Last movie you watched......

Saw Frozen and was underwhelmed, as was my 2-year-old son. The story just didn't do anything for me and I've already heard "Let It Go" 3.2 million times. I thought Brave was a far superior princess movie.

 

Never saw Brave, though my little one thought Frozen was better. Then again, very big difference between a two-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl. More importantly, we saw it shortly after it came out, so we were hearing the music for the first time.

 

Got on the ol' Netflix last night and watched And Now a Word From Our Sponsor, about an advertising executive who wakes up in a hospital -- not entirely clear how he got there -- and is only able to speak using advertising slogans. I enjoyed the movie -- Parker Posey is in it -- but the ending was kinda meh.

 

The Book Thief and August: Osage County with Mrs. Novelist over the weekend.

The Book Thief was fantastic. August was well done but thoroughly depressing. That's one screwed-up family.

 

Went to "Captain America" with our family's Marvel fan yesterday. He loved it.

I found the physics-defying violence a bit cartoonish.

And, almost every time a motor vehicle was prominent in a scene, I noticed the Chevy logo and thought "product placement."

I'm also not too keen on these movies just being chapters. Sometimes I go to a movie wanting to see a complete book and not have to wait for the next installment.

Another thing that bothers me a little is the pervasive plot line that there is a giant conspiracy of evil behind just about everything (along with the Marvel-crazed 12-year-old, our 22-year-old cynical daughter enjoyed the movie). Given the number of assorted political conspiracy theorists, to the right and left, around these days, I wonder if a world frequently portrayed as lacking concrete facts or foundations nurtures a potential audience for ideas that should be rejected out-of-hand.

Baaahhhhh! Get out of my yard!

I guess that, overall, it was a decent romp.

 

I think the drumbeat of 'corporations are evil' as movie-plot driver has had a weird effect on the way a lot of people think.
Perhaps political conspiracy has a similar effect.

We went to see 'Grand Budapest Hotel' and loved it.
I just love Wes Anderson movies.

 

I guess I'm used to the evil conspiracy because it was pulled straight from the comics, so I read it years ago. The difference being the movie took it much farther, which I liked. I get your point about chapters. I think the movie stands up fine on its own and as part of a larger story. It was kinda cool to be able to see the impact of the story a few days later on Agents of SHIELD, but I can understand your point of view as well.

 

Silent Running, a movie about the most radical of environmentalists.
Bruce Dern eliminates his shipmates to keep them from carrying out their orders to destroy their spaceship full of flora and fauna.
The overarching lesson is that the environment is much more vital than the lives of mere carbon-based humans!
(Hear any strains of this in today's Gaia culture, or the "Earth First" movement, members and moderators?)
But it was well worth my while. Want to know why? Because of the certitude displayed in the film- the sheer sureness the protagonists had their beliefs were correct; their unwavering sense of moral and intellectual superiority.
I was reminded that their arrogance was something to remember.
(Hear any strains of this on Internet message boards, members and moderators??)

 

I'm in the camp of loving how Marvel movies are kind of like chapters of a bigger book. Aside from the first two Superman films having any kind of connection (because they were shot at the same time), before Marvel/Sony did it with Spider-Man, no comic book films seemed to have any connection at all. Look at the initial Batman series. The producers couldn't even keep the lead actor for more than two films, much less try to do serious world building or tell a continuing story. It was just another sequel in which nothing from the previous film seemed to carry over or have consequences. Bond movies are that way, too, even though Fleming's original novels contained traces of stronger continuity for the character.

 

The Conjuring.

Genuinely had some creep out moments in it. Liked that it wasn't trying to be over the top. Solid effort.

Now I need to get caught up on some of the older ones I've missed.

 

I finally saw "42" last night. The way my Netflix queue turned out and a bit of procrastination has to do with the timing; it was pure happenstance that I saw it on the eve of Jackie Robinson Day.

Anyway, I enjoyed the movie very much. Good baseball action and a decent enough retelling of the story.

 

The same actor (Chadwick Boseman) is playing James Brown in a movie due out this summer ("Get On Up").

The way he's progressing, he can play O.J. next.