Sherlock Jr.: Top Five Gags

It’s not very long, but it has an awful lot of laughs.  These are my top picks from the delightful Sherlock Jr.

Lost Dollars

Let’s face it – if Buster finds a dollar while he’s sweeping, of course the owner is going to come back for it, along with someone else to claim another of the two dollars he already had, and he’s naturally going to miss the wallet stuffed with cash in the same pile.  My favorite part is Buster asking the first woman to describe her lost dollar and then using the same descriptive gestures when the second woman comes along.

Handholding Chicken

Equal parts sweet, adorable, and hilarious.  I love the timid way Buster and his girl inch their hands toward one another, his skittish withdrawal.  I love how determinedly she slams her hand back down, and when he does the same (on top of hers,) their identical looks of alarm are priceless.  Bonus points for the engagement ring featuring the world’s tiniest diamond and Buster being prepared with his magnifying glass.

Shadow Your Man Closely

First of all, Buster does an expert job of staying right on his mark’s tail.  I don’t know if it was perfectly choreographed or if he just follows the other guy’s cues so well, but their twin movements are great.  I especially like when the suspect picks up a cigarette butt, gives it a puff, and flicks it over his shoulder, where Buster catches it and does the exact same thing.

Deadly Billiards

Such a great part of the Sherlock Jr. dream sequence.  The villains’ obvious terror of the explosive billiard ball goes wonderfully with Buster’s oblivious nonchalance, and I adore the lackey’s non-verbal play-by-play on how each of Buster’s shots just misses the lethal ball.  Capped by Buster privately revealing the swapped-out balls.

The Handlebar Getaway

A classic.  Buster loses his driver early on in his dramatic getaway but has no idea, and he blithely careens through all manner of dangers perched on the handlebars of the driverless motorbike.  The whole scene has such expertly-timed gags, from the trucks pulling in to fill the gap of the unfinished bridge, to the felled tree in the road being blown up at the perfect moment (not to mention, all the long shots really are Buster sitting on the handlebars of a motorbike and steering it through a crowded scene – he was a wonder!)

Top Five Big Damn Hero Moments: Ianto Jones (Torchwood)

In terms of Damn Big Hero moments, Ianto was a little tough for me to pin down.  Though he’s very competent at what he does and is pretty much always an asset to the team, his role is such a clear supporting one that his contributions tends to be more nuts-and-bolts stuff and less flashy.  As such, there aren’t as many big wins to celebrate, but let’s see what we’ve got (spoilers.)

Giving Tosh Room to Escape (Series 1, Episode 6 – “Countrycide”)

This is a definite hero move.  Ianto and Tosh have been kidnapped by unknown predators who turn out to be rural Welsh cannibals (gotta hate it when that happens.)  When they’re brought out to be “tenderized,” Ianto smacks foreheads with their chief captor, letting Tosh get free while the others are subduing him.  You don’t often see one team member so thoroughly putting another’s life ahead of their own unless there’s a romance involved, so this is a neat scene.

Confronting Owen (Series 1, Episode 12 – “Captain Jack Harkness”)

It doesn’t turn out great, but it’s a big deal for Ianto to stand up to Owen in Jack’s absence, trying to stop him from using the Rift Manipulator unsafely.  Though he’s been getting more time in the field, Ianto is still thought of as the “office boy,” and Owen isn’t about to respect any authority he has.  Ianto holds his ground, though, and takes it to extremes when he sees no other option.

Realizing the Truth about Adam (Series 2, Episode 5 – “Adam”)

This one ultimately winds up helping to save the day, although it gets hairy in the short-term.  Everyone’s been mind-whammied by Adam, getting him inserted into their memories, and it’s Ianto who realizes Adam isn’t supposed to be there.  I love this moment, because the way he figures it out is so Ianto – Adam can alter memories and electronic records, but he doesn’t know that Ianto keeps a pen-and-paper journal, and Ianto finds that there aren’t any references to Adam in it.  Smart, and fitting that Ianto’s somewhat old-fashioned tastes are come in handy here.

