CRRRRS 555 There's Always Some Problem, Isn't There?

By Roy Mathur, on 2024-09-26, at 23:36:15 to 00:16:23 BST, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show

Various Geek Holiday Greetings

My geeks, happy various geek special days that have occurred recently.

2024-09-13 was Space: 1999 Breakaway Day, celebrating the first episode of the iconic 1975 Gerry Anderson series.

2021-09-19 was International Talk Like a Pirate Day, created by two random nutters, John Baur and Mark Summers of Albany, Oregon. The West Country accent used by most modern depictions of pirates was invented by Dorset-native actor, Robert Newton, for his RKO-Disney role of Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1950).

2021-09-21 was Software Freedom Day celebrating free and open source software. I use a lot of free Open Source software. For example, AntennaPod, Audacity, Audio Recorder, Firefox, Notepad 2, Vim, Lua, VLC are but a few I use. Thank you, Open Source developers, your incredible efforts are greatly appreciated.

The best geek holiday of all is today, for today is yours truly's birthday. There was cake and singing and presents and my aging has let itself be known lately from four pairs of new glasses, my arm strained in my sleep and my teeth, which although okay, are British. That aside, today, I am in the midst of enjoying another rewatch of the Legendary Pictures/Monsterverse Godzilla films.

Socialing with an old friend occurred earlier in the week, but goth or not, we completely forgot about The Cure's first new single in 16 years, Alone, and the corresponding album, Songs of a Lost World to be released on 1st November. We also complained about the absurd price of local cinema tickets (GBP 16) for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Bloody Cineworld, bloody Odeon, and it means Alien Romulus will also have to wait.

Mic too Fat

There is a difference in tone tonight because I'm on the Shure SM58 again. I know, I know. Look, I need two mics and the thee SM7B is too humongous to share a twin mount with the diminutive Audio Technica AT875R without tipping the whole thing on the floor. Speaking of which, only moments ago I tipped about a pint of water down my trousers.

Capsule Reviews

Until very recently, I didn't know that my short reviews are referred to as capsule reviews. If you think some of mine are too short, the Guinness Book of World Records says the shortest was Leonard Maltin's capsule review of Isn't It Romantic? (1948), which consisted of "No." And so an hour of short reviews and random geekery awaits (about half that actually, when my battery ran out). Hi-ho, Silver, Away!

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More

Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, Richard Ayoade, Rupert Friend act their socks off in this fantastical 2024 Wes Anderson Netflix anthology consisting of The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Swan, The Rat Catcher, and Poison. Rupert Friend's solo performance is particularly excellent in The Swan. I reviewed the first story, released by itself, in 552, and much the same applies here.

A recent conversation, and my love of TinTin's ligne claire art style (pod 521 2023), means that Anderson's The French Dispatch is on my watchlist.

Longlegs

2024 70s set horror film produced and starring Nicolas Cage about psychic FBI agent, well played by Maika Monroe, trying to track down the titular serial killer.

Slow placed, well acted, with It and The X-Files overtones, but FBI boss, Blair Underwood, sounds like he smokes 40 packs a day and maniacal Nicolas Cage (is there any other kind?) sounds exactly like Big Daddy on fire in Kick-Ass.

Omni Loop

2024 science fiction film about scientist Zoya Lowe (Mary-Louise Parker) with five of life left after being diagnosed with black hole in chest.

Low key quirk degrades to emotional journey ending nonsense when the scriptwriter can't resolve the sciency bit. The premise is another Ground Hog Day spin, but I liked the young student who helps her played by Ayo Edebiri.

Slow Horses

Without Oldman, this would just be an average silly spy thriller on Apple TV+. I quite liked it in pod 516 from 2023, but succeeding seasons pall and I'm only clinging on for Oldman's dastardly origin story to reach its dramatic conclusion.

Nightsleeper

In this BBC iPlayer 2024 techno-thriller, black hat hackers take over the UK rail network, causing chaos, and rigging one of the trains into a remote control battering ram. Fortunately there's a resourceful cop on board and National Cyber Security Centre government white hat hackers to help him. Aren't we lucky?

The Old Man

Geriatric super-killer Jeff Bridges is back in FX's continuing espionage thriller. With the help of old FBI boss, John Lithgow, he is on the hunt for his daughter fallen into the hands of an Afghan warlord in season two.

Recommended, but I hope it ends this season.

Kaos

Jeff Goldblum is a vicious, paranoid Zeus, in this Romeo + Juliet-like, Gaiman-esque, with a bit of Logan's Run, Netflix series about our contemporary, though alternate, world ruled by Greek gods. The gods, it transpires, are only immortal through their consumption of human souls that are harvested on an industrial scale by Hades' staff. The balance is upset by the plotting of literally very long-suffering old Titan Prometheus (Stephen Dillane; GoT's Stannis Baratheon).

Where are the others gods (budget constraints?), why does it take so long to arrive at season one's cliffhanger ending, and will it be renewed or have I wasted my time? If it is cancelled, I'll start being far more discriminating in choosing what to watch. These creatives need to stop taking it for granted that their baby will last more that one season and come to a logical end we can enjoy, even if that is all there is.

On the plus side, the cast is very British and very talented, I found Dionysus (Nabhaan Rizwan, Doctor Who's Destination: Skaro) particularly engaging. As someone who grew up reading these engrossing, but unbelievably upsetting myths, I found myself drawn into an almost non-stop boxsetting session.

Recommended, if you know what you are letting yourself in for.

The Penguin

Colin Farrell does astonishing portrayal of Al Capone in this excellent DC/WB 2024 bloody, gritty, crime noir, which is much better than The Batman (2022) that spawned it.

Dolly Parton's Nine to Five featuring in the first episode is comedic genius. I don't know if this show's a great portrayal of the Penguin, but it's a great gangster flick (despite being a TV series) and I watched episode one twice.

Trivia: Screen Rant think Vic, The Penguin's sidekick, is inspired by Jason Todd, who, before becoming the second Robin, once tried to steal the Batmobile's tyres in Batman #357.