Hello and welcome back to the dark
recesses of my mind. Last week I went AWOL(Absent WithOut
Leave) due to the fact of trying to find a decent at home
job. However, the great state of Nebraska is so greedy and myopic
with view they have annexed many an at home job offers away that it
is very difficult to find something with decent hours and fair pay.
Y'know, like any other job market out there but worry not because we
shall carry on regardless.
OooOo sat on myself. Stings a bit.
This week I have chosen an actor to
follow and hopefully I can drill it in the heads of several Americans
that the fellow in question has done more than one character on TV as
well as a few movies. He is an acclaimed Shakespearean actor that
has starred in several plays, one of which was Much To Do About
Nothing with his co-star Catherine Tate. He has played legendary
debaucherous and decadent Cassanova to a hardened Detective Inspector
Carlisle. He has been in Doctor Who for more than 4 years including
two animated movies and a video game.
Voice work also allowed him to children
material such as The Pirates! Band of Misfits, How to Train Your
Dragon and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I speak of none other than
David Tennant. This week we shall see the famous 10th
Doctor in other roles of both past and present. Okay so it is a bit
of a time lord feel but sue me, it is the easiest look for me to
cosplay.
That being said, let's start the week
right. Allons-y!!
Just establishing I have more female and male fans panting over me, Matt.
Back again kiddies and I can just tell you are all giddy at
this. Hey how about an action movie
shot in locations like Watts, South Central L.A. and Venice Beach back in the
early 70’s? From a vicious gang against
a finite amount of police in the area, this flick gets intense. So grab a seat, a few snacks and relax. This is Assault on Precinct 13th.
Spoiler! It’s a godd*mn spoiler!
Yes, I am referring to the original film of 1976 under Carpenter's reign vs the loosely based remake of 2005. A less than typical film with its flaws and imperfection that show
the beginning of Carpenter’s film process and from this show the sense of style
he is most commonly known for. John
Carpenter has lucked out in locations more times than one can count. Venice Police & Fire Station Division 14
was scheduled to be demolished, armed with only a budget of $150,000 and the
film was shot in all of 20 days. An ambitious
re-creation of Rio Bravo, down to the camera angling to anamorphic shots felt
like a project worthwhile.
Our story opens with a sting takes out a series of gang
members in a bloody gunfire. Cannot even imagine how many shots fired forms
they were filling out. The surviving
gang members swear in blood oath that vengeance will happen. Lieutenant Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker of Battle for the
Planet of the Apes, Horror High, ‘Sheba, Baby ‘, Roots and Machete Joe)
a recently promoted officer is scheduled to Precinct 13. A station being torn
down, paperwork and supplies shipped to its future location. While this is not the best gig, it is Bishop’s
first assignment as a Lieutenant and he will see it through.
Meanwhile in Los Cruzes, a notorious criminal named Napoleon
Wilson (Darwin Joston of Eraserhead, The Fog, Coast to Coast, Time Walker and
Airwolf) is being transported in a bus on his way to death row by
Starker (Charles Cyphers of Halloween, Halloween II, Escape from New York, The
Fog and Grizzly II: The Concert)
Back at the precinct, Bishop meets the remaining staff, desk
sergeant Grumpy McStereotype, filing
clerk Leigh (Laurie Zimmer of American Raspberry, A Dirty Story and Survival of Dana)
and dispatch operator Julie (Nancy Kyes of Halloween, Halloween II, The
Fog, Halloween III, Not in Front of the Children and Lady Boss)
One of the inmates on the bus is violently ill and the only
station in route is Precinct 13, with that the bus pulls in assessing the
situation and hope they can lay aid to the sick man.
Blocks away a father takes his daughter with him in order to
scoop up and move her nanny (Oh Mr. Sheffield) in with them. Driving a high end Cadillac in South Central
L.A. under the influence of being a dumb white guy this could get a bit dicey.
A shoot out later the father makes his way to Precinct 13 to
safety but the combined forces of the gang follow him with their ill-gotten
gains from a heist of the National Guard Armory depot, they have enough
firepower to level six maybe seven city blocks.
Equipped with silencers, the lack of neighbors in the rundown area and
barely any public safety of any sorts the members of the precinct, two prisoners
and the remaining transport troops have to hold off this mass army of lunatics
until help arrives.
The dialogue gives the feel of a B-movie and this is
Carpenter’s second film after Dark Star in 1974. Fewer dolly tracked shots and
more hand held you really had to feel for those poor cameramen breaking their
backs. Given its fairly violent nature
and penchant for shock and awe, this movie does invoke fear and dread for the
decent folk trying to live through the night and almost seething hatred for the
gang members. In my humble opinion a gem
that gets overlooked.
Hey kiddies, thought I would drop by with another TV series
review. Yeah, I was feeling up for it.
So grab a seat, a refreshing soda and kick back. This is Night Man.
Spoilers have secret
identities too…
Ill-fated comic book company Malibu Comics creates a realm
known as the Ultraverse; a land with heroes and heroines of science and magic
alike. Mutants and super powered beings
roam this world until Marvel Comics bought them out in 1994. The idea was to capitalize on this new
bastion of characters and incorporate them into the existing Marvel Comics
universe. But hey who gives a crap
about that?!
Today we are talking about Glen Larson’s (creator
of Magnum P.I., Knight Rider, Quincy, M.E., The Fall Guy and Manimal)
adaptation of Night Man made for two seasons.
Loosely based on the comic book character, Johnny Domino, an
accomplished saxophone player and former martial arts instructor is struck by a
lightning bolt in a freak accident involving a cable-car and attempted
political assassination. Johnny (Matt
McColm of Night of the Warrior, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., The
Protector, Space Cowboys, Baywatch and The Matrix Reloaded) discovers
after this bizarre trauma that he is telepathically able to recognize
evil. After being released from the
hospital and an attempt on his life he encounters Rollie Jordan (Derek
Webster of Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla, Mental and Damages)a brilliant
engineer who is of four men that created high tech body armor and weapons for
the Department of Defense only to have their project gutted due to budget cuts.
Wanting to hold onto their jobs and
reputations, they decide to move the armor into law enforcement only to find
out the prototypes are being auctioned off to foreign powers and possibly
terrorist cells. With the aid of his
father Frank (Earl Holliman of Forbidden Planet, Police Woman, Hotel de Paree and The
Wide Country) former Bay City officer the trio tries to intercept the
bad guys and rein in the cops for assistance.
Johnny feels the cops won’t arrive into time and uses the prototype
armor which consists of: a poly-weave Kevlar and Nomex hybrid, an anti-gravity
flying belt, a holographic woven cloak that allows him to be rendered
invisible, an optical lens that sees every spectrum of light and doubles as an
offensive laser beam.
Okay the storyline is a bit hokey, the cops are a trifle
inept and frankly the fact that Johnny manages to keep his identity secret at
all is something of a miracle. The
concept of a vigilante striking out on crime by his or her lonesome is not an
original story but that jazzy saxophone intro you will NOT get out of your
head. This show is a bit of a guilty
pleasure and yes for the haters I shall hang my head down for this. Similar to the Flash’s production, this show
had potential to continue fairly well but alas the dreaded Nielsen ratings felt
this show was not up to snuff and after only two seasons it went away like a
puff of smoke. This rating board also
thinks such shows as Road Rules and Jersey Shore are worth your time so keep
that in mind and hey at least check out the pilot if you are interested.
