23 AUG 2022 · House of the Dragon (18) Streaming on Sky Atlantic / Now TV Reviewed by Matt ‘Hand of the King’ Adcock (@cleric20) How do you like your politically charged fantasy? If you answered ‘tasty – with plenty of spicy situations, intrigue, violence, treason, naked bums, simmering rage and kick ass dragons’, then oh boy are you about to be happy… Here we go then with a time-rewind to Westeros some 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones. We get to join the action in the ninth year of King Viserys (Paddy ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ Considine) Targaryen’s reign. Things in the kingdom are a bit tense, the king is ill, he doesn’t have a male heir although does have cool daughter - Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), but it’s pointed out the “there has never been a queen on the Iron Throne”. Step forward cocky pantomime baddie Prince Daemon (Matt ‘acting like he’s cos-playing a Game of Thrones character’ Smith) who wants to be king elect. Luckily the current queen is pregnant and about to give birth – many fingers are crossed for a male baby and Viserys has such a good feeling about it that he puts on a celebratory tournament where the knights of the realm joust and take to hand-to-hand combat for some patented GOT extremely gory demises. It's only a minor spoiler to say the birth of the new heir doesn’t exactly lead to a glorious new succession plan the king was hoping – cue Daemon thinking he’s an evil shoo-in for the crown. But, being an absolute bell-end, he parties a bit too hard over the death of his nephew which doesn’t go down very well. Add to the mix some pot-boiling stirring by the King’s Hand, Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) and his Cersei-like daughter Alicent (Emily Carey) and the fuse is well and truly lit for another 7 episodes of carnage. By the end of this first hour we’ve met plenty of the main characters, heard tales about some who will no doubt turn up later in the series – my favourite being the reference to a salty self-appointed Prince Admiral of the free cities who is called ‘Crab Feeder’ due to his penchant for, well, feeding his enemies to crabs!? But perhaps given the name of the show we get to see some very impressive dragons. Oooooh here be dragons alright and they are fine beasties indeed, apparently there are no less than 10 kicking about and I for one can’t wait to see them in battle. In proper Game of Thrones style the seeds of political, lineage, civil squabbles are well sown – I can’t confirm or deny if Westeros is in the throes of a ‘Westxit’ vote but having a blonde-haired loony overseeing political chaos and an unhappy populace doesn’t sound that far-fetched alas… House of the Dragon is sublime – Game of Thrones fans (even if jaded by the unpopular ending of the main series) should definitely give this a look. Based on this first episode we could be in for a prequel series every bit as awesome as GOT was at its best. Let’s hope that the mooted sequel ‘Snow’ can also step up and deliver because it looks like fantasy fans are going to have a great time what with the rival Lord of the Rings ‘Rings of Power’ hitting in September too… Read more of Matt’s reviews over at https://darkmatt.blogspot.com/

9 AUG 2022 · Prey 2022. Reviewed by Matt Adcock for The WCCS Movie Room! You can watch this as a review on our YouTube channel. Find The WCCS Movie Room on YouTube and check out its brand new page on TheWritingCommunityChatShow.Com website. "I’m delighted to say that Prey is absolutely badass, packing a level of gruesome endorphin rush that has been sorely missing from the decent but not-a-classic Predators and the wildly misfiring The Predator from Shane Black." Subscribe to our YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXAuhcVQoPPKpbvh2gPYQ5g Find the new webpage here: https://www.thewritingcommunitychatshow.com/movieroom

