Poirot "Mrs. McGinty's Dead" #11.1 (2008) (TV)

"But I am afraid, Madame, that your female intuition; it has taken the day off.", 6 April 2011

James Bentley has been arrested, charged, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to hang for the bludgeoning death of Mrs. McGinty, a charwoman from whom James rented rooms. Almost immediately, however, the Superintendent in charge of the case starts to have doubts. He contacts his old friend, Hercule Poirot, to look into the matter. Poirot discovers that a crime committed long ago may have played a part in Mrs. McGinty's death. Has someone from the past come forward to commit murder? A couple of old photographs may hold the key.

It's hardly surprising I enjoyed this version of Mrs. McGinty's Dead so much. I've always enjoyed the book and I almost equally enjoyed this dramatization. It makes for a solid mystery plot. While it may not be entirely faithful to Agatha Christie's work, enough of the good stuff is still here. And really, what Christie adaptation could ever hope to be 100% faithful? The writing, the attention to detail, the cinematography, the lighting - all are what I've come to expect from the better episodes of the Poirot series. I've run out of superlatives to use when describing David Suchet. He's about as perfect for the role of Poirot as anyone could hope to be. Some of the other actors, including Zoe Wanamaker as the apple-eating Adrian Oliver and Mary Stockley as the uber-secretive Eve Carpenter also made significant impressions. Other than the botched and confusing handling of the pair of murderous backstories, Mrs. McGinty's Dead is about as good as I've seen in the entire series.

8/10

Get Smart (2008)

"You heard me I have to 'squeeze the lemon'.", 23 September 2009

Overall, I found Get Smart a disappointing experience. I guess I should have known I'd have problems with the movie – I usually do with these old TV shows turned into movies. The problem generally is that the people responsible for the remakes have no clue about what made the original so good and enjoyable. And that's the case here. Maxwell Smart is the centerpiece of Get Smart. His bumbling antics are what made it funny. Anyone familiar with the television show will go into the movie with a preconceived notion of how Steve Carrell should play the character. But thanks to some poor writing and directing, Carrell's Maxwell Smart is all over the map. One minute he's a bumbling fool incapable of the most simple of tasks (like cutting the plastic strap binding his wrist when he has a knife) and the next he's suddenly a super-hero busting the chops of every bad guy in sight. It's not just inconsistent – it's downright annoying. Add to that the half-hearted way the writers threw in Don Adams' familiar catch phrases, the over-reliance on fat jokes, the lazy way action is used to replace real comedy, and a plot that is tired on one hand and nonsensical on the other and you end up with 110 minutes of wasted opportunity. That's not to say it's all bad. I did enjoy Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 and Alan Arkin as . . . well, as Alan Arkin. However, they aren't enough to save Get Smart. I should have gone with my instincts and avoided this one.

4/10

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)

"You guys are like mummy magnets!", 3 August 2008

I caught The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor with the family this past Friday night and couldn't be more underwhelmed by the experience. I'm not much of a fan of the first two Brendan Fraser mummy movies, but with Jet Li in the cast I was actually looking forward to this one. I honestly didn't expect much more than a mindless action movie. But what I wasn't expecting was something quite this vapid. Bigger and louder with more explosions isn't always a good thing. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor went beyond being mindless to the point it began to insult my intelligence. The tissue paper thin plot (which I'm not going to bother to even go into) seems as if it were made up on the spot and merely serves to string together a series of action set pieces. And there is little to no attempt made at character development. If you aren't familiar with the other movies in the series, I bet you'd be hard pressed to know anything about Brendan Fraser's character. And whose bright idea was it to have Luke Ford play Fraser's son? Was he born when Fraser's character was about 12 or something? Just one of the many examples I could cite of things that really bothered me about The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

Despite what I've written so far, the movie isn't a total waste. Some of the action set pieces really do work despite the idiocy surrounding them. For example, my single favorite scene in the film is when Jet Li faces off with Michelle Yeoh. It's magical! Unfortunately, that scene only lasts for a minute or so and we're back to the action by-the-numbers nonsense.

Finally, I feel the need to mention the opening 10 or so minutes that provide a back-story for the Dragon Emperor and many of the events to come. That looks like it might have been an interesting and intelligent movie. I'd pay to see that story fleshed out. What I won't pay for, however, is anymore of these Gawd awful mummy movies.

3/10

The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)

Not quite the movie my son was hoping for, 16 February 2008

A family moves into the now empty house owned by an old, eccentric great aunt who has gone to live in a nearby sanitarium. While exploring the house, one of the boys finds a book that opens a world of magical creatures. Unfortunately for his family, though, an ogre named Mulgarath wants the book and the power it will give him. And he'll stop at nothing to get it.

Let me say upfront that I've never read the books The Spiderwick Chronicles is based on. In fact, until recently, I had never even heard of The Spiderwick Chronicles. I say all this to show that I had no preconceived notions or expectations going into the movie. About the only thing I knew was that my 5 year-old son really wanted to go. Overall, while I enjoyed much of the movie, I did have a few problems that keep me from fully endorsing it.

As for what worked, I'll start with the action. Much of the action in The Spiderwick Chronicles is the "edge of the seat" variety. The films finale with Mulgarath chasing the family around the house is exceptionally well done. In some of the other user comments I've written, I have slammed CG special effects. But here they are used marvelously. It's gotten so that it's difficult to tell where reality ends and the CG begins. The acting is another big highlight for me. Freddie Highmore, Mary-Louise Parker, and Sarah Bolger all give life and believability to their respective roles. Highmore, in particular, did an outstanding job of creating two distinct characters. Another bonus is that this is a family that actually looks like they could be related. It's a nice piece of casting.

On to what didn't work. First, I'm not a big fan of the family dynamic presented in The Spiderwick Chronicles. When these people aren't being chased by monsters, they seem to spend their time yelling at each other. Why not have a family that gets along? I believe that at least part of the reason I felt this way is that the movie feels incredibly rushed. I've read that five books were crammed into this one movie. It shows. There seemed to be little time for any character interaction that didn't move the plot along or set-up a scene later in the movie. Finally, the movie was much more frightening than I had expected it to be. It didn't bother me, but it scared my son to death. He won't even talk about the parts that didn't scare him – and he's the reason we went. I'm no prude, but maybe this one should have been rated PG-13.

In the end, the good nudges out the bad and I'll rate The Spiderwick Chronicles a 6/10.

6/10