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zwolanerd

“I guess I just like liking things”

January 7, 2013 It’s Like a Cow’s Opinion – It Doesn’t Matter

My wife and I finished our run-through of Friends last night. I couldn’t tell you the exact date we started it, but we were in season 7  back in November, so it seems like we’ve made good time. It’s been less than 5 months, that much I know. I’ll keep better track of the next one, whatever that might be.

Being able to watch through the whole run of a show in not much time is both great and terrible. Storylines remain fresher, character arcs seem clearer, and self-references are easier to catch. On the other hand, though: clip shows.  When a show that runs for ten years shows clips from the previous years, it seems like a good idea at the time. It reminds the audience of some good times and it costs less to produce than a regular show. Everybody wins… until you’rs going through the show on DVD and the clips are of something you just saw last month. Our standard reaction quickly became, “Ugh, clip show!” And they sneak them in on you!  You can’t tell from the title of the episode, and the first few minutes seem normal, and then someone says, “This apartment’s seen a lot of good times” or “Remember when…” and bam, clip show.

And let me just say: when a show has run for ten years, sometimes the clip shows aren’t doing the actors any favors.  I still feel sorry for Matthew Perry any time I see clips from all the years of Friends put together, because he very clearly had some difficult times. If I ever got to meet him I’d probably want to hug him and say “I hope you’re doing better, man.”  And this is exactly why I don’t get to meet celebrities.

It’s strange to condense ten years down to 4-5 months. I’ve worked at my current job for almost ten years myself, and thinking back on how much I’ve changed in those ten years is crazy enough. In TV years, ten is more like fifty. Stuff has to happen in each episode, and even allowing for different episodes to focus on different characters, by the time you get to the end of the run, that stuff gets crazy multiplied.

You hear a lot about how some shows run too long and get terrible and yada yada yada, and that’s mostly true, I guess. For me, though, running through a whole show in a short amount of time boils it down to “this is their story,” so the lousy stuff gets mixed in and it all evens out.

The very end of Friends works pretty well for me. [Spoilers for a 10-year-old show follow, I guess, so be warned?] Monica & Chandler are moving, so that’s a good reason to pack up everything in the apartment, a nice symbol for us having to pack up the show. They’re leaving New York and leaving us, so we don’t get to visit this apartment any more. A more violent symbol is the dismantling of the foosball table in Joey’s apartment, and I couldn’t help wondering if the cast was trying to decide who got to take it home when filming was done, and this was King Solomon’s way of deciding it for them. Rachel & Ross back together bothered a lot of people, but I was glad to see it – plus there was an appearance on Rachel’s plane by Jim Rash, Community’s Dean Pelton! Phoebe & Mike was fine, whatever (Paul Rudd was, as always, wonderful). Joey went on to do two seasons of Joey, which I saw at least a season’s worth of. Monica & Chandler adopt twins and move, and  I said outloud that if there were ever a reunion show and they weren’t still together, I would fly out to L.A. and make a lot of writers’ lives very, very difficult for them.

It’s sad to say goodbye to real-life friends. It’s weirdly sad to also say goodbye TV friends. Those 5, 7, or 10 seasons are the only part of their story you get to hear, you enjoy their company like you would anyone else’s, and you get to know them over that span. There’s some comfort in having the story, but you still want to know how they ended up. Better a nebulous end than a specifically bad one, though, I guess.

My favorite things about Friends: Chandler. Monica & Chandler. Tom Selleck. The relationships among the six main characters.

My least favorite things: The monkey. Anything Ursula-related. Joey & Rachel as a couple. Phoebe being flat-out mean (which happens a lot more than I realized before this last watch-through).

That makes Scrubs, Seinfeld, and Friends my wife and I have been through together. She likes having a half-hour sitcom to unwind with a couple of episodes at the end of the day, so I’m trying to find the next show. I’m leaning towards Freaks & Geeks (I know it’s an hour-long show) or NewsRadio.

 

 

 

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January 4, 2013 Let’s Watch Something Together

I had a thing all planned out for today, something I’ve been thinking about for a couple of weeks. But the more I thought about it and looked at it, it just wasn’t going to work the way I wanted it to.  I still like the idea, I just think the choice was wrong.

The idea is that we all watch something together and come back here to talk about it. By every Friday, we’ve all watched the next episode so we all come back here ready to discuss it.  I thought for our first foray into this we could pick something a lot of people have access to and something that was a short run show – like, one season.  There are lots of great shows that fit the second part (Firefly and Wonderfalls, for example), but the first part is tricky. Many people have Netflix, but not everyone does. I might even be willing to go out and buy a season of something on DVD if the price was right.

So let’s open it up for discussion. In the comments, leave your top three choices – shows you love, shows you’ve been meaning to watch, shows you’ve heard good things about, shows you’ve seen dozens of times – anything.  In fact, let’s take the “short run” requirement off it. We’ll say “first season of something,” and if “first season” means “entire run,” then that’s okay.

