A Heck Of A Week

This will be an interesting week as I have started in a new position at work (same company, but different department), baseball kicks off with the season opener on Thursday, Joanna has some honey-do chores for me around the house and in the garden, and Godzilla and King Kong go toe to toe this Friday. Although I am overwhelmed with training for my new position, baseball will still take priority as I am scheduling my training around the Ranger game. I also have limited my movie-going experience, but Kong taking on Gojira will be a must-see event for me.

While all of this is quite exciting and interesting, I don't have much else to add. As my responsibilities increase at work, my free time to write certainly decreases, but I will make an attempt to be a little more consistent in posting.

Bucket List Item I Didn't Know I Needed To Fulfill

Joanna and I spent one night this weekend going on a date and with no real plans we ended up eating at Chamas do Brazil in Arlington. It turns out I completed a task I didn't know I ever wanted to do, but it is now done and I feel like a better man for it. If you are not familiar with Chamas do Brazil, it is a restaurant similar to Texas de Brazil or Fogo de Chao, where employees bring around cuts of meat and the diner chooses if they want to enjoy that menu item.

It turns out that Chamas do Brazil has 16 different meat selections and as of this weekend I am now among those who have eaten a piece of all 16 in one sitting. I'm not sure if there is a Hall of Fame wall or if I'm now part of a special foodie club, but I can officially state that I've conquered the Mount Everest of Brazilian dining.

My stomach didn't appreciate my accomplishment following that meal, but I eventually got over it.

Ranking The Master Of Suspense's Filmography

During the semi-locked-down Thanksgiving our family had, I got to enjoy a little more relaxation and television watching than I am normally used to. To my surprised enjoyment, Turner Classic Movies was running an Alfred Hitchcock marathon over the weekend. I caught a few films I hadn't seen in quite some time and was reminded of what an exquisite filmmaker Hitchcock was. He is my favorite director of all time, so much so that I wanted to sort of (as a bit mostly) name my youngest son after the man. I offered up Alfred Hitch Cook as the potential name, but Joanna wouldn't go for it.

After enjoying a few of Hitchcock's timeless and not-so-great movies this past weekend, I took it upon myself to try and rank all of his films from best to worst. He is credited as director of 58 films, but one of those is a German-made movie that was the same as his English-speaking one. They were made at the same time and swapped out most of the actors but used the same sets. Another three are lost. That left me with 54 movies to rank. Here is the best I could do.

Lost and Unseen Films include Number 13, Always Tell Your Wife (only one reel exists today), The Mountain Eagle, and Mary (German copy of Murder!)

54. Champagne

53. The Skin Game

52. Juno and the Paycock

51. The Manxman

50. Number 17

49. Under Capricorn

48. The Trouble with Harry

47. Aventure Malgache

46. Jamaica Inn

45. Easy Virtue

44. The Ring

43. The Paradine Case

42. I Confess

41. Topaz

40. Family Plot

39. The Pleasure Garden

38. East of Shanghai

37. Strauss' Great Waltz

36. The Wrong Man

35. Saboteur

34. To Catch a Thief

33. Sabotage

32. Blackmail

31. Marnie

30. Young and Innocent

29. The Farmer's Wife

28. Mr. & Mrs. Smith

27. Spellbound

26. Murder!

25. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

24. Foreign Correspondent

23. Frenzy

22. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

21. Rope

20. Bon Voyage

19. When Boys Leave Home

18. Stage Fright

17. Torn Curtain

16. The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

15. Secret Agent

14. Shadow of a Doubt

13. Notorious

12. Strangers on a Train

11. Suspicion

10. The Lady Vanishes

9. Lifeboat

8. Dial M for Murder

7. The Birds

6. The 39 Steps

5. Rebecca

4. Vertigo

3. Rear Window

2. Psycho

1. North by Northwest

I know that it is cinephile heresy to put Vertigo at 4, but I just get so much enjoyment from the three in front of it. I also contend that you can put Hitchcock's top 5 movies (according to my rankings at least) up against any director's best 5 films and he would come out on top in most cases (Kubrick, Spielberg, and Scorsese all probably take umbrage to that).

Jack & Matt's MCU Rankings

The other day my friend Danny reminded me that I have a blog and I haven't posted on said blog in quite some time. Since the beginning of the quarantine there has been a lot happening. No Time To Die, the latest James Bond film, has been delayed ... twice. I got COVID, along with the other people in my household. My daughter is currently in quarantine for being around someone who got COVID. Joanna and I became work-from-home parents and part-time teachers for a bit.

