Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Honestly, it's next to impossible to summarise what's going on in the mind-bending Everything Everywhere All At Once without attempting to spell out every single moment of this gorgeously crafted movie.

Michelle Yeoh is Evelyn Wang, a middle-aged Chinese immigrant buckling under the pressure of running a launderette, filing her taxes, and coping with family drama.

Unbeknownst to her, her gentle husband Waymond Wang (Ke Huy Quan) wants to divorce her, but first they must report to the Internal Revenue Service for an audit by the officious Deirdre Beaubeirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis).

However, that's also when Evelyn unexpectedly learns of the existence of the multiverse and the fact that she's the only hope for saving all of reality from erasure... by drawing upon the unique skills of other versions of herself from across the infinite planes of existence.

Written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (as Daniels), Everything Everywhere All At Once is simultaneously unlike anything you've seen before and yet comfortably familiar to genre fans.

Superficially it is The Matrix meets Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness with a shot of Rick and Morty thrown in for good measure.

But mix in talking rocks and apocalyptic bagels amidst the frenetic wuxia martial arts and reality-bending and suddenly Everything Everywhere All At Once is also a cerebral art house flick as well.

Once the action begins, it's pretty much non-stop (I couldn't help but be reminded of Mad Max: Fury Road in that respect) with a visual assault of chaotic images that often comes at you faster than your brain can process, almost certainly necessitating a repeat viewing.

Yet, for all the cosmic, existential, threats, at its heart this is a film about family, handled in a way that rings true without getting overly mushy.

Ultimately, though, no mere words can do it justice. Everything Everywhere All At Once is a film that has been to seen - experienced - rather than read about.

Doctor Mordrid - Master Of The Unknown (1993)

It should come as no surprise to anyone watching Full Moon's Doctor Mordrid to learn that it was originally developed as Dr Strange project, but when the rights were lost for the Marvel Comics character it was reworked as its own entity.

Lovecraftian legend and regular Star Trek guest star  Jeffrey Combs stars as the titular Doctor Anton Mordrid, an ageless entity living among mortals in human form, protecting us from demonic entities, such as Kabal (regular villain Brian Thompson), an evil sorcerer he imprisoned 150 years ago.

Guided by a mystical entity he refers to as Monitor, Mordrid is alerted to Kabal's escape from a fifth-dimensional prison and he sets out to prevent 'The Death's Head' from using alchemical skills to take control of The Philosopher's Stone... and then the world.

Mordrid's life, however, becomes a bit more complicated when he attracts the attention of his new neighbour, large-haired police consultant Samantha Hunt (Yvette Nipar), who then seeks his assistance on a 'Satanic' murder case she's working on.

This, naturally, leads to all sorts of trouble when her colleague, no-nonsense cop Tony Gaudio (Jay Acovone) collars Mordrid for the murder.

Coming in at 74-minutes, Doctor Mordrid feels like a TV movie or a pilot for a great '90s cop show (there's some strong language and a scene of random female nudity, but all involve supporting characters that could easily be trimmed for a more family-friendly edit) rather than a blockbuster movie.

Sadly, while it has its moments, there's nothing actually in the film to rival the multi-dimensional, cosmic psychedelia suggested by the DVD's cover.

I have to be honest and admit I was hoping for a bit more "duelling wizards" material, the mid-section of the film instead feels as though it gets rather bogged down in police procedural.

Mordrid's Castle

The final showdown between Mordrid and Kabal - although boasting some decent Harryhausen-esque stop-motion animation - is surprisingly brief, especially when compared to effects heavy final acts in similar films today.

Amidst the flashy sorcerous combat, we get a teasing glimpse of the demonic forces that Kabal is releasing, then wallop, Mordrid slams the door in their stop-motion faces (which is a bit of s shame as they looked quite cool).

As is often the way with these low-budget outings, there are some great ideas at work here with the potential to spark some fantastic, tangential creativity and there's definitely an unavoidable feeling that Full Moon Features were hoping to milk this franchise for at least another film, maybe more.

