Emma

Movie: Emma (The newest miniseries on Masterpiece. I'm 80)
Like/Don't Like: Coming around to it.

It's seems about time for a new Emma adaptation, right? The Gwyneth Paltrow one is old enough now to warrant it. And for the most part I liked it. It was faithful enough to the book to please any purest but added just enough imagined scenes to make it its own. The side characters were well played. Michael Gabon plays her dad and I am of the belief that you cannot go wrong by casting Dumbledore. And Johnny Lee Miller was Mr. Knightley and I have to say he has aged well. He always struck me as an uncomfortable actor in his younger days but he seems to have found his groove. Anyway, yes, all side characters well played.

My biggest gripe, and it's not that big but needs to be mentioned, was with Romola Garai, who played Emma. I thought she played her too modern, too over the top. I know that Emma is suppose to be bratty and immature, but she seemed closer to a college co-ed then a proper English lady, which, bratty aside, she also was. It could just be a personal preference on my part but I found it kind of distracting. I will say that I liked her better in the second half, which may be the whole point. Even Jane Austen said we probably wouldn't like her too much.

It Might Get Loud

Documentary: It Might Get Loud

Like/Don’t Like: It was pretty loud

What is there to say about this documentary except that it’s Jimmy Page, Jack White and The Edge getting together to talk about electric guitars and jam. Kind of awesome. Especially because all three are such different guitarists. They talk about their first guitars, how they got to their signature sounds, how their bands were formed. It’s pretty cool hearing the perspective of the guitarists in iconic bands. It’s usually the vocalist who does all the talking (Just try to ignore Bono. You can’t. He won’t let you.) but it’s the guitarist you hear first. You can always tell a U2 or Led Zepplin song from the first few notes on the guitar. Which brings me to Jack White. There’s no denying the guy is talented but I like him so much more in this film because he was talking more than he was singing. His voice doesn’t just drive me to the loony bin, it checks me in and laces up the straight jacket