Praise for Benedict Cumberbatch in Star Trek Into Darkness

It is easy to see why Cumberbatch has developed a dedicated following from his work as the title character on the British series “Sherlock.” He’s a walking spectacle. If I was an actor with an ego, I would not want to share screen time with this man. Unless you’re there to be comic relief, Cumberbatch is going to make you look like a dinner theater actor.

-ABC News

But make no mistake, this is the Benedict Cumberbatch show and he delivers an intense and frightening performance that is sure to resonate as one of the most memorable villains in recent film history. Cumberbatch commands attention from the characters and audience in every scene he is in.

-Examiner.com

But the casting coup here is Benedict Cumberbatch, who exudes steely resolve and silken savagery as a villain on the cusp of becoming a legendary nemesis. Familiar to fans of another reboot — “Sherlock” — as well as tony historical productions such as “War Horse” and “Atonement,” here Cumberbatch claims a deserved place front and center in a big, brash popcorn movie. As gratifying as it is to watch Kirk, Spock and their colleagues develop the camaraderie that would so optimistically anticipate a multicultural world, “Star Trek Into Darkness” derives its ballast, and most of its menacing pleasure, from Cumberbatch, who takes tantalizing ownership of a role with near-limitless future prospects for evil mayhem.

-Washington Post

The big find here is Cumberbatch, who joins Ricardo Montalban, Christopher Plummer and Alice Krige in a fairly limited roster of great "Trek" villains. With his rumbling voice and stony stare, the star of Britain's detective update "Sherlock" is fearsome and relentless, a one-man army who truly seems like more than a match for poor Enterprise, all on his own.

-Christian Science Monitor

He'd be John Harrison, and the brilliant Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock Holmes) plays him in a tour de force to reckon with.

-Rolling Stone Magazine

Once again, a British actor with stage-trained gravitas is given the villain role. This time it’s Benedict Cumberbatch, the bow-lipped star of Sherlock and the recent BBC series Parade’s End. He stands extremely still, like a reptile ready to strike, and proves a disturbingly calm adversary for the short-fused Kirk. “Captain,” he says, in a funereal baritone that drips with pained condescension. Cumberbatch says it so wonderfully, in fact, that the script provides him with a chance to say “Captain” exactly the same way a second time.

-The Globe and Mail

Mr. Cumberbatch, pale and intense, has become the object of a global fan cult, and it’s easy to see why. Whether playing a hero (as in “Sherlock”) or a villain, he fuses Byronic charisma with an impatient, imperious intelligence that seems to raise the ambient I.Q. whenever he’s on screen.

-New York Times

But the masterstroke of Into Darkness is the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch, the BBC’s new Sherlock Holmes, as the new galaxy-threatening super villain. He’s disaffected and dangerous former Starfleet ace John Harrison, a terrorist whose true agenda is slowly revealed but whose callous disregard for human life is chilling.

The big find here is Cumberbatch, who joins Ricardo Montalban, Christopher Plummer and Alice Krige in a fairly limited roster of great ‘‘Trek’’ villains. With his rumbling voice and stony stare, the star of Britain’s detective update ‘‘Sherlock’’ is fearsome and relentless, a one-man army who truly seems like more than a match for poor Enterprise, all on his own.

-Boston Globe

It’s compulsory for blockbuster villains to be British of course, and Cumberbatch runs with an imperial theatrical haughtiness rather than trying to bury it. His bad guy is distinctly human, if a little two-dimensional, and he succeeds in showing real ice running through his veins and bringing some weight to a cast that generally offers more geniality than gravitas.

-Time Out London

Cumberbatch raises the anxiety level and performance standard whenever he’s onscreen. As the latest Sherlock Holmes on BBC, he has embodied a supersmart hero of the 1890s. Here he is the supersmart villain of the 1990s, teleported to the 23rd century. With high cheekbones and the penetrating stare of a superior automaton — or maybe just a posh Englishman looking pityingly on the other, mostly American actors — Cumberbatch infuses Into Darkness with a creepy class. Everyone else has to make do by looking fabulous.

