47 thoughts on “Third Monday Movie Day”

  1. Though I did watch Airplane! with the Milkmaid a few nights ago, and she was seeing for the first time. I'm not sure how that's possible.

      1. Probably the running gag with the setup "A hospital? What is it?"

        Also, "It's an entirely different kind of flying, altogether." "It's an entirely different kind of flying."

    1. The next time I watch Airplane! it will be the first time I've seen the entire thing (I've caught bits and pieces of the TV edit about thirty times, so I've seen most of it).

      1. TV edit? That's like drinking O'Douls. Sure, you can convince yourself it maybe-sorta tastes like the real thing, but it's not really at all.

        1. Yeah, I get to the point that I refuse to watch movies on TV unless it's PG AND I've seen it before. It's just not worth it.

          1. I refuse to watch movies on TV because I can't stand commercials.

            My childhood, though? That was full of lots and lots and lots of TV edited movies.

        2. When I was in college, I had this d!psh!t for a roommate. One of the things he did was go on and on about how great Animal House was. Yep, pretty funny. Then, one night it was on cable and we watched it.

          He had never seen it before except on network TV! Talk about a movie that loses it when converted to network television.

          1. I shared a dorm room at UMD (in Griggs Hall) with two other guys. One guy was an Irish boyo from Fridley (same birthdate as me, go figure). The other feller was from Brainerd - we called him ZUM. He was a pot-head who used to return to our dorm room - quite stoned - very late at night, on school nights. He'd call a friend and pretend to talk quietly, but it wasn't quietly at all. I remember him trying to quietly say 'PossiBLEE!!'.

            ZUM was an Art Student. His only contribution that I was privileged to see was a large mural of a stylized cloud puffing on a large bong, on the outside wall of the 3rd Floor's mens'-room. For that he was suspended, and we never saw him again.

  2. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2: Some funny puns and some charm, but this could have been cut by about thirty minutes. Made me want to see the original to remember why I liked it.

    Now You See Me: Fun cast and a couple fun illusions, but ultra-contrived, more ridiculous than it needed to be plot completely unravels to a terrible ending.

    Otherwise, watching more Dexter. In season four now. This is like watching a slow moving train headed off a cliff. Fascinating, but agonizingly so.

    1. RE: Now You See Me

      I wish they had utilized the cast a bit better. I know that the magicians were only the secondary characters, but the only time the movie really had my attention was when they were onscreen. Also, the whole thing felt sort of slight to me; it clearly had aspirations to be more than it was, but didn't have the writing (or something?) to pull it off.

      1. Yeah, pretty much. I was hooked in by the first 20-30 minutes. I was excited for a slick, smart movie. Oh, well.

  3. Only one movie... The To Do List. Sort of a female equivalent of American Pie (though that's reductive and lazy and not entirely accurate). It was alright. Had some laughs, and I'm a sucker for Aubrey Plaza.

    In TV.

    * What in the ever living hell was with that last episode of Walking Dead?? The show's been getting better (taking its time trying to build actual characters, rather than cheap cardboard cutouts that bleed when bitten by zombies), but that last episode was a step backwards, I thought.

    * Started Game of Thrones the other night. Linds won't watch it with me (no surprise). Nothing has actually "happened" yet, but I'm already pretty much hooked.

    * Finished Lost. My verdict is that it's a good show with great moments and interesting characters. Linds and I thought the ending was a fair wrap up, but can see where it wasn't enough for some.

  4. I saw Frozen roughly three billion times this past month. I think I mostly agree with Spooky on Olaf generally being unnecessary (Sven the reindeer was plenty for comic relief), although I don't think he took all that much away from the more impactful scenes. Otherwise, the movie was good. I liked it, but didn't love it (and the song I liked best was the opening number, so musically it was all down hill from there for me.)

    Watched Troll Hunter and Ip Man on my last work trip and enjoyed them both. Troll Hunter was absurd but fun, plus I've been listening to a lot of Finnish folk metal with trolls as a subject matter, so it was topical.

        1. You might have simultaneously appreciated the overall quality of the movie while simultaneously choking on the excessive hype.

      1. Yeah, I kind of had that same sort of assumption going in, but Josh Gad does a good job with the voice.

  5. One episode into the new Cosmos reboot and I'm not too excited so far. Same show with better FX and (a little) less east coast bias. Unless they get into dark matter/energy or Higgs boson or the like, it'll mostly be rehashing the same material.

    Watched all the Youtube Axe Cop episodes, which were mildly entertaining, then caught the Animation Domination versions as well. Basically, an animator bringing his 5yr old brother's storyline to life, with some professional narration and voicing.

