Whinging & Movies

Busy, busy, busy.

Ugh.

Anyone else ready for nap time?

Last weekend I was down with some kind of mild mannered crud. Just sick enough to ruin each and every moment of consciousness, not crappy enough for me to ponder if I'm dying. To my relief, it was one of the shortest respiratory illnesses I've ever had and was over in about 72 hours. 

My spirit guide

Fortunately the hubby and I already planned to steer clear of tourist destinations nearby and enjoy a quieter variety of weekend. This, despite my mother's best manipulative pyrotechnics, ended up being a solid weekend of movie watching. 

Streaming, theater, dvd, cable tv, whatever venue is available my husband loves movies. But since we don't always agree on titles to watch together, I kicked off the weekend with Florence Foster Jenkins on my own. This was one I really wanted to like, but I could have done with about 45 minutes less movie. Interesting story. Wonderful actors. I found myself ignoring the movie to look up the real history behind this woman's story and the people in her life. Fascinating. So not loving this movie? A problem with my personal brand of wanting to know more and losing interest because of it. 

Hubby and I caught up together the next day and streamed a movie that shall not be named. The comedy, with actors (mostly) good or great in their own right, was a steaming pile of boring crap. I told my husband not to wake me up if I passed out from being sick. Thankfully, he listened.

The recent remake of Magnificent Seven and the latest Tarzan flick rounded out our movies for the weekend. The former a decent C+ or B- that would have been better in both our humble opinions, by a few minor tweaks to the script. The latter was, in both our humble opinions, quite good and will probably make it's way into our movie collection in the future. As a fan of Mr. Skarsgård, the film didn't need to be good for me to find something to appreciate in it. *cough* But it was good, though not without faults, and kept our attention. 

*cough*

Watchlist

About twice a month I score a free digital movie rental courtesy a rewards program from my wireless carrier.

My husband and I are movie people. Not in the sense that we have good taste, a critic's eye or have seen the best of the best. Nope, strictly in the sense that we just like to watch movies. Good ones, horrible ones, slapstick, drama, action, kids', sci-fi- anything that sparks our interest. And while we don't always agree on the same movies or even genres (I love a good scary movie or a compelling documentary while he will watch anything with "American Pie presents" in the title or military history tear jerkers.) there are usually a few titles we agree to cough up the cash each year to go see in the theater. Damn you, Marvel Cinematic Universe. Or thank you, if I'm being honest. 

All the rest that don't quite make the theater investment but still interest us we either wait to get from the library or until they show up on television. Occasionally we'll luck out and a few are available to stream on Netflix, but you get the idea. By the time they are available to watch, we've forgotten what we were waiting for and new releases have gained our attention. 

So this whole free movie rental reward is right up our alley. We're catching up on the movies we missed and as is to be expected, not all are winners. And then we've caught up and we still have rentals to redeem. 

The watchlist conundrum. 

I have movies on my watchlist I wanted to see, but they vary greatly. I start getting choosy. Picky. Do I want to watch the adaptation of a childhood favorite book or would I be more inclined to sit through two hours of watching Tarzan's abs? Cute independent movie staring the beloved Sally Field or a JJ Abram's thriller? Meryl Streep or a documentary of an author who wrote under an assumed name and used a relative to assume that identity? 

The struggle is...ridiculous. But there it is. This is, I should note, less stressful than deciding between books on my infinitely long TBR list. 

What would you watch if you made it through your top choices available and had a freebie to spare? 

Sand boxes and geek flags

Clearly blog posts are like anything else in life. They can't all be winners. And I have to fight the urge to delete, re-edit and what have you and just let it be.

Shoveling sand in the box. Sitting and putting words down, no matter how much I roll my eyes later, is still shoveling sand in the box.

This may explain quite a bit.

So whether it's truly vacant crap or something with honest potential, I'm trying to consider it all sand and temper the judgey voice in my head. While I'm still turning to blog posts on a regular basis, I've started diving back in to what I want to be working on. And aside from the agony and anxiety that goes into anything, it feels so good.

