Murder, she wrote - season 3

ep 1 - Death stalks the big top, part one - Jessica is in Columbia for Carol's wedding. Carol (Courteney Cox)'s grandfather Neil was Frank Fletcher's brother. Howard is her father, Audrey her mother, and Constance her terrible grandmother. When Neil died ten years ago, Frank was devastated, and could never believe it. Now Carol thinks he might be alive too, and he is, working in a circus, where a man gets killed. Neil is arrested, and he confesses to the murder! - I liked it very much how Jessica looked at Neil, so happy and moved, with so much love, what with Neil reminding her so much of his brother Frank and all :-)
ep 2 - Death stalks the big top, part two - Jessie makes Neil confess he was protecting the young boy he thought was responsible, because it wasn't him. Another man is found dead. In a hotel room, Jessica finds a circus girl lying on the floor and approaches but someone gets her from behind leaving her unconcious, before starting a fire trying to kill them both. Neil finds them and saves them. Jessica comes out with her usual line "I know who it was, but I don't know how to prove it", and I'm very glad it was that annoying, unpleasant man with the moustache.
At the end, Jess takes Neil to visit Carol; after that, he'll return to his circus where he's finally been happy (far away from Constance, that is) :-)
ep 3 - Unfinished business - A retired cop is decided to close a ten years old case, and back then Dr Seth was one of the suspects. !! - Mr Roberts is killed; unfortunately this is not Amos (Tom Bosley)'s jurisdiction, so he doesn't get to question Mrs Maggie Roberts (Erin Moran) :lol: It turns out the cop had killed his partner , and now wanted to kill the man who was blackmailing him, making it look like it was an attempt on his own life, but he can't fool Jessica!!!
ep 4 - One white rose for death - Jessica was invited to a concert and following party, and she meets Michael again!!!  I'm glad, I like Michael a lot!!  He was MI5, now he's SIS (secret intelligence service) and is called Dennis :-) He involves Jessica in a difficult situation: a german man working for SIS and his sister, a famous musician, seek refuge at the British Embassy, but then a man is murdered there.
ep 5 - Corned beef and carnage - Jessica is visiting her niece Victoria and her husband Howard. Her boss Kinkaid is murdered, and of course she's a suspect and is arrested, but her aunt Jessica is there for her :-) Howard is an actor... wait, this is the couple from season 1 :-) Glad to see they're doing fine together :-)
Although I admit I don't like the actor playing Howard, doesn't seem very good to me. There's a scene with him that is so artificial, one of those cases where I could clearly imagine the set in front of me... I wasn't seeing a character, but a man working... annoying is what it is.
Funny thing, the murderer admits he had thought a lot of how to get rid of Mr Kinkaid, and when he finally decides to put his plan into action? When Jessica was there...
ep 6 - Dead man's gold - David Everett (Leslie Nielsen) is at Cabot Cove, searching the sea for some lost treasure; when he sees Jessica, he goes "Jessie McGill?" and he kisses her on the mouth! They last saw each other 35 years ago.
"You had a good life with Frank" - "Wonderful" - "I hadn't realise how much I missed you" and after saying this he gets invited to stay with her : "but the neighbours are liable to start talking!" - "Do you really think so? Good! They think I lead a very dull life chained to my typewriter" :lol:
Talking to Dr Seth, she says "I've known David Everett for the past 35 years" - "Correction, you knew him 35 years ago. There is a difference".  Then she talks to David : "David, I want some straight answers" _ "For you Jess, anything" _ "Don't patronise me. I've been acting like a fool, and I don't like it. I don't like the fact that because I may have felt something for you a long time ago I'm afraid to ask you the hard questions that I have to ask" :-) At the end, they say goodbye again "Seems you're always sailing away" _ "I never said I was smart" aww this is cute :-)
ep 7 - Deadline for murder - In Boston, Jessica's journalist friend has a heart attack because of the new Sentinel publisher. Jessica steps in, working the case in his place. Personally, I coldn't stand the guy. "Oscar, will you stop treating me like a two year-old? You know, it's all beginning to come back to me, why I chose to marry Frank instead of pursuing a newspaper career with you"
There's a female investigator at Boston P.D., this is a first!
ep 8 - Magnum on ice - Crossover, Magnum with Jessica! I didn't know that, but apparently there was an ep of Magnum with Jessica was there, and this is the conclusion. It starts "previously on Magnum p.i." : Higgins met three women at the airport, and one of them is Pamela Bates, old friend of Jessica. Magnum was hired, Pamela's sister went missing.. Pamela wrote to Jessica and she went there to help. When someone shot at Magnum he shot back, but the police found him near a body shot in the back and unarmed...
Jessica looks really good in that blue dress,Je looks like she adapted to Magnum's style a bit.:-) Again later she's dressed in white, with flowers on her shirt... she clearly adjusted to the atmosphere :-)
I love the smile she gives the Lt after threatening him to personally call the governor..
Magnum is always surprised when she finds something, he doesn't take her seriously, he thinks she's just an old lady poking around where she could get hurt, he never even read her books, not even the one Higgins gave him as a present... well, he'll finally read it, better late than never.
I love this bit : Jessica "Magnum, where were you when Mr Houston was killed?" - Magnum"When was he killed?" - "An hour after you made bail", it was fun because they are always catching bad guys saying things like' how could you know when he was murdered?' and such things :lol:
"Jonathan, you were magnificent!" she says to Higgins after he saves her and Amy. :-)
ep 9 - Obituary for a dead anchor - Mr Keats was at Cabot Cove to interview Jessica. He's believed dead, but it turns out it was his collegue Doug, killed by one of his reporters.
In this episode there is also Sheriff Amos (Tom Bosley), but not Dr Seth, so Jessica plays chess with the other doctor...
ep 10 - Stage struck - Directed by John Astin :-) A substitute actress, Barbara, is killed during a performance, and the chief of police was quite funny at first, with his french words : Ales="Good Lord, I think he's playing Hercule Poirot" Julian="Yes, and badly too" :lol:
Julian Lord (Edward Mulhare) killed Barbara because she was blackmailing him., because he wanted to protect Maggie who secretely gave a child away thirty years ago.
A sweet scene was when Jessica remembered meeting her Frank in the teatre, and he offered to help her. :-)
ep 11 - Night of the headless horseman - Vermont. Dorian has told everyone that Jessica is his mother :lol: When a man turns out dead, his head cut off because the recent dental work would have brought the police to his murderer right away, who did it to avenge the death of his fiancèe, the whole truth comes out and he loses his girlfriend :lol:
ep 12 - The corpse flew first class - Jessica is on her way to London for research, and boards a plane. Ms Green (Kate Mulgrew)'s friend has probably been murdered, and her jewels stolen. The killer turns out to be Ms Green, out of pride and jealousy,  but the thief was a man on the plane (Robert Walker, seen in the old Star Trek, but still looks exactly the same - he was Charlie) along with the 'Scotland yard' man .
ep 13 - Crossed up - Grady is at his aunt Jessica's house for a week because she's forced to bed. Trying to make a call, her line is crossed up with an ongoing call between two men planning to kill another man. Grady, Seth and Amos (Tom Bosley) think she's gone crazy, but a man gets really killed!! How could they think that!! They should know her well enough!!
She recognizes the voice of one of his sons, but he's not the killer.. the right killer went to her bedroom, but Jessica was prepared and the police caught her on time.
ep 14 - Murder in a minor key - It starts with Jessica at home, talking to us, proofreading a book, and narrating it to us. Then the story starts. Michael Prentiss, a music student, is arrested charged with the murder of the professor that stole his music. A law student and his wanna-be-social-worker girlfriend try to help him as his friends. He's the one doing all the investigations, and catching the real killer, freeing his friend of any suspicions; Jessica only makes two or three interruptions to talk to us about the story, telling us at the end that she's thinking of a sequel to this. A bit boring, to tell you the truth.
Rene Auberjonois (another STrek-world name) plays Harold 'Harry' Papazian.
ep 15 - The bottom line is murder - In Denver, a tv man is killed and Steve is arrested. Seven years ago Jessica was at Steve and Jane's marriage. The dead man may have been a hard and unpleasant man, but he was just a mistake: Steve was the intended victim!
George Takei (no need to say it, but ST again!!) plays cleaning guy Burt Tanaka.
ep 16 - Death takes a dive - Harry (Jerry Orbach) has Jessica lend him 5.000 dollars, next thing she knows he's arrested for murder! She works to help him poking around with Blaster the boxer as a bodyguard, and catches the real killer. Ernest Borgnine works in the gym, and LeVar Burton (STworld!) is journalist Dave Robinson.
ep 17 - Simon says, color me dead - Simon, a painter, is killed after a dinner with friends, including Jessica. He was killed by his jealous model, and frankly her expressions betrayed it from the start, all she did and said lead there, even before his death, actually.
Sorry for Amos (Tom Bosley), he was getting fond of the young boy.
ep 18 - No laughing murder - George Clooney, like a new Romeo, is in love with the daughter of a man that doesn't get along with his father... he already had his charming smile, didn't he? Unfortunately, most of the time the girl's father was on, and I didn't like him at all. What a face, I didn't like it at all, so strange.
ep 19 - No accounting for murder - Grady is finally working :-) , and when his boss meets his aunt Jessica he tells her that he's loved her books for twenty years... even though she's been a writer only a few years, after Frank died, and also tells her of the importance of love-story book! :lol: She doesn't correct him, but says instead "where would we be without Barbara Cartland?"  :-)
He will turn out to be a very nasty one: he killed his associate and tried to kill Jessica at the end, because she had figured everything out. Obviously, she was saved by the 'ghost', the man living in the secret passages of the building.
ep 20 - The cemetery vote - Jessica came back because Dr Seth told her this James died, while she was in Rome. Her friend Jim has been murdered, and so his father. Maybe not the details, but the who was really simple.
ep 21 - The days dwindle down - A man spent thirty years in prison for a murder he didn't commit, and his wife asks Jessica to reopen the case. It was suicide. The cool thing was that they showed pieces of the old case like a black&white 'noir' movie :-)
ep 22 - Murder, she spoke - Jessica is recording novels for the blind.
Lt. Faraday (G.W. Bailey) considers Jess just an irrational woman, because the hard work of investigarion is a man's job :-/ but of course it'll be Jessica to crack the case :-)

