently written. It'll be connected to prequel series, Paradise Lost.

After waiting for the longest time, Matt Reeves and Mattson Tomlin announced that the script for The Batman - Part II (October 1st 2027) is now complete.

Meanwhile, James Gunn has confirmed that he's also working closely with the writer for The Brave And The Bold. 

A draft for the Deathstroke and Bane movie has been written. So far, that's it really.

Peacemaker Season 2 (August 21st HBO Max) will be the focus at Hall H for SDCC next month.

Tom Rhys Harries has been cast as Clayface (September 11th 2026). Filming will start in the UK in October.

James Gunn has also started writing his next film after Superman. I'm sure that'll be announced after next month.

Filming for Lanterns will be completed next month. The show will air on HBO in 2026.

It's also been confirmed that Waller is still in development and that a Teen Titans script is being written by Ana Nogueira.

Season 2 of The Sandman arrives this month on Netflix. Eps 1-6 from July 3rd, eps 7-11 from July 24th and a final special from July 31st.

Creature Commandos will air on Sky for UK/Irish viewers from July 8th at 2am/11pm respectively.

An R-Rated animated series for Mister Miracle is in development. Tom King will be involved with the show.

James Gunn has confirmed that there are complexities involving Static Shock. I wouldn't expect it anytime soon.

Now that Pride Month is coming to an end today, I thought I'd list my favourite LGBT characters. A Top 10 list so to speak. You won't be shocked by it. Here goes.

1) John Constantine

2) Harley Quinn

3) Red Robin (Tim Drake)

4) Poison Ivy 

5) Midnighter

6) Dreamer (Nia Nal)

7) Wonder Woman 

8) Catman

9) Apollo

10) Extrano

Well, that's it for the month of June. Next month is going to be DC at it's most crazy with the release of Superman.

My Review of Breakfast On Pluto (2005)

 

Written by Neil Jordan And Patrick McCabe

Directed by Neil Jordan

Kitten: "Not many people can take the tale of Patrick Braden, aka St. Kitten, who strutted the catwalks, face lit by a halo of flashbulbs as "oh!" she shrieks, "I told you, from my best side darlings.""

My final LGBT themed post for Pride Month and I had to pick another movie. I've always had a soft spot for this movie and rewatched it late last night. When it comes to performances, this one doesn't get talked enough with Cillian Murphy.

In this movie, Murphy played a transwoman named Patricia "Kitten" Braden. At the start of the movie, we see a woman named Eily Bergin (Eva Birthistle) leave baby Patrick with his father, who happened to be a priest named Father Liam (Liam Neeson). The father then left baby Patrick with a foster family.

The foster family - Ma Braden (Ruth McCabe) and daughter, Caroline (Charlene McKenna) weren't exactly the most understanding of people as Patrick rebelled in school and then began to make the steps to transition into Kitten after leaving home. From that point onwards, Kitten's adulthood got very chaotic.

Kitten was on a mission to track down her biological family while at the same time, she became a supportive system for her friend, Charlie (Ruth Negga) while going through some rather volatile relationships with men. Kitten had quite a few male admirers but most of them were just bad news for her.

Kitten's relationship with glam rock singer Billy Hatchet (Gavin Friday) ended badly when his IRA connections boiled to the surface. Then there was working in a Wombles theme park with the punch happy John Joe Kenny (Brendan Gleeson), a disastrous time as a prostitute, being a hypnotist (Stephen Rea) assistant and dancing with an English soldier (Dominic Cooper) resulting in a club being bombed.

The last segment of the movie took a more personal tone. Kitten got a nice reunion with her father (minus the peep show aspect) while also coming into contact with her mother and helping Charlie through her pregnancy. It's almost a shame that Kitten didn't reveal who she was to her mother because she had some nice scenes with her half brother but at least the movie did end on a positive note for her.

- In the book, the nickname is actually "Pussy" but honestly, I think changing it to "Kitten" was a better idea. There's also a Dalek at one point in the movie.

- Other actors included in this movie were Liam Cunningham, Laurence Kinlan as well as writer Patrick McCabe.

- Standout music: The Rubettes Sugar Baby Love and Joe Dolan's You're Such A Good Looking Woman.

- Chronology: Started in 1958 in County Cavan before moving to London in the 1970s during the Troubles.

Breakfast On Pluto is an absolute joy of a movie. Insanely funny, totally chaotic and often quite touching. It's undeniably one of the best performances that Cillian Murphy has delivered in his career.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

My Review of The Wicker Man (1973)

 

Written by Anthony Shaffer

Directed by Robert Hardy

Sergeant Howie: "I believe in the life eternal, as promised to us by our Lord, Jesus Christ."

Lord Summerisle: "That is good. For believing what you do, we confer upon you a rare gift, these days - a martyr's death."

I felt like watching some British horror this week and of course, it was time to give this one another go. It's been a long while since I've watched this and to be honest, I probably should've watched it last month. Would've been more fitting tbh.

With this film, our protagonist was Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) of the West Highlands Constabulary. The dusappearance of a girl named Rowan (Geraldine Cowper) has brought him to the island Summerisle and his life would be made difficult by the locals.

In the pub, he has to fight of the advances of the landlord's (Lindsay Kemp) daughter, Willow MacGregor (Britt Ekland) as she attempted to seduce him throughout the film. By the end of the film, his resistance to her dubious charms didn't work in his favour.

