The Shape of Water (2018)
Feb28

The Shape of Water (2018)

The Fish is Off: The Shape of Water (2018)     Well, I knew it was about the interspecies love between a woman and a sea creature from the South American lagoons.  And yet nothing quite prepared me for that…shall we say, interesting plot development half-way through. Nor was I ready for the way that Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) prepares herself for her day’s work as a cleaner at a *ahem* top-secret government facility in the...

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Black Panther (2018)
Feb16

Black Panther (2018)

Black Panther (2018)     If ever there was a film that was going to be as bullet-proof as the Black Panther’s suit then it was this one.  The time is as right as it ever could be for releasing the first superhero film with an African-American lead (except that it’s not really the first) and it seems to be by general consensus – even before the film’s release – that if you don’t hail Black Panther as a seminal, groundbreaking...

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View from the Madhouse: Revisiting Stephen King’s Misery
Feb14

View from the Madhouse: Revisiting Stephen King’s Misery

View from the Madhouse: Revisiting Stephen King’s Misery     Loosely sandwiched in between two novels with truly enormous casts – It and The Tommyknockers – King’s 1987 Misery was a stripped-to-the-bone two-hander. Yes, there really are only two people featured over the 350-odd pages.  One is writer Paul Sheldon — famous for his money-spinning bodice-rippers starring heroine Misery Chastain. The other is his isolated,...

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The Legend of Batman Volume 3 Born to Kill
Feb14

The Legend of Batman Volume 3 Born to Kill

The Legend of Batman Volume 3 Born to Kill     Admittedly, with a title like that one, I should have known better than to expect something uplifting or life-affirming.  OK, that I could live without, but how about entertaining?  A bit of that, maybe? Not a chance.  Born to Kill is simply unremitting ugliness.  It is a near-enough unredeemed black and sickening vision of life that makes you want to scrub yourself clean after...

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Batman : Zero Year
Feb02

Batman : Zero Year

  Batman: Zero Year     Legend of Batman is another set of collections from Eaglemoss, the quality of which I raved about last year when the company launched its series of Star Trek graphic novels.  And this looks to be every single bit as good, if the initial two volumes here are anything to go by.  Mind you, it is probably necessary to be a complete bat- fanatic if the intention is to collect all of the dozens of volumes.  I’m...

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