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Sherlock – The Abominable Bride

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  • Title: Sherlock – The Abominable Bride
  • IMDb: link

Sherlock - The Abominable BrideTaking place almost entirely in 1895, the natural habitat for Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Doctor Watson (Martin Freeman), “The Abominable Bride” is an unusual episode that allows the modern retelling of the detective’s adventures to journey back to his original hunting grounds. After a brief reintroduction the characters, things start in earnest when Lestrade (Rupert Graves) brings the pair an unusual case of a suicidal bride whose ghost has appeared multiple times to wreak havoc.

The holiday special works fairly well until its final act where it stalls trying to incorporate the show’s current storyline with the unsolved mystery (rather than just allowing the tale to exist on its own).

Available on both Blu-ray and DVD, extras include an extended featurette on the episode and the series, a Q&A about the series, a production diary, and shorter featurettes on the show’s writing and various aspects of recreating the look of 19th Century London for the episode.

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Dark Passage

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  • Title: Dark Passage
  • IMDb: link

Dark PassageThe weakest of the four movies starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Dark Passage is more memorable for its set-up than its film noir story. Bogart stars as wrongly-convicted murderer Vincent Parry who escapes prison in the opening scene. “Star” might be a bit of a stretch as Bogart isn’t seen in the first third of the film, and when he does show up his face is under heavy bandages for another 10 minutes.

After his escape is helped by an unlikely source (Becall), Parry is directed to a plastic surgeon (Houseley Stevenson) who helps the supply the man on the run with a new face allowing the movie to move away from the first-person point-of-view of the first 40-minutes and allow Bogart to appear on-screen.

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Legend

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  • Title: Legend
  • IMDb: link

LegendBased on the lives of English gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray (both played here by Tom Hardy), director Brian Helgeland’s film is as unengaging a crime drama as I can remember. I gave the film multiple chances but other than offer Hardy the chance to play dual roles the movie has nothing going for it. In terms of nuts and bolts, Legend is competently made but lacks the heart to make us care about either of the Kray brothers or those whose lives were effected by their choices.

Helgeland wastes a solid supporting cast (Emily Browning, David Thewlis, Christopher Eccleston, and Chazz Palminteri) on a story that doesn’t have much to say about gangsters we haven’t seen before. Legend isn’t an awful film, just a lifeless one (which in someways is actually worse than a truly awful film which can, on occasion, be entertaining for all the wrong reasons).

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Killjoys – The Complete First Season

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  • Title: Killjoys – Season One
  • wiki: link

Killjoys - The Complete First SeasonSet in a dystopian future, Killjoys follows the adventures of bounty hunting team Dutch (Hannah John-Kamen) and John (Aaron Ashmore) flying all over the quadrant on missions to bring in criminals. The pair’s dynamic is changed when John’s older brother D’Avin (Luke Macfarlane), a fellow soldier with plenty of baggage, joins the team.

Lasting only 10 episodes, the show’s First Season offers a couple of ongoing storylines to supplement the job of the week. Along with the friction between brothers, D’Avin’s past coming back to haunt him, and the growing unrest of the populace and a burgeoning rebellion, Dutch’s past as a super-assassin is teased throughout the season by the return of her mentor Khlyen (Rob Stewart) who wants her back. Highlights include Dutch forced to hunt down a friend, John dealing with the sudden escalation of Dutch and D’Avin’s relationship, and the team coming across a haunted spaceship.

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Jane Got a Gun

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  • Title: Jane Got a Gun
  • IMDb: link

Jane Got a GunWhen the past catches up with them, Jane Hammond (Natalie Portman) is forced to reach out to her former lover Dan Frost (Joel Edgerton) to save the lives of herself, her wounded husband (Noah Emmerich), and her young daughter from the wicked John Bishop (Ewan McGregor) and his band of outlaws.

Aside from casting a woman in the main role, Jane Got a Gun is a fairly conventional western. However, the choice to make Jane (rather than Dan) the central character in the story is an important one. Presented from her perspective, it’s Jane who slowly opens up about her road after separating with Dan during the Civil War (in which she believed he had died). The heartbreaking reveals mend the relationship between Jane and Dan just in time for one final fight against the men responsible for destroying their lives.

Propelled by character and the looming threat more than plot, Jane Got a Gun succeeds on the strength of its leads while McGregor and Boyd Holbrook provide the right notes as the movie’s black hats.

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