The Dark Tower: Book I: The Gunslinger (1982)

The Dark Tower: Book I: The Gunslinger (1982)

Author: Stephen King | Page Count: 212

'No one ever really pays for it in silver, he thought. The price of any evil – necessary or otherwise – comes due in flesh.'

Book I is our introduction to Roland Deschain, aka Roland of Gilead, the titular gunslinger and a man obsessed with reaching the Dark Tower. That goal carries him across Mid-World, the land of his birth.

Mid-World is a familiar amalgamation of our own recorded history and a romanticised version of the same. It's the type of fictional reality that fans of King's other works will feel right at home in.

King is best known for horror works, but Dark Tower is fantasy merged with the old-fashioned western. It's still populated with the kind of well-defined characters that the author is good at. Love him or loathe him, you can't deny his strengths.

The Wraith (1986)

The Wraith (1986)

Dir. Mike Marvin

The Wraith is 80s to its core, from the hairstyles to the music. It stars Charlie Sheen as a dirt bike riding new-guy-in-town who gets targeted by a group of racing thugs, the leader of which (Nick Cassavetes) has an unrequited hard-on for the same girl (Sherilyn Fenn) as Sheen's character.

Helmeted S+M guy is a mysterious spirit with a flash car and a score to settle against the gang previously mentioned, and not just because the leader is a sleazebag who chews gum with his mouth open and only keeps 'friends' out of fear.

The plot is pretty dumb, but its bizarre mix of drama, fantasy, and not-quite-sci-fi has just enough interesting ideas to keep this fan of the era happy. Racing scenes are good and Randy Quaid is memorable as a no-bullshit sheriff.

Masters of the Universe: He-Man: Defender of Grayskull (2005)

MotU: He-Man: Defender of Grayskull (2005)

Genre: Action / Adventure  |  Players: 1  |  Developer: Savage Entertainment

Your objective in Defender of Grayskull, if I'm not mistaken, is to advance through poorly designed and repetitive levels battling bland enemies, employing badly animated sword strikes to end their miserable existence. You can use a roll manoeuvre during combat in an attempt to add variety, but it's not necessary and you'll soon probably grow tired of even that once you discover that that it's quicker to simply lock onto them with L2 (if you're lucky) and hack and slash until they become a crumpled heap.

He-Man's burly physique is referenced often, in the piss-poor animation and in having his every step be accompanied by monotonous heavy footfalls that hammer the player's brain with each laboured step. He can also jump, which enables the awful platform sections to be properly cocked-up. At such times, collision detection in hinted at but largely absent.

Millennium Actress (2001)

Millennium Actress (2001) 

Dir. Satoshi Kon

Chiyoko Fujiwara is an ageing actress with a fascinating story still to tell. It'll remain untold until the proper audience is found. At the whim of fate, the proper audience finds her.

Once again, Japanese director Satoshi Kon tears down the boundaries between what's real and what's imagined, allowing past and present to overlap with fiction and reality in captured time. It's my personal favourite of his works. It's both a skilfully written love letter to the film medium and a poetic celebration of the human heart. If you hate it, you're probably dead inside.

It would take a thousand words to address all of Millennium Actress' merits, but I'm determined to keep this one short, so that you can stop reading and more quickly get to the watching.

Living with Chucky (2022)

Living with Chucky (2022)

Dir. Kyra Elise Gardner

A documentary in which various cast and crew members from the Child's Play movies discuss their experiences of the filmmaking process and their relationship to the killer doll, Chucky.

The montage of clips near the beginning is a great reminder of why the knee-high slasher is such an iconic character; it made me want to re-watch all seven movies again. (The shitty reboot from 2009 is ignored, as it ought to be.)

For the most part, the doc follows a traditional formula, which is a collection of talking-heads clips arranged into a basic chronological narrative of the filmmaker's / editor's design, including words from actors Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif, Christine Elise, Jennifer Tilly, and Fiona Dourif. There's also input from some of the writers, producers, directors, and puppeteers.

As a Child's Play fan, I enjoyed it very much, but as a documentary it does stumble a little.

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds (1978)

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The WotW (1978)

I don't personally regard every song on Jeff Wayne's début concept album to be perfect in itself, but when considered as a whole I feel it's a masterpiece of adaptation, design (including artwork) and aural joy. It's an album I've loved for 30+ years.

Actor Richard Burton narrates the story, based on H. G. Wells' famous 1898 novel; his euphonious baritones are perfectly suited to the work.

Completing the magic are a String and Prog Rock accompaniment, together creating a sweeping aura that carries the listener on a stirring, emotional journey. The changes in tone and dramatic intensity move it seamlessly from ominous to propitious, from elation to woe, all the while able to satisfy people in search of storytelling just as much as people in search of music. It's a work of art that's rich in imagery, content, and 1970s style.

Princess Mononoke (1997)

Princess Mononoke (1997)

Dir. Hayao Miyazaki

There's often an environmental message in Hayao Miyazaki's works, but it's much more aggressive in Princess Mononoke than in any Ghibli film that he'd made prior, and because of that it feels less safe.

It's Nature versus Industry in a war that neither side can win. Trapped in the middle is a village Prince named Ashitaka. The youth is unwilling to take sides, but at the same time is determined to put an end to the conflict. He's even prepared to die, if necessary.

The girl with the warpainted face on the cover is San. She sides with the animals, which gives her a very direct focus, initially, but, for reasons that are too spoilery to go into, she's also one of the more interesting characters.