  6. Frozen - not 3 billion times, but enough that I can't get the songs out of my head. The only part that really rubbed me wrong about Olaf was his voice, like the guy was trying to channel Martin Short, but doing so badly. 8/10
    Oldboy (2003) - Holy. Freaking. Hell. 9/10
    The Battle of Shaker Heights - Too much going on for me, but the set-up was fun and it stars Shia Le Beouf back before he was in everthing. 6/10
    The Walking Dead - I was a few weeks behind so I sat down and watched the past three episodes and then last night's. I'd say last night's made up for the previous week.

    1. RE: Oldboy. I think I had a case of hype overdose on that one. I should probably watch it again. My friend used to rave and rave about that movie, and I was underwhelmed when I saw it (though the hallway scene was fantastic).

      RE: Walking Dead.

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      1. Re: McBride's performance - agreed. She and Darryl are easily my favorite characters on this show. I think it's because I can relate to how they deal with the world they're in.
        As for the rest,

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        Re: Oldboy - I hadn't heard about it until they did the remake. As such, I didn't have any idea what it was about when I started it, at least none more than the "Locked up for 15 years for unknown reasons" part. I think I expected a martial arts/revenge flick...something like Payback (maybe?)
        All I can say is that I'm glad my wife was out of town when I watched it. I don't think she'd appreciate it the way I did.

        1. Darryl was always a favorite. Carol started out as a "please go get eaten by a zombie" character for me, but has evolved into my favorite over the last couple seasons, especially. I think a lot of that has to do with the way the actress plays the character.

          Re:Oldboy - I need to watch it again with the knowledge that it is what it is. I'm pretty sure that I'll like it a lot more this time around.

    2. We've also pre-ordered the DVD with the digital copy bundle (our current version is, uhhh, less than above board). I expect the number of viewings will at least double.

            1. Much better, appreciate it.

              She's pretty much worn that dress for three days straight now.

  7. Been catching up on Academy Award noted movies now that they are starting to hit DVD:

    Saw the Oscar-winning best documentary 20 Feet from Stardom which is about the back-up singers on all those songs from (mostly) the 60s and 70s. One was the singer from Gimmer Shelter. What was cool is that they isolated just her part so that you could really hear it, I got goosebumps. Definitely a great movie and well worth its award.

    Inside Llewyn Davis. I liked a lot. The music was great and there's a nice little (minor) twist at the end. Not very Coen-y but still very good.

    Nebraska -- I also liked. Alexander Payne is becoming one of my favorite directors. There's a certain vibe that you can feel with all his movies, kind of like Cameron Crowe.

    Blue Jasmine -- Very well acted. Woody Allen either makes movies that are absolute rubbish or mind-blowingly good. This falls in the later category.

    1. Somewhere in the interwebs (edit: here) (Further edit: maybe not there anymore), you can listen to each of the tracks of Gimme Shelter separately. It is mind-blowing.

  8. I have watched a lot of movies on Netflix lately, I'll recommend a couple.

    The Giant Mechanical Man and Take Me Home. I dont know how to talk about them without being all spoilery, but I gave them 5 stars.

    I've also been rewatching Ken Burns' Baseball and I forgot how much of the series revolves around New York.

    1. Unfortunately, it kind of has to, given how much baseball has revolved around New York over the years. Over one in three titles have gone to that city between the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers and Giants.

      1. I understand that. But the warm fuzzies over a terrible Brooklyn team every 20 minutes gets old.

        It did get me thinking about other terrible teams like the St. Louis Browns (1 World Series appearance in roughly 50 years) and it would be interesting to have a history lesson about them. Maybe not a two hour special or anything, but 20 minutes about the colorful characters of terrible teams.

  9. I watched the original Thomas Crown Affair. It was fun seeing a really young Yaphet Kotto and admiring Faye Dunaway, but in general it was pretty dull.

    I've just about finished season one of Homeland. I could listen to Mandy Patinkin whispering threateningly on an endless loop. However, the 24ification of Brody is grating on me. Stop oscillating every episode, it's obnoxious.

    I only have a couple episodes left of season 2 of House of Cards. I could also listen to an endless loop of Frank Underwood breaking the fourth wall. I know this show is hilariously shallow, but it's enjoyable crap.

    1. Oh, I also saw Veronica Mars. I thought it was pretty good with many meta jokes but it captured the shows tone really well. My biggest quibble is that

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      1. Oh god.

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  10. J & I watched the Veronica Mars movie this weekend. It was... alright. It was closer to season 1 quality than 2 or 3, but I had a number of little issues with it. I just think if they'd had more time they could've ironed some of those things out and made a significantly better movie. That being said if you like the show it's worth a viewing.

    I have Nebraska and Captain Phillips checked out from a Redbox to watch when I have some time this week, but I really haven't had time to watch much of anything lately.

  11. Finally getting to the second season of House of Cards. First episode in the can.

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