The Good, the Bad, and the Strange
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The Good
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is without doubt the finest Mission Impossible movie ever produced, and one of the finest action movies I've ever seen period. I'm not sure if it can be enjoyed by someone who really can't stand Tom Cruise, but I've never been a big fan of his. The other movies I've enjoyed him in I can count on one hand with fingers left over. My total doesn't include all of the other MI movies. I do feel this Mission Impossible movie does the best job of truly being a team movie. I enjoy Jeremy Renner's William Brandt most, followed by Simon Pegg's Benji Dunn. I've made a couple of Brandt icons. I'd like to see more of Jeremy Renner.
The Bad
The Crucifer of Blood is my personal choice for the worst adaptation of Sherlock Holmes I've ever watched. I believe the episode of Wishbone with the Jack Russell terrier dressed up as Sherlock Holmes was a better adaptation. It was aimed at kids. It wasn't a film version of a stage version of The Sign of Four with Charlton Heston as Sherlock Holmes. I may have very low expectations for the new CBS series Elementary, but I'm comforted by the thought that that TV series can't be that bad. I mean whatever Jonathan Lee Miller's acting skills are or aren't like, he's at least an actual Brit. Things could be much worse.
The Strange
I've finally read Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods. If the material included in my edition is accurate, I'm something of an oddity in his experience. I neither really love the book nor really hate it. I mostly find it a long, kind of dull, road trip. I frequently caught myself thinking the classic road trip complaint, "Are we there yet?" The book is supposed to be a road trip, so it worked as that. It's also supposed to be a thriller, a murder mystery, and a romance. For me the pace is too slow for it to be a thriller, the characters aren't engaging enough for it to be a romance, and the resolutions to the mysteries are too... anti-climactic... for a murder mystery.
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The Good
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is without doubt the finest Mission Impossible movie ever produced, and one of the finest action movies I've ever seen period. I'm not sure if it can be enjoyed by someone who really can't stand Tom Cruise, but I've never been a big fan of his. The other movies I've enjoyed him in I can count on one hand with fingers left over. My total doesn't include all of the other MI movies. I do feel this Mission Impossible movie does the best job of truly being a team movie. I enjoy Jeremy Renner's William Brandt most, followed by Simon Pegg's Benji Dunn. I've made a couple of Brandt icons. I'd like to see more of Jeremy Renner.
The Bad
The Crucifer of Blood is my personal choice for the worst adaptation of Sherlock Holmes I've ever watched. I believe the episode of Wishbone with the Jack Russell terrier dressed up as Sherlock Holmes was a better adaptation. It was aimed at kids. It wasn't a film version of a stage version of The Sign of Four with Charlton Heston as Sherlock Holmes. I may have very low expectations for the new CBS series Elementary, but I'm comforted by the thought that that TV series can't be that bad. I mean whatever Jonathan Lee Miller's acting skills are or aren't like, he's at least an actual Brit. Things could be much worse.
The Strange
I've finally read Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods. If the material included in my edition is accurate, I'm something of an oddity in his experience. I neither really love the book nor really hate it. I mostly find it a long, kind of dull, road trip. I frequently caught myself thinking the classic road trip complaint, "Are we there yet?" The book is supposed to be a road trip, so it worked as that. It's also supposed to be a thriller, a murder mystery, and a romance. For me the pace is too slow for it to be a thriller, the characters aren't engaging enough for it to be a romance, and the resolutions to the mysteries are too... anti-climactic... for a murder mystery.
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