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123. Hysteria
This was delightful. Trust the Brits to do a romantic comedy about the invention of the vibration during the Victorian Era. With the hero having a best friend who is a confirmed bachelor with a passion for modern technology and spends most of his scenes basically squeeing about his new telephone. :-) (and now I want Sanctuary crossovers, because surely the Five had phones, right? Maybe it was Watson or Tesla on the other end of the line? Right?)
124. Los Cronocrímenes
I think I've read too much science fiction, since I found this mostly predictable. After all, once you get the main idea of the main character backtracking in time and causing his own troubles, it gets to be mostly a case of explaining all the twists - basically, a bit too much repetition. I mean, if you've encountered similar plots before.
125. The Mouse That Roared
This was quite fun, actually - it reminded me a lot of The Producers with its plan-to-fail-ups-we-succeeded plot, and also -unsurprisingly, since they're both Peter Sellers movies - of Dr. Strangelove. The whole surprisingly amicable Cold War, superweapons accidentally going astray parts of the plot. I liked Tully and the sergeant and the invasion of New York, and hope Grand Fenwick succeeded in its scheme to secure world peace and modern plumbing :-)
126. Ashes to Ashes season 1.
I must admit, I found Alex Drake quite annoying. Particularly her insistence on treating the people she's interacting with as figments of her imagination - yes, I know she thinks and has quite good reason to think that it's all in her head, but that makes it no less cringe-worthy to watch, you know...
127. Garrow's Law season 3.
Oh, Mr. Southouse. Apart from that, well, I remain less than enthusiatic about the Lady Sarah divorce/custody subplot, but at least that seems to be over with as of this season. And Sir Arthur had himself a nice last laugh scene that almost made me like him, so that's alright. But it's still the actual cases that interest me, in this series. And I am torn, because part of me would like a fourth season and part of me would just miss Mr. Southouse...
128. The Malay Chronicles: Bloodlines
Okay, so I don't quite know what I expected from this movie, but as it turned out, it was actually perfectly entertaining - silly and probably nonsense, but entertaining. We have a handsome, young Roman prince - Marcus - who is on his way to marry a feisty, sneaky, proud Chinese princess, and hires the scoundrel Captain Mekong (who claims to be a direct descendant of Alexander the Great) to escort him to the island in Malaysia where the wedding is to happen. After some sailing and some flirting and swordplay between Marcus and Mekong we arrive and the prince and princess meet - and despite neither being enthusiastic about the wedding plans, they soon find each other to their liking. Unfortunately, that's when the evil pirates attack - using weather magic and their leader's magical invulnerability to kidnap the princess to hold her for ransom. Now it's up to Mekong, Marcus and the noble Chinese admiral to save the princess, not that she doesn't do her part. Well, after Mekong goes off to discover his destiny as king of the locals, and listen to prophecies and stories of the pirates' leader and the local shaman and how they had the same teacher and how the evil guy predictably killed the teacher and yeah, I think I've heard it before. Anyway, there is fighting and Archimedes' death ray and a surprising amount of throatslitting and how exactly did a Roman prince learn kungfu? And the plot sort of zigs and zags and forgets itself half the time, but honestly? Perfectly entertaining, IMHO.
129. A Breath of Scandal
Tell me, was I supposed to like this couple? 'Cause I don't. The rebellious princess - who never actually seems that rebellious - and the modern American gentleman - whose ideas of being a gentleman involves letting a woman think they had sex and then proceed to blackmail her into having more. I mean, cat-and-mouse-games between lovers is all well and good, but this was just a tad uncomfortable to watch. Besides, I was cheering for Olympia's plan to marry the Prince and keep the American as her little something on the side - but of course, this movie is far too old for that to actually happen. Ah well. I enjoyed the general cattiness of the noblewomen and I liked the scandalous fact that Olympia's parents had actually been faithful, though :-)
130. Skyline
Nice effects and a few "hey-I-know-that-guy" moments, but it felt like it was really just about to get started when it stopped...
131. Ashes to Ashes season 2.
Well, Drake is less cringe-worthy in this season, though she still has her moments. Mostly, though, I like it less than Life on Mars. Of course, it doesn't help that Drake is retreading a lot of the same ground as Sam Tyler, only, well, to be honest, the 80s feel a lot less alien than the 70s, and so it doesn't have the same impact, having a modern police officer running around there. But maybe that's just me...
132. Priest
I like westerns. I like vampires. I like post-apocalyptic science fiction. I should have liked this. Alas, it failed to provoke any strong feelings whatsoever...
133. Sons of Anarchy season 3.
It was - okay, I guess. It was nice to see the various characters setting aside their internal mess to focus on something external for a while, but I got bored with sinister Irish priests pretty fast...
