My schedule is such that I'll miss most of this. It's not much of an issue, as I saw a few episodes of Justified (I'm still in season one), finished season four of Dexter (it's still a show that should be awesome but is merely good) and...I don't know, something else. I'm about to try for another big movie month here. There's too much I want to see before I die.
Got the new Sherlock mini-series opener on DVR.
Two episodes into Intelligence, and it's on shaky ground. The whole premise is lame (they implanted a computer chip into his neural network; so where did they plant his receiver? he sure seems to get good satellite coverage!) and Holloway's acting is about the same (if he's not playing mischievous, pained, or PO'd, it's a stretch). And they already have his bizarro Superman in the plot stream.
Saw the latest Hobbit just after New Year's, and although I enjoyed it, only ~20 min of the 3 hr bloated mess was original story. Sad.
I've got the two episodes of Intelligence sitting on my DVR, where I feel they might stay until Linds asks if I'm ever going to watch them, and I'll give some sort of dismissive hand flip and a "I dunno, delete 'em, I guess?"
The only reason I would consider watching Intelligence is to see Sawyer being a smart-ass.
Watched the first episode of that one with the wife. It was OK, I guess. They just kept laying down future plot points with a heavy hand, maybe it would surprise me if I kept watching, but I felt like I already had a pretty good idea where the show was going.
I don't know if Mrs. Ghost has continued on with it without me or not. I'm usually not an appointment-viewing kind of TV watcher (the only two exceptions I can think of are The Amazing Race and formerly LOST) so it probably wasn't going to hook me regardless, but there wasn't anything too spectacular that made me demand to see the rest of it.
It's A Wonderful Life: Finally got around to seeing what all the fuss was about. Better than I expected, though still heavy on the schmaltz. My favorite scene is at the beginning when the boy prevents the pharmacist from accidentally poisoning his client.
Secretary: Gyllenhaal and Spader are good, but I was mostly bored out of my mind.
The Wolf of Wall Street: Very similar to Goodfellas in style, though I enjoy that movie way more. Very gratuitous (i.e. the NC-17 parts begin to bore me eventually). We get it, the guy liked drugs and women. DiCaprio is amazing, as always.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Miles and miles ahead of the first movie (then again, so is the book). Better acting, better directing, better editing, better cinematography, better pacing. It also manages very well to leave out or change things from the book that make the most sense to do so, in most cases improving from the source material.
What? That second book was way inferior to The Hunger Games. I haven't seen the movie, but... the second and third books were like re-reading The Trial, wherein nothing the protagonist experiences is explained or related to a reasonable world and the protagonist just stumbles around. No thanks.
Perhaps, but I didn't laugh once nor feel any suspense reading the first book. I got both in spades in book 2.
I wholly agree on the 3rd book.
I guess if you break book 2 into first and second half, I'll give ya the first half. The second half is basically just the first part of Book 3 though.
I liked the middle third of the book (basically everything between the very beginning and the second half of the games) a great deal more than anything in the first or third books.
I thought the movie was good about what it expanded upon, as well as what it left out. If nothing else, it was better filmmaking, which made it more palatable than the pleasing, but sort of undercooked first one.
Both movies have fixed tonal issues that I had with the books, though, so I'll keep watching.
Yes! Tone. I stopped caring about Katniss's first-person teenage angst so quickly.
Yeah, that's a lot less of an ongoing theme in the movies, simply because the "I'm really angsty about all of this" inner monologue isn't there.
Just watched Hunger Games on DVD this weekend. I haven't read the book.
EAR saw Catching Fire in the theatre with her sisters (without seeing part 1) because that was the option.
The beginning parts seemed to hit the allegory really hard, but that let up after a while.
The actual games part seemed rushed, but I wouldn't have wanted a longer movie.
I guess I'll watch the other two to find out what happens.*
I'm most disappointed that they didn't get someone to re-write the song "Crying Game" for this movie.
*Which reminds me that I have a couple of Twilight movies to watch sometime as well.
I didn't really watch anything new since the last time other than a re-watch of Pacific Rim.
I have The World's End sitting at home ready for me to find time to watch it, which I'm excited about because I love Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (which I recently learned a good friend hasn't seen yet, so I need to find time to make him watch it.)
Yar!
Not that "World's End". This one.
*who is also The Hound in Game of Thrones
In that case, my apologies for my assumption of what I assume is an inferior movie.
And my apologies for spelling Yarp! wrong initially.
What be a pirate's favorite letter?
American Hustle wasn't as good as the first time I saw it, when it was called The Sting. It dragged a few times and Jennifer Lawrence hams it up soooooooo much that it completely detracts from the story. Amy Adams and Christian Bale were both incredible, though.
The Princess Bride was phenomenal in the theater.
