Netflix Diary
a) Casino Jack
I wouldn't say I missed Kevin Spacey since at the peak of his career he was just ubiquitous and almost constantly choosing completely horrible movies. But I do think he's a generally talented guy and welcome screen presence, and this is kind of a nice return to form of the kind of slimey charismatic wheeler dealers he used to play all the time in the '90s, although it's a bit on the nose to have him playing a public villain like Jack Abramoff that way. Barry Pepper is starting to get really creepy looking.
b) Get Low
I really enjoyed this, great Duvall performance and surprisingly the first Bill Murray flick in a long time where he kind of has a little of that Stripes/Ghostbusters-era bullshit artist swagger.
c) Dinner For Schmucks
I feel like the broadness of the premise, and the title and the trailer, really scared off a lot of people that would otherwise love to see a movie with this cast. But really, this worked for me, it was goofy but had a lot of great bit parts and kind of held together surprisingly well plotwise in addition to all the silliness.
d) "30 Rock," Season 1
Since it's not in syndication yet, I haven't seen a lot of the early episodes of "30 Rock" since the first time they aired, like 4-5 years, so I thought it'd be fun to back and rewatch them now. And I'm kind of surprised by how poorly some of these have aged, mainly because the show is not necessarily way better but has just adopted a much tighter pace and a slightly sillier tone. Plus it was pretty disappointing that the Netflix DVDs don't come with commentary or any other bonuses.
e) "Jack of All Trades"
I rarely learn about anything from the "you might also like" pop-ups on Netflix, but I had no idea this show even existed until after I rented "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr." Apparently about 10 years ago Bruce Campbell did a syndicated half hour show similar to "Brisco" in terms of historical satire, this time as an American trying to defeat Napoleon (to give you an idea of how loosely they're playing with history, when Napoleon does show up a few episodes in, he's played by Verne Troyer). It wa exec produced by Sam Raimi and while it's not as good as "Brisco," it's definitely similarly enjoyable.
I wouldn't say I missed Kevin Spacey since at the peak of his career he was just ubiquitous and almost constantly choosing completely horrible movies. But I do think he's a generally talented guy and welcome screen presence, and this is kind of a nice return to form of the kind of slimey charismatic wheeler dealers he used to play all the time in the '90s, although it's a bit on the nose to have him playing a public villain like Jack Abramoff that way. Barry Pepper is starting to get really creepy looking.
b) Get Low
I really enjoyed this, great Duvall performance and surprisingly the first Bill Murray flick in a long time where he kind of has a little of that Stripes/Ghostbusters-era bullshit artist swagger.
c) Dinner For Schmucks
I feel like the broadness of the premise, and the title and the trailer, really scared off a lot of people that would otherwise love to see a movie with this cast. But really, this worked for me, it was goofy but had a lot of great bit parts and kind of held together surprisingly well plotwise in addition to all the silliness.
d) "30 Rock," Season 1
Since it's not in syndication yet, I haven't seen a lot of the early episodes of "30 Rock" since the first time they aired, like 4-5 years, so I thought it'd be fun to back and rewatch them now. And I'm kind of surprised by how poorly some of these have aged, mainly because the show is not necessarily way better but has just adopted a much tighter pace and a slightly sillier tone. Plus it was pretty disappointing that the Netflix DVDs don't come with commentary or any other bonuses.
e) "Jack of All Trades"
I rarely learn about anything from the "you might also like" pop-ups on Netflix, but I had no idea this show even existed until after I rented "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr." Apparently about 10 years ago Bruce Campbell did a syndicated half hour show similar to "Brisco" in terms of historical satire, this time as an American trying to defeat Napoleon (to give you an idea of how loosely they're playing with history, when Napoleon does show up a few episodes in, he's played by Verne Troyer). It wa exec produced by Sam Raimi and while it's not as good as "Brisco," it's definitely similarly enjoyable.
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