At The Movies: Summer Stock

Hey, we haven't done one of these in awhile. Not sure if it can quite be considered a summer blockbuster, but I watched Chris Pine doing his best Jason Bateman impression in the new D&D movie. Wasn't bad. What big summer movies were you able to go out and see? What have you been watching in general?

37 thoughts on “At The Movies: Summer Stock”

  1. Frankly we should all just be watching Reservation Dogs. Only 3 more episodes after tonights. Easy to catch up however, they are only 25 minutes long. What a wonderful show, nearly every episode has me busting a gut laughing and wiping poignant tears away from my face.

  2. I watched Hijack on Apple. First few episodes are good but gets a little ridiculous as it goes on.

    I liked the recent season of Justified. Not great but good.

    1. Hijack's first few episodes were more grounded, but they spun their wheels whenever Idris Elba wasn't on the screen. The last few episodes were ridiculous, but they didn't have that problem, at least.

      It was fun. My wife and I liked it.

  3. I watched The Flash recently when mrsS had an evening meeting.

    It was not as terrible as I had been led to believe. I was mildly entertained. But if this is the best that DC can do with the multiverse....

    We are caught up (almost) on Only Murders. Still fun.

    I finished the six eps of Secret Invasion. Reasonably satisfying, although I am sad that they killed off

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    Started watching Ahsoka. [Shrug emoji]

    Really? A map? This again?

  4. I've been meaning to for awhile, but I randomly decided to start watching The Leftovers last night. Got through the first two episodes. It's certainly intriguing, but if everyone wasn't saying it's one of the better shows ever made, I'm not sure if I would keep going for much longer. I can't quite describe why, but it feels a little hokey. Again though, it's got enough street cred that I'll keep watching.

    1. Leftovers is one of my first shows ever, but admittedly the ideas and weirdness is right up my alley. Try to power through the first season, it's a bit of a grind.

      1. I find the first season the most compelling, personally. I think it’s aged well enough through the pandemic — it’s not hard at all for me to believe you would have these more or less opposing factions of society after a big, unexplained tragedy, considering it’s easy enough for that to happen when we can explain the tragedy. The music in that season is just perfection, too.

  5. I've watched episode 1 of the latest What We Do in the Shadows. Need to get moving on the season because its one of, or maybe the, funniest show ever made.

    I more or less enjoyed the first season of the Wheel of Time. It was fine. So I watched the first three episodes of season 2 and it continues the streak of being fine. If it can keep up being ok, I'll be happy enough.

    Movie-wise, I convinced my wife to watch The Menu, which is still excellent on a second watch. I also got her to watch Deadstream, which I find to be a very fun found footage movie for our current time period. Highly recommended. We also watched Unfriended which was much better than I expected. I was surprised it was made pre-pandemic because it probably works better after it.

    1. I more or less enjoyed the first season of the Wheel of Time. It was fine. So I watched the first three episodes of season 2 and it continues the streak of being fine. If it can keep up being ok, I'll be happy enough.

      As a guy who started reading the Wheel of Time over 30 years ago, I was excited and worried about it being converted to a series on the small screen. I just finished the 3 episodes from season 2 and I am a bit more "meh", then "fine". I am trying really hard to give it a chance, and typically not too critical on films. Right now I just feel that it was underproduced and under funded. You would think for with an $80 million budget in season 1, they could have polished it up a bit more. Probably the biggest miss in my opinion is the costume and make up for the Loial character. I am hoping it all gets better.

      1. I basically meant "meh" with my use of italics on "fine". I found it at least entertaining enough to keep watching, at any rate.

        1. Yea, I am debating whether season 2 is worth my time. I was very underwhelmed by season 1. Too many weird changes from the source material.

    2. Just watched the episode from the latest season of WWSITS where Colin Robinson runs for comptroller. The scene with the other vampires might be the funniest thing I've ever. I had to pause because I was laughing so hard and tearing up.

      1. This seems like a good time to remind everyone of Mark Prosch tricking local news around the midwest that he was a master yo-yo'er. The first one is channel 3 in Madison, which is the morning news we use to watch and I remember when this happened.

  6. Runner daughter and I have a plethora of shows that we watch: Ahsoka, What We Do in the Shadows, Archer, Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, Secret Invasion, Futurama, etc., plus Mrs Runner joins us on Only Murders in the Building. On my own, I watch ST: Strange New Worlds, ST: Lower Decks, Flash, Dick Town, etc. Lastly, the finale movie to Venture Bros was excellent.

    Movie-wise I've seen Oppenheimer, Swiss Army Man, Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time (very good documentary), Junk Head, etc, and should have lots of time to watch a several others, nasty Paxlovid taste notwithstanding.

  7. We finished Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Alex Borstein carries that show so hard and is the only character that has a not-obnoxious character arc. That said, Tony Shalhoub is amazing, as always.

    Saw Elemental with the kids. Meh. Most formulaic Pixar movie I've seen.

    Finished Strange New Worlds, season 2. Uneven season. Other than the doctor, I don't really care that much about any of the characters yet. They still feel mostly like cardboard cutouts to me and I'm not sure why. That said, the show is definitely funny.

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  8. TV watching plummeted in the 2nd half of the summer. We finished Season 2 of Only Murders. It just feels like everything at that show must be such a well-oiled machine.

    Recently watched Asteroid City. It reminded me a lot of Signs. Wait, wait! Hear me out:

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    1. I haven't gotten to the 3rd season yet, but will eventually. I came to the conclusion that I don't like Gomez in the role. She's far too wooden. I think they went for a name more than someone who could act. Still, the others more than pick up the slack, so I can live with it.

      1. I've convinced myself that the woodeness is her character, given the trauma she's been through. I've never seen her in anything else, so I have no idea if this is inability to act or intentional. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt since I like the show.

  9. Saw Oppenheimer on 70mm, really enjoyed it. Saw Barbie with my family, enjoyed that, too.

    Rewatched Kieslowski’s Blue (from his three colors trilogy) yesterday, absolutely amazing film. Saw The Bitter Tears of Petra van Kant a few weeks back — it was a bit too much of a stage play for me, but the acting was quite good and I liked that the ending wasn’t neatly tied up.

    Watched both seasons of The Lincoln Lawyer — it’s a decent enough law drama, though I don’t think it would be too fun if you started looking for plot holes.

    1. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the finale was available today. Clearly I didn't pay attention to the schedule. Time to spend 103 minutes to finish off the latest decade plus of history.

  10. Finished season 2 of the Bear. Loved it, except...

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    1. Yeah, I'm with you.

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        1. One thing I have felt these past few years is that most tv show protagonists are unlikeable. Carmy is not the best example (I generally like him), and I understand main characters need conflict and growth, but I feel like writers consistently torpedo any progress that happens and we are rarely given a whole episode where we don't cringe. By the time the main character reaches some kind of peace I have begun to root against them

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