Mordrid's extra-dimensional castle - where Kabal is imprisoned - is too good a visual alone not to want to revisit the world of Doctor Mordrid.

Dr. Strange (1978)

With the official Marvel Cinematic Universe iteration of Doctor Strange now well established and part of the general public's consciousness (thanks, in large part, to casting Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular Sorcerer Supreme),  I thought it was time to set the Wayback Machine to the 1970s and fall under the spell of the original Dr. Strange movie.

As ever, this 1978 TV movie needs to be considered on its own merits, taking into account the budgetary and technological restrictions of its time.

The Ditko-verse

Five hundred-year-old sorceress Morgan LeFey (Jessica Walter) is tasked by her nameless, demonic master (a giant, mist-enshrouded puppet, voiced by David Hooks) to slay Earth's current sorcerer supreme, Thomas Lindmer (John Mills... yes, THE John Mills) within an arbitrary timeframe of three days. I suspect he's supposed to be Dormammu.

The legendary Arthurian villianness has been hanging around the "higher levels of the Astral plane", a set clearly influenced by the iconic artwork of Dr. Strange comic book artist Steve Ditko. This opening sequence gave me hope that the film would be treating its source material with some respect.

Morgan's scheme involves mind-controlling beautiful student Clea Lake (Eddie Benton aka Anne-Marie Martin) to push Lindmer off a bridge.

Lindmer survives, but Clea is traumatised by the event and ends up in hospital under the care of psychiatrist Doctor Stephen Strange (Peter Hooten), who wears his father's ring that bears the same symbol as seen on Lindmer's window and on a painting in his Sanctum Sanctorum.

Strange finds himself drawn to Clea and Lindmer offers to help out in her treatment, convincing Strange to come to his home where he sends the doctor off on an astral voyage to save Clea's soul.

Astral Tripping

This 2001-style, kaleidoscopic light-show - complete with a phantom horseman in the form of the demon Balzaroth (voiced by The Addams Family's Ted Cassidy) - is the visual highlight of the film, being surprisingly imaginative and trippy despite the limitations of '70s TV special effects.

After this, Strange declares he doesn't want anything more to do with Lindmer's magic, but Morgan isn't listening and after bitch-slapping Lindmer's chum Wong (Clyde Kusatsu) and then seemingly doing the same to the old man, she turns her attention to Stephen Strange.

It turns out that Morgan has a bit of a cougar-thing going and wants to use her womanly wiles (which apparently haven't seen much action during her centuries in The Dark Dimension) to seduce the good doctor. He, of course, is having none of this - as his eyes are focussed on Clea.

Dr. Strange is quite a dialogue-heavy piece, but still manages to break this up with some flashy light shows and demonic summonings, so that even in the many hospital scenes the pace never sags too badly.

However, things go bizarrely off the rails in the film's denouement - presumably these were meant as plot hooks if this pilot spawned a TV show - when Clea and Strange repeat (almost verbatim) a conversation they had earlier in the film, but neither notice, and then neither seem that perturbed by Morgan popping up on TV as a self-help guru!

There are a lot of changes from the source material in Dr. Strange, most of which I can understand for the sake of brevity, such as stripping out Strange's adventures in Tibet and making him a psychiatrist rather than a surgeon to tie him in to Clea's sub-plot.

What were they thinking?

It's a bit of a shame that in removing the Eastern aspects of Strange's backstory (thus explaining why Lindmer becomes Strange's mentor, rather than The Ancient One - who, confusingly, makes a vocal appearance during Strange's transformation sequence) they also decided to Westernise Wong and change Clea to a normal human being.

But I guess they didn't want to overload a mainstream audience with too much extraneous weirdness in a 90-minute television show about dimension-hopping sorcerers battling demons for the fate of humanity.

The worst change though is the inexplicable reworking of the classic Dr Strange look into a kitsch superhero costume with a bizarre starburst on the front.

Thankfully this only appears briefly towards the end of the film, after Morgan has magically dressed him in robes that do a far better job of emulating his comic book look.