-Time Magazine

Performances are fine, with Benedict Cumberbatch the real standout. The character may be a mess, but Cumberbatch delivers his clunky lines with exquisite iciness and menace. The British thesp has such a charismatic big screen presence that you can't wait to see him soar with better material like he often does on "Sherlock".

-Dark Horizons

As the supervillain, in closeup, Cumberbatch really does give it the full Blue Steel. It's more like Indigo Steel, or Topaz Steel. As he faces off with Kirk, he does a lot of impassive and charismatic gazing, indicative of infinitesimally amused unconcern. With that expression of his, he is in danger of becoming the Joseph Fiennes of his generation.

-Guardian (UK)

Cumberbatch, meanwhile, makes for one of the best blockbuster villains in recent memory. While baby-faced in profile, Harrison is hawkishly fierce when coming at Kirk straight-on. He’s more than a match for the Enterprise’s tenacious captain, an element this brawny movie savors.

-New York Daily News

It hardly matters, because whatever Cumberbatch is playing, he’s wonderful to watch, infusing the movie with the kind of exotic grandeur Eric Bana’s wan Romulan henchman (arguably the weakest link in the 2009 film) largely lacked.

-Variety

The movie however, is the Benedict Cumberbatch coming out party. He so effortlessly captures all of this characters’ calculating ruthlessness while also having no problem gaining audiences’ sympathies, at times seeming not too far off from Kirk. Any time he’s on screen, you can’t help but be drawn to the (sometimes even wordless) charisma on display.

-Buzz Feed

No one, in any case, gets to outperform Benedict Cumberbatch's mysterious interplanetary villain "John Harrison". A sort of space ninja de luxe, this vengeful renegade first blows up the Starfleet's archive, then strafes its high command, and later has the temerity to hide out in a Klingon stronghold, where he singlehandedly bests a whole contingent of the furrowed-browed ones. He's so classy, in fact, that he gets imprisoned in one of those glass cells where they put only the really brainy, top-level evil-doers: your Magnetos and Hannibal Lecters. Cumberbatch gets to wear an even more spectacular coat than he does as the BBC Sherlock Holmes – baggier, more billowing and with a hood. As for his voice, it's so sepulchrally resonant that it could have been synthesised from the combined timbres of Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Alan Rickman holding an elocution contest down a well. And he flares a mean nostril, to boot.

-The Independent

Benedict Cumberbatch's Interview with David Letterman: A Study in Awkwardness

It is a never a good sign when your TV host can't even pronounce your name properly.

At the end the Jack Hannah segment on the Late Show with David Letterman that aired last week, David Letterman was on track to introduce the next guest who would appear at the end of the show.

"We'll right back with Benedict Cumber...(long befuddled pause)...batch."

Definitely not a good sign.

Meeting a reporter from Vulture (one of weekly magazine New York's online blog) the next afternoon after the show aired, Cumberbatch had this to say she expressed surprise that "there weren’t the usual efforts to wring a laugh from his name...given Letterman’s cluelessness" about who Cumberbatch was.

“Well, since he couldn’t even say it,” says the actor. “At one point, before I came on, he announced me as ‘Benedict Cumber… ,’ and his voice sort of trailed off. My friends said, ‘What the fuck was that? It was like his batteries ran out.’ But that’s the sort of thing that’s been happening here, where I’m not as well known,” he continues. “It’s strange to be 36 and still explaining the weirdness of my name.”

Things promptly went downhill when Cumberbatch finally appeared on the show and the questions began.

Letterman's first question: "Are you fairly new to making major motion pictures?"

What? He is asking Cumberbatch, who has acted in the Bafta and Academy-nominated Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Steven Spielberg's War Horse, and Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy this question?

Credit to Cumberbatch, who replied with aplomb: "This major? Yes. Very very new to making this major film picture type thing. No, I mean I was in War Horse, which was quite a big film, but with not as big a role so I am very very excited."

Letterman then goes on to say that he doesn't know how old Cumberbatch is, to which Cumberbatch replied that he is still a kid at heart. At this point, I am beginning to lose hope that the interview won't go further south. How can you not even know your interviewee's age? Second bloody rule of journalism, the first being the ability to spell and pronounce your interviewee's name right, is to get your interviewee's age right. Letterman failed on both counts obviously.

