- Jun 10, 2014
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I guess I’ll call you Great King Rat then.Liking every pop radio hit they had doesn't make you a Queen fan, poser.
I guess I’ll call you Great King Rat then.Liking every pop radio hit they had doesn't make you a Queen fan, poser.
Daredevil Season 3 (Netflix)- Wow. Excellent development of the key characters including the emergence of his next nemesis. Way better than season 2 and maybe better than season 1.
They lost me early in S2. I found S1 kinda meh. I'll see about giving S3 a shot - do I have to catch up on S2 to know what's going on?
That was Saturday. Sunday, awesome Dad tries again with the kid's double feature. First up with the son AT 4:20
The Meg
Jason Statham stars as a rescue diver. Opening scenes his crew is connected to a nuclear sub at the ocean floor, nobody survives that deep. He gets the crew out of the sub when something outside bumps the crap out of his rescue sub. His team is trying to get back with him, but they keep getting battered to the point where the next hit will kill everyone. He makes the decision, seals his team in the abandoned sub to die, disconnects and saves those he can. Fast forward a few years, he's a drunk in Thailand and refuses to dive anymore...but...
We have a research station built into an offshore rig that sends an exploratory sub to what is believed to be the bottom of the ocean, but is determined to be a thermal layer with undiscovered species below. Explorer sub goes down and gets bumped (deva vu) and can't get back up. So, they send for Jason. On the rig we have Jason's good friend as operations leader, a wise old Japanese research leader, a semi-hot tattooed technology chick, a whinging black guy who drives the remote drones, and of course your billionaire ******* funding the whole thing and being self-centered. Oh, and the old Jap researcher has a daughter on board who is an underwater biology expert, and her daughter, an 8y old that people ignore but who befriends Jason to protect her mom.
Premise, okay. Characters, pretty well done. Boobs, none. Action and suspense, actually a LOT better than expected, with plenty of little humor shots thrown in for good measure. I won't spoil the main twist, but it's one you can suspect but aren't sure of - and it's played off VERY well...for a shark film. I expected a stupid shark film,but between the effects, suspense and action/suspense/comedy, I do have to recommend it as better than expected. 7.5/10
Oh, 9y old has a little trouble following early on, but that's more his attention span problem rather than the film. He wasn't too scared, but was sufficiently 'thrilled' with the action scenes and scares. Film is ok for kids, but don't go near bedtime or while visiting the beach.
The Grinch (2018)
Went with Grandma, Brother-in-law, wife, our daughter (12) and son (9). Fancy NJ threater where they ripped out every other seat so every seat is a recliner. But, being NJ, it was sold out and the wife and I had to sit alone elsewhere in the theater. Enough about me*, on to the film.
Let's get this done up front - no boobs. Deal with it. This is very much a remake of the original we've all seen on TV from the 70's. There's a bit of freshening up done with characters, scenes, and story, but mostly stay's true to the original. Cindy Lou gets a bigger role, and it helps this retelling quite a bit. Grinch still lives up on the mountain with Max, but this time we get a bit more of the dog's insights and perspective (not enough to be a major character but stronger support), and we get some of 'why is Grinch this way' and he actually interacts with the current Whoville despite his hate of Christmas. Two significant additions as supporting characters are Bricklebaum (Whoville resident who thinks Grinch is his best friend) and Fred, the lone reindeer enlisted to help the night of theft. The build up is good, draws you in more than the original and is modernized a bit with Cindy Lou having twin baby brothers and a single mom. The ending is solid, doesn't come across over the top nor does it leave you wondering about things. It provides good closure (no hint at sequels) and leaves you satisfied. Would definitely recommend for the family as 8/10.
*Wife cried, kids loved it. I fell asleep in a full reclined position shortly after Cindy Lou and friends plot to capture Santa, and I awoke as Grinch and Max were nearing the top of Mount Crumpet with the sleigh full'o'goods. The nap was delightful, and nobody said I snored.
Spider-man - Into the Spiderverse (2018)
Took the kids last night (son 9, big on Marvel; daughter 12 knows nothing of Marvel but wants to be an animator). Traditional disclaimer on myself - Marvel fanboy, but admit knowing nothing on Spider-men other than the common Spider-man; I also wasn't too keen on seeing an animated version, tbh. Also no boobs, go figure.
I came home exclaiming this is one of the best films I've seen in a LONG time. First the choice to do it with animation - an absolute must. The budget would gave been insane to pull this off as live action, given the story line and effects, so in that they made the right choice. With that choice, it limited somethings, but opened up a lot of other ones. First the opportunity to give it a comic book texture rather than a Pixar style smoothness. It took about 20min for me to adjust to blurred backgrounds (kept thinking it was a 3D effect intended where you don't where glasses, but it was intentional to match how comic books may not define the background distinctly and keep your focus on characters who remained clear and in focus). This also means there are action sequences and fights that get very comic-booky, which created sometimes a 'yeah, that fits this texture and story' and sometimes created a 'disappointing cheapness for a film'. All in all, it worked, and worked well. Sound track was a bit eclectic, IMO. Not themed like a collection of 80's songs in some movies - all were current artists and tracks, and all fit the scenes very well, but I don't see people buying the soundtrack - just the single tracks that appeal to them. Still, it was all good and apt for the scenes. For the story, in a nutshell Kingpin is trying to build a super collider that will pull multiple universes together so he can recover his family that he lost in this dimension. The first test of it has Goblin push Spider-man into it, resulting in a half dozen spider-men getting pulled into our dimension. Plot follows that the handful team up and try to get home while destroying the collider. Not too deep, not too shallow for a comic book story, but it's enough to support the 2h film (yes, 2h for animation - it's not just a kids film, though there were a ton of kids brought to it). The real meat of the 2h is actually filled with our central character, Miles Morales, a young teen who also gets bit by a spider and gains powers albeit slightly different than Peter Parker. The film really focuses on Miles, being a smart teen, discovering powers, meeting Peter Parker (who then dies and asks Miles to destroy the collider), discovering the other spider-men, coming of age and saving the day with the team. It does a very, very good job with characters - Miles in particular. Even if you know nothing of anyone beyond Peter Parker, you'll enjoy the cast of characters here. The concept of a multi-verse isn't too far fetched to grasp for younger audiences, keeping the story plausible, but all the spider-men come with their own uniqueness and how their dimension is different. I won't spoil the spider-men characters, but even the smallest (wtf kinda) versions have a few good lines and don't distract. You may recognize a few voices (Liev Shreiber as Fisk-Kingpin, Nicholas Cage as one of the smaller character spider-men, and Lily Tomlin as Aunt May who is actually a cool kick-ass rather than a naive old lady - there are others, but these stood out to me, though none storm through the screen, they fit nicely into their roles). With the parallel dimensions, we have Miles have an uncle issue (like Uncle Ben...hey, so did Luke Skywalker, hmmm). There are other parallels, as to be expected, as well as a few other villians thrown in that are not as expected from our traditional spider-man universe of one, but it all works. Highly recommend this one. 9/10 (I never give a 0 or a 10).