I did something a little different on Tuesday and reviewed (if you can call it that) the most recent season of The Crown instead of a film. As you know, I like to try and tie my Tuesday review and TBT review together, so I had a couple of choices for what to watch today. It was between this or The Iron Lady. I’ve not actually seen the whole of The Iron Lady because I got bored quite quickly. Also, I remained unconvinced that Phyllida Lloyd should be allowed to direct films. I guess that meant that I should probably have watched Meryl Streep take on the role that Gillian Anderson made unnecessarily sexy in The Crown. However, I really couldn’t face it. So, I went back to this 2006 film that I have seen before. It’s not a personal favourite but I, at least, knew that I could deal with it.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Robert Downey Jr. as much as the next person but, let’s be honest, he’s been playing the same character for years now. The actor was getting his career on track during the early 2000s but it wasn’t until Iron Man that he really became a person to watch. Since that point, it’s kind of felt that we’ve been getting the same thing in almost every film. He’s basically just playing a hyped-up version of himself. The major difference between his Tony Stark and Sherlock Holmes is a hundred or so years. Now I think RDJ. is a great guy but there’s just no surprise any more. When you see that RDJ is in a cast, you can be pretty sure about the kind of character he’s going to play. Yeah, I understand that Dr Dolittle is a pretty odd guy but he’s inherently British. He’s described in the books as a well-respected and quiet man. Not an absurd comic figure of fun. I just couldn’t see how a big Hollywood adaptation with RDJ in the titular role would work as well as the classic 1967 film did. But I was willing to be proven wrong.
After the success of my audiobook on Sunday, I decided it was a great idea to try another one to get me out of my slump. This is the audiobook that had me go back to Audible recently. Not only do I love H.G. Wells but I really love Jeff Wayne’s music. Speaking of, I’m still extremely bitter about a pub quiz question regarding this album. It was something like “which book was the subject of an album during the 1970s?” or something like that. Obviously, I knew the answer but my friend’s dad would not listen. In the end, he answered Wuthering Heights because of Kate Bush. I was so mad and I’ve never quite let it go. A classic case of mansplaining gone wrong. Anyway, there was another reason that I was so keen to listen to this Audible Original: Michael Sheen. God, I love that man. I have done for years. Since I was about 16 in fact. He’s lovely. His face is lovely and, more importantly for an audiobook, his voice is lovely. Also, quite fitting for him to be taking the role that was originally given to Richard Burton, right? So, I was all set to enjoy this and to be able to knock off another book this week. This audiobook thing might be the key to getting my numbers up.
Yipee ki-yay, motherbooker 