I saw a lot of stuff - mostly TV this time. I'll get there, but it's late on the night before.
82 thoughts on “Movie Day”
Saw The Theory of Everything. Eddie Redmayne deserved the Oscar. Thought it was a wonderful story. Liked it better than Sniper actually.
Finally saw Guardians of the Galaxy (which, side note, there are too many movies with similar phrasing: Rise of the Guardians, Guardians of the Galaxy, Legend of the Guardians (something about Owls). Liked it well enough, wish I would've seen it in the theater.
Theory of Everything was a nice, complex love story, but I'm not convinced that Redmayne deserved the Oscar, as good as he was. His performance was a lot of emulation of early ALS, then a lot of sitting in a chair.
I'm still kind of miffed that Selma got so little recognition from the Academy.
Rise of the Legendary Galaxy
Legend of the Galactic Rise
Galaxy of the Risen Legend
(Rise of) the Legendary Galaxy
Legend (of the Galactic Rise)
Galaxy (of the) Risen Legend
Rise of the Legendary Galaxy (Guardians)
Legend-Guardians (of the Galactic Rise)
(Galaxy of the) Risen-Guardian Legend
In fairness, Guardians of the Galaxy is an existing property.
Saw that Sleepy Hollow was picked up for season 3, with a new show runner. The way the last season was allowed to wander, I wasn't sure if it would get a chance.
Archer has been a treat. Also, is there anything better than Robot Chicken on free OnDemand when there's nothing better on for the last ½ hour before bedtime?
(and this gives me a chuckle every time)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaKHH02IJIY (bears are cool)
I didn't watch much because I've been busy, but I did watch Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Neverbeast about 5,000 times during the three day rental.
The only movie I actually watched for me was <Headhunters, which was pretty great. (deadspin's Netflix Action Movie Canon is a treasure trove of movie ideas.) It's not really a typical action movie with the protagonist being a more "in over his head and staying that way" type of character.
I did not know about this movie. AJR's birthday is tomorrow, and I'm short on options. That may be the answer!
Its not too bad, really. The ending is a bit of a tear jerker, though. Warning you now.
I actually saw a couple of the Best Picture nominees this month.
* The Grand Budapest Hotel
I did enjoy this quite, but Wes Anderson gets a little too whimsical for me sometimes. There were laughs to be had, the whole thing looks great, and Ralph Fiennes is completely awesome. I'm hemming and hawing quite a bit over a movie I'd give 8 out of 10 to, though. The whimsy overload hits me wrong at times and takes me out of it.
* American Sniper
I was already predisposed to be skeptical of this movie, and the beginning is so scattershot and messy (characters are introduced in such a choppy way) that it took me out of the movie and did not endear me to it. Then, it gradually morphs into a pretty decent movie. The sandstorm scene, in particular, is suffocating and effective.
* Kingsman: The Secret Service
I liked it, with huge reservations (pity, too, because those reservations did not need to exist. at all.)
* We're the Millers
Stupid. Fun. Mostly amoral (the moral does pop up a bit at the end, though, because we can't possibly just have a funny movie where people do funny, yet bad things and get away scot free). Not anything too great (or even too good), but it served its purpose.
I've also seen the last half of We're the Millers. I didn't hate it.
I love We're the Millers.
All I want to know about American Sniper is if they show Jesse Ventura getting beaten up. Heh.
I watched a ton of movies this month, both for my own pleasure and a bunch since I'm in a film class this term. Let's see if I can remember them all!
What We Do in the Shadows was probably the film I watched that I enjoyed the most. It was written and stars Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi who famously worked on Flight of the Conchords. It's a faux-documentary about the lives of a group of vampires who flat together, and it's completely hilarious. I haven't laughed this hard watching a movie in... so long I can't even remember. If you dug FotC, you'll probably adore this. I definitely plan on watching this again when it comes out on DVD/Blu-ray.
I, like nibbish, saw a couple of Best Picture nominees: Whiplash and Selma. I thought that Whiplash was fantastic and JK Simmons absolutely deserved his Oscar. Never would I have thought that the phrase "not quite my tempo" could be so damn chilling. The movie was extremely intense, and I was on the edge of my seat for the finale. J & I went to Selma on Valentine's Day, and both found it very, very good. I am also upset this didn't get more love from the Academy. I'm not sure I want to revisit it any time soon but I, like brianS, think that it should be close to required viewing.
I also watched John Wick this month and it was fantastic. The action sequences were pretty great and the mythology running through the film was fun. I'm excited that they plan on expanding on the universe because it deserves more than one film.
The film class films I recall were re-watching E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Rear Window, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and watching Goodfellas for the first time. I barely remembered E.T. or Rear Window but liked both a ton. I was an 18 year old dipshit when I watched Dr. Caligari and said it was the worst film I'd ever watched. Upon rewatch, I was a real dipshit. It's quite good. I think that watching the recent restoration helped; the film was gorgeous. But also I'm in my 30s now and can handle films that are relatively slow with ease. Goodfellas was good and I'm surprised it took me this long to watch it, but the rampant racism and misogyny certainly detracted from the film for me a lot. I fully understand why that stuff happened, but I'm just not as forgiving about it now.
