Doctor Who: Marco Polo

The Roof of the World/The Singing Sands/Five Hundred Eyes/The Wall of Lies/Rider from Shang-Tu/Mighty Kublai Khan/Assassin at Peking

And now for a little history lesson courtesy of Doctor Who. We meet Marco Polo, at the time employed and/or held captive with a constant promise of release and the possibility of return to his home dangled before him like a carrot before a donkey. We also get acquainted with the mighty Kublai Khan.

My memory of this serial (and, indeed, a few serials to follow) is sketchy, but it involves tricking a Chinese emperor and fighting off would-be assassins as well as assisting Mr. Polo in his quest to finally be freed.

What I do remember about this serial (and, indeed a few serials to follow) is that at this point I don't actually care for the show. Yet. I have seen a couple of the new episodes and know that some of the old stuff must be good or at the least watchable. Season 1 is not quite there yet. The First Doctor does not seem at all impressively smart and says "hm" a lot.

But I'll be damned if I don't find the point when everything starts to make sense and I will understand why this show is such a cult phenomenon.

3/10

Long Weekend

Yeah, yeah, I've been gone a while. I thought I made be done with this blog for good but here I am. So, I saw a lot of films since I last reviewed one. I may or may not review any of them. Time will tell. Today I watched Long Weekend and with this I return.

When I say Long Weekend I refer to the 1978 original, of course. As I understand, the 2008 remake is basically a shot-for-shot retelling of the story, so I ask you, "What's the point?".

First up, the tag line/promo line on the movie poster is genius.

Their Crime was against nature...nature found them guilty.

Also, it tells you everything you need to know about the film. Here is a couple that decide to take a break in nature for a long weekend. They appear to be a modern, suburban couple who have obviously hit a road block in their relationship. There is talk of an abortion, the child apparently the result of an affair the wife (Marcia) was/is having. The husband (Peter) also appears to be getting some on the side - the film starts with him parting from a woman that may be his lover.

Not the best premise for a weekend away.

They drive off with their (well, his) dog, Cricket, not the smartest of dogs. Marcia is in a piss-poor mood for most of the drive. This seems to be her default setting. Over the days to come there are some moments of tenderness between the couple, giving us some idea of what they once were. But this is only the backdrop.

To return to the promo from the poster, here are the ways in which they piss off nature:

Peter throws a cigarette out the car window, igniting what could be a wild fire.
Peter hits a kangaroo in the dark.
Marcia steals and later smashes an eagle egg. (A move I found particularly disgusting.)
Marcia applies bug spray everywhere.
Peter kills a dugong. Or not. This dugong is an especially ugly and fascinating beast.
Marcia hits ducklings with the car, splotches of blood and goo all over her windshield.

But this being Australia and horror and all, nature will have her payback.

This is awesome in a very 1970's kind of way.

7/10

The Big Game of Thrones Meltdown (Yet Another One)

Did you miss me? Probably not because nobody is actually reading this. Oh well, such is life. Anyway, I am changing the way I am doing this (again) and will move away from standard reviews. I may do some yet, but this will be much more free form from now on.


Everybody is going mental again about the cruelty of Game of Thrones. Shouldn't we all know better by now. Personally, I chose to take things in stride. And as someone who has actually read the books and was less shocked in the past I find it somewhat thrilling that the writers of the TV show have departed from the books quite significantly. Even playing field, at last!

The biggest shocks of season 5, according to all the feels displayed all over the internet, are Sansa's rape, Stannis sacrificing his daughter to the God of Light and Jon Snow's death by his sworn brothers hands. Half the audience is still hoping he made it, magically. Yeah....no. But hey, people have been known to come back to some kind of life on GoT, so maybe there is hope.

Granted, Sansa got handed a very raw deal. That Ramsay Bolton (formerly Snow) is a real piece of work. (Care for a surprise? Go and watch the English sitcom Vicious. Here, Iwan Rheon (aka Ramsay Bolton) plays the hapless and slightly stupid character Ash, who is about as different from his GoT character as he can possibly be.) And what horrible timing! Just when the poor girl finally makes it to the broken tower to alert Brienne of Tarth that she really needs some saving here, Stannis decides to march on Winterfell.

Which brings us to the second big one. The Red Woman (now there's a character to hate on!) has at long last convinced Stannis to sacrifice little Shireen to the God of Light. They burn the child alive. And her mother, who actually brought that wretched Red Woman into all their lives in the first place, suddenly grows a conscience and wants this to Just! Stop! Stannis, trapped in his stubborn, regal skin shows barely any emotion but his distraught wife cannot live with herself after this.

The result of the sacrificial burning of Shireen is not at all what Stannis or the Red Woman expected. The vision Melisandre had was of burning Bolton banners. A clear sign that Stannis is to be victorious, surely. What happens after the sacrificial burning of his child is, in fact, the polar opposite.

