Fishing in the Discount Bin - Skyfall

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly viewing of some movie I happen to own in a home media format.  I love the fact that thanks to theatrical release schedules, DVD release schedules, and how far in advance I write these, that I tend to be posting some of these reviews exactly one year after the movie first hit theatres!  Case in point, this week's entry, the most recent James Bond film, Skyfall.  It came out out on November 9, 2012...just 10 days shy of being exactly 1 year ago!  As for when I sat down, watched the movie, and originally wrote this ramble, it appears in my notes at February 16, 2013.

X-Men: Days of Future Past Trailer

Film historians will tell you that the current superhero domination of the movies began in 2000 with the release of the first X-Men movie.  It's amazing how things have grown over the past 13 years.  Last time I popped the first X-Men into my DVD player I was taken aback at how...small it is compared to the superhero films that have come since.  It's almost a quiet character piece, with some very small action scenes.

But here we are now, 13 years later, and the seventh film (yes, I'm counting the two Wolverine solo films) in the franchise comes out next year, X-Men: Days of Future Past.  Based on the legendary X-Men storyline of the same name, Days of Future Past begins in a dystopian future, where giant, mutant-hunting robots called Sentinels are on the verge of eliminating mutants once and for all.  The Resistance, composed of the X-Men and their enemies, come up with a desperate plan:  send one of their own back in time, and prevent this future timeline from happening.

In the original comic, it was Kitty Pryde who was sent back in time.  In this movie version, it's Wolverine, because as Marvel discovered in the mid-1990s, everything's better with Wolverine!

Damn near everyone who's been in an X-Men movie is back for this.  Hugh Jackman is Wolverine (of course), Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy are back as old and young Professor Xavier, Ian McKellan and Michael Fassbender are back as old and young Magneto.  For the present X-Men, Halle Berry is back as Storm, Anna Paquin is back as Rouge, Shawn Ashmore is back as Iceman, and Ellen Page is back as Kitty Pryde.  For the past X-Men, Nicholas Hoult is back as Beast, Lucas Till is back as Havoc, and Jennifer Lawrence is back as Mystique.

For new characters, we've got Peter Dinklage as Bolivar Trask, the scientist who invented the Sentinels.  Omar Sy is on board as Bishop, and Evan Peters is Quicksilver.

Having Quicksilver in it is interesting, as Quicksilver is also a longtime member of The Avengers, and he's already been announced as being in The Avengers: Age of Ultron as well.  Kevin Feige, the head of Marvel Studios, says that Quicksilver can be used for The Avengers on two conditions:  in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they can't mention that Quicksilver is a mutant and/or Magneto's son.  It was kind of hoped that, as a great Easter egg for fans, Quicksilver would be played by the same actor in both Days of Future Past and Avengers: Age of Ultron, but sadly, no.  Aaron-Taylor Johnson will be playing Quicksilver in Age of Ultron.

But I digress.  Behind the scenes, the big news is that Bryan Singer, the man who started this franchise with X-Men and X2, finally returns to the director's chair.  Singer was originally going to direct X-Men: First Class, but scheduling conflicts with his fantasy epic Jack the Giant Slayer meant he had to bow out.  Singer still got a co-writer credit for First Class, though, and he and his company Bad Hat Harry Production produced it.

Enough of this preamble, let's look at the trailer, shall we?




That looks very interesting.  We don't see any Sentinels yet (darn), but we do get the characters.  All those familiar faces again!  And it looks very quiet, very moody, very character-based.  Much like the beginning. 

X-Men: Days of Future Past hits theatres May 23, 2014. 

Retail Therapy

Friday was just a crummy day for me.  I couldn't put my finger on it.  Things were just a little off.  So to cheer myself up, after work I went on to iTunes and had myself a $5 shopping spree.  I was hoping to get that cute song that Howard wrote for Bernadette on last week's episode of The Big Bang Theory, but it hasn't been released to iTunes Canada yet.  So I just started going down my wish list and grabbing the few movie themes I'd been wanting.


Main Titles from Quigley Down Under composed by Basil Poledouris

When I did a Fishing in the Discount Bin on Quigley Down Under, I was surprised by how many of my friends liked it on Facebook and said that they enjoyed that movie.  It seems to be a movie that nobody hates.  If you've forgotten, Tom Sellick plays a sharpshooter from the Old West who takes up a job working for a cattle baron in Australia.  When the cattle baron wants Quigley to murder the aborigines on his land, Quigley says no, and they duke it out across the Ouback.  Part of the film's charm has to be the very traditional Western score composed by Basil Poledouris, who also brought us RoboCop and Conan the Barbarian.




