February 2020

February 2020

 30 movies, finished 3 books and began a 4th, 3 graphic novels, 1 live performance

First movie of the month:

The Night Crew - January 31st, 2020 was declared Danny Trejo Day in L.A. When I got home that night from a successful evening of bar trivia it was already February 1st but I still wanted to celebrate Trejo Day and did so with this movie. I figured this would make for good background noise while I played video games but I actually wound up enjoying it. The plot was a basic chase thriller shoot 'em up but the characters were more fleshed out than usual, the action was pretty decent and, maybe because I wasn’t paying attention 100% (I was at maybe 55%), the twist in the end REALLY surprised me. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone except action fans but it’s one of the better direct to video action movies.

Watched in theaters:

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) - It took some time for the DC Extended Universe to find their footing. The early films in the series were all dark in tone and not much fun. Suicide Squad tried to turn this around but the movie was a mess. The story sucked, the action wasn't great and it didn't fit in at all with the films that preceded it but it did have a couple decent performances - especially Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. After Suicide Squad the DC movies lightened up a bit. Justice League was all right but Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Shazam! were all great. Fun, brightly colored and action packed. By abandoning dark and brooding tones they proved they could make some pretty good movies. This brings us to Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).

This was a female led, directed, written, starring, produced R rated action movie. A rarity for movies as a whole let alone comic book movies and action movies. It’s funny, loaded with fun characters, skeezy villains and the action was awesome! The fight scenes looked great, the shootouts were cool, the car chases were nuts, the explosions were ridiculous. Harley is a villain but she’s a damn fun one and the crew she puts together is great. This also has Mary Eliabeth Winstead - one of my all time favorites - as a crossbow wielding vigilante and it rules.

Sonic the Hedgehog - a good video game movie used to be an incredibly rare thing. The best you'd have was something like Mortal Kombat which, while silly, was loyal to the very simple formula the game was based on. Then Doom came along and put in a lot of effort into one action scene in particular, but not much else. Silent Hill was freaky and well made but not for the masses. I can't quite tell when things started to turn around but it definitively was recent. Tomb Raider is a movie based on a video game that deserves more praise. It was ignored but it's a very cool action movie with plenty of adventuring, I'm very happy we're getting a sequel (from a very surprising director-writing team). Last years Pokemon Detective Pikachu is probably the best video game movie yet. The story is charming, the character design is amazing and overall it's a good movie.

Sonic the Hedgehog had a bit of a bumpy ride to the big screen but the creators turned in a very fun, predictably fast paced and very silly video game movie. Starring James Marsden as a small town cop with big dreams, Jim Carrey as a manically evil scientist and Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic this is great for anyone looking for a fun movie and it's got plenty of call backs to the original video game. While it is a road movie that places Sonic in the passenger seat of a car for a decent amount of the run time he still does get to use his super fast speed pretty often. The animation looks great and the action is very fun. it also serves as an opportunity for Jim Carrey to go full Jim Carrey which is just wonderful to see.

Rewatched:

The Other Guys - I love this movie but somehow I lost my DVD! So I bought a Bluray of it and the day it arrives, it popped up on Netflix! Kristen and I watched it on Netflix but unfortunately they only have the original version. The original is still great, great enough for Craig and I to watch 5 days in a row when we first rented it, but the extended version is even better.

Resident Evil: Afterlife - This entry in the zombie series rips off Die Hard, The Matrix and probably a few other movies. It's dumb and action packed.

Hancock - this is almost a great movie. Interesting premise, cool action but the story isn't all there.

Foreigner - Jackie Chan can still kickass and Pierce Brosnan will forever be cool.

Nighthawks - the abandoned French Connection 3 screenplay became this cool thriller where Stallone and Billy Dee Williams play NYC cops who go up against terrorist Rutger Hauer.

Peacemaker - I remember being very bored by this as a kid. 20+ years later and yeah, it's still boring. George Clooney is cool at times but the movie is way too long and pointless.

The Last Stand - I love this movie. It's Arnold's return to movies after leaving politics and it's a great and very busy action movie.

Crackerjack - a pretty lousy Die Hard knockoff that also manages to be a lousy Cliffhanger knockoff.

Rage - one of the best lesser known action movies from the 90's. Absolutely insane stunt work and a very ridiculous story.

Takers - Idris Elba and Paul Walker head up a crew of thieves going up against cop Matt Dillon and old crew member T.I. in this decent Heat wannabe.

Olympus has Fallen - the most brutal Die Hard knockoff has Gerard Butler killing a lot of people in, around, on top of and underneath the White House. 

Layer Cake - one of the coolest British crime movies ever.

Term Life - Hailee Steinfeld in yet another action movie where she's the best part.

Mr. Right - an action comedy where Sam Rockwell's dancing hitman falls for Anna Kendrick.

War on Everyone - Michael Pena and Alexander Skarsgard play the worst cops ever in this cringy crime drama comedy.

True Grit - funny, dramatic, exciting, wonderfully acted western.

The Faculty - one of my favorite horror movies ever.

