SUGABROS

If you asked me 20 years ago that I would be more excited about the Sugababes reuniting than the next Star Wars movie, I would have said, "Who are the Sugababes?"

When I was younger, my musical taste was incredibly insular.

If you do not know, I co-host a podcast about the British girl group the Sugababes. Every week for 14 weeks, a friend and I argued the merits of the group's first album, one track at a time.

I always considered myself open-minded, but doing a podcast about a British girl band has been a mind-expanding experience. 

While there were things I got into - like musicals and Audrey Hepburn movies - that I stuck with, most of the media I consumed as a teen and twenty-something was more concerned with action and violence. Not to say that these things are not consumed by a variety of people, but I was definitely in the camp that the things I was interested in - no matter how silly they were - were somehow worth more than the things that my sister was in.

This is not a new phenomenon - pop culture has always been framed into ridiculously gendered terms. A good example is romantic comedies - aside from a few examples, the genre is generally talked down and regarded as, at best, a diversion, and at worst, terrible.  

It really boils down to the way men talk about pop culture aimed at an audience that is not them - while I was aware of this framework, recording Sugabros was the first time I really considered it as a part of my own thinking.  

Listening to the Sugababes is one thing - talking about them has been something completely different. Listening back to the recordings during the editing process was somewhat embarrassing and humbling. 

Listening to the way I talked about the band and the songs, I began to notice the way that the language and framing I used to describe and evaluate the music was stepped in the same misogynistic framing that I have seen used to dismiss this kind of music. Even as a fan, I was still funnelling my enjoyment and engagement with the music through the prism that it was intrinsically a lesser art form.

While this process was extremely humbling AND embarrassing - it ended up being a real benefit to the podcast. I would not speak for my co-host, but I personally found that I was re-positioning myself in relation to the music, so that I was not trying to make some kind of allowance to the idea that girl bands are garbage.

By the end of the first season, the whole premise of the show began to formulate into something neither of us had anticipated. This process continued while we were recording Season Two. In fact, I would say that the format has been thrown out. This has been a good thing: The initial concept was incredibly limited in terms of discussing the songs and the group, and it was also rooted in a particularly sexist notions of 'good music'. 

I cannot say wether we have fully escaped that mindset, but it is a present and ongoing part of our discussion in the show. 

If you are interested, here are links to the various episodes in Season One. 

1. Overload
2. One Foot In
3. Same Old Story
4. Just Let It Go
5. Look At Me
6. Soul Sound
7. One Touch
8. Lush Life
9. Real Thing
10. New Year
11. Promises
12. Run For Cover
13. B-Sides
14. Finale

Season Two of the SugaBros will begin on 1 June. 

MYSTERIOUS DR SATAN: Thirteen Steps & Undersea Tomb

Welcome to part deuce of the Midnight Ramble's look back at the classic 1940 serial Mysterious Doctor Satan!

When we last left our hero, the Copperhead, he was onboard a remote-controlled yacht that was about to explode. Will he escape?

Let's find out.

"I'll hold another demonstration in the morning - this time I will use a plane!"

As is conventional for serials (and TV shows), this episode starts with a recap of the first chapter, with cutaways to Dr Satan's henchmen watching the ship and waiting to pull the trigger. Thankfully the Copperhead and Lois managed to get away in time, while Dr Satan wakes up back in his lair (his henchmen dragged him away). 

Meanwhile, despite what happened with the remote controlled yacht last time, Professor Scott is determined to do another test - on a plane. Thankfully, he will be using a different radio frequency, and the guiding mechanism will be installed just before takeoff. There will also be no one on the plane.

Bob is suspicious and hides onboard the plane as the Copperhead.

As the test commences, Dr Satan realises what the professor has done and orders his henchmen to tail the plane in another aircraft and capture it.

The test is a foreshadowing of drone warfare as Scott uses his remote-controlled plane to drop bombs on some abandoned shacks. A military officer declares that Scott has made every other method of warfare 'obsolete'.

Dr Satan's henchmen attempt a mid-air hijacking. Based on the first episode's impressive collection of stunts, I was expecting some ridiculous aerial acrobatics but instead it was just some back projection inserts as one of the Doctor's henchmen climbs down a rope ladder(!) and then enters the plane by kicking in the window (!!). 

