Review - Pennyworth

So... let's talk about Pennyworth!

In July of this year, the writers, creators and producers of Fox's hit series Gotham gave us the series we as DC fans needed more than we ever thought possible. Pennyworth features a vital backstory about which Batman fans have been acutely curious since the inception of the mysterious character. Alfred The Butler is historically shrouded in mystery. His wisdom and intellect, coupled with his unusually loyal devotion to the Wayne family have had inquisitive fans scratching their heads for a good while.

RELATED: Batman - A Brief Cinematic History

The Epix series set in the early 1960's follows a young Alfred Pennyworth and his small security firm shortly after his time in Britain's legendary SAS in an alternative London. Two separatist factions have sprung up in a politically polarised society, both poised to overthrow the British government and monarchy. Young Pennyworth is thrown into the middle between the two in an intense battle for control, involving his future employers Thomas Wayne and Martha Kane.

We generally try and avoid spoilers here at NTNR, so I'll keep clear of them, but what I will say is that what makes a refreshing change about this series is the distinct lack of familiar cannon characters, stories and easter eggs. The writers appear to have left fan service at the door and have created something almost entirely original. They've stripped it right back to the bare bones of absolutely necessary characters; Alfred and the Waynes. The focus is entirely on a fresh story. That being said, it is clear from the starting gun that our lead character's mannerisms and general demeanour are based heavily on a young Michael Caine's Alfred of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, separating the continuity somewhat from Gotham.

RELATED: The Dark Knight - Ten Years On

The cast list boasts an inexperienced yet impressively talented leading line including relative rookie Jack Bannon (The Imitation Game), Ben Aldridge (Our Girl) and Brit Award winning singer Paloma Faith. Some surprising familiar guest faces appear in regular and one-off spots such as Jason Flemyng (Snatch, Primeval), Simon Day (The Fast Show), Danny Webb (Plebs, Alien 3) and Felicity Kendal (The Good Life). You might say it's something of a cornucopia of actors who've appeared as murder suspects in Death In Paradise. For any American readers who may be struggling with that, it's a bit like CSI and NCIS: something of a haven for D-listers, and the most famous one usually did it.

The ten-episode series is produced, written and largely directed by Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon, the great minds behind Gotham. There are a few similarities to the previous show, although it isn't clear as to whether they are supposed to be intertwined, Pennyworth has a few similar steampunk style aspects, although not to quite the same extent. The creators have somewhat taken advantage of the popularity of a few other shows. The character of Alfred is almost like a Tommy Shelby of the DC universe and the musical score by composer David E. Russo (also of Gotham) is strikingly similar to the score used in BBC series Sherlock.

Pennyworth was renewed for a second season in October and will begin filming in January 2020. The show breathes new life into the universe of pre-Batman cannon and brings a gritty new no-holds-barred fire to the genre. Writers are clearly unafraid to drop more than a few F-bombs as well as an effective quantity of tongue-in-cheek brutality. It will certainly be interesting to see what Season Two has to offer in the coming year!

The Mandalorian - Episode I

Let's be honest... we've all been feeling a little nervous about Disney's over-saturation of the Star Wars franchise. Since the media giant took the reins, we've had two more core movies with another one due in December 2019, two independent spinoffs, a wide selection of new console games and a new series of The Clone Wars hitting the screen in February 2020. As soon as the news of the bounty hunter-centric series escaped into the social media realm, many fans were skeptical to say the least. Cries of "Oh bugger, not another one!" were heard across all corners of the galaxy.

RELATED: Is Solo: A Star Wars Story Really A Box Office Disaster?

However... t'was a misjudgement! The new show, created by Iron Man director Jon Favreau and starring Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones, Kingsman: The Golden Circle) as the title antihero is set five years after 1983's Return of the Jedi and follows a lone Mandalorian bounty hunter named Dyn Jarren after he has been surreptitiously hired to complete a mysterious mission and retrieve an unknown target alive. The backdrop is an almost post-apocalyptic galaxy finding it's feet again after the defeat of the Galactic Empire and the destruction of the second Death Star. The show gives off an almost "Rogue One meets Joss Whedon's Firefly" vibe, to which it is impossible not to respond positively.

The first episode, directed by well known Star Wars fanatic Dave Filoni (The Clone Wars, Rebels), has promised an incredible season of eight episodes to come. The plot quickly evolves into a gritty, hard-hitting drama that seems truthfully unafraid to go that extra mile when it comes to putting an edge on the franchise; something the fans desperately need. The bounty hunter takes to the planet Arvala-7 as instructed by his mysterious client and... well... nobody likes a spoiler. We'll talk later.

RELATED: 10 Reasons Why The Phantom Menace Isn't That Bad
The series' further episodes have been directed by an impressive array of names including Rick Famuyiwa (Dope, Our Family Wedding), Deborah Chow (Mr. Robot), Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) and Bryce Dallas-Howard (Jurassic World) making her directoral debut outside the realms of documentaries and shorts. It has been produced by Favreau and Filoni with extra help from producer Kathleen Kennedy who has produced a wide array of Star Wars projects, as well as many others in the Lucas/Spielberg-sphere, and Colin Wilson (Avatar, Suicide Squad) with extra writing by Thor writer Christopher L. Yost. The Lucasfilm project distributed by Disney has been awarded a budget of $120m working out at $15m per 40 minute episode. The new show features a vaguely spaghetti western-inspired music score by record producer Ludwig Göransson who is also penning the score for Christopher Nolan's much anticipated upcoming movie Tenet.

The show has already been renewed for a second season and has begun filming. The series will be available on a weekly basis on Disney's online streaming platform Disney+ and has seen high approval ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and IMDb. This certainly is an exciting new project and I, for one, believe it will become an integral storyline in the Star Wars universe and will be enjoyed universally by fans.

