61 thoughts on “At The Movies: ‘Tis The Season”

1. Silicon Valley Series Finale

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   ...was mostly a let down. This final season has been kind of hit or miss (the whole Jared's parents thread seemed unnecessarily cruel), but it feels like they wrapped things up way too quickly. I was surprised how fast the season went by, but then I realized it was only 7 episodes. The last episode was okay, but I really didn't like that they end up at the table, again, playing Always Blue or whatever. I mean, I get what they were trying to do, but it didn't land for me.

2. The "Get With It" Marvel endeavor continues. Made some great headway with the fam over Thanksgiving break. I neglected my schoolwork and we made it through Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant Man, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-man: Homecoming, and Doctor Strange. Now just need to get through Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel, Thor: Ragnarok (which is in part the movie I've been wanting to get to all along), and then whatever's after that, I guess...
   While wife and dancer kids were away, non-dancer daughter and I watched How To Train Your Dragon and How To Train Your Dragon 2, so that she can watch the third one sometime. As we were doing this, we wrapped our heads around all the fun movies that she hasn't seen, or did but doesn't remember because she's only 10. Kung Fu Pandas, Madagascar, probably Finding Nemo, all the Ice Ages, Ratatouille, etc, etc. Basically everything before 2014. So that's cool.
   Also saw Frozen II, which was fine. Wife loves Kristin Bell particularly. Feel like they were reeaally trying on the mainstream artist song crossovers (see: Lost In The Woods done as 80's rock ballad by Weezer). But all well and good and better than having to pay attention to the news.

   1. Ragnarok is one of my favorite movies ever, MCU or not. I could easily watch it once a week.

   2. What Mags said. Taika Waititi is a wizard. Also, as I've said before, make Ragnarok and Infinity War a double feature since the former leads directly into the latter.

      1. Did anybody see Jojo Rabbit? I wanted to see it because it was made by they guy who made the movie I hadn't yet seen, but wanted to...

         Double feature suggestion will be strongly considered. Should it not be a triple-feature, what with the Endgame business?

         1. Oooh, I'll get you a copy of my fan edit.

         2. The Boy was decidedly unimpressed with JoJo Rabbit. Nazis are a hard sell as other than bad guys getting blowed up.

            1. And this is why I ended up going to Parasite instead. I’ll still check out Jojo but I know damn well I made the right decision.

         3. I didn't specify a triple feature because, man, that's a loooong night.

            1. My edit opens with the mid-credit scene of Ragnarok, so its only technically longer than a double feature, if only by about 30 seconds

      2. If you guys like Taika Waititi, you REALLY should watch What We Do in the Shadows (the movie) -- he is an outstanding actor. The TV series is also good in its own way.

         1. Is that one streaming anywhere?

            1. It's been out a few years; probably available at your local library. Jemaine Clement is also in it.
               

            2. It was on prime.

               1. It looks like it isn't prime anymore, but it would be 100% worth the rental. One of the funniest movies I've ever seen.

                  Hunt for the Wilderpeople is fantastic as well.

3. Who needs another Star [Anything] movie when season four of The Expanse just dropped?

   1. I just finished the first book in the series (Leviathan Wakes) and really enjoyed it. I'm excited to start the show.

      I probably won't read any more of the books, just because I don't have the time to sink into 8 more 600 page books.

   2. Whelp, there goes my weekend...

      I've read all the books, and they went in completely unexpected directions, in a good way.
      Very, very intrigued to see how they capture some of this story arc visually, but so far I've been very impressed by what they have done and how it matches up to the books. It's not perfect, but I feel the differences are mostly as director's choices and not because they are limited by "how the hell can we do this in special effects?", which is damn impressive.

      I might go back and rewatch the whole series again.

   3. A little of the acting bothered me early on, but the series has been done well and I'm looking forward to the new season.

4. Knives Out was a lot of fun. I already enjoy a good murder mystery, and when the cast looks like their having this much fun (and such a cast, too, my friend and I were laughing about the fact that basically the entire cast is made up of people we want to see in more movies), it makes it easier to get lost in the story that's being built. I'll happily watch this one again, even knowing the details.

   Frozen II is also quite good. Better than the first, I want to say. It's not afraid to get a little dark and deal in some very grown up emotions, but Newbish loved it, and now refuses to acknowledge that any music exists apart from the soundtrack.

   The wife and I have been watching Shameless over the past month, and we're finally hitting the part that everyone warned us about. Basically, the show has run out of plot points for over half its characters, and the whole thing has become a shambling mess. The first few seasons were pretty solid, though.