One, two, buckle my shoe - by Agatha Christie

This is a strange book, for me, because is full of characters I don't like. Fortunately, it has Poirot from beginning to end, to level up things. I like him enough to make up for all the others.
The title obviously had to be changed in Italy, because this nursery rhyme is not known here, yet the chapters maintain in the titles the verses of the nursery rhyme. It was a complicated story, that started when Poirot's dentist died the same day he had been to him for his usual check-up. Neither Poirot or Japp believe in suicide, but when another patient is found dead because of a deadly dose of the anaesthetic that dentists use, Japp believes this to be the motive for Dr Morley's suicide: he had made a mistake causing the death of a man.Poirot is not satisfied, though, and insists in believing there must be another explanation, he is sure Morley has been murdered. A woman is found dead, her face smashed beyond recognition, and with the same clothes Poirot had seen on her at his dentist's, only he had thought he'd seen new shoes, but these were clearly old... the kind of little things that only matter to Poirot and Columbo :lol:
Other important characters are Alistair Blunt a rich banker/politician who appear to be a good man, Howard Raikes, a young man who talks about revolution and appear to be Blunt's enemy. Frank Carter, the useless boyfriend of Dr Morley's assistant. Both the young men apparently have a girlfriend madly in love with them, even if I can't imagine why, or what do they see in them.
Spoilers, big big spoilers ahead, if anyone's interested...
The end is one of the most interesting , not just because of the disclosure of the murderer's name, but mostly because it is maybe the first time Poirot is in conflict with himself. He does not like the young man accused of murder, not even a bit and I can't blame him, I don't like him either. The murderer, on the other hand, is a man that Poirot in a strange sort of way admired, because he stands for all the things that are dear and important to Poirot, for balance, stability, honesty, and Poirot's very sorry to turn him in. He would have much preferred if that boy had done it. After Poirot reveals to Blunt that he knows everything, that he has proof, he admits to be of the same mind with him, but Blunt excuses his actions saying  that one was a lurid blackmailer, one was a stupid woman, and Morley.. yes he's sorry about Morley but after all he was only a good person, a good dentist, but there are other good dentists out there... and Frank would be hanged in Blunt's place, but he's just a good-for-nothing nobody, while he is important for the security and fortune of the Nation! Poirot tells him that he's not at all concerned about Nations, he's only interested in single individuals, who has the same right to live as any other human being. Poirot's not happy about this ending, but to him all lives are important. :-)

Poirot says that ‘for me their lives are as important as yours’ and he believes that although being an honest, loyal man needed by the Country, he sacrificed four human lives for power. Blunt is sure that the safety and fortune of the Nation depend upon him, but Poirot cares about individuals, not Nations, and that nobody has the right to take their lives away from them. 

We encounter this same theme throughout the whole book; everybody is keen on closing the investigation, leave the rich and powerful Blunt be, blame it all on the good-for-nothing young man, accuse the poor dead dentist of having killed a patient with too much anestethic - intentionally or unintentionally - and believe that because of that he took his own life. Nobody cares about finding the real truth, nobody cares about the dead dentist’s reputation.  

Another thing is that, before it was explained clearly, I had misunderstood the reason for killing the dentist. Thing is: There’s a Miss Sainsbury Seal who’s missing, and a body is found in Mrs Chapman’s house, with the face disfigured. At first it is thought of being Miss SS, but because of the face they have to resort to the dentist to make an identification. Her dentist was Morley, who’s dead, so they ask his substitute who can only use the information he has on record. He says it’s Mrs C, but he’s wrong, the files had been misplaced on purpose. The body is really Miss SS. I thought this was the reason for killing Morley, to have the body identified wrongly, but I was wrong. Poirot reveals the truth. Miss SS had recognized him as the husband of a woman she knew, Gerda, not knowing that he had remarried to rich Rebecca that with her money had made Blunt’s fortune and career. Totally unintentionally Miss S-S was about to ruin him, so he had Gerda kill her, while he killed Morley just to take his place and has easy access to Amberiotis who had known about the matter and wanted to blackmail him, so Blunt killed him. In a way, to Blunt, Morley was collateral damage. To stay together, Blunt had Gerda pass as his cousin Helene, in truth dead for years. Poirot already has her arrested and now it’s Blunt’s turn. 

A funny detail is that at the end of the book Barnes, a man who worked for the Foreign Minister’s Office or something like that, sort of a spy, now retired, confesses to Poirot that he is Mr Chapman, so he knew all along that Mrs Chapman was a made-up name because he never married, and I thought, why didn’t he say so from the start? If he’s revealing it now then it’s no secret to keep, so why didn’t he tell Poirot the truth when he would have saved him a lot of time? These spies..

ITA Poirot non sbaglia

Murder, she wrote - season 2

ep 1 - Widow, weep for me - The beginning is funny, with Jessica posing as an arrogant rich lady. Her dear friend Antoinette had wrote her a letter asking for help, just before being murdered, and she came undercover to investigate. :lol: There are many possibilities, like the girl she gave up years ago for adoption or the playboy trying to marry her for her fortune, but the truth is that the hotel security man stole Antoinette's jewels. There's a character, Michael, who is a sort of British secret agent: I like him.
At the end, Jessica says goodbye to Veronica and Michael, with promises to keep in touch. :-)
In the opening credits, I saw the names Cyd Charisse and Mel Ferrer that I thought I knew, but I didn't recognise them...
ep 2 - Joshua Peabody died here... possibly - Some people want to build a new Hotel at Cabot Cove, and during the protest some skeleton remains are  found. Sheriff Amos (Tom Bosley) wants them to be Joshua Peabody's, because Joshua Peabody is a Cabot Cove history myth that he likes and believes in. Another day in the same spot is found the body of a man freshly killed.  He was a rich man that put on constructions for years, saving money on precautions and secutiry measures, costing the lives of more than one worker. The sister of one of them, now a journalist, realisisng he always finds someone to bribe to get out of trouble, comes to the conclusion that there's only one way to stop him, and make him pay, and she kills him. There's also the problem of an Fbi agent come to arrest David, but Jessica and Seth take him off the hook, saving him from an old story.
We see here Dr Seth cooking in Jessica's house :-) Curious how she always calls him Seth, while he alternates Jessica and Mrs Fletcher, or even Jess... The two of them talked until midnight in her house. I guess this season he's taken the place of Ethan.
ep 3 - Murder in the afternoon - The writer of a tv soap-opera, hated more or less by everyone, is killed by her husband for the money. Anita, or Nita or something, a young actress of the show, was suspected at first, but of course her aunt Jessica came forward for her :-)
ep 4 - School for scandal - Jessica meets her friends Beryl and Henry; she has been offered an honorary degree at Grenshaw. The man of Daphne, the daughter of Joycelyne, the head of the english department, is killed. Daphne's books had actually been written by her mother, and the dead guy knew it and was blackmailing the two women. A man in love with Joyceline killed him.
It's funny: when policemen don't want Jessica involved, she pushes her way in with all she's got, but when someone asks for her help, she's all "Oh I wouldn't want to interfere.." :lol:
ep 5 - Sing a song of murder - This is the first episode with Emma MacGill, Jessica's cousin!! Emma performs at a theatre, "the one and only Emma MacGill" :-) and she sings "goodbye little yellow bird, I'd gladly mate with you, I love you little yellow bird, but I love my freedom too" :lol: She has a different accent, different hair, everything. Claiming to be dead, she has Jessica coming to London, because someone is trying to kill her, and she wants Jess to help her. A woman will later be killed because they thought it was Emma.
The plot was a bit dull, and so very predictable, obvious really, but I guess that's not why someone watches these episodes, right? It's for the atmosphere and for A. Lansbury, and here it was so funny to see her play Emma :-) I loved it.
ep 6 - Reflections of the mind - In Cincinnati, Ohio. Jessica's friend Francesca seems to be mentally ill. Francesca's daughter Sheryl calls Jess : Aunt Jessica, but I'm not sure as a sort of affectionate nickname or if she's really her niece. I mean, I don't know of any relations between Jess and Francesca aside from friendship. Anyway, the plot was very much textbook here too, it was obvious. The glass-spilling act was clearly crucial, especially followed by her refilling from another bottle...
"The corpse dances at midnight" is mentioned again, and also "The umbrella murders", another one of her  books. :-)
ep 7 - A lady in the lake - Harry (John Astin) drives her to a big house-inn where she planned to stay for a week to write. A woman is then murdered by the cousin and only living relative of her rich husband, to inherit his wealth. The ending was quite funny though, with E. A. Poe's picture falling on the floor at the mention of Jessica being the best mystery writer ! Also, I enjoy episodes at Cabot Cove, with Sheriff Amos (Tom Bosley) and Dr Seth.
ep 8 - Dead heat - Tracey is a jockey, but when there's a murder at the race and she's suspected, it'll be her aunt Jessica duty to help her niece. Funny when that guy offers carrots to her "Carrot, Mrs Fletcher?", she takes one and bites it, then the horse next to her takes a good bite, and she looks at him... I don't know why, but this made me think that my grandma would laugh at this joke :-)
ep 9 - Jessica behind bars - Jessica is inside a female prison for a lesson (!) , and I don't know how prisons are really like, but I wouldn't be so cool about walking among the prisoners without any personnel anywhere on sight! Jessica is walking and talking to one of them as if she was at a normal high school.!
When two women die, Jessica is locked in with them, and forced to help out by finding the real responsibles.
ep 10 - Sticks and stones - Sheriff Amos (Tom Bosley) retires, and appoints Harry (John Astin) in his place. At Cabot Cove, everyone keeps receiving strange, gossiping mail full with lies.
Two women killed, and this time I was really surprised: Harry!?!?!  Easy to believe he started a fire, but really, murdering two women and almost attempting to murder Jessica?? He was completely out of his mind! You never expect it to be a character long known like Harry, although he was never "perfect" ...
ep 11 - Murder digs deep - In New Mexico, at an archeological site, Dr Seth is there as an amateur archeologist, and after he invited her, Jessica went there for research. In this ep there's Robert Vaughn playing Mr. Gideon Armstrong.
ep 12 - Murder by appointment only - Grady Fletcher is showing his aunt Jessica around at the Lilalee Cosmetics Convention, where he hopes to find a job. Mr Anderson's girlfriend was once Mrs Fletcher's student, and he killed her because she was still seeing another man.
ep 13 - Trial by error - Mrs Fletcher is the foreman of the jury in a murder case. She wants to go over the facts again, and after some time she leads them to what really happened. He was not guilty of what he was being charged there, but was guilty of another murder, because his wife's death was no accident!
ep 14 - Keep the home fries burning - Amos (Tom Bosley) is still the sheriff. Amos, Jessica and Dr Seth are eating breakfast together at the "Joshua Peabody Inn". Outside, some of the people that ate there start getting sic,, and a woman dies, but it wasn't food poisoning, it was murder, a woman had poisoned the food.
Who is that actor playing her husband?I can't remember where I saw him...
ep 15 - Powder keg - Jessica is at Roper County for a seminar.
I didn't like this ep much, so full of stupid people ready to lynch a boy just on a suspicion, although of course they won't admit to any doubt. Idiots like those, they are always sure of everything, they "know" everything, because of course they are idiots and really know nothing!
Everything is so 80s... Not only girls' hair and pants, but also boys and men attitudes, words!
ep 16 - Murder in the electric cathedral - Carrie was Jessica's teacher, and told her to stop by if she was ever to pass through Okhlahoma, so she did! For 30 years they haven't seen each other, and now here she is :-) people must be careful about what they tell her :-)
There was a reverend Willy Joe Fargo was her friend and she left him everything... but it turns out that she wasn't killed for the money, and that it wasn't him! It appears he really is a good man, not interested in money: how surprising, really!
ep 17 - One good bid deserves a murder - Jessica is asked by her friend movie star Richard Bennet to go to a auction and buy the personal diary of a famous Evangeline, now dead. A lot of people want that diary for the scandals in it. Richard is found dead and Jessica still had his million-dollars-check in her purse. Harry McGraw (Jerry Orbach) is there when she's taken in as a suspect and wants to help her out, but she keeps poking around, and when Mr Radford of the auction house is killed she's found by the police with the diary in her hands, near the body. Still, they let her go: "if murder were a disease, you'd be contagious" :lol: finally someone said it!!! - A former lover of Evangeline killed her first (it wasn't suicide), then killed Richard because he recognised him and then mr Radford because he wouldn't tell him where he put the diary. At the end, Jessica destroys like Richard wanted.
ep 18 - If a body meet a body - At Cabot Cove, Jessica, Dr Seth and Sheriff Amos (Tom Bosley) are at Henry Vernon's funeral, but in his coffin is found another man's body. Amos is a bit bothered that everybody in town thinks Jessica solved ALL his cases, so wants to solve this one alone while she tries to finish her book, but Henry turns out killed, then the town's money are stolen, then someone takes away the John Doe's body. Amos:"first a missing man is dead, then a dead man is missing" :lol:     The wife killed Henry after he buried John Doe, then she tried to frame his mistress by putting the body in her house.
ep 19 - Christopher Bundy-died on Sunday - Because of her nephew Grady, Jessica's first short story will be published on an erotic magazine, so Grady taker his aunt Jessica to this publisher's house to prevent it, and he invites her to stay, before getting murdered in the house. Funny how she stays in the house even after that; he invited her, now he's dead, she has no more business being in the house, but she stays anyway. I was not surprised when finally the new owner of the house kicked her out; still, before going, she has the time to have the right killer incriminated. By the way, I think Grady really took something from her, since his employers always seem to turn up either killed or killers...
ep 20 - Menace, anyone? - Carol is Jessica's former student, and ten years ago she won at tennis at Cabot Cove, now she works here, at the JB Fletcher children's Fund tennis tournament at the Gren River Raquet club. Carol's car explodes, with Brian in it, her fiancèe. Her sister Barbara, that everyone believes died three years ago, turns up at the police station saying a girl robbed her and took her place on the plane that crashed, and she took the opportunity to disappear, and start over: police lets her go, like this was not a crime. What about the girl that died without a name, without anyone knowing??? Anyway, a jealous girl planted the bomb to kill Carol, then tried again at her house but this time killed a Lt. of Boston police. Her father tried to protect her, but couldn't. Jessica was there...
ep 21 - The perfect foil - On her way to Houston, Jessica stops at New Orleans to check on Cal, her second cousin once removed on Frank's side...  "I'm Jessica, your cousin from Maine. My husband Frank' uncle was your father's cousin, or was it nephew? I'm not quite sure" now I understand how come she's got so many relatives...  Cal is accused of Johnnie's murder: it happened during a Mardi Gras costume-party, but it was someone else. Barbara Babcock plays Rosalyn, congressman Gardner's wife.
ep 22 - If the frame fits - Jesisca is visiting her wanna-be-author friend Lloyd. When his daughter is killed, Lloyd destroyed the evidence believing the thief had killed her, and changed everything in order to frame his son-in-law Donald. Funny thing, it actually was him that did it. :-) The thief never harmed anyone: it was Binky, the quite dandy art-thief :-) played by John De Lancie, Star Trek's Q :-)

