Month: May 2020

Good Watch: #Limitless

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Limitless was released in 2011. I was mildly intrigued but apparently not enough to actually watch it. Flash forward to last week, and I read an article referring to it as the best movie you need to watch before it leaves Netflix on May 15. Unfortunately, I have a backlog of blog posts, so by the time you’re reading this, nothing I say will matter.

Okay, that’s a bit dramatic. I’m sure you can stream it somewhere, or at least rent it on YouTube, etc.

Like the movie Lucy, it operates off of the ridiculous premise that we use “only 20% of our brains.” That’s annoying. Otherwise, as the article said (paraphrased, because it’s been lost to the interwebs), the basic premise is a really good hook. Cooper plays an underachieving writer living a lowly life. He’s given a drug that <sigh> allows him to access his entire brain, which completely changes his life. Of course, the first thing he does is get laid (his landlord’s wife), and then he turns $12,000 into $2,000,000. This is what everyone wants, right? Be careful what you wish for. It wouldn’t be drama if things didn’t go to shit by act two (at the latest).

It’s an interesting take on addiction and obsession with a sci-fi twist. One interesting but subtle device they used were memory skips. An episode of Brain Games on National Geographic covered those. My guess is that they consulted a neuroscientist to get the details right, then took a few liberties for the sake of drama. They do that in other areas. It seems impossible for a criminal to chase someone in broad daylight on the busy streets of New York City without attracting attention from the cops, but there it is. Twice.

Despite all of these criticisms, it was reasonably enjoyable and a nice change of pace from my recent fare.

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Guilty Pleasure (in reverse): Colossal @hulu #GuiltyPleasure #QuarantineLife #colossal

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I find myself in the odd position of agreeing with the critics and abandoning the common folks. Over on Rotten Tomatoes, Colossal earned scores of 81 from the critics and 59 from the audience. I’m with the critics.

Anne Hathaway plays a self-destructive woman who winds up in her hometown because she has nowhere else to go. She meets up with a childhood friend played by Jason Sudekis. Long story short, she discovers that she has a connection with a giant monster attacking Seoul, South Korea. However, this isn’t a story about a monster . . . except that it is. People can be as bad as any kaiju. The movie took a hard turn for the “holy crap!“, taking me completely off guard.

I thought it was clever and liked both Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudekis, neither of whom I usually like.

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Good Watch: Oliver & Company @billyjoel @disneyplus #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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In February of 1988, I babysat for my brother’s birthday party. About 15 10-year-olds and only two adults. 🙂 We saw this animated movie as part of the party. It’s definitely a kids movie, and didn’t appeal to me even then (I was 19), but I was curious how well I remembered it. Besides, it’s only 75 minutes long, and I still listen to the theme song, “Why Should I Worry?” by Billy Joel to this day.

I looked up the cast and saw that Roscoe Lee Brown voiced Francis, which sent me down a rabbit hole. As soon as I saw his image, it lead me to this vague memory from childhood: Doctor Scorpion (1978). I can’t find any details on the plot but would love to stream it if I can find it. I’m certain it didn’t hold up well.

Oliver and Company streams on Disney+. If you have young kids, it’s probably a good watch.

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Good Watch: Under the Skin (Not So Good) @netflix #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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I saw a video entitled Alien Movies on Netflix That Should Be Required Viewing. Some of the movies I’d seen, and a couple were on my saved list. I decided to give Under the Skin a shot. In the interests of avoiding spoilers, I’ll simply say that Scarlett Johansson plays a believable predator killing men. Her origins are in the real of science fiction.

I thought it was going to be a morality play, and it disappointed me that it wasn’t. While murder can never be justified, as I’ve discussed many times before, filmmakers often deal in extremes so that the less attentive in the audience won’t miss the point. So putting aside the inherent evil of murder, I was hoping her selection of targets would be based on their character. It wasn’t. She killed as many sympathetic men as she did unsympathetic ones. That soured me to the movie. A morality play could have resulted in an interesting ending, so unsurprisingly this one’s ending fell flat. It just … ended.

