August 28 movies: Sharpe's Justice and Sharpe's Waterloo. Mrs. Sharpe goes from bad to worse in these movies. In Sharpe's Revenge she just seemed scared and weak, but by the end of Sharpe's Waterloo she's a scheming, murderous bitch. Also they make her wear horrible clown makeup, I guess so she'll seem undesireable. She's still got Alexis Denisof, though his character is no great prize either. Still, Wesley was one of my favorite Buffy characters so it was great to see him again.
There's quite a lot of salty language in the Sharpe movies. Since I've been reading the Aubrey-Maturin series this type of language isn't totally unfamiliar. Still I'm impressed by the imaginative nature of the insults. In one of the movies Sharpe serves under the Duke of Orange, who he calls "dirty little Dutch buffel-brained bastard," "blue-blooded twat," and "a silk stocking full of shit." Yes, you can say both "shit" and "shite" on BBC America.
I have a feeling that this may be the end of the series. Sharpe's Waterloo had a sense of finality about it, and this weekend they're showing a new one! New Sean Bean, woo! I see from the ads that one of the recurring villains is back too.
[edited to add:] Another thing I want to say about the Sharpe series is that the style of warfare is appalling. The two sides form lines on opposite sides of a field, then start walking towards each other and shooting. Jesus, it's a wonder anyone ever survived a battle. I've read that the first practitioners of guerilla warfare were considered dishonorable. For crying out loud, what lunatic came up with that lining up thing? It's insane.
I'm not much of a student of pre-Civil War gunpowder tactics, but the lined formation is great for concentrating firepower at a target, and the tremendous advantage that you don't shoot your own men.
The hit-and-run tactics used by the Americans in the war were very much the weapon of the weak against the strong, and would have been much less successful if the British hadn't had such an appalling supply situation.