Movies

Hacksaw Ridge – read review here. ***1/2

Dr. Strange – read review here. ****

The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 1 – This isn’t very good. The first Hunger Games movie was solid, exactly what it needed to be, but this adaptation of the first half of the last book is nothing. It is nearly two hours of absolutely nothing. When Harry Potter pulled this trick at least the movie was well shot. **1/2

Arrival – read review here. ****1/2

O Brother Where Art Thou? – The Coen Brothers are great, and this might be the best of their comedies. (editor’s note – It’s The Big Lebowski) All three of the protagonists are great, plenty of the side characters are a lot of fun and Man of Constant Sorrow is a delight to listen to. Just an all-around excellent film. *****

Stonehurst Asylum – An adaptation of a Poe story that I was unfamiliar with, this movie is okay. It has a lot of talented actors, with Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley, David Thewlis and Kate Beckinsale, but it is kind of muddled in the middle and not especially good. Still, there is something good in there, even if it is only intermittently visible. ***

Unforgiven – This is an amazing movie. Maybe Eastwood’s best. It is a movie about many things: guilt, fame, time. All of them are woven together perfectly for this somber look at the dying days of the old west and the toll that life can take on people. Just amazing. *****

Hero – I greatly enjoyed this. It has some beautiful shots and some wonderfully choreographed fight scenes, as well as a story that twists just enough to be interesting. It is just really well made. ****

Goon – A dim witted bouncer stumbles into a job as a hockey enforcer, even though when he starts he can barely skate. Finally having a place to belong, he grows to be an integral part of his team even though he is only there to fight. It mostly works, but isn’t anything great. ***1/2

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – read review here. ****

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – This has always been my least favorite Harry Potter story, both in book and movie form, and this viewing didn’t do anything to change my mind. Kenneth Branagh almost saves it with his perfect turn as Gilderoy Lockhart, but it loses some of the magic in trying to capture all of the book. Still, I wouldn’t call it bad, just a little too long and a little too dull. ***

ACOD – This movie has a really talented cast and a good idea, but it is a comedy that is only intermittently funny. For long stretches it isn’t funny at all. **1/2

ARQ – This is basically Edge of Tomorrow on a shoestring budget. It kind of works, though the small budget shows. Some of its concepts could use more fleshing out, but the idea of a house caught in a repeating loop with only a few of the people there aware of is at least an interesting concept. **1/2

Batman The Movie – This is a great comedy and as long as it is looked at through that lens it holds up. Batman is a silly idea, and this is that idea at its silliest. The gleeful goofiness of this movie makes it simply a delight. Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb. *****

Moana – read review here. ****

Burn After Reading – Not the best Coen Brothers movie. Stupid people do stupid things for 90 minutes. Some of them die, some get rewarded. Life has no meaning. There are some good scenes and it is pretty amusing, but it feels fatally slight. ***1/2

How to Steal a Million – Wow. Audrey Hepburn is amazing. Peter O’Toole and Eli Wallach are no slouches, but you watch this movie to watch Hepburn and it is worth it. It is a romantic comedy heist movie, and while the heist is a little undersold, the rest of it is great. ****1/2

London Has Fallen – What a miserable film. It is just ugly and bad in just about every way. There is absolutely nothing to recommend here; this is complete and utter dreck. *

TV

The Office (U.K.) – I sat down and watched this all the way through for the first time. It is still very good. You have to hand it to Ricky Gervais, David Brent is one of the most despicable characters to ever appear on TV; he is wholly unlikeable. At every opportunity he shows himself to small and petty, but he is wrapped in so much delusion that he casts himself as the wronged party. Since his constant faux pas come from ignorance, not malice it can be tempting to forgive him, but even when given the chance to be the thing he thinks he is he fails to do so. That really made the Christmas special at the end ring false; he gets something of a happy ending that he hadn’t earned. Still, it is a great show, though I would argue even more strongly now that the American version is better.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell – A solid adaptation of a book I loved that can’t really bring over all of the things I loved about the book (there is no way to do footnotes on film). Still, it is a delightful look at a version of the early 19^th century but with magic. It really made me want to reread the book, so I guess it was a success.

Ascension – Euggh. This starts with such a great premise, a generation ship traveling through space that has developed its own customs the longer they have been separate from Earth. It starts with a murder mystery on that ship, but every episode seems to change its mind about what kind of show it was, leading the viewer down some dull, inconsequential and poorly thought paths. This could have been something good, but instead it is nothing.

Curb your enthusiasm s3 – This show is one of those near perfect comedies, like Arrested Development. There is something perfectly relatable and detestable about the fictional Larry David. I’ve never really sat down and watched this show all the way through, but my brothers and I saw most of the 3 season one morning and every episode was hilarious.

CW Superhero Round-Up – This continues to be a strong season for Supergirl and I still like Flash more than most people. I have dropped off Arrow almost completely, though I did come back for the crossover. Legends is junk, but it is fun junk. That crossover, which was misleadingly called a 4-parter even though Supergirl’s episode only barely tied in, was impressive if not completely satisfying.

Movies

The Prisoner of Zenda – This is one of the classic adventure tales. It is really old, from the 30’s I believe, but it is still a lot of fun to watch. It feels its age, but it is also very apparent why it was popular in the first place. ****

They Came Together – A charming spoof by the guys behind Wet Hot American Summer, starring Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler. It plays out with all the beats of a romantic comedy, but with a layer of complete ridiculousness. Very funny. ****

Looney Tunes Back In Action – Joe Dante is great and this is the movie that Space Jam should have been. Too bad Space Jam had already shit in the pool by this point. It has some great slapstick action and Brendan Fraser is a lot of fun. ****

Sweeney Todd – This is the perfect musical for Tim Burton’s talents, but that doesn’t make this movie any more enjoyable to watch. The production design is excellent, but I couldn’t make out the lyrics for most of the songs. ***

Jaws – Amazing exercise in tension and pacing. Just a great movie overall. Jaws doesn’t need any defending. *****

Spotlight – This is an altogether excellent movie. There are strong performances and riveting subject matter. I don’t really have more to say. *****

