Movies of march
27. The King's Speech
Quite good - maybe not quite as good as the hype, but still, quite good. Though I'd really like to see a movie that didn't villainize Mrs. Simpson. Just once. (also, it would have been awesome with a guest appearance by Lord Peter Wimsey, but since he's purely fictional... yeah, I know, silly me ;-)
28. Open Water 2: Adrift
This got on my to-rent-list because of my current not-exactly-an-obsession with Richard Speight Jr. - and sorry to say, but it's not a good movie. Actings average, but the plot - so, they sail out in the middle of nowhere, everybody jumps into the water, and next thing they notice they forgot to lower the ladder. Cue people trying to propel themselves up the side of the boat and failing. And this is where I was going "right, you two big guys, give the sporty girl a leg up, you'll be out of there in no time". Except they don't. And they don't. And they don't. And eventually, after four out of six of the idiots having died, someone finally has the idea of climbing on top of the other to get back aboard - and then she jumps back in. Idiots. I can't like a movie full of idiots. Sorry.
29. Robin Hood season 3.
Well, this season managed to do two things: completely undermine Robin Hood's image as a supposed good guy/hero and completely undermine the Robin Hood / Marion romance. Last thing first: it's remarkable how little Robin seems to care about his dead wife - a brief rampage of vengeance and before the season is over he's all best buddies with her murderer - and in the meantime, when he's not menacing women in their bedchambers, he's taking up with some random peasant floozie. Apparantly the epic love isn't even worth a season's mourning...
As for his good guy image - the flashback to childhood episode ruins that. Apparently part of his precious Locksley is basically stolen from Guy - oh, and spoiled brat Robin nearly had Guy lynched without bothering to speak up and played a part in the deaths of Guy's parents - and he has apparently never done anything to rectify this - situations that led directly to Isabella's getting basically sold to an older man and Guy falling under the Sherif's influence - I wonder what he could have been, if Robin had actually bothered to return the illgotten gains to the rightful heirs instead of just keeping them for himself. No wonder Guy wanted Locksley. Add to this such petty things as Robin's unfortunate habit of threatening Isabella in her bedchamber to get his way, and Robin apparently being fine with teaming up with his wife's murderer - yeah, not exactly a good guy. And don't get me wrong, I like stories where every side is a bastard (loving A Song of Ice and Fire so far), but the series doesn't seem to have caught on to this, apparently still thinking Robin a good guy...
Mind you, Guy continues to be the most interesting (not always likable, definitely not heroic, but interesting) character in the series, and Isabella's quite interesting too - two people who have not have anything remotely resembling easy lives, yet never giving up, never stopping, never backing down. Far more interesting than Robin and his merry band of rebels-that-don't-do-anything (also, just once, I'd love a Robin Hood version that dares to consider that maybe the high taxation might possibly have something to do with King Richard basically bankrupting his own country to go off and try and conquer somebody else's - I was so disappointed when the news about Ridley Scott's Robin Hood movie gradually turned from a story with the Sherif as hero into what it became...)
30. The Adjustment Bureau
Can someone please tell me why people are calling this science fiction? I mean, it isn't - not that you couldn't imagine the bureau as interfering aliens, except there's nothing to hint at that - quite the contrary: magic hats! Maybe the original story? Also, it's kind of - well, when the high-ranking angel man in silly hat goes into how they stopped interfering at the height of the Roman empire and look where it went - I thought the middle ages had been reinstated as a dynamic time, and anyway, I'm fairly sure the Muslims where busily being refined and highly advanced and probably the Chinese where too, and I think people in the Americas must have been going strong too, so, basically the angels dammit men in hats only cared about what happened in Europe?
31. Jekyll
This is an awesome tv series. Awesome. I love Jekyll, the bad guys are delightfully bad, the backstory might be a bit ridiculous but so what, but, first and foremost, I love, love, love Mrs. Jekyll & Hyde as portrayed by Gina Bellman. I mean, in Coupling she wasn't that great, and while Leverage is fun, then, well, she isn't my favourite, and at first, in Jekyll, you think, oh, just the wife, must keep secret from wife - and then she sees her husband turn into Hyde. And then, oh then - poor Hyde doesn't know what hit him... seriously, if you haven't seen this, see it. It is awesome.
