It’s kind of hard to express how incomprehensibly incompetent this film is for a major Hollywood blockbuster. I am not a fan of the Avengers films but, watching this I feel like those films are masterpieces in comparison. In fact, watching this film, I long for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s basic film-making competence – yeah, they’re …
Category: 2016
Waves (2016)
I have been going to the Wolfe Island Music Festival for years now, even though I don’t love most of the music. (That’s not to say I dislike most of the music.) It’s a festival that I attend more for the vibe and the size than the actual music played. But every so often – …
The Nice Guys (2016, Shane Black)
This is pretty hilarious slapstick buddy comedy mashed up with a period film noir set in LA in 1977. I didn’t realize this is the guy who made Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but it was, and if you liked that movie, you’ll no doubt like this.
Star Trek: Beyond (2016, Justin Lin)
For some reason, I have yet to see the first movie of this Star Trek reboot. I’ve seen Into Darkness and I didn’t love it. And I must say the things I didn’t love about Into Darkness and present to a degree in Beyond. But I seem to have come to terms with them better. Because this time, it …
Keanu (2016, Peter Atencio)
Keanu takes the classic Hollywood trope of fishes-out-water lying about their identities resulting in hijinks and transposes it to the world of LA drug gangs. That is, to my knowledge, a unique take on a very, very tired formula. One significant SPOILER
Hail, Caesar! (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen)
This is a bizarre, borderline directionless film full of too many ideas, some of which are quite good and funny, but too many of which do not appear to be necessary to the story such as it is.
Cameraperson (2016, Kirsten Johnson)
When we’re watching movies, I think most of us never really think about the shots and scenes that got left “on the cutting room floor.” Unless we’re absolutely obsessed with a particular movie or filmmaker, most people don’t buy or watch the outtakes of most movies. Most of us accept the finished film as is, …
The Crown (2016)
This is an immaculately produced drama about the early reign of Queen Elizabeth II. It is very nice to look at and it is well-acted. But half way through season 1, I don’t really care.
Boys Among Men (2016) by Jonathan Abrams
This is a pretty excellent narrative history of the one and only generation of NBA stars to come directly from high school. Though I have one minor quibble, I got over it and, for the most part, it’s probably the definitive book about this topic.
Undestroyed (2016) by Free Salamander Exhibit
Even before listening to this record, the evocation of the former band is perhaps a little too overt. Not only does the artwork of the album recall Sleepytime Gorilla Museum but look at these band names: Sleepytime Gorilla Museum Free Salamander Exhibit People as creative as these guys are need to change up the format …
Dr. Strange (2016, Scott Derrickson)
Dr. Strange is yet another one of these moderately entertaining Marvel films with a great cast and not so great a plot, with the same machinations and the same balance of humour and violence. Deja vu all over again.
Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary (2016, John Scheinfeld)
This is a prestige documentary about John Coltrane featuring Denzel Washington of all people reading Coltrane’s own words, as well as a collection of interviews with Coltrane’s children (and step-daughter), critics, historians, biographers, fellow and later musicians and Bill Clinton. But if you are at all a fan of the man’s work, and you have …
The Bob’s Burgers Music Album (2017)
Much like The Simpsons (at least back when I watched it) music plays a very significant role in Bob’s Burgers. In fact, it plays an even more significant role, given the singing propensities of multiple characters in the Belcher family. This album collects the featured songs from the show, as well as a few covers …
A Natural History of Human Morality (2016) by Michael Tomasello
For the vast majority of recorded human history, we humans have believed that morality comes from somewhere outside of us; from “above,” from the ether, from some kind of benevolent creator, etc. Even as we have learned more and more about how humans evolved from apes who evolved from “lower” animals who evolved from “lower” …
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016, Edward Zwick)
After watching this sequel, I feel like I should go back and up my rating on the original because, for all its flaws (some seemingly inherent in the source material), the original movie was entertaining as these things go. This one is not. SPOILERS (for this film and the original)
Rogue One (2016, Gareth Edwards)
The problem with science fiction prequels, as I’m always saying, is that they are made with better technology then the ostensible sequels, making them incoherent in terms of technology.
