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I am too behind to link to everything. So here's September:
SEPTEMBER MOVIES
81. Executive Decision, cable. Interesting to see so many familiar faces very young again. Fairly routine thriller with "technology" thrown in. Of course it's 1996 technology, so it's not all that.
82. Bourne Legacy, cable, rewatch. I heart Jeremy Renner. That is all.
83. Guardians of the Galaxy, theater. My one trip to the movies in over two months. Had to wait til I could get someone to take me. So much fun. More please. Now. Will watch this again, possibly while it's still in the theater even.
84. Locke, Redbox. Fascinating filmmaker's exercise. Watched it for Tom Hardy, which was good because other than a series of voices on the other end of phone calls, he's the only person in this movie. He gets in his car at the very beginning of the movie and starts driving from somewhere in the UK north of London to London. It's late at night and his family is waiting at home, a woman is delivering his child in the hospital in London, he has a hugely important job in the morning that needs lots of finessing and preparation. He's headed to London leaving it all to wait. What follows are all the calls he makes and receives—can he pull off being the responsible man he longs to be?
85. Winter's Tale, Redbox. Pretty ridiculous but reasonably ditzy and charming. Will Smith is Satan. Russell Crowe is a demon. Colin Farrell is starry-eyed about a gorgeous dying-of-consumption girl. Stuff happens. There is a magical horse. There are magical sidekicks. A LOT of years go by. Something else happens. The end.
86. Divergent, Redbox. Read the first two-and-a-half books, then something spoiled the surprise at the end for me, so I never finished (because I just didn't care). The movie was pretty faithful to the first book. Shailene Woodley is the current "looks way younger than she is" It Girl. In this movie the dude who plays her brother plays her boyfriend in The Fault In Our Stars, so I wonder if that's creepy?
87. Rage, Redbox. Nic Cage. I had to look this up to recall what it was about. That can't be good. Nic is a reformed bad guy whose daughter gets kidnapped so he goes on a back-to-his-roots rampage trying to get her back.
88. Transcendence, Redbox. This got some bad reviews. But honestly I think it was way more subversive and fascinating than reviewers gave it credit for. The basic premise is that, after he gets radiation poisoning and is dying, Depp's super-clever wife manages to upload his essence into an AI shell. The argument that all of her friends make is that there's no way that's really him, and instead it's creepy and a not-him simulacrum. So they resist in very intersting ways, and he continues to solve all kinds of health and communication issues. At the end, after they've come up with a way to completely destroy him (and in doing so destroy all of technology in the world), and here's the subversive part, it's revealed that it really is him, that he really is their friend and sure he's made a few missteps but he's still basically human. But they don't really know it. And then he's destroyed and all of the amazing contributions he made to the world are gone too. Not SkyNet! Oh well.
89. Riverworld (2010), SyFy. Not sure if I can count this as a movie, as it was clearly filmed as the pilot to a series that never happened, but it was four hours so I'm giving myself credit anyway. It looked nothing like a movie, however, and everything like the pilot to a SyFy channel tv series. So....not very good, but decent enough for a SyFy show. Followed the plot of the Farmer novel, at least roughly? Like I'd remember anyway. I read the book back in college. I am old.
90. Office Space, cable, rewatch. Still love it. Still laugh all the way through.
91. Serendipity, cable. I watched Sweet Home Alabama and was in a "let's get that corn-pone taste out of my mouth but stick to cute guys in romantic comedies" mood, so John Cusack nicely fit the bill. Bonus Jeremy Piven, almost always a welcome addition.
92. Sweet Home Alabama, cable, rewatch. I am now watching "The Mysteries of Laura" with Debra Messing and Josh Lucas entirely because of this formulaic dreck. Lucas is very charming and cute in this movie, and I am after all a girl.
93. The Town, cable, rewatch. Jeremy Renner. Jon Hamm and his exceedingly present 5 o'clock shadow. Charlestown. Affleck and Fenway Paaaahk. Accents.
94. Captain America: The First, rewatch.
95. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, rewatch. Cap is Cap. What else is there to say? I was hugely amused by Everything Wrong with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It was more fun in the theater than on the little screen. But honestly, I could watch all of these over and over again and not be bothered a bit by the plot holes. Go Marvel team. Make lots more movies!