But all that is nothing compared to the monumental task Jack and I took on a few months ago. With a lot of free time at home the past 6 months we've watched a ton of movies. So Jack, who is now 9 years old, said he wanted to watch all of the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and rank them. Since ranking things is about my fourth favorite past time (after baseball, watching movies, and playing cards, not particularly in that order), I decided to go all in with him. It took us a while, but this is where we landed.

 

Jack’s Rankings

Avengers: Endgame – 5

Avengers: Infinity War – 5

Captain America: Civil War – 5

Spider-man: Far From Home – 5

Ant-Man and the Wasp – 5

Spider-man: Homecoming – 5

Iron Man 3 – 5

Avengers: Age of Ultron – 5

Captain America: The Winter Soldier – 5

The Avengers – 4

Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 – 4

Captain Marvel – 4

Captain America: The First Avenger – 4

Guardians of the Galaxy – 4

The Incredible Hulk – 4

Ant-Man – 4

Doctor Strange – 4

Black Panther – 4

Thor: Ragnarok – 3

Iron Man – 3

Iron Man 2 – 3

Thor: The Dark World – 2

Thor – 2

 

Matt’s Rankings

Guardians of the Galaxy – 9

Iron Man – 8

Captain America: Civil War – 8

Captain America: The Winter Soldier – 8

Black Panther – 8

Thor: Ragnarok – 8

Avengers: Infinity War – 8

Avengers: Endgame – 7

Captain America: The First Avenger – 7

The Avengers – 7

Thor – 7

Ant-Man – 7

Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 – 7

Spider-man: Homecoming – 7

Doctor Strange – 7

Spider-man: Far From Home – 6

Captain Marvel – 6

Avengers: Age of Ultron – 6

Iron Man 3 – 5

Ant-Man and the Wasp – 5

The Incredible Hulk – 5

Thor: The Dark World – 4

Iron Man 2 – 3

I Wish I Had More To Say

Despite there really not being much to talk about, it is too cold to go sit in my car for lunch, my boss is out of town, and I am putting off some paperwork. So I figured I would kill a few minutes with typing out something.

 

I am extremely put out with fantasy football right now, so I've completely dropped that as a hobby. I'll likely get sucked back in next week after winning, but until that happens I am trying to get back into some former diversions. My kids take up most of my free time right now. Emery is about to begin basketball. Jack has recently taken up creating new superheroes in a notebook. He draws them up and makes up names. A lot of them are characters that already exist, but he has a few funny ones, like Banana Man (who looks like a banana) and Monkey Kid (who has banana guns). I'm sensing a theme with him. Sawyer is wrapping up a season of tee-ball and is already wanting to move up into machine pitch.

 

I'm extremely behind on my movie watching. I've yet to see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, It Chapter 2, Ad Astra, or Joker. And coming out soon is Terminator: Dark Fate and Doctor Sleep. No matter what is going on in my life, the two movies I know I will not be missing in the theater are Star Wars IV: The Rise of Skywalker and No Time to Die.

 

Speaking of No Time to Die, when are we getting a teaser trailer for that film? I know it isn't seeing a massive release until April, but they've wrapped up principal photography already. We should have seen something by now, and the fact that we haven't yet has me a little worried. There have been massive delays and setbacks, so my expectations are lower than normal, but it is still a new Bond film, so expectations are still at a 9.62 instead of the normal 10.

 

We did get a teaser poster a few weeks ago. It was okay, but nothing as great as the first poster for Spectre. I'd like to believe a poster or trailer's greatness is equitable to the final product of the movie, but the last Craig outing proved that wrong. So maybe all the problems and lackluster information about the newest film will prove to be the opposite and it turns out to be the best since Casino Royale.

 

Here is the poster that was released recently.

 

 

 

I don't have a ton of slow days lately, so I likely will not be back to type up something unless it is James Bond related. Until a new trailer or poster or something of interest happens, I'll be seeing you.

Bond 25 Is ...

No Time to Die.

 

I know I don't make it around as much as I used to, but certain milestones in my life are worth posting about and the title of a new James Bond movie is one of them. This is the fourth title to have the word "die" in it. The others are Live and Let Die, Tomorrow Never Dies, and Die Another Day. The theme song to Quantum of Solace was titled "Another Way to Die."

 

April 2020 is still a long time away, but getting a title means we will be getting a teaser trailer soon. Then a few more announcements about the picture will trickle through, and then the singer of the theme song will be known, and finally the full-length trailer and international trailer will drop. By that time it will almost be upon us.