Father's Funeral from Hellboy composed by Marco Beltrami

Back in the summer, I re-watched the Hellboy movies to get me ready for Pacific Rim (all directed by Guillermo del Toro, in case you're wondering about the connection).  Watching the first Hellboy again, I was instantly taken by this haunting tune, played when Professor Broom, Hellboy's adopted father, passes away.  Just a very sad tune.




Arrival to Earth from Transformers composed by Steve Jablonsky

When I first saw Michael Bay's Transformers in the summer of 2007, nothing about Steve Jablonsky's score struck me as remarkable.  I was in the minority, though, as an overwhelming demand from the film's fans got the score its own album release.  And I'll admit, watching the movie many, many times over the past few years, it's really grown on me.  This is the music played when the Autobots arrive on Earth.  I must agree with an online critic...with how ridiculous his Transformers movies tend to be, this is one of the few scenes that Bay treated with a real sense of gravitas.




The Avengers by Alan Silvestri

Holy moly, why did it take me so long to get this?  Silvestri is already a pretty legendary composer, with a career stretching back to the early 1970s.  And, the big Back to the Future geek that I am, I've listened to his Back to the Future score for ever.  Doing the music for The Avengers was actually Silvestri's second turn at a Marvel score, as he also did Captain America.  In fact, if you listen very carefully to Silvestri's Avengers score, you'll notice he did slip in his Captain America theme for a few moments of Cap's heroics.  Silvestri's main theme for The Avengers was a pretty good superhero theme.  And my I say, on my iPhone playlist, it dovetails quite nicely with the Captain America theme.

Wes Anderson Spoofs and New Stuff

One thing I love about my new cable company is it does time shifting, so I can watch Saturday Night Live at the relative comfort at 9:30PM on a Saturday, just like when I first discovered it.  And watching this past Saturday's show just made me go nuts when they did this bit.

With Halloween right around the corner, they brought us...the Wes Anderson horror film.



Edward Norton - Movie Trailer (Wes Anderson... by IdolxMuzic

I wouldn't call myself a Wes Anderson fanboy.  I enjoyed The Royal Tennenbaums.  I enjoyed The Life Aquatic with Steve Zisou.  I got a kick out of Fantastic Mr. Fox...and that's about all I've ever seen of his stuff.

Speaking of, last week, they also unveiled the trailer for Anderson's next film, The Grand Budapest Hotel.  I might actually make the time for this one, because this trailer actually had me laughing.




The Grand Budapest Hotel hits theatres in March.

Graivty Review

My review of Gravity is online!

Head over to my main site to read it.

Delayed Gratification

Last weekend, I was faced with the terrible choice between heading into the city for the day, or just laying around the house and planning to accomplish as little as possible.  I chose accomplishing as little as possible, and may I say, I succeeded spectacularly.  But, I was still itching to head into Edmonton, so that became my plan for this weekend.  I was starting to think that it was time to purchase something I'd been planning to buy for a while now.  Today would be the day!  I decreed it to be so!

So I was off to the city, and first stop was Wal-Mart.  I needed a photo album.  For you see, I collect postcards.  When I receive a postcard, I hang it on the fridge to enjoy for a few months or so before placing it into an album and then filing it away.  However, my last album filled up around 2 years ago, and the magnets on my fridge can no longer support the weight of all my postcards.  This is one of those things I'd been putting off for far too long.  A photo album was easy to procure, and I knew my Sunday is now destined to be filled with scrapbooking.  But this is not the item I was to purchase.

From Wal-Mart, it was down the road to SuperStore.  Those who follow me on Facebook know that recently I've been longing for a taste from my childhood...Cocoa Pebbles.  They haven't been widely available in Canada since at the least the mid-1990s.  My original plan was to just buy some online, but I can't seem to find an online retailer that'll ship them to Canada.  But then, through the social networks, came word that they'd recently been spotted in SuperStore.  When I went home for Thanksgiving a few weeks ago, I stopped in at the SuperStore in Spruce Grove, but to no avail.  I hoped that maybe I'd have better luck at the SuperStore in St. Albert.  But, once I'd done the search of the store, I was 0 for 2.  They were not to be found at the St. Albert SuperStore.  Disheartened, I continued on my journey into the heart of the city.