Sum of All Fears – Ben Affleck plays Jack Ryan in a movie that is mostly pretty dull until it goes balls out crazy and drops a nuke in Baltimore. It isn’t especially good, but it is nuts. ***

Redemption – This movie has aspirations of being more than just a Statham action movie, but it really isn’t much of anything. Statham is always fun to watch and it really isn’t like anything else, but neither is it particularly good. **1/2

Mascots – see review here. ****

The Nice Guys – Of all the movies to come out this year, this is the one I most wanted to see in the theater but missed out on. After taking advantage of a 99 cent rental deal with Amazon, I finally got to see it and am even more upset that I missed it. This is easily one of the best movies of the year. Both Crowe and Gosling are fantastic. Really everything aobut this movie is great. Perfection. *****

Tucker & Dale Versus Evil – A largely amusing horror comedy that leans too hard on the gore. There are some good bits and jokes, but it never really rises about amusing distraction into something really memorable. ***1/2

The Accountant – see review here. ***1/2

Jack Reacher – A perfectly competent action movie starring Tom Cruise. It is baseline action movie, nothing too spectacular but completely watchable. ***

Amanda Knox – It is amazing to watch this, to see the filmmakers get a lot of the major players to appear on camera and two of them just damn themselves with what they saw. I don’t know that I’ve ever encountered someone as scummy as Nick Pisa, or at least as he comes across here. It also gets across how flimsy the case against her was. This isn’t the most informative of documentaries, it assumes the viewer has a basic understanding of the case already, but it is riveting. ****

Godzilla 2014 – I liked this movie a lot more in the theater. I still like it now, but without the big screen spectacle the flaws stand out more. There really isn’t enough Godzilla action and some of the stuff with Ford doesn’t work at all. Still, that climax redeems it for the most part. ***1/2

Dazed and Confused – I have liked a lot of other Linklater movies, and when this one showed up on Netflix I jumped at the chance to finally see it. It is one of those perfect coming of age comedies. Most of the characters are at least partly sympathetic and it manages to capture the feeling of being in high school. ****1/2

Addams Family – This is one of the great horror comedies. The cast is great: Raul Julia and Christopher Lloyd especially. I don’t know that I like the actual plot, but all of the jokes and scenes play. ****

Addams Family Values – A much better plot than the first movie, with a lot of good stuff for this game great cast. I love camp stuff, seeing Wednesday and Puggsley being forced to interact with something like the real world. It is just so much damn fun. *****

Young Frankenstein – An all-time classic. It is not my favorite movie by either gene Wilder or Mel Brooks, but any collaboration of theirs is worth seeing. While I don’t love horror movies, I do like horror comedies and this might be the best. *****

Sisters – Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are a great comic duo, but this movie doesn’t quite stick the landing. All the elements are there and there are some genuinely funny jokes, but there is also a lot of flab. It doesn’t nail the character stuff or the comedy hard enough, though all of it is roughly good. Still, Fey and Poehler are too good to not at least like. ***1/2

The Cabin in the Woods – A pretty great meta take on slasher movies. I don’t much care for any horror movies, but this seems like it was doing something really smart with the genre.

Shaun of the Dead – Still excellent. It is layered and well considered and very funny. I like the other Cornetto movies a little better, but this one is still great. *****

TV

Poirot Series 13 – I finally worked my way through the last series. It is the same as it ever was; largely very well executed mystery movies built around a great performance with its lead. Still, it always manages to feel a little cold. It is never the less completely enjoyable. I am glad I soldiered through.

Detectorists Series 2 – The more I watch this show, the more I love it. It nails this perfect pastoral feel, with its characters gradually revealing themselves, never rushing to state its points. The characters are perfectly human; their struggles are wholly relatable. It is just everything I want in a show.

The Ranch S1 Part 2 – More of the same from the first part; a comfortingly terrible sitcom. Terrible is too strong, it isn’t good but it is well executed and the cast has some chemistry. There just isn’t a lot here to recommend unless you are a big fan of the stars.

Luke Cage – I’ve already written about this here.

The Get Down – I don’t really know how to evaluate this beautiful mess. There are some great scenes, but the show is just all over the place. Again, some of the musical numbers really work, but a lot of the dialogue is insultingly on the nose. I liked it on the whole, but it isn’t really all that good.

Quick Draw Season 1 – This show has essentially one joke, that the over-educated Harvard graduate sheriff doesn’t get the old west, but it manages to wring quite a few fun bits out of it, especially since they actually let him be an expert shot. Still, I watched the first season during a slow afternoon and likely will never come back to it.

Flash S3 – It hasn’t rebounded to the soaring heights of the first season, but while it has been a little slow so far, it does feel like they are actually building to something worthwhile. Unlike last season when the first third of the season was mostly set up for Legends. I’m really enjoying all the different Wells and Draco Malfoy as Barry’s work rival. I hope it pays off on all the promising stories it is setting up.

Arrow S5 – I think this season is shaping up to be stronger than last, but no less weird. They’ve brought in Ragman, Mr. Terrific and Wild Dog. Freaking Wild Dog. Still, it is staying closer to the street level stuff that Arrow works better with. I don’t know that I’ll keep up with it past the crossover, though.

Legends of Tomorrow S2 – The show is slightly stronger through three episodes than it ever was last season. Maybe that is just my innate love of the JSA showing through. It is still too ambitious for its effects budget, but Vixen is better than Hawkgirl. Of course, Commander Steel is no match for Captain Cold. Still, they are being set up to fight a time traveling Injustice League, which is much better than last season’s tepid take on Vandal Savage.

Supergirl S2 – The show is going through some pretty big changes in its move to the CW, but it overall feels a lot more confident with what it wants to be. Superman in the first few episodes was great and most of the new additions are fun so far. This might end up being as good as Flash S1 at this rate.

