#1 - THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES
Stars - Richard Roxbourgh, Ian Hart, Richard E Grant, John Nettles
Director - David Attwood
Memorable Quote - JW: 'What is it?' SH: 'It's dead.'
Review - What a classic! I must have seen this ten times at least. I remember being about thirteen and writing about watching it for the first time in a diary. It's generally on every Christmas since it's a made-for-TV movie. This has to be my favourite out of the adaptations of this story that I have seen, and it is a perfectly English creation. Grant is SO very English that it is humourous, and many of the lines are delivered with a dry humour that only we Brits could have conceived of. The casting is quite exquisite, actually - each of them is well suited to their roles in appearance and mannerisms, and this Watson/Holmes pairing is as good as any I've seen. The slight homoerotic undertones are of course intact, as they should be in any Holmes story, and all the colours are gloomy with bright spots of luxury, adding to the melodrama of the plot. The visual effects aren't too bad, given both the nature of the production and it's age, and while it is clear that the hound is not real I don't believe it really detracted from the effects very much. All in all, a great effort. 4.5/5
#2 - SPY KIDS
Stars - Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Alexa Vega, Darryl Sabara, Teri Hatcher
Director - Robert Rodriguez
Memorable Quote - 'We are definitely gonna be late for school.'
Review - To quote my mother, 'this was doing well until the children arrived'. And she was right. The bits with Antonio Banderas were amusing in a silly way, but something that could engage adult attention as well as that of a child. The parts where the children are running around town, however, are not as engaging, and in fact I found myself switching off quite often from those sections. The dialogue was simply tedious, and the fact that they would be that childish and still succeed was ludicrous, quite frankly. Hmm. I'm not really sure what else to say, except that this is probably only really appropriate for those around the age of five. Ah well, there's always Antonio Banderas to look at. 2/5
#3 - THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR
Stars - Brendon Fraser, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, John Hannah
Director - Rob Cohen
Memorable Quote - 'Why am I laughing?!'
Review - This being the third in the franchise, by now we're very clear on what to expect from the Mummy movies. This of course is a rewatch. It always seems to be on in the festive period, though I don't see what's so Christmassy about Chinese mummies. Anyway, this is quite a strange film really, where an all-star cast and a renowned director come together to make... something a little bit beneath them. Much like the PotC movies, this franchise has brought Fraser a new level of popularity, but he and his co-stars all seem a little bit too good to be in the third part of a franchise, the time when all the stars should be jumping ship as the sales start to decrease. All the same, this is not as bad as it could be - in fact, the introduction of the Chinese element with Yeoh and Li makes it much more interesting. We have the old favourites of Hannah's cowardly materialism and Fraser's plucky one-liners, alongside the new elements of the grown son and the immortals. Not a classic of refined cinema, then, but still a worthwhile evening's entertainment. Really quite funny in places, too, and the effects aren't half bad. 3.5/5
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