Grab a drink and sit yourself down as I have another list to get through and it will take a while.
Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires
This was a co-production between Hammer and Shaw studios. Dracula goes East and Van Helsing follows. Peter Cushing is in this but this does not have Christopher Lee as Dracula and it is the only Hammer film that does. It has Kung Fu sequences and Van Helsing is ably assisted by a family of fighters to take on six golden vampires as a seventh was killed by a member of their family earlier. I liked it even though it is not up to the high standard of other Hammer films It has Peter Cushing, what more do I need to say ?
Candyman 2: Farewell ton the Flesh
The Candyman is back and is killing people again if they say his name. The hook is that a family whose father was killed are connected to the mythical killer as he is an ancestor of theirs although they pass as Caucasian, The film goes into the origin and death of Candyman. Veronica Cartwright plays the heroine's mother, a teacher who decides to face down the Candyman after ill advisedly saying his name and causing the death of her husband. It is not too bad but the original film is better and flows better.
Dr Phibes Rises Again
Vincent Price is back as the Phibes trying to resurrect his wife and restore himself. Ably assisted again by Vulnavia (played by a different actress), Phibes travels to Egypt to find a secret river, the river of life. Robert Quarry is also after the river in an attempt to prolong his own life and that of his lover. There are some ingenious deaths as in the previous film with Price again not speaking except via recordings. If you liked the previous film, you will like this and Quarry is better in this than he is in the Count Yorga films. Terry Thomas is a travel agent in this film who booked Phibes passage (despite the fact he played a doctor killed by Phibes in the previous film), and Peter Cushing as a cameo as the captain of the ship that Quarry and Price travel on to reach Egypt. See the Abominable Dr Phibes first and then this.
Food of the Gods
Giant chickens, giant maggots, giant wasps and giant wasps menace people on a remote island after something comes bubbling out of the ground that makes animals grow larger. Some of the cast are recognisable as they did other work that was more memorable like Jon Cypher (chief of Police in Hill Street Blues) and Ralph Meeker (who played Mike Hammer in Kiss Me Deadly). The cast are mainly menaced by giant rats and this is where the film is let down because this looks bad. As in Night of the Lepus bad. But the cast play it straight. Marjoe Gortner plays the hero and does a good job.
Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy
The actor travels around Italy sampling the cuisine. This has six episodes in season 1 and is enjoyable. Tucci is Italian on both sides of his family so can speak the language and he has a nice time. This is pleasant.
John Carter's Vampires
This is one of the films I saw at the cinema and watch again. One it is a John Carpenter film, two it has James Woods and three it has Sheryl Lee (forever embedded in the public consciousness as Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks). After taking out a vampire nest, but not finding the master vampire, a team of hunters is attacked by the master who slaughters them and seems to know the name of Woods character. The only survivors are Woods and his friend and fellow hunter Daniel Baldwin. Also a prostitute who the master vampire bit. This gives her a psychic connection to the vampire which the hunters hope to exploit in order to kill it. Reporting back to their Vatican source, Woods finds out that the vampire they are searching for is the origin. It is trying t find a relic to recreate an excommunication ceremony which it hopes will allow it to exist in daylight. I liked the book a bit better than the film but it has Woods who is always very watchable and it has Sheryl Lee who I have a crush on.
Vuelta a Espana 2023
The last of the three Grand Tours of the year and Jumbo Visma are trying for something unprecedented, winning all three Grand Tours in the same year. Consequently they brought the Giro d'Italia winner Primoz Roglic and Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard to the race. Remco Evenepoel the defending champion was back and looking to repeat. Geraint Thomas of Ineos was also present having come second to Roglic in the Giro.
The racing started with a team time trial around Barcelona as the day was turning into night. So the weather kicked in raining like anything so this made the going bad, something which Evenepoel was quite vocal about. Evenepoel struck on the third stage to win it in the mountains around Andorra. This meant he took the overall lead. The next two stages were hilly but were taken by a sprinter, Kaden Groves who was after the sprinters jersey.
It was the next stage that Evenepoel may have made a misjudgement. He and his team allowed a break to get away that finished the stage and pushed him down to ninth place. He finished close behind favourites Roglic and Vingegaard. He also lost the young riders jersey to Lenny Martinez who was the new race leader. Super domestique Sepp Kuss of Jumbo Visma won the stage.
The next stage was for the sprinters and was won by one of the domestiques Geoffrey Soupe. This was followed by a mountain stage with the favourites battling it out with Roglic winning ahead of Evenepoel but with Vingeaard and Kuss close behind. Martinez was dropped and Kuss became the new overall leader.
Weather conditions affected the next stage with mud being an issue that made the organisers alert the racers to potential difficulties/dangers. Lennard Kanma won the stage and completed the set of having won a stage at all three Grand Tours. And thus we came to the first rest day.
The second block of racing kicked off with an individual time trial won by Filippo Ganna who specialises in these. Evenepoel and Roglic also did well which cut down Kuss's lead but he did well enough to hang onto the lead. This was followed by a hilly stage that saw Spain finally get a winner from the home country. Ineos tried to set it up for Geraint Thomas but he was almost out by the end. A flat stage was next which let the General Classification contenders take the day off. This led on to stage 13 which went into France and the Col du Tourmalet and Jumbo Visma took the three top positions for the day with Vinegaard winning the stage and in the General Classification they has the top three spots. It also ended Evenepoel's challenge as he had a bad day and dropped out of contention losing over twenty minutes.
He bounced back the next day winning the stage which was also a mountain stage. The last stage before the second rest day was hilly and was won by Rui Costa who has a reputation for not doing work in the breakaways in order to allow him to sprint at the end to win.
The next stage was a hilly stage and was won by Vingegaard who dedicated it to one of their colleagues who was injured in a car accident that day. Roglic won the next stage in the mountains and this is when both Vingegaard and Roglic got a lot of criticism. Their team mate was in the lead and they were likely to usurp him which seemed out of order to many on social media and also the media.
Evenepoel switched to attacking for the mountains jersey and took the stage. This was followed by a sprint stage won by Alberto Dainese. The 20th stage was a long hard hilly stage won by Wout Poels just ahead of Evenepoel but Kuss, Roglic and Vingegaard crossed the line together having ensured they were 1-2-3 or the race and having made history as they won all three Grand Tours in the same year.
The same team has held all three Grand Tours over a year but not in the same year notably Eddy Merckx and Chris Froome
Kaden Groves won the last stage around Madrid ensuring he won the Sprint Jersey with Evenepoel winning the Mountains. Jumbo Visma had all three places on the podium for General Classification with Kuss the faithful super domestique for Vingegaard and Roglic taking the overall win. He had been with Roglic during the latter's wins at the Vuelta, the win at the Giro and the two tilts at the Tour de France in 20202 and 2021 but he also served Vingegaard in 2022 and 2023. He competed in all three Grand Tours in 2023, the first time he had done so. He earned the win, the first American to win a Grand Tour since Chris Horner at the Vuelta in 2013.
mattingly reacted to death tribble in What Have You Watched Recently?
mattingly got a reaction from BoloOfEarth in Jokes
