Mark me down as a "thumbs down" on the animated Samurai series. I watched several eps and it just never gelled for me. It's competent, but only that.

How did LAST LEGION get a Japanese assassin into Arthurian Britain? Or should I even ask?

She's not Japanese, she's presumably from India (like the actress who plays her).

Considering that in olden times, monks from India and monks from China apparently taught each other their fighting styles it's actually somewhat plausible that she would fight in more of a movie kung fu style instead of striving for strict period accuracy.

Mira (the sword weilding gal) shows up in Rome as the bodyguard of a guy from the Byzantine Empire. Then she joins up with other Roman characters who are heading off on a quest to Britain.

I just saw I Am Legend.

As Reece probably pointed out already in his blog entry (I'm too lazy to check), it is more of a remake of Omega Man than an adaptation of the actual book. The Smith movie takes ideas that were added to Omega Man to make it a little more upbeat and hopeful and elaborates on them in ways that generally work out okay.

Smith is great, but his dog is the real star of the movie. That German Shepherd has some serious method acting chops.

My biggest nitpick is not really getting why they felt the need to throw in a bit of dialogue to explain why an Army colonel had a beard instead of just making Smith shave for the flashback scenes. Did they not have time in the production schedule for him to grow about three days' worth of stubble?

I haven't seen either of the prior adaptations. I hear the Vincent Price version is more faithful to the book. You're right about the dog (or dogs?). I think the film anthropomorphizes her a bit, just to decrease the loneliness of Neville. The book is sadder.

I finally saw CRUISING . It's a real hoot!

Also, I saw a good documentary on dvd, CROSSING THE LINE, about James Dresnok, a US Army private who walked across the DMZ in 1962 to defect to North Korea. You get a good look into a secretive country and a fascinating portrait of a traitor. He would've in all likelihood been a complete loser in this country, but there he's a recognized celebrity, well-cared for.

I saw IAL too.


SPOILERS-----------------------------------


Now it's been some time since I read the book or saw the other two film adaptations, but I think that all three at least suggest that the vampire people are a mutant strain that's not going to go away, which is a direction in which IAL the movie did not go. Each work, I think, has a different take on what will happen with the "new mutants," but IAL doesn't really get into that.

'Twould be interesting to know why not...

My reaction to having watched THE LIVES OF OTHERS, BLACK BOOK and BOURNE ULTIMATUM.

Saw the Bourne Supremacy. The shaky cam wasn't too bad, but definitely compromised the final chase sequence, which otherwise could've been pretty fantastic. I liked the first one a little better. This one had a bit more to it, but ... some of the set-ups felt too arbitrary to me. What Bourne was or wasn't ready for; or what the CIA agents were or weren't ready for. I saw it a few hours ago and it's already slipping from memory. I enjoyed it, but nothing particularly stood out to me, and I found myself getting sort of impatient for it to end in the last half hour or so. I still want to see Ultimatum, but I dunno, Supremacy didn't really blow my hair back or anything.

K

Was reading your blog there, Charles. Curious, what of THE PIANIST'S "good Nazi." Empathy or sympathy? Obviously less an overall focal point, but that aside. Function seems similar, i.e. it's not completely black and white, some Nazis still had traces of human decency left too. The depiction in PIANIST works better for me in terms of plausibility, though this might be due merely to its brevity and/or style, or even quality of the acting, maybe. Of course, PIANIST is pretty closely based on the guy's actual diaries, no? So I assume the Kind Nazi Moved by Piano Music wasn't a purely fictional invention. I find the more abstracted link to humanity through music more moving than BLACK BOOK'S link to humanity through a really hot Jewish chick who can pass for a German, and whatever else prompted BLACK BOOK'S Good Nazi to relative kindness (the "whatever else" likely to be found somewhere in the motivational ether you refer to.) Cheesy as the music link would seem on paper. Polanski handles it a hell of a lot better than Darabont (Shawshank Redemption.)

K

I just rewatched part of CLOCKWORK ORANGE last night (fell asleep), and haven't seen PIANIST, but maybe I need to do a follow-up, since you might be right about the latter, and the oft-mentioned quality of coldness in Kubrick is, I suspect, due to his focus on empathy. Additionally, Kubrick takes the right approach to the transformative power of art, namely that such power is always refracted through its social use.

And I can't help myself, but I still love BLACK BOOK, false as it is.

I also saw NO COUNTRY again and, sans being stoned, it worked a lot better on me.

A Better Tomorrow: Good film, but I was expecting the kinds of crazy, practically non-stop action you'll find in other John Woo/Chow Yun Fat movies such as Hard Boiled and Once a Thief. I wasn't prepared for most of the movie being about an ex-con (and former crooked cop/gang leader) trying to go straight and patch things up with his honest cop brother.

It's a good movie, but later Woo stuff has more satisfying fight scenes. Recommended.

Stardust: I found this movie absolutely delightful. I may have to finally break down and read the book. Highly recommended.

Foreign Correspondant: A surprisingly cool early Hitchcock effort that manages to mix some comedy relief and romance into a suspense thriller about Nazis who are up to no good shortly before World War is formally declared. The jingoistic speech at the end urging the U.S. to support our allies may be a bit much for modern viewers, but don't let that stop you from enjoying the story.

The protagonist is an American reporter who uses his fists just as much as his typewriter. His sidekick is a British reporter with ties to the aristocracy who uses his cunning and connections to thwart evil. Imagine Jeeves and Wooster trying to prevent World War II and you're sort of on the right track.

Highly recommended.