We watched four movies while in Sudbury, all of them on Netflix, which we don't subscribe to here at the Homestead. Netflix movies were slim pickings compared to what we are used to, but we found two gems, one dud and one so-so adventure film.
First up was The Dig, from 2021. It is a true story and based on the 2007 novel by John Preston. Edith Pretty owned a house and land in Suffolk and wanted someone to excavated burial mounds on her property. She hired an experienced and capable amateur archeologist and sets him to work on the eve of WW 2. At first he finds nothing of interest, but eventually begins to undercover the outline of a large wooden boat, long rotted away but leaving its imprint clearly in the soil. When the dig becomes too important, bigwigs from the British Museum arrive and attempt to take over the excavation. At Mrs. Pretty's insistence her digger stays on, and before long the amazing Sutton Hoo treasure is unearthed, upending contemporary knowledge of the Saxons, long thought to be merely warriors and vandals. But the treasure found with a burial amidst the ship, which had been dragged from the river up on to the hill in the 500s A.D, changed all that forever. There are two subplots, one about Mrs. Pretty's young son and another that is a love story, both adding rather than detracting from the main story. Despite Mrs. Pretty's insistence her digger, Basil Brown, was left off the names of discoverers when the treasure went on display in the British Museum after the war, thanks to English snobbery and its class system. However, his name now appears on tags at the museum, but only since recent times. This was a very good film and highly recommended. It had a limited release at the time but can only be viewed now on Netflix. Shame.
Next up was Death on the Nile from Agatha Christie's 1937 novel. I have not read the novel, but I hope it's more entertaining then this leaden version directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also stars as Hercule Poirot, the famous detective. The movie is just over two hours long and is about two hours too long. While some great photography is displayed upon the Nile voyage, it can't save this yawner from its looming oblivion. To try and breathe life into the movie a lot of loud jazz music is featured. It doesn't work. Most of the well known actors and actresses are totally wasted, including Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. Poirot finally gets it right after about five murders on board the small ship. The ending drags on and on as he postulates who might have done the murders, and why they did it. Finally comes the true revelation, by which time we don't really care who did it; we just want the end credits to roll. Give this one a miss.
We have seen The Fifth Element (1997) at least twice before and I am ready to watch it again already. This is one of the best of the campy SF adventure movies ever made and it features good effects, rousing action scenes, a nefarious bad guy you could almost like and stellar performances from Bruce Willis, Ian Holm and Milla Jovovich. Written and directed by Luc Besson, if you haven't seen this picture at least twice then I highly recommend you get hold of a copy or take the free trial from Netflix and watch it immediately. This would make a great double feature night with the darker Blade Runner. Very highly recommended!
Finally came the 2018 film Tomb Raider. Starring Alicia Vikander as the teenage Lara Croft, she gives a convincing performance of the adventuress on her very first outing. It is a big story but it is held together by good editing, action scenes that are almost believable, and a few nods to the more famous computer game series. Shot at studios in Hertfordshire, it also features landscapes in and around Cape Town and cityscapes in east London. Lara's father has failed to return from one of his frequent missions, and she decides to set out after him rather than destroy all his notes, as he had requested. While not top notch adventure, and quite violent at times, it passes the time nicely. Vikander was supposed to make a sequel, but unsurprisingly it never happened. The movie is at least as good as the first Lara Croft movie starring Angelina Jolie, and worth watching for fans of the game. My 17 year old niece watched it with us, not knowing anything about the game, and enjoyed the film.
Finally, in local news we have been enjoying a very mild finish to October. We have yet to turn on the furnace, which might be a record date for us. We have used the wood pellet stove a few times, and the electric space heaters, but nothing was used today.
Our radon mitigation system, installed at great expense last March, had not been working very well. We had a technician come out in September but he could not find the problem. Today a battalion of men arrived and voila, the problem was eventually discovered and fixed. We should now, finally, be living withing the safe range for radon.
And lastly we both got our flu shots yesterday. I feel pretty normal today but Deb is a bit under the weather. That is all for now. Happy Sawhain!! Book reviews coming Sunday!
Mapman Mike
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