I took a day off from work today and went to the Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Matinee. There were about 12 people total in the 300+ person theater, I stayed masked the entire time. I wasn't thrilled with the plot, but it didn't embarrass itself. I feel like I could have easily waited for home release for this, despite the heavy emphasis on SFX.

I friggin’ loved it.

Saw Strange 2 and Everything Everywhere All At Once, then binged Army of Darkness and Quick and the Dead.

GO SEE EEAO. It's the best movie I've seen in a decade.

Did this double-header recently as well and agree: EEAO is simply amazing. One of the best movies I've seen in many many years.

I enjoyed Strange as well. Loved seeing Raimi in action again.

And it really was very much a Raimi movie. I felt a lot of the Spider-Man charm alongside his horror sensibilities. I love how if you want to make a movie based on a Stan Lee/Steve Ditki co-creation, you go to Sam Raimi.

Watched The Lost City and it is equal parts dumb and fun.

Had a couple laughs and wasn't mad about it.

Dr. Strange 2 was......meh.

They're really pushing this multiverse crap.

Men
Alex Garland's latest is deeply unsettling. Jessie Buckley is great as always and Rory Kinnear is absolutely skin-crawling. If you're into Alex Garland's previous films (Ex Machina and Annihilation) and/or A24 horror movies then definitely check this out.

Wanted to add an extra note that people often overlook that Garland was also responsible (he wrote the screenplay) for a very good comic movie: Dredd.

Also the FX show DEVS is also haunting and good.

I can't say I like everything he does, but I always check it out just because he is a compelling storyteller.

I guess some say he effectively ghost directed it as well. I didn't mention "Dredd" because I wouldn't recommend "Men" solely on one's enjoyment of it.

The Nightingale
A period revenge drama set in penal colony Tasmania. It is pretty harsh, but that comes with the "revenge tale" territory. If you want a double feature I'd pair it with "The Proposition".

Road to Perdition
This is one I revisit once every few years, hoping I'll like it. Still not a fan. Some of the cinematography is great, the score is fine, the performances are good but it isn't what I want from an adaptation of Max Allan Collins' graphic novel. Also, the kid who plays Michael Jr. is now Superman on "Supergirl" and "Superman and Lois".

The Quick and the Dead (1995)
Not the Sam Elliot driven Louis L'Amour adaptation but Sam Raimi's ultra stylized western. It's been about 5 years since I've watched this last. The cast is insane: a 20 year old Leo DiCaprio, Sharon Stone in leather pants, Russell Crowe in his first Hollywood role, Keith David, Lance Henriksen, Tobin Bell before he was obsessed with playing some weird games, and a fantastically villainous Gene Hackman. It's Sergio Leone through the lens of Sam Raimi.

I found myself in a weird mood where I wanted to (re)watch something that hit all these points:

• possibly longer than a movie, more like a mini-series
• a mystery/drama... if not a period piece, something of its era
• if possible, and if "old enough", TV episodes should be available in their original 4:3 format (as opposed to being cropped for 16:9)

I was drifting towards something HBO-related... possibly a season of The Wire, as I'd gotten my hands on original 4:3 DVDs... but I didn't want to (re)commit to that. Instead, courtesy of Library loan I got the first season (5 episodes) of HBO's original original-programming Philip Marlowe, Private Eye.

I'm a fan of the original stories and this series was one set of adaptations that had been out-of-reach for me for a while. Ultimately I enjoyed the first five episodes, but with one major caveat and one minor one. The minor issue is that there is lot more gun play (especially in the title sequence!) than in the novels. In this series it is trivialized and cartoonish, in the books gun play is taken very seriously and while guns are prevalent, they are only used with extreme restraint by all parties.

The big one is that Powers Boothe plays the title character with considerably more menace, and slightly less dignity, than the character has in any of the novels. I can somewhat forgive this, as the TV stories are adapted from Chandler's pulp short stories (not the Philip Marlowe novels)... but the series goes out of its way to include (as regulars) characters from the novels who (in the novels) serve to humanize Marlowe and to expose his vulnerability. The supporting and guest cast are great. One of my favorite "Philip Marlowe" actors Ed Bishop even has a guest spot.

I'll recommend the series, as it does a good job channeling the feel of pulp-era short stories. It isn't quite as witty as the novels, but for a mid-1980s television adaptation I found it to be completely serviceable.

The series isn't available on HBOmax, but I think the second series of 6 episodes is available on Youtube. As I wrote above, I sought out the DVD collection. I'll probably slow-watch the rest of this, although I have a hankering to revisit the Larry Sanders show.

Over the holiday weekend, my wife and I buckled in and watched Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, unsure if it was gonna be a hate-watch or something to actually enjoy.

To our great delight, it’s actually the latter. The Roger Rabbit approach is no secret at this point, it’s got a few things to say about the ever-shifting landscape of animation, and takes a few surprising potshots at one of the darker moments of Disney’s history. And the funny is VERY funny, with more than a few moments that had us cracking up.

It’s a big recommend from me, especially if you were a kid in the late 80s to early 90s.

It's WEIRD.

It's good, but it's weird.

Saw Northman the other night.

Hamlet + Skyrim - Dragons + Die Hard - Humor + lots of LSD = The Northman.

Oh, it’s definitely weird, but that weirdness is a big part of its charm. If it didn’t have its weirdness, I feel like it would have come and left with no impact, but they went in an unexpected direction and that direction paid off.