Hey dudes. I'm at the end of a glorious three day snow day, with only one quick 4 hour work interruption in the middle. I've watched a shit ton of movies during that time, so here we go.
First, I started Tuesday with an 8 AM viewing of Good Burger. I'm not really sure why. It was in my Netflix queue and I guess I felt like it was an easy early morning watch. I completely regretted it.
I don't really hate it or anything, but that movie is strictly for 8-12 year old kids in 1997. I'm surprised it exists outside of that year.
After that debacle I started the show Arrow. I'm a Smallville superfan so I knew this would be right up my alley. A co-worker had informed me that the sooner I realize that the first six episodes are basically Batman Begins, the better. And actually, they basically just turned the character of Green Arrow into Batman. But that's OK! It is The CW after all.
As I said, this show is exactly what I want it to be. Fun and cheesy. Also, I have to admit that I was surprised at the shows ability to strive for an actual arc, as opposed to just having villains of the week. I have a hard time watching dramas that don't really advance episode to episode. The first few seasons of Smallville suffered from this and it made it a real chore to sit through.
Anyway, the show is a lot of fun.
I've been on a Russell Crowe kick lately. The Insider, Man of Steel and Gladiator have been viewed by me in the last few weeks. So I kept it going with another viewing of 3:10 To Yuma. Man, such a great western. Fast paced, filled with great performances all around and a legitimately rousing finale, this remake ranks right up there with Unforgiven and Tombstone for me. Crowe's Ben Wade is one of his most charismatic performances to date. Can't forget my boy Christian Bale either, so good as a down on his luck rancher whose own son can't even find anything to look up to. Great stuff. I also plan on keeping this Crowe train going with a viewing of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World in the next week or two. Stay tuned.
Next up was Wreck-it Ralph. I honestly don't have much to say on this one other than it was really cute and enjoyable. I'm not a gamer so I know I missed most of the references, but still I had a good time with it.
And then, for whatever reason, a viewing of the Red Dawn remake just felt right. Honestly, it's not that bad, and it fulfilled the desire I was looking for at 11 PM with a glass of red wine. Chris Hemsworth proves once again that he rules and the rest of the ridiculously good looking cast do fine as well. The original is legitimately amazing and better in every way, but still, this remake was slight and fun.
Then I had my first viewing of A.I. Artificial Intelligence in about 8 years. Such a bizarre film, merging together the sensibilities of Spielberg with Stanley Kubrick, who was originally going to direct before handing it over to the other guy with a beard. Not his best film, but certainly not his worst either, A.I. remains fascinating to me and features an insanely good and creepy performance from Haley Joel Osment. This kid was the real deal, and I wish he had continued to do more work. I'm genuinely curious to see how he fits in with Will Ferrel's mini series The Spoils of Babylon and hopefully see if he can retain some of his former glory.
I've watched a bit more, but I think I'm gonna end this with my viewing of The Sum of all Fears, starring Ben Affleck's awful hair as Jack Ryan. This is actually a pretty decent entry in the Ryan series, with the absurdly dated technology only sometimes bringing the movie into truly silly territory. As a longtime Affleck supporter, I am pleased to say that he acquits himself nicely here. In fact, it's one of the few bright spots he had during this time of J. Lo and Gigli disasters. Long live the Affleck!
Well that felt good. I now have the absolute worst urge to watch Casino. Later dudes.
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