Letterman then went on to ask Cumberbatch about his first memories of auditioning, to which Cumberbatch gave a humorous account of how he auditioned for the role of James Bond for a computer game, how he "started to throw myself around the room and dive over sofas and do lots of kind of PPK poses."

These two questions together sound rather condescending; something akin to "Oh Star Trek Into Darkness is your first big break, isn't it? And how was it like auditioning before you got your first big break?"

Moving on. Next, Letterman wanted Cumberbatch to tell him what was going on with those "Otters Who Look Like Benedict Cumberbatch" tumblr images.

Wow. That shtick is old. Old old. Couldn't Letterman's team of researchers have come up with something more recent or up-to-date?...

Star Trek Into Darkness Boldly Goes Nowhere

Do not let the title fool you; Star Trek Into Darkness is no dark brew, but rather a light frothy concoction with a wafer-thin plot conjured up by not one, not two, but three scriptwriters, who all seem rather Lost on how to pen a good Star Trek story.

Star Trek Into Darkness is by no means a bad movie; it is entertaining, the special effects are simply gorgeous to look at, replete with director J.J. Abrams' trademark lens flare, but the script is terribly weak and filled with plot holes the size of meteoric craters. Think painfully weak tea that is brewed by steeping and re-steeping the same old tea leaves. Why, if Abrams and his writers went through all the trouble to reboot the series and create a whole alternate universe in Star Trek (2009), do they choose to limp back into the past and basically go for a remake of an older Star Trek film?

It is paradoxical how the scriptwriters were able to write a movie that is so reverential to the original Star Trek series and yet and so missing the whole spirit of Star Trek. Easter eggs abound in the film with every earnest intention to pay fan-service to the Trekkies, yet the story is as unlike a Star Trek film as can be. My movie companion, who was a fan of the original TV series, moaned that the plot was all too predictable and then mournfully declared that what she just saw was not a Star Trek movie at all, but rather a movie about teenagers fighting, albeit in a galactic arena. And she is not alone in her assessment. Time Magazine's Richard Corliss complained that "with the emphasis on its hero’s adolescent anger, the movie turns this venerable science-fiction series — one that prided itself on addressing complex issues in a nuanced and mature fashion — into its own kids’ version: Star Trek Tiny Toons. At times, the viewer is almost prodded to mutter, 'Grow up!'"

Within the story is some social commentary on the United States' use of drones in the War on Terror and how America treats its suspected terrorists; one of the film's darkest scene involves a character who, despite having surrendered, still has the crap beaten out of him. However, the critique is barely skin-deep and hardly penetrates beyond the surface, seemingly present so as to allow audience members the opportunity to pat their backs when they recognize the political allegory and not much more.

A Star Trek film is only as good as its villain. I hate to say this, but even with the mesmerizing Benedict Cumberbatch as the utterly savage and yet still sympathetic John Harrison, which feels like a revelation after Eric Bana's insipid angry tantrum-throwing Romulan Nero in the previous movie, I like the first movie better. One of the major problems is that Harrison's true identity has been unnecessarily steeped in secrecy. While Abram's customary cloak and daggery style may serve him in lesser-known films like Cloverfield and Super 8, here the effect is crippling. Rather than using the time to flash out Cumberbatch's character, Abrams instead chooses to spend the first half of the movie focusing on the Enterprise crew's efforts to try and dispel the smokescreen behind who Harrison really is, with the tepid result that Cumberbatch's character ends up being severely under-utilized.