A Bridge Too Far was a little long, incredibly thorough in its reenactment of Arnehm (militarily), and good enough. Plus, it was written by William Goldman (same as The Princess Bride) and I found two moments in which the dialogue was almost exactly the same as in The Princess Bride (an inferior force accepting a surrender that wasn't offered, and something minor expecting to cheer up someone with major problems).
We're the Millers was funnier than expected and perfectly rewatchable.
Wreck-It Ralph was really, really good.
Justified is back and, I hate to say it, but I'm getting a little bored with Boyd.
I agree on Wreck-It Ralph.
I've joked that if we'd ever have a fourth daughter, I'd be tempted to name her Vanellope.
That's the kind of thing I'd do for real, so it's probably best that we appear to be done.
I forgot, I also watched Mean Streets. Has Scorsese ever presided over a good role for an actress? Every female character in his movies is shallow and pointless.
Linds and I are devouring Lost. We're halfway through season four. She's getting a little irritated at the show's propensity for asking way more questions than it answers (to the point that oftentimes when the show DOES answer a question, it doesn't do so until the original question was made irrelevant by some other, more grandiose question). I'm still really enjoying it. For one, this show prompts discussion like no other show, movie, or pop culture entity ever. Even with Breaking Bad, Linds and I would sit on the couch for a few minutes and say "whoa, that was a crazy episode" and "It sure was!" before moving on with our evening. With Lost, we generally lay in bed for fifteen to twenty minutes discussing little pet theories and overthinking everything. It's a lot of fun, and edifies the general experience quite a bit. It pains me to know that there's just about no way that the show will be able to answer the question to her satisfaction (I think I'm going to be mostly okay with it, but who knows?).
Other than that, I did see some movies this month...
* The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Better than the first, whetted my appetite enough to see a third, though it did feel like there was a lot of filler, but unlike the first, it was filler that I could live with. The dragon is a lot of fun. I still think Martin Freeman's Bilbo is the best acted character in any of the six movies.
* Frankenstein - The silent version from 1910. It's free on YouTube, and I needed something other than ESPN to watch at the gym while I worked out. An interesting relic.
* Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit - Totally a UPN Sunday Afternoon movie. It sort of felt like a Mission Impossible wanna-be. As middle-of-the-road as an espionage film could ever get. Never truly bad, but nothing ever resembling "good". I might have to check out the various other Jack Ryan movies that I remember so fondly to see if they have the same problems.
You've hit Lost pretty well on the head. My suggestion is to enjoy the ride and not worry about the destination.
It depends on which questions you need answered. Though some are left dangling, others are answered, but the answers went over the heads of a lot of people watching it. I was supremely annoyed by some of the FB response to the finale, which proved that a lot of people didn't even understand what they were being shown. It really made it hard to focus on my annoyance about the finale's actual sins, such as
I also found the final twist to be a tad predictable, but I write and I talk to a lot of writers, so often we end up settling on the twist that ends up to be true because from a story structure standpoint, all the pieces are in place.
Amen on that spoiler.
I tend to give LOST writers a pass for the very reason that nibs likes the series -- there are flaws, but doggone it the show is fun to pick apart.
Double amen on that spoiler.
I tended to find that the superseding of questions was one of the things that helped you focus on what the show was really about, and ultimately appreciated it.
I still like pretty much all of the characters - a rarity for a show with this big a cast - other than...
I like the relationships (the platonic ones, anyway... the romantic ones involving Kate are starting to grate on me a bit), and even when there's questions hanging in the air, the show is really fun to watch because the characters are able to make it work.
On Paolo and Nikki:
On Eko:
On Paolo and Nikki:
It was pretty nicely timed, actually. We usually skip on to the next episode without reading the synopsis and pause to digest and discuss the previous episode before moving on to the next one (and pausing that one a good five or six times for various "what movie do I remember him from?" and "wait, but that contradicts something that Mr. Eko's hallucinated brother said...").
Jack Ryan as an action hero? It has all been down hill since Red October, where the character was pretty close to the book. Jack Ryan is an intel officer who left the military because bad back.
Well, I wouldn't have really put the Jack Ryan in Clear and Present Danger as an "action hero", though I haven't seen that one in quite a while, so I could be misremembering. All he has is the little bit at the end, and most of that is left to Dafoe and company.
This Is The End - I really enjoyed it. Pretty funny, and you could tell the guys had fun making it with each other, which always helps.
The Conjuring, VHS 2, Devil's Pass, a few others I can't remember - My new roomie's favorite type of movie is horror, usually bad horror. Unfortunately for me, that is my absolute least favorite genre. I watch them, but only because I have nothing else to do.
Iron Sky - I actually enjoyed it. I liked how the filmmakers knew they had a ridiculous concept and just embraced that fact. It was bad, but intentionally so it was alright. I liked the little nods to Downfall and Dr. Strangelove too.
I heard good things about The Conjuring, but in general, I've sort of moved on from horror.
