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.
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.
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.
Echoes of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon
ed. Laurie R. King & Leslie S. Klinger (Pegasus, 2016); audiobook read by various narrators (Blackstone, 2016)
A solid selection of stories either set in Conan Doyle’s world or featuring his much-loved characters (or spiritual successors based thereon). Some imaginative takes, with few duds but also few standouts. Jonathan Maberry’s ‘The Adventure of the Empty Grave’ has canonical appeal.
The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse
by Tom Holt (Orbit, 2023)
A return to form and a return to office-political satire (supernatural law firms buggering everything up in the finely honed pursuit of self-interest). Holt’s prose rollicks along at a line-by-line, page-by-page level, fizzing by even while his characters wade through treacled cynicism.
Coma [as ‘Koma’]
dir. Nikita Argunov (2020)
![Film poster: “Coma” dir. Nikita Argunov (2020) [as ‘Koma’]](https://www.derelictspacesheep.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Coma-2020.png)
$4 million Russian SF film whose cinematic return puts Hollywood to shame. Coma employs its CGI judiciously, eschewing nonsensical action in favour of tension, worldbuilding and intrigue. The plot is cerebral and engrossing, well carried by a cast unfamiliar to Western audiences.
The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard
dir. Patrick Hughes (2021)
For all its senseless action/violence (which viewers can ride out, if in synch with the affiliated comedy), it is the cosiness, the cheesy character arcs, that let this sequel down, rendering it over-the-top in too many directions. Salma Hayek out-bucks the bronco.