Deadpool: I liked it a lot more than I expected to. I'm extremely picky about what I find funny, and what is an immediate turn off. There were a lot of jokes that went places I didn't like, but I enjoyed the film in spite of that which is not common. Negasonic Teenage Warhead was the best.
10 Cloverfield Lane: Hell of a performance by John Goodman, and really the entire cast. This was a fun, creepy flick. I didn't watch Cloverfield prior to seeing this, and I honestly don't think it's necessary.
Grand Piano: I saw this referred to as "Die Hard at a piano" and we dropped everything to watch it. It's as stupid as it sounds (pianist needs to play perfectly or a sniper will shoot him!), but I liked it regardless.
The Last Witch Hunter: Aggressively stupid, but enjoyable. Vin Diesel is a national treasure.
Tokyo Tribe: A Japanese rap musical about a one night gang war in Tokyo. I've had a refrain from it stuck in my head for days: "N-Town Doggz, baby! NEGIMUTHAFUCKAZ!" It's... something else.
Person of Interest, Season 1: I've watched the first 14 or 15 episodes of the first season and I'm enjoying it a lot. It's a nice, easy show to watch while I do homework or other things, but it's clever enough that it has its hooks deep into me.
Deadpool and Kung Fu Panda 3 are the ones still in theaters I'd like to see. And I should probably rewatch Age of Ultron if I"m going to go to Captain America: Civil War. I have to say, the MCU is starting to get too expansive for me to keep track of, especially now I'm not living la vida bachelor any more.
I watched some pretty good ones over the past week, all on NetFlix:
Man Up, a romantic comedy with Simon Pegg. Could be the most enjoyable romcom I've ever watched. EAR agreed that it was good, so a satisfactory "compromise" suggestion that's no compromise.
Gored, a documentary in Spanish (with subtitles) about the record-holding most-gored matador, on the days leading up to his announced final corrida. The story could be about any aging athlete, particularly one that never quite lived up to his promise, in part due to injury. I was fascinated by the actual presentation of the "sport", which appeared to me to be a lot of physically-demanding and life-risking posing. Lots of real blood, from humans and bulls. A bit, but not that deep into the ethics.
Finding Vivian Maier, an American documentary about a photographer whose work wasn't known until a box of her negatives were purchased at an estate sale, and piecing together her life from her photos, and personal notes, with interviews from people that knew her before her passing.
Memories of the Sword, a Korean swordfighting film (watched with subtitles) . Some great scenes, imagery, but overall it feels like a series of those. Some important connections between scenes are missing, and it's hard to see what's flashback and what isn't. It could be that I missed some clues. I liked watching the Korean-ness of it, trying to see what was different than similar eras that I've seen presented in Chinese and Japanese films.
A Royal Affair, a Danish period drama (watched with subtitles), starring new Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander. About Denmark's Queen Caroline-Matilda, it comes across as a hybrid of Anna Karenina and the TV series Reign.
Also took the older two kids to the new Star Wars movie last weekend. Their first PG-13 in a theater!
We're looking at Spain for the honeymoon. I'm torn on whether I want to go to a corrida or not.
We went in Seville two years ago, and I thought it was interesting. Sure, it's not very humane, but neither are a bunch of other things...
Ronda, in the south, is the epicenter of bull-fighting. Their sauces, and Roman bridges weren't too bad, also.
I get Good Friday off. My plan was to watch as much of "Daredevil" season 2 as possible, but I'm going with FW out of town instead.
Stuff out on Redbox I'd like to get to soon - Spectre, Mockingjay Pt 2, Mad Max, The Kingsmen
Mr. Nobody - Netflix recommended it, and they were right. I adored this film, and it really hit a philosophical issue I've wrestled with throughout my life. How to choose a path, when there are so many, and when you don't know, and wishing you could explore those other paths, etc. Very cool. I highly recommend it. But don't be expecting it to be light.
Daredevil - I've seen some headlines suggesting this season isn't all that great. I'm three episodes in and I disagree whole-heartedly. If anything, it's better than the first. Doesn't have the emotional depth of Jessica Jones, of course, but I don't think anything else will, so...
