Judy and Punch

#StokerScore 8/10

Close your eyes and imagine a sea whose gently rolling waves are reaching the golden sand of a horseshoe-shaped beach. On a hill to the left, overlooking the beach, is a ruined castle while to the right, looking down on the scene, are caravans with light glinting from their bright white paneling. The sun is shining in a celestial blue sky that is sparsely populated with white clouds too high to even hint at rain and crying seagulls hang on the breeze, ever vigilant for morsels of food. 

The beach itself is filled with a variety of noisy life and different activities. There are families gathered behind striped windbreakers that have been pushed into the sand to form barriers against the occasional gusts that whip up the sand. Mums and Dads are laying out picnics or occupying their small charges by making sandcastles with plastic buckets and spades that have been bought from sellers scattered along a promenade that separates the beach from road. Amid the neon-glow and scattered sounds of popular music are the facades of amusement arcades and ice-cream parlours, fish and chip shops, and thrift bazaars which sell cheap souvenirs like snow globes (I understand the irony of this), key-rings and colourful, hand-held windmills that draw in the children but don't put too much of a dent into a parent's pocket. 

Elsewhere along the beach, children in swim suits and adults wearing more are playing cricket or hunting for shells or being led along the beach on a line of donkeys whose saddles are adorned with coloured ribbons. In the sea, old and young alike are caught in the dilemma of whether to just dip in the toes and paddle or to brace oneself  and actually swim in the less than hospitable waters of the Yorkshire coastline. 

This might give you an idea of a typical day out to the seaside, a pastime more popular in the pre-economy airline days that saw families spend a whole week or more enjoying the beach on the days that it didn't actually rain.

The activity that is missing from my list is the Punch and Judy Show. This puppet extravaganza, housed in a tall, gaudily-striped box-like structure, had an open window that occupied the top twenty-five percent of the fascia that allowed the puppeteers to stand inside, unseen by their young audience and move and voice their characters as the story necessitated. As with the likes of old Tex Avery and Hanna Barbera cartoons, these shows were violent to a fault but where Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote were anthropomorphic characters who ensured that being hit by a train or being blown to smithereens by a bomb remained funny rather than Grand Guignol gory, Punch and Judy presented a husband and wife dynamic in which the wife was continually beaten by her husband with his cudgel to anarchic cries of "That's the way to do it!".

Other characters would appear at random including a dog who stole Mr. Punch's sausages, an ineffective police constable and, for reasons that still escape me, a crocodile. I remember being enthralled and gladly joined in with the puppeteers as they cajoled us into repeating their phrases or speculating on what might  happen next. I don't clearly remember what happened at the end of these stories. Whether Mr. Punch received his comeuppance, whether the dog became fat and lazy, or whether Judy ever received medical attention for multiple concussions.

This movie, then, whose inverted title immediately informs the direction it will take, is an absolute pleasure. It contains all of the characters that I previously mentioned, setting the action in a wonderfully made up and over the top medieval town aptly called Seaside. I won’t spoil the story but will say that Alice in Wonderland's Mia Wasikowska and Damon Herriman (who viewers of the Virginia-set TV show Justified will recognise as the doomed-to-failure Dewey Crowe) did an excellent job of visualising the lead characters. There are bits where the story seems to wash over important information, such as the fate of key figures. Then, there are other characters who could do with more fleshing out so as better to understand their motivations. But, these are small potatoes in the greater scheme of a wonderful meal and if you like fairy tales with an edge (think original Grimm stories) then I think you're in for a treat.

Das Finistere Tal (The Dark Valley)

#StokerScore 8/10

Westerns, as I have said before on here, are one of my favourite genres of movie, mainly due to my Dad's influence as we bonded over my love of films. He would play cricket and talk sport with my brother but with me, it was movies and in particular, westerns. 

Whether it is a classic from the Silver or Golden age of Hollywood starring Alan Ladd, or John Wayne, or maybe even Doris Day. perhaps, a Spaghetti Western with lots of dubbing, an outrageous comedy like Blazing Saddles, or even horror and sci-fi westerns such as Near Dark or Star Wars, I will always give these movies the time of day.

