Justice League (2017)
Nov25

Justice League (2017)

“Now…Let Them Come”: Justice League (2017)       Like good ol’ Doc Jekyll quaffing down his nutritious breakfast smoothie and bringing a bad guy out of Hyde-ing, the internet continues to reveal a dark and nasty side to my fellow fantasy film nerds. Seemingly freed from all restraints, they don’t even need to have actually seen a movie anymore before condemning it.  Nah, the trailer is enough for gallons of bile to be spewed...

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he by John Connolly
Nov25

he by John Connolly

An Infinity of Echoes: he by John Connolly     “Each evening thereafter he travels to the hospital to be with Lois. “On the ninth day, his son dies.”   Was this what it was really like for him at the end, this joyless existence at St. Monica’s Oceana Apartments, ‘at the dawning of the last days’? And here am I, slipping into this curious way that John Connolly has chosen to tell his story.  Referring to him only as ‘he’ and ‘him’; and...

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Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
Nov25

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

The Fracturing of the Soul: Murder on the Orient Express (2017)       Early on in this new version of Agatha Christie’s classic murder mystery, Inspector Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Brannagh) declares with passion that there exists only good and evil, with nothing in between.  It’s hard to see how any human being, let alone one of his brilliance, can have reached the age he is and still maintain such a rigid – and patently...

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The Anti-Irish Sentiments of H. P. Lovecraft
Nov25

The Anti-Irish Sentiments of H. P. Lovecraft

‘Criminals and Mongrel Wretches’: The Anti-Irish Sentiments of H. P. Lovecraft   From the Chicago ‘Irish American News’, November 2017     Well now, I’m not the better for that!  In fact, I’m almost sorry that I came across this correspondence from 1918/20. You see, I’ve been a lifelong devotee of the writings of Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890 – 1937) of New England.  When I was a schoolboy in the 60s and 70s he was pretty much...

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Happy Death Day (2017)
Nov02

Happy Death Day (2017)

An Unexpected Pleasure: Happy Death Day (2017)     If Dunkirk and Blade Runner 2049 were two of my favourite films from 2017, then Christopher Landon’s Happy Death Day is definitely the one that turned out to be the most unexpectedly good.  Considering the title and the poster, I walked through the cinema doors anticipating a standard slasher movie, released for the Halloween market; instead I emerged with a big grin and...

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