Overall, Dr. Strange - as you would expect - is a product of its time. A bit slow in parts and very cheesy, but with some great touches along the way that suggest the people behind it had ambitious plans should it have been picked up to run as a series.

It was clearly going to be a very different superhero show to The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man and Captain America that were making similar, difficult, transitions from the comic book page to the television screen at that time.

HALLOWEEN HORROR: The Black Phone (2021)

Already a regular target of bullies, shy-but-smart, 13-year-old Finney (Mason Thames) is snatched off the streets of 1978 Denver by the local bogeyman, a masked sicko known as The Grabber (Ethan Hawke).

Locked up in the basement of sadistic, serial child-killer's home, Finney starts to get messages on a disconnected, old black telephone from the ghosts of The Grabber's previous victims.

Meanwhile, his younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) is having vivid dreams about The Grabber's victims, including details not released to the general public, which piques the interest of the police.

As the ghosts on the phone guide Finney into trying to complete their own escape attempts, Gwen - against the wishes of their alcoholic and abusive father, Terrance (Jeremy Davies) - tries to piece together clues to her brother's location.

With its '70s suburban setting, psychic kids, ghosts, and creepy and enigmatic antagonist, writer/director Scott Derrickson's The Black Phone has an immediate, overpowering Stephen King vibe about it... which is unsurprising as it's based on a short story of the same name by King's son, Joe Hill.

Unfortunately, for all its intensity and jeopardy, there's little depth to the story. While The Black Phone is incredibly well-made, but it simply lacks any enduring substance or character depth.

Sure, it's suggested that Gwen got her "abilities" from her mum (who had been driven to suicide by her own visions) and presumably that's also why Finney could hear the black phone "ringing", but that's about it.

Some of the hardest moments to watch don't actually involve The Grabber, who by and large (for what we actually see) is all talk, but are, instead, of the inexcusably violent Terrance beating on Gwen for attracting the attention of the police because of her dreams!

Then, much of the film's resolution hinges on the police's immediate willingness to act on Gwen's dreams, which - given the apparent "true crime" grittiness that Scott Derrickson (of Sinister and Doctor Strange fame) seems to be chasing here - feels rather far-fetched.

But it was the 70's, I guess, perhaps the Denver police were more open to pursuing leads from the dreams of tween girls?

In truth, throughout the 100-minute movie, the paranormal aspects are treated in a very matter-of-fact manner, as if psychic kids and ghosts were an accepted part of real life in 1970's suburban America, rather than the stuff of nightmares and horror flicks.

Nevertheless, The Black Phone is a powerful and engaging thriller, with a disturbing and memorable central performance from Ethan Hawke in a variety of Tom Savini-designed masks, that bear more than a passing resemblance to Lon Chaney's iconic character from the legendary, lost, silent horror movie London After Midnight.

However, while The Black Phone understandably unnerves its audience with a constant sense of threat towards its young captive lead, this ultimately feels very superficial.

Even the pseudo-bait-and-switch, Silence of The Lambs-inspired, arrival of the cavalry at the end isn't the giant misdirect you fear it might have been, that could have opened the plot up for a potentially darker denouement.

For all its supernatural trappings, The Black Phone is disappointingly linear, devoid of any interesting twists or revelations at the eleventh hour. 

Ultimately, while there's definitely the essence of a potentially great horror movie in what has been brought to the screen, you are left with the distinct feeling that there could have been so much more to The Black Phone.

HALLOWEEN HORROR: The Gorge (2025)

To date, I've pretty much loved everything I've seen on Apple TV: the puzzle box that is Severance is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, one of the best TV shows ever; Slow Horses is near-perfection; the retro-futurism of Hello Tomorrow is wonderful; The Morning Show is great, engaging drama; and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is a fascinating insight into the kaiju-filled world of the Monsterverse.

