Paranormal Magazine

Directed by: James Hawes, Ed Fraiman

Reviewed by: Jordan Brown

Price: £24.99

(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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Arriving in Camelot to work as the apprentice of the court physician, a young wizard named Merlin has to keep his magical abilities hidden from the tyrannical King, Uther Pendragon. Keeping his powers secret becomes exponentially difficult when he’s assigned as the servant of the King’s arrogant son, Arthur.

While the notion of following a legendary figure in his early years is by no means an original concept, production company Shine has delivered its new interpretation with impeccable set design and, for the most part, some superb special effects. With a plethora of well-known Brit stars lending their talents to these iconic characters, it’s a solid start (this release includes the first six episodes) to a potentially strong series.

Directed by: Rob Cohen

Reviewed by: Jordan Brown

Price: £19.99

(3 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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Rick and Evie are called out of retirement when their son Alex accidentally awakens the ruthless Chinese emperor Han. As the feared mummy wreaks havoc, the O’Connell family head to Shangri-La in an effort to stop Han from becoming immortal and taking over the world with his terracotta army.

With Rob Cohen having taken the reins from regular series director Stephen Sommers, the film has been crammed with all the silly action that we’ve come to expect from the Stealth helmer.

Although it means that the film is pretty watchable, it also means that the potentially absorbing storyline is lost somewhere beneath a sea of CG crap. Ultimately, everything about the film seems to be aimed solely at the dopiest of punters.

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Reviewed by: Jordan Brown

Price: £22.99

(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

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Sometimes a major film comes along that’s so good that it’s difficult to express just how impressive it is. The Dark Knight is one of those films. Kicking things off with a Joker-led bank heist, director Christopher Nolan impeccably sets the film’s tone and refuses to let up until the credits roll and you finally get a chance to catch your breath.

With the criminal element living in fear of Batman, Gotham is finally at peace. That changes when the
psychotic Joker wreaks havoc and pushes The Dark Knight to the brink of insanity. As the maniacal villain threatens to destroy him, Bruce turns to DA Harvey Dent for a helping hand.

Focusing on the devastating effect The Joker has on Gotham’s citizens and the threat that poses to Bruce Wayne’s already fractured psyche, the plot draws resonance from showing how the caped crusader’s life is being systematically turned upsidedown.

It culminates in a perfect demonstration of inner turmoil of the world’s most fascinating superhero. Unfortunately, the light helping of extras (many of the featurettes that have been produced are only being included on the Bluray edition) is a little disappointing even though everything that has been included is gold. Despite this minor drawback, The Dark Knight stands proud as the finest
superhero movie ever.

Till Wöhler is as down-to-earth as you could expect of any German who stands almost 2 meters tall. The China.org.cn journalist is an experienced photographer who is familiar with the night skies. On Monday night he spotted something in the evening sky over Beijing that caught his interest, and for which as yet he has no satisfactory explanation. Here he tells his story in his own words…

“Clear evening skies over the Chinese capital are a relatively rare occurrence, and with the intrusive light pollution for the most part the stars can barely be distinguished. The brightest object in the night sky, the moon, is not visible at the moment.

“At around 6 pm on Monday evening, while returning home from work, I spotted a bright yellow-orange object in the clear skies over Beijing, for which I have as yet no explanation. Some authorities, and many of my own colleagues, are of the opinion that it was the planet Venus, but I’m not so sure. Venus should have been much further south and much lower in the sky at that time in the evening. And not only was the object extremely bright, but it was crossing the skies much quicker than the moon.

“A first freehand photo with my compact digital camera was somewhat blurred, in spite of the electronic stabilizer. But consumed with curiosity, as soon as I got home I grabbed hold of my digital reflex camera and returned to the pursuit of the object. What exactly was this thing in the western sky? A star? A planet? A UFO…”

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Directed by: Frank Darabont

Review by: Fergus McShane

Price: £6.99

(4 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)

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Stephen King is without doubt one of the most prolifically adapted novelists ever with 108 conversions onto TV and film formats in total. Frank Darabont it must be said then is one of the directors who favours his story-telling style most, previously directing The Woman in the Room (1983), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Green Mile (1999) and now The Mist (2007). Four out of his tally of only six directorial efforts.

