Project Hail Mary - The scoop and digest

Based on Andy Weir's 2021 novel of same name, sci-fi adventure is written by Drew Goddard and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

Ryan Gosling - Dr. Ryland Grace

Sandra Hϋller - Eva Stratt

James Ortiz - Rocky¹

¹Ray Porter and Meryl Streep provide additional voices.

Summary

Ryland Grace awakes on a spacecraft light years from Earth, with no recollection of how he got there.

He begins to remember that he was a science teacher, proficient on the Sun dimming and a streak of infrared light from it to Venus, called the Petrova line.

The dimming is caused by the increase of Astrophage on the surface, which over time, would result in the Sun 'dying'.

Scientists discover that it breeds on Venus, feeding off the planet's carbon dioxide and energy from the Sun, also determining microorganism is also an effective, if volatile fuel source.

Ryland's superior announces Project Hail Mary, a plan to send its crew on a suicide mission to Tau Ceti, the only unaffected nearby star.

In the present, Ryland approaches Tau Ceti and a spacecraft docks with the Hail Mary.  The pilot is a friendly crab alien from 40 Eridani, which he names "Rocky" after bodily composition and Rocky Balboa.

A sweet relationship develops, with Earth's future resting on their shoulders.

Medium rough texture circle planet

The first hour was pretty boring, but the main star is a puppet, exuding charm, personality and swagger.

All of that wouldn't have been possible if character was CG.

A lot of Silent Running (1972) is filtered through for the modern audience, and featured bond is comparable to "Max" and David in the forgotten Flight of the Navigator (1986).

As expected, there are multiple differences between live-action and source material, but ditching science babble made sense, as did increasing the size of titular spacecraft, giving Grace literally more room to manoeuvre.

Odd couple share some genuinely touching moments, but Rocky putting himself in grave danger to rescue Grace packed an emotional punch.

Oh, Rocky isn't without Adrian, as planet Tau Ceti e is dubbed so, where odd couple gather predatory lifeform Taumoeba, which eats the Astrophage.

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man - The scoop and digest

Feature-length continuation of hit TV series is written by Steven Knight and directed by Tom Harper.

Cillian Murphy - Tommy Shelby

Kaulo/Zelda - Rebecca Ferguson

Tim Roth - John Beckett

Sophie Rundle - Ada Shelby

Barry Keoghan - Duke Shelby

Stephen Graham - Hayden Stagg

Packy Lee - Johnny Dogs

Conrad Khan wasn't recast as Duke because of time jump.

Summary

During the Blitz in November 1940, the Nazi government forged hundreds of millions of pounds in counterfeit currency and devised a plan to smuggle it into Great Britain to flood the banking systems, crash the economy and win the war for Germany.

Meanwhile, Tommy Shelby is living in isolation writing his autobiography, haunted by the ghosts of people who died because of him, including his older brother Arthur who apparently took his own life in December 1938.

His sister Ada informs that his son Duke is stealing weapons from a BSA factory, who has secretly joined forces with Nazi agent John Beckett to funnel counterfeit money through gang networks.

Zelda's twin sister Kaulo Chiriklo convinces Tommy to return to Birmingham and save Duke.

After Beckett kills Ada to prevent her from running to the military police, Tommy reassumes control of the Blinders and plots revenge.

Epilogue

On the night of November 19th 1940, 400 tonnes of high explosive were dropped on the city of Birmingham by the German Luftwaffe.  53 workers were killed at the BSA factory in Small Heath after deciding not to go to the shelter, even after the sirens sounded.

This film honours their memory.

Accidents of blood

First off, backstory is the same principle as 1981 TV series Private Schulz, which had Michael Elphick in the title role as a bungling German agent trying to destroy Britain's economy with counterfeit five pound notes immediately after WWII.

Coincidence?

While undeniably well made, so many things were borderline stupid.

How Ada died made me frown and the reveal that Tommy actually killed Arthur didn't make any sense.

Midway through a gunfight with Beckett, Tommy informing enemy that Sten is about to run out of bullets was just dumb.  Surely you'd use that to your advantage?

He then flees shielded by horses.

Seeing Beckett driving towards him, Tommy just stands there, and lets himself be shot twice, before killing enemy with a headshot.

Yes you could say Tommy's death pays tribute to Polly Gray, but I found it cheesy as hell.

Original songs by Grian Chatten, Antony Genn and Martin Slattery were enjoyable and cremation was well done, but for reasons already mentioned, I was disappointed.

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come - The scoop and digest

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett return to direct, as do writing duo Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy.

