planktonrules

During a local comic book festival, a woman who has been in a coma for two years begins to stir. Could she be awaking? Well, while her son goes out to try to find the doctor, someone comes inside and kills her...and shoves a comic book in her dead mouth! Soon, another person is killed...and he might be the person who wrote the comic book. As for the comic, it is filled with all sorts of inuendos about local people...and it surely is making someone VERY unhappy. But who is behind all this?

Midsomer is an amazing county, as it has top secret research bases, bicycle races, cricket tournaments, comic book festivals and so much more. But you have to just accept this and not question how a rural county could have all these events (and many, many more).

This is an average episode...not bad but also nothing especially unusual...even with the comic book festival.

Of all the Aardman characters, Wallace & Gromit are my favorites and have the most long-lasting appeal. However, the voice of Wallace died back in 2017 and I assumed that would be the end of the franchise. Well, it was...until Aardman recast Wallace's voice actor and came up with this fun film, "Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl"!

The story begins with a recap of a prior Wallace & Gromit outing, "The Wrong Trousers". You see that the evil penguin, Feathers McGraw, was imprisoned and life is just fine...right?! Well, not entirely. As it seems that even in lockup, Feathers is quite resourceful. He manages to reprogram one of Wallace's new inventions, a landscaping gnome. It now is evil...and overnight it constructs a gang of evil gnomes dedicated to helping Feathers re-steal the blue diamond he was caught stealing in the prior film. Can Feathers be stopped? And, can Wallace avoid going to prison because of these evil robot? And, is Gromit going to, once again, save his dopey master?

This is a genuinely fun film from start to finish. Sure, Wallace's voice isn't identical...but the enjoyment is what you'd expect from such a movie. Well worth seeing and incredibly well made.

I found "Young Man of Manhattan" on YouTube and the copy leaves a LOT to be desired. The sound quality is rather poor and the print is a bit fuzzy. Clearly the film could use some restoration work.

The film stars Claudette Colbert and Ginger Rogers is on hand in a supporting role, though you might not recognize Rogers. This is because this is a pre-makeover movie...one she made when she was a brunette and before she had voice lessons.

Ann and Tobey (Claudette Colbert and Norman Foster) are fools. After knowing each other only a few hours, they marry! But the honeymoon period is brief and the marriage seems destined for divorce court...mostly because Tobey is a moody guy who drinks and isn't good husband material. Some of this might be because she's a reporter and he's a sports reporter and his ego might not like a wife who is every bit as successful...perhaps more so. Do they stand a chance?

This is a decent film BUT I don't recommend you see it unless you find a better copy...the sound is THAT bad. Plus, the acting is only okay....especially in the case of Rogers, who I said is in a pre-makeover film and her voice is less enjoyable in this early movie.