I can't quite remember where the recommendation for this movie came from as I follow a number of vloggers on YouTube so I apologise for forgetting exactly whose site this appeared on. What I do know is that the premise appealed immediately. It's giving nothing away to say that it falls into the sub-genre of revenge western in the same vein as Tarantino's Django Unchained or Kevin Costner's Open Range plus it also has the 'mysterious stranger' trope used by Clint Eastwood in Hang Em High and Pale Rider. The difference is that this time it is set in Germany and uses the German language with English subtitles.

The main character, played by Sam Riley, has grown up in the USA before travelling to the Alps to right some wrongs. This probably accounts for why a non-German was cast in the role and why, then, his character speaks fluent if not exactly a lot of German rather than being dubbed. The movie has a fairly sombre tone with plenty of foreshadowing and brief flashbacks and when set against the dramatic, snowy backdrop of the mountains offers a realistic insight into the difficult conditions in which these people have chosen to live. As a community cut off from the outside world and who are wary of strangers, the score is perfectly balanced with a continuous plodding sound that goes along with the stranger's metronome. Clara Luzia's cover of Nina Simone's Sinnerman that accompanies the opening credits is really rather good, too.

The action, which is sporadic, is matched with the character development meaning that the film, for me, finds a balance and explains the motivations of the individual characters, all except for the bad guys who are fairly two-dimensional. There is a narration running through the film, too, which I felt was a bit unnecessary as the actors and the plot explained everything well enough. Saying that, the final monologue was a  perfectly acceptable way to end the film.

Overall, I think The Dark Valley is a solid addition to the pantheon of westerns and with its German language and setting allows it to stand out from its peers. It's definitely a movie I will revisit from time to time. I hope you enjoy it and if you're new to westerns check out the others I've mentioned in this post or drop me a comment and I'll suggest a few others.

The Shape of Water

#StokerScore 10/10

This movie, from start to finish, was so obviously a labour of love. Sometimes, the director of a labour of love forgets that an audience is watching the finished product and the movie is consigned to the bin marked Vanity Project. This is definitely not one of them. 

The colours stand out vividly, green being the most important and the director uses it as background to other motifs. The actors are perfectly cast and insist that you soak yourself in their characters and not the person playing them. Doug Jones brings the creature to life, I don't want to say monster as there are plenty of other monsters on display here, since Del Toro has written an adult fairy tale and imbued it with ethereal beauty alongside day-to-day mundanity, juxtaposing the two to the point where you happily accept that they co-exist. 

It is the habits, routines and earnestness of all of the people who dwell in this movie that allows you to suspend belief and hope for the best. Yet, there is a constant sense of unease, that things are about to go wrong that kept me gripped until the end of the movie. When that end did come, I was satisfied that it was the best outcome for all.

This is not a movie for the kids to watch as it contains nudity and sexual content, but these things are entirely acceptable in the context of the overall film. So, if you love textured film making from a director who loves what he does and can approach with an open mind, you will find yourself as thrilled as I was.

Jumanji (2017)

#StokerScore 5/10

I was in my late twenties when the original Jumanji was released in 1995. It certainly wasn't the kind of movie I'd have gone to see at the cinema as I was much more interested in Seven, Goldeneye and, of course, Batman Forever. Robin Williams was certainly a hero of mine from his days on Mork and Mindy and his mindblowingly layered turn as Adrien Cronauer in Good Morning Vietnam. But Jumanji seemed to be just more of the man-child kind of role so it skipped me until I was bored enough to check it out of the local Blockbuster Video store. I remember it being exactly what I expected but with a shade, just enough of a shadow of darkness running through it to make you think that an eternity in the game was a distinct possibility for the new players of the board game. That came as a nice surprise.

I also admire Dwayne Johnson. He's hard to ignore and speaks passionately when it comes to being a role model for self confidence and dignity. But he's not Robin Williams funny so in this sequel/reboot they drafted in two other man-child comedians in the form of Kevin Hart and Jack Black. The movie moves at a reasonable pace, I liked the upgrade from board game to computer game and how it was done, but that was it. 

The movie is just a generic action blockbuster with some angles on male/female roles and the need for everyone to take each other on what lies beneath the superficiality of skin, gender and clique. I didn't dislike it, I just wasn't ever really engaged enough to care about the characters, especially after the computer game longevity angle was revealed. 