First time watching:

Vantage Point - while giving a speech abroad the US President is attacked and several people witness the incident. We see the events play out from different perspectives and learn different characters' motives. It’s a dumb movie but in the end it abandons the repetitive story telling and becomes a pretty fun, yet still dumb, action movie.

Riverbend - Steve James was one of the best martial artists who popped up in a supporting role in several action movies during the 80’s. He unfortunately passed away in the early 90’s having only starred as the lead in 2 movies. One I watched last December, Street Hunter, and I finally watched Riverbend this past month. If I can’t rent it or stream it and I really want to see it I will buy it (for less than $10) but a copy of this proved quite difficult to find (BetaMax copies of this are more readily available than VHS) so I had to watch it a on Youtube. The the movie was not great but I was happy to finally see it.

The Phantom of the Opera - Gerard Butler can sing! Kristen and I watched this on Valentine's Day and I loved it. I want to a deeper dive into musicals and since the lead and director are no stranger to action movies I found this a good place to start.

Tammy and the T-Rex - Paul Walker and Denise Richards are a happy high school couple until Walker's brain is stolen by an evil scientist and placed into an animatronic Tyrannosaurus. The movie is as dumb as it sounds and quite fun! It was originally released as one of the many low budget movies trying to make some money off the popularity of Jurassic Park. The original cut was so crass and violent that the producers edited it into a PG comedy. Then word of an R-rated version started gaining popularity and now the original version is available on Blu-Ray. It makes for quite the entertaining group watch.

Brightburn - I have done away with my Netflix DVD subscription (much more on that later) and was immediately drawn in by the rental selection at the library. It’s not Blockbuster but there is a pretty decent selection and I appreciate that it’s free and around the corner. The process of renting this film was more pleasurable than the film itself. The employees at the library are delightful and even though the label on the front said it was a 2 day rental, it rang up as a 7 day rental and they said ‘well, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth!’ and I was on my way.

This movie is a darker version of the well known Superman origin story - baby in a pod crash lands in middle America and turns out to be a superpowered being. The story of Superman is that he grows up to do good. In this one he’s on his way to be a friendly yet awkward 12 year old when his mind is taken over, possibly by whoever or whatever sent him to Earth (it's never explained). He then wreaks havoc upon his family and peers and animals in very cruel manners.

I like the idea of evil Superman but I didn’t care for this. It’s just a mean movie with some unexplored ideas. He can fly, has super strength, is bulletproof and has laser eyes but none of it is particularly entertaining. I really didn’t care for the kid actor playing evil Superman and the gruesomely violent tone was just too much for me.

Movies I own but haven’t watched until now:

Last month I went through a few of my action movies that I owned on DVD or VHS and hadn’t yet watched. This month I went through the Laser Discs that I was given a couple years ago. I played it safe and watched a few movies I felt I would probably enjoy. Maybe later on I’ll take some risks and watch foreign stuff.

Lone Star - I grew up hearing about this movie from my mom because it was during Matthew McConaughey’s rise to fame in the mid 90’s and when I’d start seeing his name on posters and I could say ‘hey, I’m related to him!’ which is always a fun talking point. He may not be in this movie all that much but damn it’s a good movie.

The Fisher King - Knowing the heavy subject matter I avoided this one when I was younger. I finally saw it and wow it’s amazing. Jeff Bridges, Robin Williams Amanda Plummer and Mercedes Ruehl are all fantastic. 

Ed’s Next Move - This fish out of water story where a young man takes a job in NYC deserves to be up there with the likes of Reality Bites, Empire Record, PCU and other great 90’s movies. I never even heard of it before finding it in my stack of Laser Disc's. It appears to be a forgotten film, it's not even on DVD, but it's very fun.

The Paper - Ron Howard is a good director but this movie about sensational headlines should have been taken a bit more seriously. It's about a group of reporters trying to handle a headline that could have a serious impact on two young men wrongfully accused of murder. That's serious subject matter but there is a bit too much humor.

What I read:

This Tom Clancy thriller is about The Campus, a secret agency operating in the shadows of the CIA and NSA, and The Organization, a group of terrorists who operate globally. The Campus is newly formed and training young recruits to track and kill targets that pose a threat to the U.S. Meanwhile The Organization plans and carries out a horrific attack on U.S. soil.

After the attack The Campus, working outside the law, sends an FBI agent and a Marine, brothers and nephews of Clancy’s most famous character Jack Ryan, to Europe to kill 4 targets who profited from and/or planned the attack.

I didn’t love the story telling. I found the violence to be ugly and cruel and the characters are all unlikable. It’s not without its thrilling moments but at 480 pages it is way too long with an unsatisfying ending that didn’t leave me too excited to keep reading more Clancy novels. My brother swears by the audio books so I may give them a shot someday.

