Well that was an easy review to write.

Worst. Adaptation. Ever.

For the love of Thomas Hardy, don't bother.

One more reason to dislike the perky and yet patently ridiculous Carey Mulligan.

If you want a very VERY fantastic version, watch the 1998 miniseries with Paloma Baeza and Nathaniel Parker.

Or just read the book. (Which is what the producers/writers of the 2015 version evidently failed to do.)

 I have not yet checked out the 1967 Julie Christie version, but frankly, my hopes are not high. In 1967, they did not know how to "do" period drama. The costumes, hair and makeup were invariably atrocious--false eyelashes, eyeliner and backcombed hair bumps? I think not (and that was just the guys).


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Have you seen Mockingjay 2?

I did, and contrary to some reviewers who gave it a pass, I loved it. Yes, some moments were rather silly, and others were utterly predictable (I find most movies are; it annoys my kids to death when I predict things as we're watching films, but then I am old, and they don't realize how cliched mainstream filmmaking has become). Anyhoo, if you message me on Facebook or email we, we can discuss why I liked this movie, but I won't discuss it publicly because… spoilers. But I'll give you a hint: read this Idlepost by David Warren, and see if you can find the connection. Let's just say this: I feel vindicated.
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"The love child of Wikipedia and crass commercialism"

Ha ha. MercatorNet's Michael Cook reviews Dan Brown's Inferno, in which one of the main themes (and dire warnings) for the 21st century world is the imminent danger of --wait for it-- OVERPOPULATION! As Mr. Cook asks, "Has Dan Brown been living in a bunker for the last ten years?"

If so, he didn't have a thesaurus or a dictionay with him. Mr. Cook wonders:

[H]ow did the word “enormity” slip through, as in “the staggering force of [the cathedral’s] enormity” and “the David’s [Michelangelo’s statue] sheer enormity”? Enormity means, according my Oxford dictionary, “monstrous wickedness” or “dreadful crime”, or “serious error”. We can speak, for example, about the enormity of Dan Brown’s English, but not about the enormity of a cathedral.

Never mind Inferno's plot twists and villains:

[A]s I descended deeper and deeper into Inferno, I began to regard the real villain as Dan Brown’s editor, whom, out of what little compassion I can scrape together, I shall not name. His only credible excuse is that Dan Brown is one of those nightmare celebrity authors whom editors tremble to correct. 

To sum up:

Brown will never be described as a literary giant, but there is one technique in which he has no peer: product placement.

High praise indeed. Inferno, for sale, by the case lot, at a Costco near you. 

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Do the Drood

Lately I have had the pleasure of watching "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", and now I'm reading the novel. As any Dickens expert knows (and I learned last week) "Drood" was a mystery indeed, because the author died before the work was finished. A screenwriter was enlisted to finish the story for the BBC series, and even though I liked it well enough and didn't know exactly where Dickens left off and the screenwriter began, by the end it seemed plain that the lines being spoken hadn't come from the same mind that gave birth to Mr. Boffin and Dick Swiveller. Still, I recommend it - not to purchase, but it's a good loan if your library has it. Even if you don't like the ending, it's a treat to see Durdles and Mr. Sapsea in the flesh.

As Mrs. P. has remarked, it is a tragedy indeed when death writes the final chapter of a great work of art.
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Noah as psychotic misanthropist infanticidal environmentalist

Screen-writer Brian Godawa gives an emphatic thumbs-down to the as-yet-unreleased movie about Noah and the ark. In short, a waste of $150 million. Find out why:

"Noah" paints the primeval world of Genesis 6 as scorched arid desert, dry cracked earth and a gray gloomy sky that gives no rain – and all this, caused by man’s “disrespect” for the environment. In short, an anachronistic doomsday scenario of ancient global warming. How Neolithic man was able to cause such anthropogenic catastrophic climate change without the “evil” carbon emissions of modern industrial revolution is not explained. Nevertheless, humanity wanders the land in nomadic warrior tribes killing animals for food or wasteful trophies. 

In this oppressive world, Noah (Russell Crowe) and his family seek to avoid the crowds and live off the land. Noah is a kind of rural shaman and vegan hippie-like gatherer of herbs. Noah explains that his family tries to study and heal the world whenever possible, like a kind of environmentalist scientist. But he also mysteriously has the fighting skills of an ancient Near Eastern Ninja.

Trust me, it gets better (ie. worse). Hollywood does it again. Absolutely, totally, fundamentally clueless.  And of course, evil.
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Boo.

That's my one-word review of "The Woman in Black", and I left the exclamation point off intentionally. Do yourself a favor and watch the 1989 adaptation instead. Now that's a scary movie! The new WIB is all fog and creaking doors and dark hallways, so naturally, you're expecting every moment to have a cattle prod of horror shoved into your ribs (accompanied by jarring violin music, of course). In the old WIB ghosts don't wait for rainy days or darkened rooms. They'll come for you no matter what the weather or where you are.
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The Thrill of it All

We were browsing Netflix last Friday evening, looking for good family fare, and stumbled on this 1963 film, starring Doris Day and James Garner. I had never heard of it before, but we thought we'd give it a try. If you've never seen it, read on.

Um, isn't that an oxymoron?

"Realistic fantasy." Heh. MercatorNet's reviewer Harley J. Sims asks:

The slaughter, rape, incest and deceit in "A Game of Thrones" or the nobility and dignity in "The Lord of the Rings"?

That choice is a bit of a no-brainer for me.
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I am so getting this book

Pundette reviews  The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After. Sounds like something that might benefit young ladies, and heaven knows our family is well supplied with those.

Now, to find a Mr. Darcy or Mr. Knightley or Colonel Brandon or Captain Wentworth out there...