Finally, I've actually got a pretty good TV rotation happening: Bob's Burgers, The Last Man on Earth, and Last Week Tonight are on every Sunday. I definitely recommend giving Last Man on Earth a shot. It's very unique, and it's probably worth a watch for how well it's shot alone. Bob's Burgers is probably my favorite thing on TV, it's just so damn good.
And tonight is the finale of an anime J & I have been watching for the last two seasons, Your Lie in April. It's about high school classical musicians. It sometimes has weird tonal shifts when they try to bring humor into the show but the overarching plot and character development are great, the animation and music is gorgeous, and I love how melancholy the whole thing is. Mind you I expect to bawl my eyes out at the finale. I recommend it pretty highly.
I really want to see Whiplash.
John Wick was great. The action sequences were a rush, and the movie stays out of its own way for the most part and allows the viewer to get caught up in this crazy world of super organized assassination. Lots of fun.
John Wick is probably the first Keanu Reeves movie I've been excited to see in quite a while.
I have seen probably 20 movies/shows in the past two months. Usually I can look at Redbox/Netflix history to remember what I've seen for these discussions, but a lot of my recent viewing has been through cable on-demand. These are what I can recall: Gone Girl
Peaky Blinders: Season 1, "Episodes 1 & 2"
The Fault in Our Stars
The Equalizer
Robocop (2014) Moonrise Kingdom
Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways, "Episodes 1 - 6"
Walking Dead: Season 5, "Episodes 1 - 14"
American Sniper
In addition, I've watched probably 80% of the Wild games broadcast in the past 2 months...that's been awesome viewing.
Finally finished The Shield. As good as people have described. I knew how it ended but that's ok.
I'm about 2/3 through Firefly. It's okay but my expectations were a bit higher.
Saw St. Vincent. Nice little film, would recommend.
I have a bunch of Oscar winners and Nominees in the queue, just haven't gotten to them.
I'm 3-4 episodes into Firefly and that's where I'm at.
I think it's been overhyped partially because it's sci-fi, and partially because it was cancelled. Compared to say, every Star Trek series, Firefly had an amazing season 1. But it wasn't flawless by any means. I think it could have been amazing had they continued.
I think you hit the nail on the head here... there was so much more potential in Firefly that never got realized.
I will recommend to free and AMR to keep going, however. There are some really, really good episodes. Jaynestown, Out of Gas, Ariel, War Stories, Objects in Space, Trash....
Ah yes, "Trash"
Yeah, Jaynestown and Out of Gas stand out to me as my two favorites, I think.
Objects in Space may be my favorite. Jubal Early is a fantastic character.
Yes. Yes he is.
O.k. War Stories was a pretty damn good episode.
My devil's advocate thinking has been that the show is because that potential was not fulfilled. Having watched almost every show Joss Whedon worked on, I figure that given a couple more seasons he would've killed (or done worse) to everyone we liked on the show and screwed it all up.
Having seen Serenity you might be right... But one more 13 episode season was certainly warranted.
like he did in Buffy and Angel???
I will grant that there were elements of the later Buffy that I very much disliked, but the show recovered before the end.
I think the show was overall good, but goodness gracious there was a lot of garbage from season 4 and onward in Buffy. Angel was mostly good, but there was still some questionable decisions I felt. Mind you it's been years since I've watched so I don't recall them all but I remember having long discussions with J about infuriating decisions that were made.
I'm sure that Firefly would've remained a good show (but for whatever it's worth I prefer Buffy, Angel, and Dollhouse), I just think that it's easier to think it would've been great since he didn't get the opportunity to make those decisions. With the exception of Serenity.
I take it that you didn't like Serenity??
I thought the film was a very satisfying conclusion to the series, given that the series was aborted and screwed up by Fox.
I did not particularly like it, no. As a post-script to the series it's better than the Buffy comics, I'll give it that!
And I thought the series was a very good prologue to the movie because I watched Serenity first without knowing there was even a tv show.
Oh yeah, I also watched Serenity having finished Firefly in November. I enjoyed both and was happy for some of the closure offered by the former.
Saw Earth to Echo on Netflix. Very fun flick. Kind of a nice cross between ET and Stand By Me. I don't always like the first-person homemade video documentary style, but I think it was done well enough to avoid overdoing the shaking camera and blind camera effects.
Also saw John Carter. Had low expectations and it managed to be better than expected. Good action and visuals. I never read the book, so that might help. It might also help viewers to keep in mind that the book this was based on was written over a century ago.
John Carter's one I forgot that I'd seen. Mine was pretty similar to your experience.
I inhaled the entire John Carter series when I was a kid, not particularly noticing the, uhh, passé elements. Like many tweener boys, I had the hots for Dejah Thoris.
