December 20, 2020

So I admit, I've been in a funk recently.  Maybe more so just in general with life than anything to do here, but it's trickled down.  Making up lost time while the computer system was down at work was tiresome and drained any creativity and life out of me so by the time I got back home and had a chance to write anything, I just felt dissuaded and would rather just not.  I've also reflected upon things realizing that I wasn't super happy with how I was writing.  I felt like I was forcing myself to write quasi-professionally, but that's not what I do.  I just need to be myself.  So let's talk about stuff.

Ok, so The Mandalorian (Disney Plus) finished it's second season up on Friday and holy smokes what a finale and what a last 10 or so minutes.  If you've managed to avoid things so far I definitely don't want to spoil things for anybody that hasn't watched it or plans on getting caught up with this series, but just wow, and make sure you stay through the end credits.  I do just want to add that this has been the companion piece for Star Wars that I think all fans have been pining for, with just enough fan service and callbacks to both extremely well known and some fairly obscure characters that this has been a great lesson in Star Wars mythology spanning well beyond the movies.  I'll admit, I'm not a huge Star Wars fan by any means, honestly I didn't grow up watching the movies and got more into them in my teenage years but even then I haven't jumped into the waters of The Clone Wars, Rebels, and haven't read a single Star Wars book, but it's been a lot of fun seeing some of these characters pop up and then researching more of their backstories and making me more interested in going into these expanded waters.  Of course, time to do that is growing smaller especially with Disney announcing like 10 new Star Wars shows coming to Disney Plus over the next couple of years. 

I'm a huge fan of the episode format of The Mandalorian and hope Disney keeps this up with the rest of the series.  I love that episodes don't drag and clock in between 30 and 40 minutes making for easy viewing on a weekly basis.  I love that they are 8 episode seasons, enough to tell a story but doesn't feel like they've done a ton of filler.  I love that the episodes tell a story, usually of a quest where the titular Mandalorian goes to a planet and needs a favor and has to do something in return.  It's a simple story structure but makes for great television.  Overall, this has been such a delightful experience.

Next up on the Disney Plus, docket is WandaVision which is coming up on January 15 and man this looks trippy and awesome!  I love that despite there being a few trailers released, nobody truly knows what the hell is going on in this show and kind of like going into the first episode of The Mandalorian, we don't know what to expect out of this.  I'm a firm believer when it comes to marketing, especially with established properties that less is more.  I'm more likely to tune into something if I have no idea what to expect, than if you're giving me all of the information ahead of time.  Most of the time I watch movies, I don't watch the trailer, sometimes I don't even read the description.  There's been more than a few movies I've started and was like "OH, that is what this is about, weird." So yeah, bring on the weird and bring on WandaVision.

While on the topic of Disney Plus, instead of talking about the 37 new shows they announced, I need to mention the one they canceled.  I am heartbroken over the cancelation of The Lizzie McGuire Reboot.  It sounds like the original idea for this was a little too "adult" for their format before Disney Plus launched so it went back to the drawing board, the original showrunner left and chaos ensued.  Then it sat in purgatory for a while only to be officially canned this week.  I feel like in this sea where shows Disney Plus is making aren't geared towards a strictly kid's audience that something like Lizzie McGuire could fit in nicely and at the very least appeal to people who loved the original series and dealing with issues of people in their 30's would be an i

nteresting twist on a show like this. So bummed.

I've watched a lot of movies this past week.  The highlight being the movie Tenet.  I'm not going to lie, I went into this movie super skeptical and I'm still not sure how I feel, but dammit it was interesting and very much worth watching for that reason alone.  Watching fight scenes happen in reverse was weird, but interesting.  Seeing this plot unfold kept me on the edge of my seat because I truly had no idea what to expect next.  I think being prepared for some of the goofy things that movie does really helped prepare me for watching it, like the dialogue being very hard to understand. I watched it with earbuds in and captions on and was able to pick it up alright, so I would at least recommend putting captions on.  And also, being prepared for all of the goofy backwards in time and forwards in time stuff happening, had me looking for little things that make be referenced more later.  That all being said, John David Washington is a star.  I loved him in BlackKklansman and he's marvelous here as well.  While I don't always love Christopher Nolan's movies they are all fascinating in their own right and he's truly one of the most unique filmmakers we have today.  So if you want to see something and be thoroughly confused and amazed, this is it! 