The Raven - 2011

I liked this film, and it made me want to reread Poe :-)
It starts with some writing on the screen "On October 7, 1849, Edgar Allan Poe was found, near death, on a park bench in Baltimore, Maryland. The last days of his life remains a mystery" so I guess this is their version of what might have happened :-)
Poe (John Cusack) has no money and is terribly annoyed that because of this he doesn't get the appreciation he fells he deserves. Only a French man in a bar full of people shows to know his poem "The raven", before some men throw him out. Him=Poe, I mean, not the French.
When people start getting murdered in ways that resembles very much what he wrote in his stories, the inspector, Detective Fields (Luke Evans) asks for his opinions, but when Poe's love interest Emily (Alice Eve) is abducted, Poe dedicates himself to find her, to save her.
Big spoilers from now on, in case you wanna know.
 He's challenged, he's given clues that bring him to the next body, and he has to write new stories. He writes a new one, but when it comes the time to write another, he's growing desperate. Emily's the only good thing in his life, and he's nowhere near to find her. He writes using his own name, writing that Poe, having failed so far to save his love, has but one last chance: offer his life in exchange for her. Next day at home he receives a sort of 'invitation': an obvious clue to tell him where to go to find his murderer, for the end he himself chose for the story. He goes and he's surprised to see that it was all Ivan Reynolds' doing, his typesetter and admirer. He had always showed to admire his work, and lately Poe had been unable to write anything new. Still, do not think that Poe's story made him do it, that would be ridiculous, if you don't have inside what it takes to become a murderer you don't change because you watched a movie or read a book filled with violence. Insufferable excuses, is what they are. No, here Ivan (Sam Hazeldine) makes it pretty clear when he says that his first murder was probably his own father. Reynolds then gives Poe a poison to drink and  leaves. Poe drinks it to keep his part of the deal, his end of the story, and in return he's told that Emily is exactly there, where he is. He searches for her, finds her buried and saves her. When help arrives, he leaves, knowing she'll be okay, and sits on a bench. WHY? Well, this is the point they could not explain with their version of the story. Poe had absolutely no reason to go away from them; on the contrary, he should have stayewd and he should have told himself who the murderer was to the inspector. That would have been the reasonable thing to do, to make sure. Instead, he sits on a bench because that's where the real Poe was found, apparently.
He's found and brought to the hospital, apparently ranting, repeating "tell Fields his name is Reynolds". After his death, the doctor tells Fields "he wanted to tell you that your name is Reynolds".  :-/ But Fields is not stupid and won't let it go. He'll find Reynolds and he'll kill him, because this is the only happy ending the audience can get, and we want it.
A few words more : Emily's father is played by Brendan Gleeson :-) and the bartender at the beginning of the book is Brendan Coyle, the John Bates I love in Downton Abbey :-)

Rio Bravo - 1958

I love this movie, it's my favourite John Wayne movie. I love Dean Martin too, I like his character and I like when he sings "just my rifle, my pony and me", which I hope is the right title, and another song the title I can't guess. He had a really beautiful voice. I also love the plot, because it's two hours all in the same place, more or less. The town street, the jail and the hotel, plus a few scene elsewhere in the town. I even like the girl. Angie Dickinson played a very beautiful, cool girl who drives him crazy and falls in love with him :-)
I perfectly remembered the beginning, with Dude (Dean Martin) coming into the saloon already drunk and in search for more alcohol, getting humiliated badly by Joe Burdette, a bad individual. When a sort of bar fight starts, he kills a man in cold blood. Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) and his deputy Dude arrest him, and Dude stops drinking right then.
Dude was a very good deputy, but after a girl left him two years ago he started drinking and never stopped, so he became the town's fool. With Joe in jail, they now are in trouble because his rich brother will do anything to get him out of there. Pat Wheeler, a friend of Chance who wanted to help him gets killed too, and Dude kills his murderer. There's still the gang of Nathan Burdette to worry about, because it'll be a week before the state Marshall will get here.  At this point, an hour of movie has already passes, and it almost seemed impossible that I was only half way through it. It seemed like the final showdown was at hand, but not just yet! Nathan paid men after men to try and try again to free his brother, before getting finally at the final confrontation. Nathan and all his men against Chance, Dude, that Colorado kid and the 'game-legged old man' Stumpy. When that's over, Dude is finally over his shakes, Nathan has been finally stopped, and now Chance can go and get his girl :-)
I really like it; I love especially the friendship between the drunk man about to redeem himself thanks mostly to it, and the unshakeble sheriff who kept his old clothes for two years and even bought back the guns Dude had sold to drink. I like the girl that helped him than was so shaken she got herself drunk and started ranting about how the sheriff would not have yielded and would have gotten himself killed if she hadn't help him and Colorado kill those men. I even like Stumpy, so faithful to them and his duty despite his continous moaning. I've always loved this film, and watching it again after a long time, I still do. Very much.

