Akira. I saw this long ago when it aired on TV and only vaguely remembered it. The music, animations and backgrounds are all awesome. I don't even know where to start with the plot. You got a crazy cyberpunk world complete with mutants/superpowered people, government coverups/experiments, terrorists, and biker gangs. What a wild ride this was.
Finished original Miss Marple movies. Miss Marple First TV series (different actress than movies) Season 1 episodes (1984). Miss Marple Last (?) TV series (different actress than First TV series) Season 1 episode (early 2000s). Murder She Wrote TV Series pilot film (1984).
Murder She Wrote is a USA version of English Miss Marple TV series. Different scripts. Stories/detecting somewhat similar in approach, so far.
We liked them all (Marple and MSW). The "elderly women" of these series who are "brilliant amateur detectives" solve crimes differently than Holmes and Poirot. Characters in the plot get slightly fuller development -- episodes are longer.
We note as the Marple series progresses, the Police tend to take her viewpoints more seriously -- they scoffed at first -- now she has credibility with some.
Akira. I saw this long ago when it aired on TV and only vaguely remembered it. The music, animations and backgrounds are all awesome. I don't even know where to start with the plot. You got a crazy cyberpunk world complete with mutants/superpowered people, government coverups/experiments, terrorists, and biker gangs. What a wild ride this was.
Akira has good animation but there's plenty of other Anime series and even films that far surpass this movie. For some reason I have fallen asleep in the latter third of Akira every time I have tried to watch, without fail. I am a critic, though, so the stuff I tend to enjoy the most is typically not mainstream. "Neon Genesis Evangelion" is one of example of anime series that surpasses Akira by a lot. "Berserk"(series), "Coyboy Bebop"(series), "Spirited Away," "Ninja Scroll"(film) are others. Then there's Macross/Robotech and Space Battleship Yamato(the 70s series, not the live action remake)... I haven't even touched on Trigun, Captain Harlock, Shin Getter Robo, Mazinger Z, Mazinkaiser or many others yet, either.
I was fortunate to live in an area that had a couple of television stations that broadcast anime in the mid 70s and 80s, so I caught a lot of it growing up.
Trigun and Cowboy Bebop were awesome. The original Macross/Robotech though, terrible. Animations weren't that good, not alot happens and I keep falling asleep during the episodes. I quit after 4 or 5 episodes. I've seen clips of some sequel movies or later seasons and they seem to have stepped up their game, but I never got that far. This was the series I gave up on: https://www.funimation.com/shows/robotech/?qid= I might revisit it again if I have time or I'm bored enough. I never really saw any anime until recently, so I've been watching a few over the last couple months.
Last time I liked "anime" was when I was about 5 or 6 years old and I watched "Speed Racer" and "Starblazers". I haven't cared for the genre since.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
This was the series I gave up on: https://www.funimation.com/shows/robotech/?qid= I might revisit it again if I have time or I'm bored enough. I never really saw any anime until recently, so I've been watching a few over the last couple months.
Yep, that's the one I watched as a kid in the 80s and loved more than Transformers. The series was so dark, gritty, and had real consequences for the characters. If only parents knew these things and didn't consider them simple cartoons at the time, we might not have been allowed to watch them!
Panzer: Space Battleship Yamato is the Japanese name for Starblazers. Great series. I watched it many times in the late 70s/early 80s.
What's funny is unlike regular television shows of the time, Anime was really one of the only ways you could get true serial fiction in show form during the time. Most of the mainstream network shows were compartmentalized and purely episodic with little to tie one show with the next.
First series episode of Murder She Wrote (1984). We liked it.
Miss Marple and Murder She Wrote are set outside major cities (high-brow country in England and sea shore area in USA).
Funny thing: As stated by an actor in both series -- this is not a city, its rural/country, peaceful with no burglaries. BUT, figuratively, a murder a week for the Protagonist to solve
I think it was Twin Peaks that started the whole "quaint small sleepy town with a very dark undercurrent" premise.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
First time I saw this a few years ago I couldn't believe such a film was allowed to be made at the time.