Then there's the local schoolteacher (Diane Cilento), who was teaching the kids material that Neil deemed inappropriate while also lying about Rowan being a student. Add a series of photographs of young girls as the May Queen and a grave for Rowan and things were definitely weird about Summerisle.

It didn't help that the mysterious Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) also added to the weirdness of the surroundings before Neil realised that the locals were doing ritual sacrifices on May Day to save their crops. This was where Rowan factored into things but it was Neil's attempts to rescue her that delivered the brutal twist.

It wasn't Rowan that was the intended sacrifice. Nope, it was Neil instead. Being a virgin (he was staying faithful to his wife to be), a man of authority who came to the island willingly and was made a fool. None of these helped Neil and the last scene where he was sacrificed ended this film on a brutal note.

- Other prominent actors in this movie, included Ingrid Pitt, Roy Boyd, Irene Sunter and Aubrey Morris.

- A US remake came out in 2006 while a spiritual sequel titled, The Wicker Tree with Christopher Lee and Lesley Mackie (Daisy) came out in 2011.

- Standout music: The chilling use of Middle English folk song, Sumer Is Icumen In.

- Chronology: April 30th and May 1st. 

The Wicked Man does make for a chilling early summer horror with plenty of shocks and nice reveals. The second half of this movie in particular and that last scene were especially chilling.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

Justice League Unlimited - Episodes 6-10 Reviews

In this batch of episodes, Supergirl has met her match, there are returning characters aplenty and new groups being formed.

Episode 6: Fearful Symmetry 

Supergirl vs. Power Girl anyone? That's basically the premise of this episode as the former found herself getting blamed for the latter's antics. Green Arrow and The Question were paired with Kara, attempting to crack down the reasons for her bad dreams and low and behold, it's Cadmus at the heart of her problems. Of course Power Girl is actually a character called Galatea but this episode kicked off the ongoing Cadmus arc for the series. 6/10

Episode 7: The Greatest Story Never Told 

And there's Booster Gold. He's a man from the future with aspirations of being a hero. Instead, he's more of an annoyance to the ever growing Justice League, who don't want to really deal with him. However this episode gave him a chance to step as a hero by going up against a scientist who turned himself into a black hole. Oh and he got a love interest too. 7/10

Episode 8: The Return

Oh this one lived up to its title. There was the return of Lex Luthor, who for once wasn't the villain of the piece. There was the return of Amazon, who was after Lex and a new purpose. There was also the return of Hawkgirl but that literally happened at the very last minute of the episode. Add to that the use of characters such as the Atom, John Stewart, the Guardians and Doctor Fate and this was quite the episode. 8/10

Episode 9: Ultimatum

A few episodes we were introduced to Project Cadmus and now, we're back with them. That meant having the likes of Amanda Waller, Professor Hamilton and Maxwell Lord pop up on screen. It also meanst the introduction of their group known as the Ultramen. The same group who turned out to be a problem for the Justice League with the exception of Long Shadow. An okay introduction for the short-lived group. 6/10

Episode 10: Dark Heart

Another average episode but one that's pretty packed with a lot of characters. This one had General Wade Eiling leading a military unit battling the Justice League. There was also a powerful alien nanotechnology that provided the biggest obstacle to the team. It's mostly Atom who saved the day with this one. 5/10

Next blog I'll tackle Wake The Dead, The Once And Future Thing Part One: Weird Western Tales, The Once And Future Thing Part Two: Time Warped, The Cat And The Canary and The Ties That Bind.

My Review of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

 

Written by Trey Callaway

Directed by Danny Cannon

Julie (to the Fisherman): "Just. Fucking. Die!"

On to the sequel. The end of the first movie set it up and time has passed by. Our leading lady, Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) has been attending summer classes in Boston. She's also been having nightmares about the Fisherman (Muse Watson) terrorising her.

Not only that but Julie was seemingly at odds with Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.). He wanted to spend time with her and propose. Instead Julie decided to take a summer break to the Bahamas with college friends, Karla Wilson (Brandy), Tyrell Martin (Mekhi Phifer) and Will Benson (Matthew Settle). The first two were a couple and the latter had a crush on Julie.

Being in the Bahamas should've been a good time. Instead, it was constantly raining and after putting poor Ray in the hospital, the Fisherman thought to take a trip to finish Julie and her friends off. Of course there were some random characters to kill off first. 

These characters included stoner Titus (Jack Black), the almost all knowing Estes (Bill Cobbs) and bitchy bartender, Nancy (Jennifer Esposito). Out of the new friends group, the increasingly unsympathetic Tyrell ended up getting a gruesome death by the third act. He was pretty horrible to Julie as the bodies began to pile up on the resort.

Then there's the reunions that Julie not only had with Ray but also the one with Ben Willis. Oh and it turned out that Will was actually Ben's son and a bit too eager to help his father out with the revenge plan. It's a reveal that should've had a major impact but it's so anticlimactic along with the murderous father and son's comeuppance.

As for the remainder of the movie, Karla was fortunately alive (I did like her character) and Julie and Ray were now living together. There was another sequel hook made but this one felt more goofy than actually foreboding. It also never really came to pass.

- There was a third movie unrelated to the first two. I've seen it and it's awful but I'll review before I get to the new one.

- Knowing the capital of Brazil really would've messed with Ben and Will's great plan, huh?

- Standout music: Lamb's Gorecki and Imogen Heap's Getting Scared.