Samara Weaving - Grace MacCaullay

Kathryn Newton - Faith MacCaullay

Sarah Michelle Gellar - Ursula Danforth

Shawn Hatosy - Titus Danforth

Elijah Wood - The Lawyer

David Cronenberg - Chester Danforth

Néstor Carbonell - Ignacio El Caido

Kevin Durand - Bill Wilkinson

Olivia Cheng - Chen Xing

Varun Saranga - Madhu Rajan

Summary

Picking up immediately after previous film ended, Grace is rushed to hospital.

She awakes handcuffed to a bed as the police suspect foul play at the Le Domas mansion.  When her estranged sister and emergency contact Faith turns up, they're kidnapped by Ursula and Titus Danforth.

Grace learns her 'victory' came at a price, as before Ursula and Titus murdered Chester, family patriarch messaged the remaining families of the Council informing they must kill Grace before dawn to claim the vacant 'High Seat', but breaking the rules will make Mr. Le Bail angry.

Let the game begin.

The ball is in play

Upping the scale sacrifices some of the magic, but chaotic symphony of carnage was still a bloody good time.

Aside from the girls melting Viraj inside an industrial washing machine, the stand out sequence is Grace and El Caido blinding each other with pepper spray against the irony of Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart.  Confrontation begins with hunter comically firing a rocket launcher the wrong way, which could be a nod to Cindy (Rae Dawn Chong) in Commando (1985).  

Titus beating the ever loving shit out Faith smacks of Virgil (James Gandolfini) doing the same to Alabama (Patrica Arquette) in True Romance (1993).

Outcome is different, but even so.

Grace marries Titus to guarantee her and Faith's safety, handing power to the Danforths and effectively ending the game.

The marriage goes ahead, but using a law circumvent revealed by Chen, Grace repeatedly stabs 'husband' in the neck and removes herself from the Council, leaving satanists to fight over the ring she threw into the pit.

Suffice to say, they fail, resulting in a blood explosion.  Grace and Faith leave, taking a goat for good measure.

If trilogy comes to fruition, I already have a title - Ready or Not 3: Here We Come.

Daymare: 1998 - Beyond the Horror - Part 2

Prepare to have a multiple postergasm.

Deconstruction Man vs Demolition Man (1993)

Partial Recall vs Total Recall (1990)

The Something vs The Thing (1982)

The Stone vs The Rock (1996)

Broken Arch vs Broken Arrow (1996)

Virgil's Peak vs Dante's Peak (1997)

The Escaper vs The Fugitive (1993)

Now shit gets greedy.

Face/On and Dependence Week vs Face/Off (1997) and Independence Day (1996)

Inland and Death Horizon vs Outland (1981) and Event Horizon (1997)

Tornado and The Sixth Door vs Twister (1996) and The Fifth Element (1997)

Die Hard (1988)

Before going any further, there were four different video games based on one of the most influential action films of all time.

DOS (1989)

C64 (1990)

PC Engine (1990)

NES (1991)

As the PC Engine version was only released in Japan, cover art is unique.

DOS (left) and C64 (right) are identical.

Activision made a pointless alteration by moving title.

Rather bizarrely.

Hard Hero

Going the whole hog, an 'uncensored' alternative appears elsewhere.

Reluctant Hero

And there's more.

Live Hard 2 vs Die Hard 2 (1990)

Die Soft vs Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)

Quite understandably, Die Hard 4.0 (2007) and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) were left well alone.

Miscellany

? vs The Relic (1997)

Yeah, there is no title.

Mars 1978 vs Capricorn One (1977)

Fear and Loathing in Keen Sight vs Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

Masquerade vs Wishmaster (1997)

Finally.

Cacciatoa 2 vs Shake, Rattle & Roll V (1994)

Filipino horror anthology series began in 1984 and latest entry Evil Origins was released in 2025.

Until next time.

Undertone - The scoop and digest

Ian Tuason writes and directs his feature-length debut.

Evy and Mama are the only characters seen, with the rest just heard.

Nina Kiri - Evy

Adam DiMarco - Justin

Michèle Duquet - Mama

Keana Lyn Bastidas - Jessa

Jeff Yung - Mike

Summary

Evy Babic and Justin Manuel host supernatural podcast The Undertone, where she's the skeptic and he's the believer.

Pregnant by her terrible boyfriend Darren, Evy is obliged to care for her comatose mother.

One day, Justin is sent a mysterious email with ten audio files attached, recorded by a couple called Jessa and Mike.

The first three files mention Jessa sleepwalking and her singing shit backwards, during which, Justin insists he can hear "Mike, kill all".

When we get to fifth MP3, Jessa's gibberish is initially passed off as audio apophenia, but in reverse is actually "Abyzou come in".

Fear and paranoia sets faster than super glue.

Lick the blood off

Here's the deal.