Once inside the cockpit, he disables the professor's radio link and tries to pilot the aircraft. Before he can do anything however, the Copperhead attacks him and the poor SOB gets kicked out of the plan (that fall appears to be a real stunt or at least a real dummy - either way it is real).

Bob takes off his mask and lands the plane - the mask-less part becomes more important when he is captured by Dr Satan's men. One of them asks Bob where their man went. Now, up to this point I had found myself funnelling the story through the conventions I have accepted from watching OTT action movies. In this particular moment, I expected a one-liner. And?

"I don't know." 

Anyway, Bob is taken to Dr Satan's lair, escapes, puts his mask back on and ends up holding Dr Satan and his henchmen up with a gun in his laboratory. After taking the plane's control mechanism from the Doctor, the Copperhead backs away as he heads for an exit.

What he does not realise is that his path falls directly in the path of the Doctor's death ray. As the Copperhead steps under it, the Doctor darts for the switch and...

...the Copperhead shoots the switch!

In the ensuing chaos, he jumps out the window and hides in the boot of one of the bad guy's cars. In the melee, Professor Scott's device was destroyed. In a panic, Doctor Satan and his gang head to a second hideout. 

One of the funny things I have noticed in the serial thus far is how blunt it can be - when the gang are inside in the warehouse, the Copperhead pops out of the trunk, runs at the lone sentry and knocks him out with a haymaker. There is no subterfuge or even waiting - he just pops out and gets it done. No time wasted (the episode is less than 20 minutes).

The filmmakers establish this location with a dramatic tilt from the top floor to the street, and one guard mentions to the Doctor (who owns this building) that his stuff is on the 12th floor. It is pretty clear that the Copperhead and/or Bob is going to be engaging in some vertigo-inducing hijinks very soon.

After dispatching the car guard so, uh, straightforwardly, it is a surprise when the Copperhead does not repeat that move with the sentry at the door. Instead, Bob removes his mask and saunters past the doorway. 

Once he is around the corner, Bob scales the building and climb to the 12th floor. It would have been easier to just punch out the sentry. 

In the most terrifying moment in the serial thus far,  Bob stands on a ledge and puts on his Copperhead hood. A light breeze (or somebody opening a window) could send him plummeting to his death.

While the Copperhead eavesdrops outside, Dr Satan confers with one of his lackeys. With Professor Scott's device destroyed, he cannot move forward with his plans to unleash his (thus far unseen) robots on the nation. His one solution is to locate the wreck of the ship from the first test, and remove the remote control device.

Having figured out the plot, the Copperhead spider walks along the wall. He makes some noise, alerting Doctor Satan and his men. They open fire on the Copperhead who falls backwards through a window into an empty office. As the thugs batter their way inside, the Copperhead heads back out onto the ledge and begins climbing to the roof.

The gang follows him and he does the Depression era equivalent of parkour to get away from them.

The Copperhead is quickly re-cornered and engages in a marvellous fist fight. Shot on a rooftop set, and slightly sped-up, there is a freneticism to the combat that is very exciting. As with the office punch-up from Chapter One, there are plenty of exaggerated moves and reactions. It almost feels like if a stunt team choreographed the rooftop set-piece from Mary Poppins. 

The sentry we left on the ground floor re-enters the action here. He spots the action going on on the edge of the roof, and fires at the tiny silhouettes with his pistol. he hits the henchman, who plummets to the ground. 

The Copperhead then makes his escape by sliding down the elevator cables. While it may seem like I have been mocking the plot contrivances, the action in Mysterious Doctor Satan is so well-staged, and delivered with such consistency that it does not matter. That would be like mocking the Fast & Furious movies for being about car stunts.

The Copperhead alerts Professor Scott, who arranges an expedition to beat Doctor Satan to the wreck. Doctor Satan learns of Scott's plans and decides to hijack his expedition.

Satan's band take over the boat just as Bob and Lois descend to the ocean bed in a diving bell - the copy of the serial I am watching is of very poor quality so I cannot confirm this, but I believe the MVP of the first instalment, Rose, shows up and attacks the hijackers by swinging at them on a rope Errol Flynn-style.

