3.5 Razors

Corridor of Mirrors

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Corridor of Mirrors
  • IMDb: link

The film debut of both director Terrence Young (From Russia with Love, Thunderball) and actor Christopher Lee (albeit in a minor role), 1948’s Corridor of Mirrors is an atmospheric thriller involving an eccentric bachelor (Eric Portman) who falls in love with a young woman (Edana Romney) who eerily resembles a Renaissance painting he keeps in his home. Their relationship mostly involves Mangin (Portman) dressing Mifanwy (Romney) in a variety of dresses and jewelry that fit her perfectly. As she struggles against his control, and the warnings of an older woman (Barbara Mullen) in the house suggesting dangerous ulterior motives in Mangin’s actions, their relationship ends disastrously, and, years later, tragically.

Although it may feel a bit dated in places, the tone and tension of the story hold up well as does Young’s direction and the cinematography of André Thomas. Re-released on Blu-ray and DVD as part of the Cohen Film Collection, Corridor of Mirrors is worth visiting for fans of the era or the genre. …

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NCIS: Hawai’i – Gaijin

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: NCIS: Hawai’i – Gaijin
  • wiki: link

The death of a Japanese sailor on Hawaii calls the attention of NCIS to a related murder from years before in Okinawa. Madeline Zima guest-stars as the prime suspect in both crimes, as psychopath who was the original victim’s roommate and met with the second victim on the day of his death. The other guest-appearance of note is Toshiji Takeshima as the officer who was unable to solve the original murder. It’s not often you see s procedural introduce a psychopath as a suspect only to use them as a red herring, but “Gaijin” takes some interesting turns as NCIS is able to solve two murders with the help of the woman originally suspected of both. 

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Foundation – The Emperor’s Peace

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Foundation – The Emperor’s Peace
  • IMDb: link

Originally written as short stories for Astounding Magazine more than 70 years ago, Isaac Asimov‘s idea of examining something akin to the fall of the Roman Empire on a galactic scale would result in a series of stories and novels, some written decades apart, spanning thousands of years, where the fate of humanity weighed in the balance. Using the concept of predictive models taken to the nth degree, Asimov offered the mathematics of psychohistory which was capable of predicting the future of large populations, even if those populations don’t like what those predictions might be.

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Catwoman: Lonely City #1

/ / Comics

Released as part of DC’s mature Black Series line, Catwoman: Lonley City #1 opens with the release of an older Selina Kyle from prison ten years after the deaths of Batman, the Joker, Commissioner Gordon, and Nightwing. Gotham has changed in her absence, with Harvey Dent as mayor of a more militarized city full of Bat-style soldier cops roaming the streets.

Less than thrilled by the changes to the city, and still haunted by the past, Selina struggles to fit in calling on old friends and finding it much harder to perform her rooftop antics after a decade in prison. She does have a mystery to solve, and a final word from a dying Batman all those years ago. Can Catwoman become the hero that the new Gotham City needs her to be?

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Leverage: Redemption – The Unwellness Job

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Leverage: Redemption – The Unwellness Job
  • wiki: link

The Leverage team takes on a former actress (Brianna Brown) selling ineffective, and sometimes dangerous, supplements under the guise of a wellness guru and her money laundering money man (David Clayton Rogers) greedy to further exploit her customer data. As far as cons go, the initial bee-themed moisturizer isn’t one of the show’s best but things do pick-up with the secondary story involving the unscrupulous partner which forces the team to change tactics in the middle of the con, pitting the pair against each other, and even revealing the truth about the con to secure another victory.

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