- Chronology: A year since the events of the first movie. It was also a year when this sequel was released.

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer made for a serviceable but hardly exciting sequel. There's a few semi decent moments but it doesn't do a lot to make you care about any of the characters or even the killers themselves.

Rating: 5 out of 10 

My Review of I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

 

Written by Kevin Williamson

Directed by Jim Gillespie

Ben: "You in some kind of trouble child?"

Julie: "Yes, yeah I'm in a lot of trouble."

Ben: "That's a shame, being that it's the 4th of July and all. Kids like you should be out having fun. Drinking, partying, running people over, getting away with murder... things like that."

Confession: As a franchise, I've been more lukewarm to this compared to some others. Slapped in between both Scream and Urban Legends, this franchise just didn't grip me as much. This first movie though did offer a decent start.

In the movie, you've got a group of students about to graduate. There's the girl next door in Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and her best friend, Southport's Croaker Queen, Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gellar). They're easily the best characters of the four main ones. There's also aggressive jock Barry Cox (Ryan Phillippe) and fisherman, Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.). One of thems's awful, the other one a bit boring.

Anyways, they're celebrating the 4th of July and end up running over a man that got most of the movie they assumed was someone who had lost his girlfriend the year before. How do they deal with accidentally killing someone? They dump the body and pretend that nothing ever happened and go their separate ways.

Then a year passed and it was July 4th again. Julie had gone to college in Boston, Helen was working on the family business and being belittled by her jealous sister, Barry was threatening other characters like Max (Johnny Galecki) and Ray was mostly pining for an uninterested Julie. Of course, the four were brought back togethef because someone knew what they did the previous summer.

Not only that but they were determined to kill each of the four members as revenge. Julie and Helen were savvy enough to try and get answers from Missy Egan (Anne Heche) but it would later appear that their victim was both alive and not the young man they thought they killed. In fact, he died by their victim before the disastrous event.

As for the killed/victim, it was Benjamin Willis/the Fisherman (Muse Watson) and it's a fairly unsatisfying reveal. I mean we didn't really know the character until his reveal and his defeat at Julie and Ray's hands just wasn't that satisfying tbh. As for the last scene, talk about blatantly setting up that sequel.

- Kevin Williamson really was on the slasher front in the last 1990s with this, the first two Scream movies and writing parts of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later.

- The movie's based on a 1973 novel of the same name though the town is Silver Springs instead of Southport.

- Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr met on this movie and the rest is history with them.

- Chronology: July 4th, both in 1996 and 1997 for the majority of this movie. Southport and Boston.

I Know What You Did Last Summer is fine as a slasher movie playing into aspect of the hook legend with okay enough protagonists. It does often lack the spark of Williamson's other slasher work but the main cast do carry it along.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Moonlight (2016)

 

Written by Barry Jenkins And Tarell Alvin McCraney

Directed by Barry Jenkins 

Black (to Kevin): "You the only man that's ever touched me. You're the only one. I haven't really touched anyone since."

This month I've made the effort to watch a variety of LGBT cinema and with this, I had an Oscar movie I needed to catch up on. I can't believe it took me this long but I'm glad I'm caught up with this one.

Split into various chapters, this movie focused on Chiron (Alex Hibbert). He's a shy boy, bullied by his peers, given the nickname "Little" and caught between his drug addicted mother, Paula (Naomie Harris) and his father figure, Juan (Mahershala Ali). Then there's Kevin (Jaden Piner). 

Early in this film, it's established that Chiron being bullied by his peers and a victim of his mother's ire stemmed from Chiron being gay. This became more apparent when we meet the teenage version of Chiron (Ashton Sanders) and his closeness to Kevin (Jharrel Jerome).

The bullying that Chiron suffered in his teenage years, mostly at the hands of the spiteful Terrel (Patrick Decile) escalated so badly that Chiron eventually lashed out. Chiron inflicted the same abuse on to his bully that they had done to him and it was a pretty justified. However it also might have changed Chiron for the worst.

By the time we get to the adult version of Chiron (Trevante Rhodes), he's going by "Black" and has become a more fearsome character. He's also become a drug dealer that hasn't been intimate with anyone in a long time while his mother has gotten clean.

The reunion between Chiron and Kevin (Andre Holland) certainly highlighted the contrasting lives they've lived. There's more contentment on Kevin's part but regret at what might have been had things been different between him and Chiron.

- Singer Janelle Monae appeared in the movie as Juan's girlfriend, Teresa. She's in the first two parts whereas Juan only appeared in the first part.

- The Chapters for the movie are Little, Chiron and Black.

- Standout music: Barbara Lewis's Hello Stranger.

- Chronology: Chiron's story is broken into his childhood, teenage and adult years in both Liberty City, Miami and Atlanta.

Moonlight is a beautiful, raw depiction of a man's struggle with his sexuality throughout three different time periods. Beautifully shot (especially the moonlight sequences), coupled with soulful performances, it's simply a gorgeous movie.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of American Psycho (2000)

 

Written by Mary Harron And Guinevere Turner

Directed by Mary Harron 

Patrick Bateman: "I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don't know why. My nightly bloodlust has overflown into my days. I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy. I think my mask of sanity is about to slip."

I'm not sure this movie should be something I should review in this particular month but it's been on my list for a while. With it's 25th anniversary since it's release and Luca Guadagnino about to do his own version, it was time to revisit this one.

