Good Watch: F Is for Family @billburr @netflix #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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F Is for Family is the R-rated brainchild of my favorite active comedian, Bill Burr. There are currently three seasons posted on Netfilx, with the fourth set to be released on June 12, 2020. It’s a sitcom about middle-class, suburban America in the 70s.

Mr. Burr isn’t even a month younger than I, so he’s writing a story that I’ve lived as well, and thus is something to which I relate. There are other parallels to my personal life. Half of my family tree is essentially Irish and Scottish, and my nuclear family consists of an eldest son, a middle-child son (me), and a youngest daughter. For about a decade, until my younger brother came along, that was my family’s dynamic. The middle-child in the show is named Bill, leading me to believe that Mr. Burr, like me, is the middle child.

By the start of season 3, the father’s yelling seemed to get more annoying than funny. I’m not sure if  that’s because it grew old or if the scripts changed, but that’s the only thing I don’t like about this series.

I don’t know if I like this show because I related to a lot of it, but Bill Burr has a large fan base. If you’re a part of it, you may like it too.

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Casey Biggs and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine @netflix @arenastage #QuarantineLife #StarTrek #DS9

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My favorite movie and television property is Star Trek. I wasn’t fond of Star Trek Into Darkness but otherwise am an apologist for the property. However, Star Trek Deep Space Nine wrapped up while I was in law school, so it’s the only series for which I haven’t seen all the episodes. I’m currently remedying that situation by watching seasons 6 and 7.

There’s nothing I can say about the series that hasn’t been said before. Instead, I’ll mention a personal anecdote. I’ve been attending the theater since I was 5 years old, so over 4 decades. However, it wasn’t just any theater; it was Arena Stage. Arena is high-quality theater. I can’t tell you how many now-famous actors I’ve seen cut their teeth at Arena, as well as stop by for a visit after getting their big break.

So, when I saw that Casey Biggs had joined the cast of Deep Space Nine as Damar, I was thrilled. Mr. Biggs has a history with Arena. He was the first actor I had ever seen on TV (L.A. Law) that I first saw at Arena. My favorite two roles for him were that of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey and Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew. He appears to be assigned to soap opera hell but consistently gets one-shot roles on prominent TV shows.

He remains an obscure actor, but I’ve paid attention and appreciate what he’s done through these years.

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Good Watch: #Dolemite Is My Name @netflix #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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Dolemite Is My Name has been on my list since it came out, but I never got around to seeing it. Enter SARS-COV-2. It’s the story of Rudy Ray Moore, who made and released his first blaxploitation film, Dolemite, in 1975. I’d never heard this story and have never seen any of the Dolemite movies. It was a good blend of funny and serious. It showed how difficult it was for Moore and others in 70s America but kept it lighthearted. At times, it was even inspirational.

I wasn’t the target demographic for blaxploitation films, but this story still appealed to me. As always, YMMV.

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Guilty Pleasure: Star Trek: Nemesis @SirPatStew @BrentSpiner @jonathansfrakes @gates_mcfadden @Marina_Sirtis @DinaMeyer @startrekcbs #GuiltyPleasure #QuarantineLife #StarTrek

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B-4 | Memory Alpha | Fandom
Star Trek X: The Search for Data

Rotten Tomatoes reports scores of 38 from the critics (who I don’t care about) and 49 from the audience, both of which are rotten scores. Nemesis is certainly a guilty pleasure, and I get that. Troi porn, a childish android, and the worst toast in the history of weddings are just a few of the examples of why this movie earned such low scores, but it had some good points. Moral philosophy is the foundation upon which Star Trek was built, and at its heart, it was an examination of the nature v. nurture debate. Nevertheless, it didn’t skimp on the action.

The goal of the movie was to recapture the magic of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan by giving Picard a fitting nemesis, just as Wrath of Khan gave Kirk his, and by having Picard suffer a loss as did Kirk. Nemesis is no Wrath of Khan, and Shinzon is no Khan, but SPOILER ALERT being Picard’s clone inherently made Shinzon a good match for Picard, and Shinzon’s lifetime of pain resulted in a rage mimicking that of Khan. Data’s death also mimicked Spock’s. I didn’t find this to be lazy plagiarism as it’s sometimes been labeled. There are only seven stories, and this story used the themes that have been proven to appeal to Star Trek fans (and non-fans).

The movie also set up the Picard series in a couple of ways. It set the foundation for Picard’s connection to the Romulans, and Picard resolved Data’s story without cheapening his death in Nemesis.

Sprinkle in the fact that I’m a Star Trek apologist, and I like this movie. You don’t have to.

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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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