Five Children and It (1991)

Five Children and It (1991)

Dir. Marilyn Fox | 6 episodes, approx 24 minutes each.

A live action miniseries based on the 1902 children's book of the same name by Edith Nesbit. It features a group of siblings who relocate from London to the English countryside and find unexpected adventure.

The rural location is Kent. The children's names are Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and the youngest, still in a pram, is referred to as The Lamb (not pictured).

While exploring their new surroundings, they find a strange sandy area that's occupied by a peculiar little spud known as a Psammead, i.e., a sand fairy. (The show was renamed The Sand Fairy in the US).

Today we typically imagine fairies to be delicately winged, beautiful, and clothed in flower petals, etc, but the Psammead isn't like that. He's short (less than two foot), pudgy, hairy, and slightly grumpy.

The Lost World (2001)

The Lost World (2001)

Dir. Stuart Orme

I covered a previous adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous novel (1912 ) not long ago (see HERE), but if a more polished, modern looking interpretation is your preference, then you may want to explore the 2001 British TV version, available as both a TV Movie (145 mins) or as a two-part TV Miniseries (75 mins each, approx).

The basic story, about a group of adventurers who brave the dangers of an Amazonian plateau in search of prehistoric life, is essentially the same, but there are some changes worth noting.

Firstly, there are a couple of omissions in the character roster and a couple of newly created ones that perform the same basic function. Reverend Theo (Peter Falk) and his niece Agnes (Elaine Cassidy) are two such examples.

The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987)

The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987)

Dir. Rod Amateau

I'd a full collection of Garbage Pail Kids Series 01 cards / stickers in the mid-80s. I felt a bit duped that each character had two different names, requiring me to have the same image twice, but exploiting a customer base has been the norm for trading card companies longer than even I've been alive. I certainly wouldn't fall for that shit now!

Anyhoo, the movie... The protagonist is fourteen-year-old 'Dodger' (Mackenzie Astin), a kind of Billy No Mates, but a good kid at heart. He works part-time at an antiques store owned by Captain Manzini (Anthony Newley), an old world romantic who knows magic and likes to turn every conversation into a moral lesson, or a lament on the past. For reasons known only to Manzini, I guess, he keeps a manky (space-rocket) trash can in the actual shop. That's probably why he has no customers.

DUNE: The Graphic Novel - Books I, II, III (2020-24)

DUNE: The Graphic Novel - Books I, II, III

Adapted from Frank Herbert's original novel by hack authors Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson | Illustrator: Raúl Allén | Colourist: Patricia Martín | Page Count: 180 / 179 / 204

'He must find something that will inspire him.'

A three-part comicbook adaptation of Frank Herbert's first DUNE novel. My original plan was to give each part of the trilogy its own post, but my feelings about each one are largely the same, so I've combined them into one post. It'll be shorter and mean less repetition.

I won't give a synopsis because I've did that at least once before. I'll concentrate on the adaptation itself, which is variable but mostly not very good.

01. Book 1: DUNE (2020) is the worst of the three volumes, in both its writing and its art, but the early part of Frank's novel is at its weakest there, too, so I trudged on through, page after boring page, in the hope that things would get better once [spoiler] entered the open desert. I'm saddened to say that they rarely do.

What We Left Behind (2019)

Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (2019)

Dirs. Ira Steven Behr + David Zappone

A crowd-funded documentary that examines the legacy of DS9. There's some fan-input, but the bulk of it comes from the people who made the series what it was, from the traditionally unseen producers and crew to the onscreen cast.

The man on the cover cradling the station in his hands is Ira Steven Behr, whose role as show-runner from 1995 onwards was instrumental in shaping how DS9 evolved in its later years. The documentary feels very much driven by him, too.

That's not a criticism; the film is an engaging exploration that highlights the creative scope and accomplishments of all concerned - provided you like DS9. If you hate it or feel that it deviated too much from Gene Roddenberry's original vision, then you'll probably want to warp past WWLB.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Live Action Films (2005-10)

The Chronicles of Narnia: Live Action Films

Dirs. Andrew Adamson (Films I + II) / Michael Apted (Film III)

01. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). Aside from a few minor changes and a couple of newly written action scenes — because it's Hollywood and they just can't help themselves — the WMG + Disney version of C.S. Lewis' beloved children's novel is better than I expected it to be.

The first third is excellent, including each of the young actors. Lucy (Georgie Henley) is particularly good, in that she successfully embodies the sense of wonder that a child should feel after finding another world in the back of an old wardrobe.

Things only really begin to slide when the talking CGI animals appear. The great lion Aslan should have a splendour that eclipses all else, but his being rendered in boring CGI most of the time means that he might as well not be there at all.

The unnecessary use of such across the board is a stain on what I feel is otherwise the best filmed version of the novel, to date.

At the Earth's Core (1976)

At the Earth's Core (1976)

Dir. Kevin Connor

A subterranean fiction story in which a senescent British scientist (Peter Cushing) and his American sponsor (Doug McClure) tunnel through a hill in a Jules Verne-esque contraption dubbed the Iron Mole, which would be a good name for an album by a stoner doom band, if it isn't one already.

The duo go way off course and end up far beneath the Earth's crust, wholly unprepared for the dodgy FX that they find there.

The draw for me was Cushing and Caroline Munro, but he'd little of value to do and she disappeared for about half of the movie.

The bizarre flora was fun, but the fauna was bad. The rubber-suit flying things could've had some menace if the lighting had worked in their favour, but it was bad, too. Overall, the movie was a bag 'o shite, even by Amicus standards. It was just about worth it to hear Cushing say, "You cannot mesmerise me, I'm British!" right before getting totally mesmerised.