A bright spot in the movie is the continuing bromance between Chris Pine's Captain Kirk and Zachary Quinto's Spock, who share a real palpable chemistry onscreen. Other characters who were given time to shine in the first movie are unceremoniously shafted here. Karl Urban's Dr. Bones is reduced to quipping sarcastic one-liners while Simon Pegg's Scotty most serves as the movie's main comic relief. John Cho's Hikaru Sulu and Anton Yelchin's Chekov are given little to do, and while Zoe Saldana's Uhura gets to wield a gun and speak Klingon in this installment, her presence here seems to be to function mostly as Spock's exasperated and nagging girlfriend. New addition Alice Eve as Carol Wallace feels like a bit of miscast (for some unfathomable reason, her British accent sounds out of place alongside the rest of the Enterprise crew. And the scene where she strips down to her undies, as depicted in the trailers? Totally gratuitous and completely unnecessary.), while Peter Weller unfortunately strays a little too far to camp in his portrayal of Admiral Marcus.

Would I recommend seeing the movie? Yes. The movie is indeed entertaining and works quite well as a standard summer popcorn blockbuster movie. In other words, try not to think too much about the clumsy and clunky plot. Just take a seat on the captain's chair and enjoy this 133-minute space ride. Oh, and be sure to leave your brain at the door.

3 and a half stars out of 5 stars for me.

The Way, Way Back is the Way Forward in This Coming-of-Age Movie

Last week I got a pair of free tickets to see this movie The Way, Way Back, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival early this year and is due to be released in U.S. movie theaters on July 5. The cast was what first drew me to seeing this film:



As you can see from the movie poster, the cast includes the likes of Steve Carrell, Toni Colette, Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph and Amanda Peet.

When my friend and I got to the screening, we were told that our phones would be confiscated for the duration of the movie. Worried that her sparkly iPhone would be lost among the myriad of other iPhones collected, we both dutifully made our way back to the parking garage to dump our phones into the trunk/boot of her car. By the time we got back, all the good seats were taken and we ended up in the first two rows. I am not sure if it affected how I felt about the movie, but I hope not.

I won't go much into the details of the story here, but I found the plot pretty contrived and the script rather hokey. I don't usually have many laugh-out-loud moments whenever I go see a movie, but the movie actually manage to startle a few out of me, so overall I'd say the movie was somewhat worth watching.

As for the cast, Liam James is alright as the 14-year old Duncan, but it is unfortunate that Steve Carrell's character Trent never manages to rise above that of a very one-dimensional philandering jerk. while Toni Colette does a decent job channeling Duncan's exasperated mother Pam, it is Sam Rockwell's character Owen who steals almost all the scenes he is in, even when the lines he has to spew in the film aren't all that great.

If you enjoyed the 2009 movie Adventureland starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, a similar coming-of-age story set along the confines of a summer stint job in an amusement park, and am interested to see another movie like it, I'd say go for it. Otherwise, you would do better to check out the summer blockbuster movies that will be out the same time this movie is. 3 out of 5 stars for me.

Star Trek Into Darkness Google Play Interview: The Ever Loquacious Benedict Cumberbatch

His ability to ramble on and on and go completely and utterly off tangent is just simply phenomenal. As a former journalism major, I'd say he can be a dream or a nightmare to interview depending on how you go about writing up your interviews. Must be incredibly challenging to try and condense all that material he gushes at you into whatever limited print space your editor allots you.

Still, better a garrulous interviewee than a taciturn one, I should think.

Oh, and this is how Times journalist Caitlin Moran describes him as an interviewee subject in her latest interview with him, What’s not to love about "Benedict Cumberbatch?:

"Here’s what it’s like interviewing Benedict Cumberbatch: a bit like interviewing a waterfall. It won’t really answer any of your questions, but it’s fabulous to watch. It’s not that it’s trying to ignore or avoid your questions – God, no. It is endlessly, eagerly forthcoming, and shows a touching courtesy towards the whole notion of being interviewed."

Hmm, like interviewing a waterfall huh. Quite an apt metaphor I'd say, seeing as he seems to speak only in paragraphs.

Benedict Cumberbatch: Review of Parade's End

Fans of Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock who tune in to Parade's End hoping to see him in another Sherlock-like role would be vastly disappointed to find Cumberbatch almost unrecognizable as Christopher Tjetjens and playing about a different a role as you can possibly get from the ever hyperactive Sherlock.