Leading Gwen toward Flat Holm (Series 2, Episode 11 – “Adrift”)

Torchwood may be a super-secret organization, but Ianto is the only one who consistently acts like it.  Even within the team, he knows how to be covert.  When Gwen starts digging into negative Rift spikes and Ianto knows Jack is trying to block her from the truth, he disagrees.  Instead of outright telling her, though, he “delivers” a package to her desk, containing a GPS who coordinates lead to Flat Holm, and even after she realizes the information must have come from him, he coolly ignores her attempt to credit him with it.  That’s how you do it, people!

On the Run (Series 3, Episode 2 – “Children of Earth:  Day Two”)

Another bit of Ianto succeeding because he knows how to operate on the quiet.  While Gwen and Rhys are hiding in a potato truck, Ianto is able to send a secret message to his sister arranging a rendezvous point using references only the two of them would understand, and she gives him supplies he needs to keep working while in hiding.  Not too shabby!

A Little TLC(w): People’s Hero (1987)

Back when I first started reviewing Peter Capaldi’s filmography, I opened with an‘80s film with “hero” in the title in which Capaldi played a major supporting role, so it’s fitting in a weird way that I’m going the same thing with Tony Leung Chiu-wai.  However, the two films couldn’t be more different.

When a bank is (very, very badly) robbed at close of business, the fumbling robbers wind up with an inadvertent hostage crisis on their hands.  They soon realize, however, that the situation is even more out-of-control – Sunny Koo, a far more experienced robber notorious for killing two police officers, happened to be in the bank at the time, and he hijacks both their robbery and their hostage crisis.  The police force outside the bank is divided on whether to give into Sunny’s demands for the sake of the hostages or satisfy their own desire to avenge their fellow officers who were killed.

This is a pretty neat film.  A lot of that is down to Sunny, a sharp gentleman robber who keeps everyone on their toes.  His behavior is elusive, and the hostages/other robbers can never tell if he’s going to offer them a cigarette and commiserate about women or establish a randomized method of deciding which one of them he should shoot to show the police he means business.  In this way, there’s a sense of almost absurd comedy that breaks in with his friendliness and nonchalant attitude with the hostages, but then the rug gets continually pulled out from under them, and us, when he turns ruthlessly pragmatic without warning.

But I’m here for Tony Leung Chiu-wai, who doesn’t play Sunny – far too many years ago for that.  Instead, Leung plays Sai, one of the original pair of doomed robbers.  You can tell neither he nor his partner really want to go through with it, and they nearly abort, but a last-minute mishap forces their hand.  As Sai then bites the bullet and commits to the robbery, his inexperience and terror is palpable.  He’s desperately trying to act like he knows what he’s doing, but he’s in way over his head.

I really enjoy this character.  Sai sympathetic in the midst of his epically bad choices, and I feel for him as he starts to suspect he’s thrown his life away in one afternoon.  He makes a nice foil for Sunny – there’s the strong contrast in their abilities, of course, but more importantly, Sai looks at Sunny like a window, seeing the dark actions it takes to be successful on this path.

I’m not familiar with Lung Ti, who plays Sunny, but he’s very good (a nice side benefit of these reviews will be getting to know other Hong Kong actors, particularly outside the context of Wong Kar-wai.)  Ronald Wong, who was in As Tears Go By, plays Sai’s partner in crime, and the other Tony Leung (Tony Leung Ka-fai, from Ashes of Time) is effective as a stressed police captain.

Recommend?

In General – If you’re a fan of crime/action movies, I’d say so.  The story feels like a fairly original twist on a classic scenario, and the interesting shifts in tone keep you on your toes.

Tony Leung Chiu-wai – Yes.  It’s a solid supporting role, and though Sunny Koo is a far more prominent character, Leung really brings Sai to life and draws your eye.

Warnings

Violence, smoking, and dark thematic elements.