Patience, grasshopper, patience.

Switching gears, it's been a Netflix-heavy past week and a half. Have you seen what the television lineup is right now? Political pandering and slinging mud isn't my thing. So this election year I'm relieved to have streaming series to skirt the majority of the rabid attacks.

I have been casually making my way through Orange is the New Black. My husband started watching it just as I was beginning season 2 and a competition was born. I love my husband. And I enjoy watching shows and movies with him. What I don't like is when he's watched something first. Because, bless his heart, he's the king of spoilers.

He's not trying to be a festering carbuncle. (Sorry, honey!) He just wants to know what I'll think about a scene or a line and gets carried away. It's adorable. Really. In his own way. But it does make me want to put a few seasons between us as a buffer. I learned that after he passed me by while watching Kimmy Schmidt. It took me forever to get around to the second season, and by the time I did my husband had rounded second base and was halfway through the season I hadn't started yet.

So when he started OITNB this week, I decided to make some serious effort (Such a first world problem, Holy Pokéballs!) to get a season (or two) between us. Which is good (aside from watching much of anything rotting your brain) because I'm twitchy to get in deeper with Stranger Things. Which I cannot do until I'm done with OITNB for twitchy-itchy brain reasons. Ugh! Dear everyone making compelling shows, I hate the time suck but the entertainment value! Ugh, again. (P.S. Stranger Things is darkly delicious - what I've seen of it.)

Moving on...

I feel safe in saying that throughout my life I've carried both the nerd and geek flags. I haven't been a rabid fangirl (A relatively new term for my lifetime) since boy bands, immortal Scottish men, Mr. Medicine Woman, Seaquest and the like were riding high. And by riding high, I mean causing my laser focus to twitch (which may be a post for another time). I get a kick out of my own niece's fangirling as she's become an encyclopedia on a plethora of fandoms.

I am an equal fan of Star Wars and Star Trek. *Pauses to allow the internet to put itself back together again.* I grew up in a time when you had to wait *gasp* until Star Wars aired on tv to see it again. We didn't own a VCR until the end of the 80's. The struggle isn't waiting for your video to finish buffering from on-demand. The struggle was hoping your local video store wasn't out of both rental units AND the movie you wanted to see.

I've lived in a world before AND after Blockbuster. 

Also? Cassette decks. The meme both worked for my point and annoyed me. Now I'm distracted thinking about how much more difficult cassette tapes were to transport around than compact discs. See? Old AND cranky. Now get off my lawn!

Anyway...

Unlike the potential wait (and weekend usurping glory of a back-to-back movie marathon) of watching Star Wars, Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG, thank you very much) was a regularly airing series when I was growing up. And I loved it. Science fiction. Travel. Riker. Empathetic and smart female. (Who had a thing with Riker.) A female doctor. The brilliant glory that is Jean Luc Picard. People of just about any and all backgrounds having adventures for my weekly entertainment satisfaction. Yes, please.

Now, could I tell you the kind of details that hardcore fans can? Absolutely not. And I know this because I have friends who are hardcore fans. The kind of guys (yes, mostly guys) who worked hard to get me interested in engineering, ship schematics and introduced me to some of the backbone of intensive science fiction writing. And yes, all most of them own Star Trek uniforms. And yes, I mean that as uniformS, plural.

I have watched all the series, some better than others, up to the first season of Enterprise. (If that means absolutely nothing to you, don't worry about it.) I have not watched the original collection of movies. I don't know, maybe Shatner doesn't do it for me on the big screen, maybe I can only picture Ricardo Montalbán in Fantasy Island, maybe my Saturday nights were too full with Dr Quinn, SNL and cookies and cream ice cream. Who can say?

When the reboots started a few years ago, I was intrigued. Casting seemed sound & I was well versed with Mr. Abrams' work to date. I feel this is where I need to point out a simple fact. My husband? Doesn't particularly give two shits about Star Trek. He's got nothing against it necessarily, but the overall franchise doesn't do anything for him either. At least not anymore. I feel like he may have led me to believe he liked Voyager or Deep Space Nine when we were dating, but was ultimately ambivalent once we were married. A classic complaint in marriage, no? "He used to talk sci-fi with me, then once we were married, it's all action movies and rom-coms." You get it, I just know it.