Weekly Odds and Ends - December 4-11

 

Black Bear (Available to purchase/rent on digital providers like Vudu and iTunes) - I was very interested in checking this out but really had no idea what to expect and as the movie goes on that feeling went on as well.  So basically, the movie starts off with Allison (Aubrey Plaza) who is a filmmaker looking to get away and get a creative spark while staying at a remote cabin located in the middle of nowhere.  From there, the movie is told in two parts, the first part built told an interesting story and built to a very solid conclusion and then the second part started and restarted the story and turned it in a completely odd and unsatisfying mess.  Aubrey Plaza delivers a truly great performance and it's worth watching for that alone but the writing left something to be desired and being a little less nonsensical would have done this some good.  

Rating: 2.75 out of 5

Mank (Netflix) - This was a passion project for filmmaker David Fincher as it was written by his father Jack Fincher (who passed away in 2003) and was stuck in development for a long while.  Watching this movie, I understand why it had a difficult time getting made, however that's not a slight at the movie at all.  The movie is about a pretty obscure film writer Howard Mankiewicz and largely revolves around him writing one of the greatest cinematic achievements of all-time, Citizen Kane.  In addition to his writing of that movie, we get a glimpse into 1930's Hollywood both politically as the Communist Party was gaining a foothold but also a great look at the always fascinating studio system that was in place and seemingly always on the verge of collapse.  Gary Oldman does an excellent job portraying Mank, which really doesn't come as a surprise, but honestly besides his portrayal as the Stansfield in The Professional and Commissioner Gordon in the Dark Knight Trilogy, I don't think I've liked him more in a role.  Also, the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Finch goes in a completely different direction than you're used to but it's equally as terrific as you are used to when Reznor and Finch collaborate with David Fincher.  So while a black and white movie about the writer of arguably the most famous black and white movie of all-time doesn't sound like it would do well with wide audiences at the box office, it feels like word of mouth, award buzz and ease of accessibility will do this movie a world of good.

Rating: 4 out of 5

I'm Your Woman (Amazon Prime) - Amazon is seemingly on a quest to make Rachel Brosnahan a star, with obviously her award winning performance in the awesome The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and now giving Brosnahan her biggest movie role to date as a wife on the run in I'm Your Woman.  So basically, new mother Jean (Brosnahan) is on the run with her baby after one of her husband's friends shows up saying that they need to leave now as their lives are in danger because her husband betrayed his partners.  Any signs of urgency is kind of left at the door and while this isn't nearly as big of a thrill ride as it could have been and definitely felt a little longer than necessary, Brosnahan shines and the dramatic elements kept this interesting enough to make it worth a watch.

Rating: 3 out of 5

The Prom (Netflix) - Based on a recent Broadway musical, The Prom is the story of an Indiana high school canceling their high school prom because a lesbian couple wants to attend and a few discredited Broadway stars striking up a cause to go to Indiana and help make that Prom a possibility.  Directed by Ryan Murphy and featuring great performances from the cast including most recognizably Meryl Streep, James Cordon, Nicole Kidman, and Andrew Rannels but also a star making performance from Jo Ellen Pellman.  While, I will say the one downside is I didn't feel like there were any really big earworm musical numbers, they were fun, toe-tapping, and definitely sparkly.  The story was heartwarming and shows that as far as we've come in this nation with equality, even sometimes there can be some very real struggles with this.  But overall, while heartwarming, this was still a whole lot of fun and definitely worth watching.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Weekly Odds and Ends - November 21-27

WWE Survivor Series 2020 (WWE Network) - So this aired on Sunday, November 22 and should have been a special night.  30 years ago tonight, The Undertaker made his debut.  Also 30 years ago, I sat down and watched professional wrestling for the first time.  I'll never forgot the strange and intimidating debut of this dead dude coming out with this red faced guy named Brother Love on Team DiBiase. Unfortunately, Survivor Series went from being one of the most important shows of the year to a pointless event and tonight was no exception.  The highlight of the show was advertised as being a retirement ceremony for The Undertaker, so they brought out 15 or so of The Undertaker's closest friends and greatest opponents (including his kayfabe brother Kane in full wrestling gear for some reason when everyone else was wearing suits or street clothes) to say goodbye to him.  After a final video package, all of them disappeared and Vince McMahon was in the ring and he gave a small introduction which led to a traditional 10 minute walk to the ring by The Undertaker.  He spoke about 4 sentences, kneeled down to a shody looking hologram Paul Bearer, and began his everlong walk out of the arena for the final time.  Maybe this whole thing would have played better in front of an audience, but even then it just seemed so pointless. Definitely a very anti-climatic end to a legendary career.

Rating: 2.50 out of 5 for the show itself.  .50 out of 5 for the Undertaker retirement ceremony.

Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square (Netflix) - This Christmas musical event walks the fine line between being ridiculously cheesy and being the best feel-good watch so far this holiday season.  On paper, we've seen this movie a lot especially in regards to Christmas as it's basically a simple Scrooge story with Christine Baranski coming to the small town she grew up in after the death of her father to basically evict everyone and destroy the town to mall developers.  From a storyline standpoint, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense and her ability to make all the town residents (who are all surprisingly good at singing and dancing) up and leave with little notice is headscratching. However, the toe tapping relentless musical numbers, fun choreography (this was directed by chereographer Debbie Allen), and a supernatural Dolly Parton do a terrific job of making this a pretty solid and joyful movie. 

Rating: 3 out of 5.

The Christmas Chronicles 2 (Netflix) - Kurt Russell returns as Santa Claus and this time Christopher Colombus (the first two Home Alone's and Harry Potter's) takes over as director in what should be a great Christmas movie, however to me it just fell a little short of expectations especially with the pedigree that it has.  Clocking in at just under 2 hours, the movie feels a little long and starts to lose a little bit of steam around halfway through.  The story is the young girl from the first movie ends up back in the North Pole and has to help Santa Claus save Christmas from an evil ex-elf played by Julian Dennison, whom you may recongize from the terrific Hunt for the Wilderpeople or Deadpool 2.  This is where rating movies gets difficult as I've rated this and the Dolly Parton movie the same, but was pleased with the Dolly Parton movie and underwhelmed with this, but just because I was underwhelmed with this doesn't mean it was bad, just felt like it had potential for more. 

Rating: 3 out of 5.


Run (Hulu) - I didn't even realize until after watching it that Run was made by filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty who made one of the surprise movies of 2018, the John Chu computer desktop thriller Searching, which was far better than it had any right in being.  Chaganty brings this same sort of edge of your seat entertainment off of the computer screen but into a home where Sarah Pauslon's wheelchair-bound homeschool child Chloe lives and is basically seperated from society.  However, after getting a new prescription and getting close to graduating school and going to college, Chloe begins questioning her mom's motives.  While you can largely predict where this is going, it's still a fun journey take and provides enough thrills to keep interesting.  Sarah Paulson and newcomer Kiera Allen both give great performances and do a great job of fueling the tension throughout.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Superintelligence (HBO Max) - Melissa McCarthy stars in this movie where she plays a surprisingly normal character in Carol Peters, who's a little down on her luck when randomly an AI program who knows everything about her (and largely everyone else on the planet) begins talking to her using James Cordon's voice.  Carol has to work with the superintelligent software as it decides whether or not to destroy humanity.  While part An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (which is a terrific book by Hank Green for those that haven't read it) and part WarGames, this movie is slightly uneven as a romance plotline where Carol tries to get back together with her ex-boyfriend George (Bobby Cannavale) seems forced but also leads to one of the best scenes where George freaks out over meeting an idol of his.  While, not the most sensical movie I've watched in a while, it was entertaining enough that it was worth a watch.

Rating: 3.25 out of 5.

Happiest Season (Hulu) - In a way this movie is the story of the Aunt that never brings a boyfriend but always brings a friend/roommate to Christmas with them.  Happiest Season is a holiday romantic comedy about Harper (Mackenze Davis) going to her family Christmas with her girlfriend Abby (Kristen Stewart) despite her family not knowing about their relationship.  This movie is fueled with a very strong supporting cast making up their family and friends including Aubrey Plaza, Alison Brie, and Schitt's Creek's Dan Levy, amongst many other familiar faces.  This movie walks the thin line of being in the closet in a very light-hearted manor but at the same time does deal with the struggle of family acceptance and trying to not ruin Christmas, but also being your own person and trying to gain acceptance.  I definitely got similar vibes to other family holiday stories like The Famiily Stone, this movie is heartfelt and entertaining.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5. 

Weekly Odds and Ends - November 14-20

 

Kevin Hart: Zero Fucks Given (Netflix) - Kevin Hart's latest stand-up comedy special recorded live literally in his very own living room with a socially distanced crowd.  Hart always delivers and even with being able to literally perform to football fields full of people, he adapts to a much smaller audience without losing a beat.  Hart touches on The Vid (Covid), Hanging out at Seinfeld's house, and his brief boxing career.  Very solid special especially since these have been very infrequent because of The Vid.  Hart proves why he's legit one of the best in the business.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion (HBO Max) - While I always enjoyed The Fresh Prince, I wouldn't say I'm the biggest fan but I definitely spent a fair amount of time watching reruns of it back in the day. This was actually a really nice and heartwarming reunion.  Without spoiling things too much, we get a better understanding of probably the most controversial part of the show, when they fired and replaced the original Aunt Viv, which was very nice that it was addressed and made more transparent after basically 30 years of misunderstanding.  Normally, I think reunion specials are kind of tacky and unnecessary but I think they actually pulled out a good one here.

