Category: Good Watch

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: Dead to Me @1capplegate @lindacardellini @netflix @deadtome #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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Dead to Me, season 2 just dropped, which has ten, 30-35 minute episodes, all of which I watched on Saturday. It’s both comedic and tragic. Linda Cardellini plays Judy, a complete screw up that brings tragedy with her everywhere she goes. This brings her to Christina Applegate’s Jen, and it spirals down from there. Saying anything more would require at least mild spoilers.

With respect to Ms. Applegate, this is literally the best I’ve ever seen her act. She’s phenomenal.  Ms. Cardellini’s Judy plays a naive and self-destructive character that usually frustrates me and keeps me from liking a show, but though her performance overall is really good, what most keeps me on board is her comedic timing. We’re all familiar with the notion of how difficult it can be to formulate and maintain a lie. Watching Jen and Judy navigate those waters made me laugh every time. However, this is far from a comedy. The tragedies follow one after the other, with the big ones self-inflicted and creating a snowball effect. There should be another season, and however many there are, I’m very curious as to how this series will end.

Dead to Me streams on Netflix.

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Good Watch: Josie & the Pussycats @russburlingame @HarryElfont @RealDebKaplan @RachaelLCook @rosariodawson @tarareid @missipyle @ComicBook @HBO #GoodWatch #QuarantineWatchParty #JosieAndThePussycats

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This week’s ComicBook.com quarantine watch party (“QWP”) was Josie and the Pussycats. It was the first hosted by Russ Burlingame, who apparently has fond feelings for it. I had never seen it. Also contributing were Deb  Kaplan and Harry Elfont, as in

There was a QWP earlier in the week that I joined despite not being fond of the film, and because I didn’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, I don’t think I tweeted a single thing during the movie. Josie and the Pussycats wasn’t a movie I expected to like, so I expected to say nothing for this one as well.

I counted 68 tweets.

This was a fun movie. The gist is a trio of high-school kids from Riverdale (see the Archie Comics) that have formed a rock band. They get famous because of their talent, but the stereotypical greedy executives try and split the band’s leader, Josie, from the group and jettison Melodie and Valerie. Friendship, and music, prevails. Trite? Sure, but it’s all in the execution.

The movie is geared towards people far younger than I was even in 2001 when it was released, but it still made me laugh and had some nice moments between the on-screen friends. Also, going back to my days attending Arena Stage and seeing soon-to-be-famous actors getting their starts, I love seeing actors at the beginning of their career. This movie had a ton of them.

Josie and the Pussycats is currently streaming on HBO.

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Good Watch: The Finest Hours on Disney+ @EricBana67 @disneyplus #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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Whether you’re an MCU nut like me, or a Pixar nut, there’s actually a lot more on Disney+ than what you subscribed for. Back in March, I watched the Finest Hours.

It starred Chris Pine as Bernard “Bernie” Webber, a real person who led a 1952 rescue of the SS Pendleton during a nor’easter. The opening act focuses on how Bernie met and fell in love with his future wife, Miriam. After that, the action picks up as the rescue gets underway, but the movie still revisits Miriam as she frets over what she sees as a suicide mission for Bernie. Whether you’re looking for action or characters, there’s at least a little bit in there for you.

The movie also stars Holliday Grainger, Casey Affleck, Eric Bana, and Ben Foster, all of whom did a good job.

For what it’s worth, the Finest Hours’ scores on Rotten Tomatoes are 64 from the critics and 66% from the audience.

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Good Watch: Brain Games on Disney+ @JasonSilva @KeeganMKey @ActuallyNPH @disneyplus #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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Whether you’re an MCU nut like me, or a Pixar nut, there’s actually a lot more on Disney+ than what you subscribed for. For me, one of them is Brain Games care of National Geographic.

Hosted by Neil Patrick Harris in season one, Jason Silva in seasons 2 through 7, and Keegan-Michael Key since, this show dives into how our brains work. Many of you are certainly aware of a lot of the oddities of how the brain works, but even in episodes where I knew the tricks, I was still sometimes fooled, and in any event there was still a lot to learn. Brain Games goes into detail as to how and why the brain does what it does. Each episode so far has been just over 20 minutes, and none of them depend on the other, so it’s easy to fit into your schedule.

If you’re into science, or just like getting fooled, give Brain Games a shot.

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Good Watch: Extraction @chrishemsworth @DavidKHarbour #GoodWatch

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Last weekend was Extraction on Netflix. It’s almost non-stop action with a couple of actors I really like: Chris Hemsworth and David Harbour. I don’t recall a single other actor I recognized.

This was a frustrating movie. The “object” of the movie isn’t worth the collateral damage done on his behalf. No one deserves to be a pawn, but there comes a time where you have to say, “Enough.” However, it’s a movie, not real life. As I’ve noted before, we accept some (let’s call it) moral exaggeration for the sake of drama. Some members of the audience will miss the message unless they’re hit over the head with it, so we can forgive characters that we’d never forgive in the real world. All of that said, the movie doesn’t take the easy way out but somehow has a happy(ish) ending with a dose of (obscure) redemption for good measure. I’m not upset I watched it, but my life isn’t any richer having done so.

