Last movie you watched......

Agreed.

 

Finally saw Joker. I knew it would be good - didn't realize how good. It's not even really a comic book movie. It's closer to King of Comedy meets Taxi Driver. And the recreation of '70s New York was phenomenal. It was like a mishmash of Lumet/Scorsese - so good at catching the mood it FELT like it was shot in NY in the 70s.

And wait - they made Spenser an ex-con? WTF? Thought it was bad enough having Shorty Wahlberg play a 6-1 former heavyweight. Fun fact - if you took the original age of the character from the first book, Spenser would be 85. I think Ace Atkins has drawn him back to something in the low 40s - though I think Robert B. Parker had him 50ish before Parker died.

I'd probably have enjoyed the movie more if it was just an original story - change some names and nobody would have guessed it would have been Parker's Spenser.

 

The Happytime Murders was a great idea - but the script missed more than it hit.

 

"ZZ Top: That Little 'Ol Band From Texas" last night on Netflix.

The usual rock band doc, going through their career and telling some great stories. They also had a few scenes of the trio jamming to some early tunes in an old roadhouse, which was cool.
Though I always knew there was a band called ZZ Top, I didn't get familiar with them until "Eliminator" and their MTV videos, so it was really cool to see a lot of their earlier footage before Billy and Dusty grew started the long-beard image (And Billy Bob Thornton got the honor of giving the "one guy in the band doesn't have a beard, and his name is actually Beard" observation).
My favorite story was Hill (I think it was him) talking about the night he discovered MTV and called his bandmates, telling them to check out the "music special" that was on, and after about 3-4 hours later wondering when the program was going to end, not realizing this was a 24-hour thing.
Another good one was telling of an early gig in Alvin, Texas, where they played at a bar for an audience of one guy (they even had photos of the gig and the audience member), and how they frequently see that guy at their shows when they're playing in that part of Texas.
Pretty cool film on a pretty cool band.

 

“The Way Back” today. Affleck was good. Best performance in a long time. Likely because many notes hit close to home for him.

The movie is a bit paint-by-numbers. The writing way too on the nose. It was good but nothing super special.

They did get the look and feel of high school basketball right. Especially Affleck’s team.

 

I was really disappointed in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The one thing that made me want to see it is the surfing scene, figured that would have a pretty good payoff. Guess I'll have to wait for the next one. Throw in the screaming kid and the other predictable plot points - it didn't deliver.

 

The Irishman. Pretty good, but I wasn’t blown away. Took a couple days to watch it. Interesting story especially involving the daughter.

 

Great special, lots of cool moments. One important detail - that's not just an old roadhouse, that's Greune Hall, the oldest dance hall in Texas. It's a sacred space.

ZZ holds a spot on my five best all time concerts list. I saw them on the "Tres Hombres" tour in Macon, Ga., with Freddie King and the Nightcrawlers. One helluva show, they played until the auditorium turned on the lights and ran us out around 1 a.m..

 

I spent way too long trying to figure out who the fuck is Spenser and what does he have to do with the DC Universe before realizing it's an entirely different film.

 

Hobbs and Shaw... exactly what you would think it would be, which is good.