Movies

How to Train Your Dragon 2 – It’s not bad. I never went as crazy over the first How to Train Your Dragon as some people did, but this follow up is adequate but definitely lesser. There is nothing really wrong with it, but it just feels kind of unnecessary. ***

Saving Private Ryan – This isn’t quite one of Spielberg’s absolute best, but it is very good. The war scenes are to this day amazing to watch. Other parts of it drag on just a bit too long; I could do without the framing scenes, which I don’t think are effective or add anything to the film. Overall, though, it is just great. ****1/2

The Big Short – This is a great movie. It starkly and humorously lays out the circumstances that lead to the recent financial collapse. It manages to combine a very important history/economics lesson with a funny, entertaining movie. It is just really, really good. *****

Bonnie & Clyde – There is a lot of great moments and performances in this movie, but I don’t know how well I like how it came together. It is certainly very watchable, with a lot of great scenes. I really like the brief appearance by the late Gene Wilder. ****

Joe Dirt 2 – I liked Joe Dirt. Maybe I was just young and stupid, but I found it largely entertaining. This is just stupid and mean spirited; it is certainly not funny. A more unnecessary or unwanted sequel I couldn’t imagine. 1/2

The Last Samurai – I think I like this movie a lot more than I should. There are some real problems, like the white savior stuff this movie indulges in and the historical inaccuracies, but I still find it to be a very entertaining film. Tom Cruise is usually good and Ken Wantanabe is great. ****

Chasing Amy – Kevin Smith writes some good dialogue, but unless you are as fascinated with the idea of lesbians as he is this movie hasn’t aged particularly well. There are some fun scenes and some good ideas, but it feels a little flat to me. ***1/2

The November Man – Pierce Brosnan plays a spy that is more like Daniel Craig’s Bond than his own. It isn’t terrible, but there really isn’t much here to recommend. **

Always – One of Spielberg’s lesser known movies, this romantic comedy/drama about the ghost of Richard Dreyfuss helping his ex-girlfriend move on almost works. I love nothing more than movies about planes, and this is one such movie, but it struggles with tone for most of the runtime. It does some slapstick and some tear jerking, but mostly it just meanders around trying to sell a romance that only intermittently works. It is still largely entertaining, but it is easily among the director’s lesser works. ***

Elizabeth: The Golden Age – This is a gorgeous movie, but it is also kind of melodramatic and overblown. The production design alone makes it worth watching, but I wouldn’t say it is especially good. **1/2

Sully – see review here. ****

The Usual Suspects – The whole movie is its twist, which makes me want to keep lowering my score the more I think about it. This a plain story told in an interesting way. That first time through it is amazing, but there isn’t much there for repeat viewings. ****

The Finest Hours – A perfectly fine disaster/ shipwreck movie. Chris Pine is good, but the actual rescue is dwarfed by some numbing search scenes. It just lacks the necessary spark to be at all memorable. ***

Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey – Still great. It takes the same characters and set up of the first movie and does something completely different with it. It is just a lot of fun. ****

Ip Man 2 – This is like two different movies mashed together. It starts with Master Ip building up a new martial arts school after relocating in the last movie, but about halfway through it turns into Rocky IV with a less likeable villain. It is decently entertaining, but that split in the middle is hard to reconcile. ***

Ip Man 3 – This starts much like the previous movie, but this time the split in the middle makes for a better story instead of an inexplicable one. It starts with Ip fighting off some gangsters who want to demolish the school his son attends and builds into a rivalry between Master Ip and another Wing-chun master. I really like how that rivalry was dealt with; it is not what would normally be expected. ***1/2

The Good Dinosaur – This is one of the few Pixar films I missed in the theaters and I don’t feel like I’ve missed much. It has an interesting look; with nearly photorealistic backgrounds mixed with very cartoony looking characters. The story is simple, with shockingly little going on for a Pixar movie. There is a base level quality that it doesn’t drop below, but it doesn’t really rise above a certain ceiling either. ***1/2

Underworld & Underworld Evolution – How do you make werewolves fighting vampires movie and make it this completely boring? These movies are unspeakably dull; the only thing of interest is Kate Beckinsale in skintight clothes. *1/2

DEBS – I watched this after happening upon Roger Ebert’s scathing review. I don’t really agree with him, but that doesn’t make it good. It is a kind of flabby comedy spy spoof. There are some good moments, but it mostly just looks cheap and not especially well constructed. **1/2

Coffee Town – It has a fun cast in Glen Howerton and Ben Schwartz, but it doesn’t really feel like it has a purpose. It is at its best when it is embracing that lack of purpose. Until its main plot comes into focus, it is a lot of fun watching this goofballs mess around a coffee shop. ***1/2

The Boxtrolls – I loved Kubo, but this was more like the Laika films that I more admire than enjoy. I can’t deny the craftsmanship that is apparent on screen in this movie, but I don’t much care for the aesthetic or characters. It is perfectly good for what it is, it just really isn’t for me. ***1/2

Big Trouble in Little China – I feel like I don’t have the words to talk about how much I like this movie. I really wish I had watched this as a kid. It is everything you could want out of a mystical kung fu movie starring Kurt Russell from the 80’s. It is amazing. ****1/2

13 Assassins – I wanted something Seven Samurai like before seeing Magnificent 7 and this was the closest I could find on short notice. It starts with the usual gathering the team scenes, along with some to establish just how awful the villain of this movie are. But about an hour in it gets to the big fight scene and that doesn’t disappoint. It is a nearly hour long fight scene that just keeps shifting and growing. It is great. ****1/2

Tomorrowland – This is a weird movie. One of its central plot’s is a love story between George Clooney and a tiny girl. She is a robot, but it is still awkward. It is called Tomorrowland, but only the last act gets to that place. Also, it is a rather pessimistic movie about optimism. Still, Brad Bird can make a fine movie. ***

Aloha – This is in a lot of ways wrongheaded and ill conceived, but it is also well acted and intermittently entertaining. **

Magnificent 7 – See review here. ***

TV

Galavant – I gushed about this show when the second season aired, but I will do so again now that the entire series has been added to Netflix. Galavant is only 18 half hour episodes long. Each episode has at least two songs. It ends up being about a 6 and a half hour long fantasy musical. It has some great characters and great songs. The second season is especially good. Timothy Omundson is particularly good as the inept King Richard. This is a show everyone should take a look at.

