Grimoire
Cthulhu
Dracula
Abraham Lincoln
Ken
Grimoire

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Korean Exorcism and Tweaking Nazis

May 23rd, 2017 | Robin

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on our new podcast segment, Tell Me More.

Recommended

Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany (Nonfiction, Norman Ohler, 2016) Novelist Ohler’s chatty history attempts to cover the whole field of drug use in the Third Reich but winds up only really focused on two areas: methamphetamine use by the Wehrmacht and other branches, and cocaine and opioid (Eukodal) use by Hitler at the behest of his Dr. Feelgood, Theo Morrell. Ohler outruns his research in a few places, mostly signposted, but the great virtue of this book is finding something new to say about WWII. –KH

Supernatural Season 12 (Television, US, Robert Singer and Andrew Dabb, 2016-2017) Sam and Dean get used to having their mom back from the dead as they deal with an incursion from ruthless British monster hunters and the return of Lucifer. The Gunsmoke of horror adventure shows freshens up its formula by layering two competing big bads into its continuity arc.—RDL

The Wailing (Film, South Korea, Hong-jin Na, 2016) When it begins to ensnare his own family, a doltish police sergeant (Do-Won Kwak) has all the more reason to investigate the connection between a rash of weird murders and the strange Japanese man who lives out in the woods (Jun Kunimura.) Spins that South Korean staple, the police incompetence drama, into epic-length exorcism horror that keeps the twists and ambiguities coming.—RDL

Good

Armies of the Volga Bulgars & Khanate of Kazan: 9th-16th Centuries (Nonfiction, Viacheslav Shpakovsky and David Nicolle, 2013) Perhaps every known fact (and plenty of speculation) about the Volga Bulgars’ military is in here and it’s still visibly stretched thin; besides the lovely plates, half the illustrations depict non-Bulgar weapons or fighters. That said, these 64 pages may be the best, i.e., only, book on the Volga Bulgars in English. –KH

Okay

Thunder Road (Film, US, Arthur Ripley, 1958) Kentucky moonshine runner (Robert Mitchum) puts his driving skills to use against federal agents and a murderous gangster out to seize his community’s booze production. This milestone in the development of the car chase action movie, a passion project of Mitchum’s, plays as an artifact today due to poky pacing in the dramatic scenes and a supporting cast that just can’t hold the screen with him.—RDL

Not Recommended

Mystery Team (Film, US, Dan Eckman, 2009) Kid detectives uncover a murder plot, except they’re all seniors in high school who still think they’re kid detectives. Even with Donald Glover and Aubrey Plaza in it these 94 minutes are interminable; if it had been a 9-minute comedy sketch, the single joke might have worked. –KH

The Salvation (Film, Denmark, Kristian Levring, 2014) After killing the men who murdered his freshly-arrived wife and son, a Schleswig war vet turned old West homesteader (Mads Mikkelsen) becomes the target of a land-grabbing bandit (Jeffrey Dean Morgan.) Taking the Mannerist sensibility of the spaghetti western and swapping out the black humor for unremitting Nordic grimness is not a compelling trade, it turns out. If this was a thing we could call it a frikadeller western but sadly it’s not.—RDL

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Film Cannister
Cartoon Rocket
d8
Flying Clock
Robin
Film Cannister