An explosion damages the diving bell and the episode ends with our heroes struggling to patch the holes in the diving bell. One of the portals breaks and water floods the chamber. Is this the end of the Copperhead and Lois?

Final thoughts

While 'Thirteen Steps' does not boast the set pieces of the first chapter, this episode is still loads of fun - we get another execution by gadget (setting up the cliffhanger) and some extra peril for Bob. And while the lead-up is contrived (the Copperhead's career would be over if anyone bothered to check Bob's pockets), the cliffhanger is genuinely tense. 

The simple, action-focused 'Undersea Tomb' is good pulpy fun, with plenty of stunts and a cliffhanger that manages to beat the stakes of its predecessor. 

Overall, the format of the episodes follow a familiar pattern: The Copperhead foils the Doctor's latest scheme and escapes, the Doctor formulates a new plan, the Copperhead foils that scheme but then lands in greater peril.

While this is only Parts 2 and 3, the variety of set pieces, and the craftsmanship of their presentation make for pulpy, suspenseful fun. Bonus points for Rose, who saves the day again. Hopefully, she becomes a bigger presence in future episodes. She is the closest thing to an action utility player this series has. It is quite interesting to see a minor female character whose sole reason for being is to do badass stunts that push the story forward. I am very interested to investigate the genre further, and see if characters like Rose are rare or familiar archetypes, like the take-charge women of screwball comedies. 

Enough rambling! I will be back with reviews of the next chapter in the dastardly tale of Doctor Satan, The Human Bomb!

Related reviews

Return of the Copperhead

Sweetheart (JD Dillard, 2019)

After her boat sinks in a storm, Jenn (Kiersey Clemons) washes up on the shore of a small island. 

While she struggles to figure out how to survive on her own, Jenn is confronted by a new threat: a mysterious entity that rises out of the sea every night, intent on dragging her back into the water...

A Blumhouse production, Sweetheart is a superb example of its model - high concept, small-scale and made with solid craftsmanship.At 79 minutes long with credits, Sweetheart is a stripped-down genre flick that does not waste a single frame.

This is my kind of movie - well-crafted, unpretentious, and respects its audience's ability to follow the narrative without handholding or signposting. 


At no point does the movie feel rushed or threadbare - the script offers morsels of background, but lets Clemons' actions (and reactions) do the character-building. It might be me reacting to how inundated we are now with over-explanation and padded runtimes, but I really appreciated how straightforward the story-telling was.

Opening with a shot of Kiersey Clemons washing up on a beach, the movie does not waste time - she immediately starts getting into survival mode.

And rather than dragging out the survival stuff, Jenn has adapted to her new existence - learning how to fish, and how to build shelter - by the 20 minute mark. The filmmakers have enough confidence in viewers that they do not re-hash beats we have already seen in Castaway, Lost and similar films.

That less-is-more approach extends to the film’s antagonist. The film is confident enough to hold off on introducing it for about 1/4 of the movie - I am not even sure the soundtrack kicks in until it appears. 

While I do not want to go into spoilers, the way Dillard introduces it is deliciously terrifying. In the middle of the night, our heroine fires a flare at a passing plane. As the flare reaches the water, we catch a silhouette in the distance staring at her.

It is a strong uncanny moment, and the filmmakers continue to keep this mysterious creature offscreen, using shadow, depth of field and sound design to provide only slivers of what it could be. While the creature is terrifying, the focus is mostly during the daytime, which only adds to the uncanny atmosphere.

The photography by Stefan Duscio (who lensed this year's terrific The Invisible Man) is extremely bright - from the first frame, there is something uneasy about how lush the frame is. It feels like Jenn has stepped over into another realm. The juxtaposition with the night scenes is very stark - emphasising the sense of entrapment and claustrophobia our protagonist experiences.

The script (by Dillard, Alex Hyner and Alex Theurer) even allows the audience to fill in pieces of the story that do not directly relate to Jenn's plight. There is a moment involving dried blood on a knife that is never explained, and we never need it. It provides the one signifier of how Jenn's experience has changed her.

For the first half of the movie, Jenn's characterisation is entirely based on what we see. As the only character onscreen for the majority of the runtime, Clemons is terrific.