So, I wasn't worried clicking on The Gorge, especially as it has the added bonus of starring the flawless Anya Taylor-Joy who is incapable of making a bad movie. Even her co-star, Miles Teller (despite appearing as Reed Richards in the worst Fantastic Four movie of all time... and, yes, I'm including the unreleased Corman version), is generally seen as a safe pair of hands.

I couldn't have been more wrong. 

The Gorge is two hours and seven minutes of utter tedium. Our stars are a pair of elite snipers - Levi 'Married To His Job' Kane and Drasa - tasked with guarding a mysterious, smoke-filled, gorge and preventing whatever is down there from getting out.

Each stands guard in a tower on either side of the gorge, both forbidden to communicate with the other side.

The trouble from the get-go is that both characters are walking clichés (very early on Teller's Levi is sitting on a beach, cuddling a random dog, and I said to myself: 'I bet he writes poetry'... and an hour later, when Levi and Drasa finally get to meet he starts telling her about his poetry).

But it's also very obviously slightly racist/sexist because while both are supposedly the best at what they do, the implication is that Levi - representing America - is slightly better than - not-America - Drasa (who doesn't even warrant a surname), has slightly better technology, and so on.

For the first, painfully long, hour the couple are getting used to their new jobs and, as the months pass, starting to break the rules and communicate across the gorge.

This segment could easily have been compressed into 15 or 20 minutes, which might then have made what follows a bit more bearable.

Eventually, after a sneaky romantic rendezvous, they find themselves in the gorge, getting to the bottom of the mystery.

The trouble is there's a very strong chance that if you'd been thinking about what might be going on yourself you probably would have come up with something way more interesting than the 1950's B-movie explanation we get served up with.

At one point, I'd even wondered - when they were fighting giant insects - if The Gorge was somehow connected to Monarch: Legacy of The Monsters. But no such luck.

And the thing about the monsters our heroes find hidden in the mists is that we don't see enough of them. Perhaps horror-leaning director Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange, The Black Phone) should have put more focus on the critters and less on the turgid banality of the padded first act.

There is absolutely no need for this Asylum-movie-on-an-Apple-budget to have been over two hours long. An hour and a half would have been fine and might have kept the pace (and my engagement) up a bit more. 

It's not that toothless creature feature The Gorge is really that bad, it's more a case that there's nothing memorable about it, from its generic stunts and forgettable monsters to its uninteresting explanation and predictable resolution.

TOP OF THE PILE: Marvel Mutts #1

My fortnightly pull-list is usually planned out weeks, if not months, in advance as I try to stay abreast of forthcoming releases from The Big Two and my favourite indies of the moment.

However, every so often something slips through the net and I don't spot it until Andy (from Paradox Comics) sends out his weekly list of what's due in that Wednesday.

Marvel Mutts #1 was one such title that had totally escaped my notice, but a quick Google suggested it would be something I might enjoy... and my initial feelings were proved 100 per cent correct once I got the comic in hand.

A print collation of several online Infinity Comics, this gorgeous - and near dialogue-free - anthology of short stories opens with Ms Marvel's adoption of a young cockapoo called Mittens from the Best Buds Shelter in New York City (after she crashes into it during a fight with Kraven the Hunter). 

The subsequent short tales are Mittens' "adventures" with a pack of other Avenger-adjacent dogs that hang out at the Avengers' Mansion, including Lockjaw (of The Inhumans), Lucky The Pizza Dog (Hawkeye's friend), Cosmo (from The Guardians of The Galaxy), and Bats (Dr Strange's ghost dog).

To anyone who is a dog owner there are so many relatable moments in this comic, even if exaggerated through the lens of superheroes, from dogs being afraid of the sound of fireworks to canine expressions of loyalty and love. Even something as simple as playing fetch becomes a global odyssey with the involvement of America Chavez and her portal travel. 

Beautifully written by Mackenzie Cadenhead, with gorgeous art by Takeshi Miyazawa (coloured by Raúl Angulo), Marvel Mutts #1 gets you in the feels with every story, always delivering an upbeat ending perfectly capturing the joy of having a dog in your life.

