Some Reviews

If you read reviews on Doctor Who fan sites, "The Curse of Fenric" is remarkably credited as the 'best of the McCoy era' and 'excellent writing'.

Well, it doesn't take much of to be the best of Mr. McCoy's reign as the Doctor, and IMHO most of the reviews contain more plot and characterization than this clunker. It's WWII England. There's an Enigma machine, a paltry six man Italian invasion force, a Viking curse, a bitter old spinster, a nutty British officer, some sea monsters and chess sets.

McCoy is far, far more obnoxious as the Doctor than I recall, and Ace bored me to tears as his companion. Did I mention the special effects probably cost less than the tuna casserole I'm muching between paragraphs?

It is, in the words of Shakespeare, a turd of a story. Yeech.

Due Date failed to my hopes of a Road Trip/Hangover-esque comedy, but it had some moments. It could have used a good edit, if you ask me - chop out that Mexico bit and the story becomes much stronger. It was an OK way to waste a couple hours, but I wouldn't watch it again.

Rollercoaster is a '70's disaster flick about a domestic terrorist targeting amusement parks. I love the decade of my birth, so by default this earns one star; it earns two more by being a fun, rather coherent thriller. I do wish they'd spent a little time finding some rationale for the bomber. I didn't need to like him or even sympathize with the guy, but I'd have liked at least a teensy bit of an explanation.

Extra fun/brownie points: identify a very young Helen Hunt and Steve Guttenberg in bit parts. I don't think Guttenberg was even credited on screen.

SPOILER: there was no reason to bring the protaganist's family to the park at the end, not if they were just going to be sent home without incident. Why introduce them to the scene if not to add tension to the climax?