So while my husband is a movie fan, he wasn't compelled to see the new Star Trek. So I picked up a copy once it came out on video (ahem, dvd), put it on the shelf and forgot to watch it. Second movie came out, I figured it would show up on cable, forgot about it. I really am a lackluster fandom supporter. Third time, however, was the charm. This weekend I finally watched Star Trek, lamenting the loss of Leonard Nimoy once more.

I enjoyed it. Good, not great. Pleasing to look at (the cast is obscenely photogenic). ST #2 is cued up for me to watch next. I go into it realizing if you're trying to make a movie that's accessible to a broader audience, some of the more delicate points are lost. But at least now I feel like I don't have this particular fangirl secret hanging over my head anymore.

Ghostbusters 2016

There may be very little in the way of actual spoilers here. I'm no critic. I don't know how to write a review. I do thoroughly enjoy picking apart every detail about a movie I've watched. What I thought worked. Where the gaping plot holes were. Various instances of 'what were they thinking'. What should have been different. *cough* Okay, so I can be critical.

This movie opens with a cute setup for our intro to ghosts in this new Ghostbusters universe. Scientific women, slapstick and slime follows. Excessive slime for some. (Unless you're well versed with the slime river from Ghostbusters 2.) And yes, Thor in glasses. This time around the Janine-esque character gets a slightly bigger part to play. All in good time. It's worth the wait. Especially during the credits.

I'll admit, I had a hard time with expectations and comparisons to the earlier movies I love so much. About halfway through I couldn't take the bipolar excitement/enjoyment to cranky that's-not-the-way-it-should-be's and back again anymore. I had a quick, internal snap out of it moment. This is a separate movie, doing it's own thing with plenty of hat tippage to the previous incarnations. It's a fun ride if you allow it. And our theater with movie goers ranging from kid to senior citizen applauded when it was over. So if comedy and paranormal are up your alley, give it a fair chance.

When I saw the most recent Star Wars movie, I had a moment where tears came to my eyes. It wasn't a death scene. It wasn't a scene where characters are reunited. It was when a girl used the force. I had no idea seeing that image for the first time would fill my chest with emotion. I wasn't sure what to expect with another return to a franchise from my childhood. Oddly enough, these two franchises were my first two theater experiences, so it's kind of appropriate for me that these updates and returns happened in the order and proximity they did.

I didn't have a single tear well up this time. I did have some moments of silent 'girl power' pride (also some snorty-nerd girl giggles that are less than flattering to reveal). An all female ghostbusting team? Why the fuck not? I'm not shocked people in 2016 have a problem with a female cast for this movie. I'm a woman who grew up with a dawning awareness that there are both men and women who have a real problem with women. And to those hiding behind the banner of what would the original team think, I offer the following:

• With the exception of Rick Moranis (who essentially dropped out of Hollywood to raise his children) the gang is all there. Cameo, upon cameo, upon well placed cameo. The late, beloved Harold Ramis was even represented if you pay close attention. His son has a small part as well.
• Check the production credits. If no names ring any bells, zip your lips.
• Passing the Ghostbuster's Torch (Ramis's daughter tackles the subject)

Any experienced Marvel moviegoer knows to stay until the credits are done for extra scenes. Plan on staying at the end for some visual goodies. Our final cameo comes just before the credits roll, one I was hoping for the whole time. Instead of the boring traditional plain end credits, you get a little unexpected entertainment as you wait for the scene to set up a potential next movie.

All in all? I'd go see it in the theater again. It does exactly what I think a movie like this sets out to do. There is humor. There are moments of decent suspense (as this is not a straight up horror flick, that's fair). Cast chemistry is solid. The cameos made me happy. All the little nods did. It kept me engaged. It's fun, slime-filled escapism.

You know, if you like that kind of thing.