   We're going to the new Star Wars on Sunday.

   1. Knives Out is definitely on my very short list.

   2. I'm still watching the past season of Shameless but it isn't even close to the same show it was.

      1. I'm not even sure where the tipping point was for me. We're still a full season and a half behind, so it's sort of concerning to me that it has the potential to get worse.

         At least I can't possibly hate Debbie's character more than I already do.......can I?

         1. Not watching the show, but I've been hearing this season has been turrible.

            1. I do think the show still had some funny moments but, overall, turrible is pretty accurate.

         2. I liked Debbie when she was a little girl with a naive love for her father. Now, not so much.

   3. I'm thinking of hitting Knives Out tonight; beats sitting in a hotel room!

   4. Hard co-sign on Knives Out.

      Highly, highly entertaining.

5. I finished The Man in the High Castle this past week. Overall I'd give the series a solid B. Some good stuff, some missed opportunities. Its most compelling characters were murderous enforcers of the German and Japanese control over America. I thought the ending was good, a nice wrap up and everyone got what they ultimately deserved. I'd recommend it for an interesting concept although the first season is a little slow.

6. RE: Frozen 2

   I have strong opinions on this, after being dragged to the theater.

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   Was neither better nor worse than Frozen 1. Was exactly the same. Which is to say, a complete dud. The music was completely banal (at least #1 had that one song which was catchy). They seemed to open about a dozen possible plot doors without later deciding to walk through them, and, as a corollary, they introduced a bunch of characters who served no purpose and added nothing. Oh, I must follow this little gecko thing... nevermind, I got distracted and now we'll go spend half an hour doing other things without ever getting back to this really pressing matter. The actual critical plot itself turns on a purposeless omission (if her mother was the person who rescued her father, why in the world did they tell the version of the story where they didn't know who it was, and also, why did they continue to believe grandpa was some noble guy... that makes less than no sense. That actively sabotages sense in order to set up this stupid mystery plot). Also, the existence of distance in this movie makes no sense. You've got Kristoff and Sven, who are from the ice harvesters, who live way up North, far from Arendelle, and also Elsa's Ice Castle thing was like, way out in the mountains. And now, at the beginning of the movie, this tribe seems to be really far away, because they have no knowledge of them, but by the end everything is like a couple hours' walk away, because the damn threatens the town. And also Elsa has to go all the way to the North Pole or something but then she can just suddenly be back close enough? And also, why did she freeze? How does that make any sense? Anyway, all that said, Olaf was significantly funnier this time, which went a long, long way to balancing the issues that existed. /end rant.

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      Let it go

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         Damn, beat me to it. (although I would posted a video of the song.

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      I do not think your assessment is inaccurate, though I do feel like the first one should get more credit for originality's sake. I expect this one will ultimately be an afterthought. But it was fun to make an event of it and I should do that more often.

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         Originality? It was released at basically the same time as Maleficent which had the exact same twist. I disagree strongly on originality. I would give it credit for actively fighting cliche. Except that I won't, because, in order to get there, it had to lie to the audience (there's an aside between the bad guy prince and the audience that distinctly reveals him to be a good guy. It isn't seen by any character in the movie, just the audience. That is an active betrayal of the audience by the storyteller. I cannot abide that. At least in this context. Pale Fire and other "unreliable narrator" works are acceptable.)

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            I was going to watch Maleficent, but won't bother now, thanks for that. As to the plot detail to which you refer, I thought I had a pretty good handle on the storyline, but don't recall that bit, or feeling deceived, except by my own faulty presumptions. I now guard my tender heart from "innocent" love stories, and knew the whole grandfather thing was going to play out as it did. Also, I was counting the "spirits," they made friends with the wind sprite, salamander, kelpie...were the rock giants somehow embodying the spirit of the earth? Why leave out that element as an ally? I didn't like that loose end as I did my story math.

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               See, for example, the video here: Anna is gone. The only person who Hans smiles for is the audience. That is the narrator telling the audience "here, like Hans, he's a likable guy." They're giving us in the audience extra special information about him. Information that is not true. It is not genuine to the character's motivations or interactions. Indeed, knowing the falsity of his approach, you'd expect him to be super irritated about the falling into the water and her running off, etc.

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                  I'm not a lawyer and I assume they don't make any jokes, but if I was, and if they did, I'd tell you to buy your argument a cheeseburger because that evidence is thiiiiiiiiin!

                  1. I cannot roll my eyes far enough in response.

                     1. oh man, phil's been going on about that for yeeeeaaars.

