I haven’t given a Netflix update in a bit. Once I finished binge-watching The IT Crowd, I found myself watching End of Watch. Let me explain my thought process. You see, The IT Crowd‘s Richard Ayoade was in Ben Stiller’s The Watch. Since I wanted to see more of him, I decided to give that movie a shot. Sadly, however, it’s not on Netflix Streaming. Instead, they recommended End of Watch – a movie I’d wanted to see when I initially saw the trailer, but had completely forgotten existed. So, I decided there was no time like the (then) present, so I watched the movie. It’s pretty much exactly what you think it’d be. Jake Gyllenhaal (ha! I spelled that correctly without even looking it up!) and Michael Pena star as two beat cops who find themselves on the wrong side of the Mexican cartel. Everything you think will happen happens, and the only real unique aspect of it is that it’s from the POV of cameras that Gyllenhaal’s character is using for a class he’s taking. Anna Kendrick’s a nice surprise, even though she looks 16 the whole time…
Next up, I watched Ryan Gosling in Drive. Contrary to what I’d been led to believe, he did way more talking than I expected. I have so many questions, but it’s that kind of movie. I enjoyed it, but it almost tried too hard to be “cool”. Like it wanted that ’80s Miami Vice vibe so badly, but kinda like Peter Griffin’s opinion on The Godfather, it insists upon itself. That said, I still enjoyed it, but it may have been a tad overhyped.
Oh! I forgot to mention that I finally watched G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and I had 3 basic thoughts on it:
1) Jaye Burnett? Its Allison!
2) Why does Firefly sound like a Klan leader?
3) What “elite” force sends EVERYONE into battle? They didn’t leave anyone back at The Pit?!
Overall, it was OK. Not really that much better than the first one, but I’m one of the few people who didn’t have much of a problem with that movie. At the end of the day, this franchise is based on a TOY LINE, so I’m pretty much amazed that they’ve done anything remotely cohesive with it. Still, I think this movie thrives on the injection of star power from The Rock and Bruce Willis. Without them, it would’ve been on even footing with the first one.
It’s rumored that *NSYNC may reunite and perform at the MTV VMAs this Sunday. Before you start with that whole “MTV doesn’t play videos” mess, you can stop ’cause ain’t nobody got time for that! Anyway, Justin’s winning the Video Vanguard award, which is basically their Lifetime Achievement award. Yeah, for the 32 year old. With 2.5 albums. Whatever. Anyway, I should be excited by this prospect, but I’m not. I’d love for them to reunite, but not because of Justin. Sure, he’s been the holdout, but I want a reunion where they’re all on somewhat equal footing. Not to take anything away from Justin, but JC never gets enough credit, and he was the better singer. I’ll be screaming along with the rest of the fangirls, should it happen, but I ain’t happy over the circumstances.
I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it here, but I’ve been collecting the Hot Wheels Retro Entertainment series of vehicles. I’m not really a Hot Wheels guy, but I felt like I simply had to own these. Well, yesterday, I must’ve stumbled into TRU shortly after they opened a new case, as I was able to get what I believe is the entire next wave of vehicles. Kinda surprised Magnum got a van AND TC’s chopper, but no car? Anyway, I’ve almost got a complete set; I skipped the Muppets bus ’cause I foolishly thought it was part of a different series, and I also sold my KARR because I thought I’d be able to find another one. I thought wrong. So, those, along with the horrible American Graffiti car, are what’s keeping me from a complete collection at this point.
Links I Loved
The God of ‘SNL’ Will See You Now – The New York Times
Yikes! Brandy Performs to an Empty Stadium – Yahoo! Music
‘Getting Ready for a Car Crash’: An Interview With Triple H – Grantland
What Kick-Ass Gets Right and Wrong in the World of Real Life Superheroes – The Robot’s Pajamas
RetroCon 2013 Coverage Starts Now! – UnderScoopFire!
Interview: Joseph P. Illidge on the Intersections of Comic Books – Comicosity
Buy some stuff from Will’s World of Wonder!
One sexually harassed with the best of them, while the other needs to get those blurred lines checked out. One violated a pink swear with Uncle Sam, while the other is Batman. Only one, however, had the West Week Ever.
So, as I was writing this, it was revealed that Ben Affleck will be the next Batman in the Man of Steel sequel. I don’t hate it, but it does fill me with memories of Clooney. People like to bring up Daredevil, but that wasn’t a bad movie. At the time, people didn’t know what to expect. Remember, we’d only had X-Men movies and Spider-Man, and DD was a 3rd-tier Marvel character at the time. If you revisit the Daredevil movie, you’ll find it’s not as bad as you once thought. Oh well, there’ll be plenty of time for web hate about this. It was a slow news week, and this is kind of a big deal. So, for (allegedly) preparing to don the cape and cowl, Ben Affleck had the West Week Ever.
I’m with you on Drive. After seeing it I wondered where all the hype came from. It was like watching someone play Grand Theft Auto for 90 minutes but they don’t really know how to play.
I’m not sure if most people citing Daredevil are doing so because they didn’t like the movie (I didn’t think it was too bad) or because of Affleck’s blah performance in it.
Why do you call the Graffiti car horrible? Do you just not like the car itself?
Howie – yeah, it definitely had a GTA vibe, and I have so many questions about that ending
Dex – I didn’t think his Murdock was that bad. I’d been reading a lot of Daredevil at that time, and during the era of the movie, Murdock really isn’t too 3-dimensional of a character. He’s kind of blah, while vacillating between womanizer and sad sack. Plus, I hear the director’s cut of the movie is even better for everyone involved.
As for the Graffiti car, I mainly don’t like it because it doesn’t fit the other cars that I like. I mean, you’ve got KITT, the A-Team van, and even KARR, but the AG car doesn’t really seem to be in that league. There’s also a Simon & Simon car coming, plus there’s the Rockford Files, so I guess I wish they’d cultivated the line a bit better. Maybe split it up into a TV line and a movie line. The AG car just seems like the weakest of that first wave, just as the Footloose car was the weakest of the second wave. Not to mention there are TWO AG cars, while some of the other franchises didn’t get that treatment.