News Satire Roundup: October 23rd-October 27th

Sunday, October 23 – Unsurprisingly, we opened on the debate, along with Trump’s “roasting” at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner – ayiyi.  My favorite part was John’s plan to get Trump to concede if he loses the election by a) Trump betting John that he’ll lose, so he’d at least be winning the bet and b) John offering Trump his Emmy (since Trump was mad about losing to The Amazing Race) in exchange for concession.  The main story was on opioid addiction, looking mainly at prescription painkillers but also how such addictions frequently lead to heroin.  A complex, disturbing story about looking for the balance between needed pain relief and narcotic dependence, as well as the companies that profited to people’s serious detriment.  I really liked what John said about how Big Pharma’s promise of quick, cheap, and easy pain relief created a massive problem whose hard-fought solution will be none of those things.

Monday, October 24 – I’d known the show wasn’t filming on Monday and figured it would be a repeat, but I found another clip show waiting for me on the DVR.  This one focused mainly on the period surrounding the three debates.  It’s insane how much further/faster the election has gone downhill than it had even a month ago.  I laughed out loud at the clip of Trevor citing Trump not paying federal income tax as the election’s “biggest scandal so far” (how innocent we were then…)  Since it was all so recent, though, there wasn’t much of note here.  I liked that they included excerpts from Ronny’s piece about the Fox News segment in Chinatown and Hasan’s piece asking RNC attendees about Trump’s proposed Muslim ban (I think that might have been the only bit that was made prior to debates.)  I’m pretty sure they showed Jordan’s piece asking Trump supporters about the Access Hollywood tape in its entirety, which was surprising.

Tuesday, October 25 – Felt like kind of a hodgepodge show.  Trevor started with a quick bit on social media indiscretions, from Justin Timberlake’s voting booth selfie to a man Snap Chatting the birth of his child.  Okay story on the largest refugee camp in France being shut down – I enjoyed the offense Trevor took at it being called “The Jungle,” but Roy’s on-location report felt a bit lacking.  A piece on Trump’s First 100 Days plan dovetailed into his litigious nature, since suing the women who’ve accused him of sexual assault is a big part of his plan.  I got a kick out of Jordan’s extremely-targeted “Lawyers for Donald Trump” infomercial promising to defend against such scourges as “facts” and “tapes of things you said.”  I liked the guest, CNN’s Dana Bash; it’s always interesting to hear journalists talk about the experience of covering Trump, and I laughed when Trevor asked if she was doing her part in the media to “rig” the election.

Wednesday, October 26 – Loved the story on Biden wishing he could “take [Trump] behind the gym” to settle things between them.  It was all good – Trevor arguing that everyone knows behind the gym is for hooking up, election insanity that wasn’t scary or appalling for once, Trump’s blowhard ways – and I liked how it opened up into a story about media slant, how we consume our news rather than the news.  Two-guest night.  First up was pollster John Della Volpe.  He wouldn’t cop to rigging the election, but he shared some of the more impressive numbers and explained why rigging a poll wouldn’t benefit a pollster.  Second was Phil Collins – I’d thought he was there to perform, but he was promoting his memoir.  I enjoyed what he said about the extraordinary music scenes he was able to enter as a young man, from encountering the Beatles in their Abbey Road days to knowing Eric Clapton on a first-name basis.

Thursday, October 27 – After (briefly) mourning the loss of Vine, it was straight into a story on Obamacare.  Overall, I thought it was critical but reasonable, looking at the flaws in the system while acknowledging the disproportionate hatred gets in Congress and falling on the side that it needs fixing, not scrapping.  To help us through the dull talk of health insurance, we were given with numerous YouTube clips of ill-advised stunts resulting in definite painful injuries.  With more of Trump’s “rigged election” talk (kudos to Trevor for working in a logical Jeffrey Dahmer comparison!), Desi and Eliza took to the streets to show just how to rig a poll.  Eh – I get what they were going for, but it wasn’t that funny and didn’t have much to say.  Decent interview with the rapper Jeezy.  I enjoyed his description of what trap means to him, and his anecdote about paying for throat surgery out-of-pocket was more amusing than a story like that ought to be.