For me, John Carter of Mars was a lot of fun. And Dejah pretty much met my expectations.
yeah, the movie as such wasn't all that bad, it was just really (really) badly mispromoted
Also, my wife and I were happy to discover that all of the Stargate series are back on Hulu. We had been watching SG-1 on Netflix and had gotten up to Season 8 when it was removed from Netflix and Hulu. My in-laws had gotten me Season 8 on DVD, so we started watching that when I discovered the whole series was back on Hulu. So now we don't have to buy the rest of the series. We're also probably going to check out Atlantis after this.
Ah! This news makes me happy.
Stargate: SVU wasn't all that good
*gigglesnort*
wait, WAS there a Stargate: SVU?
man, I had forgotten that James Spader was in the original film.
Stargate: Universe, however, was. Too bad it ended on a high note.
Luther is fantastic and I finished season 2 last night and started season 3.
EAR watched the first episode with me and agreed that it was awesome, but that she can do without the bad dreams. Which is probably good, as later episodes would have been worse for her psyche.
I have to wait until EAR goes to bed to watch it, only the most disturbing scenes will wake her from her mid-Gilmore naps.
I watched two "episodes" of the "extended" Swedish version of the Millennium series. (That is, I saw the Swedish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.) Subtitled.
I enjoyed that quite a bit, I had no expectations going in.
EAR finished Gilmore Girls, and now she's going back to watch the episodes she skipped because she wanted to get to the end or that she missed parts of by falling asleep.
There's an episode in season 6 that finishes with a "Friday Night Dinner", just skipping ahead in time at various points.
I think that was the best part of the show I've seen, though I don't know if it makes any sense if you haven't watched the rest.
Forget about the romantic relationships, this is what the program was building towards.
I've watched about 10 episodes of the new-ish Scooby-Doo program.
I'm kindof intrigued by the relationships of the characters present. The girls are very romantically forward, and Fred is a dopey dork (but Shaggy isn't dopey or clueless).
I get Fred's dorkiness, "I've tried out a few new traps that I saw highlighted in the latest issue of 'Traps Monthly'." Or something like that.
Despite Fred's social obliviousness, the others willingly follow him (they were clearly brought together by their common interest in solving mysteries) and he saves their day plenty, so it's not really the idiot dad trope turned into idiot leader-man.
I watched the start of a crappy live-action Sleeping Beauty revision. (Not Maleficent: the evil fairy kills the three good fairies at the princess's christening.)
It may have been from the same people as the crappy live-action Snow White I watched last week.
It didn't maintain my attention enough to keep me awake.
Once Luther's done, I'll start Firefly back up.
I gave the Swedish versions a whirl, too. You going to give Wallander a try too, then?
That looks great my kind of thing.
I haven't tried the American versions of Millennium.
Grand Budapest Hotel: I mirror nibbish's opinion The Fault in Our Stars: I did cry once, but probably not at the part most people would. Too much narration for me, but it wasn't overly preachy, which I liked. 12:01: Made for TV movie about a guy who repeats the same day, trying to save the life of a co-worker. So awful it's amusing, and some of the time travel stuff was fun. 12:01 PM: The original video short based on the original short story. Stars Kurtwood Smith. Much better, more serious, darker. I wish it was longer, though, as the climax could have been better with more time to set it up.
Her: I am in love with this movie. Joaquin's character reminds me so much of me and his character is so genuine I found myself literally bawling by the end of the movie. I'm not sure I've done that before . I also love how the movie doesn't judge, doesn't preach, doesn't get cute. It just sets up a world and the character live in it like they would. I also want that video game with the cute little cursing guy.
Wife and I started Walking Dead. Almost through season 2. It's really awful so far, with a few episodes that are exceptions, but it's still compelling and the makeup is insanely good. Plus we've heard the show gets better, so that helps.
It's not quite as neat as the game in the movie, but the dude who created that did make a mountain simulator called, er, Mountain.
RE: Her - another one I saw recently (can't say if I've commented on it before) and I completely endorse your review...except for the video game part because I don't really play video games.
I saw a lot since the last Movie Day, I think.
Despite Netflix continually hinting to me that I wouldn't like it, I remained compelled by the idea of Stephen King's A Good Marriage and watched it last night. I really had to fight to get to the end. It was the worst movie I've seen in a while. It's impossible to believe, the subtext is so obviously punny and cutesy it's off-putting, and by the end there's literally no character to root for. Joan Allen puts in a mostly bad performance, disappointingly, but the material wouldn't have inspired me either.
I'm up to date, minus one episode, on "Luther." The show is still good but is on a slow and steady decline. The dread of the first season just isn't there. I was truly scared shitless by some of the villains in the first season, and they were still believable. Now it's becoming a somewhat predictable procedural.
I'm up to date, minus one episode, on "The Walking Dead." It's been a very, very slow season, and not one where the character development was so strong that it made for compelling TV. I know the most recent episode is big, and I'm pretty sure it's been spoiled for me, so there's that.
