Gwendy’s Final Task – Book Review

Posted on February 17, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter
Gwendy's Final Task (Gwendy's Button Box Trilogy): Amazon.co.uk: King, Stephen, Chizmar, Richard: 9781399702348: Books

The final part in the Gwendy trilogy by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar is a great send-off to the series. The first book was a novella, called Gwendy’s Button Box that was co-written by King and Chizmar, the second book, Gwendy’s Magic Feather, was just Chizmar and then they’ve reunited for the final book.

Set in 2026, twenty-seven years after Gwendy’s Magic Feather, Gwendy is now a Junior Senator who is about to go into space with a secret mission, to send of the button box into deep space and to be rid of it once and for all. There are also people who want the box for themselves and will stop at nothing to get it from Gwendy.

The button box, if you’ve not read the series, is a mahogany box with a bunch of buttons on top that can cause devastating events around the world. There’s a button for each continent. There are also two leavers on either side of the box, one that will dispense magical chocolates that cure all ailments and one that will dispense rare and valuable dollars. Using the box for any reason is at a cost, which Gwendy knows all too well.

This is the longest book in the series, around four hundred pages, but it still flies by. We’ve followed Gwendy’s life from childhood when she first encountered the box, and this book shows her at sixty-four years old. It’s a great story that has you wanting to read more and more to find out what happens next. There’s some mysteries that keep you guessing and by this point, after two other books, it’s interesting just to find out what’s happened to Gwendy since last time.

For long-term Stephen King fans, this book is deeply set within the world he’s created. Like the previous books part of this one is set in Castle Rock, but this time it goes deeper into the rabbit hole. Looking at the cover, pictured above, you can see The Dark Tower makes an appearance, with a brief mention of The Crimson King, as well as the other worlds. There is a portion set in Derry with reference to a clown. It’s always a treat to revisit elements from his other books.

King and Chizmar have created a fitting ending for Gwendy’s story. It feels like the perfect ending and doesn’t disappoint in the slightest. There are some great twists and turns, a few tense moments and a great story at the centre of it all. It’s completely gripping, and like the previous books, I ended up reading it in almost one sitting.

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Johnny Got His Gun – Film Review

Posted on February 16, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter
Johnny Got His Gun (1971) - IMDb

Director: Dalton Trumbo

Writer: Dalton Trumbo

Starring: Timothy Bottoms, Jason Robards, Donald Sutherland, Diane Varsi, and Kathy Fields

Rating: ★★★

Dalton Trumbo’s 1971 film Johnny Got His Gun, is an adaptation of Trumbo’s 1939 novel of the same name. It’s an anti-war film that flew under the radar when it was first released, despite some decent reviews. It wasn’t until Metallica used footage from the film as part of the video for their single, One, that the film started to gain a cult following.

Joe Bonham (Timothy Bottoms) is injured during the First World War, which leaves him with no legs, no arms, no eyes, ears, mouth, or nose. He’s unable to communicate with the world around him and it stuck in essentially a broom closest in a hospital, kept secret from the world at large. The hospital attendants don’t even know his name. Joe can’t do anything except slowly fall back into his own mind and his memories start to blend with fantasy until he isn’t sure what is real anymore.

Johnny Got His Gun (1971) directed by Dalton Trumbo • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Visually the film is stunning. The reality sequences with Joe in hospital are all shot in black and white, with a minimalist set, which is essentially just Joe under blankets and with a facemask on throughout. You ever get any look at his injuries. Then the film moves into flashbacks which are shot in colour, as well as some fantasy sequences where it’s not quite real, and the colour is more vibrant and dreamlike.

The actual premise is also really interesting. The idea of being stuck inside your own body, laying there knowing that the world is around you, but not knowing what time or day it is, is genuinely scary. You’re put into the mind of Joe as days turn to months, with his narration telling you what’s going through his mind as he tries to figure out ways to communicate. It’s incredibly effective at putting you in his mind and getting its anti-war message across.  

The cast are fantastic, especially Donald Sutherland who leaves a lasting impression as Christ in some of Joe’s dreams. It’s also filled with great memorable sequences, such as a Christmas party that’s a mix of dream and memory, that creates and unsettling and uncanny feeling as Joe’s boss repeats himself over and over again in the background of the scene.

The film manages to keep you engaged completely for the most part, although it does feel majorly too long. The premise and plot would work a lot better as a short film, rather than dragging it out to ninety minutes. It becomes tedious as it goes on, and the fact that the Metallica video gets the same point across in just under eight minutes, says everything.

Johnny Got His Gun is a really fascinating and interesting film. It’s far from perfect, but it’s something completely different and it really gives you the sense of claustrophobia and fear that Joe must be going through.

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Fahrenheit 451 – Film Review

Posted on February 15, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter
Fahrenheit 451 (2018) - IMDb

Director: Ramin Bahrani

Writer:  Ramin Bahrani

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Michael Shannon, Sofia Boutella, Lilly Singh, Martin Donovan

Rating: ★★★★

Ramin Bahrani’s adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s classic 1953 novel does an excellent job at capturing the tone and feel of the book, while at the same time showing how relevant it still it almost seventy years are it was published.

Set in a dystopian future after a civil war has left a dictatorship, known simply as The Ministry, in control. To maintain peace books, known as graffiti, are completely outlawed, with firemen given the task of rounding up any books and burning them. Guy Montag (Michael B. Jordan) is a popular and high-ranking fireman, who starts to become disillusioned with the world he lives in. Young enough not to remember life before the war, while at the same time not understanding thoughts that go through his mind. During a graffiti burning, Guy takes one of the books and starts to read it at home, unlocking a different view to the world.

Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon are beyond phenomenal in this film, both delivering powerful performances. Every time they are on screen together, it’s electric to watch. Michael Shannon plays Guy’s captain, John Beatty, and is simply perfect in the role. He’s a complicated character, who has his own questions about the world, but unlike Guy is completely loyal to The Ministry. Shannon is sinister when needed to be and has a brotherly connection with Jordan at the same time. In the same way that in the early parts of the story when Guy is more on board with the regime, he’s full of charisma and loud, while later in the story he’s more vulnerable and reserved. Their performances make the entire film.

The story itself is a classic, warning of a possible future where information is limited. The book is up there with other classic dystopian books like George Orwell’s 1984, in both influence and tone. The future presented is almost idyllic on the surface, with futuristic technology, screens, and an integrated social media where people can tune into the burnings and comment in real time. The visuals, such as with Guy’s home that’s covered in screens and projections, are stunning. It feels desirable to live like that, it’s only when you look deeper that you see the issues with the society, the limitations of information, and poverty that some people live in that the horror starts to get scary.

Fahrenheit 451 is scary in how relevant it still feels all these years later and the film presents that perfectly. It’s a completely captivating adaptation, that really holds your attention throughout. It’s when the two leads are on screen that the film really sparks up.

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Bite Me – Film Review

Posted on February 14, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Meredith Edwards

Writer: Naomi McDougall Jones

Starring: Christian Coulson, Naomi McDougall Jones, Annie Golden, Naomi Grossman, Harold Surratt, Mahira Kakkar, Cynthia Mace, and Katherine Kahrs

Rating: ★★★

Bite Me is a charming and fun rom com. Sarah (Naomi McDougall Jones) is a vampire, who belongs to the House of Twilight, a church of Vampirism. Sarah and her room mates belong to the church and use it as deductibles on their tax returns. That is until they are audited by IRS agent James (Christian Coulson). Sarah starts to fall for James, and they must keep their relationship secret from the IRS.

The film follows the traditional formula for rom coms, not straying away from things we’ve all seen countless times before. What makes this one different is how charming it is. The premise about a vampire falling in love with an IRS agent sums up the quirky tone the film is going for. It’s not quite What we do in the Shadows, but it’s headed in that direction. There’s a lot of chemistry between Christian Coulson and Naomi McDougall Jones. Their relationship is completely believable.

There are quite a few funny moments in the film, but never anything that’s going to make you completely laugh out loud. It’s funny enough to make sure the film is never boring, but it’s not something that you’re going to be quoting later. None of the comedy is really that memorable, although it’s a fun time when the film is on.

Most of the comedy is about how vampires are perceived by the public. The film starts with a vampire from another group who reveals himself on a reality show, to ridicule. The vampires in the film aren’t the mythological creatures, but instead people who drink blood to keep their energies levels up. Their condition is something medicine has been able to cure, so they have turned to drinking other human’s blood in order to live a relatively normal life, except they have to keep their vampirism a secret from everyone else. The typical tropes of vampires, as well as modern interpretations such as Twilight, are all referenced, and a lot of the comedy comes from how wrong those presentation of vampires are from reality, at least in Bite Me.

Taking a strange concept, and then throwing in some typical rom com tropes, Bite Me is a an entertaining and charming film.

Bite Me will be available on digital download from 15th February and can be pre-ordered here

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Death on the Nile – Film Review

Posted on February 13, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter
Death on the Nile (2022) - IMDb

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Writer: Michael Green

Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal, Dan French, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders, and Letitia Wright

Rating: ★★★½

It’s been a little over four years since Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express as released, with Death on the Nile teased in the final moments with a 2019 release date announced shortly afterwards. After production delays and then Covid delays, the film is now finally here. It’s been so delayed that Branagh’s Belfast went into production and was released slightly before.

While on holiday in Egypt, Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) runs into his old friend Bouc (Tom Bateman), who invites him to Linnet (Gal Gadot) and Simon’s (Armie Hammer) honeymoon celebration with their close friends and family. Simon’s ex Jackie (Emma Mackey) has been following the honeymoon party in an attempt to cause pain for the couple, even threatening to commit murder. To escape Jackie, the group they board a cruise ship on the Nile, not knowing that Jackie is going to join them at the next stop. On board the ship, Linnet is murdered and each of the passengers has a motive. Poirot takes it upon himself to solve the murder, narrowing down his suspects one by one.

Death on the Nile is a film of two halves. The first half builds up the characters, slowly giving them all a motive to kill Linnet, and showing the lavish and luxurious lifestyles that the characters all live. Then once Linnet has been murdered the story becomes a much more focused investigation in the case, slowly revealing the clues and twists until everything is revealed at the end. The pacing between the two sections is all over the place. It seems to take a very long time to get to the murder, which is when the film really gets going. There’s an entire subplot in the opening that gives an origin story to Poirot’s moustache, that just isn’t needed at all.

Once the murder has happened, the film is really entertaining and gripping. It keeps you on the edge of your seat as you try to figure out the case with the legendary detective, who is brilliantly portrayed by Kenneth Branagh. Just like in Murder on the Orient Express, Branagh is clearly having fun with his performance, and it’s the absolute highlight of the film. The entire cast is great, but it’s Poirot that we’re all here to watch.

There’s a lot of twists and turns, with more than a few shocking moments and reveals throughout the film as it leads up to the big reveal. The story is a classic for a reason, and it is expertly crafted here, with so much attention to detail and flair to the design. The costumes, the sets, the locations they completely consume you as you become involved in the story.

While the film is a little bloated, it’s still an excellent mystery. Branagh’s Poirot is great and we can only hope that this isn’t the last time we see him in the role.  

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