King and Darabont simply put are a match made in film heaven! The bleak but ultimately positive outlook on life in these films fits perfectly with both men. Saying that though… if anything The Mist is mainly bleak.

The Mist is an old-style horror in the vein of George Romero and early John Carpenter. It shows a greater emphasis on the breakdown of society under stress, rather than the cheap in-your-face shock tactics of recent horror series. And in doing so sidesteps becoming a forgettable piece of commercial film fodder, providing a look at the horror imbedded in humanity at the same time.

There is a great mixture of characters covering all facets of society, an ever-present growing and looming threat with some monster frights that will have the squeamish viewer running for cover. The phrase “roller-coaster ride of emotions” is bandied about too often in film descriptions, but it fits perfectly here. It is surprising how watching The Mist you can go from feeling the claustrophobia and fear of the situation, to sheer hatred of certain characters within seconds.

On reflection, The Mist is an excellent piece of modern horror that returns to the masters of the genre for inspiration. It may have an emotionally turbulent finale, but be it elation or devastation, what ground-breaking horror doesn’t?

Directed by: Guillermo del Toro

Reviewed by: Fergus McShane

Price: £12.99

(4 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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As the title suggest, Hellboy II: The Golden Army follows on from Guillermo del Toro’s first attempt at comic book adaptation in 2004. Hellboy was an underrated success; a faithful transition from the comics pulp paper to silver screen, funny everyman characters (who just happen to be demons), fantastic visuals, and packing one hell of a punch.

However between del Toro’s first foray into the Hellboy series, his stunning 2006 film Pan’s Labyrinth underlines the restricted potential a comic book series affords. Losing none of the visual flair of the first or labyrinth, Hellboy II is a spectacular attempt of a follow-up. The CGI and costume work is fantastic (especially in the stunning Troll market section), but unfortunately this doesn’t make up for the wandering, seemingly thrown-together plot that fails to captivate like the first of the series.

Perhaps Hellboy II is open to overly harsh criticism because it has had to try too hard to be bigger and better than del Toro’s last few years of film-making. The series is one of the better comic adaptation franchises, but hopefully his future films allow del Toro to carry on with his true filmmaking skill, mixing reality and fantasy in a much less cartoonish manner. Maybe in the upcoming adaptation of The Hobbit he will find a way.

Directed by: Jay Lee

Reviewed by: Lee Griffiths

Price: £19.99

(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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A deadly chemical virus is leaked by a secret government agency.
A nearby strip club, ‘Rhino’s’, is the first place to be affected. The virus somehow turns the girls into super sexy zombie strippers.

There’s a thin line between cool and crap, and in this post-Grindhouse day and age when all manner of cinematic atrocities pose as retro nuggets of cool, it’s becoming harder to decipher at first glance whether a film like Zombie Strippers is going to be worth your time.

Thankfully, Zombie Strippers sexily saunters on the cool side of tack, delivering on its blunt but brilliant title and providing much in the way of flesh eating zombies, sexy pole dancers and an eerily arousing
combination of both.

Directed by: Don E. Fauntleroy

Review by: Tom Leins

Price: £19.99

(1 votes, average: 2 out of 5)

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First things first: if you didn’t realise that an Anaconda 2 existed, you’re probably not the only one! This time around though, experiments at a covert research facility backfire and a pair of gigantic serpents start to slither towards the nearest city.

Billionaire Murdoch (John Rhys-Davies) hires soldier of fortune turned snake slayer Hammett (David Hasselhoff ) to resolve the situation! Originally made for the Sci-Fi Channel, Anaconda 3: Off spring is best viewed as a deliberately guilty pleasure. It won’t be winning any awards anytime soon, but it hits the spot in an undemanding TV movie kind of way.

The ropey CGI is pretty dreadful, but the generous quantities of blood-loss are disturbing in their gloopy plausibility.