Lots of kids movies. I rewatched Mulan the other day. That was better than I remembered. Oh, and I finished MLP:FIM Season 5 last night. That was alright. I felt like the arc of the final episode had kind of already been done, but, hey, what else are you going to do? Friendship is magic.
I recently found a Mulan doll at Target. I think it was the first time I'd ever seen one (outside of a 9-princess set). I bought it. For myself, I guess.
Same with Pocahontas.
I haven't watched a whole lot recently. I'm three episodes into Daredevil season 2 and so far so good. My wife is going out of town this weekend, so I should have plenty of time to finish it up as long as I can get the durned kids to nap.
I've seen a few things since the end of January... Spy - Better than I expected a Melissa McCarthy movie to be. That's not saying much, but at least it subverted some of her usual tropes a little. Meh. Deadpool - Slows down a little when it explores his origin, but bookends it with quality mayhem and hilarity. I enjoyed myself quite a bit more than I thought I might.
The Internship - Yeah, me neither. It's exactly the inoffensive shrug that you think it is. It's also a 90 minute Google ad, so there's that.
The Maze Runner - Better than average YA dystopia-as-high-school-parable nonsense, but my biggest problem was...
I don't see any way that there will be a valid explanation or reason for any of the events of the movie. The idea that the needed to test their minds makes no real sense. Plus, as Linds noted, it's a little silly to spend SO much time worldbuilding the life within the glen when all of that world is made fairly irrelevant by the end twist.
I dunno. It was fine.
If you're not watching Better Call Saul, you should do that immediately. It doesn't matter at all if you haven't seen Breaking Bad. It doesn't matter if you HAVE seen Breaking Bad and thought it was rubbish. This is a very different show. Season two is on a seriously great run.
Still watching Supernatural all these years later (through season 2 now!). It's fun.
Walking Dead has been crazy hit and miss lately, with some of the show's best episodes (the recent one with Carol and Maggie) nestled deep within arcs that don't go anywhere (or worse, in some cases, seem to refuse to start for so long that they're just spinning and spinning. At least that might be over now?)
Watched through The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and I have serious mixed feelings about it. It's all well and good up until her (step)dad shows up, and from there, it introduces three of my least favorite characters in television history, with her dad leading the way. I get that it's supposed to be slapstick and goofy, but the guy is too stupid to live.
The lawyer characters are horrible. Yes, I understand that they're poking fun at Marcia Clark/Christopher Darden. It doesn't matter. Not funny. Between their endless involvement and that horrible, godawful idiot of a (step)dad, it destroyed all the goodwill (which was quite a bit)I had for this show. Every single character takes a running leap off stupidity mountain and never returns. Jon Hamm is funny as the preacher. That's about all I can say for the last three or four episodes
It doesn't matter if you HAVE seen Breaking Bad and thought it was rubbish.
I would argue it does matter, just maybe not for whether you should watch BCS or not.
Point.
Still, even if you didn't like Breaking Bad, the tone is so different in BCS that it had no bearing on whether you'll like Saul or not.
I like BB (although I think the last season got a little overpraised) but I'm liking BCS more. Largely because I find Jimmy a character I am personally able to identify with entirely more than Walt.
I will say that the first season was mostly good, but partially hit or miss for me, and had a dryish stretch in the middle where I was waiting for all the Chuck stuff to build to something.
The writers have paid that debt in full and then some. I have loved every episode this season.
I'll pile on. If the show keeps up this pace I may end up eventually saying I like it more than Breaking Bad (which is my favorite show of all-time).
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation - Both this and Spectre were very similar in that they brought back it's most famous villain organizations to rebirth. MI did a much better job than Bond, though. Loved this movie as much, if not a little better than Ghost Protocol, which was superb. Life of Pi - Read the book, thought it was decent. Movie was okay. My wife couldn't handle the animal attack scenes. I looked later and saw that it was rated PG. Heh... Captain America: The Winter Soldier - I'm really digging the Marvel Cinematic Universe right now. I'm hyped for Civil War so I thought I'd better see this one. Great action movie. Loved Falcon. Ant-Man - More MCU. Funny movie. Paul Rudd was an unusual choice, but I thought he did a fair job. A little more suspension of disbelief for this one, and not as good as other MCU movies, but the humor made it tolerable.