 

Today is an exciting day.

Oscar Nominees Announced

With 2018 coming to a close, the last remaining remnant of that year is the award ceremonies that follow in early 2019, and my favorite of these is the Academy Awards. While I don't consider any awards show to be gospel when it comes to marking what is the best in a given time frame (especially since the medium of film is subjective and what is good to one person might not be that way to another), the Academy Awards, or Oscars, are my favorite mostly because it is the longest standing awards show for film and the statue is iconic.

What I like most about awards shows like the Oscars and Golden Globes is that it brings to the forefront movies most people don't see in a given year. Winners like The Shape of Water and The King's Speech wouldn't normally get a massive viewing audience, but by being named best of the year it garnered more attention than it normally would. Do I  really believe The Shape of Water is a more well crafted film than Dunkirk or Get Out or The King's Speech is better than The Social Network or Toy Story 3? No, but that is what's great about these awards shows. Others not like me who end up seeing only the popular films pushed by big production studios might become curious about smaller movies that garner more attention during awards season.

When I was younger and the Academy only recognized five nominees for each category I normally had seen most of the nominated films prior to announcing its list a few weeks before the big night. Since having kids my free time to see the "important" films has been less and less. The past few years I normally have to catch up prior to the night of the ceremony and that is done at a special screening of the Best Picture nominees at AMC Theatres. This year is no different. Of the eight Best Picture nominees, I have seen only Black Panther. The films I'm looking forward to viewing in the coming weeks are Bohemian Rhapsody, The Favourite, and A Star is Born. Roma peaks my interest only because of all the praise it has been getting, but the actual story doesn't sound very interesting. As for Blackkklansman, The Green Book, and Vice, I could take those or leave them.

I am disappointed that First Man wasn't nominated for Best Picture. I thought it was a long shot that it would be, but I missed it in theaters and was hoping to get a second chance at the special screening. I was also a little surprised that If Beale Street Could Talk wasn't nominated in the Best Picture category. The biggest snub I saw was leaving Bradley Cooper out of the Best Director category. With eight nominations total, I just assumed Cooper would also be in the running for Best Director.

No movie is in contention for the Academy's Big Five, which is Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. Only three films have won the Big Five: It Happened One Night, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and The Silence of the Lambs.

We'll see how all this shakes out, but I am already formulating my picks and hope to win another year in the Best Picker category at our annual Oscars party.

It's Been Too Long, But I Cannot Stay

Although I haven't posted anything in several months (and some could argue I haven't posted anything of significance in several years) I really just stopped by to say goodbye to 2018. I don't have much to discuss. The holiday season has been fine. We're hosting some friends for New Year's Eve, which I normally look forward to, but this time it is coming on the heels of spending the afternoon at Six Flags yesterday and my body aches from miles of walking, carrying Sawyer from ride to ride, and getting knocked around on the roller coasters.

It was a Six Flags trip of note because I rode the Batman ride for the first time and Sawyer, my youngest child who turns 5 in two weeks, rode his first ever big roller coaster (illegally). Although he is still a few inches below the allowable line for the Judge Roy Scream, I was able to sneak him on without any questions from the staff and he loved almost every minute of it. That first downslope of the ride had him a little nervous, but once the coaster got in the groove of going up and down he had a blast. Another first was for Jack, who rode the Shockwave for the first time. In fact, he got to ride it two times in a row since I rode with him once and then Joanna swapped in while I stayed with Sawyer.

2018 was a pretty good year with some highs and lows. We saw two new baseball stadiums during our summer trip (Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles). Sawyer broke his leg and was in a cast for six weeks. I moved to a new department at work and am enjoying the stress of learning a different role.

Hopefully once work slows down a bit I will try to post some more. Here is to a happy New Year. Enjoy 2019!

PIXAR Rankings (minus 'Coco')

After seeing Incredibles 2 a few weeks ago I realized I haven't properly sat down and ranked the whole of Pixar's filmography (which listing things is something I love to do). Not since Pixar's 13th feature film, Brave, had I sorted the movies in a best-to-worst ranking, so let's get that done today.

This list will be incomplete due to me not having yet seen Coco. I've heard good things, but just haven't sat down to watch it as of now. Also, I've discovered after making this list that I really don't like the Cars series. On with the ranking.