Extraterrestrial UFOs might have influenced Leonardo da Vinci as well as Michaelangelo, Christopher Columbus and other Renaissance artists. Domenico Ghirlendaio and Carlos Crivelli both painted flying saucer-like UFO images in the background of their art. Leonardo designed an armored car very similar in appearance to a flying saucer, and designed a flying machine aerial ‘screw’ as well.

Michaeangelo became an apprentice to Ghirlandaio at age thirteen in Florence. That started a six-year period between 1488-1494, when all of these men either lived in Florence or would have had reasons to go there. Florence was the capital and cultural center of Italy at the time. About the time Crivelli and Ghirlandaio died in the mid-1490’s, Nicolaus Copernicus also arrived in Italy for further study of medicine, law and even astrology. So he might have visited Florence too and interacted with the others.

Christopher Columbus saw a ‘UFO’ according to the book Beyond Earth: Man’s Contact with UFOs in reference to ‘The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus’ (1850). Columbus saw ‘a light glimmering at a great distance’ that …vanished, only to reappear several times during the night, each time dancing up and down ‘in sudden and passing gleams’.

Michaelangelo (1475-1564) became an apprentice in 1488 to Ghirlandaio just two years after Carlos Crivelli (c. 1435-c. 1495) painted “The Annunciation of St. Emidius” in 1486. Crivelli’s painting clearly shows a flying saucer-like UFO shining a light downward.

Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494) painted “The Madonna with Saint Giovaninno” that shows another UFO-like image in the background. It is known only to be from the 15th century, but given that Ghirlandaio died in 1494, it is likely that Michaelangelo was with Ghirlandaio during or after the painting was completed.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is considered a great visionary for designing his armored car around 1485 AD and for trying to design and build a flying machine around 1500 AD. He drew much inspiration from the natural environment. Seeing a UFO in the sky or even in the paintings of other great artists of his time might have given him two ideas. One was the flying saucer-like armored car and the other separate flying machine.

Imagine what it might have been like to overhear these Renaissance men gathered at an Italian bistro on a warm Tuscan afternoon. What would they have said about UFOs and the possibility of extraterrestrial civilizations? Collectively, they had vast knowledge from multiple areas of art, science, medicine, philosophy, religion, commerce, and more.  Such a conversation could have happened 100 years before Galileo arrived to expand on the astronomy work of Copernicus. Coincidentally, Galileo Galilei was born Feb. 15, 1564, just three days before Michaelangelo died.

We will never know how much these men were influenced by ‘UFOs’. We’ll never know what they might have discussed about extraterrestrial civilizations. But there’s a common theme in stories of extraterrestrial visitors — they often make their presence known to those with lasting influence.

Was that the case with these great men of the Renaissance? If so, then the extraterrestrial intelligent beings could not have picked a better group. Even as a fictional dialogue, such a gathering of great minds to ponder our place among other galactic civilizations would make an intriguing novel or feature film.

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EXTRA terrestrial activity has been ruled out as the cause of bizarre damage to a Lincolnshire wind turbine.

Forensic tests have proved a failed bolt is the reason behind the broken blade at the wind turbine at Conisholme, near Louth.

At the time, the damage was linked to the sighting of strange lights over Alkborough.

Fatigue in the material around the bolts is thought to be what caused the strange damage.

The story caused a national storm after the story of the wind turbine and the mysterious unexplained lights was broken in the Scunthorpe Telegraph and made the front page of The Sun.

On the BBC’s website, it was one of the most read stories and it was a hot topic on Radio Four’s Today programme.

The story was also taken up by Sky News and discussed on ITV’s Loose Women.

As the Scunthorpe Telegraph reported Lesley Whittingham (71), from Jerusalem Cottages, Alkborourgh, described seeing bright orange and yellow tints in the air.

Mrs Whittingham, along with her husband Frank (78) had watched the stationary object for five minutes before it mysteriously disappeared. Louth resident Dorothy Willows, who lives just half a mile from the windfarm, was in her car when she saw ’strange lights’ in the sky.

She was among dozens who spotted the mysterious flashing orangey-yellow spheres.

Hours later there was an almighty smash.

Afterwards one blade had been ripped off and had totally vanished, while another was left twisted and useless.

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