I arrived at my beloved West Edmonton Mall.  I hadn't treated myself to a movie in a while, and I was itching to see Gravity.  All the reviews I'd read online says that it looks absolutely amazing if you can catch it in 3D IMAX, so I decided to pay the extra and see it in 3D IMAX.  I hit the mall at 11, but my show wasn't until 12:10, so I bought my ticket, grabbed some lunch, and started doing some shopping. 

Did the usual browse through HMV.  Pacific Rim came out on Blu-Ray this past week.  I wasn't planning on getting it, because, truth be told, I was actually a little underwhelmed by it.  I mean, I understand that it makes things easier for the computer animation, but I'm getting really sick and tired of these giant monsters always attacking at night, in the rain.  I can hardly see anything!  And once you get past the awesomeness of the giant robots fighting giant monsters, it's pretty much just Independence Day with giant aliens instead of people-sized aliens.  But...HMV had it at a really good price and I couldn't resist. 

And when I purchased it, I did encounter one of my annoyances with these store rewards programs.  A few years back, I finally got so sick and tired of the HMV clerks always asking me if I wanted to sign up for their rewards program, that I finally said yes.  So when I bought Pacific Rim today and she swiped my card, she was pleased to inform me that I almost had 60,000 points, and at 60,000, I get...$3 off my next purchase.  Really?  $3 off?  That's all?  With so many of these rewards programs, you have to accumulate a ridiculously large amount of points for the most miniscule of rewards that they really have no purpose. 

Anyway, time for the movie.  I headed on up to the 3D IMAX theatre in West Edmonton Mall, got all comfy in my seat, then started messing around on my phone.  And I see an old friend had posted a picture on my Facebook wall.  He was out shopping at his local SuperStore, and lo and behold, they had Cocoa Pebbles!  On sale!  The caption he included said, "They're at SuperStore today!   Go go go!"  I sadly replied that I had already been to my local SuperStore, and there was nary a box to be found.  I set the phone for silent, put it back in my pocket, and it was time for Gravity to begin.

Holy moly, Gravity.  This is just an amazing film.  It's not scary, but I was covering my eyes quite a bit as I was fearing for the characters on the screen.  The plot:  we have two astronauts out on a spacewalk.  George Clooney is the season vet, who'll be retiring after this mission.  Sandra Bullock is the rookie, just out of training and on her first mission.  But then, a freak accident destroys the space shuttle, and they're left all alone, stranded in space.  And this is the tale of their survival.

It's really all on Sandra Bullock to carry this film, and she does so remarkably.  And the special effects are just outstanding.  It manages to inject a little humour into it, too.  It's just so very, very good.  4 out of 4 Nibs.  Full review in the days ahead.

After the film, I fired up my phone to tweet my review, when I saw my friend with the Cocoa Pebbles connection wrote me another message.  "Would you like me to buy a few boxes and send them up on the Greyhound?"  Ooo.  An intriguing proposition.  I decided to dwell on it while I continued my browsing of the mall.

Did my usual browsing...didn't see much of interest.  The Microsoft Store is now open in West Edmonton Mall.  Didn't stop in, because it was crowded as hell and I didn't feel like fighting my way through.  Stopped in at the Disney Store, and I had to ask a clerk a question that me and several of my fellow geeks had been wondering for a while:  now that Disney owns Star Wars, when is the Disney Store going to start carrying Star Wars stuff?  The clerk chuckled (apparently, they've been getting this question a lot) and told me that they'll be getting stuff to tie in with the new movie in 2015, but as for before 2015, it's anybody's guess. 

I made it back out to my car, and before I went on my merry way, I knew I had to try one last thing.  In the vicinity of West Edmonton Mall is the west end SuperStore.  I would make one last gambit for Cocoa Pebbles.  With the photo my friend sent, I knew I should stop looking in the breakfast cereal aisle, and instead focus on the pallets they have scattered around the store for special items.  But alas, a survey of both left me Pebbles-less.  It looked like three strikes and I was out in the Pebbles department. 

But it was time achieve the primary objective of the day.  The hour drew nigh!  As you may recall, back in the spring, I went to buy some new ink cartridges for my printer, only to be told that they don't make them anymore.  Since then, I've been in the market for a new printer.  Doing some online window shopping earlier in the week, I saw the one I coveted on sale at Staples.  It's one of those 3-in-1 units, so I'd also get me a scanner and finally be able to scan stuff, like that postcard collection I'd talked of earlier.  I arrived at Staples, I went to their printer section, and....