134. Mysteriet på Greveholm
Okay, so I sort of stopped watching new Danish christmas calendars after having gotten traumatized by the abomination that is Jul i Valhal. This is neither new nor Danish, but a Swedish one from the 90s, and surprisingly charming. I mean, it's got ghosts, incompetent petty criminals, bad ass elves, a robot, an alien princess and an evil, evil count, and it's such a mess of genres that it shouldn't work, but somehow it does, and it's fun. Merry Christmas
135. Doctor Who - The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
I actually quite like seeing Eleven interacting with children - personally, I think Amelia Pond would have been a more entertaining companion than Amy, but I suppose the Doctor dragging small children into life-and-death situations on a semi-permanent basis might not work. Still doesn't stop me from finding the boy Cyril annoying. Apart from that, I suppose the episode was alright - the trees were pretty, the wood people spooky, but overall, it was okay.
136. Ashes to Ashes season 3.
I actually quite liked this season - oh, it was far from perfect, and forgive me, but I could have lived without the Hunt/Drake romance that never quite got to be. Apart from that, I liked the general feel, though I would have liked to see Sam Tyler at the end, considering how central the investigation of his death was in this season. Maybe just a glimpse through the pub door at the end?
137. Opstandelsen
Nice enough idea, I suppose, the dead rising at a funeral and eating everybody, but frankly, a bunch of people (mostly covered in fake blood) running around in a quite pretty church and a few gore shots, with precious little in way of plot, well, not my taste (no pun intended). Besides, I couldn't figure out if the dead were supposed to be unusually uncomposed and fast zombies or some of the modern, degenerate animal type vampires...
138. Sanctuary season 4.
Well, I loved the beginning - Tempus was a lovely, lovely episode - and I quite liked the end. In between - it never quite took off, for me. Partly probably because my favourite part of Sanctuary are the Five, and while we got Tempus and of course a few, quite nice if not awesome Tesla episodes, then this season was really not a season about the Five, unlike the third season. There were things I enjoyed - the bickering flyers, for instance, and Henry had several lovely scenes - and things that annoyed me - like Will going I-don't-trust-Helen-I-don't-trust-Helen-I-should-have-trusted-Helen a few too many times. I would have liked to see more John and I'm wondering what's happened to him (I know there's an article somewhere mentioning him dead, but thing is, in this series, unless I see the corpse, I don't assume) - considering how little Biggie appeared, I suspect Heyerdahl might have had other commitments. Anyway, overall, not my favourite season. I wonder if they'll make a fifth or they'll call it a day with this, though...
This was delightful. Trust the Brits to do a romantic comedy about the invention of the vibration during the Victorian Era. With the hero having a best friend who is a confirmed bachelor with a passion for modern technology and spends most of his scenes basically squeeing about his new telephone. :-) (and now I want Sanctuary crossovers, because surely the Five had phones, right? Maybe it was Watson or Tesla on the other end of the line? Right?)
124. Los Cronocrímenes
I think I've read too much science fiction, since I found this mostly predictable. After all, once you get the main idea of the main character backtracking in time and causing his own troubles, it gets to be mostly a case of explaining all the twists - basically, a bit too much repetition. I mean, if you've encountered similar plots before.
125. The Mouse That Roared
This was quite fun, actually - it reminded me a lot of The Producers with its plan-to-fail-ups-we-succeeded plot, and also -unsurprisingly, since they're both Peter Sellers movies - of Dr. Strangelove. The whole surprisingly amicable Cold War, superweapons accidentally going astray parts of the plot. I liked Tully and the sergeant and the invasion of New York, and hope Grand Fenwick succeeded in its scheme to secure world peace and modern plumbing :-)
126. Ashes to Ashes season 1.
I must admit, I found Alex Drake quite annoying. Particularly her insistence on treating the people she's interacting with as figments of her imagination - yes, I know she thinks and has quite good reason to think that it's all in her head, but that makes it no less cringe-worthy to watch, you know...
127. Garrow's Law season 3.
Oh, Mr. Southouse. Apart from that, well, I remain less than enthusiatic about the Lady Sarah divorce/custody subplot, but at least that seems to be over with as of this season. And Sir Arthur had himself a nice last laugh scene that almost made me like him, so that's alright. But it's still the actual cases that interest me, in this series. And I am torn, because part of me would like a fourth season and part of me would just miss Mr. Southouse...
