Reviews

I've seen all of the episodes of Wolf Hall so far, and I absolutely love Mark Rylance's performance! I rarely have the opportunity to see one program that shows a character from history played so well. Rylance takes us through it all with his subtle acting. At the beginning he's heart-breaking when almost all of his family dies from disease. Then we see his conniving in the background to work with the powers that be. We see him shift from quiet "toady" to a conniving, creepy and dangerous man. The series goes slowly through the politics of Henry III and Anne Boleyn with all the backstabbing in the shadows.

We loved this series and hope to see it continue to the end of Thomas Cramner's life.

BOOKS: I read two Agatha Raisin books. In both, Agatha was a vulgar, rude, foul tempered, narcissist, man-eater. She rants on angrily about her inability to chain smoke in public, obsesses continuously about her age and looks, and has an unbelievable need to get her name in the newspapers. She bed-hops in both books. In one, she visits a "Witch," and gets a love potion. She slips it twice in the drink of a Police Inspector!, never thinking or caring if this could harm him. She pops into bed with him and she gets engaged to this decent man, not because she cares about him but to spite James Lacey. Within a few days she meets up with Sir Charles and sex with him....with her fiancée finding them in bed. The second book was violent with three gruesome shotgun murders and two others. In both books Agatha is rescued multiple times by the police but continues to place herself and others in danger. She never thanks them or gives them credit for rescues. There is no way these books could be converted to a TV series for family viewing.

SERIES: I've seen the entire first season of Agatha and just recently bought the DVD set, I like it so much. This Agatha is funny, sometimes edgy, flirty, smart, makes friends and cares so much when one woman is killed she cries. She makes mistakes in the beginning, accusing some of the murder (and two are arrested just on her accusations!!). Eventually she uses her brain to consider the evidence before narrowing it down to the murderer. I love her friend played by Katy Wix and her daughter. Of course there were changes from the books but I can't complain. The series is entertaining and different from anything we get in the U.S. in terms of modern crime fighting. If I had one complaint, it's that the inside of homes and businesses look too modern, like London. The scenery is gorgeous though. I hope they don't ruin it by giving this Agatha a Detective Agency as in the books. She's best as a non-professional.

I often see Halmark movies as schmaltzy and overly simplistic, pretty much cookie-cutter productions.

I just happened to have the channel on and after Columbo, this movie came up. It started differently with a homeless woman talking to herself, accompanied by two dogs that she loved unconditionally. Then Ben Vereen made an appearance as one of her homeless pals (he had just been attacked).

One day a female police officer named Tami drove by and into the station to talk about her love life. I was ready to change the channel when the two women came into contact with each other. That was the beginning of a different kind of friendship. What caught my eye and kept my interest was Chandra Wilson's portrayal of Yvonne, the homeless woman. It was so very realistic. She captured the anger, fierce independence and hard personality perfectly. It never appeared contrived. I spent a few years delivering food and often serving food to homeless persons in New Orleans. They had to be hard to live on the street, and that could be in any town or any city. Women, of course, had it rougher. They all have a story. I really enjoyed this one although I have to confess it was really difficult to watch.

The relationship that developed between these two women was a joy to watch, even more so when I learned that it was a true story. I think the weak link was in not showing Tami's hard life as a female police officer. Instead, they focused on her love-life (a true Hallmark tradition).

SPOILER ALERT (don't read further if you don't want to know the ending): Their true story seemed to end well, with Yvonne going into rehab, working through many hardships, and making a good life for herself. Tami married a fellow police officer. I saw a photo of the two women on Google, standing in front of a poster for the movie.

As others have warned, this is NOT a movie for children (unless you love to torture them with horrific events).

My mother took my sisters and me to see this, based on the title and it was at Christmas time.

SPOILER ALERT!! SPOILER ALERT!! (Don't read if you plan on watching anyway)

Our younger sister, only 10 years old at the time, had nightmares for weeks. She was scared to get in the car and afraid our parent would get killed. Why? It's in the movie. This heartwarming little film has someone being short to death and children drowning when a car plunges in the water. We see it all. Since we had no internet at the time, our Mom didn't know these visions would appear in front of us kids until the "surprise" ending. Unfortunately the ending didn't quite redeem what you see for most of the movie. Oh yeah....there's the depressing issues of bankruptcy, a Suicidal mother, and an "Angel" who looks like a Pedophile and skulks around children as though he is one.

I know the world has changed, and children are a bit more savvy. However, I am writing this to let parents know and be forewarned.

I gave this dreadful diatribe 4 points because of the sheer stupidity of it and of course the historical time line (1960's). First of all....as an "Anti-Porn" short, I can say it didn't exactly do that. This nifty film goes on to show us more Porn photos than most people saw in the 1960's without watching it.

Hilariously, they covered the men and women's EYES, but not their body parts. So we would have seen more porn than ever. The guy even reads from a Porn novel. Really cool. He seems to be drooling through all this while attempting to be very angry.

About the Producer and those funding this project, the "Committee for Decent Literature." It was formed by the no other than CHARLES KEATING. A pet of then President Nixon, himself a bad dude, Keating had backing from the Government. Keating was a financier who wound up in Prison for Fraud, racketeering and conspiracy. His use of five senators to help cover his crimes led to their being called "The Keating Five." Through horrendous mismanagement and fraud, Keating cost the U.S. Government $3 billion when his financial empire collapsed. He also cheated very nice, "Decent" people out of their life savings.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

This episode was shown in a Halloween marathon, so it does have some scary moments to it. Of course, its "Psych" so it also has some hilarious moments too, as the guys fall into a trap, feel duped, then really run for their lives.

It's a homage to the "Friday 13th" movies, without showing the gore. The setting is a camp and a ramshackle one to boot. The guys are invited back (they've been there before), by a friend. The set-up is really good, with twists and turns.

Check out the cameo appearance of Justine Bateman! I watched this entire show with her in it and only realized at the end that it was her! Just WHO did her hair and makeup? She looked Awful. Now that was the scariest moment!

WARNING AGAIN....SPOILERS AHEAD: (If you already saw the movie you probably won't care)

An incredibly dull man stalks a really dull woman. She likes him and spends time with him talking about stupid death omens, including an Owl . Her boyfriend fights the dull man and disappears. Dull man is then stalked by the an unknown figure, the police, and his ex-wife.

There are no explanations for the odd occurrences in this man's life and why they seem to only happen to him.

After awhile, I didn't care. He was so darned boring. Oh, he does curse a lot.

The dull man is inexplicably and incredibly "unlucky". Everyone around him gets shot, stabbed, or disappears. He looks out the window and hears an Owl.

The End.

I really didn't read many of Agatha Christie's books until this series began with Geraldine McEwan, who I really liked. Now we have Julia McKenzie who is a very different, but also totally likable Miss Marple. Both actresses put their different imprint on the role. I've enjoyed most of these Miss Marple movies, with a few exceptions of course. This season seems to be deeper into the human psyche than others. I care about the characters a bit more and "Carrie Louise" is worthy of Miss Marple's protection. That takes some doing since she kindly takes care of some criminal-minded youths. Who done-it? I Loved Miss Marple figure it out. Some people mentioned, and I agree that the addition of Joan Collins doesn't help the cast at all. But her appearances are sparse, I'm happy to say. A friend told me that Christie wrote more Poirot stories than Miss Marple, so it's more limited. I'll be sad to see the series end.