First of all, this was a role that could've easily been career suicide for Christian Bale and any actor might have listened to their agent at the time and avoided it. Fortunately for us, Bale made the right decision and decided to take part in this movie. There's a reason why it's become one of his most iconic roles.

In this film, Bale played dissatisfied investment banker, Patrick Bateman. Bateman was a man who wanted for nothing, including a gorgeous but shallow fiancée in Evelyn Williams (Reese Witherspoon), whom he largely felt disdain for her. For a man with everything, there was only one thing that seemed to spark any kind of life into him - murder.

Yup, Patrick Bateman was a serial killer and in a lot of ways, he made no effort into hiding that fact. He was mostly indiscriminate in his choice of victims but there was certainly an emphasis in the women he murdered such as sex workers Christie (Cara Seymour) and Sabrina (Krista Sutton) and acquaintance Elizabeth (Guinevere Turner). 

Not that men got off too lightly as well. Bateman did kill fellow banker Paul Allen (Jared Leto) quite brutally as well as a homeless man and his dog and various people at the height of his madness. He almost killed a cat, only for an unfortunate bystander to stop him. It's something when the cruelty to animals Patrick displayed was more shocking than what he did to various people in the movie.

Speaking of people, one of the few who managed to not get killed by Patrick was his secretary Jean (Chloe Sevigny) and his pill popping mistress Courtney (Samantha Mathis). He also didn't kill co-workers such as Timothy Bryce (Justin Theroux) or Craig McDermott (Josh Lucas). Even Courtney's closeted fiancé, Luis Carruthers (Matt Ross) or private investigator, Donald Kimball (Willem Dafoe).

However the bigger question was posed by the end of the movie - did Patrick Bateman actually kill anyone at all? His lawyer, Harold Carnes (Stephen Bogaert) discredited Bateman's confession about Paul Allen being dead and the movie ended with Bateman caught in his own personal hell of his confession to murders amounting to nothing at all.

- Patrick Bateman would appear in other novels from writer, Bret Easton Ellis and eventually get a comeuppance for his crimes.

- Patrick narrated throughout the movie, in particular with his lifestyle routines and music trivia. He's also mistaken for Marcus Halberstram (Anthony Lemke) by several characters in the movie.

- There are some changes from the source material. Bateman doesn't kill a child in this movie.

- Guinevere Turner who co-wrote the movie also played the unfortunate Elizabeth too.

- Standout music: Huey Lewis & The News Hip To Be Square, Genesis's In Too Deep and David Bowie's Something In The Air. It's a bloody killer soundtrack.

- Chronology: 1987 and 1988 New York with Christmas briefly factoring into things halfway through the movie.

American Psycho absolutely has earned its legendary and it's a brutal satire in parts and plain horrifying in others. Christian Bale completely nailed the role of Patrick Bateman in a fascinating character study.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

Freddy's Nightmares - Episodes 11-15 Reviews

In this batch of episodes we've got world ending events, more serial killers and the perils of the SATs.

Episode 11: Do Dreams Bleed?

After a few more adult focused ones, this one took focus on high school football named John Warring (Damon Martin). He was having dreams of a serial killer named The Springwood Chopper and generally stressing out his girlfriend, Roni (Sarah Buxton) and coach (Jeff McCarthy). Eventually it turned out that John was actually the killer himself and he was sectioned privately. Or was he really the killer? Maybe it was the suspicious acting coach who did the killinfs and framed poor John. That's certainly one possibility with this episode. 6/10

Episode 12: The End Of The World

Oh god, this episode was an absolute borefest. Veering closer to science fiction than horror, I just didn't care for this one at all. To it's credit, it did keep it's focus purely on guest character Amy (Mary Kohnert) as she realised that she was able to use her dreams to manipulate her past. This brought her to the attention of the CIA who wanted to use her talents to prevent the end of the world. George Lazenby guest starred in this deathly dull one. 3/10

Episode 13: Deadline

After two somewhat dire episodes, this was a bit of an improvement. Mostly the first half where obituary writer, Peter (Aaron Harnick) got a more in depth experience into how certain people died. It was enough to make him want to stop writing for his father's paper but not enough to prevent his own death. The second half then focused on his girlfriend, Emily (Page Hannah), which was less interesting. There's a look into her dead friends tormenting her but I feel they should have kept the focus more on Peter with this one. He had the better plot. 7/10

Episode 14: Black Tickets

Before he became one of the most famous movie stars on the planet, Brad Pitt guest starred in this show. In another universe, he could've been Jesse Walsh had Mark Patton not gotten the role. With this episode, Brad Pitt played Rick and along with Miranda (Kerry Wall), the two attempted to elope. Throughout this episode, they got mugged by an elderly couple, had snakes in their bed, one of them got trapped in a steam room and the other killed two couples. Then their domestic life wasn't much better with motherhood having Miranda lose her mind to throw point where she regressed by the end. It's also possible some of this stuff didn't happen either. 7/10

Episode 15: School Daze

High school can be tough and here you've got two different guys dealing with different but relatable problems. First up, there's Steve (Andrew Kraus). His story had to do with his individuality and how everyone wanted to stamp it out. This included nightmares of the principal turning his students into mindless robots, which was enough to make Steve conform. Then there was Matt (Billy Morrissette). He aspired to be a musician. Everyone else wanted him to be a banker and ace his SATs. Matt has anxiety over that and appeared to fail in one dream and never do them in another. In a strange twist of events, it appeared that everything he really wanted ended up happening for him. 7/10

Next blog I'll tackle Cabin Fever, Love Stinks, The Art Of Death, Missing Persons and The Light At The End Of The Tunnel.

