7 Days in May | Deadpool, Sinbad, and Sherlock Jr.

Deadpool (2016)



The trailers and other marketing for Deadpool didn't make me laugh at all, so I had decided not to see the movie. But positive reviews from friends and critics made me reconsider and with little else going on at the theater that I wanted to see, I checked it out.

And it's not too bad. I was surprised at how much I cared about the character even while I found him and his girlfriend super annoying. Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead are great foils whom I enjoyed whenever they showed up, and it was also great to see Gina Carano and TJ Miller. The movie has a cool look to it, too, and I enjoyed the way it used music.

My biggest problem with the movie is that it's just not my humor. I chuckled a couple of times and neither were at actual jokes. They were just nice character moments that I thought were amusing. The jokes were simply more of what the trailer suggested: references to sex, poop, and self-referential stuff like other X-Men movies, Green Lantern, and Ryan Reynolds in general. Basically, it's Family Guy humor. So while I had a pretty good time watching Deadpool, it ultimately didn't feel like it was for me.

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003)

I remember liking this a lot when it came out, but the animation doesn't hold up by today's standards. Especially the integration of the CGI elements with the mostly hand-drawn cartooning. But for the most part it gets Sinbad right and I think that's what I originally responded to. He's a swashbuckling rogue with a diverse crew who faces various monsters in the pursuit of treasure.

Unfortunately, the treasure is a vaguely powerful object called the Book of Peace, with no explanation for what it does or why it exists in the first place. And the movie pulls Sinbad out of his Middle Eastern setting to plop him into Europe, which is a shame. Other than that though, it's enough in the spirit of the live-action, Harryhausen versions that I have a good time watching it, even if it doesn't have all the charm of those.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)

This is one of a handful of silent movies that I'm totally comfortable showing to people who don't know if they'll like the format. Thanks to Victor Hugo, it's a strong story, but the film does great by it. It balances the large cast of characters well, it's funny, it's touching. And of course Lon Chaney's makeup and physical shenanigans are fantastic spectacles.

Three Ages (1923)



One of the first full-length features that Buster Keaton did. There's a racist gag that bothered me, but for the most part Three Ages is great. It explores essentially the same love story in three different time periods, with the same actors playing the same roles in each era.

What it calls the Stone Age could more accurately be described as the Flintstone Era, since Keaton rides a dinosaur and his rival in love owns a mastodon, but that's all for the better. The other two ages are Ancient Rome (featuring a fantastic chariot race and an awesome scene between Keaton and a lion) and the Modern Age. Great gags, great stunts, and charming plots.

The Balloonatic (1923)

A short Keaton film that's not so much about a hot-air balloon as just general outdoorsiness. Some good stuff, but not one of Keaton's best.

The Love Nest (1923)

I didn't realize until partway through that I've seen this short film before. I don't remember where - TV probably - but it's probably one of the first Buster Keaton films I ever saw. And it's a good one with Keaton as I most like him, bumbling into success on a whaling ship under a horrible captain.

Our Hospitality (1923)

A feature-length Keaton film that's super strong from beginning to end. The plot, the stunts, the gags, the characters... all of it. This is more of how I like him: as an unflappable, slightly clueless good guy who knows when to be heroic and when to run away.

The Ten Commandments (1923)

I've been curious about the original Ten Commandments for a long time. The Charlton Heston version was ubiquitous in my childhood and I've always wanted to see where it came from.

The Exodus stuff is impressively spectacular, but it's ultimately just a long prologue to the real story about a pair of brothers with differing views on religion. Sadly, this part is crazy didactic and obvious, with the characters primarily existing to demonstrate the relevance of the Ten Commandments to modern life. It's extremely well acted though and it's nice to see that the spectacle didn't end with the Biblical prologue. The modern segment also has massive crowd scenes and dramatic visual effects.

So it's great from a technical perspective, it's just that the movie's thoughts about religion are rather shallow, focusing on following rules instead of being a moral person. And that's a shame since communicating those thoughts are the entire reason the film exists.

Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor by Stephanie Barron



I've re-read this several times (and even blogged about it) and have just done it again in an attempt to catch up to the rest of the series. Barron (a pen-name for Francine Mathews) writes compelling, spooky mysteries in the humor-filled voice of Jane Austen. She includes great details to bring the historical period to life and a fantastic cast of supporting characters who follow Jane from book to book.

This one drags a little for me in the middle, but I think that's because I'm so familiar with it that I'm eager to get to the final revelations at the end. It certainly didn't feel slow the first time I read it.