She brings a vulnerability and intelligence to what could have been a garden-variety final girl. While she handles the terror and rage of her plight, the thing I most enjoyed about her performance was the way she conveyed Jenn learning how to survive - there is something very affecting about the joy she shows when spearing a fish for the first time. Jenn never comes across as a confident, super-smart survivalist - Clemons presents   

About halfway through, other survivors from her boat land on the island and we start to get a sense of how much of an outsider she was, and how little agency or purpose she had (or was seen to have). 

What is important to note, is that this is an assumption, built almost entirely on what these other characters say. Once again, the filmmakers trust the audience to accept this story or take it as historic revisionism.

Ultimately, whether this is over-stating or not, the person being described no longer exists. On the island, the tables have turned - Jenn is the one with knowledge, resources and power.


Furthermore, the blood-encrusted knife and the blood stains on the bottom of the survivors' inflatable raft undermine their attempt to present themselves as rational, reasonable and morally sound.

That is what I love most about Sweetheart - it treats its audience as adults and as sophisticated active viewers. It allows viewers to use their imaginations to build out the diegesis, not simply in terms of what Jenn's nemesis looks like. 

We do eventually get a look at the creature, but the movie does not lose out because of it. As stated at the outset, the movie knows when to start, and when we finally get a look at the Big Bad, the movie quickly winds up. 

A well-made, clever genre exercise, Sweetheart is a great example of well-crafted genre filmmaking. 

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

MYSTERIOUS DR SATAN: Return of the Copperhead (Chapter One)

Since COVID 19 has us home, I thought I would write some reviews based on readily-available properties. One of those ideas was to review The Adventures of Captain Marvel, the first live-action film production based around a super-hero.

While doing research for that project, I learned that Republic Pictures had initially made overtures to National Publications to secure the rights to Superman. They got as far as having a script prepared but had to nix the project due to rights issues.

Rather than scrap the project, Republic re-jigged the project, and replaced Superman with an original character, the Copperhead, a masked vigilante who is more reminiscent of Batman (who had only made his debut).

The resulting serial was Mysterious Dr Satan, which is regarded as one of the best serials of the period. I started watching and now I am hooked. The following reviews are going to be a bit rough in terms of historical context - I have only watched one other serial - but there is so much here in terms of filmmaking and story-telling conventions that I really want to get into (NOTE: if you are familiar with serials, feel free to throw in your thoughts in the comments).

Enough set-up. Let's dive in, shall we?

Chapter One: Return of the Copperhead

We open with a man shot in the street. As he is carried away on a stretcher, we are introduced to Bob Wayne, our protagonist, who heads into the building the man died in front of. 

Bob meets with his mentor, Governor Bronson. It turns out the dead man was a renowned criminologist who the Governor had brought in to deal with the menace posed by the titular character. Fearing for his life, the Governor wanted to meet with Bob so that he could impart a secret, rather than read it in his will: Bob's father was a masked vigilante who righted wrongs in Arizona. 

This original Copperhead rode a horse - this feels like the filmmakers accounting for the shift from western heroes to masked crimefighters and making their hero part of the lineage. This reveal takes place just over 4 minutes into the first episode - it is a prime example for how economical serials are in their story-telling (in The Adventures of Captain Marvel, the title character is introduced 10 minutes in). 

Bob leaves with the mask, pondering the Governor's words ('If the Copperhead were alive today, he'd run this Dr Satan to earth before he could strike another blow').

After Bob leaves, an intruder then enters the office and presents the Governor with a letter from Dr Satan, that bursts into flames in his hands. The henchman then kills the Governor. 

Bob re-enters the room, and they fight. The choreography is comparable to high-flying wrestling, with plenty of leaps and haymakers. While ridiculous, it is well-photographed and edited.

Bob captures the hoodlum and we smash cut to the captured hoodlum, Corbay, confessing to police that he works for Dr Satan. A journalist enters, Lois Scott (this is one of the more obvious signs of the 'Superman' re-write), who wants info for a story on the assassination - it also turns out she is the daughter of Dr Satan's next victim.

Corbay opens his shirt, revealing a contraption around his chest through which he communicates with Dr Satan. As it turns out, the contraption also has a camera and Dr Satan is watching them from his lair. Over the radio, he warns the assembled that nothing can stop him from accomplishing his plans, and electrocutes Corbay through the device.