I'm through the sixth episode of season three of "Game of Thrones." Still awesome, of course. I know about a thing that's coming, but watching it come is really, really compelling stuff. I'm trying to figure out whether I'm in love with the character of Daenarys, the actress Emilia Clarke, or both.
I might have brought it up last time, but Guardians of the Galaxy...eh. Pretty - VERY pretty - but kinda threadbare.
"Archer": the first episode of "Archer Vice." Decently funny, and set up what I think is a season with a lot of possibilities.
"Attack on Titan." Six episodes in, this is easily the best dramatic anime I've ever seen. The translation seems to have been done by a writer, and not just some dude who knows both languages. There are a LOT of characters, but the show spends time making them matter. The action is quick and unpredictable, and the show is gorgeous.
I'm confident I saw more movies, but nothing comes to mind.
I added "Titan". Have you ever steered me wrong?
Buyer beware. It's quite violent.
But the titans are so cute!
They remind me a bit of the half-baked Giant Warrior from Nausicaä.
I might have guessed from the image/icon thing.
I watched the first episode, but started to fall asleep after about 10 minutes. Not a good thing with a subtitled show. (Though the same thing happened with Millennium, and I woke back up after five.) I don't blame the show, I blame crashing after hard work finalizing birthday things for AJR and Pinewood Derby cars, one of which I almost ruined.
Zack said "But the titans are so cute!"
What the heck are they? (Don't answer, though.)
Big dumb naked supersized giants that don't all have skin? They seem very childlike and not at all terrifying except for the fact that you can't stop them and they'll eat everyone.
Sally Impossible!
To be honest I don't even really know what they are. I do find that figure kind of hilarious because it's so cute, though. Which is why I bought it before I even started watching the series (which I just did a few months ago).
I saw "My Own Man" on Netflix. I thought it was great. Documentary on manhood, fatherhood, masculinity...
Also watched "Tiny House." It was boring and preachy.
First season of Friday Night Lights. It took a few episodes to get into it but it picked up as the season went on. Family stuff was much more interesting than football stuff.
Guardians of the Galaxy - Good soundtrack. Good action. Not much of a storyline.
I thought "Tiny House" was less boring and preachy than I feared when EAR asked me to watch it.
It wasn't awful. Just not great.
One thing I did enjoy was seeing the innovations to maximize space.
EAR and I both thought "Try having kids in there" and "Winter's gonna be tough."
Ballet 422. Seen in a theater! This is a documentary about Justin Peck, just 25 years old, choreographing "Paz de La Jolla," the 422nd ballet in the history of the New York City Ballet. I suspect it would mainly appeal to ballet lovers (duh) and those generally interested in the creative process. It's very fly on the wall; there are no interviews or moments in which anyone speaks directly to the camera, and I would have found it interesting to get in the head of Peck a bit as well as some of the dancers and musicians, costume designers, lighting designers, etc. However, I did enjoy getting such a holistic look at how the various elements of the ballet all came together.
The interesting thing to me was just how smoothly everything went and how calm everyone seemed to be throughout. I think we sometimes assume that the creative process is always fraught with drama and divas, but this is a look at a group of professionals just doing their thing and working together beautifully. I noticed in particular how willing everyone was to defer to the expertise of others and how much mutual respect was present. Of course this means, there's not as much drama for viewers, but the movie is just 1:15, so I found it plenty engaging as is.
I will have to forward this to the wife.
She might also be interested in the 2009 documentary La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet.New York Times review here.
I think we sometimes assume that the creative process is always fraught with drama and divas
This frustrates me. It's just not. Drama is rare and divas are the exception.
Guess what? I found out this month that I have HBO on my TV. Didn't know that! (Actually, since January only.) Which means, I have HBOGo.
I started watching Curb Your Enthusiasm. I may be 15 years behind the curve, but it's still funny to me.
I still need to watch the last couple seasons. Thanks for the reminder.
Here's a little movie trivia -- see if Spooky can identify the significance of this throwaway teen horror flic: The Burning
stumbled upon it because Rick Wakeman (kinda) did the soundtrack
Would you believe Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter, and Fisher Stevens all in their debut movie role?!
I would not have gotten that. Wow.
Alright folks, if I have to pick one of these movies to watch this evening (and my wife will be watching with me), which would you recommend? Guardians of the Galaxy
Birdman
Whiplash
St. Vincent
A Most Wanted Man
Guardians.
Seconded. (But I haven't seen any of the other ones.)
Me neither 🙂
Whiplash is supposed to be great. The Boy went from excited to debbie downer on Birdman for some reason.
St. Vincent.
I just watched Turbo, animated about a snail with dreams to win the Indy 500.
It was good. I think it could have been better if the "bad guy" hadn't been bad, just wanted to win without cheating or trying to kill the snail or anything, but treating him as he would any other racer. Whatevs.
Finished "Luther".
I watched an episode of "House of Cards", seems fun.
"Garfunkle and Oates" is now on Netflix.