A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote (HBO Max) - About a month late on watching this but only because we literally started The West Wing in September and wanted to at least get to "Hartsfield's Landing" which is the iconic episode of the The West Wing  that they recreate on stage in this episode.  This episode takes place the night before the election when President Bartlet is running for his second term.  Between acts the cast and other political and celebrities discuss the importance of voting.  I'm sure this will play better with viewers who have watched The West Wing, this might provide to be an unexpectedly fun experience for those who haven't and might encourage you to watch the show, which you really should. 

Lego Star Wars Holiday Special (Disney+) - It's Life Day in the Star Wars kingdom and Rey is helping Finn with his jedi training.  On her quest to being a better jedi trainer, she takes a trip all throughout the Star Wars series linking characters all throughout the 9 movies.  This is a lot of fun as you get to see interactions with a lot of Star Wars characters that haven't met including a great interaction with Kylo Ren and his grandpa Darth Vader.  If you're a Star Wars fan and love things like The Lego Movie, this is definitely worth checking out.

Death of Me (Blu-Ray and Digital including BRENTFLIX+) - Maggie Q stars in this psychological thriller where she goes on a vacation with her husband, played by the forgotten Hemsworth, Luke and the trip goes terribly wrong after they watch a video where he kills her.  While this movie very much delves into that terrain of vacation gone wrong and the locals go from being very kind to very crazy, it definitely had a lot of wtf? is going on moments and kept me entertained.

The Princess Switch: Switched Again (Netflix) - What can I say about a movie that stars 3 Vanessa Hudgens including an evil one who tries to take the spot of the soon to be Queen of Montenero so she can steal money so she doesn't go broke?  This movie is all of the cheesy and campy goodness you would expect.

Spontaneous - Review

This is the latest straight to video feature from Paramount and arguably possibly one of the best ones they've released in recent history.  I'll have a blog at some point in the future talking about the straight to video market as it's been kind of fascinating, especially this year where straight to video stuff is making up a large part of the marketplace.  Anyway, this movie is the directorial debut of writer Brian Duffield, who has written some movies like The Babysitter and the recent theatrical/theater at home rental Love and Monsters.  Spontaneous stars Katherine Langford (from the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why and Love, Simon) and Charlie Plummer (from Lean on Pete and Words on Bathroom Walls) as well as Piper Perabo and Rob Huebel playing Mara's (Langford) parents.

This movie truly runs the gamut of genres as it ranges from fun rom-com to horrific science fiction/fantasy.  It was a normal day at the high school until a classmate spontaneous combusts and covers their classmates in blood.  In what seems to be a crazy one time occurence begins happening to more and more of their classmates and leaves everyone confused especially Mara and Dylan who's love begins to bloom while the world and their classmates are exploding around them.

Spontaneous is one of the most creative endeavours I've watched this year.  This movie was touching, chaotic, and left you on the edge of your seat the entire time. While it has elements of your high school romance dying teenager movie like The Fault in Our Stars it has a much more chaotic and unpredictable twist on that formula.  This movie is definitely worth checking out.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Fuck Cancer - RIP Chuck

While I didn't really want to type this or at least wanted their to be a longer time period to have prepared this, things progressed faster than any of us would liked and one of my best friends, Chuck Schilling, passed away Sunday evening.  I just wanted to start out sending my best to his wife Andrea and their families.  Chuck was genuinely one of the best guys and a tremendous friend. Seeing the outpouring of love for him from friends he made through all reaches of his life whether through sports, video games, work, or politics shows the kind of character he had and how great of a person he was.  

He was diagnosed with stomach cancer in January this year.  You can read the journey here much better than I could ever type it out and even now all donations would be greatly appreciated to help with medical expenses.  It's been a very rough year for this to happen, made even more tumultous with Covid taking over the medical industry and delaying any possible trials and treatments that could have be greatly beneficial and at the very least helped delay things.  Chuck was an early wake-up call for me when it came to Covid and his inability to do much besides occassionally go to a store because of the rampant spread of this deadly virus really showed the importance of wearing a mask, social distancing, and doing our best to keep people that could be compromised by this illness as safe as possible.