96. The Amazing Spider-Man, Cable.
97. The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Amazon Prime. The first one was on cable and I stumbled upon it right at the beginning. In all the previews for these movies, I hated the voice of the kid playing Peter Parker. I thought he was too mumbly and whiny to play PP. I have to admit, he kind of grew on me. The movies are collosally stupid. I mean, totes moronic. But aren't all superhero movies ridic? Yes, yes they are. The first one is much better than the second, however. The second has just too much going on and as much as I like Jamie Foxx, his villain was dumb. I like him better as the president, frankly. And that's not this movie.
98. The Lincoln Lawyer, rewatch. Pretty good. Read all the books, and although the movie plot tends toward the action adventure-y side of the book plot, it's fairly faithful to the flavor. There are several books already in this series, so I am wondering if they'll crank out another. Probably can't afford McConaughey anymore. There's also the Harry Bosch series that Amazon is producing as a cross-over option (the books cross-over because Bosch and Haller are brothers). But they REALLY can't afford McConaughey, so I suppose I should stop thinking about it.
99. Obsessed, rewatch. Beyonce and Idris Elba are married with a kid and have just moved into a beautiful giant McMansion, but Idris is being stalked at work by a hot blonde (Legend's Ali Lartner) who thinks they're dating. There is amusing OVERLY OBVIOUS foreshadowing involving a soft spot in an attic floor that is the really high cathedral ceiling over a glass coffee table. Chick fight later, hot blonde is out of the picture. Go Bey! Stupid movie. Pretty much worth a miss, even for the Idris Elba factor. In fact, he really should be embarrassed by this movie, but I suppose they all thought, hey, a paycheck, and hey, I get to work with Beyonce (except probably Bey didn't think that...or did she?)!
100. A Night in Old Mexico, Redbox. Quirky small film. Robert Duvall and no one else you know except Abraham Benrubi, "Jerry" from ER. It's about what it's called. Enjoyable if you're a fan of Duvall.
101. A Walk Among the Tombstones, Theater. Pretty good. Liam Neeson can probably play this role while actively doing something else like solving world hunger. Based on a Lawrence Block detective series, I suppose this could become a franchise. I would watch it. But I like Liam Neeson now. It took me a couple of decades, but I finally forgave him "Darkman".
102. Snow White and the Huntsman, cable. Not as bas as I expected. A few interesting world-building choices. Kristen Stewart wasn't awful, which I found surprising.
SEPTEMBER MOVIES
81. Executive Decision, cable. Interesting to see so many familiar faces very young again. Fairly routine thriller with "technology" thrown in. Of course it's 1996 technology, so it's not all that.
82. Bourne Legacy, cable, rewatch. I heart Jeremy Renner. That is all.
83. Guardians of the Galaxy, theater. My one trip to the movies in over two months. Had to wait til I could get someone to take me. So much fun. More please. Now. Will watch this again, possibly while it's still in the theater even.
84. Locke, Redbox. Fascinating filmmaker's exercise. Watched it for Tom Hardy, which was good because other than a series of voices on the other end of phone calls, he's the only person in this movie. He gets in his car at the very beginning of the movie and starts driving from somewhere in the UK north of London to London. It's late at night and his family is waiting at home, a woman is delivering his child in the hospital in London, he has a hugely important job in the morning that needs lots of finessing and preparation. He's headed to London leaving it all to wait. What follows are all the calls he makes and receives—can he pull off being the responsible man he longs to be?
85. Winter's Tale, Redbox. Pretty ridiculous but reasonably ditzy and charming. Will Smith is Satan. Russell Crowe is a demon. Colin Farrell is starry-eyed about a gorgeous dying-of-consumption girl. Stuff happens. There is a magical horse. There are magical sidekicks. A LOT of years go by. Something else happens. The end.
86. Divergent, Redbox. Read the first two-and-a-half books, then something spoiled the surprise at the end for me, so I never finished (because I just didn't care). The movie was pretty faithful to the first book. Shailene Woodley is the current "looks way younger than she is" It Girl. In this movie the dude who plays her brother plays her boyfriend in The Fault In Our Stars, so I wonder if that's creepy?
87. Rage, Redbox. Nic Cage. I had to look this up to recall what it was about. That can't be good. Nic is a reformed bad guy whose daughter gets kidnapped so he goes on a back-to-his-roots rampage trying to get her back.
