John Wick 3: Parabellum
dir. Chad Stahelski (2019)
“Every action has consequences.” Or not. Certainly not every John Wick film, except to lay and explode its one-note phoenix egg. The franchise by now constitutes a truly remarkable study in sensory overload indoctrination and the excising of all non-kinetic story elements.
Trickster Magic (Shadows of Otherside #9)
by Whitney Hill (Benu Media, 2023)
With Otherside stripped of its magic, Hill may have misstepped slightly in shifting the focus away from the mundane crisis. Instead, generic quest tropes drag Arden into fantasy realms that are too easily navigated, and less impactful than we’ve come to expect.
Hyperion
by Dan Simmons (Doubleday, 1989)
audiobook read by Allyson Johnson & Marc Vietor (Audible Frontiers, 2008)
Presumably Hyperion won the Hugo Award for its worldbuilding, not its efficaciousness as a novel. The story consists of six SF novellas (all interesting enough but none fully satisfying), strung together by a framing narrative that offers nothing at long journey’s end.
Enola Holmes
dir. Harry Bradbeer (2020)
Bradbeer’s lively direction notwithstanding, the story is too slight to sustain a two-hour film treatment. The best scenes by far are those pairing Millie Bobby Brown (Enola) and Louis Partridge (Tewkesbury), who together could productively be retro-scripted into Attack of the Clones.
Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic
dir. Noriyuki Abe (2017)
Black Butler’s foray into zombie horror offers nothing new to that genre, and actually serves to diminish Sebastian. Notwithstanding one flashback sequence fleshing out his and Ciel’s early relationship, the only meaningful character development comes by way of Lady Elizabeth’s sensational volte-face.
Vera, Series 9
(ITV, 2019)
More of the same, though with a movement towards cold cases. Vera heads a large team operating in a region of England where the lights (and sun) are always dim, and there is never more than one unrelated murder at a time.
Father Brown, Series 2
by G.K. Chesterton; dramatised by John Scotney (BBC Radio 4, 1986)
Series Two of Scotney’s radio adaptations sees a reduction in length to only five episodes but a greater fluency of script and assuredness of performance. Andrew Sachs’ cadences as Father Brown seem to have informed Mark Williams’ delivery in the TV series.
My Cousin Vinny
dir. Jonathan Lynn (1992)
Very few comedies hold up after 30+ years, but this one does! Adroitly scripted and impeccably directed, with bravura performances by Marisa Tomei (Oscar for best supporting actress), Joe Pesci and Fred Gwynne, My Cousin Vinny remains an eminently quotable courtroom classic.
A Late Phoenix
by Catherine Aird (Doubleday, 1970)
audiobook read by Robin Bailey (Bolinda, 2014)
While Aird does capture something of English county life in its lingering post-war hangover, the mystery remains a leisurely non-event, solving itself while Inspector Sloan (well portrayed in Bailey’s audiobook performance) drifts along in its wake, offering sardonic commentary under his breath.
Warhorses of Letters, Series 3
by Marie Phillips & Robert Hudson (BBC 4, 2014)
On the one hoof, Marengo and Copenhagen’s correspondence lingers on a bit too long after Waterloo, their oft-fractious relationship less appealing when divorced from historical context. On the other hoof, their love story does come to a fitting and quite moving end.