We met in the fall of 2010. I'm not going to lie in a way I kind of stalked Chuck before we met.  He was in the Milwaukee Bucks Squad 6 fan group for it's initial season and I thought that group was the coolest thing ever.  After the Fear the Deer season ended, there became talks about doing a sneaky Squad 6 invasion road trip to Indiana for a Bucks game against the Pacers to show-up their Squad 6 knock-off that he was organizing.  I believe I had talked to Chuck online at that point and then awkwardly went up to him after a pre-season game to get more details on how to go on this trip. I legit thought he was so cool, it turns out I was right.  We sat near him in the front of the bus on the trip and quickly became very good friends.  With Chuck's help, Julie and I were able to join the Squad officially a few weeks later and I stood next to Chuck for nearly the entire season, well at least until an ankle he twisted playing basketball of all things sidelined him to the end of the row so he could sit down.  

During the next few years, our friendship really grew.  Despite living an hour away Chuck and Andrea came to our house nearly every week for Friday Night Game Nights.  He would usually come straight from a closing and even scan closing papers on the kitchen table.  After a while of doing that we started to go down to their apartment and then house to have more game nights, to watch Packers or Bucks games, and sometimes just hang out and eat some delicous food.  It was because of Chuck that we were able to make some magnificient friends along the way as well.

While selfishly I wish I could have spent more time with Chuck over recent years, I was always happy that Andrea and him were able to do what they loved to do, see the world and live closer to their family.  I wish I could have seen him one more time and we would talk about getting together post-Covid.  Sadly, he's gone far too early and will look back fondly on how great of a man Chuck was.  You'll always be one of my best friends.

All the Foam Snow You Can Handle

It's November and you know what that means?  No, not Thanksgiving.  No, not Black Friday.  Ughhh no, not winter is coming, besides Game of Thrones is done anyway.  Well, I guess it's not really done as they are working on the spin-off but regardless, no. November means Netflix starts cranking out the Christmas movies.  While many will gravitate towards Hallmark or Lifetime for their plethora of Christmas movies they offer, I just like to stick with Netflix as quite frankly that's all the holiday cheer I can handle.

Netflix had so much holiday goodness for us this year they started in late October with the movie romantic comedy Holidate. While not dealing with Christmas exclusively, instead focusing on a relationship of Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey's characters who to avoid being awkwardly single around the Holidays agreed to platonically be each other's plus ones for a year.

Then last weekend kicked into Christmas overdrive with the painfully dull quasi-romantic comedy that was neither very romantic or funny, Operation Christmas Drop.  This film was about a military humanitarian mission to deploy Christmas around Guam while the commanding officer has to defend the mission to someone from DC who is looking for a cost cutting reason to shut this down while falling in love. 

This weekend sees Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, a bizarre but toe tapping movie about a toymaker (Forrest Whitaker) and his granddaughter making a new invention after being stabbed in the back by his apprentice (Keegen-Michael Key) who stole his most prized creation.  It's a dash of Mr. Magorium's Wonder Imporium mixed in a Christmas musical blender that never really makes sense but manages to be somewhat endearing.

On Thursday, November 19, we finally get the long awaited sequel to the Vanessa Hudgens and Netflix take on The Prince and the Pauper, The Princess Switch.  Hudgens plays a normal girl from Chicago who also happens to have an exact look-a-like who is the Duchess of Montenero who switch roles upon stumbling into each other so the Duchess can have a few days so she can be out of the spotlight.  This time they get switched... again as a third Vanessa Hudgens enters the fray in The Princess Switch: Switched Again and I could not be more excited.  

We get treated to a double dose of holiday magic with a rare Sunday release as Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square also hits the streaming service on November 22.  This movie is about an evil rich person who comes back to their hometown after the passing of her father to evict it's residents and sell the land to a mall developer and likely will be stopped by the town's residents, Holiday spirit, and an inspirational speech from a supernatural Dolly Parton.

We end November's Christmas barage on Thanksgiving eve with The Christmas Chronicles 2 which combines director Christopher Columbus, most popular for making the first two Harry Potter and Home Alone movies) and Kurt Russell playing Santa Claus.  Columbus served as producer for the first The Christmas Chronicles but decided to step into the Director's chair for this one for first time in 5-years since the kind of underrated movie Pixels. The first movie dealt with some children who noticed Santa was at their house and jumped into Santa's slay and ended up crashing the sleigh needing to help Santa finish delivering all of Santa's presents.  This time the kids need to help Santa save Christmas from a mysterious troublemaker who threatens to cancel Christmas.  

Now, if you're a hardcore Netflix Christmas movie watcher you will sadly notice one massive franchise missing as there is no A Christmas Prince 4 happening this year.  While as far as I can see there is no word one way or another if they are wrapping it up as a trilogy or if there is potential for a fourth movie in the series, but I definitely hope we see Rose McIver, Ben Lamb, and tons of foam snow back in our lives next November.

Hopefully that gives you a decent idea of how you can start filling your season with Holiday cheer and stuff.