Justice League Unlimited - Episodes 1-5 Reviews

Last month I watched and talked about all 52 episodes of Justice League. I was going to leave this follow up series for a while but I've changed my mind.

Episode 1: Initiation 

With the previous mostly being a mix of two and three part stories, this show mostly went on singular stories and this one introduced Green Arrow. He's been avoiding signing up to the Justice League but here, he found himself on a mission with Supergirl, John Stewart and Captain Atom in order to defeat a nuclear-powered robot rampaging across Eastern Asia. It's a fun introduction for the character with the brief of Black Canary being the incentive for Green Arrow to change his mind about joining up. 7/10

Episode 2: For The Man Who Has Everything 

There's a few Superman stories that tend to pop up in other media often enough and this would be another one of them. It's Superman's birthday and Batman and Wonder Woman have presents for him. However Mongul got there first and with a parasitic creature, Superman got placed in a world where Krypton survived, his parents survived and both him and Lois/Lana hybrid were married and had a son. Of course, it would take a lot to snap Superman out of his idyllic false life and when he did, it didn't end particularly well for Mongul. 8/10

Episode 3: Kid Stuff

In the previous show, we got a good two parter with Morgaine Le Fay and Mordred and they're back here but not on the same team. In fact, Mordred's grown tired of his mother pulling his strings and used the Amulet of First Magic to remove all adults from Earth and rule over every child on the planet. This meant Morgaine reluctantly forming an alliance with the Justice League to stop her son. There's a good portion of the episode with the Justice League as children before they eventually got the better of Mordred. Mordred's final defeat was horribly fitting for the character. 7/10

Episode 4: Hawk And Dove 

Probably my least favourite episode so far, which despite the introduction of the title characters, it was also a Wonder Woman focused episode. An episode where she's angry at a petty criminal but needed to recruit the title characters in order to stop Ares from stirring up a civil war in Europe while getting himself a new ally in the Annihilator from Hephaestus. Fans of The Wonder Years will recognise the voices of both Hawk and Dove but this was a rather dull episode. 4/10

Episode 5: This Little Piggy 

Two Wonder Woman focused episodes in a row? What a treat but while the last one was a dull debut for a duo, this one introduced one of Diana's best enemies and then benched Diana for most of the time. The villain being Circe who got paroled from the Underworld and turned Wonder Woman into a pig. While Diana was on the loose, it was up to Batman and Zatanna to strike a deal with Circe in order for the witch to turn Wonder Woman back into her normal self. Add some unexpected singing and an amusing cameo from Medusa and I really loved this one. 9/10

Next blog I'll tackle Fearful Symmetry, The Greatest Story Never Told, The Return, Ultimatum and Dark Heart.

My Review of Beautiful Thing (1996)

 

Written by Jonathan Harvey

Directed by Hettie MacDonald 

Ste: "And are ya?"

Jamie: "Queer?"

Ste: "Gay."

Jamie: "Very happy. I'm happy when I'm with you..."

Yesterday, I ventured into 1980s Britain gay cinema and today, it's time for the 1990s to get their moment in the sun. I've seen this movie before but given the month, another rewatch was in order.

Set on a council estate, you've got single mother, Sandra Gangel (Linda Henry). She's working in her local pub with ambitious of owning one at some point. She's also the mother of one of our protagonists, teenage son, Jamie (Glen Berry).

Jamie's a quiet kid that's a bit of an outsider among his peers. His dislike for football put a target on his back and he's not particularly keen on his mother's well meaning hippie boyfriend, Tony (Ben Daniels). However as the movie went on, Tony turned out be something of an ally for Jamie.

The main story itself would involve Sandra and Jamie's neighbours, in particular the youngest son, Ste Pearce (Scott Neal). Ste's a punching bag for his father, Ronnie (Garry Cooper) and drug dealing brother, Trevor (Daniel Bowers). It got so bad that Ste ended up moving in with Sandra and Jamie, where things got complicated with the latter.

Yes, both Jamie and Ste quickly realised that they were attracted to each other but neither of them wanted to admit they were gay. Except for the fact that it was obvious to everyone, including their mischievous neighbour, Leah Russell (Tameka Empson). Leah's something of a foil to Sandra throughout the movie, including one moment where Sandra rightfully smacked Leah when the latter went too far.

Speaking of Sandra, her reaction to Jamie was very interesting. She was mostly supportive but lamented the possibility of never having grandchildren. The last moments between Jamie and Ste do end the film on a nicely uplifting note, which I did appreciate very much.

- This film was made by Channel 4 Films and we had Jamie stealing an issue of Gay Times.

- Jonathan Harvey had a cameo in the movie and Meera Syal and Beth Goddard had small roles.

- Standout music: A lot of Mama Cass was used in this movie, especially the likes of Make Your Own Kind Of Music and Dream A Little Dream Of Me.

- Chronology: 1990s, Thamesmead, South London during the summer.

I really liked this movie. Beautiful Thing was very funny in parts, very sweet and told a very believable romance between Jamie and Ste with great performances from the leading lads. Highly recommended.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

 

Written by Hanif Kureishi

Directed by Stephen Frears 

Omar: "When we were in school, you and your friends were kicking me around the place. And what are you doing now? Washing my floor and that's how I like it."

