ysbreker

Movie/TV recommendations

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I would say, "go for it!", but I don't want to be responsible in you embarking on a project that might be largely thankless... If you do it, I'd be interested to read what you think.

Other stuff: I watched The Artist and thought it was a lovely film. It managed to enthral a room full of modern cinema-goers with nothing more than black and white visuals*, and some music. I guess that whole "good story" thing is pretty important, right, Mr Hollywood Exec? Right?

Bottom line: :tup:

* - No orange and teal!

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I never read them, but I of course know the character through the media aether. In fact, all the recent adaptions have made me very curious to read the original books.

I noticed many of them are free on iTunes/Kindle, maybe I should make it a project and post about it?

I have advertised this many times before, but the narrator of the audiobook versions, which can be found on Project Gutenberg site, is brilliant. I think he has done all of the books, too.

Be sure to pick the right version, though. Hint: he is not the one with the robot voice.

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I noticed many of them are free on iTunes/Kindle, maybe I should make it a project and post about it?

Anything pre-1923, Sherlock Holmes included, is free of copyright and available to read online, and in some countries books even after that period are copyright-free.

I hope you enjoy! :)

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If you're in the UK and like nature documentaries, Earthflight is well worth a watch:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b018xsc5/hd/Earthflight_North_America/

It has aerial shots done with drones, microlights, gliders, and cameras strapped to trained birds. Here's a bit of it posted by the BBC; other people are uploading HD stuff:

5bneK4kpIPY

Apparently the last episode will be all about the methods they used to film it.

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Zatoichi The Last

Zatoichi-The-Last-Movie-Poster.jpg

Confession: the first Zatoichi movie I saw. Despite this it wasn't hard to follow since Zatoichi is a well-known figure from Japanese cinema: a blind gambler/masseur (and expert swordsman, obv.) travelling throughout the land fighting tyrannical yakuza. The fun part is that Zatoichi, because of his blindness, has a very distinctive fighting style, is continually underestimated by his enemies and then proceeds to kick their asses.

Zatoichi (played before by celebrities like Kitano Takeshi) is played this time by Shingo Katori, who is usually found on Japanese TV grinningly performing weird characters or singing in boy band SMAP. Katori earlier admirably played Isami Kondo in the NHK Taiga drama Shinsengumi!. Here he once again acts expressively but also convincingly. Zatoichi The Last is in the end no great movie: the plot is too inconsequential and the big moments aren't used to their best effect. Even so the film offers picturesque images of snow-covered Japanese villages and plenty of scenes with flashing katana's. For that alone it's a fun watch for admirers of such things.

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YES. Go watch it, it's good. Takashi Miike is on a roll. 13 Assassins is fun and exciting and feels like a classic samurai epic infused with a pinch of Miike's brand of shock cinema.

450_13_assassins_3.jpg_cmyk_0.jpg

That reminds me, I should check out his remake of Harakiri (in 3D, no less).

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wait... Miike's making "normal" movies now?

Must see that stuff, I'm usually not in the mood for Miike's obscure gory horror movies.

Come to think of it, I haven't seen any Miike work since his Masters of Horror episode.

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Miike has been doing more than schlock for years now. He's called a 'chameleon' in cinema for a very good reason. He'll make crazy Power Ranger spoofs like Zebraman, then go to honest samurai epics like 13 Assassins and Harakiri, and he just made the Phoenix Wright movie. I'm no fan of horror, so I'm glad he's so versatile.

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Hmm, ok. I only know him of the horror movies.

So what non-horror movies from Miike would you recommend?

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The above four. Sorry they're all I've seen from him! (And yes I counted the Phoenix Wright movie which hasn't come out yet with it to show my conviction that it'll rock.)

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I ordered the old (late 80s) Sherlock series with Jeremy Brett as Sherlock. Damn, his portrayal is excellent. Obviously the series has aged a bit and they don't play around with the setting and characters like the current Sherlock adaptations do, but Brett is easily better in the role than Cumberbatch or Robert Downey Jr.

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Brett is easily better in the role than Cumberbatch

WHAT

or Robert Downey Jr.

OKAY THIS I WILL ACCEPT

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Brett's pretty awesome, he deserves props. It's been a while since I saw his Holmes, though. It'd be interesting to compare now.

Also, I'm surprised no-one is talking about it, but I thought this week's episode ROCKED. A brilliant adaptation of the original story that easily surpasses it. Very rewarding.

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WHAT

To be fair Cumberbatch is limited in that the script demands Sherlock is basically incapable of operating on a nurmal human level. There's not a lot of room for subtlety.

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My god. Steve Thompson wrote a good script. OK, sure, it had faults, but I liked it.

Lovely series. I did not see

the suicides

coming at all.

Brett is easily better in the role than Cumberbatch or Robert Downey Jr.

Nah. I like his take a lot, but he wasn't the ideal casting. He was quite excellent, and I grew-up on the Granada series, but I think Cumberbatch takes the cake.

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Who is responsible for this? Is it one of you? Own up.

Geordie falls in love with a beautiful girl who turns out to be the exotic pet of a visiting dignitary. Riker's birthday party is a success

Worf brags about a new ceremonial knife for a week, then must prove his innocence after a mysterious stabbing. Riker does 150 pushups.

Data must solely represent non-carbon-based life at a Federation symposium on galactic civil rights. Riker fights a bear.

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Hmm, ok. I only know him of the horror movies.

So what non-horror movies from Miike would you recommend?

Dead or Alive (nothing to do with the video games) is the first thing that comes to mind.

It's part of a trilogy, but IMO the first one is best. It's all kinds of nuts.

His Black Society trilogy (Shinjuku Triad Society, Rainy Dog, Ley Lines) are pretty good, if bleak, gangster films.

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My god. Steve Thompson wrote a good script. OK, sure, it had faults, but I liked it.

Same here. I'm sure it had its problems. I'm sure if I'd paused it and walked away I would have seen major issues with it, but while it was on, it totally worked for me. I liked how it called back to the first episode, too. It was all very clever.

Have we seen the last of Moriarty? I wonder...

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