A rough account of what I did with Emacs recently.
January 29
The Equalizer 2
is not a patch on the first one. It spends ages setting
things up, to the point where you're wondering if there's any
actual story, then there's sort of a brief flurry of activity and
it's all over. Really disappointing; I see from my notes that the
first one had the same slow build, but it was a build - it wasn't
random flapping about and then suddenly tension. And really, the
whole bit with "let's introduce Caring, Kind Hero to Family Man
Bad Guy" and you're wondering how that's all going to work out in
the end, and, well, let's just say they may as well not have
bothered with the Family Man bit because it didn't seem to make
the slightest difference to how the plot would turn
out.
January 23
I don't recall if I'd seen The 39 Steps
before, but I do recall reading the book and waiting for the twist
that didn't come (I think, maybe, I was waiting for apparent
saviours to turn out to be in league with the bad guys). This is a
pretty good movie, but I can't for the life of me remember if
there was a love interest in the original; certainly this seems
clumsy and grafted on - "OH! You're handsome but I'm engaged." "Ah
yes, but *waggles eyebrows" "OH! My fiancé has been
murdered. Are you free?" The other somewhat jarring sense
throughout is how capable the protagonist is; someone
makes a passing expository remark late in the day to account for
this, but this is a guy randomly thrust into international
intrigue and before long he's mugged a vicar in a railway station
toilet to steal his clothes. Which, you know, people under
pressure driven to extremes and all, but really now. I think I'm
going to have to read the book again to see how this actually
worked in the original.
January 22
Rewatch: Rogue One:
it stands up well, 4 years on from when I originally saw it. I'm
not sure if I noticed the various hat-tips to the franchise the
first time around: there's the obvious "I have a bad feeling about
this" which you can't miss, but there's some more subtle stuff
going on in shooting angles and scene compositions that harks back
nicely to that first outing in 1977 (which, well, I didn't see it
then; I really don't know when I did see it). And there
was definitely at least one visual nod to Blade Runner,
too. There are flaws as well but I think I'd echo what I said the
first time around: it's leaps and bounds ahead of what Lucas did
with the prequels.
January 21
One of the more amusing facets of having hooked up some home
automation: I've got a TRV on a radiator next to the front door
which in addition to controlling the radiator also reports the
temperature. I collect this data and put it on a graph (to be
honest, mainly because I have no idea what I want to do with it,
and until I figure that out it can't hurt to keep collecting
it). Looking at the graph, you can tell - during current cold
spells - when the door has been opened, even if only to receive a
delivery.
January 19
Well, I guess as season finales go, "driving a car through your
ex-girlfriend's house, injuring your best friend in the process"
is pretty dramatic and, uh, final. So that's the conclusion of
House Season 7. One season left!
January 15
Grabbed The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
off the tellybox during the week and watched it this
evening. Verdict: an absolute riot. Leans more into the humour
than some of Richie's earlier work, and it really works well - the
dock boat chase is particularly excellent. I didn't see the twist
coming, nor the twist on the twist - although I had my suspicions
on the latter. Nicely shot and scored, and some lovely tips of the
hat to the era of the original (which to be honest I'm not
familiar with, although I think it may have shown up on the box at
some point). I'd happily watch this again without a second
thought.
January 9
More Hitchcock: Dial M for Murder.
This is, again, brilliant. I'd seen the 90's remake (A Perfect
Murder) but I'd forgotten how it worked and, it turns out, it
mucked about with the plot anyway so it's not a clean match for
Hitchcock's work. This is a Columbo-like whodunnit: you know what
happened from the outset, and the puzzle is more how the truth
will come to light. Amusingly, the detective on the case does one
Columbo-like "afterthought question" as he's leaving the apartment
- which of course is not an afterthought at all. The
other funny thing is that the detective is sort of a
cross between Columbo and Poirot - the former because he appears to
take the alibis and explanations at face value, and the latter
because he's a very proper gentleman with a moustache and a keen
mind - and who played the detective in the remake? David Suchet,
better known for playing that little Belgian
detective!
One other note on these: I'd mistakenly thought Rear
Window was based on a play because we'd looked through a few
movies and I'd confused the descriptions of two of them. I find
that the dialogue of straightforward stage-to-screen conversions
tends to be very distinctive, particularly when there's a
conversation; noone is ever lost for words, and there are quite
complex back-and-forth sequences with no pauses for thought. It
turns out that Rear Window is based on a short story, and
Dial M for Murder on a play, but curiously it's the
former that has play-like cadences while the latter comes across
as "written for the screen".
(and now I learn that Dial M was originally written for
television, then moved to stage, then to film, which maybe
accounts for the less stage-like dialogue.)
January 8
I've an idea I may have watched Rear Window
a long, long time ago, and since I don't appear to have a note of
it in this diary that would suggest it was before August
2000... it's a brilliant piece of work. The conceit of having the
main character confined to his apartment is an interesting
challenge from the story-telling perspective, but Hitchcock of
course carries it off easily and makes it look pretty as well.
There's some lovely visual touches, like the reflections of the
view in the lenses of the protagonist's camera and binoculars, and
both female leads run away with every scene they're in - I think
it's reasonable to say that this movie passes the Bechdel Test,
which is a little surprising for something made in 1954. And even
having (maybe) seen this before and seen the derivative
Disturbia, I still couldn't remember or
anticipate if the main character was right or wrong. If you've not
seen this, you're missing a treat.