I watched 13 movies last week.
 |
 |
- I started the week with Ballad of a Small Player, which was mostly forgettable. Despite good performances, especially from the now always more than dependable Colin Farrell, the movie doesn’t really have a lot to say.
- And I ended the week with Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. Here, too, I think the performances are the highlight—particularly Jacob Elordi as the Monster—but the film is also gorgeous enough that I’m a little disappointed I didn’t see it on a big screen.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
In between, I watched 11 movies in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes series. They made 14 films altogether, but I’d previously seen the first two (The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes), which were made before the rights were acquired by Universal, and for some reason I’d also seen the last (Dressed to Kill), so this was a full run of the series for me. They’re all mostly just okay, diverting and pleasantly short, and Rathbone and Bruce are both a lot of fun in the roles—even if the latter maybe overplays Watson as the bumbling buffoon—but not a one of them is really remarkable, or any great shakes as a mystery. The attempt to modernize Holmes and make him a foe of the Nazis—begun with Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror, but largely abandoned in all but a few details a few films later after Sherlock Holmes in America—never really works. Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon was probably my favorite, while the hypnotism-heavy The Women in Green was easily my least favorite, a fun turn by Henry Daniell as Prof. Moriarty notwithstanding.
But they’re all kind of vaguely charming, even if none of them really stands out.
I also rewatched One Cut of the Dead, though, which is a whole lot of fun.