Netflix Diary
a) Splice
Really loved the visual style of this movie, and the special effects of the creatures, at least up until one of the creatures grew up and became humanoid and was played by an actress, at which point I was less thrilled with the creature design. The story was kind of creative but still managed to take a somewhat predictable turn, so what really kept it entertaining was just how unrepentantly squirmy and creepy it all was.
b) Killers
Action romantic comedies are such a bastard genre that rarely satisfactorily pulls off any of the 3 genres it's attempting to do, but I always like them in theory, and I'm not even sure why. This movie is a pretty typical failure of its type, but I didn't mind too much, it had its moments. And everyone hates Katherine Heigl but she's so fine that I'd watch her in any old crap, which is incidentally what she usually stars in anyway.
c) MacGruber
I generally enjoy the original SNL sketches and all the crew involved in this, and I'd heard it was really funny, so I had high hopes for this. But really it didn't get barely any laughs out of me at all, although some of the jokes I might've enjoyed in the movie if they weren't spoiled by the trailer. After loving action movie satires like Tropic Thunder and Hot Fuzz I thought I was just a general sucker for a certain combination of jokes and explosions, but apparently I'm more particular about getting the formula right than I thought.
d) The Losers
This seemed like it would be fun, but I was bumming around on the computer while watching this and hoping it would grab me and make me pay attention and it never quite did, never felt like I was missing anything. I'm not sure where Jeffrey Dean Morgan came from or how he started showing up in movies but he always seems really charismatic and badass and quietly the best thing about whatever he's in. And that's saying something since Idris Elba, who shares the same quality, is also in this.
e) The Runaways
I thought this might avoid the usual musical biopic cliches so well ridiculed in Walk Hard simply by a) chronicling a brief period of time instead of a whole decades-long career or life and b) not being about an old white guy. But this was really one of the most eye-rollingly dumb music movies I've ever seen, and reduced what should have been a pretty interesting true story to the lamest possible sensationalistic shorthand.
f) "Warehouse 13," Season 1
I always want to root for SyFy original series to be worth watching but most of them don't get a lot of buzz and I never get around to trying them out. But this one seems fairly popular and looked fun, so I'm giving it a try, and it seems like it's slowly hitting its stride, one of the best characters, Claudia, didn't even show up until a few episodes in, and I didn't really start to care that much about the characters until maybe the 10th episode or so.
g) "Pushing Daisies," Season 1
I loved this show when it was on, and was bummed when it got cancelled and spent the couple years since then catching Bryan Fuller's other short-lived series, "Wonder Falls" (which might be even better) and "Dead Like Me" (which is a little weaker), so it seemed like a good time to revisit it. I'm definitely not as into it now, but it's still a really charming, entertaining show with some great writing and a great cast, particularly Kristin Chenoweth and Chi McBride.
h) Death At A Funeral
Been meaning to see this Brit flick for a while, finally decided to since the U.S. remake is out on DVD and I wanted to see this first. It's pretty funny but I feel like the good stuff is mostly already in the trailer, so I wasn't very engaged with it.
i) "The West Wing," Season 7
For a while Bravo was running 2 episodes of this every morning, and as I was getting toward the end of watching the whole series on DVD, I finally synced up with the Bravo reruns and was able to watch pretty much the whole 7th season on TV, which was nice, not having to wait for Netflix discs or anything. But I did miss episodes or parts of episodes here and there, so now I'm renting it and filling in the blanks. Good season, strong ending for the show. Also, more of why I love Kristin Chenoweth.
j) "Slings & Arrows," Season 2
I already accidentally watched the 3rd and final season of this before the 2nd, so it was weird to kinda go back and finish the show with the middle. I'm not sure if this was the best season, some of the elements of the story were a little more broad this time, but this was really a very solid show all around, wish they made more episodes.
k) "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr."
I remember when I was 11 and my brother and I would go stay with my dad every other weekend, and on Friday night we'd get to his house and watch "The X-Files." And that first season it was on, it was on the same night as this great weird steampunk cowboy sci-fi show starring Bruce Campbell, way before I knew about the Evil Dead movies or any of his other stuff. I'd always remembered this show fondly, so it's really nice to watch it and not be disappointed, it's really held up well, very solid, well written show. Also I probably wasn't old enough at the time to appreciate how insanely hot Dixie Cousins was. Funny that Carlton Cuse of "Lost" fame co-created this, the commentary on the pilot with him and Bruce is pretty entertaining.
l) Casablanca
As I believe I've mentioned on here before, my wife and I split up the Netflix's 3 discs at a time 2 for me and 1 for her, and since I'm home with the baby I plow through rentals on a daily basis while she will have the save DVD sitting on top of the TV for literally months, until she admits to herself that she doesn't really want to see the movie she picked and sends it back. We've had Casablanca since January, and since I haven't been able to entice her to watch it with me, I've ended up watching it myself twice, once with the commentary track by Roger Ebert, which was pretty great, definitely enhanced my appreciation of the movie and gave me some context that I wasn't already aware of even with the movie's huge legacy. Anyone know any other good movies with Ebert commentary tracks out there?
