My Review of The Sandman: "Brief Lives"

 

Written by Austin Guzman

Directed by Jamie Childs

Wanda (to Dream/Delirium): "I miss my books. They were my companions. I was obsessed with the Oz books when I was growing up."

Okay, if I had to cite a stunning guest performance for this season so far, then my God, I have to give it to Indya Moore. I mean, in the space of a few scenes she did an incredible job of making me fall in love with Wanda and then there was those last scenes. They were just devastating.

We all know that Dream can be a massive dick but in this episode, he really did manage to outdo himself here. All Delirium wanted was to find Destruction. Dream was more interested in stalking Nada than help his sister out.

Worse than that, Dream knew that "helping" Delirium to try and find Destruction would lead to others being killed but still went along with it. It might not be often that Desire will get the moral highground but their rage at Dream by the end of this episode was totally justified. It was also the first time that Desire showed genuine disgust in Dream's actions.

Getting back to the casualties, Wanda sadly fell into the "Bury Your Gays" trope or in this case, trans. There's a lovely scene where Wanda filled both Dream and Delirium in about being trans while trying to help them go through Destruction's list of contacts. I know her death happened in the comics but it still devastating to watch nonetheless.

As for the other casualties, Death was there to comfort Wyvern (Nonso Anozie) after his long life came to a crashing end. Then there was Ishtar (Amber Rose Revah) herself. Her scenes with Dream showed that he ruined her relationship with Destruction. We had too little screen time with her but she made a solid impression before her demise.

Last but not least, when we weren't getting the rapport between Dream and Delirium, there was Destruction himself. Barry Sloane is a beautiful man, I cannot lie and it was nice to finally meet the character. In his short scenes, we did see Destruction interacting with talking dog, Barnabus (Steve Coogan) while doing a spot of painting. God, he's a handsome fella. 

- Delirium seemed very amused with being apprehended by Martin Tenbones (Lenny Henry). She's also previously met Matthew though it's not happened for him yet.

- Dream bumped into a young woman who resembled Rose Walker but it wasn't her.

- Wanda mentioned Tip/Ozma from the Oz books. Only one live action property had handled that storyline properly, the shortlived NBC series, Emerald City.

- Indya Moore, Steve Coogan and Nonso Anozie have appeared in other DC related projects in the last few years.

- Despair had refused to help Delirium to find Destruction. Despair and Destiny sat this one out.

- Chronology: Outside of the Dreaming, there was a trip to Philadelphia to meet Ishtar.

Brief Lives may have given us brief looks into Destruction, Wanda, Ishtar and Wyvern but the episode certainly packed an emotionally wallop. Wanda especially was fantastic to watch along with that final scene with Dream, Delirium and Desire.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of The Sandman: "More Devils Than Vast Hell Could Hold"

 

Written by Alexander Wise

Directed by Jamie Childs 

Dream: "Perhaps when you have seen the world, you might come back."

Nada: "No, my Lord."

Dream: "But I love you."

Nada: "No, you do not."

At the end of the last episode, Dream had something of a dilemma. He could either surrender Hell to Lord Azazel or the latter would consume Nada's very soul. I said that Azazel would live to regret pulling such a stunt. I was right.

At first, Dream tried to play nonchalant by telling Azazel to wait until tomorrow for his answer. However an illuminating conversation with Nuala seemed to give Dream some clarity on how to deal with his Hell dilemma. Nuala was full of surprises this episode as was another character.

Azazel overplayed his hand by trying to attack Dream in his own realm. Dream punished him appropriately, leaving some room for mercy. I'm not sure I would've extended the same courtesy to Azazel and nor do I think the latter will return the favour should he break free either.

As for Nada, her anger for Dream was beyond justified. He deserved that slap and arguably worse. He deserved her anger and Nada's decision to live in the mortal realm was at least hers to make. However despite wanting space, Dream didn't seem like he was going to respect Nada's wishes on the matter. 

The rest of the episode then gave us more of Nuala and Cluracan. They might not have gotten their wish for Hell to remain unoccupied but Nuala was gifted to Dream and in flashbacks to her first encounter with him, there was a rendition of A Midsummer Night's Dream to fill in done backstory. 

