Watching Mon – Tuesday

[brigdh]

I 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.

Comments

[curtana.livejournal.com]

Also, Lydia, Wickham, and Captain Denny were totally having a threesome, y/y?

Clearly Y! My assumption that that threesome was happening off-screen was the only thing that made the book worthwhile for me. I haven't seen the show, but it sounds like it followed the book closely. I thought it rose to the level of kind of mediocre fanfic, and had a super-implausible ending.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

The Duchess was SO DEPRESSING and also frustrating. Although I kind of just thought the Duke was an autocratic hypocritical asshole?

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

I think 1990s Pride and Prejudice hasn't been that well-served by "Darcy as hot male lead" fandom osmosis. The important thing about Colin Firth's performance is that he is a squirming bundle of unbearable awkwardness in a human suit, not that he walks around in a wet shirt one time. Anyone can walk around in wet clothes!

I've never heard anything good about Death Comes to Pemberly :( It's too bad, because I love Jane Austen and I love murder mysteries; why don't these two great tastes go better together?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee! I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that. And good to know the book was similar; I was wondering if it was worth reading, but if it's just the same as the show, it definitely doesn't seem worthwhile.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I couldn't figure out what they were doing with him! Sometimes I did just get the 'asshole' sense, but sometimes his behavior seemed to go past 'selfish' and into 'he literally doesn't understand social convention'. So I'm not sure. And I definitely don't know enough of the actual history to know if that's a plausible characterization at all.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Right? He does a great job as Darcy, but the bit where he's swimming in an slimy green pond is not the best example of that.

I know! It does seem like the two things should fit together nicely, but alas, they haven't done so here. Maybe someone will try to write another someday. I mean, if Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a thing, why not Mansfield Park and Murder? (Actually, I just googled it, and apparently that already exists. Though the reviews look terrible.) (http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Mansfield-Park-Lynn-Shepherd/dp/0312638345)

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. The summary alone!

In this ingenious new twist on Mansfield Park, the famously meek Fanny Price--whom Jane Austen's own mother called "insipid"--has been utterly transformed; she is now a rich heiress who is spoiled, condescending, and generally hated throughout the county. Mary Crawford, on the other hand, is now as good as Fanny is bad, and suffers great indignities at the hands of her vindictive neighbor.

How is that an "ingenious twist" and not just OOC spitefic? Not that I can't see Fanny being condescending as hell in her role as Mrs. Bertram, but come onnnn. And Lionel Trilling can go hang; I liked Fanny from page one and I haven't stopped yet. It's always funny to me when writers universalize their readings of books -- I remember boggling at D. H. Lawrence's assertion that no reader can possibly resist the allure of Vronsky in Anna Karenina. I didn't even need to try!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

It is bizarre! I love Fanny too, and if you're going to change everyone's personalities and situation, I'm not sure what the point of keeping the same names is (well, actually I probably do know: I'm sure something like this sells better than a random mystery in Regency England).

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

I don't remember it well enough to say! But it was a very discouraging movie all around.

Have you seen, um, Farewell, My Queen? Marie Antoinette and lesbians - it's been on my list for a while. I suspect it doesn't end happily either, for some reason, but maybe it delivers better on the lesbian front.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

Actually, the 1990s version of Pride and Prejudice was an A&E production. The BBC put out a production in 1980, which a friend of mine vastly preferred, despite it being made in the period when the BBC largely didn't have two pounds to rub together for such frivolities as set dressing and sound mixing. We arranged a viewing, and I was pleasantly surprised. The production values were nowhere near the level of the A&E version, of course, and I personally liked the actors and acting choices in the A&E version better, but I could see where a person might prefer the BBC version based on certain points of character interpretation.

Also, everything I've heard about The Man from U.N.C.L.E. has been...not terrible, exactly, but quite emphatic that the movie offers a vastly inferior take on both the concept and characters to the 1960s TV series, when it hasn't been outright furious. I think the kindest thing someone said was that, had the characters' names been changed so they were other agents entirely and the movie offered up as a take on how the organization itself was established, it might have passed muster, but as it was, connecting it to the franchise doomed it.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I haven't even heard of it! Thank you for mentioning though, it definitely sounds relevant to my interests.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, how interesting! I've always seen it referred to as "BBC", so I had no idea. I'll have to keep an eye for the version from the 80s, if I ever get a chance to watch it.

I've never seen the TV series, so at least I didn't have that disappointment to deal with. But even on its own, I didn't think the movie was very good.

[mel-b-angel.livejournal.com]

I just saw Man from UNCLE (can't be bothered with fullstops, lol) on the weekend - I enjoyed it... but then, I am inclined to like action movies. The world would be dull tho if we all liked exactly the same things yeah? :)

Now I'm off to check out your book thought, love to get new book recs!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

(Ha, yes, I get annoyed at typing out the stops too!)

Maybe my expectations were too high! I really, really wanted to like it, but sometimes that sort of thing works against you, you know? Ah, well, I'm sure there will be a new movie for me out soon!