Parade's End is a difficult series to fall in love with, which might explained why its viewers were dropping like flies. UK viewer ratings went from a BBC2 high of 3.52 million in the first episode to 2.30 million, and by the last episode (episode 5), had eroded to just 1.77 million, nearly half of what it began with.

I have to say that fans of Cumberbatch who are just interested in seeing him acting in Sherlock-like roles are missing out. More than making the role of Sherlock his own with 70 plus different incarnations of Sherlock out there, Cumberbatch is first and foremost a chameleonic and incredibly versatile actor who brings something different in every new role he tackles. And in Parade's End, Cumberbatch dons a fat suit and plumpers to play the repressed and tortured aristocrat Christopher Tjetjens.

To be fair, it is not easy task, trying to condense Ford Madox Ford's sprawling 895-page tetralogy into 5 1-hour episodes. This adaptation feels more like a series of vignettes rather than a cohesive narrative, with characters popping in and out of the storyline without much explanation. I found myself checking the plot synopsis Wikipedia after each episode to see if I was on track in comprehending what was transpiring on screen. And while the storyline seemed to proceed at a snail's pace at the best of times, each episode actually encompasses months and sometimes even years...

The real gems of the show are Rebecca Hall, who plays Tjetjens's wife Sylvia, and of course, Cumberbatch as Tjetjens himself. Adelaide Clemens as Valentine Wannop though was sadly disappointing as Tjetjen's love interest, while the stellar supporting cast is reduced to portray caricatures of the upper class echelons of British society...

Benedict Cumberbatch: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

If Sherlock is a study in how a versatile actor like Benedict Cumberbatch is able to convey such a wide range of emotions in portraying such a theatrical character, because Sherlock is definitely a very theatrical character, Cumberbatch's role in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as George Smiley's loyal right-hand man Peter Guillam is a study in how such an immensely talented actor like Cumberbatch is equally able to convey so much emotion and make us feel for him and fear for him with so much less. That's the mark of a genius actor right there.

Here is what Gary Oldman, his co-star in Tinker Tailor said about him during the DVD commentary:

"A marvelous young actor."

Even Meryl Streep, the greatest actress of her generation, enjoyed Cumberbatch's acting in Tinker Tailor.

According to Cumberbatch, who met Streep at the Golden Globe Awards. "‘Oh, yes!’ she said. ‘I saw you in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I loved it!’ She meant it. She usually, very politely, manages to wriggle free from people she doesn’t care for. "

A journalist about sums up his acting in the movie:

"The most unheralded of the supporting “Tinker” crew, Cumberbatch, is also the most mesmerizingly good. The “Atonement” star doesn’t have one standout scene in “Tinker”, he has at least three. These are powerful moments where Cumberbatch makes you feel the insane stress his character, Peter Guillam, feels assisting Gary Oldman’s George Smiley in his clandestine investigation and where he has to throw away his personal life for the greater good of his country. It’s fantastic work that will not be forgotten by the acting branch. (…) Simply, Cumberbatch is one of the few contenders this (Oscars) season that if he doesn’t get in it’s a travesty."

-Gregory Elwood, journalist

If you haven't already, you should check out this deleted scene between Peter Guillam and Ciaran Hinds's character Roy Bland, which takes place right after Guillam is asked by Smiley to start spying on the Circus. In this scene, Bland is subtly threatening Guillam, and you can see how Cumberbatch's hand trembles ever so slightly as he is smoking, how already he is beginning to fray at the edges under all the guilt, stress and fear of having to spy on his own people. Superb interplay between these two actors in this scene. Pity that it was excised from the final cut of the movie.

Benedict Cumberbatch: His guest roles in British TV series from 2002 to 2003

Hills Like White Elephants: Scoured the Internet but was not able to find video of it. Cumberbatch is credited as The Man. This is a short film adapted from a short Ernest Hemingway story of the same name. Interesting trivia: Benedict Cumberbatch worked with Todd Boyce (who plays CIA trained killer Neilson in Scandal of Belgravia) in this short film and did not see each other again until Scandal of Belgravia.

