Inferno
Greetings, Inferno is a 2016 film directed by Ron Howard and is the latest instalment in the Robert Langdon series. It is based on Dan Brown’s 2013 novel of the same name and the movie is a sequel to the 2006 film ‘The Da Vinci Code’ as well as 2009’s Angels and Demons. At the time of writing, the lead character in all of the films, Robert Langdon, has been the central figure in four books that share the same title with their filmic counterparts. The third novel, called the Lost Symbol, had originally been intended to be adapted into a film however the producers decided to choose the fourth book Inferno instead. Tom Hanks reprises his role as Professor Robert Langdon, an important figure in the field of religious iconology and symbology. Felicity Jones, best known for her upcoming role in Star Wars: Rogue One, plays Dr Sienna Brooks who gets caught up in a conspiracy surrounding Langdon. Ben Foster portrays Bertrand Zobrist, a scientist who aims to solve the issue of human overpopulation through extreme measures and callous techniques.
The plot begins with Bertrand Zobrist running from unknown assailants in the streets of Italy. The pursuit ends in his suicide as he jumps from a tall structure in a desperate attempt to flee his potential captors. Meanwhile, a dazed and confused Robert Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital. The first person he comes into contact with is Dr Brooks, who is treating him for a bullet wound located on his head. Langdon is haunted by horrific and apocalyptic images in his dreams but is unable to recall the events of the previous few days due to his amnesia. It isn’t long before an assassin, imitating a female police officer, makes her way to the hospital in an attempt to kill Robert. The assassin known as Vayentha begins to shoot at Dr Brooks as the contract killer walks down the corridor. This gives Sienna time to lock the door and help the delirious Langdon outside of the hospital as the assassin struggles to break down the barriers Brooks set in her way.
Robert, still unclear as to what he had gotten himself into, is offered shelter in Sienna’s apartment. The two come across the first clue which was hidden in Langdon’s belongings. A small projector reveals a modified version of Italian painter Sandro Botticelli’s map of Hell which is displayed across the wall of Sienna’s apartment once activated. It is soon revealed that Zobrist, obsessed with humanity’s survival and Italian poet Dante, had created a virus named ‘Inferno’ intent on culling the world’s population. As Sienna and Robert break the first clue and learn where to inspect next for further clues, they are chased by their assassin. The World Health Organisation, which is aware of the existence of the virus, also attempt to capture Langdon for reasons that are not initially clear to the audience.
I have read or watched some of Dan Brown’s works but my experiences are somewhat limited as I have only read Angels and Demons and Digital Fortress, the latter of which is unrelated to the Langdon series. I also have another standalone novel entitled Deception Point but haven’t gotten around to reading it at the moment. I have also seen the Angels and Demons film starring Ewan McGregor but have yet to watch the Da Vinci Code. In regards to the Inferno film, I found some of the plot points to be a little confusing and this was exacerbated with the film not really explaining who certain characters were. This caused issues when it was clear they were meant to already have relationships with other characters but these were never really explored in the film. As far as I am aware, the book and the movie differed in quite a lot of plot points as well as the relations between various characters. Hans Zimmer, one of the industry’s most famous figures, conducts the score for Inferno as he had done for the previous two movies. Overall, I believe that it is a watchable film but in the end I preferred Angels and Demons over the third instalment.
Plot=6/10
Characters=7/10
Special Effects=6/10
Overall=7/10
Quote of the Day
How are YOU, sir? I can speak English. I learn it from a book.
Manuel
Fawlty Towers
Call of Juarez: The Cartel
Greetings, Call of Juarez: The Cartel is the third video game in the Call of Juarez series. It was created by Polish developed Techland and was released a few years ago in 2011. The game was notably ill received by critics, urging the studio to return to their roots and continue with the original western themes for 2013’s Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. Gunslinger received a much warmer welcome and better reviews than the previous instalment. I was already aware of the Cartel’s less than stellar reputation before playing it and was curious to see what had caused the negative reaction. I also wanted to get my hands on it so I could experience the Call of Juarez series in its entirety. The game was intended to be multiplayer experience and had aspects with this in mind, such as the optional quests to steal items or by completing secret missions without being caught by your team mates. I played the campaign mode alone and witnessed the story from the viewpoints of one of the protagonists, Ben McCall, rather than through the other two playable characters.