Psych – I know I’ve written about Psych before, but I felt the need to do so again. I watched as much as I could of this before it left Netflix. As this is one of my background noise staples, I hope it returns sooner rather than later. The more I watch this, the more I feel comfortable saying that this is a great TV show. It starts as a straight formula, but as it gets more comfortable with its characters it grows in some interesting ways. Psych’s loving homages to all kinds of classic movies and TV shows are mostly very well done, and honestly more true to their inspirations than I initially realized. It does falter in the last season or two, as the show loses sight of its mysteries and kind of falls apart, but other than that it is great.

Movies

Crimson Peak – I skipped this movie last year because it was advertised as a horror movie. It isn’t; it is a gothic romance. There are some horror elements, but it is more slightly spooky than in any way scary. I loved it. The performances by Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska are all excellent. It also looks great, with Del Toro’s usual mastery of effects. This is everything I could have wanted it to be. I have learned my lesson about missing out on Del Toro movies. *****

Transporter Refueled – This movie shows just how much Jason Statham brings to the table. Ed Skrein is fine, but he lacks Statham’s charm and presence. This movie is fine, but it isn’t anything more than a competent action also ran. **

Blitz – This is Jason Statham doing more with less. There isn’t a lot original or great here, but Statham makes it just enjoyable enough to watch. **1/2

Suicide Squad – See Review here ***1/2

Star Trek (2009) – I picked this up out of the $4 bin at Wal-Mart after seeing Star Trek Beyond. I remembered it being a lot of fun and it is. The movie is very much about establishing the new cast as these characters, leaving little room for anything else. Still, like most JJ Abrams movies it is slick and enjoyable, even if it is a little shallow. ****

Cinderella – This is the Kenneth Branagh directed live action version of Disney’s animated movie. After seeing this and the Jungle Book, maybe these just aren’t for me. I never really like Disney’s Cinderella, and this version keeps all of the things I didn’t enjoy, such as the talking animals. It certainly looks great. **1/2

The Little Prince – This is two completely different movies smashed together. There are the amazing stop motion scenes out of The Little Prince, and then there is the thoroughly adequate CG animated movie filled in around it. I would rather this was just a straight adaptation of The Little Prince in the style of the scenes already in this movie, but what is here is disappointingly fine. ***

Hellboy – I didn’t much like this movie when I first saw it years ago. I don’t know what was wrong with me. It is a little slow to get going, spending a lot of time on the origin of Hellboy and setting up how the BRPD operates, but once it gets going it becomes a delight. ****

Back to the Future Part 2 – I know I’ve written about this movie before. It is great. *****

The Princess Bride – I know I’ve written about this movie before. It is great. *****

The Battered Bastards of Baseball – This documentary about Portland’s short lived independent minor league baseball team is a lot of fun. It’s got underdog stories galore and manages to be both sad and heartwarming. ****

Batman v Superman Ultimate Cut – Earlier this year I came away from BvS mildly positive about it. Still, I wasn’t rushing out to get the Blu-Ray and see it again, only this time 30 minutes longer. Still, I happened to see the Ultimate Cut and I am glad I did. The thirty minutes of added in fixes almost all of the movie’s plot problems. It actually lets the viewer into Superman’s head, so they can see how he came to goaded into this fight instead of just seeing Batman’s near deranged fury that got him there. It more strongly establishes Lex Luthor’s hand in setting all of it up. Why this stuff was cut instead of shortening the last fight scene or taking out some of the Easter eggs I’ll never know, but this three hour long version is a nearly great movie. ****

Blade 2 – Yeah, after watching Crimson Peak I went a little Del Toro crazy. This has some very Del Toro feeling moments, but it doesn’t quite work for me. I like a lot of the elements of this movie, like the vampire hunters – the hunters that are vampires – teaming up with Blade and some of the action scenes are great, but it moves to the end without doing much to play with the toys it painstakingly show off early. Still, it is reasonably entertaining. ***

Pacific Rim – This is another Del Toro movie with a lot of set up, but this time I find all of that interesting. I am already sold by the time it moves to the big battle scenes. I get the feeling that this is something of a love it or hate it movie, and I definitely fall on the love it side. It does a better job than most big action movies of establishing its world, even if that does come some at the expense of establishing its characters. *****

Kubo and the Two Strings – see review here. ****1/2

Before We Go – Chris Evans and Alice Eve are entertaining actors, but this movie is a slightly pleasant bit of nothing. **

The Lone Ranger – How is the train scene at the end of this movie so ridiculously good when the rest of the movie is so damn tepid? That scene is amazing, with the energy of the first Pirates movie, but the rest of the movie is just … there. **1/2

Hellboy II: The Golden Army – Much like the first Hellboy movie, but this one doesn’t need to spend the time on the set up, it just gets right to the action. Del Toro really outdoes himself with the action set piece and strange creatures here. All of the characters are just on point from the start and the team feels more natural than they did the first time. This movie is just a blast from start to finish. *****

Hot Fuzz – Still one of my favorite all time movies. There is never a bad time to put this on. *****

Sahara – Ughh, this is a mess. I think it was supposed to be fun, but it just misses the mark all over the place. It is an uncomfortable combination of other action movie ideas that just doesn’t work on its own. It is like a Bond movie where Bond has no mission or reason to be there. Also, it is just kind of dumb. *1/2

Jane Got a Gun – There is a good movie here somewhere, but it didn’t quite end up on the screen. The characters don’t connect to each other in what should be a very personal story. It hurts that the way it is told, mostly through flaashbacks, robs most of the emotional moments of their possible impact. **1/2

TV

Doctor Thorne – A reasonably well made adaptation of not especially well known 19^th century novel. It isn’t great; it is not the sort of show to garner effusive praise. But it is a solid exercise that fans of the genre will enjoy. I certainly don’t regret seeing it. How’s that for a ringing endorsement? Honestly, though, it’s pretty good.

Poirot Series 12 – The second to last handful of Poirot mystery adaptations. They are still well made, though I don’t know that I like all the adaptation choices on the stories I know. This is still really good stuff, I hope to finish the series up next month.

Home Movies Season 4 – This isn’t the best season of this amazing show, but I really like the journey that Brendan goes on through this season. It is Brendan, at least somewhat, moving away from making movies. He is still working on them, but he is often distracted or disinterested. As much as I wish we had gotten more of this great show, the last season does a great job of tying things up and ending.