Fields of Gold: Plays a journalist with aspirations of writing a novel. He's seen in Season 1 episode 2 and 3. Interesting trivia: In episode 3 he shares a scene with Philip Davis, a fellow journalist. Davis plays the cabbie that Cumberbatch's character Sherlock faces off in Study in Pink.

Tipping the Velvet: Plays a fisherman dating a girl who later realizes that she is a lesbian. At the risk of sounding like I am typecasting Cumberbatch as someone who is only good at playing posh roles, he does for some unfathomable reason look out of place in this role as a fisherman.

Silent Witness: Cumberbatch plays a medical student here. His role is more substantial than either Fields of God or Tipping the Velvet. Interesting trivia: The girl who rejects him in one scene is actually played by his then-girlfriend Olivia Poulet, who later on also acts alongside him in The Blind Banker as Amanda, Eddie Van Coon's secretary/mistress who ends up with the 9 million pound hairpin. Also, Tom Ward, who is the doctor that Cumberbatch's character interact with in his first scene in the movie, later on plays Roger Penrose in Hawking, in which Cumberbatch stars in as the titular character.

Cambridge spies: A very small cameo here as Edward Hand.

Spooks: Plays a character who is pretty thick. Bit different from all the intelligent roles he later plays. He does thick pretty well here. Proves he can do more than play intelligent roles.

My love affair with the works of Benedict Cumberbatch

OK. I'll admit it right off the bat. I nicked this post title off the famous Times article written by Caitlin Moran, entitled My Love Affair With Sherlock. With Star Trek Into Darkness due to be released in about a week's time in the U.K. and two weeks' time in the States and worldwide, 36-year old British actor Benedict Cumberbatch is set to take the world by storm and become a household name not just in his home country, which he already is with Sherlock, but on a worldwide scale. After Into Darkness, fans of Cumberbatch will forevermore be divided into two groups, those who fell in love with his acting on the BBC series Sherlock and ones who will definitely be converted post-Star Trek, if the raves about his acting in the movie even by critics panning the movie are anything to go by.

I belong in the former, and only just barely. This despite having first seen him in a movie 5 years ago. Being an Anglophile ever since I could remember who was especially fascinated with Tudor history, I had read The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory and, while not being all that impressed by it because of all the historical inaccuracies littered throughout the book, dragged my best friend to go see the 2008 movie adaptation with me. The movie starred Eric Bana of all people as Henry VIII, Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn and Scarlett Johansson as the other Boleyn girl, Mary Boleyn.

The casting left a lot to be desired in my opinion. American actors headlining a British historical film? Definitely not a good sign. The supporting cast seemed mostly to be filled by British actors though, which provided some consolation. Cumberbatch himself had only a small role in this movie, appearing for the first few minutes of the film as William Carey, the first husband of Mary Boleyn who willingly cuckolded himself in return for political power. His role in the movie was really too small for me to make much of an impression beyond: Lucky sod! He gets to have a sex scene with Scarlett Johansson!

It was 4 years later before I saw him in another movie.

Fast forward 4 years to 2012, and I am watching the John LeCarre novel-adapted movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with my uncle. This was as far different from The Other Boleyn Girl as it could get. This was a who's who of British thespians. Gary Oldman. Colin Firth. Tom Hardy. Ciarán Hinds. Toby Jones. Tom Hardy. And Bendict Cumberbatch. I have to confess, as a moviegoer who is used to fast-paced high-octave action spy movies (all very unrealistic of course), Tinker Tailor was a slow movie to warm up to. A very very slow movie to get into but one in which you do hit paydirt by movie's end. The only character I actually ended up caring about was Peter Guiliam (Cumberbatch's character). In the movie, poor Guillam is made to spy on his own organization, and through Cumberbatch's acting, you can palpably feel his conflict and sense of anguish at having to do such a thing. There is a nail-biting scene where Guillam is tasked with stealing a document and as a viewer, you really fear for him. Not to mention a heartbreaking scene where Guillam had to break up with his boyfriend because things were starting to get really dangerous for him. After watching the movie, I Wikied Benedict Cumberbatch, looked through his filmography but somehow or other never got around to following up on checking out his other works. So I guess you can say I really noticed his superb acting even before seeing Sherlock.