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016, Bryan Singer)
The stakes got upped a bit in the previous entry and so I must say I was worried about the endless stake-upping occurring in this series, like it does with the Avengers movies. And, to an extent, it does. The bad guy is a different kind of world-threatening baddie this time, but at least he’s …
Passengers (2016, Morten Tyldum)
I feel like every single time I watch one of these legendary blockbuster bombs I find myself asking the same question: did I watch the same movie as everyone else? Make no mistake: this is not a good film. But once you’ve been told something is The Worst over and over again, your expectations get …
Jason Bourne (2016, Paul Greengrass)
Why there’s another Bourne movie I don’t know. This one hits all the marks you’d expect: Bourne is mad at the CIA and is taking some kind of action, there’s someone on inside helping him out (actually 2 people, but whatever). The cast is too good for the material, as is usual with these films, …
Your 2016-2017 Toronto Raptors
At this time of year I usually write a summary of everyone on the Toronto Raptors, their contributions and their shot-comings, and what the team should do going forward. Today, on the occasion of The Raptors getting swept by The Cleveland Cavaliers, I think it’s probably time to blow it all up:
Ali Wong: Baby Cobra (2016, Jay Karas)
This is a reasonably funny special. I took me a while to get into it but the more it went on the more I laughed. I appreciate Wong’s frankness, but I found her frankness more admirable than always funny. Still funny enough to watch. 6/10
City 40 (2016, Samira Goetschel)
This is a by-the-numbers but fascinating portrait of a “closed city” (one of maybe 20 in the entire world) in which access is restricted, due to the presence of nuclear weapons manufacturing. (There is one such city in the US, Mercury, Nevada.)
Hotel California (1976) by Eagles
Who is this record for? Clearly, it’s for a lot of people, as it sound somewhere between 20 and 30 million copies. But listening to it, I don’t know who it’s for. The rock tracks feel like they appeal to one group of people, and the sappy, over-produced soft rock ballads to another group. It’s …
Accused: The Unsolved Murder of Elizabeth Andes (2016)
This podcast covers the unsolved murder of Elizabeth Andes, at a university in Ohio in the 70s. It’s a new take on the rash of podcasts that are out there as, in this case, the crime is unsolved. (However, when In the Dark started recording, that crime was also unsolved.)
In the Dark (2016)
I forgot to review this when I finished listening to it (and I presume I have forgotten to review a bunch of other podcasts I finished). This is a frustrating, devastating and infuriating portrait of a child kidnapping in the 80s, the near-absolute power of country Sheriffs in the US (and their general incompetence) and …
Captain America: Civil War (2016, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo)
What is this? Is it a 2 and a half hour prelude to another movie? Because it sure feels like that to me. It’s the nadir of this recent trend in blockbusters to split a movie into two halves. Because, though this is ostensibly a Captain America film, what it really feels like is just …
The Log for Sunday January 15, 2016
What I Ate Breakfast: 3 pancakes, 2 pieces of bacon; 2 glasses of tea Lunch: tikka roll Dinner: 2 helpings of oat groats salad; glass of OJ What I Did for Exercise Walked down 19 flights of stairs, walked from the Dome to Varsity Arean What I Did with My Life Nothing!
The Log for Saturday January 14, 2016
What I Ate Brunch: 2 pieces of rapini “strata” (basically savoury bread pudding); glass of tea, few glasses of OJ, I think Dinner: more rapini strata, guava turnover; OJ What I Did for Exercise Completed a YouTube video on the Exercise Bike Walked a teeny tiny bit What I Did with My Life Nothing!
Marauders (2016, Steven C. Miller)
Why can’t bank heist movies just be about bank heists and stealing money any more? This film feels like so many other bank heist films I’ve seen recently – there has to be another angle aside from making money. And that’s just so tired. Despite committed performances from Meloni and some other people (and a …
The Log for December 31, 2016
What I Ate Breakfast: cereal with yogurt and half a banana; glass of tea Lunch: dregs of Thursday’s chicken curry and rice, dregs of a bag of chips with hummus; bottle of homebrew Afternoon: 3 different kinds of cheese, a bunch of different crackers, pate; 2 or 3 small glasses of wine Dinner: 2 pieces …