All that Heaven allows - 1955

I love this film because it is very delicate, if that's the right word. Tender, full of feelings. Love against all those other unimportant things we keep caring about. She was heartbreaking, fantastic.
Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) is a widow with a son that resents her wearing a beautiful elegant red dress to go to a friend's party, and a daughter that says "when we reach a certain age, sex becomes incongrous". Poor woman, isn't she? The same night of the party two men she knows well have a proposition for her: Harvey offers marriage for companionship, Howard offers a love affair. However, she looks more interested in younger Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson), her gardener. He invites her to see his trees and then kisses her. :-) His self-confidence charms her :-) They keep going out together, and he secretly fixes his place as she told him would be nice, then he proposes to her. She loves him so much, but she's worried about all the evil gossip that would start if she decided to marry him, and about her children's response. She had every reason to worry: someone starts calling him "her nature boy", Ned (William Reynolds) the son talks to her about tradition and obligations to his father's memory, and tells her he'd be ashamed, and Kay (Gloria Talbott) the daughter asks her "you love him so much you're willing to ruin all our lives?". Poor poor woman, it would appear her children that were always so good at taking are now not so very good at giving, huh? Selfish is what they are.
Ron is not perfect either, though. She asks him for some more time, so that people and children can get used to it, which is not such an unreasonable request at all! But he denies her more time, saying she'll use it to change him and he refuses that! He says she'll have to choose, there and then, which is a terrible thing to say. He proposed to change all her life, but refuses her a little time afraid she might maybe change a little of his. He's been selfish too. She tells him "I can't ruin my children's life. I have a responsibility to them" and she breaks the engagement. They are pleased, but too occupied with their lives to come home when she expected them. She was waiting for them at the train station when she got a telegram from them. She didn't say a word, just threw the telegram on the floor, which says it all.
She meets Ron again while she's buying a Christmas tree, but she sees him with his friend the young blonde and thinks they are together, and leaves in a hurry. At Christmas Kay comes home to tell her she's engaged to get married, and Ned comes to tell her he'll have to go to Paris for work, and buys her a television! Awful, sad companion for lonely people. She realises she has done all for nothing, but one day she learns that the young blonde is getting married to a guy she has been seeing for some time now, and she undertands she had misunderstood things. She goes to see Ron, but he has an accident. He'll need time to fully recover, and she'll assist him. When he opens his eyes and sees her, he tells her "Cary, you've come home". She smiles to him, and says "yes, I've come home", and this is the end. :-)
I realise now talking about it that what I like most of this film is her, Cary, because Jane Wyman is beautiful and magnificent: I could see the emotions on her face, and that's what kept me glued to the story.
I also liked Agnes Moorehead playing her best friend Sara Warren.

Bolt - 2008

It's lovely, adorable, absolutely adorable, and very  very funny too. Of course, if you don't like dogs or cats it might not be as great as it is to me, I guess. I do love dogs and cats, and this film is funny and lovely and adorable. I admit I didn't expect it to be so good, I don't know why but I had thought it would have been sillier, I would have never got it without watching it first. Maybe it was just the poster, which is very pretty, sure, but it made me think it was only for little kids. Now I recommend it to everyone. Btw, doesn't John Travolta's voice sound like a boy's voice? I mean, you hear it and you'd think the man were 30, tops. Well, I would!
The story is about this little dog that is adopted by a child. Five years later, young Penny is an actress and Bolt the dog is the star of the show. He thinks it's all real, he thinks he has superpowers and that Penny is really in danger. Having being told that the show is too predictable, the director goes for a surprising finale, a cliffhanger, where Penny is abducted at the end of the episode. Bolt is then catched and put back in his trailer, alone; they forbid Penny to speak to him, to go see him. Bolt is worried sick, so he escapes and goes looking for her, thinking she's in great danger and he has to rescue her. Unfortunately he has no superpowers, and he ends trapped inside a box about to be sent to the other side of the United States. He still really thinks he's a superhero, but he wouldn't be able to survive, alone. He meets three pidgeons and then a cat, and of course he thinks all the cats are with the villain, as it is tradition since that James Bond movie :lol:
There were a lot of funny bits, like when the cat teaches him to be a dog :lol: or the hamster shouting "Die" , as crazy as anything, and the cat was hilarious, and many little things throughout the film. Adorable.
It's not clear how many years they've been doing that show, but since it's the only life Bolt knows, and given the fact that Penny had ready a collar with the name Bolt, I think he was adopted to make the show, and has being doing it for five whole years.

The trouble with Harry - 1954

It's a Alfred Hitchcock film, and that says already a lot, but it's also one of my favourites. It's not among his most famous films, but I love it. It's part crime story, mystery, and comedy of errors style. In the opening credits it even says "introducing Shirley MacLaine", which is perfect because I also love her, she's great, and she's great here too.
I love this film because it's very quiet, because nothing happens and yet it's so captivating, with this Harry being half a mystery and half a joke :-)
This is what happens.
Little Arnie sees a dead man up a hill, and runs home. Old captain Miles sees him after he had been hunting rabbits, and thinks he killed him. Miss Gravely sees Wiles moving the body, and inquires about the circumstances.
Wiles-Did you know him, Miss Gravely?
Miss G-No, doesn't live around here.
W-Well, he died around here, that's what counts now
M. G-Embarassing
!!! You see what I mean? :-) Then Wiels wants to hide him and she agrees. "I feel better for telling someone as warm, tender, understanding as yourself": flirting over a dead man's body, but she appreciates and invites him home for blueberry muffin and coffee, and maybe some elderberry wine, then she has to step over the body to go away...
The little boy comes back with her mom to see him. Mrs Rogers knows him as Harry, and appears to be glad that he's dead, and she takes her son home for a lemonade. Dr Greenbow comes and Wiles thinks "Couldn't have more people here if I'd sold tickets", which is what we were probably all thinking at that point. The doctor is reading and doesn't see him. A poor man comes up and takes his shoes, and I don't understand why he didn't take his socks too, that kind of shoes are not comfortable without socks. Mr. Marlowe goes up the hill to paint, sees the body and draws his face. Wiles shows himself and they discuss both what happened and the captain's date! Doc comes again, and after stumbling again over it, this time he sees him, says "I beg your pardon" to the body and keeps going. To learn more about Harry, Mr. Marlowe goes to Mrs Rogers, to whom he has never spoken before, and tells her she's beautiful, wonderful, and "I'd like to paint you nude" without even bothering with introducing himself. She fixes him some lemonade, she has a real thing for lemonades; Mr Marlowe asks her about Harry, and very quietly she explains that he's her second husband, Arnie's father's brother. She left him and went away, but he found her and came to take her home, so she hit him on the head and he went away.Wiles and Sam Marlowe bury Harry, then talk about the dead rabbit that Arnie had given to them. Realising that if he shot the rabbit he didn't kill Harry, they dig him up. They look and Sam declares that Harry doesn't have a bullet wound, it looks more like a blow with a blunt instrument. ( :lol: it's 1954 and guns didn't make the mess they do now to a body..)and they bury him again. Wiles invites Miss Gravely to his home, and she says that it was her who killed Harry, that she had hit him over the head with the leather heel of her hiking shoe because he annoyed her, he mistook her for his wife and assaulted her, pushing her into the bushes, so she hit him hard. "Mrs Rogers knocked him silly and you finished him off". At this point Miss Gravely digs Harry up again, then they both go to Jennifer Rogers and discuss the matter and then they all go up to bury him again. After that Sam, Jennifer, Miss Gravely and Wiles are met by Mrs Wiggs who tells them that a millionnaire wants to buy all his paintings. As payment, Sam asks for strawberries for Jennifer, a chemical set for Arnie, a cash register for Mrs Wiggs, a hope chest full of hope for Miss Gravely, a good shotgun with plenty of ammunition, some corduroy britches, a plain shirt and a brown hunting cap for Wiles. Sam proposes to Jennifer, then the deputy sheriff comes with the news that the tramp told him he got his new shoes off a dead body, he calls the state police and then sees Sam's drawing of the dead. It takes him a while, but finally Sam realises that to be able to marry Jennifer has to prove that she's free. So they go and dig him up again. Doc comes once more but this time he's not reading and takes a good look at him, only it's late and dark and he can't see, so they agree to carry him to Jennifer's house and the doc will see him there. They clean his clothes and wait for Doc. The deputy comes to ask about the drawing and Sam changes it there and then :lol: When Doc comes, he tells them it was his heart, he died of natural causes, so Jennifer explains to him everything, telling him they'll put Harry back where it was. Next day they put him up the hill, waiting for Arnie to come. The plan is: Arnie will see the body and run to tell his mother, and at that point Jennifer will call the deputy :-)
"The trouble with Harry is over" appears on the screen :-)

Ita: La congiura degli innocenti

The crow - 1994

I always liked this film, its dark gothic atmosphere, because it was cool dark, not creepy dark, with its cool music and the crow flying around, with us seeing things from his eyes... and also because this invincible avenger out on a personal vendetta to kill the men that killed his girlfriend really is so sweet, so fragile, so much hurt inside, so full of sadness and desperation, I felt for him very much, and his pain and love was what made him go on.
"People once believed that when someone dies a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can't rest. Then sometimes the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right." Right here, they explained all the plot, after less than a minute. It starts on October 30, called Devils night, and we're immediately on the crime scene, Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) and Shelly Webster's home. They were to be married the next night, Halloween night, but now never will. They're both dead. One year later, a crow brings Eric back. He goes home, remembers, makes up his "mask" look and starts taking down all the scum that killed Shelly, and him.
My favourite lines:
 -"He was already dead. He died a year ago, the moment she touched her. They're all dead, they just don't know it yet".
 -"It can't rain all the time", what he says to Sarah (Rochelle Davis) before going away, so that she realises it has to be Eric, because it was one of his songs.
 -After killing Funboy (Michael Massee - has he always played crazy, psycopath murderers? Has he ever played a normal guy?), he takes time to take the drugs out of(Darla = Anna Thomson) Saras's mother's body, so the next day she's clean and at home to try and make breakfast for her daughter.
D-Do you like them up or over? I can't remember.
Sarah-What are you doing? I don't even like eggs. What did you take to become Mother of the Year?
D-No, it wasn't drugs. Someone kind of woke me up
S-Who?
D-Oh, it was nuts
S-You're acting weird. Did you win the lottery or something, Darla?
D-Forget it. I never was too good at this mommy shit
S-Over easy. I like them over easy ....  mom.
I love this bit, because Sarah's just a girl, and while she always plays it distant and cold and tough with her mother because that  woman's always wasted so Sarah wants to protect herself, she's not going to lose the chance that things might actually turn out good with her mom, that this time might really be different. Darla's clean now, but she's not strong: put her down and she might fall again; lend her a hand and she might grab it and find some strength in that hand.