Abyzou was unable to bear children and out of jealously, sneaked into houses and strangled infants.  As ultimate punishment, King Solomon had her hung in front of the temple of Jerusalem, but envy survived into the afterlife and she became a demon, causing miscarriages and still born babies throughout the world.

Fun fact. Bitch was also central to The Offering (2023).

Anyway, what begins as a really interesting slow-burning candle soon drips terrifying wax, utilising children's songs such as London Bridge, Baa, Baa, Black Sheep and Rock-a-bye Baby to chilling effect.

If the whole gimmick of conveying horror through sound didn't work, it would be embarrassing, but I'm happy to say that design (as well as camera), absolutely does.

Towards the end, Evy reveals that her mother has been dead all along.

I have no idea if there's anything in this, but Mama's unsettling presence smacks heavily of 'old' Eveline (codename E-001) in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017).

Climax has Evy and Justin receive live calls, with anonymous neighbour stating Jessa and Mike committed suicide by placing plastic bags over their heads.  When the police found them, crayon drawings of dead babies covered the walls.  Also, an autopsy report confirmed Jessa was pregnant at the time of her death.

Evy rushes upstairs and finds Mama stood in the bathroom. Screen cuts to black as she's attacked and presumably killed.

Daymare: 1998 - Beyond the Horror - Part 1

The story of how this came to be is an interesting one.

In July 2015, Invader Studios dropped a trailer of Resident Evil 2 Reborn, leading Capcom to shut project down.

One month later, R&D Division 1 producer Yoshiaki Hirabyashi announced a remake was officially in development, famously wearing a t-shirt displaying the words "WE DO IT".

As fan project strongly influenced how remake was built, company received a special mention during end credits.

This inspired an original IP, which ironically cast Paul Haddad (Leon in RE 2 OG) as the Cleaner, in his final role before sadly passing in 2020.

Game was boring and frustrating, but the amount of references to popular culture is staggering, giving Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One (2018) a run for its money.

Scream 2 (1997)

Shout vs Stab

Fictional in-universe franchise was based on Gale Weathers' novel, so rather appropriately:

The Woodsboro Murders 

Jaws (1975)

Help!! Shark! vs Help!!! Shark

Sick vandalism. A deliberate mutilation of a public service message.

Killer Shark was a real 1972 Sega arcade and immortalised on the Fourth of July. 

Men in Black (1997)

Rosenberg Fine Jewelry

'Alien Stole My Husband's Skin'

Little Tiffany

The Thing (1982)

Blair Fish & Co

Rec room

Liev the Monster vs Split-face

Finally, a file titled Letter to Doug MacReady is an obvious nod to Kurt Russell's R.J.

Multiples

The Terminator (1984)

Sarah Carmichael's arm (mid-credits) vs DIY surgery

Along with Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Connor (albeit played by different actors), Dr. Silberman (Earl Boen) is the only other character to appear in the first three films.

Anyway, he recorded an audio log on 14th August '98.

Judgment Day (1991)

August 4 1997 is when Skynet went online. 

25 days later, supercomputer became self-aware and ended three billion human lives.

Hexacore Biogenetics vs Cyberdyne Systems

No Fate

But what we make.

Sterminator 2.1: Sentence Time

Back to the Future (1985)

Flux capacitor

DeLorean

Fantastic Story

Part II (1989)

Grays Sports Book (1950 - 1998) vs Grays Sports Almanac (1950 - 2000)

Changing year was a nice touch.

Alien (1979)

Xeno pinball machine.

Very 'subtle'.

But this is more ambiguous.

This rando was force fed an umbrella.

Using my over-active imagination.

Ash tries to 'rape' Ripley with a rolled up magazine.

Disturbing sequence is expertly referenced in:

Alien: Isolation (2014)

And for shiggles.

Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008)
Claire uses an umbrella to defend herself.

Aliens (1986)

ELV-426 sounds nothing like LV-426.

Keen Sight's Water System supervisor is Bishop L. Henriksen, named after Hyperdyne synthetic Lance Bishop and Lance Henriksen. 

Dr. Rebecca Jorden at the Aegis medical facility pays tribute to Newt's real name.

She earned a Second Grade Citizenship Award you know.

Apone's locker contains assholes and elbows.

In Hudson Alley, it's game over man.

Completely unrelated, but a memorial plaque reads:

"Birthplace of George F. Hudson, Mayor of Keen Sight from 1914 to 1930."

Famous paintings

Allegory of the Planets and Continents - Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Castor and Pollux - Giovanni Battista Cipriani

Saturn Devouring His Son - Francisco Goya

The Golden Fleece - Herbert James Draper

The Archangel Michael Defeating Satan - Guido Reni

The carnage continues in Part 2.