Polly and the Pirates, Volume 1 by Ted Naifeh

I'm a big fan of Ted Naifeh anyway, but Polly and the Pirates is especially my cup of tea. It's the story of a proper, young girl who's horrified to learn that she's the daughter of an infamous Pirate Queen. Various groups want to use her to find the Queen's hidden treasure and adventure ensues. Naifeh's created a world that's just enough related to our own to feel comfortable, but also fantastically different.

Polly and the Pirates, Volume 2: Mystery of the Dragonfish by Ted Naifeh and Robbi Rodriguez

The sequel to the first Polly and the Pirates adventure is also fun. Robbi Rodriguez' drawing style is different from Naifeh's, but it's appropriate and beautiful. I wish there'd been more volumes, because it's a fun world and these are great characters.

Saturdays with Jane: Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor

What do you know? I can finish a novel when I put my mind to it. I'd just about given up hope. And with a week to spare in the month too. Now the question is: do I tempt Luck and try to squeeze something else in before starting Jane and the Man of the Cloth for April? Or do I play it safe and get an early start on Man of the Cloth?

Best to play it safe, knowing me. Besides, after finishing Scargrave I'm excited to get cracking on the next one. I've read it a couple of times before too and know what to expect. There are pirates.

Scargrave also has a cool, un-Austen-like element to it, but I can't tell you what it is without ruining the whole thing. It's unfortunate though, because it's my favorite part of the book and I want to go on and on about it. Still, there are other things to recommend this first novel in Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen Mysteries.

The action picks up right after Jane's accepted Harris Bigg-Wither's marriage proposal and then turned him down less than 24 hours later. Still reeling from the event and wanting to get away from the local scandal it's caused, she gladly accepts an invitation to join a newly-married acquaintance of hers named Isobel Payne at her husband's country estate, Scargrave Manor. On the very night of Jane's arrival though, Lord Scargrave becomes violently ill and passes away during the night. The following day, Isobel's maid has gone missing and a note from her is delivered implicating Isobel and her step-son in Scargrave's death.

That's as far as I'll go in the plot description, except to say another death occurs and the law becomes involved to the point that Jane feels obligated to find the murderer or murderers in order to clear Isobel's name. Barron asserts in her introduction that "a woman of (Jane's) intellectual powers and perception of human nature would enjoy grappling with the puzzle presented by a criminal mind whenever it appeared in her way. Her genius for understanding the motives of others, her eye for detail, and her ear for self-expression - most of all her imaginative ability to see what might have been as well as what was - were her essential tools in exposing crime." I can't argue with that. Don't want to either, since that proposition is the basis for Barron's whole series that I enjoy so much.

I think I mentioned before that I have a hard time reading Austen. That's because she - at least in Pride and Prejudice - takes such a leisurely approach to unfolding her story. There's not much action to pull you forward and it's hard for me to invest that much time in a story when the only motivation to keep reading is to see if Mr. So-and-So can ever fall in love with Miss Whatsername. I need some thrills to keep me interested.

The first time I read Scargrave, I read it as a straight mystery fan and I have to confess that read that way, it reads like an Austen book. Barron unfolds the story slowly and frequently interrupts it with details about English life in the early 1800s. There are all the balls and flirtations and silly girls and noble gentlemen and sincere friendships and backstabbing hypocrites and lovely walks through the countryside that you expect to find in an Austen story.

Barron also has an ear for Austen's banter though. Jane throws around quips and insults that frequently had me smiling if not chuckling out loud to myself. It's one of the reasons I've adopted Barron's version of Jane as the official one in my mind. I'm not ashamed to say that if I had to make a choice between the real Jane Austen and Barron's creation, I wouldn't hesitate to stick with Barron's. She's too charming and delightful a character.

Barron also fills Scargrave Manor with all sorts of other Austenian characters. There's Isobel, the true friend and damsel in distress. There's her step-son Fitzroy, an obvious (because Barron comes right out and says it) counterpart to Mr. Darcy. There are the late Scargrave's nephews George and Thomas Hearst: George being a serious man with ambitions to join the clergy; Thomas being a dashing military officer with a rascally side and the atmosphere of scandal hanging over him. There are Isobel's aunt and cousin, Madame and Fanny Delahoussaye respectively. Madame is just the kind of controlling mother so often depicted in Austen's novels and Fanny is a silly, flighty girl in love with the handsome, but equally flighty Tom Hearst.

