Big Finish review-The Yes Men

The Yes Men is the first in a new four part series of full cast audio stories called ‘Early Adventures’. These adventures are focusing on the second Doctor and his various different companions.

Fan favourite Frazer Hines reprises his role as Jamie and also plays The Second Doctor. Anneke Wills acts as narrator as well as reprises her role as Polly.
As Michael Craze sadly passed away in the late nineties, the role of Ben Jackson has been recast with Elliot Chapman.

The story starts with the Doctor wanting to visit his old friend Meg Carvossa, on the Earth colony of New Houston. Shortly after arriving, team TARDIS find that Meg has died in a mysterious way. That’s not the only problem, the helper robots have started acting a bit shifty.

What follows is a suspenseful tale of suspicion and death.

I know a lot of hardcore fans are unhappy with the recasting of pivotal roles, I am not one of them. I want Early era Big Finish stories and this is the only way we’re going to get them.

Elliot Chapman is phenomenal as Ben. It’s as if Michael Craze never left us, Chapman plays the role with the upmost respect for Craze, yet he also manages to make the role his own. The result is mesmerising.
I’m a huge fan of Frazer Hines, so I hate to type this. But, I don’t rate his turn as The Second Doctor. He can do a really decent impression of Patrick Troughton but that doesn’t really work for a 2hr audio play.
Other than that, everything else is up to the high standards we’ve come to expect from Big Finish. The script is solid, the direction is flawless and the music adds to the atmosphere. Stephen Critchlow is excellent as the mono toned Yes Men.

I look forward to hearing what the next set of Early Adventures brings us, but I’m especially intrigued to see what Elliot Chapman does with Ben Jackson.

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Episode 144:Convenience Press Junket

In which Martyn heads to BAFTA, to bring you interviews with three actors, the writer and, director of Convenience.

Convenience is a 2015 British film about two friends who, needing to pay a debt they cannot afford, try to rob a petrol station and end up posing as clerks for the night.

The podcast can be accessed via different places, including Audioboom, Tunein, Miro, Stiticher, Blubrry, Player fm and Itunes.

Read our review of the movie here.

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Martyn – @BadWilf

Gerrod – @Nerdthro_P

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Review-Convenience 

Convenience tells the story of two life long friends A.Jay (Ray Panthaki) and Shaan (Adeel Akhtar), as they find themselves in deep with some Russian gangsters and a very limited time to settle the £8,000 debt that Shaan has racked up.
They decide the easiest way to get the money is to rob a near-by petrol garage. Unfortunately the safe has a time-lock and won’t open until 6am the following morning.


Their only option is to tie-up the manager and a customer in the back office, pose as employees and work a shift in the petrol garage.

If this ordeal wasn’t stressful enough, they soon learn there’s another employee in the stock room. Luckily for them, Levi (Vicky McClure) thinks they’re the two new trainees that have shown up a day early. They now face the challenge of keeping Levi out the office.

It’s lack of budget doesn’t show on screen. It’s beautifully shot and is held up by a great, yet simple premise. It also hosts some impressive cameos from Anthony Head (Buffy), Tony Way (Game of Thrones) and Verne Troyer (Austin Powers) they each play odd-ball characters that A.Jay and Shann encounter on their shift.
Overall, Convenience is a great example of low budget British comedies. The film manages to capture the tedium of retail work, yet is always watchable due to a great script and stellar performances from the cast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM5pQc9TqVI

Listen to our interviews from the press junket here

Film Review-Pan

Peter Pan has been adapted numerous times through-out the ages. The timeless tale of the boy who will never age has been told and re-told in multiple different ways.

With this latest adaptation, Warner Brothers have tried to put a fresh spin on J.M Barrie’s material by making it prequel to the tale we know so well. “this isn’t the story you’ve heard before.” A narrator tells us in the opening scene.

When we first meet Peter (Levi Miller), he’s a Artful Dodger-esque 12-year-old living in a London orphanage during the Blitz. The orphanage is run with an Iron fist, by a Catholic nun (Kathy Burke) she’s rude, sadistic and hoarding all the rations.

Every so often, a child or two goes missing in the night, the other boys assume they’ve been evacuate to Canada. Late one night, Peter and some other orphans are appropriated by some pirates and taken away in a flying ship.  

They are taken to Neverland and are introduced to Captain “the pirate that all pirates fear” Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman).

  
Neverland isn’t the Picture-esque place we’ve seen before. Blackbeard is a tyrant of a dictator, whom has enslaved the children and put them to work mining Pixium (pixie dust). 

Unfortunately for Blackbeard, Neverland has an ancient prophecy. One day a boy who can fly, will lead an uprising against him. 
Whilst facing execution Peter flies for the first time. But, he’s doubtful about his new abilities and although he wants to believe, he can’t quiet see himself as a hero. Luckily for Peter he has some friends to help him on his way including; James Hook (Garrett Hedlund) and Tiger Lily (Rooney Mara).

Joe Wright’s Pan is trying to offer us something new and, for the most part it succeeds. The music choices are inspired, thousands of pirates chanting the lyrics to smells like teen spirit, is chilling and it works so well that it’s amazing nobody has done it before.  