The funny thing about the finale is that he was already going away, he had killed all of the Shelly's murderers that he knew about, but they just wouldn't leave it. They wanted to kill him, to destroy him by killing his crow, so they took Sarah to lure him in. They wounded the crow, so now Eric was no more invincible. The good cop Albrecht (Ernie Hudson) came to help him with the low level baddies, the crow took care of the woman, good crow! and Eric confronted the bastard. Eric was weak, he was losing, so he used the only weapon he had. So touching this bit, isn't it?? When Eric is defeated, but Sarah's in danger so he can't give up, he stands up and gives him all he's got. "I don't want it anymore. Thirty hours of pain! All at once. All for you" causing him to fall to his death. Good, now Eric can save Sarah :-)
"If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live long is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever."

The number 23 - 2006

I love this film. Not sure why, it's a combination of things I guess: Jim Carrey was amazing, the film was thrilling, the plot interesting, the screenplay very good... only thing I didn't like? All that ranting and babbling about the number. I know it sounds stupid, given the title, but I actually love the film despite that, not because of that. I don't care about all that nonsense, I have no idea if you could or could not make 23 from my name, my address or whatever, I don't know, I never cared to try, because it's all nonsense. He went looking for it, trying in every way to get it, that's why he saw it. I mean, in a way everything that makes 23 also makes 5!
Jim Carrey plays Walter Sparrow. Walter works for animal control, he's  dog-catcher. Chasing after a dog, he gets late to meet his wife. Waiting for him, she enters a book shop and buys him a book "A novel of obsession. By Topsy Krett". He starts reading it: the protagonist calls himself Fingerling because he liked it when he read his stories as a child, and that's just the first of the many things Walter thinks he has in common with him. Fingerling is a detective, and one day he meets a blonde that tells him about the number 23; he becomes obsessed with that number, he's going crazy because of it. It goes so far that one day he murders his girlfriend and frames her lover for it.While reading it, Walter becomes obsessed with the number too, saying it has power, that it is everywhere in his life.
Big spoilers from now on, in case you wanna know. You've been warned.
He finds in the book a secret code that tells him where to dig: he goes there with his son Robin (Logan Lerman - Robin Sparrow :-/ he should sue his parents..) and finds human bones buried. He calls the police, but his wife Agatha (Virginia Madsen) has removed them to protect him. He guesses what she did, and becomes convinced that she wrote the book. She has no other choice than to confess to him what she had just learned: He is the author. He wrote it, he is Fingerling. Suddenly Walter remembers his life: the death of his mother, his father's suicide and his obsession with the number 23. He remembers when he met Laura and fell in love with her, now he remembers how she became her teacher's lover, how that make his father's obsession come back to haunt him, how he lost control after Laura told him she never loved him, that nobody could because he was pathetic. He killed her and buried her, unable to cope with what he had done he had tried to kill himself. Her lover came to her room to find the knife and all her blood and was arrested for her murder. Walter didn't die, but needed a long time to recover, and the trauma to the head had made him forget, or maybe it was just a self-preservation instinct kicking in. He forgot all about Laura, all about 23. Getting out of the hospital he met Agatha and started a new life. That book brought it all back, and now he feels like back at that day, unable to accept and go on, but this time he has a family, a son, and realises that his choice of suicide had been the wrong choice, that all this time an innocent man had been locked up in prison. This time it'll be different. They give Laura's remains a proper burial, and he turns himself in, freeing the poor innocent man, and tries to convince himself that 23 is just a number.

Third girl by Agatha Christie

This book is great. I didn't remember anything, only that it was the first book I ever read willingly. I mean, when they forced me in school, as a child, I didn't want to read them, but one day I started by myself, reading something I found in the house. This. After so long I only remembered the title; well, the italian one, which translates "Am I a murderer?" :-/    Now that I've read it again, I find it amazing, a whole investigation based on almost nothing! There's Poirot, which is always a good thing in my opinion, who's having his breakfast in peace when a girl comes to his house with an urgent matter: she says she might have committed murder (!!) then she looks at him, and goes away saying he can't help her, that he's too old, she didn't think he was so old! Well, the book is from 1966 so I suppose Poirot had to be a bit old, actually. Still, this depresses him a little, then he decides that she needed help and he wants to understand why, and what did she mean saying she might have committed murder. I mean, usually you should know such a thing for sure!
With the help of his friend the writer Ariadne Oliver, he finds out who she is, investigates her family: her father returned after many years: he abandoned her when she was five. His new wife, which seems to have been poisoned by the girl, Norma. Her flatmates, two girls (she's the third girl to have taken a room in the apartment, hence the title). Her boyfriend the family doesn't seem to like. Poirot asks Mr Goby to find information for him, and asks the same thing to his friend chief inspector Neele. Half a book goes by, he's full of informations, he managed to keep the girl safe with the help of a psychiatrist, Dr Stillingfleet, and yet he can't get anything out of all that. Two third of the book goes by before Poirot becomes aware that there has been a death. Apparently a woman committed suicide, but to Poirot that's the only possible death Norma could have been referring to, since it happened in her building shortly before she went to see him.
It's such an unusual book, because for all this time there had been nothing that could be related to a crime. Usually these books introduce you to some people until a murder is committed, then the Police is called and Poirot (or another investigator) comes in to solve the mistery. This time, we saw Poirot from page one, but without any crime. Nothing has happened, the police doesn't have any cases, nobody asked for his services, and here again is what I like about crime stories: not just that our hero is more intelligent, but more importantly he's a hero because he cares!! That's what I love about fictional crime stories: there's someone who really cares!! A girl came to his house, looking all scruffy and strange, told him he's too old, and left in a hurry. He had no real reason to help her. He did because he felt she had come to him because she needed help, and was sorry that his older age led her to think he couldn't. He wants to help her.
Now the major spoilers, so be warned!
Having finally found the death he was looking for, Poirot investigates even more, of course. At first, things keep looking confused, it doesn't seem Norma had anything to do with the woman's death, classified as a suicide, but towards the end Norma's boyfriend is killed, with Poirot too late to do anything about it. He knew something bad was gonna happen and had rushed to her apartment, but he arrived too late. Norma was found near the body, with the knife in her hands. She said : yes, I killed him, and then sat quietly waiting for the police. But at this moment Poirot has worked everything out, and is ready for it. He calls Dr. Stillingfleet again, who has come to know Norma and is sure she's not at all crazy and also not a murderer.
They all listen to the doctor, then to Norma, then Poirot reveals everything. The real father was dead, and this man impersonated him to take all his money. With the help of his woman he had a cruel plan. She was drugging Norma posing as her flatmate: change of wig, makeup, ways, and nobody recognized her: she had Norma drugged without her knowing it. Norma was disoriented, she couldn't remember things, she thought she was crazy, she thought the only explanation was that she had done it, but she hadn't. Mary/Francis was the murderer.
At the end, we understand that Dr Stillingfleet and Norma will soon get married, and Mrs Oliver realises that Poirot had set this particular doctor on her hoping just that :-)
Before leaving, Norma apologises to Poirot for having been so rude; she tells him "I told you you were too old to help me. It was rude, and it wasn't true", then she kisses him. An adorable touch, Poirot has always been a romantic :-)
Yes, there's the thing of the strange coincidences happening in this book: finding Norma, finding an important letter: these are mere coincidences. Nobody had any idea where she was, until one day, after following one of her flatmates, Mrs Oliver gets tired and decides she needs something, enters a café and there she is! Personally I'm not bothered by it. It would have been much more strange if it had happened to Poirot, because he doesn't go around much, but quite a few people were in motion in his investigation, and Mrs Oliver didn't like to stay put, so honestly it's not so unbelievable that someone could find her, even Mrs Oliver by mere chance. Fine by me.


ITA : Sono un'assassina?

The mystery of the Blue Train - 2005 film/tv-episode

Apparently this is Agatha Christie's Poirot: The mystery of the Blue Train, season 10 episode 1.
There are a lot of differences from the book, but I guess they made the film easier. Things like Ruth Kettering  (Jaime Murray) being a fan of Hercule Poirot, having LaRoche (Oliver Milburn), Lady Tamplin (Lindsay Duncan), her husband Corky (Tom Harper), her daughter Lenox (Alice Eve) all on the same train, Katherine Grey(Georgina Rylance)'s father that killed himself after Rufus Van Aldin (Elliott Gould) head him into bankrupcy or something like that, Derek Kettering (James D'Arcy) actually loving his wife, Mirelle being not Derek's lover but Rufus'  sent by him on a mission to seduce Derek to facilitate the divorce, Ruth's mother being alive and a nun, Derek and LaRoche playing cards together, Derek helping hin to steal her jewels in payment for his debts, Katherine's attempted murder, Knighton's suicide... very different indeed.
It was never my favourite book, though, and here seeing Derek desperate for his lost love was nice, and Lady Tamplin's family is actually fun! In the book I only liked Lenox. Also, in the book I didn't like Ruth, but here, I liked her a lot. Katherine was nice both here and there, she was exactly how I imagined her! Doesn't happen very often :-)
Knighton was Nicholas Farrell and Mirelle was Josette Simon.