And am I the only that mourns Stannis Baratheon? He was actually one of my favorite characters. Not that I believe him to be right. His belief in the visions of Melisandre were so obviously misguided but he genuinely believed that he was the rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms and any god would be on his side.

I am less sorry to see Jon Snow go, however horrified the community may be about this. He was actually one of my least favorite characters (right after the Mother of Dragons, which may have to do with her being portrayed by an only marginally talented actress). All the righteousness and goodness and hair! But, really, he knew nothing. Good riddance.

The Bourne Legacy

For the longest time I thought that in The Bourne Legacy Jeremy Renner simply replaced Matt Damon as Jason Bourne. Not so. This film covers the second generation of special operatives and/or trained assassins.

If I got all this straight, during the Treadstone Project they were called Assets, for the Blackfriar Project they were Outcomes and then there is also a new project (but very hush-hush) called LARX and the operatives are called, well, LARX.

What is covered here is the story of what happened after (or while) the New York Jason Bourne fiasco took place. The ultimate asset (Bourne) and LARX #3 are merely the bookends to the story, however. Here we concentrate on Outcome Aaron Cross. This is the Jeremy Renner role.

Behind the scenes of Blackfriar (up to a point) and LARX (hush!) is Edward Norton, who runs a detail and yells at people around him, one of which is played by Stacy Keach. So, we have established that Stacy Keach is still alive and still working. Has he been in anything else lately?

And yes, this is all a adrenaline rush again. But if you (and I) thought that The Bourne Ultimatum had an impressive cast, well, this one here is even more impressive (see above and add Oscar Isaac as one of the Outcomes, Rachel Weisz as the Damsel in Distress and Zeljko Ivanek as a scientist that goes coo-coo; also they put Corey Stoll in the background and threw him a few lines).

The big chase here is car/motorbike, initially, and then moves to motorbike/motorbike.

A tiny step down from the previous two but still a nail biter.

6/10

The Bourne Ultimatum

At long last, Jason Bourne remembers how he became what he is. Random memories come flooding in on him at the most inopportune times. The conclusion is devastating.

But first, some irritation. We ended part two in New York with a phone call between Bourne and Pamela Lindy. This scene also happens in part three of the saga, but not before going back to Moscow, then London, Madrid and Algiers. Also, there is a short visit in Paris. The payoff this time, however, is that everything will finally make sense.

Contrary to the first two Bourne films, here we not only get a car chase (in New York, no less!) but also a chase on foot an one involving a motorcycle, both in Algiers, when Bourne is running from and then after an assassin (or "asset" as they are called in this universe).

The cast of these films just keeps getting better. This one features not only Joan Allen and Julia Stiles, whom we have both encountered before, but Scott Glenn, Albert Finney, Paddy Considine, Daniel Brühl, David Strathairn (always a welcome sight) and Édgar Ramírez (who, if I am not mistaken, has all of one line despite being on screen a considerable amount of time).

Now, what could the next one possibly have in store for us?

8/10

Non-Stop

This was exciting!

An US air marshal with a whole list of personal issues is getting texts from an unknown fellow passenger requesting a money transfer or every 20 min. someone will get killed. And that is what happens, because everything is made out to frame the air marshal, here played by Liam Neeson (finally not the "I will find you and I will kill you!" guy).

What follows is a guy trying to save himself and the passengers while everyone around him suspects that he is responsible for all of this. His only loyal aid is the woman that sits next to him on the plane, while everyone else is eyeing him suspiciously.

Of course, passengers start taking things into their own hands, trying to overwhelm the air marshal. One person on board is law enforcement himself, working for NYPD, and rallying the troops around him.

In the end, of course, the Liam Neeson character will be redeemed and become the celebrated hero that saved all but a few lives (the ones killed in 20 min. intervals).

Pure entertainment.

7/10

The Bourne Supremacy

Onward with the Jason Bourne story.

This is two years after part one ended. Jason and Marie have put some distance between themselves and whoever is out to kill him or both of them and are now in Goa, India. However, the vengeful arm of the agency or anyone they are connected with reaches there, too. The assassin sent to do away with Bourne and opting to do away with Marie instead turns out to be Russian. We later learn he is Secret Service in Moscow.

Meanwhile, in Berlin, two agents are killed while on a mission and at the crime scene a partial print that matches Jason Bourne's is discovered. This happened under the eye of one Pamela Landy, a woman surprisingly far in the dark for someone that high up on the corporate ladder and calling shots. So, still everyone is after Bourne and Bourne is after everyone that is after him.

Some - but far from all - of the loose ends from part one are tied up. Need to leave some for part three, no. The inevitable car chase this time takes place in Moscow. No glass panes smashed far as I could see.

The point of irritation in this one...no matter how big or small the place, assassins just happen to run into their targets and vice versa. Seriously, Jason Bourne is randomly spotted in Moscow by his nemesis.This is a town of about 11,5 million citizens. Even if you are in the same approximate area the chances of you running into each other would be slim, at best.

Still, not bad for a film wedged in between two others storywise.

7/10