I'm in the middle of several shows right now including Better Call Saul, Orphan Black, House of Cards.
I'm not sure if my Team Cappy campaigning is gaining any headway or not.
Saw quite a few things since the last month, but sitting here in Omaha I'm hard pressed to remember.
Venture Bros -- this season is pushing up the bar once more. After recently ridding itself of some characters (many of them good ones), they're doing a great job of highlighting all the favorites and several new ones.
The Zero Theorem -- like David Lynch, Terry Gilliam is a guilty pleasure of mine, but while his vision and ideas don't disappoint, his stories can and do. Great acting though.
Echo every single word of praise nibbs had for Better Call Saul, because this season is beyond tremendous.
I'm a few episodes into the new House of Cards and I haven't bailed yet. I thought season 3 was awful and was not going to give this one much slack, but so far I'm still sticking around.
I'm halfway through Terriers. I totally get why no one watched it, but it's really good. Also the guy who played Ted Beneke sure is typecast as someone who suffers from random head injuries.
Continuing my random Steve McQueen kick, I watched The Great Escape. Lots of it was great, some of it wasn't. (I loved Richard Attenborough's character, but didn't care that much about McQueen or Charles Bronson.)
Tritto on Better Call Saul.
I'm one one of the few who liked House of Cards S.3. I thought Underwood being President was fun. I'm through 5 episodes in S.4. I'll stick through it but I also read reviews and knows what happens.
Finally got around to seeing the first half of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries. Entertaining, if kinda stupid.
Deadpool was laugh-out-loud raunchy fun.
Seeing Batman v. Superman Thursday night with the kids.
I know whose team I'm on in that epic confrontation, too
Wonder Woman's, duh.
It's really weird, as much as I'm latching onto the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I have NO desire to see Batman vs. Superman. I don't know what it is. I liked Nolan's Batman trilogy well enough, I'm just not feeling the hype for this one.
Because that's DC!
HJ, I posted Movie Day twice. Any ideas on where those posts went, since this isn't mine?
Never mind. Monday's is in draft status and Tuesday's was set up as a CoC. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooo
My wife turned on the new Pee-Wee Herman movie. I did laugh out loud a couple of times. So effing bizarre.
Spectre - Skyfall was one of my favorite movies of the past five years and was so hopeful for Spectre ... something just rang false with it and it was "fine" rather than amazing.
The Change-Up - Basically Freaky Friday but with dudes rather than mother-daughter. It was pretty raunchy, but I laughed here and there.
Pitch Perfect 2 - This was a lot of fun. I don't really remember the first one, but my wife added this to the queue and it showed up, so we watched it. The story is pretty meh, but the songs & performances were fun.
A Walk Among the Tombstones & Taken 3 - Liam's projects are basically indistinguishable at this point, but I enjoy the formula and still watch 'em and they keep getting made, so likely he doesn't care that he's the same dude in every role.
End of the Tour - I'm on the library wait list for IJ, so I'm not participating in the read-along. However, I would definitely recommend this movie for those of you who are, and anyone else who likes smart conversations about people. The Rotten Tomatoes take:
Brilliantly performed and smartly unconventional, The End of the Tour pays fitting tribute to a singular talent while offering profoundly poignant observations on the human condition.
Walking Dead: Season 6 - We haven't yet watched last Sunday's episode, but I just inadvertently had something spoiled while trying to look up a character... gah! I'll say no more than that we've enjoyed the season thus far - some good episodes and some alright episodes, but no clunkers as far as I can recall.
Love & Mercy - Biopic about Brian Wilson's (Beach Boys) musical genius/mental health issues, told in a very interesting & satisfying way. Starring John Cusack and Paul Dano as '80's and '60's Brian (Dano was amazing) and directed by Bill Pohlad.
Tomorrowland - very cool premise and visuals that were unsupported by the dialogue & characters ... hollow.
Amy - I feel like I've talked about this one here, but I can't find it. The disc arrived the week before the Oscars and when we watched it, we didn't know it had been nominated. It was a very enjoyable/sad movie which completely reshaped my perspective on Amy Winehouse; made me appreciate her music even more, but saddened me to see how much differently her life could have turned out.