After the funeral - 2005 film, or tv episode

It is listed on IMDB.com as a tv episode, Poirot season 10 ep 3, apparently, but I know it as a film, never seen dvds for the series. Agatha Christie's Poirot: after the funeral is listed as the original title.
Since this is the first Poirot film I'm talking about, I'll say now that David Suchet is the best Poirot ever, so perfect in this role that Poirot comes right out of the pages for me :-) There's just the little detail that he doesn't put his head on one side as the book character does in certain moments, aside from that, he's right out of the book. In this film there's also Michael Fassbender as George :-D
The story:
Richard Abernethie is dead, and his will reveals the great surprise that George, the one they always thought would inherit everything, was actually disinherited. The family attending the funeral: Maude is the wife of Richard’s brother Timothy, who is an invalid and a tyrant and doesn’t do anything. Helen is the widow of Richard’s younger brother Leo, and George is her son. Rosalind and her sister Susannah are his cousins. (Is she called Rosalind or Rosamund? I hear Rosalind but I read Rosamund..). There’s also Richard’s younger sister Cora, who nobody has seen in years, and she’s the one who “properly puts the cat among the pigeons” blurting out: “he was murdered, wasn’t he?”. The next day Cora is brutally killed with a hatchet and Poirot is asked to investigate.
Ms Gilchrist was Cora’s companion and she did the light dusting and the cooking in the house, but she doesn’t think of herself as a servant. Surprisingly Cora left everything she had to Susannah. 
The will turns out to be a fake.
Susannah works with the Church and plans to go to a mission in Africa, and yet when she visits Cora’s house, now hers, she treats Ms Gilchrist like a servant, giving her her luggage to carry, even though Susannah is much younger than her. Big words about doing good and helping others, but she’s just another spoiled brat, in my opinion. 
Rosalind is an actress like her cheating husband Michael. 
Poirot invites them all to stay at Richard’s house, so that he can study them all and hear them chatting. They all dine together at the same table, and yet Maude asks Ms Gilchrist and not one of the house-servants to prepare the tea and some food for her husband, which was not only inappropriate but damn rude, and nobody said anything. At night, Helen looks at her reflection in the mirror and suddenly realizes what it was that she had noticed about Cora, something odd, and she called their lawyer Entwhistle as the only one she could trust, but she was struck on the head before he could tell him anything. 
George admits to them that he had faked the will to disinherit himself, and then says to Poirot “I killed him”, because they had a fight the day before Richard died, and George was so angry that he shouted at his face. He had discovered why he was always Richard’s favourite. Helen and Richard had apparently fallen in love years before and George was his son, and George was very angry to hear this, and could not forgive any of them. 
The ending sees Poirot as his usual, reuniting everyone in a room to make his big speech:
Timothy was not really an invalid, but something of a thief, although it’s not clear to me what he stole or wanted to steal. 
Ms Gilchrist kill Cora because she wanted her paintings. Cora had found a Rembrandt without realizing it, but Ms Gilchrist knew that she could make 5000£ with it. She had covered it with a painting of her own, and then had disguised herself as Cora to attend Richard’s funeral and plant the suspicion that he had been murdered. This way, when Cora was killed the most likely suspects were Richard’s family and not her, because it was believed that she had been killed because she knew who had killed Richard. With that sum of money she could have opened her own little tea shop, become free and independent. 
Helen recovers and is quite well. 
At the end, Susannah leaves for Africa, feeling that her relationship with George is wrong since they’re cousins, and he’s sad... the movie doesn’t explain what kind of cousins they are though, first cousins? Not from the Abernethie side for sure. Was it really so wrong for them to be together? Sure George drank too much, but it’s not clear if it’s just now because of all that is happening or if that’s his usual habit. It's different from the book. In the movie George is good, charming, sexy and in love... and she leaves him to go to Africa. I wonder how long will she be able to endure it, I guess the little princess will run back home in no time. 

It's the same story of the book: after Richard Abernethie's funeral, Cora is brutally murdered and Poirot investigates, but there are many little changes here and there, although nothing substancial: they changed some of the characters' occupations, added a bit of romance that was absent from the book and the original story, and a bit of drama. Entwhistle becomes a younger bachelor with a thing for Helen, George is Richard's natural son, Susannah and George share a difficult love... which of course I understand: how sexy is Michael Fassbender?? I mean, in the book I didn't like George at all, but here! Oh, he's so... come on, how stupid of Susannah to go away from him! Different times I guess. Anyway, no reason for me to add pictures of him here, I really do think pictures don't do him justice, they're too plain, without blood, if you know what I mean. There are poster-men, and then there are sexy men like this one... ... ... ... ...

George-Michael Fassbender
Rosamund-Fiona Glascott
Helen Abernethie-Geraldine James
Susannah Henderson-Lucy Punch
Cora & Miss Gilchrist- Monica Dolan  -  I really liked this actress here, she was brilliant, I loved how she talked when she first met Poirot and how she turned into Cora at the end, otherwise we’d never believe it was her :-p
She was really good, I must look her up.

What made me laugh though was the "italian ex-husband" Giovanni Gallaccio (Anthony Valentine): he did well with the "signorina", but when trying to put four words together :lol:  I had to put subtitles to understand those italian words :lol:  but that's alright, after all why should they care about such a thing...
ITA dopo le esequie

Thor - 2011

Only 2011, it seems such a long time since this film came out, and yet it's only 2011. How strange. Anyway, I liked it very much :-) Who knowing the characters (Thor, Loki, Odin are well known names, right?) wasn't smiling when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) said to Thor (Chris Hemsworth) "there's nothing you can do without defying Father" and then started to play wisdom "no no no no, it's madness" ? I was :-) Anyway, he's guilty of other things sure, but not this one, Thor decided to go to Jotunheim because he was an arrogant, vain and stupid boy in a man's body. He'll come to realise this himself! I loved Loki :-)
I also loved Heimdall (Idris Elba), Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) who Thor calls "son of Coul" :lol: , Darcy (Kat Dennings), the line "base, we've got Xena, Jackie Chan and Robin Hood" :lol: I guess they had no funny names for the fourth one :) , since they were Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander) and the Warriors Three, not two :lol: and Erik (Stellan Skarsgard): "I still don't believe you're the God of Thunder, but you ought to be".
Of course Thor is the beautiful hero, but from someone forever in love with Raistlin, Loki certainly takes it al. The scorn brother, always in the shadow of the strong but reckless Thor, who always felt different from the others, always WAS different (he didn't know at the start, but he's not the son of Odin (Anthony Hopkins, not my favourite choice), he's the son of Laufey (Colm Feore)), that chooses the wrong way in order to become important, to everyone but most of all to his father Odin. What chance did I have, really? Plus, this Loki has a very nice voice, and way of speaking :-) Also, the look on his face when he let go at the end, that was touching , wasn't it?
It was directed by Kenneth Branagh,  Jane Foster was played by Natalie Portman, Thor's mother by Rene Russo and Fandral by Josh Dallas. At the end, we see that Stan Lee has been credited as "Stan the Man" :-); he was of course the man driving that car/truck/pickup or however you call it, trying to lift the hammer. After the credits, we see Erik meeting Fury and being showed a strange source of power, and we see Loki, just to reassure everyone that he's not gone for good. That could never happen! He's Loki!!! and this is Marvel: they never kill anyone for good!  It was just a little taste of what we'll get to see in The Avengers : Loki!!! yeah, that's all I need to know, thanks :-D