Marco Polo Season 2 – This show has a good cast, great production values and a fertile subject matter but doesn’t manage to tell a satisfying story with any of it. It has become clear that the title character is the least interesting part of the proceedings, but the show only rarely manages to capitalize on the dramatic potential of Kublai or his sons. Some parts, like Hundred Eyes, are great on their own but don’t really fit in with the rest of the show. I hope it gets a third season, but I hope that season is dramatically improved in the writing.

Stranger Things – I initially dismissed this due to my apathy toward anything horror related, but consistent good reviews got me to try it out and I am glad I did. It is a wonderful synthesis of all the things I love from the 80’s, but isn’t just that. It works with similar themes and subject and aesthetics to stuff like ET and It, but it is definitely its own show. Unlike most of its inspirations, Stranger Things has a lot of space to work with, which allows it to build more fully formed characters than that stuff. It gets to develop two sets of kids and several adults, leaving room for a handful of intriguing tertiary characters. It does a great job of slowly building tension but never feeling like it is wasting the viewer’s time. I have nothing but praise for this show.

Movies

Iverson – Allen Iverson is an interesting, talented, controversial athlete. He is the perfect subject for a documentary. Too bad this movie in not really interested in engaging with its subject in any meaningful way. It skirts into hagiography. I don’t think Allen Iverson was a villain, but this movie seems to exist as an attempt to explain away all of his various controversies. Iverson is/was a man with problems; he wasn’t always the good guy either on or off the court. I wish this movie would have done more to show his complexity. **

Lethal Weapon – There is something undeniably propulsive about this film. It constantly ramps things up higher and higher. Also, it is also understandable that Gibson’s Riggs is called a lethal weapon; he really seems dangerous to everyone around him here. The calming influence of Murtaugh is really felt. I just love something about a movie that hits ludicrous heights and just keeps going up from there. This movie does just about everything right. ****

Legend of Tarzan – see review here. ***

Lethal Weapon 2 – The second movie doesn’t quite have the same impact as the first, but it still works. They are already sanding the edges off Riggs. He is becoming more a charming rogue than a dangerous maniac. Part of that is just character development; part of it is losing what made the character interesting. This movie doesn’t really ramp up to craziness so much as it starts at crazy and stays there. It doesn’t have to introduce the characters so it can get right to firing machine guns in downtown LA. ***1/2

Hudson Hawk – I know this movies reputation, but I love it. Nearly all of the complaints people make about the movie are true, but the largely seem misguided to me. This movie is basically a Looney Tunes cartoon as a live action movie. No idea was too silly, nothing too absurd to be included. It doesn’t all work, but it is an amazing madcap action comedy. It is just so much fun, and everyone involved seems to be in on the joke. ***1/2

ET: The Extra-Terrestrial – This movie is pretty much perfect. I needed to see this after The BFG disappointed me so much. The relationship between Elliot and ET is so wonderfully done. I don’t know what else to say, it is too good. *****

The BFG – see review here. **1/2

Hot Pursuit – This movie is a complete waste. It has a decent set up for essentially a buddy comedy, but other than a few scenes it never really does anything. Vergara and Witherspoon are both funny, but this movie doesn’t really give them much to work with. It is just a bad movie.*1/2

2 Fast 2 Furious – This is the low point of the Fast & Furious movies. It does have its moments of charm, but it is mostly just a less engaging retread of the first movie, a movie that itself wasn’t all that great. The thing is, I liked a lot of the movies new additions to the cast, even the ones that didn’t reappear after this movie. I wouldn’t mind seeing Eva Mendes back, or some of the other street racers. **

Lethal Weapon 3 – This is where things really start to go downhill. Joe Pesci is still around, though he doesn’t really have a reason to be. The comedy has a overwhelmed the action to a great extent. Still, it is a fun movie to watch, but it lacks all but the merest spark of energy that suffused the first of second movies. This one is merely fine. ***

Lost Soul: the Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau – This is just a fascinating story about one of the biggest train wrecks in movie history. It sets up Stanley as the sympathetic visionary, but you can still see why he might worry the studio. Seeing a man get his dream job, only for it to kind of morph into something else and then be snatched away from him is hard to see. That’s not even getting into the nonsense that Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando perpetrated on set. It is amazing to see, as everything gets further and further away from the promising film that it began as. ****

Ip Man – Part kung fu movie, part biopic; Ip Man is pretty darn entertaining. It tells the story of Ip Man during the Japanese occupation of China during WWII. He ends up in conflict with a Japanese general thanks to his kung fu mastery. It is really pretty entertaining, a little more somber than most Kung Fu movies I’ve seen, but the fight choreography was excellent and I really like the more serious story. This is a really entertaining film. ****

Star Trek Beyond – see review here. ****

Back to the Future Part 3 – I know I’ve written about this before, but it showed up on Netflix. I love the whole series beyond the point of examining it critically. *****

Lethal Weapon 4 – All of the energy of this series has been expended by this point. There is some enjoyable camaraderie apparent in the cast, many of whom have been here for 3 or 4 movies at this point, but it just feels really flabby and spent. As one last look in on some old friends, this is a decent excuse. As a buddy cop movie, it is a tired retread. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it, but it really feels like more of a footnote than another entry in the series. **1/2

Ghostbusters – see review here. ***1/2

Fast & Furious – I got this whole series on DVD during a sale on amazon, and this being the one I’ve never seen it was the first one that I put in. It isn’t anywhere near as good as the last three, but it is certainly better than first three. There is certainly something to it being an actual sequel to the first movie. There is energy seeing those characters back again. It is also the first movie that feels like a movie that was intended to have sequels, not just a movie that had sequels forced upon it because it made money. It isn’t the best, but it is entertaining enough. ***

The Holiday – I watched this because it had Jack Black in it, which he barely was. It’s not bad, I guess, though I am no expert on the romantic comedy. It certainly feels too long, clocking in at over 2 hours. It could really stand to lose twenty minutes or so, probably in its very relaxed opening. Still, I was moderately entertained throughout. Mostly by Eli Wallach. ***