Last but not least, we had Loki pulling a switcheroo. It looked like he was bound and gagged and being dragged by Thor and Odin to go back to his wife but instead, he glamour someone else into having to endure his punishment. He managed to strike a deal with Dream to stay out of his prison but how long before he's caught?

- In flashbacks we met Puck (Jack Gleeson), King Auberon (Royce Pierreson) and Queen Titania (Ruta Gedmintas) as well as a new William Shakespeare (Luke Allen-Gale).

- Nuala dropped her glamour to reveal her Irish accent. Titania had previously disapproved of it.

- Who was Cluracan getting intimately acquainted with? Either way, his antics got on Nuala's nerves.

- Is it me or did Shimmering Jemmy/Chaos look like a mini Harley Quinn?

- Lucifer briefly appeared, now in retirement and not bothered that Dream gave Hell to two of God's angels.

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off.

More Devils Than Vast Hell Could Hold certainly didn't waste too much time in resolving both the Hell and Nada problems for Dream. They're handled pretty well with both the Nuala and Loki subplots also being quite enjoyable.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of The Sandman: "The Ruler Of Hell"

 

Written by Ameni Rozsa

Directed by Jamie Childs

Dream: "This is your revenge on me."

Lucifer: "Perhaps it will destroy you. Perhaps it won't but I doubt it'll make your life any easier."

Last season, we had the battle of wits and cunning between Dream and Lucifer. If you were expecting Round Two to be as theatrical, you might be disappointed. Dream's second trip to Hell in this show had a far stranger outcome than expected.

As Dream came looking to rescue Nada, Lucifer spent that time evicting everyone out of Hell, including Nada. On top of that, Lucifer was less interested in fighting Dream and more fixated on giving up on Hell altogether. They were done with the place and there wasn't anything that Dream could say otherwise on the matter.

Instead Dream got to cut off Lucifer's wings before the latter handed him the key to Hell. Dream didn't want to rule Hell and Death refused to let him palm the place off on her. Instead, Dream would have to host a lavish banquet that would serve as a decider as to whom should rule Hell instead.

This episode was a way to introduce a lot of new characters,  arguably too many all at once. There was Odin (Clive Russsell) and his sons Thor (Laurence O'Fuarain) and Loki (Freddie Fox), a sea god (Kristofer Kamiyasu), Chaos (Lyla Quinn) herself, as well as fairy siblings Cluracan (Douglas Booth) and Nuala (Ann Skelly). The last two were more keen on Hell remaining unoccupied than ruling it.

Of course the most desperate to get their hands on Hell was Lord Azazel (Wil Coban) himself. He made the most noise about wanting to rule Hell and certainly played the most dirty to get Dream's attention. There was offering Choronzon (Munya Chawawa) as a revenge offering. Then there was using Nada to strong arm Dream into surrending Hell to him.

Personally while it did look like Azazel had the upper hand to begin with, I think using Nada might have brought about his downfall. Dream didn't look best pleased and given how he punished Richard Madoc for mistreating Calliope, I imagine Dream will subject Azazel to a similarly nasty fate for hurting Nada.

- Tom Sturridge's mother, Phoebe Nicholls had a role as Taramis in this episode with them sharing a scene together.

- Dream didn't seem pleased with Odin releasing Loki from prison. Dream also destroyed Thor's hammer.

- Of course Cain's party piece would involve sawing Abel in half and turning him into sausages.

- Cluracan was flirting with men and women in this episode. Seven out of nine fairies usually end up in Hell. Nuala was keen to avoid that.

- Dream confessed to Lucienne he had two candidates in mind to take over Hell but didn't tell her who they were.

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off.

The Ruler Of Hell offers an abrupt change of direction for Lucifer but within that chaos, it certainly succeeded in putting Dream in such a dire position. It loses points for too many new characters and not enough time to spend with them.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of The Sandman: "Season Of Mists"

 

Written by Allan Heinberg

Directed by Jamie Childs 

Dream: "Walk any path in Destiny's garden and you will be forced to choose."

Has it really nearly been three years since the first season of this show? Yes, it has and a lot has happened since then. We had a shortlived spin off with Dead Boy Detectives and there's no ignoring what's been going on with Neil Gaiman behind the scenes.