I've tried twice now to watch Tinker, Tailor, Sailor, Spy without falling asleep and have failed both times. Maybe I'll try again tonight, but after that I'll quit.
Seems like absolutely nothing happens after the opening scene in Hungary.
Saw The Theory of Everything. Eddie Redmayne deserved the Oscar. Thought it was a wonderful story. Liked it better than Sniper actually.
Finally saw Guardians of the Galaxy (which, side note, there are too many movies with similar phrasing: Rise of the Guardians, Guardians of the Galaxy, Legend of the Guardians (something about Owls). Liked it well enough, wish I would've seen it in the theater.
Theory of Everything was a nice, complex love story, but I'm not convinced that Redmayne deserved the Oscar, as good as he was. His performance was a lot of emulation of early ALS, then a lot of sitting in a chair.
I'm still kind of miffed that Selma got so little recognition from the Academy.
Rise of the Legendary Galaxy
Legend of the Galactic Rise
Galaxy of the Risen Legend
(Rise of) the Legendary Galaxy
Legend (of the Galactic Rise)
Galaxy (of the) Risen Legend
Rise of the Legendary Galaxy (Guardians)
Legend-Guardians (of the Galactic Rise)
(Galaxy of the) Risen-Guardian Legend
In fairness, Guardians of the Galaxy is an existing property.
Saw that Sleepy Hollow was picked up for season 3, with a new show runner. The way the last season was allowed to wander, I wasn't sure if it would get a chance.
Archer has been a treat. Also, is there anything better than Robot Chicken on free OnDemand when there's nothing better on for the last ½ hour before bedtime?
(and this gives me a chuckle every time)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaKHH02IJIY
(bears are cool)
I didn't watch much because I've been busy, but I did watch Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Neverbeast about 5,000 times during the three day rental.
The only movie I actually watched for me was <Headhunters, which was pretty great. (deadspin's Netflix Action Movie Canon is a treasure trove of movie ideas.) It's not really a typical action movie with the protagonist being a more "in over his head and staying that way" type of character.
I did not know about this movie. AJR's birthday is tomorrow, and I'm short on options. That may be the answer!
Its not too bad, really. The ending is a bit of a tear jerker, though. Warning you now.
I actually saw a couple of the Best Picture nominees this month.
* The Grand Budapest Hotel
I did enjoy this quite, but Wes Anderson gets a little too whimsical for me sometimes. There were laughs to be had, the whole thing looks great, and Ralph Fiennes is completely awesome. I'm hemming and hawing quite a bit over a movie I'd give 8 out of 10 to, though. The whimsy overload hits me wrong at times and takes me out of it.
* American Sniper
I was already predisposed to be skeptical of this movie, and the beginning is so scattershot and messy (characters are introduced in such a choppy way) that it took me out of the movie and did not endear me to it. Then, it gradually morphs into a pretty decent movie. The sandstorm scene, in particular, is suffocating and effective.
* Kingsman: The Secret Service
I liked it, with huge reservations (pity, too, because those reservations did not need to exist. at all.)
* We're the Millers
Stupid. Fun. Mostly amoral (the moral does pop up a bit at the end, though, because we can't possibly just have a funny movie where people do funny, yet bad things and get away scot free). Not anything too great (or even too good), but it served its purpose.
I've also seen the last half of We're the Millers. I didn't hate it.
I love We're the Millers.
All I want to know about American Sniper is if they show Jesse Ventura getting beaten up. Heh.
I watched a ton of movies this month, both for my own pleasure and a bunch since I'm in a film class this term. Let's see if I can remember them all!
What We Do in the Shadows was probably the film I watched that I enjoyed the most. It was written and stars Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi who famously worked on Flight of the Conchords. It's a faux-documentary about the lives of a group of vampires who flat together, and it's completely hilarious. I haven't laughed this hard watching a movie in... so long I can't even remember. If you dug FotC, you'll probably adore this. I definitely plan on watching this again when it comes out on DVD/Blu-ray.
I, like nibbish, saw a couple of Best Picture nominees: Whiplash and Selma. I thought that Whiplash was fantastic and JK Simmons absolutely deserved his Oscar. Never would I have thought that the phrase "not quite my tempo" could be so damn chilling. The movie was extremely intense, and I was on the edge of my seat for the finale. J & I went to Selma on Valentine's Day, and both found it very, very good. I am also upset this didn't get more love from the Academy. I'm not sure I want to revisit it any time soon but I, like brianS, think that it should be close to required viewing.
I also watched John Wick this month and it was fantastic. The action sequences were pretty great and the mythology running through the film was fun. I'm excited that they plan on expanding on the universe because it deserves more than one film.
The film class films I recall were re-watching E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Rear Window, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and watching Goodfellas for the first time. I barely remembered E.T. or Rear Window but liked both a ton. I was an 18 year old dipshit when I watched Dr. Caligari and said it was the worst film I'd ever watched. Upon rewatch, I was a real dipshit. It's quite good. I think that watching the recent restoration helped; the film was gorgeous. But also I'm in my 30s now and can handle films that are relatively slow with ease. Goodfellas was good and I'm surprised it took me this long to watch it, but the rampant racism and misogyny certainly detracted from the film for me a lot. I fully understand why that stuff happened, but I'm just not as forgiving about it now.