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian – This is a bad movie. The first Night at the Museum was pointless kiddy fare; this is just a diminished returns version of that, with one exception. This movie has Amy Adams in it. That is the reason I watched it; I can’t change the channel on Amy Adams. She is too adorable. I would watch her in absolutely anything. **

TV

Fargo S1 – I watched the second season when it aired, but I hadn’t seen more than a little of the first until I picked it up on DVD. It is unsurprisingly great. There are so many great performances in this season. Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Colin Hanks, and Allison Tolman are all amazing. The slow revelation of just how awful Freeman’s Lester Nygaard is is a great reveal. He starts out kind of pathetic and just gets worse and worse as the show goes along. Meanwhile, Thornton’s Malvo is a diabolical force of nature. They are a great pair of characters to watch. I was also struck by how many comedians, or at least actors primarily thought of as comedians, are in this cast. Glenn Howerton from Always Sunny is here, as are Key & Peele. They fit perfectly into the darkly comic world of this show. This is just a near perfect show.

Fargo S2 – This show is still great, but I might like the first season better. While the first season is focused, this one is sprawling. There are so many characters with separate stories going on in the first half of the season. They are all so good, but they sort of distract from the central story. Which is part of the point, I believe. This is a show as much about the characters as it is about the crime. This time through, including the first time through some of the early episodes, I was stuck with how much I liked Bear Gerhart. He seems like a man who has no illusions about what his family does, which is a big reason why he is so insistent on his son staying out of it. It isn’t until things are finally falling apart, and he feels forced to take out his niece, that he fully engages in the war with Kansas City.

The Shannara Chronicles – MTV’s trashy fantasy show that does its best to channel GoT, Hunger Games and LotR all at once is actually rather delightful. I don’t know that I would call it good, but I certainly enjoyed it. It takes some rather extreme liberties with its adaptation, often in service to actually nothing from a storytelling perspective, but there is just something compulsively watchable about the show. Manu Bennett as Allannon is a lot of fun, and the central trio are good, at least they are by the end of they are. It is cheesy and trashy and at times nonsensical, but it never stops being fun to watch.

Outlander S2 – The last episode aired at the start of July and it capped off a really great second season for Starz’s time travel romance adventure show. The last episode finally gets to the frame story that the book it is adapting started with, making the introduction of Brianna and Roger a little abrupt than the book. I have some problems with the extra sized finale largely that it cuts back and forth between the past and the more recent past fairly rapidly with no connection between the two time periods. Still it is an effective episode and finale. Outlander’s second season is definitely more rushed than first season, having fewer episodes and more plot to cover. You could really feel the what was left out of the book, but it was still a highly entertaining show week to week.

Movies

The Do-Over – This stars David Spade and Adam Sandler; it’s a comedy, right? Then why weren’t there any jokes? I laughed twice during this films runtime, and gave it half a star for each. Really, this movie is just lazy and bad. I guess it being gross and stupid is supposed to be funny, but it just isn’t. *

The ‘Burbs – Joe Dante, man. Joe Dante. Between this and Gremlins, I don’t think anyone does horror comedy better than him. I love this movie. It is primarily a comedy, but it does its best to be just creepy enough the whole way through that you can’t quite settle in. The cast is great, from Tom Hanks to Bruce Dern to Corey Feldman. That fact that it doesn’t let you know if anything actually creepy is going on until the last few minutes is just great. The speech that Hanks shouts at his neighbor after everything blows up on them is one of my all time favorite movie speeches. This is just a great movie. ****1/2

All-Star Superman – My favorite comic turned into a pretty good animated movie. It necessarily loses something in the adaptation from the comic to the screen, but it captures the spirit and heart of the book. It is a decent telling of the best Superman story. ****1/2

His Girl Friday – Sometimes exploring stuff on Netflix really works out. This is a lot of fun. It is clearly adapted from a stage play, with its limited sets and rapid fire dialogue. I loved every second of it. It seems awfully progressive for the time to be about a woman valuing her job over a man and being rewarded for it. It is just impossibly good. *****

3:10 to Yuma – An easy little western starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. They both do enjoyable work, Bale as a hard up rancher with limp and Crowe as a charming rogue. It really isn’t anything special, but I greatly enjoyed it. Westerns are few and far between these days, and this one played it straight enough that it was easy to just enjoy. I think there are good reasons this movie has largely been forgotten despite its two big stars, but it is a pretty exercise in the genre. ***1/2

Bucky Larson – I caught most of this early in the morning on TV. Fuck this movie and everyone responsible for it. No Stars.

The Green Hornet – This is a perfectly fine sort of superhero spoof. It walks that line between being a true spoof of the genre and just being a straight superhero movie. It tries to have it both ways, which is one of its big failings. It is too goofy to feel like a real take on the genre, but it isn’t funny enough to just be a comedy version. Still, it is largely amusing and fairly fun, so I can’t bring myself to hate it. **1/2

Robocop (2014) – I am not a fan of the original Robocop. I recognize and acknowledge its quality, but I do not enjoy it. That goes for pretty much all of Paul Verhoven’s movies. That being said, at least his movies have a voice that I can dislike. This remake seems like it might have had something to say at one point, but all the thoughtful parts got sanded off before it made it to its final state. There is some updating of the concept to deal with the changes in the world over the last 25 years or so, but it never quite gets anywhere with it. Still, it isn’t badly made, just blandly. **1/2

Warcraft – see review here. *1/2

Love & Friendship – see review here. *****

Hail, Caesar – see review here. I got this on Blu-ray and it definitely holds up upon rewatching. ****1/2

Mission Impossible 3 – I had missed this, and with how much I enjoyed the series’ last two outings I wanted to go back to it. It turns out it is really unnecessary. It is perfectly fine, but it points the series in a direction that it doesn’t end up going. It did introduce Simon Pegg’s Benji, which is good, but the rest is just there. Marrying Hunt off, then basically pretending his wife doesn’t exist for two movies is a strange choice. It just seems an odd fit with the rest of the series, and lack the imaginativeness of the first and last two movies. ***