As already stated, the Cartel was not set during the era of the Wild West but takes place in 2011. Obviously, it is centred on new characters as the events occur several decades after the original two instalments. The plot revolves around three playable characters in the form of Ben McCall of the Los Angeles Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ Kimberly Evans and Eddie Guerra from the Drug Enforcement Administration. The story begins with a bombing at the DEA offices. The attack is carried out by unknown individuals with unspecified motives. Eddie Guerra, who should have died in that explosion save for receiving a private phone call and leaving the building, is highly suspected of being involved in the bombing.
Assistant deputy director Shane Dickson establishes a cross-agency team, consisting of the three protagonists, to investigate the crime and track down the culprits responsible. The team are also forced to protect a person of interest, Jessica Stone, daughter of the late Patrick Stone. Patrick had been an old friend of Ben McCall’s and was investigating the Mendoza cartel until his murder in the DEA explosion. It is revealed that the cartel had been purchasing high grade military technology and weapons from an unknown source. The team have to work together to uncover an intricate conspiracy involving the Mendoza cartel, while also being wary of each other due to each of their shady personalities and complicated backgrounds.
Overall, the game is best described as generic. The storyline wasn’t particularly interesting or coherent, at least as far as I was concerned. Some of the voice acting, especially that of the more minor characters, is grating to the ears and sounds unprofessional. Call of Juarez: The Cartel also has issues with its various characters in my opinion as they all seem to be boring stereotypes and their characterization seemed overly forced in an attempt to make them interesting or simply cool. Eddie Guerra in particular is a character that I found especially unlikable and irritating. On the positive side, Techland learned from its mistakes and released a superior game in 2013 with Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. I am unaware of any plans for future instalments in the series and I am not sure if there is really any need to continue a series that already has four titles within it.
Plot=6/10
Characters=5/10
Graphics=6/10
Overall=5/10
Quote of the Day
I am a Shepherd. Folks like a man of God.
Shepherd Derrial Book
Firefly
The Quiz Part 8
Greetings, with 2016 coming quickly to a close it is time for Falcon’s annual quiz. Below is the eighth version of the annual quiz that has taken place in the month of November for the previous few years. The quiz revolves mostly around entertainment media but also includes some general knowledge questions for you to answer. The answers can be found at the bottom of the page in order for you to check your score. Last year Mark and Joh were tied at the lead with seven points while Aaron scored four. Let me know what you score in the comments to see if you can beat your previous best. My next blog update will be released towards the end of the month and will be a review of Call of Juarez: The Cartel.
1. Which actor portrays Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and in the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey?
2. Who said this?-“Really? Well, on my planet, we have a legend about people like you. It's called Footloose. And in it, a great hero, named Kevin Bacon, teaches an entire city full of people with sticks up their butts that, dancing, well, is the greatest thing there is.”
3. What place did Great Britain rank in the 2016 Olympic medals table?
4. Which one of these films scores was not composed by Ennio Morricone- The Godfather trilogy, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly or the Thing?
5. Which Write Wise author wrote ‘The Host’?
6. Youtube was founded in which year?
7. Name this character.
8. The Thin White Duke and Ziggy Stardust are alter goes of which iconic British singer?
9. What is the title of the next Star Wars spin off film to be released at the end of this year?
10. Which American President governed the United States from 20th January 1960 to 22nd November 1963?
Spoilers!