32. Chuck season 2.
Chuck's fun, but I mostly watch for Casey, and for whenever Chuck and Casey interact. I love how Casey gets to have moral crises and how Chuck gradually grows on him and everything, besides which, he's the only one of Chuck's handlers who seem to acknowledge that Chuck isn't a spy, but a civilian, and an untrained civilian at that (though why he didn't drag Chuck off to some Spy 101 training early on, teaching basic stuff like how to call in back-up, and how to shoot a gun in emergencies, I really don't know). On the other hand, I really don't like Sarah. I feel about her a bit like I feel about the 10th Doctor - on the screen she seems mostly nice, but if I take even half a second to reflect, well - I mean, either she's unprofessional (falling in love with an asset), incompetent (which would explain how it apparently never even occurs to her that oh, maybe letting Chuck go with a huge, secret database in his head isn't exactly an option the government will really consider) or just plain cruel (which would explain her continual toying with Chuck's emotions, building him up, slapping him down, ruining it every time he finally gets himself together to try to break them up, yet never taking that final step). My most charitable interpretation of her is that she's basically a bit fucked-up - having never had a normal life (raised by at least somewhat neglectful con-man, recruited by CIA at very vulnerable moment as teenager) and clearly having issues to spare, she doesn't love Chuck - she loves the potential for a normal life she lets herself believe he represents - which would also explain why, at the start of season 3, she's so very against him attempting to become an actual spy. Bad Chuck, ruining Sarah's neat little daydream...
33. I Sell the Dead
Boring. I mean, you'd think body snatchers trafficking in zombies might be amusing, but quite frankly? Mostly dull...
34. Downton Abbey season 1.
Gorgeous, but I'm kind of sorry that there's so few truly likable characters in this. I like the Dowager, though - I suspect her of being innately awesome, if push comes to shove. But I very much dislike the whole Mary and the dead Turk storyline - I dislike that there is not a single person that acknowledges, that what he did was beyond the pale - and that by the time he entered her room, she basically had the choice of keeping the whole thing secret or becoming the focus of a scandal (sorry to say, but at the time, being the virtuous maid ravished by a filthy foreigner or being the woman inviting said foreigner into her bedchamber at night would have made precious little difference). Also, there's Thomas, and I dislike him, but then, I think you're supposed to, and I wish I knew more about him, his background - I mean, we know he's ambitious and amoral, but apart from that - I mean, servant gossip aside, I'm not even sure he's supposed to be gay or just a guy willing to prostitute himself in hopes of improving his position, and since we don't see him hit on anyone not a social superior, and since one of those times involve attempted blackmail. Yeah.
35. True Blood season 3.
So I'm probably never going to be head over heels for True Blood, but I like how - unlike in the books - you never managed to forget that vampires and werewolves and the rest are monsters. It's filthy and nasty and bloody, with biker-Nazi-bloodjunkie-werewolves and shapeshifters in dogfights, and I quite frankly wonder how the supernatural ever managed to be a secret in this world in the first place. I like Lafayette, I like Eric's backstory, I like Jason in all his stupid but basically nice glory, I like Hotshot being a real inbred, nasty little place, I like Jessica and her attempts to figure out how to be a vampire. Alas, what I don't particularly like would be Sookie, the main character. Ah well, can't win them all...
36. Gentlemen Broncos
I have two good things to say about this movie: a) the title sequence with all the old science fiction novel covers is quite good, and b) the excerpts from Yeast Lords genuinely sound like they were written by a pretty immature boy. Alas, so does the rest of the movie. I mean, on the surface, it's a decent enough plot, but there's not a single likable character, too much reliance on so-called funny things that are really, really not funny, just gross, not to mention that I wonder if the movie makers have ever actually read a science fiction novel? Make fun of genre fiction and fan culture, sure, but when you don't seem like you know what your making fun of in the first place? Spare me. I wish I had stopped watching after the title sequence...