88. Transcendence, Redbox. This got some bad reviews. But honestly I think it was way more subversive and fascinating than reviewers gave it credit for. The basic premise is that, after he gets radiation poisoning and is dying, Depp's super-clever wife manages to upload his essence into an AI shell. The argument that all of her friends make is that there's no way that's really him, and instead it's creepy and a not-him simulacrum. So they resist in very intersting ways, and he continues to solve all kinds of health and communication issues. At the end, after they've come up with a way to completely destroy him (and in doing so destroy all of technology in the world), and here's the subversive part, it's revealed that it really is him, that he really is their friend and sure he's made a few missteps but he's still basically human. But they don't really know it. And then he's destroyed and all of the amazing contributions he made to the world are gone too. Not SkyNet! Oh well.
89. Riverworld (2010), SyFy. Not sure if I can count this as a movie, as it was clearly filmed as the pilot to a series that never happened, but it was four hours so I'm giving myself credit anyway. It looked nothing like a movie, however, and everything like the pilot to a SyFy channel tv series. So....not very good, but decent enough for a SyFy show. Followed the plot of the Farmer novel, at least roughly? Like I'd remember anyway. I read the book back in college. I am old.
90. Office Space, cable, rewatch. Still love it. Still laugh all the way through.
91. Serendipity, cable. I watched Sweet Home Alabama and was in a "let's get that corn-pone taste out of my mouth but stick to cute guys in romantic comedies" mood, so John Cusack nicely fit the bill. Bonus Jeremy Piven, almost always a welcome addition.
92. Sweet Home Alabama, cable, rewatch. I am now watching "The Mysteries of Laura" with Debra Messing and Josh Lucas entirely because of this formulaic dreck. Lucas is very charming and cute in this movie, and I am after all a girl.
93. The Town, cable, rewatch. Jeremy Renner. Jon Hamm and his exceedingly present 5 o'clock shadow. Charlestown. Affleck and Fenway Paaaahk. Accents.
94. Captain America: The First, rewatch.
95. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, rewatch. Cap is Cap. What else is there to say? I was hugely amused by Everything Wrong with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It was more fun in the theater than on the little screen. But honestly, I could watch all of these over and over again and not be bothered a bit by the plot holes. Go Marvel team. Make lots more movies!
96. The Amazing Spider-Man, Cable.
97. The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Amazon Prime. The first one was on cable and I stumbled upon it right at the beginning. In all the previews for these movies, I hated the voice of the kid playing Peter Parker. I thought he was too mumbly and whiny to play PP. I have to admit, he kind of grew on me. The movies are collosally stupid. I mean, totes moronic. But aren't all superhero movies ridic? Yes, yes they are. The first one is much better than the second, however. The second has just too much going on and as much as I like Jamie Foxx, his villain was dumb. I like him better as the president, frankly. And that's not this movie.
98. The Lincoln Lawyer, rewatch. Pretty good. Read all the books, and although the movie plot tends toward the action adventure-y side of the book plot, it's fairly faithful to the flavor. There are several books already in this series, so I am wondering if they'll crank out another. Probably can't afford McConaughey anymore. There's also the Harry Bosch series that Amazon is producing as a cross-over option (the books cross-over because Bosch and Haller are brothers). But they REALLY can't afford McConaughey, so I suppose I should stop thinking about it.
99. Obsessed, rewatch. Beyonce and Idris Elba are married with a kid and have just moved into a beautiful giant McMansion, but Idris is being stalked at work by a hot blonde (Legend's Ali Lartner) who thinks they're dating. There is amusing OVERLY OBVIOUS foreshadowing involving a soft spot in an attic floor that is the really high cathedral ceiling over a glass coffee table. Chick fight later, hot blonde is out of the picture. Go Bey! Stupid movie. Pretty much worth a miss, even for the Idris Elba factor. In fact, he really should be embarrassed by this movie, but I suppose they all thought, hey, a paycheck, and hey, I get to work with Beyonce (except probably Bey didn't think that...or did she?)!
100. A Night in Old Mexico, Redbox. Quirky small film. Robert Duvall and no one else you know except Abraham Benrubi, "Jerry" from ER. It's about what it's called. Enjoyable if you're a fan of Duvall.
101. A Walk Among the Tombstones, Theater. Pretty good. Liam Neeson can probably play this role while actively doing something else like solving world hunger. Based on a Lawrence Block detective series, I suppose this could become a franchise. I would watch it. But I like Liam Neeson now. It took me a couple of decades, but I finally forgave him "Darkman".
102. Snow White and the Huntsman, cable. Not as bas as I expected. A few interesting world-building choices. Kristen Stewart wasn't awful, which I found surprising.