Central Intelligence – see review here. ***

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – There is a great chemistry between the two leads here and I feel like I’ve seen all of this movie’s best scenes stolen for other movies or parodies. Still, there is a lot to like here. Not the musical choices or some of interminable montage scenes, but the rest is great fun. ****

Fast & Furious 6 – I had kind of filed this movie away as the bad one, not as good as Fast 5 nor as straight up bonkers as Furious 7. In some ways that is accurate. It isn’t as good as Fast 5 and it’s not as bonkers as Furious 7, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a damn entertaining movie in its own right. It feels like the series finishing shedding what the series was in the first 4 movies to become what it started to be in the fifth. It is no longer a movie about cars, it is a movie about action frequently featuring cars. It isn’t the best or most natural fit, but they make it work and they make it damn fun. Also it is crazy that a movie with car chase that has a tank and the good guys pulling a giant plane out of the sky with grappling hooks can be described as less bonkers that something else, but that is the world in which we live. ***1/2

She’s Just Not that Into You – An okay romantic comedy that I stuck on because I saw Scarlett Johansson and Bradley Cooper. This movie has an expansive, interesting cast, but it isn’t really anything all that interesting. It wasn’t bad. **1/2

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For – It has been a long time since I saw the first Sin City, but this feels like leftovers that have been sitting since that movie came out. Despite the stellar cast, the whole thing feels cheap and amateurish. Were the effects this bad the first time around? I remember them looking much better. Ugly, cheap and dull; I can’t think of anything to recommend about this movie. Maybe Eva Green’s breasts. *

Finding Dory – see review here. ***1/2

TV

Outlander S2 – The show has pivoted from its early season intrigues in France to full on war in Scotland in the second half. And as usual, it is doing it with an amazing combination of serious thought and melodrama. The melodrama is an essential part of Outlander’s charms. For all that it takes time to get historical stuff right and create realistic, believable characters, it frequently puts them in situations that are frankly unbelievable. Stuff like Claire dealing with PTSD from her experiences in WWII or Jamie having to find ways to reign in his uncle Dougal now that Dougal in under his command are interesting. But Jamie having himself flogged to show that he stands with his men or Claire making deals with Black Jack or most especially the whole plotline with the Duke of Sandringham are out there. The show relies on a delicate mix of the two and so far it has combined them excellently. There is only the finale left and I couldn’t be more excited.

Voltron The Legendary Defender – The people behind Avatar getting a chance to revive Voltron sounded like a winner, and it was. Mostly. It does take way too long to get up to speed, though I expect that will be less of a problem if the show gets another dozen or two episodes. As it stands the nearly the whole first half of the series is learning how to be Voltron and rarely actually doing anything. A more substantive problem is that much of the humor falls completely flat. The dialogue on the whole is just plain bad, even when it is not trying to be funny. It is still a lot of fun to watch, and it gets progressively stronger as it goes. I am eager for more, I hope it is on the way.

Movies

30 for 30 Fantastic Lies – Another of ESPN’s excellent 30 for 30 documentaries, this one about the Duke Lacrosse rape scandal that turned out to be not at all what the prosecutor claimed it was. It is a chilling look at what can happen when the system is abused. ****

Captain America Civil War – review here. ****

Journey to the West – A Stephen Chow directorial effort that tells the opening portion of this classic tale. Chow’s movies are frequently possessed of an almost manic energy, but that turns from an asset to a problem in this movie. It is nearly impossible to get a handle on the tone of this movie. It goes from jokey fun to gruesome violence and back forth repeatedly, making for a disconcerting viewing experience, even as it is largely enjoyable. ***

The Forbidden Kingdom – This is an obvious attempt to make a kung fu movie palatable to a wider western audience but jamming a white guy in to be a main character. The real highlight should be the combination of Jet Li an Jackie Chan, but so much time is spent with the less interesting main character. Still, when the movie lets its real stars it is highly entertaining. The fight as they meet for the first time is good fun, as is the finale. That is what this movie delivers; despite some disappointments the movie delivers a lot of fun. ***1/2

Detective Dee and The Mystery of the Phantom Flame – This is essentially a Chinese version of the recent Sherlock Holmes movies. It has an eccentric detective at the center of a big mystery, with his investigation interspersed regularly with action scenes. I didn’t take to the mystery as well in this, maybe because it is easy to miss nuance when you are reading subtitles, but I like the fights just fine and the rest of it was plenty good. It is a touch too long, clocking in at over 2 hours, but I enjoyed it throughout. ***1/2

Pleasantville – I realize that this movie’s playing with color and black and white is mostly just a cheap trick, but I still love it anyway. It isn’t a subtle movie, or one I would want to watch over and over, but for it is still really great. I like everyone’s performances and the trick with the color is a really good one. ****

Legend of the Drunken Master – This should come as no surprise, but Jackie Chan is delightful. I’ve only experienced old Jackie Chan, but in his prime he was truly amazing. The fight scenes in this are something else. Each one is completely delightful; inventive and creative and just entertaining. The comedy bits at other times don’t work quite as well, but the rest of the movie more than makes up for it. I really, really like this movie. ****

30 for 30: One Magic Moment – This film takes a good long look at the Orlando Magic team of the mid-90s, examining how they were built and how they rose to prominence before falling just as fast. It is really interesting. The crazy events that had to happen to get a team in Orlando and then for them to get successive #1 draft picks is like a story book. It all went right up until it all fell apart. Shaq and Penny led the Magic to the NBA finals, but soon after that Shaq left for Los Angeles and Penny got hurt, returning a shell of his former self. Suddenly the team of the future was no more. It is a fascinating, yet sad story. ****

God of Cookery – Another Stephen Chow movie, this one about a corrupt celebrity chef who has his business empire taken from him and must work to be a true God of Cookery. It again combines nuttiness with some genuine darkness, but this time the weirdness easily wins out. It can be truly hilarious, but I don’t know that I like it as much as Kung Fu Hustle or Shaolin Soccer. The cooking showdown at the end is a thing of brilliance, though. ***1/2

