Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler So what are you watching tonight?

2013 Monaco Grand Prix.

Frankenweenie.

Now You See Me

It was entertaining. Parts of it were a little dumb, but overall it wasn't as dumb as I was fearing, so I was happy. Mélanie Laurent, who I only know from Inglourious Basterds, was good again. Jesse Eisenberg always makes me laugh. I'll probably buy it.

My wife's choice for a DVD rental this weekend was 'The Help'. It is based on a novel about race relations in the US South in the 1950s & 1960s.

Really interesting & uncomfortable subject matter that was quite well done, although it will not stress your HT system. Good test for the CC though as there is mostly dialogue. It's worth it just to see the fleet of period cars (tanks?) that show up throughout. Video upscaling from my Sony Blu Ray Player was stunning.

My choice was 'Argo' that we'll watch tonight, although I know that I'll be disappointed in the lack of credit (typical from Hollywood) that the Canadian Embassy Staff gets in the movie - at least according to President Carter who commented on that fact. He should know I guess...

TAM

ARGO was a good movie that I enjoyed; however, as expected, it was a highly fictionalized story based on a historical event where the plot revolved around the CIA. Unfortunately, history has been rewritten for most people by this movie.

Interesting commentary here, especially down the page in the 'Historical Inaccuracies' section:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argo_(2012_film)

There were a lot of inaccuracies, but the chase scene on the runway (that never happened) was ridiculous - reminiscent of the foolish final chase scenes in latest 'The Flight of the Phoenix'.

Last night we watched Arnold in 'The Last Stand'. It was enjoyable enough, but as is the norm from Hollywood these days, the graphic, gory content again is way over the top. Gun culture remains alive & well & for me these never ending, war zone type shootouts on Main Street are getting quite tiresome...

TAM

Premium Rush

More entertaining than it should have been, especially since I still have a problem with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Michael Shannon's face isn't pleasant, either. I guess bike messengers needed their movie, too.

Trouble with the Curve

Solid effort. It's always nice to see Clint Eastwood, even if his character is having trouble getting around.

The Greatest Love

Another romantic comedy Korean drama, and again, it's pretty fun. They've really perfected this genre of TV show.

I've also been watching some stand-up comedy specials. I finally picked up some more Patton Oswalt, an Aziz Ansari, a Donald Glover, and a Kristen Schaal. I like all of them.

I totally agree with your assessment of Premium Rush. A twitter friend recommended it, saying he didn't know exactly why it was so entertaining. When I say the trailer, I completely wrote it off, but am glad I took his work for it.

I've seen This Is the End three times so far. Ha ha. I saw it last weekend with two of my work friends here in the Tri-Cities, and then I saw it two more times when I went to visit my sister in Lynnwood. She saw it both of those times with me, and my nephew went once. I hadn't been bowled over by previous Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg work, so I was glad to see this one come together to be so entertaining. I'm sure it's even better if you followed the actors through the years starting with Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, but that probably only accounts for 1% of the enjoyment. It was fun to watch them play exaggerated versions of themselves. James Franco isn't always the right choice for the roles he gets, but I have to say that him playing himself is a good thing. Michael Cera, while appearing only briefly, represented himself well. And I just can't get enough of Danny McBride. Jonah Hill had some great material, too. Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel do a great job of anchoring the whole thing. And hey, I liked Craig Robinson, too. Basically, I thought everyone brought their A-games. If you don't mind crude humor, you really don't want to miss this one.

I also went to Man of Steel last weekend. It was decent. Zack Snyder isn't my favorite director, and Russell Crowe has always bothered me, but I thought it was all right. I don't know what people were expecting. I was slightly predisposed to liking it despite Zack Snyder and Russell Crowe, simply because the actor who plays Superman has said in interviews how much he likes The Wheel of Time and Skyrim. Ha ha. I wish I had been able to watch Man of Steel in Lynnwood, though, since it was playing in Dolby Atmos there. No one there wanted to go, however.

Speaking of which, if you haven't seen these episodes of "Acting with James Franco," you should:

Episode 1: "Sense Memory"
Episode 2: "Green Screen"
Episode 3: "Scene Work"

Saw "World War Z" last night. It was better than I expected. I won't write a detailed analysis as it's one of those movies best enjoyed without knowing what to expect. I do recommend it though. I will just say that if you are worried that it's just another zombie, gore movie... It's not.