All but about 10, but the character is in public domain. Sort of. The two articles below are an interesting sequence; first from 2014, an unequivocal statement that the character is public domain, even if some stories aren’t; and then an article from last year suggesting that a lawsuit over “Enola Holmes” was settled. As the lawyer-blogger says, copyright law is complicated…
Sherlock Holmes is really, really in the public domain – really - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
Sherlock Holmes has to be, along with Shakespeare, one of the biggest things in the public domain.
What is great about Holmes is that people love him and Watson so much, it is great fun to write more stories about him. And you can publish them and get paid for them, so…nice.
There’s a list of several hundred Sherlock Holmes pastiches at Reading List: Sherlock Holmes Pastiche Novels | Sherlock Cares. I haven’t counted them to say exactly how many are in this list. I also don’t know how complete this list is.
Promising Young Woman on HBOMax.
Carey Mulligan as Cassie, the best friend of a woman who was raped in med school and then subsequently commits suicide. Cassie embarks on an…unusual campaign, which I don’t want to say anything about because this movie is best approached cold, I think.
Mulligan is tremendous, and the acting overall is excellent. Tight story, well-directed. Has a stellar ending which is one those great ones that is both surprising and yet inevitable. Highly recommend, though if you are a male, prepare to be uncomfortable, because the gender as a whole comes off pretty fucking terrible in this movie.
The acting in this is really good, though I did find myself thinking later that if I were an actor, playing some of those guys would have been difficult. I mean, I guess actors love that stuff, but oof.
I started to watch the Western The Sisters Brothers (2018) starring John C Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix but after 30 or so minutes gave up.
I found myself agreeing with the reviewer from Variety who found it somewhere between a comedy and a drama with the jokes missing but the attempted humour undermining the drama.
That said most other reviewers liked it so maybe it’s just me (and the reviewer from Variety.)
TCMF-2L
Local Hero (1983). I’m glad I watched it, but was expecting something a bit more earth-shattering based on the gushing reviews. Maybe it’s one of those movies you have to see more than once to fully appreciate it.
There’s no grand climactic showdown between evil corporation and plucky villagers as one might expect, which in itself makes the film stand out. It’s just kind of sweet.
I also just watched this a couple nights ago, having read the book a few years back. I think it worked better as a book. The movie somehow lost something in translation, despite being very close to the book (the book’s author was one of the scriptwriters). I never did figure out what kind of accent Jake Gyllenhaal was supposed to have.
Having given up on The Sisters Brothers I checked out what Wiki had to say and the plot sounded pretty good. But as I said, tonally I couldn’t get into it.
Shortly before I bailed there was a scene where Reilly swallowed a tarantula while he was sleeping. Seemed like farce - there was no tension there. But Reilly seemed in some genuine pain the next morning so drama? I couldn’t tell. Gave up on it.
TCMF-2L
I was disappointed in the original Superman II. How did you like this version?
But Dark City is one of my all-time favorite sf dramas. What did PM think?
Cool! I should try that sometime. And have a look here: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Enola Holmes was a meh to me, too, but I’d say The Seven Percent Solution is pretty good (and although I think Robert Duvall is somewhat miscast as Watson, Nicol Williamson does very well as Holmes). Of course you should check out the excellent Jeremy Brett adaptations, too, at least one of which (The Hound of the Baskervilles) is feature-length: The Hound of the Baskervilles (TV Movie 1988) - IMDb
I’ve long meant to get around to The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and Murder by Decree, but never have. Anyone seen 'em? What say you, if so?
The Donner cut of Superman II is way better than the released version, but I’ve been spoiled by recent superhero movies, especially the MCU. Both Donner Superman movies look a bit too naive. and I was never fond of Lex Luthor (and his sidekick) as comic characters.
I’m not sure what Pepper Mill felt about Dark City. When it was over she admitted that she must have caught parts of it in the past, but she gave no overall score.
We watched The Tomorrow War on Prime
Everyone involved should be suspended for whole season.
Then watched a couple of good ones.
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab was a great turn of the century whodunnit.
And a quirky New Zealand film, How to Murder your Wife was quirky good fun.
Another shout out for Mr Brooks. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
I saw The Private Life… just once many years ago in an art-house setting featuring the work of Billy Wilder. I was pretty young and (more) clueless at the time, and, even so, it was obvious to me that it had been heavily edited, as there were odd details that went nowhere (according to online references, it was shortened from 3.2 to 2 hours). Also, I didn’t care for Wilder’s portrayal of Holmes as a repressed homosexual (unintentionally campy, YMMV). The film was released in 1970 and Wilder was born in 1906, so maybe it hasn’t aged well.
For the Holmesian completists, there was a BBC radio series called Second Holmes about the grandsons of Holmes and Watson - a light comedy with an underlying whodunnit. Amusing but not spectacular, and not currently available.
Eternals - Took me 3 sessions to get through it. Had some interesting ideas but it was pretty slow. Seems like a lot could have been cut and the movie would have still been perfectly fine. I love how all these powerful aliens are written to speak about how puzzling human behavior is, but they act exactly like humans. Indecisive, arguing, love triangles, solving problems with violence. Human.
Red State. What a steaming pile of horse manure.
There is so much wrong with this movie that I don’t even know where to begin… terrible screenplay, terrible direction, terrible acting. Zero character development. The only saving grace was the performance of Michael Parks. He was good. I had never heard of him before watching this.
The premise to the story has promise, and I would watch a remake if it were made by a competent director and writer.
Just watched Finch. It’s largely as you would expect, a post-apocalyptic tale of a man and his robot, and there’s very little that hasn’t been done before, but it’s very entertaining, and extremely well made. It’s hard to go wrong with Tom Hanks and a dog. But it’s the robot Jeff who definitely steals most scenes.
I forgot one thing I wanted to say – the Strangers in Dark City remind me an awful lot of the way Harlan Ellison’s alien Kyben were portrayed in the Outer Limits episode “Demon with a Glass Hand”, right down to the lead Stranger, Ian Richardson’s “Mr. Book,” looking a lot like Abraham Sofaer as “Arch”, the Kyben leader.
Ah! Never saw that episode, but I’ve heard of it.