Continuing my look into LGBT movies for the month of June, I had to watch one that came out the same year I was born. I've heard of this film but until this month, I'd never properly seen it. I'm now glad to say that I have.

This movie focused on a Pakistani-Brirish man named Omar Ali (Gordon Warnecke). It's South London in the mid 1980s and Omar's looking after his father, Hussein (Roshan Seth) as the latter has descended into alcoholism and no longer works as the left wing journalist he once was.

Being a caregiver isn't a vocation that Omar particularly wanted for his life, not to bear the brunt of his father's resentment over the social politics of the time. Of course, there's other family members who have bigger plans for Omar, much to the latter's reluctance.

Throughout the movie, there's a constant attemot to marry Omar off to his cousin, Tania (Rita Wolf) by his uncle, Nasser (Saaed Jaffrey). It's a prospect that doesn't appeal to either Omar or Tania but it's the latter who made sure that neither of them had to go through with it.

Unwanted attempts of arranged marriage aside, Nasser had Omar running his friend's laundrette and working with Omar was his lover and general bad boy, Johnny Burfoot (Daniel Day-Lewis). Johnny had something of a fascist past that the movie explored as well as the growing tension between the Pakistani and punk communities within the movie.

The exploration into Omar and Johnny's relationship certainly had some of its ups and downs along with illegal activities in the mix. Saying that, it's a relationship that did manage to endure throughout with a surprise happy note ending for the two of them during the last scene.

- The movie was originally shot for Channel 4 before it ended up getting a theatrical release. Gary Oldman nearly played Johnny before Daniel Day-Lewis was cast.

- This was one of the first films that publicly made jokes about Margaret Thatcher.

- Standout music: Aaron Copland's Fanfare For The Common Man.

- Chronology: South London in the mid 1980s.

My Beautiful Laundrette was a delight of a movie with very compelling performances from both Gordon Warnecke and Daniel Day-Lewis. There's a good exploration into class and race issues of the time along with the romance between Omar and Johnny. 

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Clown In A Cornfield (2025)

 

Written by Carter Blanchard And Eli Craig

Directed by Eli Craig 

Cole: "Sorry about tonight, Quinn."

Quinn: "Oh, it's okay. Don't worry about it. You know, except for the clowns trying to kill us and all. That kind of sucks."

An unexpected one for Pride Month would be this movie. Yeah, I was surprised too about this one. I mean, it's a horror slasher with a clown named Frendo who loved killing teenagers and there's a gay love story in the mix.

The reason why I'm emphasising the gay storyline was not only was it genuinely unexpected but it worked very nicely in a slasher movie that's pretty funny. As long as you're not expecting anything groundbreaking, you're in for a good time.

This movie had a grieving father, Dr Glenn Maybrook (Aaron Abrams) and his daughter, Quinn (Katie Douglas) move to the strange town of Kettle Springs. All the adults are either hostile or straight up weird. Fortunately for Quinn, the townspeople in her age group are more friendly.

It didn't take Quinn long to befriend social media pranksters, Cole (Carson MacCormac), Janet (Cassandra Potenza), Ronnie (Verity Marks), Tucker (Ayo Solanke) and Matt (Alexandre Martin Deakin). They're a decent bunch of teenagers who quickly brought Quinn up to speed about the town's Founders Day custom and local mascot, the clown Frendo.

As the movie progressed and Quinn and her father clashed over the former's new friend group, Frendo was also dispatching of that friend group. Frendo made sure they were inventive with the body count method and Frendo was also more than one person. There's a reason why the adults are off in this movie.

It's because all of them are Frendo, notably the Sheriff Dunne (Will Sasso) and Cole's conservative father, Arthur Hill (Kevin Durand). The latter's willingness to murder his own son definitely added to the tension as the few survivors of the movie banded together to take down the Frendo circus, once and for all.

Going back to the gay love story, it's between Cole and outcast Rust (Vincent Muller). It's nicely handled, added a bit of depth to both characters and didn't detract from the main story. It was also an interesting subversion as I assumed the love story was supposed to be between Quinn and Cole. Then again, so did Quinn before she became aware of Coleand Rust.

- This movie's based on a book of the same name by Adam Cesare. It has two sequels. Expect the same with this.

- Frendo would leave little Jack in the boxes as a calling card for his victims. The last scene set up the inevitable sequel.

- Standout music: Dummy's What Do I Owe? and Mother Mother's Get Out Of The Way.

- Chronology: Flashbacks to 1991 Kettle Springs, Missouri as well as the present day. Quinn and her father are from Philadelphia.

I didn't go with huge expectations but I gotta say that I enjoyed Clown In A Cornfield. It doesn't do anything to reinvent the wheel with the slasher but it's fun, got some inventive kills, a nicely handled love story and room for further exploration.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Brokeback Mountain (2005)

 

Written by Larry McMurtry And Diana Ossana

Directed by Ang Lee

Jack (to Ennis): "Tell  you what... the truth is... sometimes I miss you so much I can hardly stand it."

I genuinely cannot believe that this film will be celebrating it's twentieth anniversary and confession time, I've only ever watched this film once and that was shortly after it's initial release. Of course, it was time to revisit this one.

