I mentioned back on the Ides of March that I had a very slow cinematic start to the month.
Boy did I rectify that in the back half of the month!
I went on an absolute spree to finish out March (like a… lion? Is that right yet?), catching thirteen movies in a fourteen day span, with a few different days of two flicks alone!
Movies really do make me happy, man. And while much of what I saw was for either podcasts or video reviews, I had a fair chunk of viewings that were strictly for personal enjoyment.
I will confess that I spent so much time this month either setting up my own soon-to-debut podcast or watching movies that I have nothing to discuss under the usual READING or GAMING segments here, though. So that’s an L I’ll take. But I do got movies for you!
Oh well. It’s a little late for monthly regrets! Let’s get into what I can–and can’t–recommend recently.
MOVIES
That… is a big image. And after a little recount, only five of the flicks were “homework” of some sort or another. The rest were all for self-imposed entertainment.
Or wife-imposed entertainment, because I would not have elected to sit down with The Flight of Dragons or either Star War if she hadn’t made me.
I’ve already discussed the Snyder Cut in depth. A few times, actually. No reason to go too heavily into that here, other than to say that the cultlike fanbase is already making me regret scoring it as highly as I did. Upon reflection and being annoyed by them, I’m remembering there is a lot more bad than good there.
I have upped my total of Star Wars movies seen to seven out of eleven. With watchings of The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker under my belt, I’ve now seen Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, Rogue-One, Solo, Return of the Jedi, and these two new entries.
I’ve never seen a complete Star War trilogy, nor have I seen the first movie in any of the three separate ones. Weird! Anyway, Last Jedi was pretty good–as good as any Star War movie I’ve seen, maybe the best–but Rise of Skywalker was BALLS. The movie had what felt like two modes for me: Really Boring Sidequests, or Just Making Shit Up. Nothing in Rise of Skywalker was as cool as the visually striking image of Luke emerging to face down an armada of those big robot horse things. I was wowed by that scene.
(I’m just kidding, folks. I know those things are called at-at’s or whatever. Calm yourselves)
Is it odd that I enjoyed the Fright Night remake a LITTLE BIT more than the original? Probably. But the casting in the remake is fantastic top-to-bottom. EVERYONE works. In the original, a lot of the other actors get swallowed up by the performances of Chris Sarandon and Roddy McDowell. My biggest fault for the remake is all the gratuitous “LOOKOUTITSCOMINGRIGHTATYOU” 3D scenes that have ALWAYS turned me off to 3D since Friday the 13th part 3. Everything else was pretty rad, though.
I would also say whereas I described the remake as sexy, I felt the original was more… “horny”.
Got my first ever viewing of Escape From New York in, and it’s GOOD, but I couldn’t help but compare it to Halloween, They Live, and The Thing. And for me, it’s just not… THERE, you know? Those are all 4 star+ movies (with Halloween being a definitive 5), and Escape didn’t hit that level.
My sister-in-law strongly recommended Detective Pikachu, and I have NO IDEA how I’ve never seen that before given how much I love Pokémon. I just never got around to it. The story itself is predictable and fine, but it’s all worth it for the beautifully realized world with decent-to-great looking CGI pokeys running around all over the place. Seldom have I SO wanted to live in a movie’s established universe.
And hey! Slugs is… a terrible movie. Don’t ever watch that. There’s some “so bad it’s fun” goodness to be had, but the threat is really that a town has a bunch of SLIGHTLY bigger than average slugs. Like… salt, people. Salt.
TELEVISION
I was very excited to finally get the first three episodes of Invincible on Amazon Prime; I had been waiting for that show for months. Invincible is a comic that I really liked, even if I thought it went off the rails at times. It’s pretty much a lot of what I want from my superhero genre: relatable, human stakes, characters that age in (close to) real time, and consistency with its creators.
The show got off to a strong start, but I will confess that there is just something about the animation that doesn’t work with me. It’s not a huge issue, nor is it one that bothers me all show long, but occasionally, there’s just an aspect to it that feels out of place. I can’t quite put my finger on it. I’m not going to stop watching it over this, though.
Damn, in the second half of March, we got the Snyder Cut, Invincible, AND The Falcon & The Winter Soldier show all being released? That’s crazy! Lot of folks stuck staring at their TVs during the time of year we started having some 70 degree days.
I was profoundly underwhelmed by the pilot for F&WS, but the second episode pulled me in, so I’m along for the ride the rest of the way. I appreciate Disney not being too adverse to Marvel throwing some light politics into the show–I thought the big mouse would be too scared to frighten away some folks–so that has been a nice touch, too.
I was never as stoked for this show as I had been in advance of WandaVision, so hopefully it can make me regret that.
I’ve fallen a touch behind on Superman & Lois, but I’m still four episodes in, and it’s exactly what I want: a take on Superman that just WORKS and highlights the best aspects of his character. Minimal big punch-ups between good characterization and hopefulness.
And that rounds out March. April is going to be a LOT more intensive with work on my part, so hopefully I won’t fall all the way off the wagon in terms of enjoying things. Pray for me, folks.
Until next time… take care!
SWO Productions 