My heart sank.  The sale ended a few days ago, and my coveted printer had gone back up to full price.  I sat and stared at it for at least 15 minutes, doing the math in my head, re-arranging my budget, and wondering if I should just say "Fuck it" and buy it no matter the price, or leave it to another day and get my savings to a more comfortable location. 

I left empty-handed.  I decided to leave the printer for another day.  And in doing so, I was able to make another decision I'd been putting off.  I pulled out my phone, and responded to my friend's offer to ship me some Cocoa Pebbles.  "No thanks," I said.  "I think I'll have to let this go for now."  I mean, let's be honest.  If I can't afford the printer, then there's no way I should be wasting money having exotic breakfast cereals of the stone age shipped to me, right? 

I hopped back in my car, ol' Bessie-Lou I call her, and headed north for home.  I was printer-less.  I was Pebbles-less.  But someday, I'll be able to able to eat chocolaty breakfast cereals while scanning and printing stuff.  Not today, not tomorrow, but someday. 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Trailer

And here we have our first look at the next installment in Marvel's Phase II, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, aka Captain America 2.  I know it's weird for a Canadian kid to be saying this, but I've always had a soft spot for Cap.  It all goes back to when I got the Captain America Secret Wars action figure when I was a kid, and we were inseparable that summer.

I did enjoy the first film, Captain America: The First Avenger, and I was thrilled that they chose to make it a World War II film.  I've always loved superhero period pieces, and since Cap was a product of World War II, it only made sense his first film would be in that era.  As is quite obvious, this second film is in the present day, and it's already been described as more of a political thriller than the first film.

It's been 2 years since the Battle of New York (what we call The Avengers), and Captain America now spends his time working with SHIELD, partnered up with the Black Widow.  When one of their fellow SHIELD agents is attacked, though, they begin digging into why, and start to uncover a conspiracy that could bring the world to the brink of war.  And it all brings them to an elusive assassin known as the Winter Soldier.  

Chris Evans, of course, is back as Steve Rogers/Captain America, Scarlett Johansson is back as Natasha Rominov/the Black Widow, and Samuel L. Jackson is back as Nick Fury.  New this time is Anthony Mackie as Captain America's longtime partner, Sam Wilson/the Falcon, Emily Van Camp as Sharon Carter, the great-grand niece of Cap's old girlfriend Peggy Carter, and an accomplished SHIELD agent herself, MMA fighter George St. Pierre as French mercenary Batroc the Leaper, and certified screen legend Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce, a member of the World Security Council and a retired SHIELD agent. 

Trailer!






This looks good.  I'm very intrigued, as we don't get much of a sense of what the evil plot is that our heroes are fighting.  It looks like it's very low-key, but then we get those shots of the fleet of Helicarriers rising out of that river, and another Helicarrier crashing, and it just looks very action-filled.  I'll be checking it out, cuz, as I said, I'm a sucker for Cap. 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier hits theatres on April 4, 2014. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Sleeping Beauty

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly watch of something in my movie collection.  We haven't done anything animated in a while, so today, we tackle the legendary Disney animated film Sleeping Beauty.  This is originally dated in my notes at February 10, 2013.

Cartoon Catch-Up

What better place than Saturday morning to kick back and finally go through the cartoons I'd PVR'd throughout the week?

Actually, there's just one cartoon on my PVR that's been waiting for me, and that's Pixar's first ever TV special, Toy Story of Terror!

See, when John Lasseter took charge of Disney animation in the great Disney/Pixar merger of 2006, he noticed that one field of animation that Disney had never really participated in was the animated holiday special.  So, he had Disney Animation get to work on Christmas specials, and we got their Prep & Landing trilogy.  Over at Pixar, he had them get to work on a Halloween special, and the result was this year's Toy Story of Terror!  And of course, with my lover for all things Pixar, I just had to check out.

I think I did mention that using the Toy Story characters like this does give me a sense of unease.  I mean, Toy Story 3 was such a phenomenal end to the franchise, that these revisits are all kinds of unnecessary.  With the trilogy of Toy Story shorts that have been released, I thought that Hawaiian Vacation and Partysaurus Rex were cute, but Small Fry was actually a dollop of unexpected brilliance.  And on top of that, Pixar's track record just hasn't been that good as of late.  (See the dismal Cars 2, the "meh" Brave, and the "good, but not Pixar great" Monsters University.)

