At The Movies

Third Monday Movie Day

57 Comments

It was a month of almost exclusively pro wrestling as the writing gig had the possibility of expansion. So if you want to know what happened in a 19-night Japanese tournament, I'm your man.

57 thoughts on “Third Monday Movie Day”

  2. Watched Grave of the Fireflies yesterday, and I have The Intouchables in the queue; working on catching a few of imdb's top films.

    Twin Peaks, GoT, and Rick & Morty episodes keep me busy on Mondays.

    1. GotF: Studio Ghibli meets cruel reality. I have watched this twice, maybe three times. Not something that you desire to watch often.
      I believe it was released as a double-bill with My Neighbor Totoro... oof.

  4. Watching Atypical with the high school kids. Only a few episodes in but it's great. Good mix of heavy and light.

  5. I started watching the original Twin Peaks. I'm about three episodes in and its great. I've heard a lot about the second season going off the rails, but I'll probably power through it anyway.

    I also started watching the new Voltron series and I'm finding that I really, really like it. I sort of watched the old series back in the day, but not enough to where I have major nostalgia for it, but the new series is the right mix of cheese, humor, and action.

    I saw last night that Defenders is out on Netflix, so I'll start watching that soon. I skipped Iron Fist because of all the bad reviews, but I liked the rest of the shows enough to move forward with the ensemble show. I'll wikipedia the Iron Fist back story if i need to.

    I'm up to date on GoT and am enjoying the season.

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    1. I didn't absolutely hate Iron Fist, especially the second half, but the problems were notable. Some of the supporting characters were compelling, at least.

      I started The Defenders in so much as I got to the opening title of the first episode before getting busy. I hope to take lunch breaks the next couple weeks and watch it during those.

      1. I've heard terrible things about IF, and that he drags down The Defenders too.

        Honestly, I'm not real big on any of the Netflix series right now. DD1 was good, but 2 got a little tiresome. I don't like Ritter as an actor, so JJ was "meh" for me personally. At this point, I think the forthcoming Punisher show might end up being my favorite. I like his part of DD2 better than the main storyline.

        1. The first half of Luke Cage was their best show. The second half was probably their worst.

          I think most of the terrible things about Iron Fist are overblown. Bottom line, a character like Danny Rand is going to be as simply naive as he was, and that explains most of what is painful to watch. The fact that he grows as a character is relevant, and, IMO, off-sets at least some of the criticism. The other Defenders are all gritty and cynical, so it makes sense that Iron Fist sticks out.

          1. I am 5 episodes into Luke Cage and really like it. But I don't really care about the super hero part.

      2. I'd guess the latter. Also, maybe it was just me, but that takedown felt cheap ... like too easy somehow.

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  6. Went to Atomic Blonde last week. It was fun, it wasn't as well crafted as the John Wick flicks but it was worth a watch.

    Season 2 of We Bare Bears is up on Hulu now, so J and I started that this weekend. I still love them.

  7. This was something of a shock to myself, but this spring I started watching much more content on YouTube. I even subscribed to a few channels:

    - Binging with Babish (a guy cooks both the literal version & ideal version of dishes from movies & TV; my favorite)
    - The Great War (a week-by-week look at the history of WWI, plus supplemental content; started in 2014, now 400+ videos)
    - Techmoan (rumination & demonstrations of new gadgets & old tech, like cassette tape carousels, proto-smartwatches, portable TVs, & analog Muzak systems)
    - Aeon Video (video outlet for Aeon; my favorite)
    - CGP Grey (if you've been around the Web long enough to find WGOM, you've probably seen his stuff; his most WGOM relevant video)
    - Steve1989MREInfo (a guy eats & reviews new & old military rations – like, really old)
    - The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (filling holes in our language for emotions we experience but lack a word to describe; my favorite)

    1. I'm starting that Great War series. Its pretty interesting, especially because I basically know nothing about WWI (other than how brutal it was). I had no idea just how messed up and crazy the political machinations were that led to everything.

      Only downside is that I keep getting an ad that actively makes me mad for just about every episode. I always try to sit through the ads so the people behind the video gets as much revenue as they can (I think that's how youtube works, anyway) but I just can't with the one.

      1. I know that feeling (Is it for Grammarly? That one's long and annoying.) If I really like the content, I'm open to contributing to a Patreon account and then using an app that blocks the ads.

        1. Its not Grammarly. Its a long one, but my distaste for it is FZ material. It does allow for that ad to be skipped, at least.

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  8. Started watching Keegan-Michael Key and Cobie Smulder's Netflix comedy "Friends From College." The cast is enthusiastic and I enjoy the romantic relationship between Billy Eichner and Fred Savage, but it's a hard show to watch as the primary plot behind the show is Key's infidelity. And I just have a hard time watching with the mixture of comedy and infidelity; I suppose it can be done well, but in this case it just makes me queasy.

  9. After a half-week of camping, EAR suggested a “no TV” week, and since all our consumption is on-demand or on-disc, I had no problem with that. It finished Sunday.

    Before the camping and no-TVing, I went on a bit of a Werner Herzog binge. (These are all on NetFlix.)
    It started with the new scripted film, “Salt and Fire”, which is weird and slow and awkward. It’s all delivered through long speeches. It reminded me of Woody Allen’s “Celebrity”, in which Kenneth Branagh plays his character as if it were acted by Woody Allen. This movie might have been better if those speeches were Werner Herzog voiceovers. I would not recommend it for Herzog dabblers. I probably won’t watch it again. You can get the best parts of this, way better in the next two documentaries.