Finally, I've actually got a pretty good TV rotation happening: Bob's Burgers, The Last Man on Earth, and Last Week Tonight are on every Sunday. I definitely recommend giving Last Man on Earth a shot. It's very unique, and it's probably worth a watch for how well it's shot alone. Bob's Burgers is probably my favorite thing on TV, it's just so damn good.
And tonight is the finale of an anime J & I have been watching for the last two seasons, Your Lie in April. It's about high school classical musicians. It sometimes has weird tonal shifts when they try to bring humor into the show but the overarching plot and character development are great, the animation and music is gorgeous, and I love how melancholy the whole thing is. Mind you I expect to bawl my eyes out at the finale. I recommend it pretty highly.
I really want to see Whiplash.
John Wick was great. The action sequences were a rush, and the movie stays out of its own way for the most part and allows the viewer to get caught up in this crazy world of super organized assassination. Lots of fun.
John Wick is probably the first Keanu Reeves movie I've been excited to see in quite a while.
I have seen probably 20 movies/shows in the past two months. Usually I can look at Redbox/Netflix history to remember what I've seen for these discussions, but a lot of my recent viewing has been through cable on-demand. These are what I can recall:
Gone Girl
Peaky Blinders: Season 1, "Episodes 1 & 2"
The Fault in Our Stars
The Equalizer
Robocop (2014)
Moonrise Kingdom
Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways, "Episodes 1 - 6"
Walking Dead: Season 5, "Episodes 1 - 14"
American Sniper
In addition, I've watched probably 80% of the Wild games broadcast in the past 2 months...that's been awesome viewing.
Finally finished The Shield. As good as people have described. I knew how it ended but that's ok.
I'm about 2/3 through Firefly. It's okay but my expectations were a bit higher.
Saw St. Vincent. Nice little film, would recommend.
I have a bunch of Oscar winners and Nominees in the queue, just haven't gotten to them.
I'm 3-4 episodes into Firefly and that's where I'm at.
I think it's been overhyped partially because it's sci-fi, and partially because it was cancelled. Compared to say, every Star Trek series, Firefly had an amazing season 1. But it wasn't flawless by any means. I think it could have been amazing had they continued.
I think you hit the nail on the head here... there was so much more potential in Firefly that never got realized.
I will recommend to free and AMR to keep going, however. There are some really, really good episodes. Jaynestown, Out of Gas, Ariel, War Stories, Objects in Space, Trash....
Ah yes, "Trash"
Yeah, Jaynestown and Out of Gas stand out to me as my two favorites, I think.
Objects in Space may be my favorite. Jubal Early is a fantastic character.
Yes. Yes he is.
O.k. War Stories was a pretty damn good episode.
My devil's advocate thinking has been that the show is because that potential was not fulfilled. Having watched almost every show Joss Whedon worked on, I figure that given a couple more seasons he would've killed (or done worse) to everyone we liked on the show and screwed it all up.
Having seen Serenity you might be right... But one more 13 episode season was certainly warranted.
like he did in Buffy and Angel???
I will grant that there were elements of the later Buffy that I very much disliked, but the show recovered before the end.
I think the show was overall good, but goodness gracious there was a lot of garbage from season 4 and onward in Buffy. Angel was mostly good, but there was still some questionable decisions I felt. Mind you it's been years since I've watched so I don't recall them all but I remember having long discussions with J about infuriating decisions that were made.
I'm sure that Firefly would've remained a good show (but for whatever it's worth I prefer Buffy, Angel, and Dollhouse), I just think that it's easier to think it would've been great since he didn't get the opportunity to make those decisions. With the exception of Serenity.
I take it that you didn't like Serenity??
I thought the film was a very satisfying conclusion to the series, given that the series was aborted and screwed up by Fox.
I did not particularly like it, no. As a post-script to the series it's better than the Buffy comics, I'll give it that!
And I thought the series was a very good prologue to the movie because I watched Serenity first without knowing there was even a tv show.
Oh yeah, I also watched Serenity having finished Firefly in November. I enjoyed both and was happy for some of the closure offered by the former.
Saw Earth to Echo on Netflix. Very fun flick. Kind of a nice cross between ET and Stand By Me. I don't always like the first-person homemade video documentary style, but I think it was done well enough to avoid overdoing the shaking camera and blind camera effects.
Also saw John Carter. Had low expectations and it managed to be better than expected. Good action and visuals. I never read the book, so that might help. It might also help viewers to keep in mind that the book this was based on was written over a century ago.
John Carter's one I forgot that I'd seen. Mine was pretty similar to your experience.
I inhaled the entire John Carter series when I was a kid, not particularly noticing the, uhh, passé elements. Like many tweener boys, I had the hots for Dejah Thoris.