Scargrave may not be a thrilling, fast-paced mystery, but it is a damn interesting Austen pastiche. What I love about it is that it gives me the flavor of an Austen book, but adds all these secrets and murders to keep things moving. Lord Harold Trowbridge, for instance, is another visitor to Scargrave Manor, but he's not especially Austenian. He has nefarious designs on Isobel's property in the West Indes and he's one of the most deliciously sinister characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading about. If they were to make a movie out of Scargrave today, he'd be played by Jason Isaacs. I remember when I first read the book that it was Trowbridge who kept me reading when it seemed like Jane wasn't uncovering clues quickly enough for me.

Five out of five dead bodies in the hay shed.

In related news, I had some time this afternoon, so I went by Once Upon a Crime and picked up the three Austen Mysteries that I don't have yet. Its been a while since I was there and I didn't realize that their annual Write of Spring event is going on. The place was packed with readers and local authors. Made me realize how much I miss shopping and going to readings and signings there. I'm not going to wait so long until my next visit.

Saturdays with Jane: Pride and Prejudice (2005) and Becoming Jane (2007)

Finally saw the Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice this week. Matthew Macfayden is no Colin Firth, but dang if he didn't grow on me as Darcy should. At first I was all cross-armed and judgmental. "He's not Darcy," I thought. "I don't like him." But then I kind of started to and I remembered with embarrassment that I wasn't supposed to like him right off the bat and that -- what do you know -- I started warming up to him right about the place the story called for it. So I guess he's not so bad.

Keira is flawless as Keira will be. I'm completely unable to be objective about her at this point, but she's a fine Elizabeth. Hell, she could've played Darcy and I'd have been happy with her.

I missed how much time we got to spend with the characters in the six-hour Colin Firth version, but this one made up for it a little with better production values. The movie rushed through parts of the story -- especially Elizabeth's introduction to Darcy's home -- but it sure was gorgeous and exciting. It's one of those times when I'm thankful not to have to choose between two versions because I can enjoy them both for different reasons.

Four out of five Keiras.



We also watched Becoming Jane this week. I was a little disappointed that the story didn't cover Jane's life all the way up to her acceptance and almost immediate refusal of Harris Bigg-Wither's marriage proposal. I've always imagined that to be a defining event in Jane's life and figured that leaving it out would be sort of like leaving out the midnight ride in a movie about Paul Revere. But I'm no Austen scholar, so maybe I put too much emphasis on ol' Harris. The writers of Becoming Jane see her relationship with Tom Lefroy as the important one and for all I know maybe they're right.

Their focus is on how Jane came to the decision to pursue writing as a career and they make Lefroy integral to that decision. Again, I don't know how true that is, but I suspect that maybe they were reaching a bit. It doesn't hurt or help my perception of Jane one way or the other. In fact, I kind of liked that that's where their focus was because it drove them to include a fictional (I assume) meeting between Jane and The Mysteries of Udolpho's Ann Radcliffe (creepily played by Helen McCrory) in which Jane gets to pick Mrs. Radcliffe's addled brain about the dangers of becoming a famous novelist.

The only Austen biography I really care about is Stephanie Barron's fictional one, so watching Becoming Jane was all about making connections between that story and Barron's. I recognized Tom Lefroy's name from Barron's books, but I can't remember what she said about him or how he figures into whichever novel he's mentioned in, but now he's someone I'll be keeping an eye out for.

More interesting to me were the portrayals of Jane's parents (James Cromwell and Julie Walters), her sister Cassandra, and especially the romance between Jane's brother Henry and the saucy Countess Eliza De Feuillide. Eliza and Henry are two of my favorite characters the way Barron writes them. Barron's novels begin when they're already married, so it was great fun watching their early romance in Becoming Jane.

Anne Hathaway did a fine job as Jane. She's not my favorite actor or anything, but she worked for me. Barron's Jane is more animated than Hathaway plays her, but then Barron's also has wittier dialogue than the Becoming Jane writers were able to muster, so it's just a poor comparison all the way around.

Three out of five Keiras.

Speaking of Stephanie Barron, I mentioned that I'm focusing on reading all the Jane mysteries this year. I figure if I read one a month I'll be able to re-read the ones I know and catch up with the ones I don't by November. That leaves December open, so I was planning to read Barron's most recent novel, the Victorian-set Flaw in the Blood. Unfortunately, Bookgasm lessened my enthusiasm for that, but they also turned me onto the fact that Barron writes contemporary thrillers with an historical slant under the name Francine Mathews, so I'm thinking I might check out The Alibi Club instead. Or maybe I'll save the Mathews books for another year. I guess I have a few months to figure that out.

Defending Jane Austen

The stars are aligning too much for me to ignore them any more. I'm on a Jane Austen kick and I can't help it.

