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.

Justice League

#StokerScore 6/10

Have you ever booked yourself a holiday, you know, done all of the research and then booked it all yourself, rather than let a travel agent do it all for you? You have that feeling of pride that you've navigated all of the hurdles yourself and that you'll enjoy the holiday that much more because of it? And then have you read a review site shortly before going on said holiday, a review that tarnishes your expectations so that on your ultimate arrival at your destination of choice you can't help thinking about the two or three things that the negative review pointed out?

I've been telling myself for the last few weeks that I want to like this film, that while I know it's going to be a mess, especially considering its journey to the screen, that somehow there will be redeeming features, that it's a bloody Justice League movie, for Pete's sake, and made on a superhero-sized budget rather than a Roger Corman shoestring. Well I have good and bad non-spoiler news for you, dear readers.

Is it better than I expected? Well, no...not really. Instead it is exactly what I expected. The story doesn't stick exactly to the formula I had in mind as the helping hand that defeats the villain doesn't come from an entirely unexpected source. This is a superhero movie dressed as a classic Spaghetti Western. It has all of the familiar ups and downs and takes absolutely zero risks. 

I will say that Warners are trying to be less dark in the tone of their movie, but ultimately, without the background of the new guys, it just didn't really matter. The Flash steals the movie in a childish way. Aquaman gave the audience a physique to ooh and aah about that more than made up for the scantily clad Amazons, and Cyborg, well he was just the exposition explainer. Batman and Wonder Woman were my favourite characters, probably because I know them better, and who's fault is that, Warner Brothers? 

The movie was short, just under 2 hours for the one that I saw, yet it could have done without certain scenes and would have benefitted from the inclusion of others. 

I was left feeling that there's nothing these guys couldn't really handle and that the over-riding message was "always give the ball to the best player in your team", even if you have to drag him out of retirement to do it.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

#StokerScore: 7/10

I am more than willing to admit that I loved the first one and, while the second isn't quite as fresh (in terms of story), I enjoyed this as much for the right reasons. 

For most of the movie I was, as a kid who grew up in the Roger Moore era of Bond, loving the preposterous special effects, and weapons, and evil criminal genius, and villain's lair, and sidekicks and the list goes on. 

Picking up quite nicely from the events of the first one we find familiar faces abound. Some weren't around as long as I expected, but when you look at the trailer and the departure for America, that's no real surprise. Plus, the trailer would also suggest that death is no longer a problem. 

No spoilers if this is your first foray into the realm of spies-fronted-as-Saville-Row-tailors, you can soon catch up. The movie is certainly not high-brow, not asking you to invest your little grey cells in working out what's going on, the exposition from the characters easily solves that. Yet where other movies find this to be a failing, I hardly noticed, such was the pace of events.

Actually, if you have seen the first movie, you may not want to think too long and hard about the hows and whys. Instead, strap yourself in for more 70's/80's Bond spoofery with a charismatic bunch of people intent on saving the world.

One small point. I saw this in an Indonesian cinema which was 17+ and where said rating means nothing at all, as attested by the 10-year old sat in front of me. There is a seduction scene in this movie that leaves 1% up to the imagination and which had me gobsmacked thinking it would never go as far as it did...and then it did. If you are with someone who might not be thrilled at how you would get a tracking device into someone's mucus membrane without putting it up their nose, maybe see it with someone else.

#StokerScore: Gogglebox - The Mist (Season 1)

#StokerScoreTV: Definitely not worth your time or trouble

I have to admit to having had an initial lack of interest in this show. When I heard it was being made, I thought that it wasn't the best of ideas, but then I thought about how good the movie version of Stephen King's book was I changed my mind and thought "no, this isn't a bad idea...it's a really, really, really bad idea".

Having another job that takes up most of my time and having to cherry pick my tv consumption, I have been watching it due to a lack of current shows that I find interesting. I was waiting for Marvel's Defenders and The Punisher, I've been watching season two of Preacher, and obviously there was Game of Thrones, so, as well as finding season one of Sense8, which I haven't binge-watched, I've been watching this on a weekly basis and, having finally come to the end of episode ten, I can promise you that I hate myself for having put up with it for this long (please tell me there's not more to come?)

What makes it so bad? Well, the first episode isn't really that much od a disappointment. The set up, that an amnesiac wakes and finds himself near to the Arrowhead Military base and who immediately loses his (pet?)dog to a strange mist, isn't a bad start. Tie that to the camera panning to a nearby town and the premise is set up. We are introduced to a range of main characters and supporting cast who all appear to have their own range of problems that will be difficult to contend with along with the menacing mist.