Pitch Perfect is one of our favorite movies. We watch it probably bi-weekly. PP2 was alright, but not near as good as the first.
I don't know the context of when this track played in the series, but this is outstanding TV soundtrack music
Cool visual charts showing a scene by scene examination of the truthfulness in a number of recent "Based on a true story" movies.
SPOILER: The Imitation Game was not so truthy.
This is a fantastic use of the internet
My favorite part is that you can select your pedantry level.
As far as I'm concerned, no.
Deadpool: I liked it a lot more than I expected to. I'm extremely picky about what I find funny, and what is an immediate turn off. There were a lot of jokes that went places I didn't like, but I enjoyed the film in spite of that which is not common. Negasonic Teenage Warhead was the best.
10 Cloverfield Lane: Hell of a performance by John Goodman, and really the entire cast. This was a fun, creepy flick. I didn't watch Cloverfield prior to seeing this, and I honestly don't think it's necessary.
Grand Piano: I saw this referred to as "Die Hard at a piano" and we dropped everything to watch it. It's as stupid as it sounds (pianist needs to play perfectly or a sniper will shoot him!), but I liked it regardless.
The Last Witch Hunter: Aggressively stupid, but enjoyable. Vin Diesel is a national treasure.
Tokyo Tribe: A Japanese rap musical about a one night gang war in Tokyo. I've had a refrain from it stuck in my head for days: "N-Town Doggz, baby! NEGIMUTHAFUCKAZ!" It's... something else.
Person of Interest, Season 1: I've watched the first 14 or 15 episodes of the first season and I'm enjoying it a lot. It's a nice, easy show to watch while I do homework or other things, but it's clever enough that it has its hooks deep into me.
Deadpool and Kung Fu Panda 3 are the ones still in theaters I'd like to see. And I should probably rewatch Age of Ultron if I"m going to go to Captain America: Civil War. I have to say, the MCU is starting to get too expansive for me to keep track of, especially now I'm not living la vida bachelor any more.
I watched some pretty good ones over the past week, all on NetFlix:
Man Up, a romantic comedy with Simon Pegg. Could be the most enjoyable romcom I've ever watched. EAR agreed that it was good, so a satisfactory "compromise" suggestion that's no compromise.
Gored, a documentary in Spanish (with subtitles) about the record-holding most-gored matador, on the days leading up to his announced final corrida. The story could be about any aging athlete, particularly one that never quite lived up to his promise, in part due to injury. I was fascinated by the actual presentation of the "sport", which appeared to me to be a lot of physically-demanding and life-risking posing. Lots of real blood, from humans and bulls. A bit, but not that deep into the ethics.
Finding Vivian Maier, an American documentary about a photographer whose work wasn't known until a box of her negatives were purchased at an estate sale, and piecing together her life from her photos, and personal notes, with interviews from people that knew her before her passing.
Memories of the Sword, a Korean swordfighting film (watched with subtitles) . Some great scenes, imagery, but overall it feels like a series of those. Some important connections between scenes are missing, and it's hard to see what's flashback and what isn't. It could be that I missed some clues. I liked watching the Korean-ness of it, trying to see what was different than similar eras that I've seen presented in Chinese and Japanese films.
A Royal Affair, a Danish period drama (watched with subtitles), starring new Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander. About Denmark's Queen Caroline-Matilda, it comes across as a hybrid of Anna Karenina and the TV series Reign.
Also took the older two kids to the new Star Wars movie last weekend. Their first PG-13 in a theater!
We're looking at Spain for the honeymoon. I'm torn on whether I want to go to a corrida or not.
We went in Seville two years ago, and I thought it was interesting. Sure, it's not very humane, but neither are a bunch of other things...
Ronda, in the south, is the epicenter of bull-fighting. Their sauces, and Roman bridges weren't too bad, also.
I get Good Friday off. My plan was to watch as much of "Daredevil" season 2 as possible, but I'm going with FW out of town instead.
Stuff out on Redbox I'd like to get to soon - Spectre, Mockingjay Pt 2, Mad Max, The Kingsmen
Mr. Nobody - Netflix recommended it, and they were right. I adored this film, and it really hit a philosophical issue I've wrestled with throughout my life. How to choose a path, when there are so many, and when you don't know, and wishing you could explore those other paths, etc. Very cool. I highly recommend it. But don't be expecting it to be light.