    Then I went to “Encounters at the End of the World”, a documentary about humans in Antarctica. I had watched parts of it before, but not in its entirety. This is absolutely fantastic. You may be familiar with the lost penguin scene, but there are so many great scenes and Herzog’s voiceover dry wit, and… yeah. It’s rated G and must have seen a theatrical release. I’m fascinated with the idea that some parents may have taken their kids to see it thinking it a nature documentary, only to give their kids existential dread with a German accent. I joked to EAR that it’s rated “Either G or R”.

    I followed that up with “Into the Inferno”, which begins where “Encounters” ends: at the Mt. Erebus volcano. One of the volcanologists Herzog met there works kindof as a co-host here, doing at least some of the interviewing. I think I need to finish this one.

    I’ve also started “Cave of Forgotten Dreams”, which explores a cave with extensive cave-art in France that’s closed to the public to prevent degradation. So far, I’ve been captivated (but then we left for camping).

    Before these, all I’d watched from Herzog were “Grizzly Man” and “Happy People” (that latter of which is no longer on NetFlix). I highly recommend both.

    1. There are a few more Herzog films in my queue, but probably ones I can't really pass off as kid-friendly for watching while the kids are awake. (I think these are all documentaries as well... no other scripted films from Herzog on NetFlix.)

      One cool benefit of watching these is the NetFlix recommendations. Like last night, I watched “Houston… We have a Problem”, which is facially a historical documentary about the Yugoslav and American space exploration programs, with Commentary from Slavoj Žižek.

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    2. Werner Herzog! I like him. I'll have to check out "Encounters" and "Inferno", those sound up my alley. I still have a DVD subscription, so I saw "Fizcarraldo" a couple years back--I recommend it if you are into big, long epic films that aren't entirely plot driven. I haven't checked recently but I don't think it's available streaming. I really want to see "Burden of Dreams" as well, since the making of "Fizcarraldo" must have been pretty incredible. I'd like to see "Aguirre, Wrath of God" again at some point, too.

    3. I didn't dislike "Happy People" but I was a little disappointed. I think the title was too misleading.

      "Grizzly Man" is one of those movies that I can't stop watching if I happen to flip by it. I definitely went from cheering for the guy to cheering for the Grizzly by the end.

  10. I'm still working my way through the most recent season of "Doctor Who" and the only season of "Class". I think I'm seven episodes into the former and six into the latter.

    Doctor Who continues to have a fine season. It's too bad that Peter Capaldi's first season featured some really bad stories. I think it soured some people on his doctor, although the stories weren't his fault. Last year and this year he's getting the chance to show what he can do, and it's been very good.

    Class continues to be not very good. The fourth and fifth episodes were better, in that at least some things happened, but in the sixth one we were back to everyone standing around talking about their feelings. Rhu_Ru always reminds me that it's aimed at young people, and I know that, but to young people really like shows where people stand around talking about their feelings? Maybe they do--after all, it's a very long time since I've been a young person. But I wouldn't have thought so.

      1. That doesn't help, but I think the main problem with "Class" is that the main characters just aren't very interesting.

      2. I will say, though, that one problem with the school setting is that it looks like this school gets invaded by hostile aliens on pretty much a weekly basis and only a handful of people appear to notice.

        1. I still haven't figured out how they so easily pass off the deaths of classmates throughout the school year. It took 35 years before I lost my first classmate.

  11. I've become a bit obsessed by the Barkley Marathons recently, and I was thrilled to find the documentary on Netflix. There are some basic moving making decisions I would change, but overall it was a good watch. I'm trying to convince dr. Chop to go with me to see the actual event next year.

  12. I finished "The Leftovers" season three (aka the final season) yesterday and I just loved it. I highly recommend it.

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  13. More about my viewing habits: I've found myself watching parts of movies more frequently, then switching to another movie for a while. Maybe my attention is dragging, or I'm getting sleepy and need a change of pace (or to go to bed).
    Like people who read several books simultaneously, I'm often watching several movies. I think I started by watching one thing before my kids went to bed, then another with EAR before she fell asleep, then another that really isn't anyone else's suit.
    Anti-binge watching. I want time to mull over a fraction of the movie before coming back. I'm finding it particularly helpful on subtitled films where a little sleepiness distraction and you've got to back up to catch it.

    Last night I started another documentary, "Barbecue", about different countries' cultural meanings behind cooking meat over fires. All told through interviews. So far, it's just one country at a time.
    South Africa (Black and Afrikaans barbecuers interspersed, even though they might as well have been different countries), Japan, Australia*, Mongolia**, Sweden, and the Philippines so far.
    I think the Black South African looks the best, but it's probably too spicy for my luck.
    *White Aussies. It's an Aussie-produced film, so I'm hoping there's a chance for Aboriginal BBQ later.
    **Marmots and goats are cooked by deboning the animal through the neck, putting hot rocks in the inside, and stitching up the neck. Then torches are used to burn off the hair. At one point, a man inflates the marmot skin and meat by blowing into it like a balloon.
    There's no voice-over, all told in people's native language with subtitles (except for the Aussies, even though an American audience could use it... I think I found the Black South Africans just as understandable).
    It's so much what I look for in cultural documentaries (in my mental taxonomy, it's a different category than "Nature" and "Werner Herzog" documentaries): whatever points are to be made come out of the mouths of the subjects.

  14. I have now watched the first three episodes of The Defenders and it is completely awesome so far.

  15. My Guardians of the Galaxy 2 blu-ray came yesterday, so I watched it this afternoon. I can confirm that I still love it.

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