I’m a big kid at heart. Had the end of year blues in a big way last night – definitely not helped by a horrible toothache from my wisdom tooth deciding to make a bid for freedom resulting in a colossal headache. So basically I spent the day in bed with a hot water bottle on my face feeling sorry for myself watching kids films on BBC iplayer to cheer myself up. I’m wondering how much ‘wisdom’ this tooth will bring me in the new year.
Watched a grown up film the previous night so I’ll do that one first:
The New Sherlock Holmes Movie
Brilliant film. I’ve grown up on murder mysteries- I LOVE them and my dad absolutely loves Sherlock Holmes, so I’m used to a tall, elegant, immaculately dressed, soave, slightly peculiar in the head Victorian opium addict with a cape, a nose like an eagle and a deerstalker or a top hat.
Basically this bloke:
So when a tall, elegant, immaculately dressed, soave, man appeared on the screen I thought ‘Yep. That’s my Holmes’… and then the camera panned down to a rogueish, scruffy, bohemian hobbit-like creature who opened his mouth and said ‘Watson’.. I was very confused. I was like ‘WHAT??? that’s not Holmes! That’s never Holmes!’. He is as far from the Holmes I’ve grown up knowing as you can get really, BUT this is not necessarily a bad thing. The banter between Holmes and Watson is absolutely brilliant and by about the first 10 minutes of the film I thought ‘You now what? If he wants to be Holmes, that’s fine by me’. His English accent was pretty convincing too – there are few things that irritate me as much in films as an American attempting to do an English accent and getting it wrong. I really couldn’t find fault with him. The girl from The Notebook was also in it – she looked pretty but that’s about it, I thought she was pretty irrelevant as a character – seemed she was kind of thrown in there with a vague tie to the plot to serve as eyecandy for the male members of the audience. The bloke who played Moriarty was excellent! (although he looked quite a bit like the lovechild of the Sherlock Holmes pictured above and Poirot, which made me smile so I didn’t find him as scary as I perhaps ought to have done). Quite a few special effects used in this film, but unlike most new films they weren’t done to death – they added to the film rather than compensated for a lack of a storyline (think The Pirates Of The Carribbean – Davy Jones’ Locker as an example of all Special FX and no substance). A couple of bits were predictable and I thought maybe more of a danger element could have been put in there to balance out the comedy (if I’m being brutal) but all in all a really good film which I’d give a good 8/10 for.
The Incredibles
Seen before a number of times – great characters, brilliant animation and creativity. Always a good watch when there’s nothing on.
Heidi
Never seen this before, even as a kid (It was all about the Secret Garden for me when I was a kid) – made in 1995 and featuring some kid called Emma(?) Bolger. Was pleasantly surprised – I thought this is going to be sickly and twee and full of mush. Really wasn’t that bad. Had Diana Rigg in it playing a nice old grandma which was a bit of a shock to the system as I’ve only ever seen her play Psychos before so I was half-wondering when she’d murder Heidi in her sleep or something LOL. Also had the woman in it who played the housekeeper in Father Ted as Heidi’s aunt. My main question about it was this: Why is Heidi Irish?? seemed incredibly random that the thing is set in the Alps yet the cast is English and Irish. I haven’t read the book so I dunno if maybe Heidi came over from Ireland or something when her folks died… who knows. I liked the kid who played her though – I usually find child actors insufferable, but she was ok.
Here it is on Youku if you wanted to watch it and can’t get iplayer
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTAyMzMwNTI=.html
The Shaggy Dog
A good brainless post-christmas-dinner kinda movie about a man who gets bitten by a dog and turns into one himself to uncover a plot by mad scientists to make people live forever. Quite predictable – turned out mainly about the protagonist realising what a dick he is in regards to his family and resolving to be a better person.
Bridge to Terabitihia
Nice gentle-paced film about kids imaginations. Quite slow, if I’m honest – one of those films that kind of drifts along for hours without any real direction. Had a twist at the end I didn’t see coming and which hit a nerve but a fairly likeable film about being a kid and growing up and learning that life isn’t easy and things aren’t always as they seem. Thought the girl in it was beautiful – she’s going to be a real looker when she grows up! Not the best actress but I liked her, and the guy’s kid sister was absolutely adorable and a great little actress for such a pint-sized person. I think she’ll go on to do good things.
So. Those are my films from the past few days. Going for a walk with the folks today so I may (or may not) have some photos worth doing something with when I come back.
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