In some ways, this movie really was important. It's one of the most mainstream cinematic depictions of a romance between two men and it was also a career breakthrough for both Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. Both men are incredible in this movie.

The romance itself stirred an interesting debate. Were both men really gay but unable to come out due to the time they were in? Were they really bisexual as both of them did settle down with women and fathered children? Or was it something more complex than being either gay or bisexual? After watching this film again, I'm none the wiser. 

The men in question being ranch hands, Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal). Both were hired by a rancher Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid) to heard his sheep during the summer on Brokeback Mountain. The more time that Ennis and Jack spent together, the closer they got. That closeness became physical as they started a sexual relationship.

However both men insisted they weren't gay and at no point was the idea of either of them being bisexual outright said by either of them. Eventually they went on to have much different lives from one another but at the same time, both Ennis and Jack found themselves also drawn back to each other as well. That caused anguish among themselves and the families they had build in their older years.

Ennis's wife, Alma (Michelle Williams) was very much aware of Ennis and Jack's relationship and eventually divorced him. Ennis ended up living a rather solitary life with a strained relationship between older daughter, Alma Jr (Kate Mara) and a failed attempt of another romance with Cassie Cartwright (Linda Cardellini). 

Jack's life with Lureen (Anne Hathaway) and their son wasn't much better. Lureen might not have known explicitly about the true extent of Jack's relationship with Ennis but the one interaction she had with him was sort of telling. Jack got an ambiguous death that clearly affected Ennis, especially with that quietly beautiful moment Ennis had with Jack's parents and the final shot of the movie.

- I had forgotten that both Anna Faris and David Harbour appeared as a couple that Jack and Lureen made friends with. It's implied that Jack slept with Harbour's character.

- Fishing trips became a way for both Ennis and Jack to spend time with one another. 

- Ennis kept Jack's shirt and then Alma Jr's jacket when the latter forgot it. Alma Jr was engaged to an oil worker named Kurt.

- Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams met on this movie and became a couple afterwards.

- Standout music: The Raven Shadows/Tim Ferguson's Trust In Lies and Gustavo Santaolalla's Angel Went Up In Flames.

- Chronology: Between 1963 to 1983 in Wyoming and Texas.

Seeing as it's been a while since I've seen Brokeback Mountain, I'll admit that my first impression was more mixed but I think I liked more the second time around. Both Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are superb, even if the pacing's a bit slow at times.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

Freddy's Nightmares - Episodes 6-10 Reviews

For this second batch of episodes, there's a sequel, focus on adult characters and serious daddy issues at play.

Episode 6: Saturday Night Special 

The second episode this season to have an adult cast, this one had unlucky in love Gordon (Scott Burkholder) fantasise about getting together with the hard to get, Lana (Shari Shattuck). Of course he mostly told harmless white lies to impress her but those lies came back to haunt him when a romantic date in an ice rink ended in a bloody mess. Then the second half focused on Lana manipulating her co-worker and housemate, Mary into getting a makeover. The end result of that being a rather grim ending for poor Mary. 6/10

Episode 7: Sister's Keeper 

And here's a sequel to the opening episode. I'm surprised they didn't save this for the finale as a bookend to the season. Twin sisters, Lisa and Merritt are trying to cope with the loss of their father with one of them being more attuned to Freddy's malevolence than the other. Of course as the episode and both were done pretending to be the other, there was an attempt by the twins to get rid of Freddy for good. It very nearly worked but at the last minute, Freddy regained the upper hand and one of the twins died. Oh and Zod himself, Michael Shannon popped up as a boyfriend to one of the twins. 7/10

Episode 8: Mother's Day 

Okay, this one certainly lived up to its titles with two teen protagonists having very different but equally toxic relationships with their mothers. First of all, there was Billy (Byron Thames) who seemed very jealous of his mother remarrying while his new neighbour Barbara (Jill Whitlow) had her own issues with her radio psychologist mother (Elizabeth Savage). Billy's story really came second place with him being an early death. The back and forth between Barbara (under the pseudonym of Weeping Wendy) and her mother made for a stronger story as the latter's spate of bad advice caused all sorts of problems for her. 8/10

Episode 9: Rebel Without A Car 

I got a strong sense of deja vu watching this episode. Yet again, we had a young man, this one named Alex (Craig Hurley) wanting to get out from working in Beefy Burger to leave Springwood, only to be killed within the first half of the episode. We already covered that in the second episode and the second half focused on his grieving girlfriend, Connie (Katie Barberi). Only here, we had Connie jumping through hoops during Hell Week by a Sorority that had no intention of accepting her in the first place. Connie managed to get her own back with a little murder spree that she ended up getting away with. 8/10

Episode 10: The Bride Wore Red 

Getting back to the adults, we got a wedding here between Jessica (Diane Franklin) and Gavin (Eddie Driscoll) and it's a good case for why some people shouldn't marry. They're horribly mismatched and both with their own issues. By comparison, Gavin's issues aren't as bad. Jessica's on the other hand are a severe case of daddy issues as flashbacks showed her skewered views on men stemming from her father's (Arthur Roberts) inability to stay faithful while exposing a lawyer's (Gary Wood) infidelity would come back to get her in the worst way. Oh and there's Freddy's bondage punsas well. 7/10

Next blog I'll look into Do Dreams Bleed?, The End Of The World, Deadline, Black Tickets and School Daze.

The Future Of Ryan Murphy Shows - Part 4

A surprise update here. I was going to hold this off until later in the year but a few tantalising bits have materialised the last few weeks.