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

#StokerScore: 9/10

I really like Frances McDormand. She has been in so many great movies and they were made greater in part because of her acting ability. I remember her mainly for Fargo, an example of one of many roles she's played in Coen Brothers movies, but also for the deputy's put-upon wife in Mississippi Burning who shows us Gene Hackman's softer side. In this film from the writer and director of In Bruges, she's a divorced mother of two who's teenage daughter was raped and murdered a year before the events of the movie. She lives with her son, works in a local gift shop, and has a blunt, familiar relationship with the towns inhabitants that suggest she was born in Ebbing and has never left.

The three billboards of the title are used by Mildred to try to shame the town's police chief into solving the death of her daughter and, as things get more heated and assumptions are made, the town and its inhabitants are faced with their own personal reasons for how they view the impact of the billboards.

The supporting cast is excellent with Woody Harrelson as the police chief and Sam Rockwell standing out as a bigoted deputy. The only character who I felt was miscast was Caleb Landry Jones' town estate agent, who just seemed too young and immature for the job he was doing.

Suffice to say that this, like In Briuges, is a comedy with dramatic overtones to the point that you will be laughing at some of the actions only to then be shocked at the brutality of responses. 

Easily one of my favourite films of the year.

Nightworld

#StokerScore: 0.5/10

Too much time on my hands and a dearth of movies to watch meant I wasted ninety minutes on this complete load of codswallop.

The movies only redeeming features come from some interesting artwork that led me to believe this was going to be a Cthulhu-esque horror story that in reality turned out to be such a low-budget joke that I regret the time I gave over to it.

The acting was terrible with the singular exception of Robert Englund who was only mostly terrible and apart from a few exploding squibs there were no other special effects. 

The shame is that there was potential in the story and considering that most Lovecraft horror is imagined I think they could still have gone that way and kept the budget low.

Who is this movie aimed at? Why and how did it get made? Your guess is as good as mine. Totally forgettable

StokerScore: Gogglebox - Marvel's The Punisher

StokerScoreTV: Not the best, not the worst

Marvel and Netflix have brought some interesting shows to the our small screens, with all of the ambition that the MCU is showing on the big screen. The Netflix shows are much more gritty, using the production company's position to show hightened levels of violence, and are quite unlike the shows that air on Fox and the CW which due to their target audience are coerced into the teen-angsty dramas that crowd out shows like The Gifted and the mess that is Marvel's Inhumans.

The Punisher offers the chance to show a character who initially wasn't planned to get his own show. Yet such was the response to the character's appearance in Season Two of Daredevil, that the

companies bowed to the pressure and gave the vigilante his own 13-episode arc.

Jon Berenthal is pretty good as the title character, all physicality and punch first, ask questions later...well, he'd ask the questions if he could articulate them. Frank Castle, the Punisher's alter ego, is not supposed to be a philosopher, rather he is a force of nature who will not stop until he has righted perceived wrongs. 

But this is where 13 episodes maybe isn't the best format for the character. There's only so much bone-breaking and gun play that audiences will watch before getting bored, so the show surrounds Frank with people who can help us to understand the demons he has inside. This, then, requires Frank to start philosophising but the nasal grunt that he calls a voice, coupled with the violent acts that he has carried out in the name of CIA black ops missions, stopped me from really liking and empathisng

with him over the deaths of his wife and children. I understand the issues behind PTSD but we're left with a show about an at-times monosylabic revenge machine who responds to conversations with glowering stares, if not complete silence but who can also eloquently discuss the events that he's witnessed when called upon to do so by the script.

The character has no super powers in the way that Daredevil, Iron Fist, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones do, however his powers of recovery are on an unbelievable level. One character who is beaten within an inch of his life with his own prosthetic leg, is shown with a puffed up face and a closed eye, yet a similar beating given to Frank shows him being able to still summon enough energy to hand out a beating of his own, sure losing a couple of teeth is shown, but which teeth as his smile later suggests a full compliment of pearly whites.

#whereisMoonKnight?

The show, for me, was too long and would have been netter covering an eight-episode arc similar to the Defenders. Other than Karen Page, no other super-friends are around (possibly because this is also post Defenders and Matt Murdoch is recuperating in the convent) but it doesn't even try to introduce any new characters which I find a bit of a shame, especially as there was a lot of buzz around the character Moon Knight making his debut.

I binge-watched the whole thirteen episodes in a day, as I really did want to see how it ended. Having got to the predicatble finale I think that Frank is better as a guest appearance in other shows rather than the star of his own.