Lois's father has invented a device (a 'remote control cell') that Dr Satan needs to complete his plans for world domination. He intends to strike the professor while he is on a train home.

While the police are confident they can protect him, Bob enlists his friend Speed Martin and his latest automobile to get to the train himself (a pretty cool stunt).

On the train, Bob runs into Dr Satan as he tries to take plans - Satan shoots Bob and escapes. Luckily for Bob, the Doctor's round was blocked by the Copperhead mask in his breast pocket.

At this point, Bob puts on the mask and confronts the Doctor and his henchman in the baggage car. Following a scuffle, Bob falls off the train with the plans.

The plans are mysteriously returned to the Professor, who is preparing for a test of his device - he will be remote-controlling a ship, and Lois will be onboard to document the test

However, Dr Satan confronts the professor at his home where he reveals that he has invented the plot for Speed: if he does not hand over the plans, the ship his daughter is on will blow up when it goes over 25 miles per hour.

While this is going on, the professor's assistant Jane - tied up in a barn - manages to get on a horse (with her hands tied behind her back) and rides to find help. 

For a character who only appears in three scenes, Jane is the most badass character in the serial thus far. I am guessing this set piece was devised because the crew knew a stunt person who could do this trick - it is a terrific bit of action (including the horse and rider smashing through a breakaway door).

Jane runs into Bob who dons his Copperhead mask and confronts Dr Satan as the professor hands over the plans. Hopefully Jane comes back in future episodes - the character is almost non-existent, but her skillset is spectacular. 

Just when it looks like Dr Satan has been beaten, he cuts the lights - however his gambit to steal the plans fails when he accidentally triggers the electric field around the safe. The doctor is stunned and the plans burn to a crisp.

However, Copperhead still has to get to the ship (Dr Satan sabotaged the radio) before it blows up. Will he make it?

Final thoughts: Phew! What an intro. 

In only 30 minutes we get fist fights, two electrocutions, a couple of legitimately jaw-dropping stunts (especially Jane's escape on the horse) and an explosion. As spectacle, this opening chapter is great fun.

While Robert Wilcox is a bit banal as Bob Wayne, the character is more of a generic action man (and is probably a result of re-writes), the rest of the cast are pretty good, especially the titular satanic Doctor. Eduardo Ciannelli brings a simmering sense of menace to the role that is very entertaining. I went in with an expectation of some Tod Slaughter-level ham, but Ciannelli's understated performance adds to this instalment's nourish atmosphere.

While made on a low budget, there is a lack of pretension to the filmmaking which enriches the viewing experience. You can definitely see how Superman would work for the story, with Copperhead's rapid arrivals at locations, but the masked vigilante angle does work for the story (thus far) which calls back to spy thrillers and foreshadows the heightened antics of James Bond.

As an introduction to a type of filmmaking that does not really exist anymore, Mysterious Doctor Satan is pretty great. The print I am watching is terrible, but it is a testament to the material that it is still a lot of fun. 

Check back in for Chapter Two: Thirteen Steps!

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

BITE-SIZED REVIEW: Plunder Road (Hubert Cornfield, 1957)

On a dark and rainy night, a train carrying federal gold is robbed by a group of robbers. After distributing the gold between three trucks, the team of robbers (led by Gene Raymond's Eddie) attempt to evade the authorities.

One by one, the trucks are captured - until only one remains. Will Eddie get away with the haul?  

I only found out about this movie recently.

Made in 1957, this is an efficient little thriller that documents a robbery and the fallout as the police slowly close in on the robbers.

The most fascinating and arresting sequences in the film involve process: the first being the robbery and dispersal of the gold; the various sequences of law enforcement tracking the robbers; and the final sequence, in which the remaining robbers, hiding out in a small smelting plant, convert the gold into a new bumper for their getaway car.

The film is not a character-piece per say, but more of a procedural. It follows the working parts of a robbery, and the tactics and technology that police will deploy to foil them. While the film gradually narrows in focus as the robbers are caught, the overall perspective feels omniscient and dispassionate.

In an early sequence, we get the thesis, as it were, of the film: an old gas station attendant tells one of the robbers that times have changed - technology has rendered this type of robber extinct.