19. Cars 3

18. Cars 2

17. The Good Dinosaur

16. Cars

15. Finding Dory

14. Monsters University

13. Brave

12. A Bug's Life

11. Ratatouille

10. Monsters, Inc.

9. Incredibles 2

8. Toy Story 2

7. Inside Out

6. Toy Story 3

5. WALL-E

4. Up

3. Finding Nemo

2. Toy Story

1. The Incredibles

(Not) Live (Not) Tweeting 'Legion' Episode 2.11

This show is such a weird and cool experience. That opening scene was such an oddity I watched it again as soon as the episode ended. Cool foreshadowing to David singing that he was the bad man.

Three years later? What happened to all of our characters outside the ice cube? Oh, okay. We're going right back to the action.

"You were beating him to death. That's not a love story." That is a great line.

This thing has taken a dark turn of self-destructive reflection. But talking to three versions of yourself probably means you really are crazy. And those other two versions of you aren't that different. It's like having a devil on one shoulder and the devil's personal assistance on the other shoulder.

Implausible shot fro Lenny, but I'll allow it.

Farouk's not wrong about forcing love on someone. It just stinks to hear that rational argument coming from him.

Inception, Minority Report, #MeToo: they are getting as many pop culture references into one episode as they can tonight.

David and Lenny: the Thelma & Louise of mutants.

(Not) Live (Not) Tweeting 'Legion' Episode 2.10

I'm not one that normally cares about what a girl looks like on television after something happens, but after roaming through the desert the entire day and sleeping in a tent smaller than a dorm room, Sydney would definitely not look that good with her hair and makeup so perfect. I'm just saying.

Yes, we've all heard that definition of insanity.

You remember the television show Out of This World? It was about a girl whose dad is an alien and gives her the power to freeze time. The theme song was what Oliver was singing. Burt Reynolds was the voice of the dad, right? Woah! David is going all Zero Dark Thirty on Oliver.

Did Professor X ever break bad in the comic books? Could he have been like David if humanity had pushed back a little more against his team of mutants?

I know I keep saying this, but I live Aubrey Plaza.

I always forget that David tried to kill himself. He really is one tragic figure in this show. He's been through a lot. Yet, I am starting to question whether David might be the hero of this show. The Shadow King was a valid reason to blame his bad behavior, but he truly might be insane.

Let Kerry kick some butt! ... Nice! ... Oh come on! It's not fair that she has to fight even more of those henchmen.

A Lenny and Kerry spin-off! That's the show I want.

Surely next week is the season finale. We've been building to this all season. It cannot be dragged out any longer, right?

Yep, season finale. Looks promising.

(Not) Live (Not) Tweeting 'Legion' Episode 2.9

I need a "Previously on Legion." If any television show needs a "previously on," it's Legion.

This episode is like a PSA for drugs. Parents, don't let your kids do drugs or they will end up like lazy, abandoned wives holding a grudge against their husbands who are trapped inside an ice cube.

I love Cary/Kerry.

Oh yeah! This is the episode that Lenny goes nuts and parties hard. I was looking forward to this one.

I'm no biologist, but I'm pretty sure you can't make a prince that way.

(Not) Live (Not) Tweeting 'Legion' Episode 2.8

As far as episodes go, this one was pretty straight forward for Legion. The plot seemed to move forward giving its characters a clear objective while unraveling a bit more of the mystery regarding Farouk's body's whereabouts. It really only had one side-tracked tangent about delusions in the middle of the episode, including the sweet-sweet voice of Jon Hamm telling us about people living in caves and watching society unravel through shadows on the walls.

The teaser for next week looks extremely interesting with Lenny being all Lenny like. More Aubrey Plaza is always appreciated.

(Not) Live (Not) Tweeting 'Legion' Episode 2.7

Ostensibly on Legion.

What do the Amish building a barn have to do with moral panic?

Ah, not Amish, but pilgrims. And I see where you're going with this.

Did we run out of money and the sets are all just white backgrounds now?

Ha! He really is at the kiddie table.

I want to eat where there is a conveyor belt of entrees.

Did we know the mustache girls were robots? I don't remember them ever establishing that they are robots. Of course, I don't think I remember ever seeing more than three of them at a time. I just thought they were triplet females who wore mustaches (never thought I would type that in my lifetime).

Yeah, I don't really understand the tree as a computer thing. I'm confused.

(Not) Live (Not) Tweeting 'Legion' Episode 2.6

If multiple realities are really a thing, would we be the same person in each and its our surroundings that alter or would we have different personalities? Would we be victims of circumstance in each reality or would our different selves dictate the reality?

I knew that was a Clockwork Orange reference before the kids showed up. I recognized the camera shot when he walked into the tunnel.