1. Andy Serkis
2. Star-Lord/Peter Quill
3. Second
4. The Godfather trilogy
5. Joh
6. 2005
7. Nancy Wheeler
8. David Bowie
9. Star Wars: Rogue One
10. John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Quote of the Day
You told me I couldn't kill you... but I'd like to try and prove you wrong. So let's see... How many times is it gonna take?!
Roy Mustang
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
The Scoundrel Squad: Sicilian's Vengeance
Greetings and happy Halloween! I hope you are enjoying the holiday. To mark the occasion the latest and last instalment of the Scoundrel Squad is up at Write Wise. Sicilian’s Vengeance takes place some decades after the original plot concluded and focuses on Riccardo’s new life as an infamous drug lord. This new entry introduces many new characters, villainous rogues and sadistic murderers, to the series as well providing a return for some of the previous personalities from the first novel. I hope that you enjoy it. At the moment I do not intend to write another horror entry for Halloween next year and am not sure if I will celebrate the occasion with an entry of any genre. I would like to take a break from this kind of story and focus on something different, more light hearted than the dark themes that run through this entry.
As for this year’s Write Wise Christmas challenge, I have a basic plot in mind and will have to start writing it soon as the deadline is approaching. I am looking forward to what this community can bring forward in the coming months and believe it will be even better than last year’s entries. I also have a few ideas on a Death and Life of Ellen Smith sequel that I hope to write at some stage next year. In other news, this blog will soon return with the next update being the annual quiz as it is nearly November.
Quote of the Day
Look! It's moving. It's sha — it's... it's alive. It's alive... It's alive, it's moving, it's alive! It's alive, it's alive, it's alive! It's ALIVE!
Henry Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Greetings, Frankenstein is a 1931 film from Universal Pictures. It is an instalment in the Universal Monsters series which began in the 1920s and lasted a few decades through to the 1950s. Various creatures from popular culture, no doubt further popularized through these movies, are the focus of these films. Among the supernatural beings in the line-up are the Wolfman, the Mummy, Dracula and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. The 1931 movie simply entitled Frankenstein was directed by James Whale. It stars Colin Clive as the main character of Henry Frankenstein, Mae Clarke as his fiancée Elizabeth and Boris Karloff in his iconic depiction of Frankenstein’s Monster. The plot is based off of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, alternatively called the Modern Prometheus. Shelley was credited in the film as Mrs Percy B. Shelley, which was her husband’s name and it should be noted that both writers were long dead before the beginning of this project.
The storyline takes place in a Germanic village but the location is never fully identified by the writers. Henry Frankenstein, as opposed to Victor for reasons that I am not aware of, and his companion Fritz are watching a funeral take place while they hide from the undertaker. There is another individual called Victor in the film but he shouldn’t be confused with the protagonist Henry Frankenstein. Fritz is the same character that is best known as Igor, a hunched back assistant to the doctor. Interestingly, Igor is not in the original novel and so Fritz is the first incarnation of the character. When the undertaker and the crowd have dispersed, the scientist makes his move to exhume the freshly buried corpse with the aid of Fritz. The two bring the body back to Frankenstein’s laboratory in an old windmill for experimentation.
Shortly after, Fritz breaks into a local university in hopes of acquiring a brain that was stored for the uses of educating students. The hunchbacked assistant is startled by a noise and drops the jar, running the brain that he had wanted to steal. Fritz then takes the other jar, unaware that it was an abnormal brain from a deceased criminal. Meanwhile Elizabeth, Henry’s fiancée, is concerned about Frankenstein’s state of mind as he has isolated himself in the windmill and is obsessed about his work. She and her friend Victor visit Henry’s old lecturer, a man named Dr Waldman, to discover that Frankenstein was attempting to create life. The three travel to the windmill to confront Henry in his laboratory. He reluctantly lets them in due to the stormy weather outside and continues with his experiment regardless of the intruder’s disbelief in his ability to bring life to a corpse. To the surprise of his visitors, Henry managed to make his monster come alive with the aid of the lightning storm.