Anyways to the opening episode of this final season, we're introduced to Destiny (Adrian Lester). He doesn't waste time in summoning Dream (Tom Sturridge), Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Desire (Mason Alexander Park), Despair (Donna Preston) and Delirium (Esme Creed-Miles). Basically, family reunion time.

This lot haven't been together in a realm for a long time and it took very little for Desire to respectively stir the pot. Mostly needling Dream but also managing to annoy other siblings as well. Desire really did push the button, specifically the one called Nada (Umilisa Gahiga). Yes, remember her?

Last time Dream saw her in Hell, he had other things on his mind. Now he was determined to save her but not before filling Death in on his complicated romance with Nada. The latter chose to be tormented in Hell out of guilt. Dream also swore Death into keeping quiet about it. Destiny already knew that Dream was heading to Hell and filled the rest of the siblings in on it too.

Dream seemed to be eager to get his affairs in order. He refused the assistance of Matthew (Patton Oswalt) and put Lucienne (Vivienne Acheampong) in charge of the Dreaming during his absence. Funnily enough, he also admitted to being afraid of Hell.

Of course, Dream had good reason to. Last time he humiliated Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie) and the latter hadn't forgotten that slight. In fact, Lucifer seemed to be delighted with Dream's mission to Hell and had a plan of their own for Dream. It offered a solid cliffhanger to this opening episode.

- Other characters to appear in this episode included Merv Pumpkinhead, Cain, Abel, Goldie,  the Fate Sisters, Hippolyta and baby Daniel and Hob Gadling.

- The missing Endless sibling was Destruction (Barry Sloane) who chose to abandon his siblings ages ago. Delirium and Despair miss him the most.

- Nada was the Queen of the First People and found herself being pressured into finding a husband. Dream proposed to her.

- Desire seemed to enjoy their impact being felt during their time at an art gallery. The butterfly trick was rather cruel.

- The DC Studios logo popped up during the closing credits of this episode. This season has been split into three release patterns from Netflix.

- Chronology: A while since the events of the previous season finale.

Season Of Mists was a good starter for this final season. I enjoyed the siblings get together, the expansion of Dream's history with Nada and his farewell tour of sorts. A very good start.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of The Wicker Tree (2011)

 

Written And Directed by Robin Hardy

Sir Lachlan Morrison (to Steve): "Laddie, you are a prince among men, a king. We all, all salute you. You will give your life so that a new generation of our people will be born blessing your name. Children will be called after you. Hallowed be thy name."

Why yes, I did skip the American remake of The Wicker Man in order to tackle this legacy sequel of sorts first. Don't worry, I will get back to it though at some point this month. Curiosity just got the better of me with this one.

A legacy with two of the original cast members returning and the same writer/director of the first movie? It's pretty unheard of. Does it result in a great follow up? Not really to be honest but I've seen worse.

Our protagonists here are a slightly vapid Christian couple made up of pop singer, Beth Boothby (Brittania Nicol) and her handsome cowboy fiancée, Steve Thompson (Henry Garrett). They've found themselves in Scotland to spread the good word and to get to know the locals. Oh and for their relationship to unravel at the same time.

The locals in questiion include Sir Lachlan Morrison (Graham McTavish) and his wife, Delia (Jacqueline Leonard). It also included local temptress, Lolly (Honeysuckle Weeks) who wasted no time in seducing Steve (it did not take much). Then there was returning Daisy (Lesley Mackie) and gruff butler, Beane (Clive Russell).

In this movie, both Daisy and Beane were tasked with preparing Beth for the May Queen, which turned out to be a trickier task as she had more fight in her than they were prepared for. Steve on the other hand had been set up as the Laddie for the May Festival and it didn't end particularly well for him. He really was too pretty to live.

It didn't exactly end well for Beth either. She might have gotten one good kill in but it didn't stop her from the suffering the same fate as the other May Queens. As for Steve, he may have gotten the worst death in this movie but his legacy lived on through Lolly as the crazy residents got what they really wanted from him.

- Christopher Lee does pop up as Old Gentleman in the movie, though it's not a huge role.

- A third movie had been considered before the passing of Robin Hardy. This film had a limited theatrical release.

- Standout music: Britannia Nicol's Follow Me.

- Chronology: April and May of the current year in both Texas and Glasgow. 

I'll admit that The Wicker Tree falls into that category not being great or awful. It's simply just okay in mostly rethreading what the first movie did along with some expansion on the villagers dangerous rituals. 