Jeff Lives At Home - Actually pretty good. Jason Segal does earnest so well.
Drinking Buddies - This movie was so slow.
Finally made it to a genuine movie theatre for an actual showing of a real-live actual movie.
This was AJR's first movie in a Theatre, and I was able to watch it with her sitting on my lap for the majority.
(She does better with suspenseful parts in movies at 3.8 than CER did at 8.8. FWIW, CER's gotten a lot better in the last year-plus in dealing with things.)
Frozen - Disney's got their animation department running well again, with their computer-animated features. Princess and the Frog was a snoozer when it wasn't too scary (shades of Hunchback), but this, Ralph and Tangled have all been pretty fantastic (and the Tinkerbell Movies were way above the quality I expect from straight-to-video). I think Frozen has actually been the strongest of the three, but there were some things I wished were better.
Bought the OST CD. I’ve got three girls singing “Let It Go” and “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” just south of 24/7, and a wife and son that do their share, too. I thought that some parts were a little-too Broadway, like the singing conversation bit in the "For the First Time" Reprise. That's my top complaint about the movie above the spoilered stuff above.
Will buy the DVD/Blue Ray combo pack as soon as I can.
This is seriously the biggest hit of a movie at the __R household ever.
My ten year old didn't like it. She's pretty sensitive and there was a part of the movie that upset her.
I haven't seen it.
Do you know which part?
CER is also 10 and as I mentioned has very sensitive tendencies.
Okay, the part you spoiled.
Actually gave me the willies when I watched it. Very blunt, fairly effective.
I think it had to do with how siblings treated each other but she could be hiding what really bothered her.
She went to the movie with her grandmother who has cancer so anything dealing with loss probably hit pretty close to home.
Oh yes, I also saw Frozen and liked it a lot.
Gotta say, I love Frozen.
For many years, Aladdin has been my favorite Disney animated movie, but Frozen may take that over. Yes there were parts of the plot that were weak, like the Deus Ex Machina of how they thawed everything in the end. But the music is simply awesome. I think it ranges even better than Beauty And the Beast, Aladdin, and Lion King. Let It Go is getting overplayed at our house, but I'm still not tired of it.
Saw Hobbit. Good stuff. I get the criticism from the super fans. I get the love from everyone else. Just a good movie to see.
Saw Lone Survivor. Very powerful. Gives a good appreciation for what the military does.
Thanks Punman and DP. It's good to hear opinions of others that take Children's Entertainment as seriously as I do.
(I recently noted that I see fewer cartoons than before I had kids.)
The Deus Ex Machina of
Was kindof funny in an "I see a big problem coming" way.
I'll have to watch it again to see if there's any subtle nod at that point to the convenience.
March 18th!
Futurama - Finished the series, since the last season became available on Netflix. I do love this show.
Star Trek: Deep Space 9 - Start the series, since I've always meant to watch it. We'll see how far I get before we cancel Netflix and start watching The Olympics.
The Heat - Meh.
Inside Llewyn Davis – We didn’t get out to see this on Christmas like we planned, but we finally made it last weekend (Sunday matinee, had the theater to ourselves except for one other couple). We absolutely loved it, and the wife and I are still dissecting it every night a week after seeing it. The movie is nominated for Oscars for cinematography and sound mixing, and both are well deserved. Great acting, directing, photography and music make this one of best recent offerings from The Brothers Coen.
Orange Is The New Black – Got a Blu-Ray player with streaming for Christmas so I got us a Netflix account. This is the first series we decided to binge watch and we’re seven episodes in. Good stuff, maybe not as good as the early hype suggested, but certainly worth the several hours we’ve invested so far.
Oh yeah, and Archer
Its only January, but I am going to say that Archer Vice is probably going to be my favorite all year. Unless Community does something off the wall.
"Archer" on Monday is going to take some getting used to
Two sequels over the holiday (grandparents as baby-sitters is a wonderful thing).
The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug - I didn't have any real excitement about this series when it started. Now I'm two movies in, and ... I'm probably done. Movie nights are rare enough that I don't think I want to spend 3 more hours rolling my eyes. Some of this is my own confirmation bias, but nonetheless, I haven't enjoyed either movie.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - This was much better. I agree with everything Beau said above. Hopefully they can make something out of book 3.
They have two movies to try.
Yeah, that baffles me .
Same. Books 2 and 3 together could have been 3 movies, but book 3 alone?
I thought this exact same thing when I left the theater.
Cash grab. Explains everything.
Let's see what I can remember that I've watched...
Fast & Furious 6. It was loud, stupid fun. I didn't like it as much as Fast Five, but it was worth a watch.
You're Next. Surprisingly good slasher flick with an excellent score and a few moments that made me laugh out loud.