That same year, I saw him in War Horse, where he played a pompous Major James Stewart. Did not recognize him at all, and frankly I was paying more attention to Tom Hiddleston's character who had been more sympathetically portrayed. Have to say Cumberbatch does pompous pretty well though.

Like many others, it took me to watching Sherlock before I recognized Cumberbatch. What can I say? He was such a chameleonic actor that I did not recognize him as the same actor across three different movies, and I am usually very good at spotting even lesser-known actors in different roles. He just looked so different in almost every role he plays. Kind of like the male version of Meryl Streep.

End of 2012. Having just gone through 4 seasons and 75 episodes of Battlestar Galactica on DVD, I was hunting for another good new television series to sink my teeth into. So I browsed through IMDB and came across this BBC series called Sherlock. Oh! A modern day adaptation of Sherlock...Hmm. Not really a fan of Sherlock Holmes even though I had watched the movie version starring Robert Downey Jr and quite enjoyed it, although it was more because of Robert Downey Jr's acting than any love for the character of Sherlock Holmes. Despite the high ratings on IMDB, it took my best friend's recommendation (yeah, that same friend who I dragged to watch The Other Boleyn Girl with me and who I subsequently turned into a Tudor history fan) before I took the plunge.

Come early 2013, and I am watching the first episode of Sherlock, A Study in Pink. Before watching it, I was still feeling very skeptical about an iconic Victorian character being turned into a modern-day character in modern-day London. My perception totally shifted on its head after watching it. I totally was blown away. Blown away by the witty script. Blown away by the acting of Cumberbatch in the role of modern-day Sherlock, a high-functioning sociopath who wears nicotine patches instead of smoking pipes. Loved the on-screen chemistry between Sherlock and Martin Freeman's John Watson (When I went to see The Hobbit, I just couldn't see Martin Freeman's grumpy Bilbo Baggins without thinking of his grumpy Watson. He was just about as exasperated with Sherlock as he was with 13 hairy dwarfs plus a grey wizard!).

Enjoyed the second episode, The Blind Banker, even though the script left a lot to be desired. It seems that rather than having Sherlock rely on his Holmesian powers of deduction to solve a crime, this episode had the characters run around some iconic British places and stumble their way into clues. Hated the oriental theme running through the episode as well. It was a testament to the power of Cumberbatch's acting and chemistry he shared with Freeman's Watson that still made me enjoy it despite not being fond of the plot.

Four episodes and two cliffhanger endings later, I had become a full-fledged fan of Cumberbatch's acting. And there is no going back now. I actually found out the actor I was so impressed with in Tinker Tailor was actually the same person playing Sherlock after once again checking Cumberbatch's filmography, this time with the full intention of seeking out every role he's ever played in.

This post is not complete yet since I have yet to touch on works of Cumberbatch I watched post-Sherlock viewing. I guess I'll review them one by one in new posts when I'm feeling inclined to do so. Not that anyone is going to read any of this, mind. It's just good to sort of have it down on writing so I can somehow rationalize why I admire his acting so much is all.

Benedict Cumberbatch: "He just kissed one of my bitches!"

How did Benedict Cumberbatch know that the second girl from Kent was a Cumberbatch fan?

For those of you who are utterly baffled by how Benedict Cumberbatch knew when he exclaimed: "He just kissed one of my bitches" at the Graham Norton show that was broadcast on BBC1 yesterday, I am going to describe the incident here and follow it with an explanation of what actually happened.

At the Graham Norton Show, Benedict Cumberbatch, ever a gentleman, had spontaneously ran off the stage to hug and kiss Cumberbatch fans who had travelled a long way to see him on the show (Germany, Hong Kong and Nebraska), making co-star Chris Pine sort of obligated to do so for his fans as well (Japan and Kent).

There were two fans who mentioned that they traveled from Kent to be at the show, but what Pine didn't know was that the second fan from Kent was actually a Cumberbatch fan and not a Pine fan like the first one. So when Pine went over to hug her, Cumberbatch had a mock shocked expression on his face as he pointed at the both of them and he then stood up before sitting back down again.