Darkman – I can’t say I am a huge Raimi fan, if only because I detest almost everything that can be classified as horror, but I did like his Spider-Man movies. Someone recommended I watch this as well, which is some strange horror/superhero/revenge movie combination starring Liam Neeson. I didn’t hate it, but neither did it really grab me. The plot is actually really simple, a man survives an attempt to kill him and gets revenge on his would be murderer. It is just done with a lot of insanity thrown on top. In theory it sounds good, but I never managed to care even a little bit for any of the characters. ***

X-Men: Apocalypse – review here. **1/2

Five Deadly Venoms – My recent infatuation with Kung Fu movies led me to this, which was sold to me as a cult classic, but I can’t say I liked it all that much. There are a couple of good fights, but it seems like the movie spends way too much time indulging in the torture of one character and other stuff that is just inconsequential to the main storyline. I still enjoyed it more or less, but it just didn’t feel like enough. ***

TV

Poirot S11 – This show, always good if a little stilted, grabbed me more with this season than with most of the previous. I don’t know if that is more on the quality of the episodes or just mood I watched them in. It has always been a solidly produced series, but S11 was especially good by my reckoning.

Lady Dynamite – There is something aggressively weird and off putting about Maria Bamford’s Netflix sitcom. Co-created with Arrested Development’s Mitch Hurwitz, Lady Dynamite tells a story of Maria’s (TV’s Maria that may or may not have any real resemblance to the real Maria) fall and her recovery as she deals with being bi-polar. So it sets up a bunch of kooky, yet still real feeling characters and she has some crazy experiences.

Movies

Best in Show – Great Movie. Funny every time. I don’t know how much I actually have to say about this. Watch it if you haven’t. *****

Chef – John Favreau is very hit or miss for me. Chef is one of his hits. It isn’t especially great, but it is amusing and heartfelt and just all around enjoyable. Charming. ****

Zootopia – read review here. ****

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day – I stumbled on this on Netflix and was pleasantly surprised. It is a period comedy starring Frances McDormand and Amy Adams, both of whom are excellent as two very different women. Adams plays a performer who accidently hires McDormand as a personal assistant to help her juggle her three boyfriends as she waffles trying to choose one. It is marvelously funny and often touching. ****

The Jungle Book – read review here **1/2

The Huntsman Winter’s War – read review here ***

47 Ronin – This should be a lot of silly fun, and at times it is, but it frequently takes itself way too seriously for a movie that climaxes with Keanu Reeves sword fighting a CGI dragon. There are times when it seems it wants to break out into something genuinely fun and enjoyable, but pulls back, trying instead to be some somber epic that falls flat. **

The Assassin – Beautiful, evocative and a bit vague The Assassin is something special. I don’t know how much I actually enjoyed it, though. It is impossible to argue with how beautifully this movie is shot. Every frame has something wonderful to show. But it is also quite slow and sparse in it storytelling. It is definitely worth watching, especially If you don’t go in expecting a martial arts movie, which this only barely is.****

The World’s End – I was going to link to my previous review of this film and write about how it improves on even how much I enjoyed it the first time each time I see it. That is how I found out that I never wrote a review for The World’s End, so that is going to have to change and soon. I think this is my favorite of Edgar Wright’s films. It is layered and smart and just so much fun. *****

Old School – This was a favorite of mine from the end of my time in high school and early days in college. I still like it, but I don’t love it like I used to. It has a bunch of great scenes, but it doesn’t quite hold together as well as it might. It is no Animal House, or even a Wedding Crashers, but it has its moments. ***

TV

Outlander S1 – I rewatched a few episodes of this in anticipation of the second season. This is an excellent show, at times beautiful and others brutal, but always with thought and purpose.

Trailer Park Boys S10 – I was really disappointed in this season of Trailer Park Boys. It just kind of muddled along. After a pair of really enjoyable seasons on Netflix, this one just seemed lacking, especially the extended guest appearances by various weed aficionados. It still had its moments and the characters are great, but it feels like a case of diminishing returns.

Bob’s Burgers S5 – This show rises in my esteem every time I watch it. I liked the first couple of seasons, but I have really fallen in love with it over the last few. Going back to the early stuff, it seems more thought out than how haphazard it felt upon first watching it. Season 5, though, is great. There are numerous stand out episodes and musical numbers, the probably being Hawk & Chick, which manages to be both hilarious and touching like few shows can. This might yet eclipse Loren Bouchard’s other great show, Home Movies.

The Ranch S1 – The Ranch isn’t good, but there is something comfortingly bad about it. Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson have some great chemistry. They were funny together on That 70’s Show and they are good on this. Sam Elliot is always a delight. It is too bad that most of the show is unable to get away from cliché or a small set of marginally funny jokes. I could live without seeing any more of this, but the odds are good I’ll wind up watching more if Netflix makes it.

Documentary Now! – Some former SNL guys do riffs on famous documentaries. Most of them are hilarious. And short. It is easy to get through these 6 great mockumentaries and each one has its own stuff to offer. I sure hope there are more coming.

The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt S2 – I loved the first season of this show, and that level of quality is there in flashes during the second, but it doesn’t quite maintain it as well. A lot of that is the more scattered nature of this season. The characters aren’t as tightly tied together, with Kimmy being the only thing to bring most of them together. Still, this show has plenty going for it. Tina Fey’s appearances as a spiraling out of control therapist are funny and sad, with her forcing Kimmy to accept that she can’t help everyone even as she loses control. Letting Tituss actually have a romance seems somehow important as well. I liked this season, but it isn’t quite as perfect as the first.

Outlander S2 – The first season was great, and the first 4 episodes of the second are just as good. This season has moved a lot faster so far, not needing to spend the time introducing everyone and everything. It has also streamlined what was a meandering half of one of the weaker books in this series. It has still nailed all of the important points, and maintained great moments for all of the main characters. I am hoping to get to see more of Fergus as things go along, but I am already disappointed about how little Roger and Brianna we seem likely to get. Still, this is one of the best shows on TV.

Superhero Shows – Once the CW shows end later this month I will have something about all the various superhero show seasons. Most of them are going along quite nicely, though April was mostly a skip month for Arrow and Flash. Hopefully, all three of the CW shows can go out with as well as Supergirl did in it (hopefully not only) first season.