I’m not even going to seed the discussion by making suggestions!  I will say, though, that a half-hour show might be a good starting place for us as we try this out.  Most folks could manage to watch 22 minutes of something in a week, I suspect.

Let’s hear your suggestions!

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January 3, 2013 2012 Movie Data

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been keeping movie journals for the last several years. I’ve never gone back through them to dig out any sort of analysis at all, but I thought it might be fun to do that with last year’s list, so here’s some numbers I enjoyed putting together:

How many I saw:

  • 172 total
  • 73 of them were ones I saw for the first time

How I saw them:

  • In the theater: 27 (one in IMAX)
  • Blu-Ray: 88
  • DVD: 24
  • Netflix Streaming: 28 (This surprised me, as I thought the number would be much higher. I watch way more TV on NFS, though.)
  • Amazon Prime Streaming: 4 (This number would be higher if they were organized better and had a significantly different selection than Netflix, I’m guessing)
  • Digital: 1 (Judge Dredd, in case you’re wondering)

Who I saw them with (the numbers don’t add up because some of the “with my wife” and the “with other people” overlap):

  • By myself: 99
  • With my wife: 44
  • With other people: 45

How many, by month:

  • January: 17
    Best: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
  • February: 10 (This includes the Harry Potter marathon)
    Best: Groundhog Day
  • March: 11
    Best: The Dark Knight
  • April: 8
    Best: UHF
  • May: 17
    Best: Marvel’s The Avengers
  • June: 11
    Best: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
  • July: 9
    Best: The Dark Knight Rises
  • August: 22
    Best: Grosse Pointe Blank, but with a shout-out to The Expendables 2
  • September: 11
    Best: The Raid: Redemption and Dredd 3D – they’re the same movie in a lot of ways, really
  • October: 18
    Best: Looper
  • November: 20
    Best: Wreck-It Ralph, but this was a tough month to pick, with Skyfall, Moonrise Kingdom, and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World all in contention
  • December: 18
    Best: Terminator 2: Judgment Day

How Many, By Letter of the Alphabet:

  • #: 3
    Best: 50/50
  • A: 9
    Best: Airplane!
  • B: 12
    Best: Batman Begins, but I would also like to recommend The Big Year, with Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson
  • C: 7
    Best: Cabin in the Woods
  • D: 17
    Best: The Dark Knight
  • E: 5
    Best: Edward Scissorhands
  • F: 4
    Best: For Love of the Game
  • G: 12
    Best (Top 3): Ghostbusters, Grosse Pointe Blank, and Groundhog Day
  • H: 19
    Best: I’m going with the Harry Potter series as a whole and you can’t stop me
  • I: 3
    Best: Inglourious Basterds
  • J: 4
    Best: Jeff Who Lives at Home
  • K: 4
    Best: Kindergarten Cop
  • L: 7
    Best: The Lord of the Rings series
  • M: 15
    Best: Marvel’s The Avengers, I’m also throwing in The Muppet Movie, The Muppets, and Moonrise Kingdowm because they are wonderful
  • N: 2
    Best: Napoleon Dynamite
  • O: 1
    Best: the Other Guys, which probably would have won even if I had seen other O movies
  • P: 7
    Best (Top 3): The Princess Bride, Pulp Fiction, and Pitch Perfect, which is the only time those three movies will be mentioned in the same breath
  • Q: 0
    Perhaps in 2013 I should watch The Quick and the Dead?
  • R: 6
    Best: Rushmore, but I’m also recommending The Raid: Redemption
  • S: 16
    Best: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and you’ve already read my recommendation for Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
  • T: 8
    Best: Terminator 2: Judgment Day
  • U: 2
    Best: UHF
  • V: 1
    Best: Vamps
  • W: 6
    Best: Wreck-It Ralph, and not just because it had Q*bert, although that was a big part
  • X: 1
    Best: X-Men: First Class
  • Y: 0
    2013 goal: Uh… Young Guns?
  • Z: 0
    2013 goal: Is there anything other than Zoolander?

So, any other data I should keep track of in 2013? I’ve only seen 2 movies so far this year, so I could add some columns to my spreadsheet easily.

December 24, 2012 Merry Christmas!

May you get all the shrunken heads you wanted for Christmas

May you get all the shrunken heads you wanted for Christmas

I had fully intended to keep up the posting schedule through the holidays, but family commitments conspire to keep that from happening. I have at least one entry I’d like to post before the new year (an assignment for you!), but there won’t be regular updates until after the new year, I’m afraid.

Thank you for reading this year, and I look forward to seeing you all back in the new year!  In the meantime, enjoy some good holiday movies with your family – you know, like Elf, Gremlins, and Die Hard.

Merry Christmas!