Your Daily Dose of Doug

It's time to admit it: I have Paisleymania. I'm sure my family is tired of listening to me humming, listening to, and talking about Doug Paisley's music, so in order to ease my condition I will have to start a fan site. (IDigDoug.blogspot.com?) At least there I can rave about it without anyone trying to hide my iPod.

I wish I had known Doug Paisley was going to be my new favorite artist because I would have been a LOT more excited when he walked out on stage at the National Arts Center a couple of weeks ago. Oh, well. Next time.

This guy deserves to be better known. His music has become my Constant Companion. Get thee to iTunes and make it yours, too. Now here's a question: why is Canadian music so good, but most Canadian TV so bad? Ponder and discuss.

Jim Cuddy reminds my why I love him, part 2.

Last night I had a date with Jim Cuddy. Mr. B. came along, too. We all had a rockin' good time at the National Arts Center, the Jim Cuddy Band's fourth last stop on their national tour.

Opening for the JCB was Doug Paisley, an artist to whom I was very glad to be introduced. Check him out! I'm going shopping for his music today.

Mr. Cuddy played most of the songs from his latest album, Skyscraper Soul, as well as a couple of hits from his other solo albums. Blue Rodeo favorites were in the set, too. It was lovely to hear a live performance of "Bad Timing", my favorite Blue Rodeo song. (It was just like this video, except from where I was sitting Jim Cuddy was only about two inches tall.) For an encore, Jim sat down at the piano and treated us to "Try" .

The concert concluded with an acoustic rendition of "Wash Me Down", a beautiful track from Skyscraper Soul. Doug Paisley, Anne Linsday, Jim Cuddy and Colin Cripps stepped away from the mikes and sang. Truly sublime. I felt that I had not only been washed down, but had also drunk deeply of something pure and clear and sweet.  It was rather jarring to get up and leave the theater for a cold parking garage instead of staying in our seats to sigh with contentment for an hour or so.  I haven't found any videos posted from last night's concert, but here's one from their appearance in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. I'll say no more. Watch, and sigh with me.


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GOshshshsh!

Napoleon Dynamite has resurfaced in animated form.



It made me laugh more than a few times, but I have to say, the charm of the ND movie lies partly in the fact that we all went to school with a guy who could plausibly come to class with his pocket full of Tater Tots. The over-the-top cartoon zaniness of the two episodes I've seen kind of takes that away.

Still, I'm willing to give it a chance. Just the sound of Jon Heder's voice cracks me up.

For whoever likes a good ghost story

Rent/borrow The Eclipse. It's in the vein of The Woman in Black. (Which, I see, has apparently just been remade. But I'm talking about the 1989 version.)

I don't like gory movies, and I don't like movies with a demonic theme because unlike say, the Mountaintop Motel Massacre-er, Satan is real and at work in the world every day. But I do like a good ghost story. My only tip is don't watch the trailer first. Whoever put it together thought they needed to put all the scary moments into it, thus spoiling their effect in the film.

Just don't watch it alooooooone....

"What does Decent Films Guy say about it?"

...is the question we ask when looking for a good flick. Steven Greydanus is our go-to guy for movie reviews, and he continues his "Still Christmas" theme with this installment about movies for this holiday.

I have finally unearthed my VHS tape of "It's a Wonderful Life". I think it will make a nice closer for the Christmas season.

I love this blog

Coffee and Canticles. I only discovered it a few days ago, thanks to The Shea. Its mandate is to help sinful Dummköpfe  like me to make sense out of the Divine Office (aka Liturgy of the Hours), and to be more faithful in praying it. It's going to be a daily stop.


Oh, and I must get into the habit of wearing my reading glasses more often. I went to this page and read: "But My Soul Isn't Filled With Elvis!" and of course, that's not what it actually says. (If you want your soul to be filled with The King, you have to move to my diocese, which offers--I kid you not--a "Theology of Elvis" workshop.)
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Review of the Movie of the Story of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"

I saw this movie last week during my vacation. Of course it is a work of science fiction, but in all seriousness, we are closer to this reality than we think: parts of this film's screenplay were obviously written by monkeys. I'm only sorry those little guys couldn't work a few more prepositions into the title.

Now here's an actual review.
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You mean there was such a thing?

Sex Before the Sexual Revolution by Simon Szreter and Kate Fisher sounds like an interesting book.
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Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Say it ain't so, Steve! Cars 2 is... a ... I have to whisper, because I can't believe it... a bad movie.

A bad Pixar movie. That's like typing "square circle" or "sturdy wood product".

Nothing gold can stay.

Cut away the dead wood, Pixar, whatever that might be. You are Pixar! Pull yourselves together! Go! Confront the problem! Fight! Win!

And hire me when you get back. I would enjoy working for you.
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For Flannery lovers everywhere.

A review of The Abbess of Andalusia.

Mrs. P chimes in: Dang, Mrs. B! You beat me to posting about this. Oh well, at least I can post a quotation from the review:

On writing itself, O’Connor was candid and amusing. For her, two daily hours spent at a manual typewriter felt like pushing a stone uphill with her nose. Regularly reading sentimental gobbledygook in Catholic magazines, or enduring interminable money-raising campaigns led by local bishops unconcerned about the more weighty spiritual realities ...did not help.

True Coen

I went to see "True Grit" on Saturday. To loosely quote my esteemed brother-in-law, run, don't walk, to your nearest theater and see it for yourself. You won't be sorry, except for when you think about how neither Jeff Bridges nor Hailee Steinfeld won Oscars for their performances.

Why can't more movies be like "True Grit"? Why are so many of them like "Hot Tub Time Machine"?

Here's what Greydanus thought.