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leschonski
Reviews
Sherlock (2010)
SHERLOCK FOURTH SEASON - Too much family drama, too little sleuthing - SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
My feeling after watching the three new episodes was – "they left us dangling for years and THIS was the best they could come up with??" From sleuthing, wisecracking and kicking ass, Sherlock & friends seem to have descended into soap opera realm:
Episode 01 – Mary has disturbed past which ultimately causes her death. Episode 02 – Sherlock risks getting himself killed (various styles) in order to fall back into John's good graces. Archvillain is only a plot device. Episode 03 – There is a Holmes sister!! A madwoman in the attic!!! (And an incendiary to boost, Jane Eyre rolls eyeballs)
And granted, tongue-in-cheek is hard to keep up when there's so much personal drama all around you. The game is not on, life's become much too bitter for that. Perhaps that's why Sherlock's stoned most of the time.
The characters are there, the camaraderie is there, but the clever deductions and the suspense are not. No mystery. The greatest enigma about Culverton, for me, was – how come a British billionaire must have these rotten teeth? From the onset, Sherlock knew he was a bad guy (who would not know, I mean, with those TEETH??) No deductive process necessary. Everything is a bit too heavy in self-referencing. To me, Mary's death was completely pointless and needless, even though she did die in Doyle's original material. But there she wasn't really a key character, was she? A mother of a toddler jumps in front of a bullet to save her husband's best friend?? Even if said mother is a highly trained agent whose superpower instincts just kicked in that second, credibility is heavily strained here.
Most of all, Moriarty is video recording telepathically controlled by a prisoner?? (That's the closes I came to understanding it.) After all that cliffhanger stuff at the end of season three, (brilliant footage and after-credits!) - Sherlock was brought back because Moriarty is back but then he isn't? Continuity gods, where are you??
Like most fans, I'd been waiting for a LONG time. I think we deserved more. There must be better sources of inspiration in the Doyle canon. Conclusion: c'mon BBC, you owe us the fifth season to make up for this weak stuff. And take a look at Star Trek, the original series: personal relationships, including Kirk & Spock bromance, was always there, but it was never an excuse for lack of plot. Not in more than one episode per season anyhow.
And please don't tell me that Mary's death was Mycroft-staged. She in hiding while her family and friends suffer relentlessly would make me stop liking her.
Lost in Translation (2003)
Boring and prejudiced
My, am I glad that other people (writing their reviews here) also disliked this movie. I rented the tape with high expectations, what with all the hype about the movie, actors, Coppola, etc. About halfway through I realized nothing (else) was going to happen, and settled for the zen experience of watching Tokyo scenery while contemplating the real meaning of life. Then the movie was over and nothing changed, I mean, what's the buzz all about? Where is the plot? I was much more disturbed by the stereotyped, almost racist portrait of Japanese characters. They are all sketched superficially, none are sympathetic to the central couple, nor to each other. They don't understand foreigners, don't want to be understood, are either too shrill or act as dumb morons. Could you envision a doctor hammering away in Japanese at a patient who plainly can't follow, without trying to come up with an alternative to communicating better? All Japanese people in this movie are like stage props, not characters.We have a huge Nissei (people of Japanese ascent) community here in Brazil, and they certainly aren't remotely liked that!! I wonder how this movie was received in Japan?? I think that when the characters talk about "escaping" (and somehow the trailer conveys the suggestion that this is going to happen), they should have done it, and got some movement, meaningfulness and excitement into their lives. And into ours. And into the movie. They weren't brave enough to do so, and will remain stuck to themselves and their own mediocre routines (and spouses) they seem to despise. Serves them right. Perhaps that's the message Coppola intended to convey?
(By the way - I liked her acting in "Godfather III". Nothing personal, Sophia.)