HA!! Russ Tamblyn was in the movie and he was also in Twin Peaks! Coincidence???
edit: Ah, maybe not! I just got this from the trivia section for the movie on IMDB:
David Lynch and Mark Frost viewed this film to guide their creation of Twin Peaks (1990). Both are concerned with the secrets and scandals of people in a small town, and both ultimately reveal the sexual abuse and exploitation of a young woman by a family member. Russ Tamblyn also appeared in both. Hope Lange worked with Lynch on Blue Velvet (1986), his first film about a small town.
Last edited by PanzerMeyer; 02/16/2204:39 PM.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
Murder She Wrote seems to be developing a plot line that's more believable.
The Protagonist (Jessica Fletcher -- a beginning author in the Pilot) is "growing". She lives in Maine USA. She's becoming a more famous author with each new TV show. Consequently, she's invited to big cities and other venues (that have crime) on writing business -- where she finds a murder to solve (e.g. California coast cities, New York). Because she's becoming a well known crime author (to those who read novels), she and her thoughts are more readily "put up with" by local authorities.
In reading on-line, it seems she will continue to develop as a detective and continue to develop a reputation. By the end of the series (19 actual years -- 1984 to 2003), she will be a Professor of Criminology teaching at a college (they say). I can "buy" that
EDIT: By the way, Miss Marple got all her skill not by writing crime novels. Rather she got it by reading all of Agatha Christie's crime novels.
Last edited by Allen; 02/16/2205:01 PM. Reason: by the way
"Murder She Wrote" is a great series. I think I've seen most, if not all of the episodes, way back in the day. My Mom and I would often watch every Sunday night.
"Murder She Wrote" is a great series. I think I've seen most, if not all of the episodes, way back in the day. My Mom and I would often watch every Sunday night.
Some interesting trivia: JMS, the guy who created Babylon 5 also wrote many episodes for "Murder She Wrote". In fact I believe that was his first major gig in Hollywood.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
Episode 6 first season of Murder She Wrote (1984). We liked it. We're watching 4 episodes today (3 hours worth) -- I won't write about all of them.
Flew from Maine to Seattle WA to teach a College Class (an old friend, a professor, invited her). Her lectures were on Murder (from a novelist's perspective).
So, she continues to be invited all over the USA -- and find Murders to solve. Moreover, she gave her first "on screen" College lecture.
Another thing, I read long ago that roughly 60% of USA husbands cheat on wives; and, 30% of USA wives cheat on husbands (maybe those numbers have changed). The USA divorce rate is appropriately high. The episode plots take advantage of that high infidelity/divorce rate to "make smoke" that sometimes obscures the murderer -- and sometimes points to the murderer.
What the fu** is a "blasphemy" movie? Are we living back in the 16th century again or something?
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
Well... My mother was one of the 'motivated' religious folks, who having no idea about the content, purpose or meaning of "The Life of Brian" wrote to the BBFC, the local council and others seeking the banning of this film at the movie theatre, and again to the BBC to demand it not be broadcast on TV for "Blasphemy".
She, to this day has not watched it, refuses to consider watching it, and continues to be convinced that "Bwian" is obviously meant to be Jesus, (who is a different character in the film, tangential and only infrequently seen, but quite obviously "More than Brian").
IMO she is batshit crazy, and this is one of my all time favourite films.
The "Friday Night, Saturday Morning" panel interview between JC, MP, and two dishonest and aggressive religious critics who had either not watched all of the film, or not watched it at all but "knew how it was disrespectful to Jesus", is an enlightening watch (and available at YT - and mocked as an attack on the holy JC by films which depict the rise to greatness of a humble carpenter's son by not the 9 o'clock news in it's turn because of how egregious Malcom Muggeridge had been.