The use of vibrant colours give the film a visual style that will charm and mesmerise kids. The scintillating colours of Neverland are a great contrast from the dark and dank, war-torn London orphanage. 

  
12-year-old Australian, Levi Miller is fantastic as Peter Pan he oozes cheeky charm. I predict big things for him in the future.  

After 15-years of playing Wolverine, Hugh Jackman has a ball playing the villain. Blackbeard is a contradiction within himself, he changes personalities at the drop of a hat-or in this case, wig. 

Garrett Hedlund and Rooney Mara are great in their roles, but don’t actually have that much to do. Special mention must go to Adeel Akhtar as Mr.Smee. Ahktar manages to perfectly personify the weasel-like Smee.

Kids will love this, adults will want the soundtrack. 

Pan is released in the UK on the 16th of October. 
 

The thick of it cast make a cameo in The Amazing Spider-Man

The cast of the BBC political comedy, The Thick Of It, make a completely unexpected cameo on the cover of December’s issue of The Amazing Spider-Man.

Chris Addison, Peter Capaldi, Joanna Scanlan, Paul Higgins, James Smith and Polly Kemp can all be seen on the cover, sat inside a London bus, whilst Spider-Man is fighting.

Armando Iannucci, the creator of The Thick Of It tweeted the image this morning and asked fans if they knew how the cameo came to be.

“Anyone know why Thick of It cast are in recent Spiderman issue? As a lifelong Marvel fan I’m delighted. And curious.

Spider-Man rumour 

It only took three reboots but, Spider-Man will finally be introduced into the MCU with the Russo brothers Captain America: Civil War. 

Since Tom Holland was cast as the web swinger, rumours have been circulating as to exactly how long he has been Spider-Man within the MCU. 

According to Heroic Hollywood Peter Parker has been Spider-Man for a while, before we meet him in Civil War.

“According to sources, the latest rumour is that Peter Parker has been active as Spider-Man for a little over a year during the events of Captain America: Civil War. Just like Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Spider-Man is considered a myth, an urban legend.”
I’m sure Tom Holland will be great in the role, but part of me still wishes Andrew Garfield had been kept on. 

Captain America: Civil War will be released on May 6th, 2016.

Jenna Coleman IS leaving Doctor Who

After a week of speculation, Jenna Coleman announced on Radio One today that she has indeed filmed her final scenes in Doctor Who as Clara Oswald. She revealed to presenter Nick Grimshaw that she will leave at some point during the series, which starts on BBC One tomorrow night. 

It was also revealed today that she will be playing Queen Victoria in the new ITV drama series, Victoria.
How do you feel about her leaving? Let me know @BadWilf 

Kevin Smith is killing off Silent Bob

You may or may not know that Kevin Smith is working on a “True North Trilogy” of films set in Canada, the first was Tusk, the second is the upcoming Yoga Hosers. The third will be Moose Jaws, which Smith describes as “Jaws with a Moose”. 

The writer/director/actor/Podcaster talked about the final instalment in the trilogy, in an interview with the Australian News Outlet news.com.au.
In the interview Smith reveals that he and Jason Mewes will reprise their roles as Jay and Silent Bob. It turns out this is going to be the film in which he kills off Silent Bob. 

Smith said:

“I just finished writing the scene where Silent Bob gets eaten by the moose. That’s how he fucking goes out!

Isn’t that fun? I was talking to Jay Mewes about Moose Jaws and I’m like, ‘I’m thinking about bringing us in as the Captain Quint character’. And he goes, ‘Yeah, but Quint gets killed!’ I was like, ‘One of us has to get eaten’. And he was like, ‘You. Not me’. I was like, ‘Why?’ And he was like, ‘Because I wanna be in other movies!’ Fair enough, dude. So, rather than let him go out with dignity, he’ll be eaten by a fucking moose.”

Seeing as Mallrats 2 and Clerks 3 are still in development, I’d say we have a few more years of Silent Bob yet.

First look at David Tennant as The Purple Man

Here’s is the first office look at David Tennant as The Purple man in Marvel/Netflix’s Jessica Jones. But, unlike his comic book counterpart, the live action Kilgrave won’t have purple skin. His trademark colour will be represented by a scarf and a suit. 

The Purple Man has the power of suggestion, which allows him to control anybody in close proximity. 

Episode 143:Torchwood-The Conspiracy 

In which Martyn and Gerrod review the first of the new Torchwood range, by Big Finish.

*The review contains mild spoilers*

Captain Jack Harkness has always had his suspicions about the Committee. And now Wilson is also talking about the Committee. Apparently, the world really is under the control of alien lizards. That’s what Wilson says. People have died, disasters have been staged, the suspicious have disappeared.

It’s outrageous.

Only Jack knows that Wilson is right. The Committee has arrived.

Torchwood contains adult material and may not be suitable for younger listeners.

Next episode includes interviews with Verne Troyer, Ray Panthanki and Adeel Akhtar.

The podcast is available from all good podcast services, such as but not limited to Amazon Music, Podchaser, Player FM, Stitcher, and Apple Podcasts.

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