So I fired up my PVR this morning, sat down for Toy Story of Terror, and was pleasantly surprised.  Our familiar toys are on a road trip with their young owner Bonnie, when their car gets a flat tire, forcing them to spend the night in a roadside motel.  Of course, the character of Mr. Pricklepants begins the running commentary on how this seems to be following every horror movie cliche, as Woody warns that a motel is a common place for toys to get lost and left behind.  But of course, Mr. Potato Head goes missing, the toys go in search of him, and the horror movie spoofs start piling up.

Until about the halfway point.  At the halfway point, it turns into a variation on Toy Story 2.  Turns out the manager of this motel has been stealing some of the more valuable toys from guests, and selling them online.  Our heroes are captured, Woody is about to be shipped off, and our true hero rises...Jessie.

That's what was really neat to see.  Jessie really is the protagonist in this story of toys.  When she was first introduced to us in Toy Story 2, it was revealed that she's cursed with claustrophobia...an effect of being abandoned and boxed up for many years.  Needless to say, all those dark, cramped corners common to horror films leave her just a little panicked.  But of course, it's soon up to her to face her fears to save the day.

This was better than I expected.  There's some sprinkling of the ol' Pixar charm in there that just makes it really good.  Much like Small Fry, I found some unexpected brilliance in it.  Shouldn't surprise me, then, that this had the same director as Small Fry, Angus MacLane.  This guy just might go on to great things at Pixar...that is, if Pixar doesn't turf him for colouring outside the lines too much.  Pixar seems to be doing that a lot lately.

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And while I'm blogging about cartoons, I should also take a minute to pass along some sad news.  One of the greats behind my childhood passed away a few days ago.  Lou Scheimer, one of the founders of the animation studio Filmation, passed away at the age of 85.

Of course, Scheimer had his hand in many of Filmation's productions, such as the 1970s Batman cartoon, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Fat Albert, and of course, the one I know him best for, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.




Scheimer also did voices in many of his productions.  For example, on He-Man, he did the voices of King Randor, Orko, and Trap Jaw. 

A lot of great cartoons from my childhood were courtesy of that guy.  I think I'll fire up some He-Man DVDs, in memoriam. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Fires of Kuwait

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly viewing of one of the many films in DVD/Blu-Ray/VHS library.  This week, after reminiscing a bit about Star Wars Identities, I tackled the legendary IMAX documentary Fires of Kuwait.  This entry is dated in my notes at February 3, 2013. 

Superman 75

I'm geeking out about this pretty hard, so I'm posting it to every blog I look after.

Back in the spring, it was announced that Zack Snyder, the director of Man of Steel, would be partnering with Bruce Timm, one of the main creative forces on everything DC animated from Batman: The Animated Series through to their straight-to-DVD animated films, to produce a special animated short film to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Superman. 

The film premiered this past weekend at the New York Comic Con, and it's now hit the Internet.

A little more about the film's production.  The Cartoon Network in the USA does this programming block called "DC Nation," where they show all the DC Universe cartoons, and sprinkle some exclusive animated shorts in between the programs.  When it was announced that Snyder was directing Man of Steel, Timm approached him and asked if he'd like to contribute one of these animated shorts.  Snyder said, "Let me think about it, and I'll get back to you."  When Snyder got back to Timm, he said, "I want to tell the entire history of Superman in 1 minute."

Well, right away, they knew that 1 minutes wasn't going to be enough, so they expanded it to 2 minutes.  Timm admits that, even at 2 minutes, they had to make some pretty significant cuts.  Timm himself says he regrets not being able to squeeze in the Superman serials of the 1940s, where Kirk Alyn became the first man to play Superman in live action.  And I'm seeing a large amount of nerd rage online that Dean Cain and Lois & Clark was left out.

Enough of this.  The short!




Like I said, geeking out about this pretty hard.  From its beginning, showcasing the Max Fleisher shorts of the 1940s, the classic ending to the Christopher Reeve films, and a nice shout-out to the 1990s animated series.  And the clip in the middle from the old Atari 2600 game seems kind of random.

One note about the music:  it was composed by Hans Zimmer, who did the music for Man of Steel, and I'm really glad he gave his new Superman theme the back seat to the classic John Williams theme.

The short is all over the Internet.  It goes into rotation with the DC Nation shorts on Wednesday night, and it'll be a bonus feature on the Man of Steel DVD and Blu-Ray when it comes out on November 12.

And most of the information about the production comes from Entertainment Weekly's article on the film. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Armageddon

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly look at one of the films in my movie library.  Today, we take a look at the film that made Michael Bay a star, Armageddon.  This entry is dated in my notes at February 2, 2013.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Frankenweenie

A return to Fishing in the Discount Bin, and a gaze upon one of the VHS/DVD/Blu-Rays in my collection!  Today, we get to one of the sweetest animated movies in recent years, Tim Burton's Frankenweenie.  This is dated in my notes at January 19, 2013.  