Daredevil - I've seen some headlines suggesting this season isn't all that great. I'm three episodes in and I disagree whole-heartedly. If anything, it's better than the first. Doesn't have the emotional depth of Jessica Jones, of course, but I don't think anything else will, so...
Lots of kids movies. I rewatched Mulan the other day. That was better than I remembered. Oh, and I finished MLP:FIM Season 5 last night. That was alright. I felt like the arc of the final episode had kind of already been done, but, hey, what else are you going to do? Friendship is magic.
I recently found a Mulan doll at Target. I think it was the first time I'd ever seen one (outside of a 9-princess set). I bought it. For myself, I guess.
Same with Pocahontas.
I haven't watched a whole lot recently. I'm three episodes into Daredevil season 2 and so far so good. My wife is going out of town this weekend, so I should have plenty of time to finish it up as long as I can get the durned kids to nap.
I've seen a few things since the end of January...
Spy - Better than I expected a Melissa McCarthy movie to be. That's not saying much, but at least it subverted some of her usual tropes a little. Meh.
Deadpool - Slows down a little when it explores his origin, but bookends it with quality mayhem and hilarity. I enjoyed myself quite a bit more than I thought I might.
The Internship - Yeah, me neither. It's exactly the inoffensive shrug that you think it is. It's also a 90 minute Google ad, so there's that.
The Maze Runner - Better than average YA dystopia-as-high-school-parable nonsense, but my biggest problem was...
I dunno. It was fine.
If you're not watching Better Call Saul, you should do that immediately. It doesn't matter at all if you haven't seen Breaking Bad. It doesn't matter if you HAVE seen Breaking Bad and thought it was rubbish. This is a very different show. Season two is on a seriously great run.
Still watching Supernatural all these years later (through season 2 now!). It's fun.
Walking Dead has been crazy hit and miss lately, with some of the show's best episodes (the recent one with Carol and Maggie) nestled deep within arcs that don't go anywhere (or worse, in some cases, seem to refuse to start for so long that they're just spinning and spinning. At least that might be over now?)
Watched through The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and I have serious mixed feelings about it. It's all well and good up until her (step)dad shows up, and from there, it introduces three of my least favorite characters in television history, with her dad leading the way. I get that it's supposed to be slapstick and goofy, but the guy is too stupid to live.
It doesn't matter if you HAVE seen Breaking Bad and thought it was rubbish.
I would argue it does matter, just maybe not for whether you should watch BCS or not.
Point.
Still, even if you didn't like Breaking Bad, the tone is so different in BCS that it had no bearing on whether you'll like Saul or not.
I like BB (although I think the last season got a little overpraised) but I'm liking BCS more. Largely because I find Jimmy a character I am personally able to identify with entirely more than Walt.
I will say that the first season was mostly good, but partially hit or miss for me, and had a dryish stretch in the middle where I was waiting for all the Chuck stuff to build to something.
The writers have paid that debt in full and then some. I have loved every episode this season.
I'll pile on. If the show keeps up this pace I may end up eventually saying I like it more than Breaking Bad (which is my favorite show of all-time).
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation - Both this and Spectre were very similar in that they brought back it's most famous villain organizations to rebirth. MI did a much better job than Bond, though. Loved this movie as much, if not a little better than Ghost Protocol, which was superb.
Life of Pi - Read the book, thought it was decent. Movie was okay. My wife couldn't handle the animal attack scenes. I looked later and saw that it was rated PG. Heh...
Captain America: The Winter Soldier - I'm really digging the Marvel Cinematic Universe right now. I'm hyped for Civil War so I thought I'd better see this one. Great action movie. Loved Falcon.
Ant-Man - More MCU. Funny movie. Paul Rudd was an unusual choice, but I thought he did a fair job. A little more suspension of disbelief for this one, and not as good as other MCU movies, but the humor made it tolerable.
I'm in the middle of several shows right now including Better Call Saul, Orphan Black, House of Cards.
I'm not sure if my Team Cappy campaigning is gaining any headway or not.
Saw quite a few things since the last month, but sitting here in Omaha I'm hard pressed to remember.