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (2006)

 

Written by Michael Weiss

Directed by Sylvain White

Amber (to the Fisherman): "This secret dies with you."

In the 2000s, most horror franchises were getting remake/rebooted with mixed results both critically and commercially. Some were also getting straight to DVD sequels that felt "In Name Only" off the franchise they were leaching off. This would be where miserable excuse of a movie would fit in.

I mean there's no sense whatsoever that this movie would fit into the world created by the movies from 1997 and 1998 respectively. The characters are so painfully paper thin that it did feel like an absolute slog to get through.

Our main characters are Amber Williams (Brooke Nevin) and her boyfriend, Colby Patterson (David Paetkau) and their friends, Zoe (Torry DeVitto), PJ (Clay Taylor) and Roger (Seth Packard). It's the fourth of July, there's a carnival and a prank involving the Fisherman ended up in the death of PJ.

The remaining friends don't exactly react well, distance themselves from each and then a year later, they're brought back together. Yup, the Fisherman was there to kill them off, one by one along with other characters.

The inclusion of PJ's cousin, (Ben Easter) did feel like they were going to rethread some old ground but it turned out that he was there to help Amber against the original Fisherman. Yes, it's Ben Willis (Don Shanks) but here, he's far less interesting and effective. The ending seemed like it was setting up a sequel that would never materialise.

- The film was originally going to be theatrical before Sony decided not to. 

- The film originally was titled The Hook and there's more supernatural leaning into this one.

- Standout music: Goth Jones LFL.

- Chronology: July 4th 2005 and 2006, Broken Ridge, Colorado.

I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer is an absolute dreck fest from start to finish. Watch it if you're a completist, but in general don't bother. It's a waste of time.

Rating: 2 out of 10 

My Review of I Shot Andy Warhol (1996)

 

Written by Mary Harron And Daniel Minahan 

Directed by Mary Harron 

Valerie: "Give me fifteen cents, and I'll give you a dirty word."

Maurice: "What's the word?"

Valerie: "Men."

Pride Month might be over but I'm still going through a catalogue of LGBT themed movies for the remainder of the year. I'm aware of man hating feminist activist Valerie Solanas (Lili Taylor) and her history with Andy Warhol (Jared Harris).

This film opened with the main itself. Feeling that her work was being held to random by the famous pop up artist, Valerie resorted to shooting Andy and others. This of course led to her arrest where she owned up to shooting Andy.

Then the movie flashed back to the events that led up to her attempted murder of Warhol. We got to see her as a struggling artist where she was friends with fellow lesbian Stevie (Martha Plimpton) and transgender woman, Candy Darling (Stephen Dorff). As well as hating men, Valerie didn't have much time for the trans community either.

Within the movie, Valerie despite being a lesbian often had sex with men to pay her rent or was dominating them. She was also writing her SCUM Manifesto as well as the play, Up Your Ass that she desperately wanted Warhol to produce. Warhol found it too vulgar even for him to take on.

Saying that, Valerie did get a part in Warhol's movie, I, A Man and she had the publisher of Olympia Press, Maurice Girodias (Lothaire Bluteau) but she felt stifled by both of them. She also didn't do herself any favours by not reading the fine print of her contract.

The film went back to the beginning where she shot Andy Warhol where the latter lived in fear of what had happened to her. There's a brief look into her later life and eventually death, leading to an overall miserable existence. On the other hand, her manifesto did find the appreciation she wanted even if she was no longer around to enjoy it.

- Originally this was intended to be a BBC documentary before it was made into a theatrical film. SCUM stood for "Society For Cutting Up Men".

- The filmmakers had permission to reproduce done of Andy Warhol's works but had to destroy them after filming was done.

- Standout music: Donovan's Season Of The Witch, Bob Dylan's I'll Keep It With Mine and John Cale's I Shot Andy Warhol.

- The film covers the Factory years in New York, in particular to 1968 to the event itself. Valerie died in 1988.

It may have had it's origins as a documentary but as a movie, I Shot Andy Warhol did work rather well with a great lead performance from Lili Taylor. I'm not particularly sympathetic to Valerie Solanas but the movie did give a balanced depiction of her activism.

Rating: 8 out of 10