One interesting coincidence: It takes place in Scotland, and there’s a bus in the movie (during a particularly horrid but pivotal scene) that’s apparently from Lochgilphead. I’m planning a trip to Scotland and really want to visit the town. One of my paternal great-grandfathers was born there.

As always, YMMV.

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All Hail (Once Again) the Greatest Individual Entrance in Cinematic History, and Other Things I Didn’t Create #MCU #Thor #HDB to me @ChrisHemsworth @samuelljackson

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For my birthday, I’m being lazy and just giving you material others have done. First, here’s a fantastic moment from a fantastic character as played by a fantastic actor.

It’s no wonder that Portals in Avengers: Endgame used a variation of this theme for the entrance of the formerly dusted into the final battle against Thanos.

And now for some more.

Image may contain: 5 people, meme and text

That’s it.

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Guilty Pleasure: Tron: Legacy @TheJeffBridges @oliviawilde @boxleitnerbruce @britjfrain @disneyplus #GuiltyPleasure #QuarantineLife #Tron

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The two Tron movies were the first or second thing (don’t remember) I watched when I subscribed to Disney+. I subscribed for the MCU, NatGeo, and Star Wars; and I was intrigued by Pixar (I had never seen any of those movies), but I watched the Tron movies before any of those.


I’m not sure if Tron: Legacy is actually a guilty pleasure. Rotten Tomatoes reports scores of 51 from the critics (who I don’t care about) and 63 from the audience. The 63 is technically a “fresh” score, but just barely. Still, I suspect it fair to call this a guilty pleasure if for no other reason that the sequel, Tron: Ascension, was scrapped due to a poor box office. That could have been an awesome story of Clu’s invasion of the real world.

Besides a really good cast, there are three things I loved about the movie. First, “Radical, man!” “Far out, man,” “We were jammin’,” and the like. Based on the story, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is clearly a man out of time, and everyone he knows from the VR world would similarly be so. Even if new lingo had developed within the VR world, Flynn’s isolation would keep his vocabulary stale. It seemed like almost every sentence Mr. Bridges spoke contained a smattering of 80s lingo. That’s a hell of a way to tug on the heartstrings of a child of the 70s/80s like me.

Second, I like when a movie plays on the notion of the grass being greener on the other side. The idea of plugging ourselves into a virtual reality world is something that intrigues a large percentage of us (if not a majority), but Clu has the exact opposite perspective. He’s in that VR world and is doing everything in his power to get out. What’s more important: Being able to move like Neo in the Matrix or seeing a true sunset? I think the former is more important. We don’t really see sunsets, but rather how our brain interprets sensory data from our eyes and intervening parts. If the brain can be sent signals for a sunset even when the sun isn’t up, it’s no different from the real thing and could actually be programmed to be better. So, in the VR world, you can have both. Regardless of whether you agree, the point is that many of us want VR, but human nature is such that humans who’ve always existed in VR would probably want to see the real world. Everyone wants what the can’t have.

Then there’s the music. I have music from both Tron movies on a playlist I frequently enjoy. I’m a child of the 80s, so I loved the scene when Sam turned on the power at the arcade, and Separate Ways belted out. However, Legacy took place much later, and Daft Punk captured the upgraded feel very well.

If Tron: Ascension were ever made, I’d be there opening weekend.

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Good Watch: The Jay and Silent Bob Reboot @ThatKevinSmith @JayMewes @ComicBook @RussBurlingame #QuarantineWatchParty #JayAndSilentBob #GoodWatch

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This past Monday was the Jay and Silent Bob double feature, quarantine watch party hosted by Russ Burlingame of ComicBook.com. We watched both Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back (which I’ve seen a handful of times) and the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (which I had never seen). Because of how I write, I have to keep my posts short for them to remain coherent to nonlawyers, but this movie has so much good in it, I don’t know how to handle it.

In summary, this is a movie that didn’t need to be made except to repay the fans. There’s no respect given to the fourth wall, and the cameos from both the nerd and Kevin Smith movie universe were overwhelming. There was a point where Kevin Smith (for what seemed like the 100th time) broke the 4th wall and noted how he had successfully brought us to the third act with all of the characters exactly where they needed to be. I don’t know the science of filmmaking, but I doubt this movie was so we’ll structured. How could it be? It was less a movie and more of a series of “meta” fan service moments loosely strung together. Don’t misunderstand me, though. It absolutely worked for anyone who’s seen Kevin Smith’s movies and/or is a nerd in general.