Filming for 9-1-1: Nashville has begun and the cast has further expanded. Last time I mentioned Chris O'Donnell as Captain Don Sharpe and Jessica Capshaw as Blythe Warde along with LeAnn Rimes and Kimberly Williams-Paisley in undisclosed roles. Added to the cast include Michael Provost as Ryan, a cowboy firefighter as well as Don and Blythe's son. Then there's Hunter McVey as haunted bad boy firefighter Blue, Juanita Felix as former trauma surgeon Roxie and Hailey Kilgore as singer Taylor. Both Roxie and Taylor are also firefighters. The show will premiere in the Fall on ABC with the ninth season of parent show, 9-1-1.

Speaking of filming, FX's next anthology series, American Love Story has given us some goodies here. First of all, this rather nice photoshoot with leads Paul Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon as JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette in character mode. On top of that they will be joined by Grace Gummer, Sydney Lemmon and Alessandro Nicola as well as the previously announced Naomi Watts. It was also confirmed the show will premiere on FX from February 2026.

After months of radio silence, we finally got the tiniest of crumbs for American Horror Story. Now, it's nothing to get too excited about but someone did ask Ryan Murphy if we were going to get Season 13 in 2025 and while Murphy didn't exactly confirm that we would, he did give something. He confirmed that both him and Sarah Paulson were working on something cool in regards to the long running FX stalwart. It's not really anything to go on but here's hoping that more concrete information will surface soon enough. I'd be surprised if Season 13 does air this year but stranger things have happened.

Announced after my last blog on Ryan Murphy shows, it does look like he's collaborating with Kaia Gerber once again. This time, it's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's The Shards for FX. The book released in 2023 focused on a coming of age story set in 1981 where a group of privileged prep school students navigate their senior year as well as the presence of a serial killer. Gerber's character will be the lead and so far, she's the only cast member announced with Max Winkler set to direct the pilot episode. Filming has yet to start, so this one might be a while yet. I hope this fares better for Murphy than Scream Queens did a decade ago for him.

Last but not least, there's Doctor Odyssey. It's been a month since the first season wrapped up on an unsatisfying note on ABC. The lack of an update on the nautical series is definitely frustrating as both ABC and Ryan Murphy seem to yet to decide on its fate. If it is returning, it's definitely moving to another night on ABC and will likely be a mid season return. If it's cancelled, then why not just the few people curious about the show out of their misery and tell them? I expect this with streaming and cable shows but not a network TV show. Make a decision already.

That's my update for now. Unless major news is revealed about multiple Ryan Murphy soon, it'll be a while before I do another of these blogs.

My Review of Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (2011)

Written by Eddie Berganza And Alan Burnett And Todd Casey And Dave Gibbons And Michael Green And Marc Guggenheim And Geoff Johns And Peter Tomasi

Directed by Christopher Berkeley And Lauren Montgomery And Jay Oliva

Arisia: "I guess this is the blackest night everyone talks about."

Sinestro: "No, my dear. Only dusk."

A few weeks ago, I watched and reviewed Green Lantern: First Flight, so of course, I had to catch up with this one. A sequel of sorts to that movie, this one told a few different stories about various ring heaters in this part of the DC Universe.

The first story focused on Avra (Mitchell Whitfield). He's the Guardians humble scribe and one of the first chosen by the Corps rings, despite not being a warrior. He's got a team to help him take out the Dominators. Avra's responsible for the way the rings made constructs while his own ring went from Abin Sur (Arnold Vosloo) and eventually, Hal Jordan (Nathan Fillion).

Hal's role in this movie was to mentor newcomer, Arisia Rrab (Elizabeth Moss). He introduced her to Kilowog (Henry Rolins) and then we learned more about Kilowog. Kilowog's story involved his training with Sergeant Deegan (Wade Williams), which included not being dependent on the power ring and defending a nearby planet from the Khunds.

The story of Laira (Kelly Hu) delved into her family and homeworld of Jayd. This meant hostile reunions with both her brother and father as well as addressing war crimes and a suicide from Laura's father. It's a fairly dark story in this batch.

Then there's Mogo. Yes, there's a Green Lantern that's a sentient planet who'd prefer not to socialise with anyone. For Mogo's story, he's got the warmonger, Bolphunga (Roddy Piper) to deal with. Bolphunga's realisation as to what Mogo really was certainly made this the strongest of the stories. Also Mogo would come in handy by the conclusion of this movie.

The last two stories gave some backstory for both Abin Sur and Sinestro (Jason Isaacs) as well as the origins for Atrocitus (Bruce Thomas). Then you had the current Lanterns fighting Krona and his shadow demons. This came with severe casualties, including Oa itself. It's a good job that a sentient planet was able to be the Corps current base.

- The movie was broken into the following segments - Green Lantern, Kilowog, Laira, Mogo Doesn't Socialize, Abin Sur and Emerald Knights.

- Other Lanterns who appeared include Tomar-Re, Ganthet, Salaak and Boodikka to name a few.

- The animated series, Young Justice (different continuity) used the same animation style as this movie did.

- Chronology: Various timelines as the stories all linked to one another before the big battle with Krona.

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights mostly succeeded as a series of vignettes that connected to a bigger story. Some of the stories are stronger than others but none of them are bad. A solid follow up from the previous animated movie.

Rating: 7 out of 10