AAA

The most notable thing about Marvel’s latest TV show is that it’s first on their A-Z list of productions... before AGENT CARTER. A spin-off series from WANDAVISION that I’d argue nobody expected or even wanted, AGATHA... is consistently witless, with far too many obviously witchy traits (they ride ‘broomsticks’, too!), blithely gay stereotypes, and a quest-for-power plot-line with dismal ballad interludes. 

All along (ack, see what I did there?), the Witches’ Road, this means it’s quite impossible to avoid pantomime clichés, especially as Kathryn Hahn plays the lead with a typically amateurish, hackneyed OTT style. In marked contrast, the usually wonderful Aubrey Plaza does what she can to save this disappointing fantasy, but her ‘evil’ character doesn’t get enough screen-time to make a difference. Don’t imagine AAA is anything like the two Dr Strange movies, or any genre-themed show like CHARMED, WITCHES OF EAST END, or movies like THE CRAFT, etc. What could have been an American response to great British series JONATHAN STRANGE & MR NORRELL, or Guadagnino’s Euro-styled SUSPIRIA remake, always feels very much closer to Disney’s HOCUS POCUS than anything linked to familiar MCU superheroes.

UK General Election 2024

I know my views on British politics are quite naive, but our FPTP voting system now seems childishly simple-minded, anyway. 

GB parliament desperately needs PR, and compulsory voting, to ensure that democracy in government is fit-for-purpose in the 21st century.

This list is not a prediction of any sort, it's just a few things that I really want to see happen, next week. Like lights turned on at the end of the dystopian tunnel...      

7 Signs of Hope:

• Labour gets super-majority with 400+ MPs in Parliament
• Tories crushed to less than 100 seats
• Liberals win more seats (150+?) than Tories to become official Opposition party
• Greens win 4 or 5+ seats (including IOW East, if that’s not too much to ask?)  
• Corbyn wins against Labour (Starmer is proved wrong) for Islington North   
• Richy Sunk losing his MP seat, so he can't remain Tory leader 
• No seats won by Reform party, not even Clacton

Moon

Korean drama THE MOON (2023) presents a rescue mission that blends Apollo 13 realism with Ridley Scott’s imaginative The Martian. Crazily exciting action scenes (such as Lunar-rover stunt- driving), are heightened by quite hysterical acting. But, honestly, this is no more outrageously cranked-up to subgenre max than Hoffman’s entertaining Red Planet (2000). It shares that space adventure’s enthusiastic pulp sci-fi thrills about heroic problem-solving, and survival because of sheer hopeful determination after all conventional solutions fail. If you liked director Kim’s two fantasy pictures, Along With The Gods, this is certainly a better effort with great production values.

  

Blu-ray, 24 June.

Nell TV

I find British genre-TV is often dismal stuff, that’s pathetic at best, but RENEGADE NELL is good fun. Its confident scenario offers a quirky blend of superhero-mystery and comedy-adventure, where a failed soldier gets dangerous pixie powers to avenge a murder, commit Robin Hood robbery, and fight against landowners’ corruption. A scheming Earl (Adrian Lester) conjures up a version of devilish ‘Herne the Hunter’, for a spectacular mythic action sequence, while the heroine’s own family struggle to survive pursuit by mercenary types. 

Despite a climactic Jacobite plot to oust Queen Anne (Jodhi May), jokey anachronisms are all part of this drama’s witty appeal, so forget about historical or cultural accuracy, also happily opposed by top news-maker Lady Moggerhanger (a splendid Joely Richardson). Louisa Harland carries the show as the feminist vigilante, but it’s rather a shame that the creators supply a supporting cast with campy characters (especially a boringly pantomime highwayman), on both sides of the law, too. I think this could have been even better, as home-grown fantasy, with only Nell as a source of amusement. 

Nick Cave's theme song -

Watching the detectives 4

After Southern Comfort, The Right Stuff, Remo Williams, and Tremors, Fred Ward was the blokeyest of bloke actors. His various bids for Hollywood actioner stardom didn't really work out (as they did for Bruce Willis), but he made some very cult-worthy attempts. Martin Campbell’s neglected classic, CAST A DEADLY SPELL (1991), sees Fred portray H.P. Lovecraft as a private eye in a post-noir fantasy L.A. Tough, savvy ex-cop Phil Lovecraft firmly rejects all magic, but the city witches teach dancing, a blonde heiress hunts a unicorn, there’s blood rain at sunset, and the Dunwich club singer is played by Julianne Moore. Lovecraft is hired by a wealthy widower (David Warner) to find a rare book. His sleuthing search for the Necronomicon finds slapstick zombies everywhere. Giving ‘runes’ conjures up a monster from a cooking pot. Our heroic shamus is attacked by a stony gargoyle but saved by the femme fatale. Clancy Brown plays a slickly nasty gangster intending human sacrifice: “Any idea how hard it is to find a virgin in Hollywood?” Great slimy Old Ones return with a genre-breaking burst of midnight earthquakes. An enjoyable TV-movie that's great to see again, CADS creates a solidly witty blend of Chinatown and Ghostbusters that pre-dates popular Buffy spin-off Angel, and might have influenced The Dresden Files (2007). The Spanish DVD has English sound.