Sometimes you just want to see someone get their head bit off. If that’s your current mood, this may be your movie.

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Good Watch: #Ragnarok on @Netflix #GoodWatch

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I recently watched the 6-speisode season of Ragnarok on Netflix. In contrast to most of my geek brethren, I’m not fond of shows where the protagonists are kids. I’m not into Harry Potter, Ender’s Game, the Hunger Games, Stranger Things, and all the rest of them, but if you are, the fact that high school kids are saving us all won’t bother you. I also don’t like subtitles, and these were quite annoying. They were greatly overdone. For example, many times that a song was played, it unnecessarily identified the song by name and artist. However, I’m quite fond of is mythology, so that drew me in regardless of the inherent strikes against it.

Ragnarok was a way to pull my favorite mythological characters, the Norse gods and giants, into the real world, so I’m inclined to like it even if it isn’t the best show on television. It wasn’t like Troy (a movie I love) that tried to explain how the legends could have arisen from real-world, realistic events. No, this was about the supernatural; these characters used magic and had superhuman abilities. The show also used anthropogenic climate change as the battle ground between humans and the Jotnar (i.e., giants). Of course, the best part is when the reincarnated Thor is wearing a Washington Redskins shirt. #HttR 🙂 The fact that it’s only six, 40-minute (or so) episodes makes it an easy watch.

The series has been officially renewed for season 2.

For what it’s worth, I’ll be watching. I kind of have to. Season one didn’t really end.

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Good Watch: #Waco @MelissaBenoist @official_culkin

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Waco is another quarantine-inspired watch for me. For the young-uns, it’s the true and tragic story of the 1993 siege on the Branch Dravidians complex near Waco, Texas, a joint operation of the ATF and FBI. The end result was a fire that burnt the complex to the ground and killed most within. Who started the fire remains the subject of debate, with this dramatization placing the blame on the government. Whether or not that’s true, it’s clear that their documented actions during the siege certainly exaggerated the tragedy. There were huge mistakes made.

That said, the one thing I didn’t like about this series was that it made their leader, David Koresh, look very sympathetic. That’s an easy mistake to make. He was highly charismatic, and portraying that charisma accurately will inevitably have that effect on the audience. Make no mistake about it, though: David Koresh was a bad guy. He was a child molester, and many of the other adults were complicit in Koresh’s acts. I think the show could have played up these facts to keep the audience grounded in reality, but it was obviously more important to the creators to highlight the government’s mistakes than Koresh’s.

Still, this is an important and cautionary tale that I felt was well worth watching, with a cast that included some well-liked actors. With only 6, 1-hour (or so) episodes, it’s also a relatively easy watch.

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Good Watch: Penny Dreadful. Well, maybe a mediocre watch. @WesleyStudi #showtime #pennydreadful #goodwatch

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My latest binge target is Penny Dreadful. It’s a three-season Showtime/Sky Atlantic series that’s currently on Netflix. The seasons are 8, 10, and 9 episodes, each just under 60 minutes long. The series accomplishes what Universal Studios has been unsuccessfully trying to do on the big screen for some time: A shared monster universe. It’s brought together the legends of vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein’s monster, Dorian Gray, and others.

Some of the actors are new to me, but the show is anchored by veteran actors Timothy Dalton, Josh Hartnett (playing an ultimately sympathetic Ethan), David Warner, and Eva Green. Joining them is an actor that’s new to me, Harry Treadway. I was happy with him as the redeemed villain, Narek, in Star Trek: Picard. Another actor with which I’m familiar that will join the cast in season 3 is Wes Studi, who’s strangely the only actor I’ve mentioned that’s on Twitter. I was happy with most of the other actors, who are all new to me (as far as I can remember).

I find the show weird, but considering the subject matter, how could it not be? It’s also not for children, and not just because of the horror content. One interesting thing about this show is that it brings all the different supernatural creatures into the story very quickly. That is, you don’t need to wait very long to see your first vampire if that’s why you’re tuning in. Paradoxically, however, there are times in the middle of season one where everything slows to a crawl. Season 1, episode 7 (“Possession”) felt like it was two hours long. I had to look at the time stamp to verify it was a regular-length episode. It doesn’t speed up from there. With almost two seasons (of three) complete, I still don’t know who “the master” is. Satan or something? I don’t know. I’m having trouble focusing at this point. In any case, get on with it!

While this is not what I’d consider top tier television, it’s reasonably enjoyable. However, the only reason I’ll finish it is because I’m a compulsive completionist. There are better things to watch. As always, YMMV.

If you’re into the horror genre, unrealistic redemption among estranged family members, and over-the-top British courtesy, you may enjoy it more than I.

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