Mystery

Tube Watch – Cable’s Detectives

/ / Essays, Television Reviews

It seems as though the game might, indeed, be afoot. Cable seems filled with great detectives lately. Monk and Psych both premiered their season openers last Friday, the Sci-fi Channel has just launched their newest series about a wizard detective titled The Dresden Files, and John Laroquette’s McBride appears to be back on the case.  Each brings their own unique style to solve mysteries, capture the bad guy, and entertain at the same time.

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Wilting Flower

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Black Dahlia
  • IMDb: link

black-dahlia-posterTwo cops, Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart), both former boxers, find themselves thrown together, first in the ring, and later on the street trying to solve the mysterious death of a young women who wanted nothing more than to be a Hollywood star.  The film centers around the relationship of the two cops and Lee’s girl, Kay (Scarlett Johansson).

One of the films plot threads involves the death of Elizabeth Short (Mira Kirshner) who the papers tab “The Black Dahlia.”  But that’s only one of several mysteries.  There’s the spoiled rich girl with secrets (Hilary Swank) and her dysfunctional family, the hidden reason behind Lee’s obsession with the case, a recent parolee (Richard Brake) who has it in for Lee and frightens Kay to death, the case of a child rapist and killer, and a dirty movie staring young Miss Short and another woman (Jemima Rooper).

There are also subplots including Bleichert’s throwing a boxing match for his adle-minded father (James Otis), office politics in the police station, and the love triangle between the three leads.

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So Dark, the Con of Man

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Da Vinci Code
  • IMDb: link

The Da Vinci CodeRon Howard probably wasn’t the best director for a vast conspiracy/thriller picture; off the top of my head Oliver Stone seems to be the more natural choice.  Neither was Akiva Goldsman (I, Robot, A Beautiful Mind) the right man to try and adapt Dan Brown’s novel to screen.  The final look of the film feels very much like a book stuffed into a movie.  The film really is a confusing jumble of odd choices and missed opportunities.

In case your one of twelve people who hasn’t read the novel the premise runs like this:  Scholar Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is on a book tour in Paris where he is summoned to the Louvre where a man (Jean_Pierre Marielle) who was scheduled to meet that afternoon has been murdered.  Captain Fache (Jean Reno) is certain Langdon is the killer while cryptographer (Audrey Tautou), who is also granddaughter of the murdered man, is certain he is innocent.  Neither one of their certainties is satisfactorily explained.

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Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
  • IMDb: link

kiss-kiss-bang-bang-poster

Any movie that contains an argument over the phone about why someone has urinated on a dead body he finds in his hotel room shower deserves some attention.  Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is one of the most entertaining movies of the year.  Part Hollywood satire and part dime-store novel this is great fun with terrific performances from Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer.  Simply put folks, this is the best comedy of 2005.

Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) is a small time thief who stumbles into an audition for a detective show while fleeing from the police.  Whisked away to Hollywood Harry meets Perry (Val Kilmer) a gay detective who is the consultant to the show.  At a party Harry also runs into Harmony Lane (Michelle Monaghan) the girl who got away so many years ago.

So far sounds like a pretty normal film right?  Well here’s where things start to get interesting.  Larry takes Harry on a stakeout to teach him more about detective work, but unfortunately they run into a car with a dead body.  For reasons to difficult to describe here the two abandon the body only for Larry to find it in his hotel room shower early the next morning.

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Quite Elementary Dear Holmes

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking
  • IMDB: link

sherlock-holmes-case-of-silk-stalkingRupert Everett brings a certain savior fair to the role of Sherlock Holmes in The Case of the Silk Stocking.  Like Simon Brett, Everett doesn’t shy away from presenting Holmes as boorish and snobbish.  If only the writing and the mystery had lived up to his performance.

Dr. Watson (Ian Hart) has left Baker Street and is preparing for his wedding.  Sherlock Holmes (Rupert Everett) has removed himself from the mundane crime of London only finding solace in the prick of a syringe.  Lured out of his despondency by Lestrade (Neil Dudgeon) and Watson, Holmes tackles a case involving a serial killer who preys on the young daughters of the London elite.  Each victim is found dressed in clothes not her own, strangled to death, and with a silk stocking buried in her throat.

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