For me, John Carter of Mars was a lot of fun. And Dejah pretty much met my expectations.
yeah, the movie as such wasn't all that bad, it was just really (really) badly mispromoted
Also, my wife and I were happy to discover that all of the Stargate series are back on Hulu. We had been watching SG-1 on Netflix and had gotten up to Season 8 when it was removed from Netflix and Hulu. My in-laws had gotten me Season 8 on DVD, so we started watching that when I discovered the whole series was back on Hulu. So now we don't have to buy the rest of the series. We're also probably going to check out Atlantis after this.
Ah! This news makes me happy.
Stargate: SVU wasn't all that good
*gigglesnort*
wait, WAS there a Stargate: SVU?
man, I had forgotten that James Spader was in the original film.
Stargate: Universe, however, was. Too bad it ended on a high note.
Luther is fantastic and I finished season 2 last night and started season 3.
EAR watched the first episode with me and agreed that it was awesome, but that she can do without the bad dreams. Which is probably good, as later episodes would have been worse for her psyche.
I have to wait until EAR goes to bed to watch it, only the most disturbing scenes will wake her from her mid-Gilmore naps.
I watched two "episodes" of the "extended" Swedish version of the Millennium series. (That is, I saw the Swedish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.) Subtitled.
I enjoyed that quite a bit, I had no expectations going in.
EAR finished Gilmore Girls, and now she's going back to watch the episodes she skipped because she wanted to get to the end or that she missed parts of by falling asleep.
There's an episode in season 6 that finishes with a "Friday Night Dinner", just skipping ahead in time at various points.
I think that was the best part of the show I've seen, though I don't know if it makes any sense if you haven't watched the rest.
Forget about the romantic relationships, this is what the program was building towards.
I've watched about 10 episodes of the new-ish Scooby-Doo program.
I'm kindof intrigued by the relationships of the characters present. The girls are very romantically forward, and Fred is a dopey dork (but Shaggy isn't dopey or clueless).
I get Fred's dorkiness, "I've tried out a few new traps that I saw highlighted in the latest issue of 'Traps Monthly'." Or something like that.
Despite Fred's social obliviousness, the others willingly follow him (they were clearly brought together by their common interest in solving mysteries) and he saves their day plenty, so it's not really the idiot dad trope turned into idiot leader-man.
I watched the start of a crappy live-action Sleeping Beauty revision. (Not Maleficent: the evil fairy kills the three good fairies at the princess's christening.)
It may have been from the same people as the crappy live-action Snow White I watched last week.
It didn't maintain my attention enough to keep me awake.
Once Luther's done, I'll start Firefly back up.
I gave the Swedish versions a whirl, too. You going to give Wallander a try too, then?
That looks great my kind of thing.
I haven't tried the American versions of Millennium.
Grand Budapest Hotel: I mirror nibbish's opinion
The Fault in Our Stars: I did cry once, but probably not at the part most people would. Too much narration for me, but it wasn't overly preachy, which I liked.
12:01: Made for TV movie about a guy who repeats the same day, trying to save the life of a co-worker. So awful it's amusing, and some of the time travel stuff was fun.
12:01 PM: The original video short based on the original short story. Stars Kurtwood Smith. Much better, more serious, darker. I wish it was longer, though, as the climax could have been better with more time to set it up.
Her: I am in love with this movie. Joaquin's character reminds me so much of me and his character is so genuine I found myself literally bawling by the end of the movie. I'm not sure I've done that before . I also love how the movie doesn't judge, doesn't preach, doesn't get cute. It just sets up a world and the character live in it like they would. I also want that video game with the cute little cursing guy.
Wife and I started Walking Dead. Almost through season 2. It's really awful so far, with a few episodes that are exceptions, but it's still compelling and the makeup is insanely good. Plus we've heard the show gets better, so that helps.
It's not quite as neat as the game in the movie, but the dude who created that did make a mountain simulator called, er, Mountain.
RE: Her - another one I saw recently (can't say if I've commented on it before) and I completely endorse your review...except for the video game part because I don't really play video games.
I saw a lot since the last Movie Day, I think.
Despite Netflix continually hinting to me that I wouldn't like it, I remained compelled by the idea of Stephen King's A Good Marriage and watched it last night. I really had to fight to get to the end. It was the worst movie I've seen in a while. It's impossible to believe, the subtext is so obviously punny and cutesy it's off-putting, and by the end there's literally no character to root for. Joan Allen puts in a mostly bad performance, disappointingly, but the material wouldn't have inspired me either.
I'm up to date, minus one episode, on "Luther." The show is still good but is on a slow and steady decline. The dread of the first season just isn't there. I was truly scared shitless by some of the villains in the first season, and they were still believable. Now it's becoming a somewhat predictable procedural.
I'm up to date, minus one episode, on "The Walking Dead." It's been a very, very slow season, and not one where the character development was so strong that it made for compelling TV. I know the most recent episode is big, and I'm pretty sure it's been spoiled for me, so there's that.