Review - Joker

Just a little PSA to begin with; sorry it's been a long time since I last did one of these posts. I know all the die hard fans will be devastated by that. Sorry again.

Anywhich, let's talk about Joker...

Firstly (obviously)... wow. What an incredible film. The latest incarnation of the infamous DC villain is beyond terrifying. Joaquin Phoenix introduces a new darkness to the character with an air of true violent psychosis in its purest and most realistic form possible, complimenting a pure-gold screenplay by director Todd Phillips (The Hangover, Starsky & Hutch) and scriptwriting genius Scott Silver (8 Mile, The Fighter).

I think we can all agree that Joaquin Phoenix, the man of the hour, deserves to ride out of the Dolby Theatre on the shoulders of golden Academy Award trophy the size of Andre The Giant's ghost on Oscars night. The film also features a fantastic supporting cast including Zazie Beetz (Atlanta, Deadpool 2), Frances Conroy (American Horror Story, HIMYM), Shea Whigham (The Wolf of Wall Street, Death Note), Brett Cullen (Ghost Rider, Person of Interest) and, of course, the fantastic Robert DeNiro needs no introduction.

Todd Phillips' direction in Joker is a true revelation. The mind behind a host of frat-boy comedies has spun around on a dime to create something completely new and unlike anything we've previously seen, surpassing even the genius of directors accustomed to making dark, gritty plot-twisters. In the coming years, the likes of Nolan and Fincher may have some stiff competition.

The film will, no doubt, begin a new trend in ultra-dark stand-alone villain stories breaking the saturation of high-budget orgies of tasteless comic book hero team-ups. Joker has set a new standard of writing and direction in the genre we haven't seen since the Dark Knight trilogy and a new standard of acting we haven't seen since... well... ever! Everything about this movie screams "Oscar nominee" right down to make up and hairstyling, sound design and set construction. Personally, this blogger can see it breaking a few records.

Let's talk stats. Joker grossed $96.2m in its opening weekend, making it the highest October opener in history, beating Ruben Fleischer's Venom by a cool fifteen-mil, and the second highest fall opening weekend ever behind 2017's It which grossed an astronomical $123.4m following its release. So far, the movie has grossed $193.6m in domestic box office takings representing just over 35% of the incredible $548.3m it has taken down worldwide in under two weeks. Against a production budget of just $55m, Joker has been a financial powerhouse at the box office... happy producers = more great movies like this one!

Warner Bros. hit Joker is a fantastic, gritty, psychological thriller worthy of inclusion into anyone's list of greats. IMDb voters have already rated the film at 8.8 throwing it into a neck-and-neck race to the number 10 spot, competing against David Fincher's dark classic Fight Club. The film, although emotionally draining and at some points, hard to watch, collides violence, psychosis and dark comedy into a Gotham story unlike any other which will almost certainly be hailed as a great achievement in film history.

New Single From The Escapades "Cut Me Loose" - Pre-Save It Now!

Geordie four-piece outfit The Escapades’ new release is a feverishly upbeat return to that traditional britpop sound with which nostalgic fans of Pulp and Supergrass will definitely be more than a little familiar… Their third and latest single Cut Me Loose has all the elements of a great feelgood track both old and new, definitely fit for a peak-of-the-night dance… and it’s certainly more than just the sum of its parts!

Following on from last year’s singles Kleptomaniac and Stay (available on Spotify), the new track features some crunchy power chord guitar work, slamming drums and hard-hitting vocals by lead singer Kieran Taylor. The band’s energy in this new track is matched only by their glitter and eyeliner-clad live performances and their outlandish Indie-Punk image. Cut Me Loose is certainly the sound that the Newcastle-based band were born to produce.

The Escapades are performing a headline show at Kaleidoscope HQ, Ouseburn on July 31^st with support from Courtyards and Hollow Legs. Get your tickets here!

The fantastic new single Cut Me Loose will be available to download and stream on September 5^th, 2019.

Click here to pre-save it on Spotify!

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – 30 Year Anniversary

Many argue that the third instalment of Stephen Spielberg’s Indiana Jones saga is the best of the bunch, better even than Raiders of the Lost Ark (apologies if you find it sacrilegious). The classic movie was released on the 24^th of May 1989, celebrating its anniversary just yesterday.

The Last Crusade co-stars Julian Glover, Alison Doody and Denholm Elliot alongside Harrison Ford as well as Sean Connery playing the role of the whip-wielding archaeologist’s father and the late River Phoenix who portrays a young Indi during the opening flashback. The pair narrowly escape imprisonment by the Nazis in search of the holy grail.

The movie produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by Paramount features a fresh score by multiple Academy Award winning composer John Williams with a story by the great George Lucas and a screenplay by Lost Boys and Lethal Weapon 2 writer Jeffrey Boam. It pulled down a whopping $474m worldwide at the box office (just shy of $1bn adjusted for inflation) against a production budget of $48m.

The dynamic, dramatic and, at times, hilarious adventure takes our hero through Nazi occupied Germany, a booby trapped biblical obstacle course and even a tank chase on his way to the final resting place of the holy grail, the cup that caught the blood of Jesus Christ, bringing immortality to all who drink from it, saving the life of his father.

The movie received four Academy Award nominations, winning in the categories of Best Effects and Best Sound Effects Editing, narrowly beaten in the Best Sound and Original Score categories by Glory and The Little Mermaid respectively. Sean Connery received nominations for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for his performance.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade remains one of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’ greatest creations bringing a tense, yet heart-warming story to life with a fantastic cast in a timeless visual adventure.