NCIS season 3

In the opening credits there are just Gibbs, Tony, Abby, McGee and Ducky. No more Kate :-(
ep 1 - Kill Ari part 1 - Sasha Alexander is now a guest star for this episode, where they all try to cope with her death. It's difficult for everybody, they imagine to see her and talk to her. Abby cries staring at the drawings Kate gave her, and Gibbs took it so hard, he's now acting totally strange, being all kind to everybody, even Tony! " Nice? I don't want nice. It's not Gibbs if it's nice"
An ex-lover and ex-partner of Gibbs is now the new Ncis director, and Ziva David joins momentarily the team to help them, but being Mossad what she wants is to stop them from killing Ari. She's talking with him on secret phone calls. We see Gerald again when Ari decides he want to talk to Ducky and uses Gerald to have him coming where he wants him. We are told that Gerald should be back next week, but that was before Ari visited him again... anyway he doesn't hurt him this time.
Gibbs is always nice to Abby: "I'll keep you safe, Abby, I promise" and then kisses her on the head :-)
Gibbs burnt down the boat that he built six years ago because he named it after a wife, and now she's gone.
ep 2 - Kill Ari part 2 - Ari lets Ducky go too, he just used him as a diversion, to stop Gibbs, who was really worried for his friend :-)
Ziva had made dossiers of all Ncis people for Ari, so he knew about his first wife and daughter, that's why he targeted a woman. So what, his first wife and daughter are dead? Killed? I thought he divorced three times, does that means the wives are actually four, not three?
Gibbs talks to Ziva, explaining what he knows Ari is, she doesn't want to believe him, but when Ari and Gibbs meet in his basement, she hears everything, his confession on killing Kate and also of being a monster, a traitor, because he hates his father, the head of Mossad, and Gibbs reminds him of him. When Ari's about to shoot Gibbs, Ziva shoots him first, in the head. Ziva is the daughter of Director David of Mossad, and Ari was her half-brother. That's why she didn't want to lose him.
ep 3 - Mind games - Years ago a serial killer killed 22 girls, but since one of them was in the Navy, Gibbs got involved and he caught him. He's on death row now, and says he'll say where all the bodies are only to Gibbs. He's playing with him, knowing that out there someone else is starting again doing what he did, abducting Paula too! The end is strange, because they skip a whole piece: we don't see how Paula got free, because how could they know where she was! I guess she freed herself, after all she only had her hands tied, and she's a trained agent, and her legs were completely free, so she could fight him. So the murderer n. two was his lawyer, but I truly wish that that scumbag of writer were to get a good beaten too. Okay he didn't kill anyone, but that excitement to see the pictures and the bodies of all those tortured and murdered girls was beyond sick! Disgusting.
This episode is Paula Cassidy to replace Kate. Talking with Tony:
P:"Kate was a great agent. How are you handling it?" - T:"Same way I handle everything. I try not to think about it" - P:"And when that doesn't work?" - T:"There's always junk food" :-) For the first time I loved Tony, this two lines are just lovely, so real, so true.
ep 4 - Silver war - Ziva gets assigned to the team by Mossad as a liaison officer, but still not at Kate's desk!
We see Gibbs' mystery woman again and Aaaargh Abby is dressed as Career Barbie Girl, in a lila tailleur, high heels, pink lipstick!! and her hair loose... this is so not Abby! Well, she's always pretty, but totally different! My biggest surprise, however was the fact that Ziva was nice. I like her, and I'm almost in shock.
At the end, she takes Kate's desk, and hands to Gibbs the drawing pad she found. He sees Kate's drawings of Tony, Abby, Ducky and himself. Beautiful drawings! To whoever made them, hoping it was someone with a pencil and not a computer, those were really lovely!
ep 5 - Switch - In the opening credits Ziva appears right after Tony: she's Cote de Pablo.
Ziva knows five languages and doesn't own a tv. Good! Of course, for me, it is yes a good think not to watch tv, but it's unthinkable not to have a dvd player!!
The funny part of this episode was that after following every possible trace, it turns out it was not a military conspiracy, it was not terrorism, it was just a pissed-off cheated-on wife...
ep 6 - The voyeur's web - McGee says he has a girlfriend :-) Tony has learned how to use chopsticks all of a sudden, and Gibbs cheek-kisses Abby: always so cute! Also we meet Charles Sterling, Abby's new assistant :-(  What's with that stupid moustache, he looks horrible.
Some wives make money by live chat hot videos for voyeurs, and one dies. It was very cool the scene when Abby shouted "I can't take it anymore" and used the fake knife on her throat!! :-) We also get another hint that Gibbs lost a wife.
ep 7 - Honor code - Unfortunately assistant Chip is still here, but thankfully I have Gibbs to say it for me "wipe that dirt off your lip" . Good!
A man is kidnapped and tortured to get him to release a code, and Gibbs refuses every possibility that he might be part of it, because of his little boy that has only his father in the world. Gibbs takes care of his son until he saves him :-) At the end, we see a glimpse of Gibbs' old life, working at the boat with his blonde daughter...
ep 8 - Under covers - Tony and Ziva go undercover as two (now dead) married Canadian assassins. They're also watched by two Fbi agents, so we have Gibbs and Fornell together again. Good! :-D I like them together. At the end, Ducky escorts the Director to the ball, everyone else goes home, Abby stays a moment to tell Gibbs "Happy birthday", and he takes out of his desk a metal flask with a bullet in it, and the writing "Jethro, for good luck, love, Shannon and Kelly" Then the episode ends with the writing Semper Fi- To Marines Everywhere.
ep 9 - Frame up - Ziva and Ducky are adorable! Mostly because he's adorable, and again I was surprised because I liked Kate, and now liking Ziva feels strange, unreasonably wrong, but I do. She's nice. I like how she speaks. :-) On the other hand, I still can't stand that new assistant, I don't like him at all.
They find two severed legs of a young woman, and all the evidence implicates Tony! Fornell helps with the investigation, and Yes, Thank you, that's what I thought, hoped and wanted since I saw him: that creepy assistant tried to frame Tony, he's scum! The fact that as soon as he realises Gibbs runs without a word, worried for Abby, but she's not your average damsel-in-distress type, she's tough and he's pathetic! I'm glad she saved herself :-)
ep 10 - Probie - McGee shoots a cop, and it was the first time ever he killed a person. They clear his position, but he's still troubled by it, because it was a good cop, and there's no way of knowing which shot was fatal, the one shot by him or the one shot by the dirty cop.
ep 11 - Model behaviour - In the opening credits, the name of the Director comes right before Ducky's : she's Lauren Holly. Gibbs is awarded an award, but he doesn't show. Tony takes it, and keeps it in the same drawer as all the others :-p We learn that even if Tony's family is wealthy, his dad cut him off when he was twelve.
In a reality show where models live like Marines, one of them is found dead. Her father killed her because she wanted to give up her career and her life as a supermodel to marry the staff sergeant, a Marine.
ep 12 - Boxed in - Apparently yesterday Ziva made dinner for McGee and Palmer because she loves to cook. Jimmy Palmer tuned her piano (Tony had one too when he was little) and at the party there were also Abby and Gibbs ! Poor Tony for real, this time, why was he the only one not invited? Well, she'll cook just for him this time :-)
Ziva and Tony get trapped in a container during a shooting, and after they're saved, at the end, Abby hugs Ziva too, telling her "I'm glad you're not dead" :-)
ep 13 - Deception - A naval Lt is abducted; Zac Efron plays a teenager with the Lt. cell phone.
Ziva : "why do you insist on calling it football when you don't use your feet?" good one, Ziva.
Abby "Thank you sir" -  Gibbs "don't call me sir" - Abby "thank you ma'am" :lol:
ep 14 - Light sleeper - Three women and a man from North Korea had to make a big, big bomb blow up, but Yoon has a little daughter and she actually loves her husband, he wasn't just useful cover to the mission, she actually likes her life in America, so she wants to stop it. She kills the other two women and tries to kill the man, but fails. Still, she can disarm the bomb.
How cute was Gibbs holding a little baby and preparing a biberon?? :-)
ep 15 - Head case - Before the credits we see an Ncis operation busting three car-thieves, but doing that they find a head! Ziva remembers where the head of a friend was mailed to her. It turns out a lawyer and a Navy ME were selling body parts, and one man was killed too.
ep 16 - Family secret - A Marine donated his kidney to his best friend, another Marine, who then died in a car accident. His father switched the body with another in the Morgue and burnt it, to avoid anyone finding out about it and ruin the Marine's career. Gibbs fakes evidence to help him !!!!
It looks like the director misses being an agent! It was very nice when Gibbs brought her dinner to her office, to eat together while talking :-)
ep 17 - Ravenous - A Marine was killed and then eaten by a bear. The killer wanted the girl that was with him. She would have been his 27 victim, but Ziva found her.
Abby thinks Gibbs have forgotten her birthday, but of course he didn't. I would have wanted to see what his present was, though. Everyone else gave her black roses, but not him :-)
I don't know exactly what Abby meant with "now I know how Molly Ringwald felt in sixteen candles".
ep 18 - Bait - A boy goes to school with a bomb strapped to his body.  The boy was forced to do it by some terrorists who wanted to kill his mother. While Gibbs is in the class with him, Tony takes charge of the operation...
There's a girl in the class called Nadia :-D
ep 19 - Iced - The bodies of a Marine and three gangmembers are find under an iced lake. One other member of the gang killed them all to take over the power. Without sufficient evidence for a court case, Gibbs turns him over to the gang, after explaining to them how he's being playing them. They kill him for it.
Gibbs doing an "attaboy" to Tony was funny :lol:
ep 20 - Untouchable - Lt Hill's fake suicide makes the team suspect a Venezuelan spy with diplomatic immunity, until they realise it was her captain that killed her.
In this episode, Ducky is called back to Ncis while he was with his mother, and has no other choice than to bring her in with him :-)
ep 21 - Bloodbath - The bloodbath in a hotel room was staged, to have Abby analize some powder that released cyonide gas: it'd seem someone's out there to kill Abby!! There were two threats to her: a hitman hired by someone who she was  about to testify in court against, and an ex-lover stalking her, who won't stop despite the restraining order.
 I liked how fast McGee got up and pulled her out by the arm :-)
Now, how cute is this dialogue, while Abby is hiding in the elevator and Gibbs sits with her? :
Gibbs - no one is going to hurt you, Abby
Abby - You're just saying that to make me feel better
G - Did it?
A - Yeah. Can you say it again?
G - Nobody's gonna hurt you, Abs.
A - Can I stay at Ncis until you catch him?
G - I'll move your whole lab into the elevator if it'll make you feel better
awww :-) and he does!! Next scene she works there! :-) Well, for a while, but still!
Then he takes her to his home, and she breaks his boat :lol: She's drunk. "I don't understand why people drink alcohol when they're depressed, becasue alcohol is a depressant. Now I'm still depressed and I'm naseaus and I'm drunk" that's because she's never depressed, not even this time. She's using the wrong word, she's worried, she's sad, but she's not depressed, never. I can understand that sometime, when you're not sad but you're depressed, there really isn't a reason you can pinpoing easily, you just feel like shit, and if a few drinks make you feel bad, at least you know you're feeling bad because of that, and that's an improvement. As I said, though, Abby is not 'depressed', and never was. Worry or sadness are complete different things.
ep 22 - Jeopardy - David is bringing up a 'suspect', but when the elevator's doors open in front of Gibbs, she's there and he's on the floor dead. His brother (Connor Trinneer, STworld )  wants him and their drugs released to him or he'll kill the Director. They found them, kill the second brother too, free the director and also clear Ziva's position with "death by natural causes"  :-)  happy ending, huh?
Tamara Taylor plays Cassie, and Tim Russ (STworld again :-) ) is a man working at Whitmore Hotel.
ep 23 - Hiatus part one - For once Tony and I had the same film in mind: that whole thing was so "the usual suspects" ! The ship blows up and Gibbs is badly hurt and brought to the hospital. The Director comes to see him with a very elegant red dress and jewels, right from a dinner at the White House, and phones "Candy" for help when the nurse refuses to let her in; after her, runs Abby, all in black, ranting incoherently with the nurse, who just lets her go without discussions. Captain Todd Gelfand (Brett Cullen) is the doctor curing him. He also treated him in 1991, when Gibbs was in a coma for 19 days. We learn that he was wounded at Desert Storm, and he has a purple heart, although I'm not sure what that means  [EDIT = I really didn't and my ignorance is embarassing, but after seeing season 4 now I know].  We also learn that his wife and daughter were killed in a car crash caused by a murderer-drug-dealer. Gibbs secretely went to Mexico and killed him with a sniper shot.
At the end, Gibbs wakes up, but he doesn't recognise Ducky !!
ep 24 - Hiatus part two - The team investigates without Gibbs because he's still at the hospital. He keeps crying, yelling "I'm not Agent Gibbs, I don't know agent Gibbs, I want Shannon, I want Kelly, I miss them".
my poor heart is crushing....
Lt Franks comes to visit him, they remember when he worked at Nis, now called Ncis, and Gibbs joined because of him, and learned from him... he fills him in what has happened in all those years, including 9/11, and why he retired. Ziva then goes to him and makes him remember all the recent stuff. It was a lovely scene, touching and sweet. She speakes to him telling him about her, about Ari, about how she killed her brother to protect him, and she's all crying, then she takes his hand and uses it to smack herself on the back of her head like he used to do, and that brings back his memory, of her, of everything. I loved that scene between them.
Gibbs rushes to Ncis to stop the terrorist attack, but Deputy Director Welsh won't listen to him and lets the ship blow up. Gibbs shouts at him then resigns ( !!! ) and goes to Mexico, to Lt Frank's home.