                        my main beef with frozen is

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                        at the end of the movie, when they're kicking out whoever that ambassador is or whatever, they curtly inform him that the kingdom will no longer be trading with weaseltown. however, as is mentioned throughout the movie, they are each others largest trading partners. such a move would surely crash both of their economies!!!

                        1. See, this is fair, and an excellent point.

                           1. If this movie happened in the real world, sure. But we don't know enough about the economics in this world to presume they're similar to ours. Perhaps the Trolls have gotten tired of foraging and are looking to move to a more commercial form of trade, thus offsetting the loss of Weaseltown.

                              Meanwhile my critique of information actually presented is called thin. There's no reason to give a work of fiction the benefit of the doubt when it lies to you. I would suggest that your objection to my critique is that it requires some level of self reflection ("was I duped?"). And now I'll refrain from making certain political comparisons.

                              (This whole LTE being an exercise in jokingly treating too seriously that which is acknowledged to be frivolous).

                           2. an exercise in jokingly treating too seriously...that which is frivolous ...

                              I wouldn’t want to have it any other way.

7. Has anybody watched the two Netflix movies - Irish Man and Marriage Story?

   I split the Irish Man into half hour chunks. I'm 2.5 hours in. It's a little slow right now but it should be picking up soon.

   I wasn't a big fan of seeing DeNiro playing a 30-year old but otherwise it is good.

   Marriage Story was about Kylo Ren and Black Widow being married. Everlasting happiness ensues.

   I thought the divorce attorneys were the highlight.

   1. I liked The Irishman but it easily could've had 30-40 minutes lopped off. A couple of times I was thinking I was watching a scene from 20 minutes earlier.

      1. Sounds like a lot of Scorsese films I've seen.

8. Runner daughter picked up Disney+ and we've been working through The Mandelorian. The western/sci-fi mix works really well, and it strikes a "Firefly with just a one (and a half) man crew" feel. I kinda like that

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   the Mandelorian's reputation is not really well earned. For the number of times he's been out matched or caught off guard, he's not really a bad @ss. I love his terse conversations.

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      Yeah, there have been a lot of times (especially in this past episode) where I've thought "huh, you're really letting the armor do the heavy lifting, aren't you?".

      I like the low stakes and the "Have Gun Will Travel" feel to it. The non-serialization is a big part of its charm right now.

      1. I've been watching too but mostly due to inertia. Agree about the non-serialization part is nice. Was thinking more like the 70's show Kung Fu

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         Baby Yoda sure is cute though!

         1. It's not great television. What's refreshing is that it doesn't seem to be trying to be that. It's just telling a story set in that universe. I was worried that it would be some heavy handed thing, and instead, it's just a low stakes western that is a nice watch whenever I happen to remember to watch it.

            1. I think that's what I meant by inertia. It's not unpleasant or inane. It just is set in an interesting universe. Also the fact that each episode is about 35 minutes or so means its not a huge investment of time. I'll definitely watch to the end of this season for sure.

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               Plus Baby Yoda, right?

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                  Definitely Baby Yoda.

         2. I like the Kung Fu comparison.

            I'm going to guess that the pilot and the season ender will be the only coherent story lines, and the rest will be standalone, although I wouldn't be surprised to find a two-parter here or there in the future.

            1. I haven't' seen it yet, but the penultimate episode dropped last night and apparently there is a cliffhanger heading into the last episode.

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                  I feel like I would've liked the show to have earned the idea that Mando is just barely escaping by the skin of his teeth (that and his fully invulnerable battle armor) a bit more. I mean, he's had a few close scrapes, but only one has really come as a result of his actions at the beginning of the season. It didn't seem like there was a lot of need (other than, you know, narrative need) to walk into a really obvious trap. That being said, I'll never turn down Giancarlo Esposito is full on "big bad" mode.

9. I'll admit to being curious about the Uncut Gems movie. Sandler with supposedly a good performance and co-starring, uh, Kevin Garnett?

10. Star Wars IX: pretty good. I laughed a lot, though admittedly a couple of times at the movie (heavy layer of cheese in the last half hour). Safe, predictable, fun, very much like Episode III

    1. Trying to decide what part of Anakin getting fried was fun.

       😛

       1. Ugh, I meant VI

    2. Saw Star Wars IX today. Didn't love it. Didn't hate it. I would say it was the best of the final trilogy. But then, VII was the laziest writing ever and VIII was full of plotholes. The latest trilogy is like most action or sci-fi moves these days: full of great action and special effects and fun to watch as long as you don't try to think too much about the plot or character development.

11. The Mandalorian was good fun, and The Expanse is turning out that way, too.

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