When Pine finally returned to the stage, Cumberbatch exclaimed, "He just kissed one of my bitches!", covering his mouth after uttering the word "bitches" since he had earlier on demurred to say the word when he was asked by Norton on what his fans called themselves, which is in fact "Cumberbitches" but who he instead diplomatically referred to as the "Cumber Collective". (Nice little bit of alliteration there by Cumberbatch.)

What had happened was that Cumberbatch had immediately recognized his fan from previous encounters before and especially after she presented a birthday compilation video to him for his 36th birthday last year. I am not all that sure Cumberbatch actually heard what she said when she was looking at him while being hugged by Pine and cheekily joking that "I'm a Pine now", since all the applause that was going around probably drowned out her words.

While it is nice to think that Cumberbatch amazingly made use of some Holmesian/Sherlockian skill retained from his role as Sherlock to deduce that the second fan from Kent was a fan of his, all without her ever mentioning it at all during the show, the truth is that Cumberbatch recognized her right from the start. Her name is Tor (short for Victoria) Charlesworth, and she is known online by her Tumblr moniker Cumberbuddy. To find out more about Tor and her previous interactions with the Batch, you can visit her Tumblr webpage at: http://cumberbuddy.tumblr.com/

When I was watching this scene unfold, a Sherlock quote actually popped into my mind. I mean, exactly what are the chances of Graham Norton actually calling on Cumberbuddy, a Cumberbatch fan that Cumberbatch actually recognized, as a second person from Kent who Chris Pine subsequently then mistakes for his fan, thus causing such a hilarious outcome?

Okay, Cumberbuddy did mention this: "we had names on the seats so i guess graham would be briefed before hand on which chairs to look out for. (certain then who’s a fan of who…)" but I think that there was still a randomness to how it all happened.

As Sherlock himself would say: "People say there's no such thing as coincidence. What dull lives they must lead." (Sherlock, Season 2, Hound of the Baskervilles)

Nope, I don't think for a second that Cumberbuddy leads a dull life. Why, she just celebrated her birthday at the Graham Norton show being fought over by two Hollywood hunks! That's a priceless birthday present, I'd dare say.

For Cumberbuddy's own words on what transpired, you can read it all here on her tumblr post: http://cumberbuddy.tumblr.com/post/49868400888/gns-and-the-london-stid-prem-write-up

Please note that some of the links here may be dead because Cumberbuddy has recently removed her postings after receiving a lot of hate messages on her tumblr account.

Matched trilogy: Reached Spoilers

A Matched trilogy inspired bracelet, by the wonderfully talented Jenna from her Etsy store Book Geek Boutique.

I got the book a week before its publication date, and devoured the book in two days. Here is what happen in Reached. Needless to say, this post is chock full of spoilers.

The Rising takes place. Many in Society is affected by the Plague. The Rising overthrows Society by providing the cure to the Plague.

Unfortunately the Plague mutates, and the Pilot looks to Cassia, Ky and Xander to find the cure; Xander because he is a medic/physic who had first-hand experience with the plague and its mutation, Ky because he is infected by the mutated Plague virus and basically becomes a test subject on which to try the new cure, and Cassia, because of her sorting skills and ability to analyze.

Cassia figures out the plant that can cure the plague, Xander makes the cure and Ky, who is treated with the cure and is held up as proof of the workability of the cure.

Not surprisingly, Cassia ends up with Ky, although Xander, who I really feel sorry about throughout the book because he is really a nice guy who deserves better, finds someone else in the end. While his new love may seem like a consolation prize, I actually feel that Xander would actually be happier with his new love interest than he could ever be with Cassia. Xander new love interest is surprisingly Vick's fiancee.

The book ends on a hopeful but somewhat ambiguous note as the people finally get to vote to see who will lead them, the Pilot representing the Rising, an Official representing Society, and Anna, the leader of the Anomaly/Abberation village in Crossed, who represents everyone else.

Indie, who nurses an unrequited love for Ky, gets the mutated plague and chooses to die her own way by flying off in her plane. Cassia's father also dies of the mutated plague before the cure can be found.