Some Samplings of the New TV Season

Well, back on Saturday, I sat down and started going through my PVR, watching and re-watching some of the season premieres I had recorded.  It's an exciting time, as it's season premiere season and all the new shows are premiering, so I thought I'd take a moment to just jot down some of my thoughts on all the stuff.

First up, had to watch one of the most anticipated new shows of the fall, Agents of SHIELD.  Disney/Marvel looks to expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the small screen, as we follow this series about an elite team of SHIELD agents as they jet across the globe, investigating all manner of superhuman threats.  Led by Agent Phil Coulson, whom we all thought died in The Avengers.  According to Coulson, when he makes his return, he was clinically dead for 43 seconds, but the SHIELD medics brought him back from the brink, and he's spent the past year recovering in Tahiti. 

But, eventually, we learned that this is NOT the case, and his resurrection is SHIELD top secret.  No doubt the circumstances of his resurrection will eventually evolve into some kind of myth-arc. 

But we see Coulson's team is the usual bunch.  We've got our gung-ho soldier, we've got the combat veteran who was traumatized for some reason and is reluctant to go back into the field, there's a pair of socially awkward scientists, and a quirky girl hacker.  Can they overcome their differences and become an ace team of secret agents?  Of course, or else it'd be a very short series.

The series is masterminded by Avengers director Joss Whedon.  Now, I wouldn't really call myself a Whedonite.  I mean, I enjoyed Firefly, but I'm pretty sure that's because when I first got Space, Space was showing it non-stop.  Nothing gets you into a TV show like when it's the only thing on for 18 hours straight.  And despite assurances that I would love Buffy, I always found myself wandering away bored after a few episodes. 

With all that in mind, I did enjoy Agents of SHIELD.  It successfully transferred to the small screen that sense of fun that I've enjoyed in all the Marvel films.  However, it did have a familiar vibe to it.  I must agree with one online critic I read that said it look and felt a lot like the Knight Rider reboot from a few years ago.  It was similarly slick, polished, and too clever for its own good.  I'm certain, though, that they'll find their footing, and it'll be a fun series.

I just kind of hope they'll follow Arrow's lead and occasionally bring in some well-known C-list heroes and villains from the comics for team-ups. 

And speaking of the Marvel universe, I also picked up the Iron Man 3 Blu-Ray last week.  (Look for a review on Fishing in the Discount Bin in about 6 months or so.)  And I just wanted to take a minute to talk about the latest Marvel one-shot, Agent Carter.  For those just joining us, Marvel's been doing this thing called "One-Shots" starting with the Thor Blu-Ray, where they include a little universe-expanding short film.  And the latest, Agent Carter, is probably the best.

It picks up a year after the end of Captain America, and we catch up with Agent Peggy Carter, the WW2 secret agent who was Steve Roger's girlfriend.  Needless to say, she's a little bitter about her new desk job, as she pretty much saved the world, and with the sexism at the time from "The men are coming back from war, head back to the kitchen, ladies," she's now being treated as a glorified secretary.  So, she goes rogue one night and kicks some ass.  It's fun, it's exciting, Bradly Whitford plays Carter's CO, and I forgot that he can play a really good sleazeball.  Definitely worth checking out.

And lastly on the PVR we had the season premiere of Elementary.  I kind of like Elementary, but my only disappointment with it is that I find it very...conventional for a detective show.  The season premiere dealt with one of the bigger elephants in the room, as our modern day Sherlock Holmes learns that his old colleague Inspector Lestrade is in a spot of trouble, so he and Watson go home to London to help Lestrade. 

Also notable is when they return to London, they run into Sherlock's brother Mycroft.  I thought it would be hilarious and blow the minds of Elementary/Sherlock fans if they got Benedict Cumberbatch to play Mycroft, but instead they went with Rhys Ifans, who played the Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man.  How they changed Mycroft for the series is, rather than being Sherlock's smarter brother and working for the government in some vague capacity, he's now a highly successful London restauranteur.  So, yeah.  Mycroft is now Gordon Ramsay, only with less swearing.

But that was Elementary.  Just my usual complaint with the rest of the series...so very conventional for a detective show.  I wish with a franchise as historical as Sherlock Holmes, they'd go a little above and beyond, but they haven't.