8 AUG 2022 · IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON 2020. In the shadow of the Moon is a 2020 Netflix movie directed by Jim Mickle and written by Gregory Weidman and Geoffrey Tock. This is the tag - A Philadelphia police officer struggles with a lifelong obsession to track down a mysterious serial killer whose crimes defy explanation. Immediately the trailer intrigued me with its darkened style and police chases and action. I have been longing for something to look for and feel the outstanding Se7en for a long long time. This, I think, had slight similarities in style, at times. As I got into the film I began trying to figure out where I knew the characters from and it surprised me to realize that...  one of them was Dexter! ANNNND I have only watched one episode of it. Can I hear the booos through the medium of blog?! Perhaps. Anyway, the cast is well-fitting. Boyd Holbrook plays a Philly Police officer named Locke. I like this character. After a run-in with a strange and mysterious woman, post some very strange deaths! tragedy strikes his life. What unfoldes is the spiraling detective Locke dedicating his entire life (quite literally) in the search of this woman that only appears in a certain pattern. That woman is Cleopatra Coleman, she plays Rya. The mysterious one. It is a classically styled cop thriller in a damp and dark city until Locke begins to track down this woman while he neglects his family in the process. Then I can only describe him looking like Ron Burgandy when the news team was disbanded. Despite the way he gets to look throughout the film Boyd Holbrook played the lead character very well and this polished film left me wanting more. I do think that perhaps they could have made more out of the big twist... that I DIDNT SEE COMING! Which I won't mention any more. To round up this scrappy review. I expected a gritty cop detective thriller, but I got something slightly different and was pleasantly surprised. It is like digging into your winter jacket pocket to find something and accidentally finding some cash instead. #Win So this film pleased me despite its occasional slow-building moments. I give this movie 7 zombie heads out of 10! It is on our website blog that you can read here and see the trailer. If you have any movie requests then send them to CJ Aggett or Matt Adcock at TheWritingCommunityChatShow.Com under The Movie Room tab.

8 AUG 2022 · Unbreakable came to us in 2000 and introduced us to David Dunn (Bruce Willis) who was the sole survivor of a horrific train crash, he didn't just survive against the odds, he did it without any injuries. We were also introduced to the character Elijah Price (Samuel L Jackson). These characters are two of the three that are the focus of Glass. Now Glass is a sequel to Unbreakable but where this becomes interesting is that Split is also a sequel to Glass. Split (2016) is where we see James McAvoy play Kevin Wendell Crumb / Dennis / Patricia / Hedwig / Barry / Orwell / Jade / The Horde. And more importantly The Beast! If you haven't seen this you may be thinking how exactly? Well, McAvoy whose actual personality is Kevin is kept in the dark by his "Horde", which is 23 other prominent personalities, his "Split" personalities. Let me tell you this, James McAvoy's acting in this is absolutely superb. His ability to jump from character to character is something to be seen. Acting at its finest. So... now you have where the characters have come from we can discuss Glass. Glass brings all three characters together in the same universe. We quickly discover a Dr played by Sarah Paulson who wants to bring people, who consider themselves to have superpowers, into a facility to make them see the realities and convince them they are indeed wrong. Sarah Paulson, in my opinion, delivers well in this screenplay and has had similar roles in other tv shows. She eventually gets all three characters into the institute which is heavily guarded. Guarded perhaps by the most useless staff that ever existed. It's safe to say anyone could have escaped within a week in that place! This, unfortunately, was a factor in the film that made me question its existence. Resulting in me sighing or swearing at the screen in frustration. It felt like lazy writing from M. Night Shyamalan who has previously delivered in this series. There were therapy sessions in the film where all three of the main characters unrealistically sit together and get personally quizzed by the Dr before the last twenty minutes or so we visit the outside of the establishment where a number of big twists in the show play out. Some of which were again very unrealistic. Without giving much away it's safe to say it left things wide open for more despite the final situation. This film felt unlike Unbreakable and Split, it felt more like an initiation into a franchise than a standalone, and that wasn't a good thing. The acting in this film from McAvoy was once again fantastic, however, that did not prop up the slow and unrealistic twisting storyline. If you are very much into the Unbreakable and Split then it is certainly worth a watch as there is no doubt the story will continue. That said I was left neither over-satisfied nor underwhelmed. I am going to have to give Glass 5 zombie heads out of 10.

8 AUG 2022 · The WCCS Movie Room is here! Episode 1 is a test run, and we thought we would keep it for you. Each month there will be a WCCS Movie Room show where Matt and Chris will chat movies, tv, and much more. We will interview entertainment guests when we can and sometimes they will co-host with us. Each week there will be a #podcast and blog movie/series review from Matt or Chris. Populated on The WCCS website, WCCS blog, Matts blog and wordpress! Expect merch, fun, drinks, banter and movies! In this pilot episode we talked #StrangerThings, #Prey, #actors, movies and more. Check out our awesome webpage on TheWritingCommunityChatShow.Com website - The WCCS Movie Room tab.