I want to pass along a tv station that my mom discovered.

Ovation.  If you have Direct TV, it is in the 270s.

My mom was watching all the extreme flip your house shows in the afternoon and didn't like them but kept telling me that there was nothing on tv.  Well she was following the basic cable listings in the newspaper.  She would marvel about how I could take the remote and within minutes find some really interesting show that was on a station that the paper didn't know about.  Once she realized that they had over 500 stations not listed, she started scrolling and found some better stuff to watch.

In the afternoon Ovation has a block of early British Antique Roadshows and they are wonderful, so much better than the drek that PBS is calling the same.  They are gentle and take care to tell history, discuss the family history and the value isn't nearly as important as telling the story on this show.  Occasionally the experts will pass along a high value and the crowd surrounding the area will gasp.  And the owners seem genuinely surprised, again not like the coached pickers happy that they can get extra bucks off ebay because it was on Roadshow.

This is a pleasure to spend an hour or two with.

Then their evening fare consists of decent movies and show reruns that can draw me away from my usual habits.  They are finishing up a British series called The Runaway that is a little harsher than their usual fare but has Alan Cummings in it as a gay drag queen.  Alan Cummings plays Eli Gold on The Good Wife, he's my favorite character in the show and if nothing else, he's a good Masterpiece Theater host.

If you have access to it, it is well worth taking a look at.

Hubby and I were supposed to go see "Abraham Lincoln,  Vampire Hunter" this afternoon.  Hubby forgot and went to volunteer at our local political office instead.  Oh well!

yrag08086 wrote:

Hubby and I were supposed to go see "Abraham Lincoln,  Vampire Hunter" this afternoon.  Hubby forgot and went to volunteer at our local political office instead.  Oh well!

But depending on who it was running, it might have been some better drama.

Since I'm further along in my fracture healing, I may be able to handle getting to a theater and sitting through it. 

I really want to see Dark Knight, in spite of what's happened in Colorado, 

If you've seen it, please let me know if it's as good as it looks...

I'm going on a guilt trip. Can you stop by and feed my paranoia?

Fracture??  What happened?  I hope it wasn't bad and you heal quickly.

You might be able to play this up, most theaters have spaces for the handicapped and while others might have to wait in line, you might be able to breeze through if you are in a chair or on crutches.

I am so sorry to hear it.  I do not hang on the PLU thread so i did not know.

Are you in some sort of weird butt flap cast or splint?  Or do you just have to lay there and not jostle it?

I don't move around much, mostly because I'm lazy, but if I am told that I can't go anywhere because... then I want to go out and do stuff.  It must suck for you.

But if you have had the weather that we have, 90 and 100 degree heat for about a month, then staying indoors is all anyone should do.

I hope that you heal fast.

Hubby and I went to see "The Dark Knight Rises" on Tuesday night with my youngest son and his girlfriend.  We all liked it.  Not a lot of scenes with Batman, but would go see it again.  Some of Michael Caine's scenes brought me to tears. 

So I went out to see Total Recall this afternoon.  I was very surprised.  It was much better than I thought it would be. 

I'm not a big fan of Colin Farrell, I think that he chews up way too much scenery with his macho-in control-hunk of man acting skills, but he shows some finesse here as someone who is totally out of their element.

I am also a huge fan of the Ar-nuld version 20 some years ago.  Nice movie, tight story, left you debating the ending but it unfortunately was made by a new company that just didn't have the money or the inhouse FX department to really do it justice.

This movie is the exact opposite, it has some really nice special effects including a really impressive piece of science that really puts science in sci-fi.  Seriously, I love sci-fi and this is an impressive idea, one of the best I've seen in a movie, but if you look at it in real life, it can not and will not work.  But setting that aside, the story is not that great.

If you've seen the Arnold version, this one can actually stand up to it.  It is not a remake, because they do not go to Mars, but they use the same situations, names and opening set up.

In this one, Colin plays a guy that who feels empty inside, and is haunted by bad dreams, dreams that he is being chased and captured with a woman who is not his wife.  He wants to do something more with his life. 

He lives on future Earth that was devastated by chemical warfare and now has only two habitable areas, Australia - which is now referred to as the Colony.  This is where the poor and downtrodden workers live.  And the British Federation which appears to be a better class of people that includes England and a small section of Europe.  The rest of the world is dead, including the Americas.  Those two spaces are very overcrowded and the people who live in The Colony work in the British Federation and get there by use of the The Fall, a gigantic bus that runs through the earth in about 17 minutes each way.  It is so cool.

So Colin sees an ad for Rekall, a company that can insert memories into your mind, teach you things, have adventures, go to places that don't exist anymore, basically escape your cookie cutter life for a few hours.  So after a few days of mulling it over, goes there.  He goes through the basic application process where the owner questions him about what he'd like to do and Colin picks the basic spy story.

There is very little difference between the Arnold one and this one up to this point.  There are rebels blowing stuff up on the news, he feels empty and lost, and his wife who loves him is pretty much out of his league.  Then they almost get Rekall turned on.

SPOILER ALERT----- In the Arnold version, there is much debate about whether what happens to him after he sits in the chair is real or was it the Recall fantasy?  In this one, the producers have obviously decided which it is.  After about 10 minutes after he sat down, I decided that I wasn't going to bother with the story because this is just a long chase fantasy in a sci-fi framework with one of the most indestructable bad guy henchmen ever to hit the screen.  This one lasts longer than some of the best Bond villans.  Either that or they hired the worst continuity editor on the planet.