A bleak Icelandic thriller where the lead character is a detective who is as cold as the frigid weather outside. He is a good investigator but not a people person. He and his partner are investigating the murder of an elderly man. What at first looks like a break-in gone wrong soon reveals itself to be a much darker story that has the dreary detective digging deep into several cold cases that are linked the murder victim. The storytelling is fast which I liked when compared to the drawn out Tom Clancy novel I read prior. The story is quite sad and the twists reveal even more misery but I liked  the writing style and the characters so I think I'll read a few more by this author. After reading this I found out there was a movie based on the book. That was a first for me. Usually I learn about the movie, then the book. I'm not in a rush to watch it because if it's anything like the book it will make for a tough watch.

Another story about the miserable but interesting detective from Jar City. I really like the simple and straightforward story telling. It's quite casual and I find that style adds some surprise to the twists. This one is just as bleak and cold as Jar City but the lead is more tolerant and friendly this time. He tries to connect with those around him and even goes on a date all while investigating a murder at a popular hotel with lots of secrets to hide. Again, things get sad and depressing but it turns out I don't mid that type of story if it's well written. I do not like sad and depressing movies, even the well made ones, so this is a new revelation. The first story had a lot to do with family and this one continues that theme but with a heavy focus on siblings. I wonder what the next one will be about.

Saga, Volume 1-3 - I love this series. It's so exciting. The characters, good and bad, are all interesting and you get to know them so well. It's a classic star crossed lovers tale but with assassins  and robots and space wars and horned people and flying people and ghosts and talking animals and all sorts of other crazy stuff going on. I love it. I keep several volumes downloaded at all times on my Ipad and I read these volumes while waiting for a book I had requested from the library.

Currently reading:

This came highly recommended from friends. I just started it but I'm having some trouble with it. The author describes everything with such rich and exaggerated detail to explain the other worldly events going on in the story. Every sentence is so damn busy I find myself rereading sentences very often and it slows me down significantly. The story is very cool and I like the lead a lot but the style it's presented in has taken some getting used to when compared to the two relatively simply written bleak Icelandic thrillers I've just finished. There are two more books in this series that make up the Southern Reach trilogy and I intend to read those as well. Might take me all of March though.

Live performances:

Girl From the North Country - my new job has some perks! Kristen and I had a nice date night in the city and went with several of my coworkers to see the new Bob Dylan musical. It's set in the 30's and isn't the most uplifting tale but the acting is great and the music is phenomenal. I found it hard not to sing along to the songs I knew, others in the audience seemed to forget they were in a theater.

Final Netflix DVD rental:

It’s been about a decade since the Blockbuster in Morristown closed. On its closing day I went home and Craig said ‘well, I guess we’re getting Netflix.’ Way back then they had little to no original programming, the search engine was a mess and the movie selection was like 25% good, 25% bad and 50% skippable. But it was something!

It also came with the DVD rental. While the streaming selection was lacking, the DVD rental selection more than made up for it. The first DVD I rented was Dark City: Director’s Cut. I can’t see when I rented it but I can see that I returned it 01/11/11. I rented 280 movies in the 10 years that I had Netflix DVD.

280 is a very small amount of movies for me, but it was by my own design. I’d find a movie, be in the mood to watch said movie, rent the movie, get it in the mail and then not feel like watching it, sometimes for weeks at a time. When I lived in Lyndhurst I never updated my shipping address so for 2 years the DVDs went to my parents house and I’d have to go physically pick them up.

Why did I do this to myself? Well, because when not sitting down watching movies I’m actually a very busy person. Also, as streaming platforms began to grow in popularity I had so much more to watch and I could do so instantly whereas with Netflix DVD I'd have to wait days for it arrive in the mail.

But I liked the Netflix DVD queue. Scrolling through the digital selections, going genre by genre, was the closest thing I’d have to getting lost in the aisles at Blockbuster, trying to decide on what to rent.

Since starting my new job the rate of watching my Netflix rental has dropped to nearly 2 movies a month. Because of this I decided it was time to cancel my rental subscription.

The last movie I rented was Dragon Squad, a forgettable action movie with messy direction and plot. The last movie I rented should have been Alita: Battle Angel because that I enjoyed.

While I’m on this track, here’s a little story about my 3rd to last Netflix rental. It was a direct to video action movie called Triplecross and it was in horrendous condition by the time I received it. I took pictures of it. In the top left is a blurry image of the letter I wrote to Netflix which I have typed out below.

Dear Netflix:

The Triplecross DVD I am returning seemed to have met an unfortunate end in it's journey to my house. It was supposed to arrive 12/30/2019 and only just arrived today 1/3/2020 and somewhere along the way was crushed and/or came in contact with corrosive material. I am writing this letter to apologize for the terrible condition it is in and including the address label which includes a “Received in damaged condition” stamp from the post office. Hopefully they will be more careful with the next one. Thanks for all the DVD’s and have a happy new year - Kyle

I can’t say I’m done with the DVD rental forever. I have plenty in my own collection, the library has some stuff (with a nice little New Releases section) and I can find much more on the many streaming services but for whatever reason I always found some interesting and lesser known movies available with the Netflix DVD. It picked up the slack when Blockbuster went away so I can’t officially call it quits. Not just yet.