Really loved the visual style of this movie, and the special effects of the creatures, at least up until one of the creatures grew up and became humanoid and was played by an actress, at which point I was less thrilled with the creature design. The story was kind of creative but still managed to take a somewhat predictable turn, so what really kept it entertaining was just how unrepentantly squirmy and creepy it all was.
b) Killers
Action romantic comedies are such a bastard genre that rarely satisfactorily pulls off any of the 3 genres it's attempting to do, but I always like them in theory, and I'm not even sure why. This movie is a pretty typical failure of its type, but I didn't mind too much, it had its moments. And everyone hates Katherine Heigl but she's so fine that I'd watch her in any old crap, which is incidentally what she usually stars in anyway.
c) MacGruber
I generally enjoy the original SNL sketches and all the crew involved in this, and I'd heard it was really funny, so I had high hopes for this. But really it didn't get barely any laughs out of me at all, although some of the jokes I might've enjoyed in the movie if they weren't spoiled by the trailer. After loving action movie satires like Tropic Thunder and Hot Fuzz I thought I was just a general sucker for a certain combination of jokes and explosions, but apparently I'm more particular about getting the formula right than I thought.
d) The Losers
This seemed like it would be fun, but I was bumming around on the computer while watching this and hoping it would grab me and make me pay attention and it never quite did, never felt like I was missing anything. I'm not sure where Jeffrey Dean Morgan came from or how he started showing up in movies but he always seems really charismatic and badass and quietly the best thing about whatever he's in. And that's saying something since Idris Elba, who shares the same quality, is also in this.
e) The Runaways
I thought this might avoid the usual musical biopic cliches so well ridiculed in Walk Hard simply by a) chronicling a brief period of time instead of a whole decades-long career or life and b) not being about an old white guy. But this was really one of the most eye-rollingly dumb music movies I've ever seen, and reduced what should have been a pretty interesting true story to the lamest possible sensationalistic shorthand.
f) "Warehouse 13," Season 1
I always want to root for SyFy original series to be worth watching but most of them don't get a lot of buzz and I never get around to trying them out. But this one seems fairly popular and looked fun, so I'm giving it a try, and it seems like it's slowly hitting its stride, one of the best characters, Claudia, didn't even show up until a few episodes in, and I didn't really start to care that much about the characters until maybe the 10th episode or so.
g) "Pushing Daisies," Season 1
I loved this show when it was on, and was bummed when it got cancelled and spent the couple years since then catching Bryan Fuller's other short-lived series, "Wonder Falls" (which might be even better) and "Dead Like Me" (which is a little weaker), so it seemed like a good time to revisit it. I'm definitely not as into it now, but it's still a really charming, entertaining show with some great writing and a great cast, particularly Kristin Chenoweth and Chi McBride.
h) Death At A Funeral
Been meaning to see this Brit flick for a while, finally decided to since the U.S. remake is out on DVD and I wanted to see this first. It's pretty funny but I feel like the good stuff is mostly already in the trailer, so I wasn't very engaged with it.
i) "The West Wing," Season 7
For a while Bravo was running 2 episodes of this every morning, and as I was getting toward the end of watching the whole series on DVD, I finally synced up with the Bravo reruns and was able to watch pretty much the whole 7th season on TV, which was nice, not having to wait for Netflix discs or anything. But I did miss episodes or parts of episodes here and there, so now I'm renting it and filling in the blanks. Good season, strong ending for the show. Also, more of why I love Kristin Chenoweth.
j) "Slings & Arrows," Season 2
I already accidentally watched the 3rd and final season of this before the 2nd, so it was weird to kinda go back and finish the show with the middle. I'm not sure if this was the best season, some of the elements of the story were a little more broad this time, but this was really a very solid show all around, wish they made more episodes.
k) "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr."
I remember when I was 11 and my brother and I would go stay with my dad every other weekend, and on Friday night we'd get to his house and watch "The X-Files." And that first season it was on, it was on the same night as this great weird steampunk cowboy sci-fi show starring Bruce Campbell, way before I knew about the Evil Dead movies or any of his other stuff. I'd always remembered this show fondly, so it's really nice to watch it and not be disappointed, it's really held up well, very solid, well written show. Also I probably wasn't old enough at the time to appreciate how insanely hot Dixie Cousins was. Funny that Carlton Cuse of "Lost" fame co-created this, the commentary on the pilot with him and Bruce is pretty entertaining.
l) Casablanca
As I believe I've mentioned on here before, my wife and I split up the Netflix's 3 discs at a time 2 for me and 1 for her, and since I'm home with the baby I plow through rentals on a daily basis while she will have the save DVD sitting on top of the TV for literally months, until she admits to herself that she doesn't really want to see the movie she picked and sends it back. We've had Casablanca since January, and since I haven't been able to entice her to watch it with me, I've ended up watching it myself twice, once with the commentary track by Roger Ebert, which was pretty great, definitely enhanced my appreciation of the movie and gave me some context that I wasn't already aware of even with the movie's huge legacy. Anyone know any other good movies with Ebert commentary tracks out there?
This entry was posted
on Friday, December 03, 2010 at 11:32 AM.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
Btw I've always suspected that new parents could get a lot of dvd-watching time in along with the baby-watching, thank you for confirming.