128. The Malay Chronicles: Bloodlines
Okay, so I don't quite know what I expected from this movie, but as it turned out, it was actually perfectly entertaining - silly and probably nonsense, but entertaining. We have a handsome, young Roman prince - Marcus - who is on his way to marry a feisty, sneaky, proud Chinese princess, and hires the scoundrel Captain Mekong (who claims to be a direct descendant of Alexander the Great) to escort him to the island in Malaysia where the wedding is to happen. After some sailing and some flirting and swordplay between Marcus and Mekong we arrive and the prince and princess meet - and despite neither being enthusiastic about the wedding plans, they soon find each other to their liking. Unfortunately, that's when the evil pirates attack - using weather magic and their leader's magical invulnerability to kidnap the princess to hold her for ransom. Now it's up to Mekong, Marcus and the noble Chinese admiral to save the princess, not that she doesn't do her part. Well, after Mekong goes off to discover his destiny as king of the locals, and listen to prophecies and stories of the pirates' leader and the local shaman and how they had the same teacher and how the evil guy predictably killed the teacher and yeah, I think I've heard it before. Anyway, there is fighting and Archimedes' death ray and a surprising amount of throatslitting and how exactly did a Roman prince learn kungfu? And the plot sort of zigs and zags and forgets itself half the time, but honestly? Perfectly entertaining, IMHO.
129. A Breath of Scandal
Tell me, was I supposed to like this couple? 'Cause I don't. The rebellious princess - who never actually seems that rebellious - and the modern American gentleman - whose ideas of being a gentleman involves letting a woman think they had sex and then proceed to blackmail her into having more. I mean, cat-and-mouse-games between lovers is all well and good, but this was just a tad uncomfortable to watch. Besides, I was cheering for Olympia's plan to marry the Prince and keep the American as her little something on the side - but of course, this movie is far too old for that to actually happen. Ah well. I enjoyed the general cattiness of the noblewomen and I liked the scandalous fact that Olympia's parents had actually been faithful, though :-)
130. Skyline
Nice effects and a few "hey-I-know-that-guy" moments, but it felt like it was really just about to get started when it stopped...
131. Ashes to Ashes season 2.
Well, Drake is less cringe-worthy in this season, though she still has her moments. Mostly, though, I like it less than Life on Mars. Of course, it doesn't help that Drake is retreading a lot of the same ground as Sam Tyler, only, well, to be honest, the 80s feel a lot less alien than the 70s, and so it doesn't have the same impact, having a modern police officer running around there. But maybe that's just me...
132. Priest
I like westerns. I like vampires. I like post-apocalyptic science fiction. I should have liked this. Alas, it failed to provoke any strong feelings whatsoever...
133. Sons of Anarchy season 3.
It was - okay, I guess. It was nice to see the various characters setting aside their internal mess to focus on something external for a while, but I got bored with sinister Irish priests pretty fast...
134. Mysteriet på Greveholm
Okay, so I sort of stopped watching new Danish christmas calendars after having gotten traumatized by the abomination that is Jul i Valhal. This is neither new nor Danish, but a Swedish one from the 90s, and surprisingly charming. I mean, it's got ghosts, incompetent petty criminals, bad ass elves, a robot, an alien princess and an evil, evil count, and it's such a mess of genres that it shouldn't work, but somehow it does, and it's fun. Merry Christmas
135. Doctor Who - The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
I actually quite like seeing Eleven interacting with children - personally, I think Amelia Pond would have been a more entertaining companion than Amy, but I suppose the Doctor dragging small children into life-and-death situations on a semi-permanent basis might not work. Still doesn't stop me from finding the boy Cyril annoying. Apart from that, I suppose the episode was alright - the trees were pretty, the wood people spooky, but overall, it was okay.
136. Ashes to Ashes season 3.
I actually quite liked this season - oh, it was far from perfect, and forgive me, but I could have lived without the Hunt/Drake romance that never quite got to be. Apart from that, I liked the general feel, though I would have liked to see Sam Tyler at the end, considering how central the investigation of his death was in this season. Maybe just a glimpse through the pub door at the end?
137. Opstandelsen
Nice enough idea, I suppose, the dead rising at a funeral and eating everybody, but frankly, a bunch of people (mostly covered in fake blood) running around in a quite pretty church and a few gore shots, with precious little in way of plot, well, not my taste (no pun intended). Besides, I couldn't figure out if the dead were supposed to be unusually uncomposed and fast zombies or some of the modern, degenerate animal type vampires...
138. Sanctuary season 4.
Well, I loved the beginning - Tempus was a lovely, lovely episode - and I quite liked the end. In between - it never quite took off, for me. Partly probably because my favourite part of Sanctuary are the Five, and while we got Tempus and of course a few, quite nice if not awesome Tesla episodes, then this season was really not a season about the Five, unlike the third season. There were things I enjoyed - the bickering flyers, for instance, and Henry had several lovely scenes - and things that annoyed me - like Will going I-don't-trust-Helen-I-don't-trust-Helen-I-should-have-trusted-Helen a few too many times. I would have liked to see more John and I'm wondering what's happened to him (I know there's an article somewhere mentioning him dead, but thing is, in this series, unless I see the corpse, I don't assume) - considering how little Biggie appeared, I suspect Heyerdahl might have had other commitments. Anyway, overall, not my favourite season. I wonder if they'll make a fifth or they'll call it a day with this, though...
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