I have just posted the final midterm (it’s an online exam) of my genetics class. The semester is almost over!
I will still have to put together two finals for my two classes, but that’s next week. I can shut off my brain for a little while.
Now also I’m a free-spirited bachelor for a week, as my wife gets to go spend time with our granddaughter. I don’t get to go, because there’s still a week of classes left. I’m going to drown my sorrows and celebrate the completion of this exam by walking downtown to the Mexican restaurant for fish tacos, and then I’m strolling over to the theater to see John Wick 4. I like Keanu Reeves, but he’s pushing my patience with this 2 hour and 49 minute movie. Good thing I got my work done.
Tomorrow I’m going out again — a student gave me a free ticket to the UM Morris Concert Choir and Vocal Jazz concert. I’m going to strive mightily to make Mary regret leaving me for a week!
I’ve been informed that in the entire movie, Keanu Reeves speaks a total of only 380 words.
Ooph…
I’d much rather hear 3 hrs of a cappella singing.
The Cuban-Mexican restaurant I frequent has mahi tacos though I usually get something Cuban instead.
I recently saw The Matrix Resurrections. I was chilling after cataract surgery and wanted to enjoy the newfound resolution of my new extended depth IOL. They should have stuck to the first movie and called it a day. The first part was actually self-referentially mocking itself. It wasn’t horrible and Neil Patrick Harris plays a villian well. They forcefit the absences of
Samuel L JacksonLaurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving with other actors.I think I’ve only seen the first Wick. Keanu is too wooden for me. I did manage to watch Kidman playing Gertrude Bell in Queen of the Desert. If the rendition was accurate Bell ran circles around Lawrence as tribal liaison. I recalled enough history of the region and era for it to geek me out a bit. The meeting toward the end with Abdullah and Faisal was stunning for its one scene encapsulation of what Churchill et al would carve out with which we still contend to this day. I have a soft spot for Hashemites.
I also watched Shutter Island with Leo doing psychodrama. Red Notice was ok.
Wonder what I should watch when I get the other eye done.
hemidactylus@#3:
Wonder what I should watch when I get the other eye done.
I, Claudius? Or, pretty much anything by Kurosawa.
I do all the submarine films I can find when the wife is out of town (she doesn’t like the underwater bits, and I love submarines).
hemidactylus: I recommend anything by Studio Gibli.
I like the John Wick movies, but I have to admit I really don’t know why. The “High Table” conspiracy theory is ridiculous, the fight scenes are totally unrealistic (Wick seems to shoot each of his enemies five times when one shot should have done it), most of the talent they’ve paid for is underused…maybe it’s all the posh locations and historic buildings that the viewers can pretend to see, not as tourists, but as Serious Badasses who can go wherever they want. There’s a similar feel to the Jason Bourne movies, which I also like despite their being ridiculous and implausible.
@6 Raging Bee
I love me some Bourne, even Legacy which is all the more poignant after Jeremy Renner‘s horrific snow plow accident. I saw the very inappropriate train wreck Neo Ned starting Renner where the perpetually adorable Gabrielle Union thought she was Hitler. Kinda a mess that has to be watched to be appreciated given that tidbit. I preferred her in Deliver Us From Eva with LL.
Renner brought an American special forces take to 28 Weeks Later. Renner and Union should team up again.
@4- Marcus Ranum
I watched…wait I own Rashomon which was prompted by Ghost Dog.
I like big action movies myself, with old-school stunts and practical effects, but only if the leading man action hero guy doesn’t make me throw up. Matt Damon, Bruce Willis, and Keanu Reeves (despite his wooden qualities) are generally OK.
Examples of guys who do make me throw up: Chuck Norris, Jean Claude van Damme…
And then there’s Steven Seagal, who cracks me up. His movies are almost all awful, but there are always a couple of hilarious moments: when he tries to run (think Ken doll without the articulating joints), and when he makes that angry cross-eyed face.
Ah yes, Steven Seagal, the bad action-movie actor turned Putin-bestie/Night-Wolf-Wannabee. I remember something on YouTube debunking his entire fake resume.
@9-feralboy12
I mostly agree on JCVD except for Bloodsport and Cyborg, two very different and very cool movies. The rest of his stuff is mostly crap except maybe a cameo in a breakdancing movie for shits and giggles.