Quite good - maybe not quite as good as the hype, but still, quite good. Though I'd really like to see a movie that didn't villainize Mrs. Simpson. Just once. (also, it would have been awesome with a guest appearance by Lord Peter Wimsey, but since he's purely fictional... yeah, I know, silly me ;-)
28. Open Water 2: Adrift
This got on my to-rent-list because of my current not-exactly-an-obsession with Richard Speight Jr. - and sorry to say, but it's not a good movie. Actings average, but the plot - so, they sail out in the middle of nowhere, everybody jumps into the water, and next thing they notice they forgot to lower the ladder. Cue people trying to propel themselves up the side of the boat and failing. And this is where I was going "right, you two big guys, give the sporty girl a leg up, you'll be out of there in no time". Except they don't. And they don't. And they don't. And eventually, after four out of six of the idiots having died, someone finally has the idea of climbing on top of the other to get back aboard - and then she jumps back in. Idiots. I can't like a movie full of idiots. Sorry.
29. Robin Hood season 3.
Well, this season managed to do two things: completely undermine Robin Hood's image as a supposed good guy/hero and completely undermine the Robin Hood / Marion romance. Last thing first: it's remarkable how little Robin seems to care about his dead wife - a brief rampage of vengeance and before the season is over he's all best buddies with her murderer - and in the meantime, when he's not menacing women in their bedchambers, he's taking up with some random peasant floozie. Apparantly the epic love isn't even worth a season's mourning...
As for his good guy image - the flashback to childhood episode ruins that. Apparently part of his precious Locksley is basically stolen from Guy - oh, and spoiled brat Robin nearly had Guy lynched without bothering to speak up and played a part in the deaths of Guy's parents - and he has apparently never done anything to rectify this - situations that led directly to Isabella's getting basically sold to an older man and Guy falling under the Sherif's influence - I wonder what he could have been, if Robin had actually bothered to return the illgotten gains to the rightful heirs instead of just keeping them for himself. No wonder Guy wanted Locksley. Add to this such petty things as Robin's unfortunate habit of threatening Isabella in her bedchamber to get his way, and Robin apparently being fine with teaming up with his wife's murderer - yeah, not exactly a good guy. And don't get me wrong, I like stories where every side is a bastard (loving A Song of Ice and Fire so far), but the series doesn't seem to have caught on to this, apparently still thinking Robin a good guy...
Mind you, Guy continues to be the most interesting (not always likable, definitely not heroic, but interesting) character in the series, and Isabella's quite interesting too - two people who have not have anything remotely resembling easy lives, yet never giving up, never stopping, never backing down. Far more interesting than Robin and his merry band of rebels-that-don't-do-anything (also, just once, I'd love a Robin Hood version that dares to consider that maybe the high taxation might possibly have something to do with King Richard basically bankrupting his own country to go off and try and conquer somebody else's - I was so disappointed when the news about Ridley Scott's Robin Hood movie gradually turned from a story with the Sherif as hero into what it became...)
30. The Adjustment Bureau
Can someone please tell me why people are calling this science fiction? I mean, it isn't - not that you couldn't imagine the bureau as interfering aliens, except there's nothing to hint at that - quite the contrary: magic hats! Maybe the original story? Also, it's kind of - well, when the high-ranking angel man in silly hat goes into how they stopped interfering at the height of the Roman empire and look where it went - I thought the middle ages had been reinstated as a dynamic time, and anyway, I'm fairly sure the Muslims where busily being refined and highly advanced and probably the Chinese where too, and I think people in the Americas must have been going strong too, so, basically the angels dammit men in hats only cared about what happened in Europe?
31. Jekyll
This is an awesome tv series. Awesome. I love Jekyll, the bad guys are delightfully bad, the backstory might be a bit ridiculous but so what, but, first and foremost, I love, love, love Mrs. Jekyll & Hyde as portrayed by Gina Bellman. I mean, in Coupling she wasn't that great, and while Leverage is fun, then, well, she isn't my favourite, and at first, in Jekyll, you think, oh, just the wife, must keep secret from wife - and then she sees her husband turn into Hyde. And then, oh then - poor Hyde doesn't know what hit him... seriously, if you haven't seen this, see it. It is awesome.