The main problem with this show is the sloppy writing, which frustrates to the point that you want to slap the tv to get it to see sense. Characters are continually adding in dialogue that could have/should have been brought up at a similar time, so much so that it feels the script is being written on the fly. Sure, we can throw in the occasional curve ball as far as plot points go but this is so over-the-top it's laughable. Generally the actors are of a good calibre, they just wouldn't behave as the writers would have you believe. 

And the cop out is the writers can use The Mist as their excuse for stupidity/callousness/deviousness because the mist this time isn't home to Cthulhu and his minions as evidenced in the movie version, no this mist is more of a sentient toxic gas which gives hallucinations to some of the people in it. I say some of the people because not everyone seems to be immediately affected. A woman who believes herself to be a Wiccan priestess and who is demonstrably unaffected by the mist, is later seen to be its latest victim. Then there are times where no cars work, preventing people from completing whatever task the writers have set, only for the time a main character needs to go from A to B quickly, they find a working car.

I am trying to remain calm while writing this but it is truly a disgrace and a thinly veiled attempt to cash in on the current truckload of remakes, reboots and re-whatever-else. Instead of this, go back and watch the Thomas Jane movie version.

#StokerScore: Gogglebox - Sense8 (Season1)

#StokerScoreTV: Weird, but well worth a watch

Enigma (n): Someone or something that is strange or difficult to understand. There are so many shows that this moniker could apply to. Even with flashbacks, Lost seemed to revel in baffling the brains of the most ardent fans. The X-Files never truly realised Mulder's goal of finding the truth out there, which also became more of a joke in it's most recent comeback season, and then there's the enduring popularity of Angela Lansbury's serial killer detective in Murder She Wrote (it's the only answer that makes any sense with that many murders happening around one person).

Having referenced so many dated shows, I'm pretty late with this review as not only has there been a second season of Sense8 but the show has also been cancelled by Netflix, not counting a possible one-off movie to tie it all together or an offer for it to be hosted by an online adult entertainment network. I'm late to it because it must have flown under my radar. We're always on the lookout for shows for my wife to watch and this kind of thing is right up her street, yet still we didn't find it until I was looking for some character bios and chance prevailed.

Am I happy that I found the show? Most decidedly yes, but it is because of the characters and the global setting rather than it is my understanding of the plot. And here's the thing, I have a vague idea of what's going on. I can tell you who each character is and what ties them together, but apart from that I'm completely in the dark. I get the idea that the psychic talents are nascent and the characters are learning along with the audience. I get that they've brought in Naveen Andrews to significantly up the confusion factor that made Lost the show it was. I get that it's the Wachowskis who have previously done the 'I don't know what the hell is going on' thing so well in The Matrix sequels and, more impressively, in the completely bonkers Jupiter Ascending.

Yet here's the thing, I haven't cared to know. I know there is another season and possibly a concluding entry to come but I have enjoyed this first season. It's nice not to have exposition shoved down my throat and instead be trusted with working some stuff out for myself. Admittedly I do seem to be doing a tad more than I should need to and maybe that's the reason for the cancellation. I see this show going the way of other cult shows, like The Prisoner which ran for 17 episodes in te 1960's. 

I don't know if Season Two will help or hinder my understanding but I am looking forward to it...

#StokerScore: Death Note

#StokerScore 2/10

My knowledge of Anime is limited at best. I am very fond of the Vampire Hunter D animation and I'm aware of other titles but it's just not something I spend a great deal of time on. So I came to Netflix's latest movie, Death Note, knowing zilch about the subject matter but loving the visuals of the Demon/Death God voiced by Willem Dafoe.

The story is pretty simple once you get past the convenience of how the imaginatively named Light Turner gets the Death Note book (I know how that sounds) in the first place. But this is complicated by, at times, incoherent speaking by Light and his girlfriend Mia. Fortunately the diction of Lakeith Steinfield's character, who is known by the singular initial L, and Dafoe's Ryuk help to navigate some more of the plot.

Even with these two performances and the able support of Shea Whigham, it's badly explained to the point that even now I couldn't truly explain it without repeat viewings and a search of the source material.

What I did feel while viewing is imagine if you could hear fate talking about the gruesome deaths in the Final Destination movies and you get an idea of what's taking place....but without knowing the motivations for any character.

Could have been really good, such a shame.