Over the course of the movie, he is proved right - the first truck is caught by a radio broadcast, and the second truck is caught at a weighing station.

The movie does not really move beyond this idea, but it does give the movie a sense of time running out.

In the final 20 minutes, with the other robbers out of action, the movie to begin to feel like noir. This is hit home by the ending, in which the anti-heroes fall victim to chance. Despite the robbers' preparations, it is an unforeseen and completely banal incident that precipitates their doom.

Terse and atmospheric, Plunder Road sags slightly in the middle act (it almost feels like it would work better as a short film), but it features a solid cast and some decent set-pieces, with a great bummer of an ending.

Related

Death of a Cyclist

Night and the City

Ossessione

Elevator to the Gallows

Odd Man Out

Decoy

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

BuyBust (Erik Matti, 2018)

Rookie police officer Manigan (Anne Curtis) is out to prove herself in a new squad after her last team were killed in an operation botched by other corrupt cops. When her new squad is sent into a poor barrio to capture a major drug dealer, Manigan and her comrades find themselves ambushed.

As they attempt to flee the barrio, the cops find themselves on the run from both the drug dealers and ordinary people enraged by the carnage the cops and drug dealers have unleashed on their community.

Made and released in the context of the Durterte administration's ongoing drug war, BuyBust is constantly emphasising the ways in which the actions of the protagonist and her colleagues impact the community.


Because of the film's set-up, my expectation was that the barrio would be presented as a unique maze for action to take place ala The Raid, Dredd and any 'Die Hard on a Something' movie - an obstacle for the characters to circumvent. It would also be filled with bad guys who our heroes would have to kill.

BuyBest is a far more intelligent and cynical film than that preconception - the barrio is not just an environment for set pieces. This is a community where people live. And this sense of a living, breathing community does not fade as soon as the action starts. 

Even to an outsider, it is hard not to see what is going on here. During an early sequence - a particularly brutal interrogation of a suspect - there is a moment where the camera lingers on an image of Durterte on a wall behind the policeman running the interrogation. The juxtaposition is fleeting but important - this is a scene built on a familiar cliche: the police officer going above and beyond to beat the truth out of a suspect. 

Once the film moves into the barrio, the filmmakers continue to smash the action movie cliches against the real-world context of the drug war. 

While occasionally exhilarating and visceral, the violence in BuyBust is never entirely escapist - there is also an extra touch of context that constantly reminds you that these cops are not good guys, and their actions - while 'cool' in isolation - are causing pain and death to people who are just trying to defend their homes. Throughout the movie, the action is bracketed or interrupted by moments that add layers to the extras and 'red shirts'. People scream, children hide and react to the deaths of their friends/loved ones.

The effect is almost akin to Paul Verhoeven's work, however the critique here is stripped of satiric intent. There is nothing funny about the execution here (no pun intended). While the gangsters resemble cliches (including an eccentric 'final boss'), the movie's intent is to marry the emotional focus of a 'men-on-a-mission-gone-wrong' movie to the broader social context of its environment. 

We are introduced to our lead, Nina Manigan (Anna Curtis) on a training exercise with her new squad. She has a chip on her shoulder - her squamates distrust her and she feels a need to prove herself. By the time she manages to get out of the barrio, that quest feels almost beside the point - everyone she wanted to prove herself to is dead, including the people who betrayed her in the past.

And the residents of the barrio - who have also been victims of her actions (however in-advertently) just want her to leave. 

While she ends the movie having eradicated the people who betrayed her (and set up her character journey), she does this alone. Her actions will not be validated by her colleagues (all dead) or the people (the drug war is bigger than a few corrupt cops).

As the camera pulls away from our anti-heroine into an overhead shot of the barrio, her action hero narrative becomes inseparable from the broader context. She might have killed some bad people - but the situation is bigger than her actions.

BuyBust is such a fascinating viewing experience, because it is trying to reach two very different aims: On the one hand it wants to be an exhilarating action movie, and a savage critique of the kind of vigilante practices that the drug war has enabled. 

Definitely worth checking out.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The James Bond Cocktail Hour Season 2

Since the season has now concluded, here is a short breakdown of Season 2 of the The James Bond Cocktail Hour podcast.