Venture Bros -- this season is pushing up the bar once more. After recently ridding itself of some characters (many of them good ones), they're doing a great job of highlighting all the favorites and several new ones.
The Zero Theorem -- like David Lynch, Terry Gilliam is a guilty pleasure of mine, but while his vision and ideas don't disappoint, his stories can and do. Great acting though.
Echo every single word of praise nibbs had for Better Call Saul, because this season is beyond tremendous.
I'm a few episodes into the new House of Cards and I haven't bailed yet. I thought season 3 was awful and was not going to give this one much slack, but so far I'm still sticking around.
I'm halfway through Terriers. I totally get why no one watched it, but it's really good. Also the guy who played Ted Beneke sure is typecast as someone who suffers from random head injuries.
Continuing my random Steve McQueen kick, I watched The Great Escape. Lots of it was great, some of it wasn't. (I loved Richard Attenborough's character, but didn't care that much about McQueen or Charles Bronson.)
Tritto on Better Call Saul.
I'm one one of the few who liked House of Cards S.3. I thought Underwood being President was fun. I'm through 5 episodes in S.4. I'll stick through it but I also read reviews and knows what happens.
Finally got around to seeing the first half of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries. Entertaining, if kinda stupid.
Deadpool was laugh-out-loud raunchy fun.
Seeing Batman v. Superman Thursday night with the kids.
I know whose team I'm on in that epic confrontation, too
Wonder Woman's, duh.
It's really weird, as much as I'm latching onto the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I have NO desire to see Batman vs. Superman. I don't know what it is. I liked Nolan's Batman trilogy well enough, I'm just not feeling the hype for this one.
Because that's DC!
HJ, I posted Movie Day twice. Any ideas on where those posts went, since this isn't mine?
Never mind. Monday's is in draft status and Tuesday's was set up as a CoC. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooo
My wife turned on the new Pee-Wee Herman movie. I did laugh out loud a couple of times. So effing bizarre.
Spectre - Skyfall was one of my favorite movies of the past five years and was so hopeful for Spectre ... something just rang false with it and it was "fine" rather than amazing.
The Change-Up - Basically Freaky Friday but with dudes rather than mother-daughter. It was pretty raunchy, but I laughed here and there.
Pitch Perfect 2 - This was a lot of fun. I don't really remember the first one, but my wife added this to the queue and it showed up, so we watched it. The story is pretty meh, but the songs & performances were fun.
A Walk Among the Tombstones & Taken 3 - Liam's projects are basically indistinguishable at this point, but I enjoy the formula and still watch 'em and they keep getting made, so likely he doesn't care that he's the same dude in every role.
End of the Tour - I'm on the library wait list for IJ, so I'm not participating in the read-along. However, I would definitely recommend this movie for those of you who are, and anyone else who likes smart conversations about people. The Rotten Tomatoes take:
Walking Dead: Season 6 - We haven't yet watched last Sunday's episode, but I just inadvertently had something spoiled while trying to look up a character... gah! I'll say no more than that we've enjoyed the season thus far - some good episodes and some alright episodes, but no clunkers as far as I can recall.
Love & Mercy - Biopic about Brian Wilson's (Beach Boys) musical genius/mental health issues, told in a very interesting & satisfying way. Starring John Cusack and Paul Dano as '80's and '60's Brian (Dano was amazing) and directed by Bill Pohlad.
Tomorrowland - very cool premise and visuals that were unsupported by the dialogue & characters ... hollow.
Amy - I feel like I've talked about this one here, but I can't find it. The disc arrived the week before the Oscars and when we watched it, we didn't know it had been nominated. It was a very enjoyable/sad movie which completely reshaped my perspective on Amy Winehouse; made me appreciate her music even more, but saddened me to see how much differently her life could have turned out.
Pitch Perfect is one of our favorite movies. We watch it probably bi-weekly. PP2 was alright, but not near as good as the first.
I don't know the context of when this track played in the series, but this is outstanding TV soundtrack music
Cool visual charts showing a scene by scene examination of the truthfulness in a number of recent "Based on a true story" movies.
SPOILER: The Imitation Game was not so truthy.
This is a fantastic use of the internet
My favorite part is that you can select your pedantry level.