Ironheart Eps 1 -3 review

 

The latest Marvel tv spin off focuses on Riri Williams, teenage super scientist from Wakanda whom we last saw joining MIT to further her undoubted technical skills. The six part series follows her progress and located tonally somewhere between Ms Marvel and Agent Carter proves to be an enjoyable show. Nether too self-consciously urban yet retaining a natural feel its episodes are an easy watch with just enough rug pulling to keep the veteran Marvel viewers entertained. 

Spoilers beyond this point

Top of the Pops 28 June 1990

 

Words: Chris Arnsby

“Hello. A very good evening to you. Welcome to Top of the Pops. If you want to hear the show in stereo just switch your radio to Radio 1FM. We have six acts in the show tonight. And we start with a real belter, number five in the charts with, uh, Snap featuring Oops Up the duck here they come.”

 [5] SNAP: Oops Up. I hope Gary Davies got hazard pay for that extra piece of physical props work. He makes a good throw across the studio and Turbo B makes a terrific catch considering the low visibility with all the smoke and flashing lights. It's the kind of tiny moment that would haunt my nightmares. We'd be on take 15 and Oops Up the Duck would be ricocheting off the lighting grid and falling into the gears of the camera crane while a bored audience slow-clap and jeer me. 

The Land That Time Forgot (1974)

 

In the mid Seventies a team headed by Amicus studios, at that time known for horror films, dipped their toes in the waters of fantasy adventure. They adapted a trio of stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs on what were essentially shoestring budgets and aimed at a juvenile audience. The Land That Time Forgot was the first yet is a curious film quite unlike the ones that followed which leaned further into either the fantastical or mythical. Evolution is this movie’s theme and while it doesn’t come up with any answers, it does pose some interesting questions. 

 

Top of the Pops 22 June 1990

 

Jakki Brambles: “Hello. Good evening and welcome along to Top of the Pops on a Friday night thanks to the lovely little World Cup. Rockin' good show for you tonight. We're going to start off with a band who are at number thirty five in the chart. They've just been entertaining fifty thousand East Berliners. Welcome along, Magnum.”

 [35] MAGNUM: Rockin'Chair. England v Egypt (Group F) live from Cagliari, 7.30pm on Thursday. It's time to play schedule billiards. Eastenders moves to 7pm Thursday which canons Top of the Pops to Friday at 7.40pm after Wogan. It's basically a repeat of the schedule reordering which took place on 18/05/1990 when the FA Cup Final replay moved everything around in exactly the same way. Top of the Pops gets dropped neatly in to the Friday night schedule so something called Paradise can start, as always, at 8.10pm.

“John Taylor is the formidable force that stands between prosperity and catastrophe when a lumber company comes to town to clear his mountain.” Sounds exciting.

Detectorists

 

More than a decade after it started  and three years since it ended, Detectorists remains a treat. Back in 2014 the idea that a series could sustain a tale of two mates whose hobby is metal detecting might have seemed unlikely yet over ten years later Detectorists has surely secured its place in the pantheon of memorably tv? In fact, its probably up there in the `must watch more than once` tv. Though set in the present day the series has a timeless appeal which won’t date. Many of its cultural references hark back to earlier decades and its premise encompasses centuries of history. Yet it is built on a small scale with scenes often involving little more than idle chat and banter or geeky talks about buttons and suchlike. It mightn’t work with many series but it definitely does in this one.

 

Everything Is Illuminated (2005)

 

This film is based on American writer Jonathan Safron Foer’s successful 2002 novel in which he relates his trip to Ukraine in search of a woman called Augustina. She saved his grandfather’s life during the second world war when the Nazis destroyed the small Jewish settlement of Trachimbrod. In the novel this personal odyssey is told in parallel to showing the events that happened decades earlier making it more an epic story. The author’s actual journey turned out somewhat disappointedly and nothing was really found. For the film adaptation this somewhat uneventful resolution to the search is given a fictional weight that still sits appropriately with the subject matter.

 

Top of the Pops 14 June 1990

 Words: Chris Arnsby

 Bruno Brookes: “Good evening. How are you? Hope you're well. Welcome to Top of the Pops, another wild n wacky version reflecting seven new entries on the chart this week and the first one on the show tonight at number thirty two, Guru Josh back in the Top Forty with this song, Whose Law Is It Anyway.”

 [32] GURU JOSH: Whose Law (Is It Anyway?). Josh gets a nice visual gag into his performance, about halfway through. The camera pushes in towards him and he flinches backwards with a pretend shocked look on his face as if it has knocked him backwards. You don't often see physical comedy on Top of the Pops.

Top of the Pops 31 May & 7 June 1990

 Words: Chris Arnsby

 31/05/1990

 Simon Mayo: “Hi, welcome to Top of the Pops. Not just half an hour of fabulous music but your own personal guide to some of the great outfits being worn during the world cup on your TV this summer. This is the figure hugging Italian outfit and we'll kick things off in Italy with Black Box. Yes indeed. This is Everybody, Everybody at twenty two this week.”

 [22] BLACK BOX: Everybody, Everybody. Didn't there used to be two blokes in Black Box? Yes but apparently only one of them could make it this week.

Simon Mayo has a running theme this week, the shirts of the World Cup. While Black Box are on he makes a quick change to the official Ireland shirt, to introduce Talk Talk.

Doctor Who - The Reality War review

 

There’s a lot to unpack here in a story that sometimes seems like it contains a whole season’s worth in one go. Given the episode’s big surprises are already out there in the media it seems almost pointless to put a spoiler warning on any review of `The Reality War` especially as everyone got the chance to watch it at the same time. I saw it at one of the cinema screenings and can report that the two most unexpected moments provoked considerable excitement from the lively crowd which after all the online bile directed at recent seasons was rather heartwarming. While being able to see some of its narrative shortcomings I have really enjoyed this season in a way I hadn’t expected to. I always try and do positive reviews but last year it was a strain sometimes whereas this season I feel every episode has worked for me, even this one. So, strap in, and let’s take a meander though this packed episode free of the instantaneousness of the surprises and look at the implications.

Karate Kid - Legends review

 

While some of this year’s big films are pushing three hours in length, Karate Kid- Legends clocks in at a compact ninety-four minutes and not a moment of those minutes is slack. This is a lean movie that successfully draws together the Karate Kid lore but its not a Cobra Kai film. In fact, both Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan, despite their prominence on the promotional posters, are used relatively sparingly. Rightly the film focuses on the `kid`, in this case Li Fong played with determination by Ben Wang and his travails as his mother moves them to New York from Beijing.

 Spoilers after the break