I'm through the sixth episode of season three of "Game of Thrones." Still awesome, of course. I know about a thing that's coming, but watching it come is really, really compelling stuff. I'm trying to figure out whether I'm in love with the character of Daenarys, the actress Emilia Clarke, or both.
I might have brought it up last time, but Guardians of the Galaxy...eh. Pretty - VERY pretty - but kinda threadbare.
"Archer": the first episode of "Archer Vice." Decently funny, and set up what I think is a season with a lot of possibilities.
"Attack on Titan." Six episodes in, this is easily the best dramatic anime I've ever seen. The translation seems to have been done by a writer, and not just some dude who knows both languages. There are a LOT of characters, but the show spends time making them matter. The action is quick and unpredictable, and the show is gorgeous.
I'm confident I saw more movies, but nothing comes to mind.
I added "Titan". Have you ever steered me wrong?
Buyer beware. It's quite violent.
But the titans are so cute!
They remind me a bit of the half-baked Giant Warrior from Nausicaä.
I might have guessed from the image/icon thing.
I watched the first episode, but started to fall asleep after about 10 minutes. Not a good thing with a subtitled show. (Though the same thing happened with Millennium, and I woke back up after five.) I don't blame the show, I blame crashing after hard work finalizing birthday things for AJR and Pinewood Derby cars, one of which I almost ruined.
Zack said "But the titans are so cute!"
What the heck are they? (Don't answer, though.)
Big dumb naked supersized giants that don't all have skin? They seem very childlike and not at all terrifying except for the fact that you can't stop them and they'll eat everyone.
Sally Impossible!
To be honest I don't even really know what they are. I do find that figure kind of hilarious because it's so cute, though. Which is why I bought it before I even started watching the series (which I just did a few months ago).
I saw "My Own Man" on Netflix. I thought it was great. Documentary on manhood, fatherhood, masculinity...
Also watched "Tiny House." It was boring and preachy.
First season of Friday Night Lights. It took a few episodes to get into it but it picked up as the season went on. Family stuff was much more interesting than football stuff.
Guardians of the Galaxy - Good soundtrack. Good action. Not much of a storyline.
I thought "Tiny House" was less boring and preachy than I feared when EAR asked me to watch it.
It wasn't awful. Just not great.
One thing I did enjoy was seeing the innovations to maximize space.
EAR and I both thought "Try having kids in there" and "Winter's gonna be tough."
Ballet 422. Seen in a theater! This is a documentary about Justin Peck, just 25 years old, choreographing "Paz de La Jolla," the 422nd ballet in the history of the New York City Ballet. I suspect it would mainly appeal to ballet lovers (duh) and those generally interested in the creative process. It's very fly on the wall; there are no interviews or moments in which anyone speaks directly to the camera, and I would have found it interesting to get in the head of Peck a bit as well as some of the dancers and musicians, costume designers, lighting designers, etc. However, I did enjoy getting such a holistic look at how the various elements of the ballet all came together.
The interesting thing to me was just how smoothly everything went and how calm everyone seemed to be throughout. I think we sometimes assume that the creative process is always fraught with drama and divas, but this is a look at a group of professionals just doing their thing and working together beautifully. I noticed in particular how willing everyone was to defer to the expertise of others and how much mutual respect was present. Of course this means, there's not as much drama for viewers, but the movie is just 1:15, so I found it plenty engaging as is.
I will have to forward this to the wife.
She might also be interested in the 2009 documentary La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet. New York Times review here.
I think we sometimes assume that the creative process is always fraught with drama and divas
This frustrates me. It's just not. Drama is rare and divas are the exception.
Guess what? I found out this month that I have HBO on my TV. Didn't know that! (Actually, since January only.) Which means, I have HBOGo.
I started watching Curb Your Enthusiasm. I may be 15 years behind the curve, but it's still funny to me.
I still need to watch the last couple seasons. Thanks for the reminder.
Here's a little movie trivia -- see if Spooky can identify the significance of this throwaway teen horror flic: The Burning
stumbled upon it because Rick Wakeman (kinda) did the soundtrack
I see one thing there:
I would not have gotten that. Wow.
Alright folks, if I have to pick one of these movies to watch this evening (and my wife will be watching with me), which would you recommend?
Guardians of the Galaxy
Birdman
Whiplash
St. Vincent
A Most Wanted Man
Guardians.
Seconded. (But I haven't seen any of the other ones.)
Me neither 🙂
Whiplash is supposed to be great. The Boy went from excited to debbie downer on Birdman for some reason.
St. Vincent.
I just watched Turbo, animated about a snail with dreams to win the Indy 500.
An oral history of UHF.
Finished "Luther".
I watched an episode of "House of Cards", seems fun.
"Garfunkle and Oates" is now on Netflix.
I've tried twice now to watch Tinker, Tailor, Sailor, Spy without falling asleep and have failed both times. Maybe I'll try again tonight, but after that I'll quit.
Seems like absolutely nothing happens after the opening scene in Hungary.