We opened the season with a review of 1964's Goldfinger, the Fast 5 of the the franchise - the movie that started Bondmania, and led to 22 further instalments (and Casino Royale '67).

This season, we tried a new format of alternating reviews with supplemental episodes on different topics.

For the first supplemental episode, we covered the key bits of new info about No Time To Die and did a short review of David Arnold's Shaken and Stirred covers album from 1997.

With our supplementals, we try to make sure that the subject bears some relation to the next review. Shaken and Stirred led to David Arnold gaining the composer gig on Tomorrow Never Dies, which was our next review.

In the next episode, we covered Becoming Bond, the 2017 documentary about George Lazenby's short time in the role.

This provided the lead-in to our Christmas review of For Your Eyes Only, the spiritual sequel to Lazenby's On Her Majesty's Secret Service (covered in our first season).

We started off the new year with a look at the Craig-era teaser trailers (with a short intro covering the teasers of his predecessor Pierce Brosnan).

The first review proper of 2020 was a two-part review of Die Another Day, the last guy's last movie.

With the next supplemental, we covered the latest developments on Billie Eillish's theme song, and went through our own picks for future Bond singers.

We then followed this with our first 'rogue' reviews of Bond-related media, the first two Kingsman films. Originally we had timed the release of these episodes to come out around the same time as the new Kingsman prequel, but then it got pushed back (AND then Corona happened).

The final couple of episodes took us back to the literary roots, as we covered Ian Fleming's third novel Moonraker, and tried out a new segment, casting the literary Bond. As a lead-in, we did a supplemental in which we offered our choices for the novels we reviewed in Season One, and bookend-ed the Moonraker episode with a fan-casting of the main roles in the novel.

Thanks to the release delay, we did have to wind up the season early, but it did give us an excuse to check out the multifaceted weirdness of 1967's Casino Royale.

We will be back later in the year with a new batch of reviews, including (hopefully) No Time To Die.

In the meantime, check out the new season of SugaBros, which will begin next month.

Den of Geek articles

Bond 25: Why is James Bond relevant in 2019?

Roger Moore’s James Bond: appreciating the raised eyebrow

Bond reviews

Diamonds Are Forever

The Man With The Golden Gun

Moonraker

For Your Eyes Only

Octopussy

A View To A Kill

The Living Daylights

Licence to Kill

GoldenEye

Tomorrow Never Dies

The World Is Not Enough (2010); (2017)

Die Another Day

Casino Royale

Quantum of Solace

Spectre (2015); (2016)

BOOTLEG REVIEW: American Tunes (Allen Toussaint, 2016)

[This review was originally published in 2016]

Celebrated pianist and song-writer Allen Toussaint died late last year. This final set is assembled from a series of sessions from 2013 through 2015.

Despite its origins, American Tunes never feels like mixed bag, and constitutes a wonderfully focused, intimate set that never outstays its welcome. 

Composed of a series of diverse covers, covering everyone from jazz greats Bill Evans (‘Waltz for Debby’) and Duke Ellington (‘Come Sunday’) to Professor Longhair (‘Hey Little Girl’) and Paul Simon, it is a welcome peak into Toussaint’s personal tastes, and talents as an interpreter. He even includes new instrumental version of ‘Southern Nights’ (most famously covered by country star Glen Campbell), which feels completely distinct from his original, psychedelic version.

The set ends with Toussaint’s cover of Simon’s ‘American Tune’. Accompanied by an acoustic guitar and his piano, it is a beautifully understated curtain closer that sums up the entire project.

All in all, American Tunes is a strong finale for one of New Orleans’ greatest musical talents.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

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BOOTLEG REVIEW: Stranger to Stranger (Paul Simon, 2016)

[This review was originally published in 2016]

Paul Simon’s first album since 2011, Stranger to Stranger is a solid collection from the celebrated singer-songwriter. 

The album begins with ‘The Werewolf’, a funny rumination on life, taking in the various mundane crises people have to deal with. The Werewolf stands in for an outside threat that is ultimately just as omnipresent as any of the more prosaic obstacles people have to face.

‘Wristband’ tells the story of a rock star who accidentally locks himself out of a venue after stepping out for a smoke. He tries to get in through the front but finds that, despite his fame, he is unable to get back inside. A rather imaginative metaphor for class, the image of the wristband becomes both more important and more insignificant as the song progresses.