I can’t even with Seagull. I did like Sly Stallone’s take on what was a mostly one sided feud between Seagull and JCVD until the latter had had enough of that obnoxious jackass.
I liked Willis in Moonlighting, Blind Date, and Sixth Sense, but not so much in his action hero guise. His version of Death Wish was a bit better than Bronson’s but that’s starting off deep in the septic tank.
The scene where Norris as Lone Wolf McQuade drives his truck out of being buried alive is priceless: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfLTbzU0FXo
Yeah Norris is a dingbat, but he brought a bit of that to one of Sly’s Expendables. Last Blood OTOH was a snuff film pretty much. Holy shit that was fucking ugly. Rambo (2008) had some empathetic qualities by comparison. Shudder! Last Blood is scarring.
We recently watched the final episode of Picard. The last two episodes were so cinematic that I really feel that they should have been shown together on the big screen at the theater.
I love science fiction films. However, when the hubby is out of town, I enjoy a few chic flicks and cooking competitions on the Food Network.
This evening I watched some of Takashi Miije’s remake of Kobayashi’s Harakiri. It was … ok. A pretty faithful remake, which made me wonder “whyyyy?” Was something suddenly wrong with Tatsuya Nakadai’s performance in the original? Is black and white no longer acceptable? What the fuck with the remakes? If you’re gonna spend tens of millions of dollars why not make a new movie? It bugs me, because it just screams contempt for the audience. “You’ll swallow The Fast and the Furries episode 1,422 and smile the whole time.”
@11-hemidactylus
I sort of liked Bloodsport until I read up a bit on Frank Dux and discovered that pretty much everything he ever claimed to have done was a complete lie. Which is to say that the movie is utter fiction.
Back in the day, one of my female friends said she could watch that movie with the sound off and enjoy it just as much.
I just watched “Bullet Train” which I thought was stupid fun. I’m always up for a re-watch of “Kelly’s Heroes” or “The Mummy” (Brendan Fraser, of course), but then I also liked “Hudson Hawk”. So there’s that.
@11. hemidactylus : “I mostly agree on JCVD except for Bloodsport and Cyborg, two very different and very cool movies. The rest of his stuff is mostly crap except maybe a cameo in a breakdancing movie for shits and giggles.”
What about – was it called Kickboxer* where JCVD learns and fights Muay Thai? Thought that wa s pretty good viewing when I was a kid – decades ago so maay just be notslaigia glasses & not ahev aged well but still..
Yes, ye sit was this movie : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickboxer_(1989_film)
@11. hemidactylus : “I mostly agree on JCVD except for Bloodsport and Cyborg, two very different and very cool movies. The rest of his stuff is mostly crap except maybe a cameo in a breakdancing movie for shits and giggles.”
What about – was it called Kickboxer* where JCVD learns and fights Muay Thai? Thought that wa s pretty good viewing when I was a kid – decades ago so maay just be notslaigia glasses & not ahev aged well but still..
Yes, ye sit was this movie : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickboxer_(1989_film)
John Wick is actually Mr. Anderson still in the matrix.
Oh & I enjoyed Pitch Black ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_Black_(film) ) as one of JCVD’s Riddick movies too-admittedly a bit baised here having seen part of the set of that SF horror one up at Coober Pedy. Still thought it was neat set up & pretty entertaining B grade movie.
@19-StevoR
JCVD isn’t in Pitch Black. Are you somehow confusing him with Vin Diesel? Or are you trolling us?
@ ^ daved : Oops, yeah, must be confusing Vin Diesel & JCVD there. Sorry.
& thinking about it guessing Kickboxer probly hasn’t aged well?
@13:
Yes, it wasn’t making money for our studio.
Because the writer might write a crap story that makes no money. Everyone knows that writing a story is just entirely random and no one can predict whether it will be popular or not – best stick to the proven ones. Aren’t there enough of them already? Why would need need any more?
I think John Wick jumped the shark at #3. I absolutely love #1 for the mindless revenge romp that it was, and I thought #2 was very good as well. I remember being in the theatre for #3, and I just felt disappointed at how silly and ridiculous the fighting was, and how silly and ridiculous the plot was (or lack thereof).