Many of the Universal Monsters films were remade decades later after their original run. For instance, the Mummy trilogy staring Brendon Frasier, the 2004 version of Van Helsing with Hugh Jackman and 2014’s Dracula Untold which cast Lee Evans as the titular character are considered a continuation of the Universal Monsters series. The cinematic universe is to be rebooted next year with the Mummy to be the first film scheduled for release. There are a few sequels to this film from 1931 such as Bride of Frankenstein, with some even taking place after Clive Owen’s death, including the Ghost of Frankenstein. I will probably explore the sequels and Universal Monsters films at some point in the near future.
Plot=7/10
Characters=8/10
Special Effects=7/10
Overall=8/10
Quote of the Day
¿Que?
Manuel
Fawlty Towers
Extras and Still Game
Greetings, Extras is a television series from BBC that ran for two series and a concluding Christmas special. It aired from 2005 until its last episode was broadcast in December 2007. Ricky Gervais alongside Stephen Merchant both created as well as starred in the series as struggling actor Andy Millman and inept agent Darren Lamb. Gervais while best known for the Office, has starred in numerous works including Night at the Museum, Idiot Abroad and Ghost Town to name a few. He is also known for his stand-up comedy and as the author of children’s books known as the Flanimals. Stephen Merchant commonly works with Gervais on numerous projects and received critical acclaim when he portrayed a clumsy robot named Wheatley in the Portal sequel. Other performers involved in the show include Ashley Jensen as Maggie Jacobs and Shaun Williams as himself, as well as a large number of notable special guests.
The plot is fairly simple as protagonist Andy Millman wishes to become a famous actor but is unable to land a role outside of being an extra. This is in part due to his unskilled agent Darren Lamb who continuously fails to find Andy work or any prominent roles. Maggie Jacobs, Andy’s ditzy but warm-hearted friend and fellow extra, spends a lot of time working with Millman on different sets. She doesn’t seem to have any aspiration to be famous and many storylines revolve around her bad luck with men. Warwick Davis, Ronnie Corbett, David Bowie, Patrick Stuart and Ian McKellen are among the celebrities that appear in the show. The guests normally have an exaggerated or outlandish personality which I found to be one of the main appeals of the series. Warwick Davis would also go on to work with Gervais and Merchant again in a similar project entitled ‘Life’s too short’. As with a lot of Ricky’s work, cringe humour plays a large role in the series as Andy Millman often finds himself in awkward scenarios. Although I never really explored his material before, I really did enjoy this one and am keen to see some more of his projects.
Plot=7/10
Characters=8/10
Special Effects=7/10
Overall=8/10
Still Game is a Scottish sitcom created by the BBC and the Comedy Unit. While having its roots as a stage play, the TV show began in 2002 and ended its sixth series in 2007. While there have been a few specials since then, 2016 marks the return of Still Game as the seventh series will air this year. The cast wouldn’t be well known outside of this show as Still Game seems to be the best known programme in the main actor’s filmography however they still deliver an enjoyable performance. The main actors and actresses consist of Ford Kiernan as Jack Jarvis, Greg Hamphill as Victor McDade, Paul Riley as Winston Ingram and Jane McCarry as Isa Drennan.
Like Extras, the plot is fairly simple as is common with sitcoms. The series follows the lives of two elderly friends living in the dreary Scottish settlement of Craiglane and focuses on their misadventures in their old age. The majority of the local residents consist of pensioners and chavs which ensures that Craiglane has a somewhat depressing atmosphere. Many of the former spend their time drinking in a local pub named the Clansman including the two leads of Victor and Jack. I have yet to see the sixth series but I hope to watch it someday as I had enjoyed the previous five. I’m also curious to see what the seventh series would be like considering it has been off the air for a considerable time now.
Plot=6/10
Characters=7/10
Special Effects=7/10
Overall=7/10
It ain't exactly a secret I didn't get these scars from falling over in church.
John Marston
Red Dead Redemption
