fuel for a rainy Sunday
* Netflix has gone geek-friendly, throwing into the Available For Streaming section the X-Men cartoons (both the 1990s version and Evolution), the old Spidey and Supes cartoons, the more recent Avengers cartoons, FF and Iron man toons, and more. There's still a chunk of DCU stuff missing, most notably JL/JLU and Batman Beyond.
They're also making all of the Trek series available, which I don't especially need to see, and Highlander (the series and some of the movies, but not HL: the Raven), which I might. I haven't checked which versions they have, the ones with the eurominutes or the US cuts of film and series.
* They also have Rain Fall, the movie adaptation of the Eisler novel, and it's awful. The changes they made are random -- Tatsu wanders around like a disheveled lush! Midori has a sister who dies almost immediately! Harry doesn't exist! -- and what they did to John Rain himself doesn't need to be dissected. The acting is terrible, including Gary Oldman, who is there to be an Ugly American and scream a lot. It's a Japanese production, save for Oldman and a few other gaijin who die quickly, but it barely feels like Tokyo. I couldn't even finish it.
* Speaking of Oldman, the trailer for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was released this week and looks pretty good. I've got a love/hate thing going with LeCarre -- lovely language, ugly people -- but maybe, maybe. I'm not so wedded to the Gielgud version that I would avoid this on principle. It's Cold War stuff, which I love by default because it's my childhood, and spy dramas before the era of computers and omniscient electronic surveillance are always better.
* I've read the new James Bond novel, Carte Blanche, written by Jeffrey Deaver. It's a pretty good read for the subway, although I don't know how much my ability to divorce it from both the films and the Fleming novels helps. Deaver does have an eye for the practical and the logistics and trying to figure out how it all works, which is naturally right up my alley.
* The hockey team snagged the biggest fish in the pond -- will he be the first PEI native on the team? -- among a brief but robust bout of crazy-ass free agent signings. (Seriously, Chicago? Carcillo?) And the baseball team has managed to steal victory from the *ptui* Yankees, although they lost their shortstop and a pitcher in the process. All in all, though, the weekend is on the positive side.
They're also making all of the Trek series available, which I don't especially need to see, and Highlander (the series and some of the movies, but not HL: the Raven), which I might. I haven't checked which versions they have, the ones with the eurominutes or the US cuts of film and series.
* They also have Rain Fall, the movie adaptation of the Eisler novel, and it's awful. The changes they made are random -- Tatsu wanders around like a disheveled lush! Midori has a sister who dies almost immediately! Harry doesn't exist! -- and what they did to John Rain himself doesn't need to be dissected. The acting is terrible, including Gary Oldman, who is there to be an Ugly American and scream a lot. It's a Japanese production, save for Oldman and a few other gaijin who die quickly, but it barely feels like Tokyo. I couldn't even finish it.
* Speaking of Oldman, the trailer for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was released this week and looks pretty good. I've got a love/hate thing going with LeCarre -- lovely language, ugly people -- but maybe, maybe. I'm not so wedded to the Gielgud version that I would avoid this on principle. It's Cold War stuff, which I love by default because it's my childhood, and spy dramas before the era of computers and omniscient electronic surveillance are always better.
* I've read the new James Bond novel, Carte Blanche, written by Jeffrey Deaver. It's a pretty good read for the subway, although I don't know how much my ability to divorce it from both the films and the Fleming novels helps. Deaver does have an eye for the practical and the logistics and trying to figure out how it all works, which is naturally right up my alley.
* The hockey team snagged the biggest fish in the pond -- will he be the first PEI native on the team? -- among a brief but robust bout of crazy-ass free agent signings. (Seriously, Chicago? Carcillo?) And the baseball team has managed to steal victory from the *ptui* Yankees, although they lost their shortstop and a pitcher in the process. All in all, though, the weekend is on the positive side.