But don't get me wrong here, it is very good.  The details of the science of this future world were well thought out (with one huge exception) and the story is entertaining.  The thing is, I went with my friend who is a physics professor and he thought that the science was great and didn't catch the exception, so I felt good when he looked at me and said, oh, yeah.

If you are not a stickler for details, this is a definite go see.  It's got great visuals and of course it has the three breasted woman cameo.  I know guys that ponyed up the 9 bucks on opening day just to see her.  11 bucks in 3D.

But the most entertaining moment came at the opening and closing of the movie.  This remake was made by the Original Movie company.

I saw Hunger Games and thought it was a basic teen flick.  I like the woodsey settings though.

My friend said that they left a lot of the book's story on the cutting room floor.

I went to see Judge Dredd today.  It is very much an acquired taste and if you have it, the movie is fantastic.

I am a fan of the Dredd comic stories in 2000AD which is a British comic.  The premise is that this is America in the future and it is post apocalyptic with people living in huge cities and buildings with the law being dealt out by Judges who are police officers who judge and deal out punishment all at the time of the crime and capture.  This is to expedite matters when there are hundreds of thousands of people living in one 200 story building for most of their lives.

There are updated weapons and Judges wear body armour and a helmet all the time.  But not a lot of tech science because Judge Dredd first appeared in the late 70s before DNA and cell phones and the internet.  This world is dark and depressing with lots of unemployment and crime, so much crime that the Judges can not answer all the calls for help.

Dredd is almost robotic in personality with a devotion to the law as it has been taught to him, even when following it to the letter will obviously bite him later.  He has a very dry sense of humor and will occasionally toss in a one liner, but for the most part the entertainment comes from how he deals with impossible situations.

So the movie could go toward the campy, or it go for more the action hero which the comic is barely neither.  The thing is, the movie is just about a perfect adaptation of the comic, in fact one of the best adaptations of an established character I've seen.  Dredd is gritty with no hope or empathy, he understands what he is up against and it isn't good and expects that his training and the respect for his place in the law will get him through.

The movie starts with some basic establishing of the world as he lives it and then gives him a new recruit to train.  This is Judge Anderson, a girl that scored just below the requirements to be a Judge, but is telepathic and so they are allowing her to become a Judge to test whether this could be an asset to the law.

Dredd allows her to choose what crime they will investigate first and she chooses the 3 murder victims at the Peach Tree mega block.  The story evolves slowly but develops that the block is run by a violent woman who has pushed out all the other gangs and is now manufacturing and distributing a new and powerful drug.  When Dredd and Anderson capture her right hand man, she locks down the mega block and sends her forces out to hunt and kill them.

The violence level, while a little comic booky, is realistic at the same time.  And there is a lot of violence.  The 3 murders were the skinning of the men and then tossing their still live bodies off the 200 story balcony to crater on the lobby below.  Blood flows freely in the movie so this might be a turnoff to many.

But it is a great adaptation and if you are very familiar with the stories there are a few things that may surprise the other people in the theater, but will leave you laughing.   And please overlook the horrid movie of a few years ago that should have been great starring Stallone that was one of the worst adaptations ever

I really liked the movie.  As an action adventure movie it isn't The Avengers, but as a low budget adaptation of one of Britians most popular characters, it is very, very good.

Thanks scarlet.   OMG, getting paid to go see movies is a dream, but our newspaper has critics that work maybe once a week.  I'd like to blog someplace, but I don't venture out into the internet much so I have no idea where to go to do it.  I don't even have a Facebook account and I've been told that they don't have blog space there.

Like I have a couple of show reports ( I did two recently and am going back to Hartford City next weekend) that I think some might like.  There was jousting at one and I've got some great pics.  Like I said, just don't know where to put them.

We are going to see Looper, but Ovation ran 12 Monkeys recently (if you can get Ovation on your cable, check it out, it has some great stuff on it) and I realized that it not only has the same kind of time travel loop in it, it also stars Bruce Willis, so I am not holding out much hope for it.

I really want to see Argo.  They are advertising it now and it stars Ben Affleck, while he has been is some real dreck, he is doing a lot of producing and directing of some fine independently made movies.  I think when they are old and about done with their careers, Affleck will be more respected than Damon.  Also, since I was around during the Iran hostage crisis and had some strong feelings about it, the behind the scene politics intrigue me.

I don't think so, I'm pretty sure I will be doing a Civil War reenactment that weekend.  Last one of the year and it is supposed to be cold, so I am working on making warm undergarments and the wool cape that I've been putting off for too long.

Ovation runs British Antiques Roadshow and it is really superior to the PBS version.  The have a few reality flea market buying shows that I wince a little at but it is an entertaining afternoon.

If you are a Johnny Cash fan, check them out tonight, they are starting a series called Johnny Cash Song by Song and it is sort of a biography of the songs that Johnny sung and how they came to be.  Looks interesting.  The Best Shows You've Never Seen series isn't fibbing.  But they are an aquired taste.

Have you been watching Copper on BBC America?  Oh man, that is gritty.  And there is a substory that once you realize that not only are they serious about it and are really following through, I am shocked that some religious groups aren't all up in arms about it.  But doing Civil War reenactments I not only watch with an eye to costumes, I like to check the accuracy of the situations.  A couple of things off, but not bad.