32. Chuck season 2.
Chuck's fun, but I mostly watch for Casey, and for whenever Chuck and Casey interact. I love how Casey gets to have moral crises and how Chuck gradually grows on him and everything, besides which, he's the only one of Chuck's handlers who seem to acknowledge that Chuck isn't a spy, but a civilian, and an untrained civilian at that (though why he didn't drag Chuck off to some Spy 101 training early on, teaching basic stuff like how to call in back-up, and how to shoot a gun in emergencies, I really don't know). On the other hand, I really don't like Sarah. I feel about her a bit like I feel about the 10th Doctor - on the screen she seems mostly nice, but if I take even half a second to reflect, well - I mean, either she's unprofessional (falling in love with an asset), incompetent (which would explain how it apparently never even occurs to her that oh, maybe letting Chuck go with a huge, secret database in his head isn't exactly an option the government will really consider) or just plain cruel (which would explain her continual toying with Chuck's emotions, building him up, slapping him down, ruining it every time he finally gets himself together to try to break them up, yet never taking that final step). My most charitable interpretation of her is that she's basically a bit fucked-up - having never had a normal life (raised by at least somewhat neglectful con-man, recruited by CIA at very vulnerable moment as teenager) and clearly having issues to spare, she doesn't love Chuck - she loves the potential for a normal life she lets herself believe he represents - which would also explain why, at the start of season 3, she's so very against him attempting to become an actual spy. Bad Chuck, ruining Sarah's neat little daydream...
33. I Sell the Dead
Boring. I mean, you'd think body snatchers trafficking in zombies might be amusing, but quite frankly? Mostly dull...
34. Downton Abbey season 1.
Gorgeous, but I'm kind of sorry that there's so few truly likable characters in this. I like the Dowager, though - I suspect her of being innately awesome, if push comes to shove. But I very much dislike the whole Mary and the dead Turk storyline - I dislike that there is not a single person that acknowledges, that what he did was beyond the pale - and that by the time he entered her room, she basically had the choice of keeping the whole thing secret or becoming the focus of a scandal (sorry to say, but at the time, being the virtuous maid ravished by a filthy foreigner or being the woman inviting said foreigner into her bedchamber at night would have made precious little difference). Also, there's Thomas, and I dislike him, but then, I think you're supposed to, and I wish I knew more about him, his background - I mean, we know he's ambitious and amoral, but apart from that - I mean, servant gossip aside, I'm not even sure he's supposed to be gay or just a guy willing to prostitute himself in hopes of improving his position, and since we don't see him hit on anyone not a social superior, and since one of those times involve attempted blackmail. Yeah.
35. True Blood season 3.
So I'm probably never going to be head over heels for True Blood, but I like how - unlike in the books - you never managed to forget that vampires and werewolves and the rest are monsters. It's filthy and nasty and bloody, with biker-Nazi-bloodjunkie-werewolves and shapeshifters in dogfights, and I quite frankly wonder how the supernatural ever managed to be a secret in this world in the first place. I like Lafayette, I like Eric's backstory, I like Jason in all his stupid but basically nice glory, I like Hotshot being a real inbred, nasty little place, I like Jessica and her attempts to figure out how to be a vampire. Alas, what I don't particularly like would be Sookie, the main character. Ah well, can't win them all...
36. Gentlemen Broncos
I have two good things to say about this movie: a) the title sequence with all the old science fiction novel covers is quite good, and b) the excerpts from Yeast Lords genuinely sound like they were written by a pretty immature boy. Alas, so does the rest of the movie. I mean, on the surface, it's a decent enough plot, but there's not a single likable character, too much reliance on so-called funny things that are really, really not funny, just gross, not to mention that I wonder if the movie makers have ever actually read a science fiction novel? Make fun of genre fiction and fan culture, sure, but when you don't seem like you know what your making fun of in the first place? Spare me. I wish I had stopped watching after the title sequence...