December 21, 2012 A Year at the Theater

It turns out I went to see 27 movies at the theater this year. That includes two showings of Cabin in the Woods, two of The Dark Knight Rises (one in IMAX), and three showings of The Avengers (two of those were on opening day), so 23 unique movies in the theater.  It’s unlikely that I’ll get to another one before the year is out, but if I do, it will probably be Les Misérables. Let’s see if I can’t put this in some kind of order, as I know we all love lists. This is actually kind of a difficult task, because I tend to know a lot about a movie before I ever go see it, so it’s rare that I’ll go to a movie I don’t like.  Of course, there are movies that I know will be bad but I want to see them anyway (cough*ResidentEvil*cough).

Let’s see how it shakes out:

21. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance – I don’t hate the first Ghost Rider as much as most people seem to, but this movie was just bad.  They did some nice things within the movie, but the overall movie was bad. I don’t plan to buy this one on Blu-Ray, unless maybe I see it for a dollar somewhere.

20. Total Recall – The biggest problem with this one is that it’s not the original. This one would probably be a fine (if bland) action movie on its own, but it’s overshadowed by the craziness of the original.

19. Resident Evil: Retribution – I have a fondness for this series that I can’t adequately explain, but this is the first one in the series that I’ve reacted to with an “ugh.” I’ll still see the next one, though, I’m sure.

18. Taken 2 – Loved the first one (as many of us did). This one started off with a fantastic premise and then devolved into nonsense.

17. The Hunger Games – I never read the books, but I enjoyed this movie well enough.

16. Prometheus – I really enjoyed this sorta-prequel to the Aliens movies, despite everyone else’s problems with it.

15. The Amazing Spider-Man – I, like you, didn’t feel we needed another version of the origin story, but Emma Stone elevates this one and Andrew Garfield won me over as Peter Parker. Now if they could only have made different decisions on that Lizard CGI…

14. Men in Black 3 – You already know how much I enjoy Will Smith. MiB3 is way better than MiB2, but not as good as MiB. The ending muddles things that didn’t need to be muddled.

13. The Artist – I don’t have much to say about this one. I liked it, but haven’t felt the need to see it again.

12. Brave – It’s #6 on my Pixar list and I’m itching to see it again. If I don’t get it for Christmas I’ll pick it up after myself.

11. Skyfall – Daniel Craig is my James Bond. I know that’s sacrilege because Sean Connery!, but that’s how it is for me.  I enjoyed 98% of this movie.

10. Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter –  In many other years this one would be much higher on the list. I loved how they treated this almost like a biopic – I felt the serious approach was a better choice than campy.

9. Pitch Perfect – Need to have a crush on Anna Kendricks for some reason? This’ll do it. This movie out-Glees Glee and is almost thoroughly enjoyable. I could have done without all the vomiting.

8. Looper – Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis and time travel. If that’s all you knew about this movie that would be all you would need to know. I don’t care if there are holes in the plot just like any other time travel movie, it didn’t stop me from enjoying it.

7. Dredd 3D – I don’t understand why this one didn’t do better in the theaters. It’s non-stop mega-action done extremely well. Soooooo much better than the Stallone film, and I’m an avowed Stallone and Diane Lane fan. If you like violent action flicks, don’t miss this one.

6. The Expendables 2 – Speaking of Stallone… I liked this one better than the first Expendables, though I wish it had more Jet Li. An absence of Mickey Rourke and the additions of more Schwarzenegger, Willis, Norris, and Van Damme really bump this one up.

5. Cabin in the Woods – This movie literally changes every other horror movie that precedes or follows it and I want to talk about why but no one should ever see this with prior knowledge of it.  I will say, though, that I didn’t enjoy it as much the second time.  The revelations in it work so much better when you go in blind. In fact, don’t even read my comments here about it.

4. Wreck-It Ralph – Just a wonderful movie all around. My favorite part was Q*bert, but I loved the whole thing.

3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – I just talked about this one, so you already know what I liked about it!

2. Batman Begins/The Dark Knight/The Dark Knight Rises – I’m lumping these together because my local theater showed them all in a row with TDKR starting at midnight. I love the whole series and think people who gripe about the third one are just trying to be cooler than you and have chosen a weird way to go about it. Ignore them and enjoy.

1. Marvel’s The Avengers – People who know me best will be surprised that I picked this one over Batman, but this was the most enjoyable movie I saw in theaters this year. I took the day off work to go see it at the first showing of the day (I opted out of the midnight showing because it was two days before my 40th birthday and I was feeling my age), because I wasn’t sure if my wife would be able to go that night to see it. As it turned out, she was able to go, so I ended up seeing it twice on opening day. And I didn’t mind at all.  Frankly, if my movie-going budget had allowed for it, I probably would’ve gone to see this one a couple more times in the theater.  Well done, Mr. Whedon and everyone involved.

Most of these are out on home video of some sort now, so feel free to catch up. A couple of notes:

  1. I will not be doing this with all 163 movies I’ve seen so far this year.
  2. You will not like Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter near as much as I did.
  3. If they would sell Q*bert figurines from Wreck-It Ralph, I would buy the whole set.

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