My one complaint: I don’t remember seeing any references to Star Trek.

Unless you count this.

Shatner
The Shatner joins the ComicBook.com quarantine watch party, only to delete the tweet a few hours later.

But I get sole credit for that.

Still, I must admit that there were certainly good filmmaking moments in the movie. For example, I kept yelling at the Twitterverse that I wanted Jay to give his daughter a hug . . .

. . . and the movie delivered it at precisely the right moment.

But mainly I was yelling that I wanted to see this actor or that actor show up. Again, Mr. Smith delivered. One of many examples. . . .

In fact, there were several times that I unwittingly predicted the jokes that were coming, which I think speaks less to my deductive reasoning and more to how much Mr. Smith knows what we wanted from him.

I could go into far more detail (spoilers aren’t really a concern), but no one wins when I do that, so I’ll wrap it up.

If you’re a fan of Kevin Smith, comics, or anything nerdy, this will have to bring a smile to your face.

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Good Watch: Dark Side of the Ring on @Vice #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife #DSotR

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My Good Watch series isn’t about me forcing my opinion on you as film and food critics always do. Instead, I explain to you why I like (or don’t like) a show so that you can predict whether the same type of genre or dramatic theme appeals to you. This post arguably crosses that line a little bit in that I encourage you to give Dark Side of the Ring a watch. Even if you were never a fan of pro wrestling, you may really like it.

Pro wrestling has always been a train wreck behind the scenes. There are countless stories of wrestlers taking massive risks with their health in order be paid a pittance, all the while being accused of being “fakes.” (Would you treat a movie star that way? What about a singer whose lyrics tell a story they never lived themselves?) What this leads to is an industry of self-destructive — even crazy — wrestlers being mistreated by rotten promoters and owners.

This is what gives the Dark Side of the Ring its stories, and they’re fascinating.

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Good Watch: Solar Opposites @JustinRoiland @MikeMcMahanTM @hulu #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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This is an easy post to write. Justin Roiland and MikeMcMahan created Rick & Morty, and now they’ve created Solar Opposites, a show about aliens who escaped the destruction of their planet and crashed on Earth about a year before season 1 starts. Like Rick Sanchez, the family has trouble dealing with aspects of society that we all take for granted, such as homeowners associations and restrictions on criminal behavior. Okay, we actually don’t take those things for granted. Then there’s the racism.

If Rick & Morty is your thing, this may be as well. It’s stupid fun in a similar way. Season 1 has 8 episodes of less that 30 minutes each, so you can binge the entire season in an afternoon.

Solar Opposites streams on Hulu.

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Guilty Pleasure: Legion (the 2010 Movie) @Paul_Bettany @AdriannePalicki @Willaaaah @TheLucasBlack @Tyrese @KateWalsh @actordougjones #movie #GuiltyPleasure #QuarantineLife

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Legion has Rotten Tomatoes scores of 19 from the critics (who mean nothing to me) and 31 from the audience, which is even worse than Green Lantern. Go figure. Like Green Lantern, the cast was actually pretty good, mixing newcomers with established veterans, and a couple of up-and-coming stars. I’m sure a few of them wouldn’t appreciate me linking them here, but they did a good job with what they had.

I think there are two things that make me like this movie. First, as a mythology fan, I love it when mythology, religion, and legends are turned on their heads. It gives the stories a different take and thus isn’t a bland remake of the same story we’ve seen a million times. In this case, while not evil per se,  Gabriel is still the villain. Michael, on the other hand, is the protagonist even though he’s going against the Judeo-Christian-Islamic notion of god. That’s the big difference; there are others. Maybe some of the bad ratings are based on the fact that this offended people. Perhaps just a little bit?

Second, at the time I saw it, I was still playing Dungeons & Dragons and thought it could be the basis of a really interesting campaign. Unfortunately, I never got around to it. Food for thought for the gamer nerds.

It’s a guilty pleasure. So sue me.

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