I know, I know. Not exactly who you think of first when you hear the word "adventure," but I'm going to make a case for her and you tell me how I did.

I should start this by saying that it took me two times to get through the novel Pride and Prejudice and I pretty much gave up the idea of reading any more Austen once I finished. My not liking it says more about me and my need for action than it does about Austen's talent as a writer, but it wasn't to my taste. I liked the story (or rather the point of the story), but it was so luxuriously paced that I was impatient for something to happen the whole time. Something finally does happen; Austen just takes her time in getting there.

That said, I love Jane Austen movies. I've always liked period films, so in the movies I'm not as antsy during the slow times. I can distract myself with the acting and the sets and just immersing myself in that world with its huge mansions, horse-drawn carriages, and leisurely lifestyles. I can take it all in and appreciate Austen's themes, but I can do it in a two-hour commitment rather than a two-month one (I'm a slow reader).

There are a few reasons she's on my radar lately. First is Masterpiece Classic's "Complete Jane Austen" series. It's introduced me to Persuasion and Northanger Abbey and refamiliarized me with Mansfield Park, which I'd previously seen in this version. Persuasion was good, Northanger Abbey was Awesome, and though I didn't like Masterpiece's version of Mansfield Park as well as the 1999 movie, it did star Billie Piper as Fanny.

I'm looking forward to seeing how they do with Sense and Sensibility, though I can't imagine its not suffering by the absence of Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Laurie, Hugh Grant, and Alan Rickman. And of course there's Pride and Prejudice, but I don't care how good everyone says the Colin Firth version is, I wish it had Keira Knightley in it. Emma, based on my memory of the Gwyneth Paltrow version, is okay, but I'm sure to like it infinitely better starring Kate Beckinsale.

Last night my wife and I watched Masterpiece's Austen biopic Miss Austen Regrets. I've never read a biography of Jane Austen, but I do know a little about her life from Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen Mysteries and I was disappointed. Not because of any historical inaccuracies, because Lord knows Barron takes liberties with Austen's life, but because it takes a woman I've come to admire for her imagination and good-natured non-conformity and it portrays her as a selfish, greedy, bitter person.

It's not the only disappointment I've had with the Masterpiece presentation. I love Gillian Anderson, but as little as I know about Austen I have questions for whomever's writing Anderson's introductions to the episodes. She basically claimed that Austen created Mansfield Park's Mary Crawford as a Mary Sue character. She also said that Austen wrote Northanger Abbey as an homage out of her fondness for gothic romances. My understanding is that Austen thought they were silly and wrote Northanger Abbey as a parody. The Masterpiece version certainly comes off that way.

Northanger Abbey relates to the next reason Austen's been on my mind lately. Even if she didn't like gothic romances, they have a lot of cool elements: old castles, haunted rooms, dark villains, beautiful girls, and swashbuckling heroes. Like Austen, they can get long and tedious though. It took me more than a year to make it through The Mysteries of Udolpho and that was only through sheer stubborness. I've been reading Graphic Classics, Volume 14: Gothic Classics this week though, which includes a comics adaptation of Udolpho as well as Northanger Abbey. Having just seen Northanger Abbey on TV, I'm excited to get to that part of Gothic Classics.

Adding to my Austen pile, The Jane Austen Book Club just came out on DVD and while I'm not excited to see it, I'm curious about it. I'm far more eager to see Becoming Jane, which coincidentally(?) comes out next week. I'm hoping I'll like that one better than Miss Austen Regrets, which is all about the end of Austen's life. Becoming covers the beginning, which is what I'm more familiar with thanks to Stephanie Barron.

And all this is to say that I'm planning on picking up Barron's series again this year. I left off at The Prisoner of Wool House and she's written at least three more since then.

But none of that justifies my connecting Austen with the subject of this blog.

Last night, my wife -- pleased that she's married to the kind of guy who'll watch Jane Austen movies with her -- asked me what the attraction was for me. I had to think about it for a bit, but I finally decided that it has to do with Austen's non-conformity. She and her characters lived in such a formal, regimented society with all its politeness and manners and not really getting to do what you want or say what you think. But she (and her characters) always bucked the system and managed to find happiness in it. In a time where marriages are based on social climbing, Austen's characters find love. In a culture where snottiness and stupidity is perfectly acceptable as long as you have money, Austen's heroines and heroes are kind, funny, and smart. They reject their world and create new ones in its place. In a word: they're adventurous.

Yes, yes, I know it still makes me a girl. It's not sword-fighting and monster-hunting, but it works for me.

Although, in the Stephanie Barron books there is sword-fighting. And murder and pirates and spies. So there.