Only God Forgives. Ehhhhh. EHHHHHHHHH. I liked how it was shot. Gosling was decent. But it was boring and kind of gratuitous. I was ultimately pretty disappointed.
Blackfish. This was very interesting and quite sad. As much as I'd like to go to SeaWorld, I think I'll be reconsidering that.
Bob's Burgers Season 1. This was pretty hit or miss. What I liked I liked a lot, but they did a handful of jokes that I'm not really into. I've heard it gets better, and the season did get better as it went, so I'll keep tuning in.
her. I loved this, mostly. I'm not too surprised given the people involved. I loved the super understated near-future world that Jonze set up. I had a little issue with one particular plot point because the intention came across as unclear to me.
Beyond the Black Rainbow. Have you ever watched a movie and felt like you could share it with almost nobody else since they probably wouldn't enjoy it? That was this movie for me. The mood and setting were right up my alley and the score is absolutely killer. But the pacing is glacial. Almost painfully so. I loved it and definitely want to revisit it soon. And I am eagerly anticipating the score going on sale on vinyl later this year.
We watched There Will Be Blood for the first time on Saturday night. I wish we hadn't missed it when it was in cinemas.
I should really see the 2nd half of that one of these days. I got interrupted and never sat back down to finish it.
I felt the same feeling when I watched it last winter.
When we went to see it in the theater the sound stopped working when Eli Sunday walked into the bowling alley. I was so beaten down that it took me a year to watch the end.
Wow. I hope you got a refund, plus some.
We saw so many movies this month that's its hard to remember them all.
The Wolf of Wall Street: Leo was excellent in all the ways you expect him to be. Jonah Hill also turned in a great performance. Most of my friends level criticism about misogyny and celebrating the culture of excess, but I feel like the ultimate point would be lost without the display of greed. Different strokes and all.
Her: Another spike jones jam. I enjoyed aspects of this film tremendously, but the end was a little too neat for my taste.
inside llewyn davis: it was good, but far from the brother's best work.
Nebraska: I wasn't in love with the pacing, but the performances were terrific. The movie hit pretty close to home several times, including the scene where all his brothers get together and watch tv. Like visiting my grandparents.
American Hustle: See the dread pirate's review for my thoughts.
Hansel and Gretel: Which Hunters: ZOMG. Totally brainless entertainment.
Dallas Buyers Club: I never thought I'd say that I really, really, really wanted to see a movie staring Matthew Mcconaughey. Never in a million years. With the quality of recent output I'm anxiously awaiting his next projects. The movie itself was good, not great, but the chemistry between Jared Leto and Mr. Mcconaughey was worth the price of admission.
I think that's about it. I finished Treme (meh), dug deeper into Justified, started Generation Kill, watched the first episode of True Detective (this is going to be a good series), and finished all the episodes of Falling Skies available on amazon prime. Shit. No wonder I haven't made and art lately.
watched the first episode of True Detective (this is going to be a good series)
After you mentioned McConaughy in DBC I was going to mention "True Detective", but you beat me to it. I am very, very optimistic about this show. I loved the pilot.
I'm all in on True Detective. Harrelson has been every bit as good as McConaughy, which means very, very good.
Hansel and Gretel: Which Hunters: ZOMG. Totally brainless entertainment.
YES. I loved this.
I got through series 3 of "Sherlock" on BBC iPlayer*. I gotta say, I didn't like this series as much as series one. I was still good, but the mystery solving took too large of a backseat to the character study for my personal liking
*If you'd like access to iPlayer, the Hola! plugin for Chrome is absolutely wonderful.
Also, kudos (to jobu?) on the Hope Floats/MST3K mash-up banner. I LOLed.
I assume it was he. I found it in the library last night when setting up the post...I'm not sure if it's the one that would have been scheduled, but it was too good not to share.
I LOL'ed, too.
The World's End -- Very good, although I would place it 3rd in the the three flavors cornet to trilogy.
Oblivion -- Actually was pleasantly surprised. Not the greatest but mindless fun sci-fi.
American Hustle -- The acting was fantastic but I didn't think the movie was all that.
Oh we watched Oblivion too. It was definitely not my cup of tea, to be polite about it.
The cinematography was excellent; storyline was nothing new, and because Tom Cruise.
You are right on the cinematography. I immediately tried to find where they filmed the lake scenes. I want that cabin so bad.
Is that the one where is a drone repairman? Saw most of it on HBO (?) the other night and was pleasantly surprised. Also saw most of Hancock and enjoyed that too.
yes, that's the one. it wasn't offensive, just didn't break any ground.
Agree. As mentioned, lots of eye candy; o.k. story that wasn't mind blowing; not awful dialogue; Cruise being Cruise but hey you go in expecting that. Glad I didn't drop $11 per ticket at the theater but watching in the comfort of my own home is an o.k. way to spend a Friday night.
Sleepy Hollow ... holy crap.