"Max Steel" (2013)

TV series.  Just watched the first 2 episodes.  This has all the right combos for what I like in my superhero watching.  Vulnerability (he needs "Steel").  Supernatural super hero (he can do cool things).  And, of course, I'm a sucker for a super hero's first few episodes ("What's happening to me?") where the whole identity issue hits the main character smack in the eyes.  Throw in lots of short-lived action and a bit of humor, (e.g. "I'm married to this toaster?") and it's a great combination for me.  The first 2 episodes of this series are continued into the next (each episode is only 20 minutes in length), so I'm hoping the cliff hangers are just a quirk of getting started (which is pretty typical).  Otherwise, I won't get anything done.  I understand why shows do cliff hangers and I understand the "advance" of story telling in making long interconnected stories that span one episode to the next. But I miss having the story end.

Maybe I better clarify that.

I want to know what happens next, and not have the story end, as it relates to characters.  The people development parts of things.  But, I don't want it to stretch out to where I need to watch more, and more, and more, just to get to some sort of chord resolution in the piece.  Come to the end of a cadence already.

Here's another illustration.  Who would write a mystery--TV show, miniseries, or movie--and then end the thing before you find out "Who dunnit?"  You'd have a mad audience and a short-lived run.  Why in the world should all the other shows--and books!--be different?  They're like a run-on sentence.  You might have a lot to say, but it's overwhelming.  The commitment then isn't "Do I want to watch another episode?"  The commitment is for the entire series.  That's quite an investment.

But I also don't want it to where it doesn't ever matter what episode you watch next because they're interchangeable.  Nothing changes between characters.  That's relaxing sometimes; so there's a place for those shows, too.  But it can get pretty shallow, otherwise, when you keep things that way.

And the whole "Superhero Loses Parent" headline?  Yep.  That's here, too.  Figures.

"Mystery of the 13th Guest" (1943)

Decent enough light-mystery detective story from the 40s.  Black and white.  Equal opportunity dingbat characters.  Not a bad way to spend an hour.  Not sure the story ever explained the title, but that's okay.

"Underdogs" (2013)

Fantastic movie!  Sweet movie!  For a sports movie, the plot isn't cookie cutter, but not weird either.  I liked the pacing.  Enough moving to keep you watching and wondering what's to come next without making you feel like you're on the verge of having a heart attack from holding your breath.  "Inspired by true events," it says.  Father of QB stutters and runs a secondary storyline as an inventor which is also a very nice story line.  Very satisfying movie.  A lot of pieces are there for the "what you expect from a sports movie about underdogs", but not everything.  I thought I would miss the pieces that aren't, but I don't.  I'm thinking this movie is going to get rewatched sometime.  Very nice movie!

Yep.  I'm watching this one again.

"Shrek" (2001)

"Hollywood" needs more accents.

I don't care for "stupid humor".  Although, I do appreciate that for many people, stupid humor is the perfect way to relax.  For us "dry humor" folks, dry humor seems hard to find.  ("There's 'um... Well, there's...um...or maybe....)  Yeah.  Not sure this movie fits the "dry humor" label, but it was fun to watch the humor built on cultural references and to watch a movie that wasn't loaded down with the humor that I have trouble laughing with.  I don't try to be hard to please.  Maybe dry humor is in the minority part of the population.  Anyways...

It was nice having a main character with an accent other than the "American Standard Midwest".  I liked hearing that little bit of different in Shrek's voice.  (Scottish?)  Not that the donkey is midwestern, but City Eddy is a well known flavor.

And of all the different renditions of Robin Hood that have been put into to film, I'm not so sure that the cameo appearance in this film isn't closer to the original flavor of the book than all the rest of the full fledged adaptations.  (Okay, I haven't seen all the versions yet.  So, my opinion could easily change.  I can think of one version I haven't seen that could be a challenger.)  Robin Hood dramas are nice--and understandablely a good selection for an adaptation.  At the same time, most of the book is much lighter "ha ha pulled a fast one", "let's swap stories" stories.  And Shrek's Merry men appearance is definitely on the lighter side.

Let's see.  Nice to have a lady dragon.

This movie was good fare.  A nice watch.

"Aeon Flux" (2005)

Female lead.  Lots of acrobatics.  I think the movie does a fine job submitting its own answer to "How would a female action lead look?" meaning, how would she fight different, to prove she is all woman, but still show "She can do it, too" just like a man?  (Here come the criticisms launched at the accusation that she should even have to be compared to a man--either as what she is as like him, or as what she is not in relation to him.  A sign as the negative of the picture to show that she is or isn't the positive--or both is AND isn't.)

So, how about instead the beauty of a body in fluid motion--a dance for something other than a dance competition.  And any screen fight instructor will tell you that fights are choreographed, a word used for dancing.

Interesting use of color throughout the movie.

I think for me, it's just the pleasure of seeing a capable woman who didn't need to be rescued/saved by a man during the fight.  And yet, as a Christian, we're ALL saved by a man.  It's what mankind--men and women--all realize inside them somewhere, that we're in need of a savior.  And even Aeon Flux--you find out at the end--is saved by a man, an old man.  Although, he saved her because he saw something worth saving.  And Christ's bride--the church--has nothing as part of her own self worthy of being saved; and yet Christ loved his bride enough to die for her.  Our need for a savior is buried deep inside us.  It can't BUT come out in what we create.

And Aeon Flux is just a nice action movie to watch on a Saturday night--enough shoot 'em up action with fluid motion acrobatics to keep you watching, with enough Sci-Fi to make things interesting--without so much gore you get sick of it or too much science mumbo-jumbo to scramble your brain.

"A Fistful of Dollars" (1964)

Clint Eastwood western.  I grew up when Sunday afternoons all that was on were old westerns--and as a kid, I generally went and did something else.  Now as I continue my exploration of films, it seems too weird to try watching an old western at any other time than in the afternoon.

What strikes me about this one--'64, is that early?--is the question of music.  One of the versions of My Darling Clementine simply plays the song "Oh, My Darling Clementine"--which might be obvious from the title, but does harken back to cowboy folk songs.  A Fistful of Dollars seems to try addressing the question "How do you say 'Western' and 'Modern' at the same time?"  You have whistles and chorus--perhaps connecting to cowboy ballads which were both sung and whistled to--, but the whistles are made using modern sounds--as if just a little more push to 'em and they'd be only electronic sounds--which would be all wrong for an "old western".

As for watching a western in the afternoon--that bright sunlight outside seems to help counterbalance all the violent shoot out stuff.  The western ends, you look outside, and that ol' sun reminds you that that story is done, that that isn't here and now, and you have a chance to reflect that the story was woven well enough together that you enjoyed it--and the good guy won.

"Night at the Museum" (2006)

I think this is probably a great movie for certain audiences--young audiences, families, and those who enjoy this style of humor.  I watched the start of this one and can see that it was done well, and I probably would enjoy the heart-warming parts of this movie.  However, my sense of humor is on the dry side, and the movie seems to cornerstone on slapstick.  So, for those audiences that this is geared for, those scenes probably are great, but for me, just seem slow.  And if I was handed an instruction manual for a job, I'd be reading it.  I realize then that would cut off part of the humor and sense of discovery.  Also, movie included (and butchered) a quote from Twelfth Night.  It just doesn't sell me watching it to the end.

I believe this to be a very good movie.  I just didn't watch it all myself.

Later:
I found that there was a enough charm to this movie that I pulled it back out and watched the rest of it.  The humor was still "stupid" humor, but the charm of the movie was enough to make up for it.