They can't go on without Gibbs. I'm not at all worried. He'll be back before you know it :-)

Five little pigs by Agatha Christie

I've always known this book under its very different italian title, which translates "the portrait of Elsa Greer". I love it, and I think it's extraordinary, and in talking about it I can't avoid major spoilers from the start: just a little warning in case someone is actually reading this. What's extraordinary about it is that I actually remembered the ending, I knew before starting to read it who did it and who didn't, and it was still a pleasant and interesting read. It wasn't like "the mirror crack'd from side to side"; in that book, once I spotted the murderer, everything else became boring, but not this time because it is very different. "Five little pigs" talks of a murder that happened 16 years before, and a girl asks Poirot to investigate to find out if her mother was really guilty or not. It's a very different kind of investigation, which consists in listening at what people remember about it and then draw his own conclusions. Despite my bad memory I could not forget who really did it, probably because it was right there in the italian title. Once I read it many years ago, I could not forget that she did it, that she was posing for her portrait after having poisoned him, slowly watching him die. Still I enjoyed the book very much, and it wasn't so clear to me how and why. The only obvious thing was why the woman charged and condemned for the murder did not attempt to defend herself, without ever confessing. Logicly there are two way one could go: confess or defend oneself. She did neither of them, why? Because she was protecting someone and that could only be the most important person in her life. That was the only clear thing to me. If I had not known the identity of the real murderer though, I would have never suspected of the teenage girl: her sister did, obviously, but I would have more easily suspected one of the two men; either Philip or Meredith looked to me like possible suspects. It was very interesting to see how Poirot puts all the little pieces together, at the end. All he has is what we have; he just puts every little piece into its right place, giving to every apparently innocent word its real meaning. I think it was a great book!
Amyas Crale was not killed by his wife Caroline: both her sister Adrienne and her daughter Mary were right. And Elsa's last words were so strong: how she sat watching him die, not realising she was killing herself. She could never feel alive after that. She could not hurt Caroline, who was actually happy thinking she was saving her beloved sister. Elsa could not hurt anyone, she could not reach them anymore. She felt like the one that really died that day.

ITA il ritratto di Elsa Greer

The mystery of the Blue train - by Agatha Christie

This was a good book, but not one of my favourites. It has Poirot in it, which is a good thing, but not enough this time. The whole thing of the famous jewel thief Le Marquis and the con-man every woman loves Comte de la Roche was boring to me, I didn't like those characters at all. I liked Katherine Grey and Poirot, and that's it. It's difficult to be passionate about a story when the characters are uninteresting to you.
The basic plot is simple: a group of people is on the Blue Train to France, and one morning Ruth Van Aldin is found murdered. She was very rich, and her precious jewels have disappeared. Who killed her? Her con man lover to steal the jewels? Her husband she was about to divorce, and leave him with no money? Or someone else?
SPOILERS just saying...
Now, I know about these things, I've read and seen many of them. I knew the fact that Knighton had met Ada Mason in Paris was important, I even thought he meant he was near, and could have killed her, but couldn't imagine why. Assume that he was the Marquis? How could I, there were no proofs, no real indications. About Ada Mason, how was I to know about that actress? There was something strange about her, but from this to imagine she was actually a famous actress known for impersonating males...
that's why I'm not too fond of this book. It's not possible to make deductions and come to a conclusion. Practically, the only way to get it right is to guess!
It's probably possible, yes, but unlike Poirot I don't like to close my eyes (and my book) and think: what if he lied there, it means she lied too, then why, then who was that man, but what if it wasn't a man but a woman... and so on. I just go on reading.

ITA il mistero del treno azzurro

X-Men: Days of future past - 2014

I liked this film! One of the best of all these Marvel movies.
 They send Wolverine consciousness back in time to take control of his own self in 1973. Thing is, now things are going really badly and everyone is losing against the sentinels, and all the mutants are being killed by them, and also many humans. X-men decides the only way is to stop the sentinels from ever being built and deployed. Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen) together instruct Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) on what to do: find their younger selves and get them to work together to stop Mystica (Jennifer Lawrence) from killing Frask (Peter Dinklage) in front of people: that was what made the president decide to go on with his Sentinels-project. How lovely was it to see Xavier and Magneto on the same side?? I love it. Of course it should have been Xavier to go back in time, but Wolverine is the only one that can go because it's very hard phisically and he's the only one who can regenerate. He finds Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) easily, although he finds his school is closed and Charles is now a junkie with no hope. Wolverine explains to him that they have to stop this assassination, and Charles agrees only because he wants to save Raven (in a way Raven is her good side, Mystica is her aggressive side). They also need Magneto's help, so they free him from a prison under the Pentagon where he's being held after being charged with JFK's murder (although he denies it, he said he wanted to save him because he was a mutant as well). With young Quicksilver's help (Evan Peters), they free Erik (Michael Fassbender) and search for Raven. Now, how cool is Michael Fassbender?? He's great, I was really happy they chose him, I loved him in this role before, and still did here. He's great, sexy and cool, perfect to play young Magneto. They needed someone like that to play young Ian McKellen right??
 They find her, but Erik tries to kill her thinking this is the only way to save his kind. He fails, but injures her: now Frask has her DNA so he actually caused more trouble!
Mystica is still decided on killing Frask, so she infiltrated as a secret service agent. When Magneto makes his big entrance moving a whole stadium in the white house garden, she's hidden among all the men protecting the President. He sure knows how to make a big entrance, doesn't he? As if all eyes wouldn't be on him anyway...
Erik makes a speech to the cameras saying that they wanted to stop his kind because they were afraid of what they didn't know, and now he will give them something to be really afraid of. Charles, Logan and Beast try to stop him, but Erik is stronger. He throws Logan into the river and incapacitate Charles. In the future, we see the sentinels have found where they were hiding. They kill Storm (Halle Berry), Bobby (Shawn Ashmore), Bishop (Oman Sy), even Magneto. They are about to kill the professor, Kitty and Wolverine's future body.
At that moment, Raven comes forward disguised as President Nixon, and stops him with a bullet in his neck: not fatal, of course, just to stop him. She almost killed Frask too, but Charles stopped her. Well, he couldn't move but his power is in his mind, so he spoke to her, apologising for always trying to control her, but also making her understand the right thing to do.
A good kick and Erik's on the ground. Raven takes away his elmet, so that Charles can get into his head. Then he lets both Erik and Raven go away. Through the cameras everyone saw that she saved the president and then left without hurting anyone. The project was annulled and Frask incriminated for selling secrets, apparently. I was quite confused that at the end it was Raven who pulled Wolverine out of the river where he had drowned. Now, what does this mean? That it'll be Mystica to put adamantium into Wolverine's body? Or is Stryker still alive?? This was the only confusing detail.
It was funny seeing Logan go through a metal detector without making it beep. It was fun for him too :-)
The end is lovely, because it's touching and nice and peaceful. He wakes up to find no sentinels around, instead he's in the Professor X's school, full of students and teachers. He sees Jean Grey alive, and also Cyclops is alive. In the school, he also sees Bobby and Rogue, and Beast, and Storm.
 He's of course confused about what has happened because his last memory is that of drowning in 1973. Charles remembers what they had gone through together, so they will have a nice little chat to catch up :-)

I liked this fillm very much, it was lovely to have them all together . :-)

Robocop - 2014

Why do they always have to remake old movies? Was there really any need for this movie? The plot is vaguely the same, a cop almost killed is transformed into a robot (well, half-robot), but they succeeded in making it so much more absurd than the first one. The head, chest and one hand are the only parts of the man that they could save, all the rest is machine. Ok, this means that they put into him all the substances he needs in order to function correctly, and when they want him less emotional they simply change what they put into him, and if they want him to stop they just "switch him off" !! Come on, Data was more human than that!! (Data from ST-TNG of course).  But let's tell things in order:
Plot: Omnicorp wants to build and sell robots to be used as cops or soldiers, but the government is very much against it, and so are the people, because of course machines have no souls, no conscience, no way to judge the situation in a human way, as it was seen at the beginning: lots of robots heavily armed, and a young boy with a knife: not what I would call a threat, but the robot did). To manipulate the people, Omnicorp's boss Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton, great) decides to give them a robot half-human, by picking very-badly-injured cop Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman, never heard of him before) and transform him into something he can manipulate, and make money with. He asks for the help of Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman, the best in the movie), who works there to make robotic parts for people who have lost them, like new hands, for example. He's a good man, but gets sucked into something big, and after months rebuilding Alex, he gets told that he's not fast enough, in the training simulations, not as fast as real robots, and pressure him to "repair" him. Of course he's a couple of seconds late compare to a robot, he thinks of the situation, he doesn't just shoot! But they don't like it, and the doctor sees no escape but to do what they order him, so what does he do?? He opens his brain and removes a little, little bit that controls his conscience!!! Just a tiny little bit to make his responses faster, and it works!!
Now, it's more believable that Terminator will come here from the future to stop a teenager from changing the world, it's very much easier to believe that tomorrow Thor will fall out of the sky and  find me, than to believe that just a few years in the future from now a doctor can open up a brain and read it not simply like a book, but like a book with a detailed index and important things underlined in colours!
Compare to that, when they fill his brain with a database like in matrix it makes perfect sense! Easypeasy.
Anyway, when they fill Alex's brain, the information about his own attempted murder are too much to bear, and he can't control his emotions, so the doctor decides to take them away! Less and less human, this Alex, practically a robot with a face! Anyway... Alex goes on fighting crime, but his wife insists on seeing him, to tell him how much their son needs him. And here we go, they stripped him of everything, he was practically a machine, but the son wins over everything and he starts thinking of his own murder, investigates and kills all the responsibles, to discover the two dirty cops (and kill one of them), and the fact that the head of police was very much part of it!! He confronts her, but at that moment is switched off by a bastard. They don't like the fact that he might investigate on his own, and bring down important people, so Sellars orders to kill him, to terminate the project... but the good doctors rebels at this, saves alex and informs him of the situation. Alex will kill Sellars, but still Pat Novak (Samuel L. Jackson) will shout from his tv-show that robots are good and blah blah blah. I can't remember him in a more despisable role since Django unchained...
All in all, a stupid and almost totally useless film, with one good scene and two great actors. Well, I should say three, but this time Jackson didn't do much, and I despise his character. I usually like Jackson, but this time I mostly refer to Gary Oldman.
The only good scene in the movie was the first time Alex-bot comes back to his family, and is afraid to let them see him, and they are happy to see him but don't know very well what to do, because it's the first time they see the new him. It's a very nice scene!

The most annoying thing was the fact that the doctor kept telling him to calm down... if you're bursting inside, if you're on fire, if your emotions are having the best on you, someone telling you to relax is not gonna make any difference!! Did he really think that saying 'calm down, relax' was enough???

The hero of the movie...  Alex was a hot-head who got easily into trouble and who got almost killed because he was good and so many others were not, but then Robocop felt no fear, and could not be hurt as easily as a human body. So little though has been said of his partner Jack, who saved him, protected him, believed in him all the way! and yet he had so little time in the film...