![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Watching Mon – Tuesday
Sep. 8th, 2015 08:26 pmI keep forgetting to post reviews of stuff I've been watching. I could wait till next Monday, but I keep doing that and I already have a month's worth of backlogged stuff to review. So, quickly:
Pride and Prejudice (the BBC 1990s adaptation)
This was great! It ended up being much more faithful to the book than I'd expected from the first episode and cultural osmosis (which mostly focused on the wet shirt scene, unsurprisingly). I thought it did a great job on so many levels – the actors, the costuming, the dancing, the dialogue – and had a great time watching it.
Death Comes to Pemberley
This was less good. Or rather, I liked the first two episodes, which were a bit like average-level casefic – not quite as good as the canon, but enjoyable enough – but then the last episode ruined it all.How does Wickham have a secret sister no one knows about? What was with all of her issues – being desperate to have a baby, wandering mysteriously through the woods, killing herself? Why did the consumptive dude tell no one that he was the murderer, and how convenient was that he dies literally five minutes after signing a confession? What was Colonel Fitzwilliam's deal? Why did Darcy and Elizabeth need to reenact their exact same argument from Pride and Prejudice instead of fighting about something new? Also, Lydia, Wickham, and Captain Denny were totally having a threesome, y/y?
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Aww, you guys, I really wanted to like this. I so wanted to participate in the hot new fandom. And yet it just didn't work for me at all. My main problem was that it's not nearly as funny as the trailers make it appear – and not in a "failed to be funny" way, it's simply more of a straightforward action movie than a comedy – and none of the characters clicked with me. Ah, well. Someday I'll find a big fandom for me.
The Duchess
I mainly watched this because tumblr promised me a lesbian subplot by showing off delightful gifsets, but that turned out to be a lie. I mean, there is one lesbian scene, but it lasts for about thirty seconds and involves the characters fantasizing about her male crush, so it didn't do much for me. Other than that, this is a very pretty movie, but it has some problems. I never could figure out how much time was passing (since it often seemed to be years between scenes), and the characterization of the Duke was kind of weird (I think maybe he was supposed to be autistic? It was confusing), but it's an enjoyable movie, especially if you're as into costume dramas as I am.
Heathers
You know, I expected this to be way darker than it actually was. I'd somehow never seen it before, despite hearing it quoted all the time, and I'd created a movie in my head that did not involve a happy ending or fairly innocent main character. Nonetheless, it is a funny movie, and now I have joined the legions of people who quote it too often.
Jurassic Park
Somehow my girlfriend had never seen this, so of course we had to correct that problem. When watched back to back, the original makes the new Jurassic World look appallingly badly made in every arena except, I suppose, special effects. What I found most noticeable is how tightly made this is. There's not a single line of wasted dialogue, and the whole thing just rushes to a conclusion without subplots or dangling threads or any unnecessary detours. It's a fantastic movie.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
What a fantastic series! I've got a few quibbles here and there, but this is the best new sitcom I've seen in years and years. It's so smart and funny and sweet and hopeful; I highly recommend it.
Pride and Prejudice (the BBC 1990s adaptation)
This was great! It ended up being much more faithful to the book than I'd expected from the first episode and cultural osmosis (which mostly focused on the wet shirt scene, unsurprisingly). I thought it did a great job on so many levels – the actors, the costuming, the dancing, the dialogue – and had a great time watching it.
Death Comes to Pemberley
This was less good. Or rather, I liked the first two episodes, which were a bit like average-level casefic – not quite as good as the canon, but enjoyable enough – but then the last episode ruined it all.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Aww, you guys, I really wanted to like this. I so wanted to participate in the hot new fandom. And yet it just didn't work for me at all. My main problem was that it's not nearly as funny as the trailers make it appear – and not in a "failed to be funny" way, it's simply more of a straightforward action movie than a comedy – and none of the characters clicked with me. Ah, well. Someday I'll find a big fandom for me.
The Duchess
I mainly watched this because tumblr promised me a lesbian subplot by showing off delightful gifsets, but that turned out to be a lie. I mean, there is one lesbian scene, but it lasts for about thirty seconds and involves the characters fantasizing about her male crush, so it didn't do much for me. Other than that, this is a very pretty movie, but it has some problems. I never could figure out how much time was passing (since it often seemed to be years between scenes), and the characterization of the Duke was kind of weird (I think maybe he was supposed to be autistic? It was confusing), but it's an enjoyable movie, especially if you're as into costume dramas as I am.
Heathers
You know, I expected this to be way darker than it actually was. I'd somehow never seen it before, despite hearing it quoted all the time, and I'd created a movie in my head that did not involve a happy ending or fairly innocent main character. Nonetheless, it is a funny movie, and now I have joined the legions of people who quote it too often.
Jurassic Park
Somehow my girlfriend had never seen this, so of course we had to correct that problem. When watched back to back, the original makes the new Jurassic World look appallingly badly made in every arena except, I suppose, special effects. What I found most noticeable is how tightly made this is. There's not a single line of wasted dialogue, and the whole thing just rushes to a conclusion without subplots or dangling threads or any unnecessary detours. It's a fantastic movie.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
What a fantastic series! I've got a few quibbles here and there, but this is the best new sitcom I've seen in years and years. It's so smart and funny and sweet and hopeful; I highly recommend it.