The title track is the standout, an expansive, almost cinematic number about love, relationships and human interaction. Simon litters his verses with quotes and cliches of old love songs.

The songs may not be as immediately memorable as some of his earlier work, but there no obvious dead spots. The album is best listened to in its entirety, as the songs definitely feel of a piece. The production is warm and understated — even the touches of world music which have been a part of Simon’s sound since Graceland don’t feel out of place. 

Overall, Stranger to Stranger is a strong effort that grows more interesting the more you listen to it.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

IN-HOME THEATRES: Extraction

Mercenary Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) is recruited to rescue the kidnapped son (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) of an imprisoned Indian drug lord.

Despite some complications, the exchange of the kid for the ransom goes well. Until Tyler and Ovi (Jaiswal) are ambushed on their way to the extraction point.

Trapped in the city, with the police, the drug lord's enemies and an enforcer with his own reasons for taking the boy (Randeep Hooda).

Watching Extraction is like watching a checklist of action movie cliches. The central character is a burned-out mercenary with nothing to live for. The story involves him turning selfless gaurdian/saviour for a young boy. Layer onto said story the familiar white saviour trope, and you are left with a pretty generic action thriller that could have come out any time between the the beginning of cinema and today.

While it looks slick and has some solid set pieces (director Sam Hargrave is a former second unit director and stuntman), there is a frustrating lack of originality to the enterprise. What makes it worse is that there is a better movie hiding in this one, if you just moved the point-of-view.

When David Harbour shows up, the movie gets a slight charge of electricity, but his appearance in the story feels so predictable and rote, with a series of predictable revelations and an obvious twist of loyalties that made me wonder why I should keep watching.

There is a secondary antagonist, Saju (Hooda), one of Ovi's dad's lackeys, to re-capture him away from Rake and the mercenaries. It turns out his father cannot pay the ransom or the mercenaries, so he threatens Saju's family, basically blackmailing him. Compared with Rake's generic trauma, Saju's is the more dramatic and emotionally resonant motivation, and Hooda brings a frenzied panic and pathos to the role that is missing from the rest of the movie. 

Watch Extraction made me realise a sad fact: Chris Hemsworth is not a star. He is likeable, but he lacks the magnetism, the weight and the sense of history to fill a cookie-cutter role like this.

I also think Hemsworth is miscast - he seems most comfortable in comedy (and then he needs a strong ensemble and material to spark off - see last year's MIB International), but in dramatic roles there is a superficiality to his emotions and reactions that leaves me cold. He is also not a minimalist - he does not draw you in, and he does not convey weakness. He feels too together.

Harbour appears as an old friend of Rake's, who offers the pair shelter. He brings a much-needed dose of personality, and immediately highlights the blankness of the star's performance. He is only sabotaged by the rote-ness of the part.

The script is not the only issue. 

While it is not as explicit as the last couple Rambos, the violence in Extraction is used to paint the mostly Indian villains as the most objectionable form of evil. While Rake does not make the xenophobia explicit ala London Has Fallen's Mike Banning, it does make the movie feel like more of a throwback to the white saviour narratives of the 80s (including Temple of Doom and the third Missing In Action movie), in which traumatised white action heroes rescue (and are spiritually renewed by) children. 

This movie is so uninspired in its plot development you can see this arc coming a mile away, and the filmmakers are not savvy enough to offer some kind of revision which would justify it. Once again, when you have Saju doing exactly the same thing as Rake, it is hard not to see how this movie could have been improved simply by flipping the central role and having Rake as the antagonist. 

As a first-time director Hargraves does a decent job. The photography is largely clear, and he shoots the action wide so we always know where people are. It is a bummer - this kind of technical competence is sorely lacking in too many action pictures. I just wish it was in service of a better script. There are times where he goes overboard - the one-take action sequence goes on a beat too long, and there is a rubbery-ness to some of the camerawork and action (aided in post-production) that made it feel like a video game. 

While it is not awful, Extraction is aggressively unoriginal in terms of its narrative and themes. While it is nice to see a big budget generic action movie again, this movie proves that there is a limit to how generic you can be.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.