Restless Tonight -Reviews and Rants

One of the things I hate about watching hyped-up, highly-praised movies is that I'm fairly certain it will not be as good as everyone is saying, and then I'll have to put my two cents in about how not fantastic it is. Alright, so I actually enjoy that part. I'm not a huge X-Men fan. I've seen all of the movies, I watched the animated show when I was a kid (and liked it), but I wasn't excited to see this, despite the good things I've heard. I was expecting to like it, but not love it, and that's what happened. For starters, I liked it best before Erik and Charles met. I liked badass Erik (Michale Fassbender) going after his overdue revenge by himself with no one to tell him what to do. I also liked Erik a ton more than Charles (James McAvoy). Charles is a dick. At first. He seduces young co-eds and drinks while arrogantly prancing around and being smarter than everyone else, which isn't that hard to do when you can read everyones' minds. That'

 We're totally gonna have sex. Can you tell?  *Some Spoilers ahead* Oh joy, we have a new mystery series on the loose. This one is set in Scotland. Jason Isaacs stars (Lucius Malfoy, if you recall) as a detective with his own private investigative agency that isn't doing too well. He has a young, intelligent and aware daughter whom he takes with him on his cases like the responsible dad that he is. His ex-wife doesn't like it (I suppose this is meant to make her look like a biotch, but I don't blame her one bit. Dude needs to not expose his kid to psychos and grizzly details of dead girls). He used to be a cop, but was "disgraced" as they tend to be in these stories. But, like a leprechaun slipping on a rainbow puddle and dropping his pot of gold into some lucky bastard's open hands, Jackson Brodie is all at once awash with cases. Real cases. First there is the case of a little girl who went missing in 1981. Then a man insists that Brodi

Another Sherlock Holmes flick, only without a real Sherlock Holmes. Instead, we have a former judge who believes he is Sherlock Holmes. And he's good at it. His brother is determined to get him committed, which is where Dr. Watson comes in. It's pure luck that her last name is Watson, otherwise Sherlock wouldn't have wanted her help. Yes, Watson is a she. Sherlock believes that Moriarty is after him, and he's been frantically searching for the clues to determine when and where they will meet, since his enemy is leaving him clues, naturally. It actually does appear that he is correct, or at least close. And there really are people after him. Not only his brother, but a mean dude who is out to kill him. This isn't so much about mystery as it is the dream of being larger than life. Justin wants to be (and effectively is) Sherlock Holmes, another man wants to be the Scarlett Pimpernel (I can't blame him, that dude is cool). No one is entirely satisfied with wha

This is a perhaps not well-known Sherlock Holmes movie. My brother bought it used on VHS, since it's so expensive to buy new or on DVD. When it's rare, people will up the price to a ridiculous amount [insert angry face here]. This is more about Sherlock's deadly drug addiction than anything else. His brother Mycroft (one of my favorite characters) and Watson conspire to get him help by luring him to Venice, where Sigmund Freud is. Yes, Freud is in fact a main character. I love that! He's played by Alan Arkin. While the drug issue is the main plot, there is a mystery to be solved. It's a Sherlock movie, so there has to be. It is drug-related, however, but I won't give it away. The main issue here is the casting. Robert Duvall is miscast as Dr. Watson, and although I think the man playing Sherlock, Nicol Williamson, is a good actor, he isn't Sherlock. He's still likable, however, so I can't complain about him too much. Vanessa Redgrave and Lauren

You know, I was excited last night. Why? Because, after weeks of no Inspector Lewis, they were finally airing two new episodes back to back! Yay! PBS has been a bit backed up, what with all of their pledge programming and favorites. There are four new episodes in total, and two, I believe, were supposed to air in September. Only one did. Naturally, I was looking forward to the 9-midnight Lewis-athon. And you know what ticked me off? They didn't play two new episodes back to back. They repeated the first one and then played a new one. So I had to wait until 10:30 to get my fix. Because of course everyone wants to re-watch the first one, right? Wrong! Mamma not happy! But we did get one new episode, so I'll be content with that. They should be playing the other two next week, since a new series is supposed to start soon. This one is called "Wild Justice". Lewis and Hathaway are investigating the death of a female Bishop. She flew across the pond from the USA for

By now, you've probably seen the trailer for "My Week With Marilyn". Or, uh, maybe you haven't. I've heard about it, of course, and saw the Vogue cover with Michelle Williams done up like Marilyn. Am I the only one who wasn't impressed? Nothing against Michelle, but she in no way reminds me of Marilyn. I made the mistake of voicing my opinion on another site, and one outraged person replied, "Are you blind!" and went on to point out that they have similar features, blah, blah, blah. Well, yeah, their noses and mouths are alike, I won't deny it, but it's not simply about having a Marilyn Monroe pout. You need to not only look at her, which, I'm sorry, but Michelle doesn't, IMO, but you need to have the Monroe feel. Know what I mean? And when I look at Michelle Williams, all I see is Michelle Williams posing as Marilyn Monroe. But, I was willing to give her a chance. Maybe her performance would change my mind (not that I'm likely

I've gotten behind on my reviews recently, and I've seen a few films this past week, so I'll just give a quick opinion about them. I'm lazy, I know. A couple I saw years ago and re-watched, the others were new to me. Mrs. Doubtfire : To be frank, this isn't that great. Robin Williams is good, the kids are cute, and Pierce Brosnan is hunky, but it doesn't turn out as many laughs as it should. I do give it credit for not giving a completely cliche ending, although the ending could have been more conclusive on one front. My grade: C+ White Chicks : This one is so stupid...but funny. It's one of those idiotic comedies that works. It's not brilliant by any means, but I like it. My grade: B Alice in Wonderland : I've never been a big fan of this story. It just doesn't click with me. And I wasn't expecting to like this, but it was okay. I like Johnny Depp, and I was pleasantly surprised by Mia Wasikowska. I have to see her in more to know if