Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's The Island of Dr Moreau (2014)

In the mid-1990s cult director Richard Stanley (Hardware, Dust Devils) went to Hollywood with a dream of making a stylish film adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel The Island of Dr Moreau. That dream was pretty much shattered immediately, and the resulting film - ultimately directed by Hollywood career helmer John Frankenheimer - went down as one of the most unpopular and critically derided films of 1996.

Lost Soul, a 2014 documentary by David Gregory, recounts the troubled development and production of The Island of Dr Moreau, interviewing key members of the film's cast and crew and putting together the most comprehensive account available on precisely what happened to the film and what occurred to make such a promising project crash and burn in such a spectacular fashion. It is not the best documentary of its kind - that remains Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe's spectacular Lost in La Mancha - but it is a fascinating and regularly entertaining account of one of modern Hollywood's most legendarily disastrous movie shoots.

Jessica Jones: "AKA 99 Friends"

While continuing her hunt for Killgrave (David Tennant, Jessica (Krysten Ritter) accepts a case from a jewelry designer who suspects her husband is having an affair. Meanwhile police officer Will Simpson (Wil Traval) returns to Trish's apartment to apologise for his actions while controlled by Killgrave. At the law firm, Hogarth (Carrie Ann Moss) and Jessica begin putting together a support group for Killgrave's victims.

While failing to match the quality of the series' first two episodes, "AKA 99 Friends" at least manages to improve on the third. Many of the problems that disrupted that episode for me are still there, but for whatever reason they are being managed a little better. The overall story arc progresses to a satisfying extent while time is taken out for an essentially self-contained storyline at the same time.

The Pull List: 11 January 2017, Part 1

I have been fairly harsh on the comic book adventures of Miles Morales in recent years. This alternative universe Spider-Man started off so well, with a strong, likeable character and a great supporting cast, and creator/writer Brian Michael Bendis' excellent dialogue. Then his own adventures started to get derailed by constant and intrusive crossovers and events. I generally do not read Marvel's event series, because every time I do I seem to go away bitterly disappointed by them, and this makes all of those tie-in Miles Morales comics essentially a waste of time and money. Still I have persevered, because the character really is great, and I keep hoping beyond hope that he will one day return for a sustained run of self-contained adventures.

Spider-Man #12 gets it half-right. It is a crossover with Spider-Gwen #16, a comic that I do not read, and that is mildly annoying. On the other hand thus far it has not relied upon me having read an event series (most recently Civil War II - who won?) and seems to be telling its own story. The dialogue is great, and the flashback structure is pretty amusing - although it does get over-played a tad. Sara Pichelli's artwork is, as always, excellent, with varied panel layouts and great character expressions. It's a solid set-up to what looks like it could be a really fun issue over in Spider-Gwen, so much so that I will likely grit my teeth and buy it to see what happens next.

I do still hope Miles gets a bit more of a focus on his own book, but I will grudgingly take a contain crossover over an event tie-in. At least Marvel is headed in the right direction. Mind you: Spider-Gwen as a love interest over Ms Marvel? Don't do this to me, Marvel. (4/5)

Spider-Man #12. Marvel. Written by Brian Michael Bendis. Art by Sara Pichelli with Gaetano Carlucci. Colours by Justin Ponsor.

Under the cut: reviews of Detective Comics, Doctor Who, and Dungeons & Dragons.

Top 10 films of 2016

This is a top 10 list with a pretty big caveat. I simply do not get the time to go to the cinema with anywhere near the kind of frequency with which I used to manage. In total I have managed to see just 27 films first released in 2016, and that really is not any kind of list from which to assemble a legitimate top 10. That said, the 10 I enjoyed the most are all films that I would enthusiastically recommend to others. My recommendation is to view this not as a proper "Top 10" - there are almost certainly films I have not yet seen that would supplant others on this list - but simply as a list of 10 films released last year that I think are well worth viewing.

The list got delayed by about a week because I took a while to successfully see Moana, and given my opinions on other Walt Disney animated features, it seemed a likely bet for a top 10 slot. Let's count them down from #10 to #1, and see if it made the list.

This is the End (2013)

A group of narcissistic actors get together for a raucous party - only for the world to end at the same time. Trapped inside James Franco's Hollywood mansion, they must contend with a post-apocalyptic world of fire and demons while not turning upon one another at the same time.

This is the End, directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, feels like a genuinely inventive Hollywood comedy. It takes the assembled cast of a whole generation of recent comedies, including Rogen, Franco, Danny McBride, Jonah Hill, and others, and gets them to play ridiculous parodies of themselves in a disastrous situation. On the one level it's the ultimate in 'inside baseball' comedies, since so much of the humour depends on familiarity with the various and actors and their films. On the other it's a really fresh idea that is played out to wonderful extremes.

Obviously comedy is particularly subjective, and if you do not enjoy the sorts of comedy films usually produced by the likes of Franco, Rogen or McBride you are unlikely to see much appeal here. If you're a fan, however, this is absolutely one of their best works.

Yowamushi Pedal: "I Don't Have Any Friends"

It is 21 October 2013, and time for Yowamushi Pedal.

Competitive cycling enthusiast Imaizumi has challenged Onada to a race up the sharp incline to their high school, because he wants to see Onada's freakish natural talent for cycling uphill for himself. To give Onada an incentive he has agreed to join Onada's anime club at school should he be beaten. Halfway through the race, it seems as if Onada has no chance - until assistance from Miki gives him the boost he needs.

The majority of this episode is taken up by the second half of Imaizumi and Onada's bicycle race, which one would think would make it a pretty boring episode. As it turns out it's pretty great, thanks to some great action and a clever insertion of real-life bicycle maintenance and cycling practice.

Heartbeat Detector (2007)

Simon Kessler (Mathieu Almaric) is a workplace psychologist working in Paris for a German corporation. One day he is approached by the company's vice-president with a problem: the CEO, Mathias Jüst (Michael Lonsdale), has been behaving erratically. He sits in his company car listening to music instead of coming into the office. He goes off in strange trails of thought. He has been caught quietly sobbing at his desk. When Kessler begins to investigate Jüst, he also winds up discovering more than he expected about the company for which he works - and its appalling past.

Heartbeat Detector is a 2007 French drama with an extraordinary sense of menace and atmosphere but also a central accusation with which it is almost impossible to fully engage. At the least, however, it is a powerful and provocative work with strong performances and a nicely ambivalent screenplay. The central performance by Mathieu Almaric alone is worth the price of admission. On the other hand if you are easily triggered by imagery from or discussion of the Holocaust, it's best turning away now.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: "Rascals"

It is 30 October 1992, and time for another episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

A transporter accident turns Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart), Ensign Ro (Michelle Forbes), Keiko O'Brien (Rosalind Chao) and Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) into children, while retaining their adult intelligence and experience. Before a solution can be found the Enterprise is invaded by Ferengi, and repelling the enemy may come down to Picard and his de-aged companions.

If there was an award for the stupidest concept ever thrown at Star Trek: The Next Generation, it would be the idea of transforming several characters into children for an episode. It makes no scientific sense; in fact, it does not even generally wave in the rough direction of science. It is a farcical idea with no basis in reality and pretty much no possibility of ever being treated seriously. Coupled with that is the idea that a small group of Ferengi could take over the Enterprise with two beaten-up Klingon birds of prey and a few firearms. There basically is not a single element of this entire episode that is not one of the most ridiculous things you will ever see.