An uplifting one-shot that contrasts with the general association of violence with the superhero genre, this book is the perfect all-ages title for those wishing to experience the majesty of the medium, grounding the weird science and way-out magic of the superhero genre with the relatability - and responsibility - of pet ownership.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Monster Mag #2

Don't say I'm not a man of my word. Although it seems like only hours from when I 'promised' I'd scan the second issue of my childhood DIY comic from 1976, there was actually a three year gap between the two tasks!

Anyway, here it is... in all its badly drawn and misspelt glory.

Unfortunately, since I scanned the first issue back in 2020, the Sellotape that held the fragile pages of issue two together had lost its "stick" and as I picked it up and moved it to the scanner the pages came away in my hands.

Now, I hope I've scanned them all in the right order. The child-logic of my writing made the narrative a bit hard to follow, but I think I've got it.

Again, it's all about the chaotic adventures of my character, The Ray-Kid, teaming up with random Marvel characters such as Nick Fury, Dr Strange and Iron Man, while fighting The Hulk, a villain called Magno The Great (I suspect I was unsure about how to spell Magneto), and an assortment of horror film monsters, such as The Blob, Frankenstein's Monster, and The Mummy.

For some reason, the Marvel heroes, and I think Ray-Kid, are a team called The Inflans!

No, no clue, sorry...

For a more in-depth background on my self-published comic you need to jump back to the original post here.

I was certainly no budding Jack Kirby (although I was, unknowingly, influenced by his work in the British reprint titles of the time).

It's easy to see why, later on, one of my art teachers at Skinners' would describe me as "the most artistically inept pupil he'd ever taught", but I like to think the two issues of Monster Mag have an innocent charm about them.

Sadly (or maybe not) this was the last issue of this comic ever produced, even though it ends with the proclamation that the next would feature a "great comp", by which I guess I meant "competition", although I have no idea what the prize could possibly have been!

And everything ends with the most gripping of cliffhangers: "Will The Hulk Drop The Tank? Find Out Next Week..."

Now here are (finally, and hopefully in the right order) the two stories contained within Monster Mag #2 (cover date, sometime in early 1976) - When The Blob Hits, He Hits Hard and The Beginning of The End.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Monster Mag #1

I've finally got round to scanning in the first of my treasured self-made Monster Mag comics, written and drawn by yours truly when I was only nine.

Self-published, with a print run of one, I thought I had lost these treasures from 1976, so when I found them last year after we had moved I couldn't believe my good fortune.

Fragile homemade artefacts, held together with sellotape older than Rachel (honestly, she wasn't even born when I drew these comics), I carefully scanned issue one this week and cast a critical eye over my work.

I was clearly influenced by the oddly-shaped, art-distorting, black-and-white British reprint titles, such as The Titans, which explains the horizontal page orientation of Monster Mag, and quite possibly the prevalence of Marvel characters within its pages (Thor, Hulk, Doctor Strange, Nick Fury to name but a few).

These big hitters were mixed in with characters of my own creation, such as the delightfully cheesy Ray-Kid, who, without his protective helmet, found his entire head transformed into ball of energy.

The presence of several Universal monsters (the Wolf-man, Frankenstein's Monster, The Mummy, and the Invisible Man) also seems quite random, as I have no idea how I glommed on to them.

Perhaps I was watching those movies far earlier than I remember.

Given that I believe it was my gran who took me to see The Amazing Mr Blunden at the cinema around this time, and scarred me for life with a hypersenstive fear of dying in a house fire, it's quite possible that she was letting me watch Universal horror movies on her black-and-white TV as well (along with the Saturday afternoon wrestling that preceded Doctor Who).

I think it was also my gran who wrote the date (February 26, 1976) on a couple of the pages, because that's clearly not my handwriting, and I have a vague recollection that I drew these comics during a couple of my regular Saturday sleepovers at her house.

Please enjoy the dreadful drawing and appalling spelling of Monster Mag #1:

I, now, just have to scan in issue two...