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baudalaire
Reviews
Troy: Fall of a City (2018)
One retelling among many.
It attracted a great deal of criticism, principally for its ethnically-neutral casting and 'deviations' from the 'historical' sources, specifically Homer's Iliad.
However, the Iliad as we have it, for there would have been many Iliads, coming as it did from an oral tradition told by many poets to many audiences over many centuries, spans just 54 days, at the near-end of what we are told was a ten-year siege, from the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, to the funeral of Hector. The other sources we have - the flashbacks in The Odyssey, the Greek plays (the few, just 30, we have of hundreds lost), Virgil's Aeneid (Roman), Ovid (also Roman), the fragments of the Cyclic Epics, Eratosthenes, and other variable poetic accounts - are but a fragment, perhaps less than 5% of those stories, songs, poems that were actually written down.
If it took place at all, and I fancy there were a long series of wars, conflict and sieges rather than just one, and the archaeological evidence bears this out, it was in the late Bronze Age, say 12th century BCE. After the fall of the Mycenaean culture and the collapse of the other Greek city-states, maybe a century or so later, the art of writing was lost, and there was only the oral tradition , until circa the 8th century BCE when the Phoenicians reintroduced it to what we now call 'the Greek World'. What we now call Ancient Greek writing derives from the Phoenician alphabet. This is when, it is normally taken to be, when the Iliad and the Odyssey were written down. But, again, we don't know if this is the only text that was written down? Quite possibly there were several, perhaps many several, Iliads and Odysseys that were written down, but have all now been lost.
The city of Troy itself existed, and its ruins can be visited, near the town of Hisarlik in Anatolia, Turkey, not far from the Hellespont.
Personally I like the series. Despite knowing the story well, the material is mythically-malleable, and can continue to be told and retold, whether it's 2800 years later, or 2800 years from now.
Star Trek: Discovery: Coming Home (2022)
What a ride!
Just reached the end of S4. I was very unsure to begin with, back in S1, and it took me a couple of false starts to get into it, but after that I was onboard.
This last season has been marvellous, such a rich and diverse assembly of characters and terrific actors, some awe-inspiring visual effects, a lot of in-jokes, lighter moments and laughs between characters. As someone who's been a Star Trek viewer since it was first shown in the UK back in 1969, it's heartwarming that those values and aspirations I found over 50 years ago in a new TV show still hold true today. From the Enterprise to Discovery, and beyond, carry on going boldly.
Pennyworth: Sandie Shaw (2019)
If Clockwork Orange were by David Lynch...
An entertaining and brilliantly-executed (ahem) quasi-Orwellian cocktail, at turns Kubrickian, Lynchian, and Gilliamesque, and very much its own thing. I immediately recognised the use of Woburn Walk and Duke's Road just off the Euston Road in Bloomsbury, for the estate agent's that Bet and Alfred visited. It's a popular filming location, though more usually for cobbles and bonnets Victorian melodramas. There's nothing about Pennyworth to dislike.
The Ipcress File (2022)
Comparisons are pointless
Beautifully done from start to finish. I watched all six episodes in one sitting. Period detail, music, mannerisms, colour-palette and set-dressing are exquisite.
I loved the anachronistic placing of an ad for The Manchurian Candidate, as a cheeky pointer to the direction the series was going to go in.
Apart from Tom Hollander I didn't previously know any of the cast from anything else they'd done so no baggage there.
This series is very much its own thing, so making comparisons with the brilliant classic Michael Caine film from 1965, whether favourable or otherwise, is pointless. However recently you may have seen the film, it was made nearly 60 years ago, though a justified classic it surely is.
Father Brown: The Children of Kalon (2022)
Becoming a parody
A series too far I fear. Some peculiar casting decisions throughout this ninth series, most likely the BBC indulging in box-ticking. Mallory is becoming ever more excruciating as a pantomime cop.
Father Brown: The Island of Dreams (2022)
Aaaagggghhhh!
Surely someone on the production staff would have stood up and said 'What are we doing? This is complete and utter crap!'
I have the first 7 series on DVD and they're great, but this episode, good grief! What were they thinking?
Arrow: Schism (2016)
Idiotic and inept
Utterly preposterous and staggeringly stupid series. The first two series were ok but once the superheroes, sorry 'metahumans', arrived, it bombed out. Characters get killed, but then come back from the dead, repeatedly, and time-travel, magic necklaces and idols, miniaturisation, telekinesis....? It's a sure sign that writers have run out of ideas when they utilise the supernatural and the scientifically-impossible to resolve glaring plot-holes!
Aside from all that, the characters are all pathological liars to each other and everyone else's uncle! Writers, this is beyond dumb!
Arrow: Code of Silence (2016)
More lying 'cos it's all my fault, I'm protecting you, honest!!
I hope Lance really is breaking up with the annoying dimwitted Donna!
Getting a bit fed up with Arrow. The narrative seems to be propelled from episode to episode solely by who is lying to who each time, whether to protect them, to take the blame, whatever. Lazy writing.
Arrow: Left Behind (2015)
On target...
Ordinarily I avoid costumed (super)hero TV series and films like the plague, but this is a little different, and that difference is the characters' back-story and emotional pain so, contrary to what another review says, we don't all sit down to watch for the same reasons, or look for the same things. Of course it's wildly implausible, often ridiculous, but it's the substance to the characters that the emotional back-stories provide which has brought me along into season 3 and easily allows me to disregard its narrative absurdities.
Bones: The 200th in the 10th (2014)
Archie Leach was here!
Wonderful pastiche of Hitchcock (Vertigo, To Catch a Thief, Rear Window, et Al), film noir (Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Chinatown &c.), and a nod to Howard Hawks comedies (Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday etc.).
If you didn't get it, you didn't get it, and that's a pity. Masterful playing and writing across the board, great fun!
The Pursuit of Love (2021)
Wry and witty satire.
Emily Mortimer has done a great job adapting Mitford's novel. Engaging and witty mini-series, looks lovely, good cast.
I Care a Lot (2020)
Fine work
I really enjoyed it. Sharp, surprising, strong script, entertaining, off the wall characters, excellent performances. Shocking at times, very funny at others. It's one I'm looking forward to watching again, and again again.
Murdoch Mysteries: Sir. Sir? Sir!!! (2018)
Watch the skies!
Loved it. Very funny, very nicely done, and I loved the open ending, everything left hanging as with the Invasion of the Body Snatchers at the end (both the Don Siegel original and Phil Kaufman's 1978 remake).
I find the chorus of disapproval at the lack of a 'proper resolution', a happy ending, indicative of the frailty of humans. That feeling will pass as we take over your planet...
Passengers (2016)
Robinson Crusoe meets Sleeping Beauty
I'd not read any professional reviews of Passengers. I rarely do read them. Professional film critics are looking for different things from your average film-lover, and when they don't find them, or don't approve of where they find them, their egos lash out.
It's no coincidence I wager, that Jennifer Lawrence's character is named Aurora, after the princess in Sleeping Beauty. I loved this film: its pacing, its look, the design, the romance (with both a big R and a little r), all of it. I wish I'd seen it in the cinema on a huge screen instead of in Prime Video at home, but I'm just glad I've seen it now. I'm buying the BluRay.
Jumper (2008)
David, David, David....
Has anyone counted how many times the name 'David' is uttered in the film?