Oh dear! But they put a much stranger twist on the scene than Kubrick did.

I thought I wanted to go back to corporate climbing David, but he turned out to be an a-hole.

I feel like I need to rewatch each episode immediately to fully understand what is being asked of me on a conceptual level. Maybe even watching the entire series again prior to each episode would help. This is my life now, watching Legion over and over again each week prior to every new episode. Quit my job, give up my 401K, pour everything I am into Legion. Sorry kids, daddy can't play with you today. He has to watch episode six of season one for the 37th time.

(Not) Live (Not) Tweeting 'Legion' Episode 2.5

Not "Previously on Legion," but "Apparently on Legion." Nice!

I hate that little tar frog creature. It's creepy.

I don't even know what to say about that ending. Wow!

(Not) Live (Not) Tweeting 'Legion' Episode 2.4

Was that one of those fake stage fires in the igloo?

Syd has some anger issues. Understandably so.

That is one of those fake stage fires! You'd think the production budget would be big enough to get a permit for a real fire on the set. Maybe the igloo was made of real ice and it couldn't withstand the heat. Or, and I can believe this in regard to this show, the decision to have a fake stage fire was purposeful.

Only took 55 minutes of a 60-minute program to get the opening credits.

There's Aubrey Plaza! Love her.

(Not) Live (Not) Tweeting 'Legion' Episode 2.3

I'll try not to keep being a week late on these. They limited my Internet access at the office, so I am unable to post any longer at my work computer.

If Cary (the male) dies when Kerry (the female) is outside his body, does she die? Or does she then have to live a normal lifespan on her own? I feel like they covered this in season one, but I don't remember. What if he dies with her in him? Do they both die?

Aubrey Plaza deserves all the awards for this role. Just, whatever awards there are out there, back the truck up and give them to her. She is fantastic.

It is usually lazy writing to just simply solve a problem by saying, "I did a thing in your head." But it works here for some reason.

Uh, what? Not cool Legion. You can't just end there? I don't care that you are following up on this thread in a week. I don't want to wait a week.

(Not) Live (Not) Tweeting 'Legion' Episode 2.2

I'm either getting acclimated to the oddities of this show or episode two took it easy on the psychedelic antics. Speaking of psychedelic antics, while watching this episode I started wondering about the correlation between the main characters of Legion and different drugs. Being that I've never taken part in a drug harder than liquor and cigarettes/cigars, I'm not exactly a leading expert in this area, but let's take a look at whether I can make this metaphor work.

Regarding our main hero, David Haller, and his counterpart, the Shadow King, they represent hallucinogens, such as LSD, also known as acid, trips, mushies, and tabs. Like their name suggests, hallucinogens produce hallucinations, which correlates pretty well with the telekinetic and telepathic abilities of David and the Shadow King.

Amphetamines, or speed, whizz, ice, and uppers, would be most associated with Cary Loudermilk, who is the brains of the operation. Amphetamines are a stimulant that speeds up certain chemicals in the brain and used to treat ADHD. In other words it helps you focus. Cary is a scientist focused on helping David cope with his multiple personalities and essential in solving many of the mysteries of the show.

Cary's counterpart, Kerry Loudermilk, would be the manifestation of cocaine, or coke, freebase, crack, Charlie, C, and rock. Cocaine produces a feeling of increased alertness and reduced fatigue. This makes me think of someone who is amped up and ready for a fight, which is most certainly the best way to describe Kerry. She is a mutant who lives inside Cary and can separate from his body when necessary, which is usually when a bit of muscle is needed.

As for cannabis, or marijuana, pot, weed, mull, leaf, and gunga, Sydney "Syd" Barrett is our girl. Syd is David's girlfriend and her mutant power is that she swaps minds with others for a temporary period. Because cannabis can be a depressant drug but also cause hallucinogenic and stimulant properties, Syd seems to represent this drug the most. Depending on the person (or cat in the case of this episode) she swaps with, her demeanor can change to reflect the person she is supposed to be imitating.

Lenny Busker is the epitome of ecstasy, also known as es, XTC, echoes, pills, and bickies. This drug has both stimulant and hallucinogenic properties. It is sometimes referred to as a psychedelic amphetamine, which Lenny is all too happy to embody, metaphorically.

Finally we have Melanie Bird. So far in season two she would represent heroine, or hammer, H, smack, horse, white, and beige. Heroine is a depressant that slows down the whole body, including breathing and heart rate. Thus far this season, all we've seen Melanie do is get high and lay in bed.

Again, I've never done a hard drug before in my life, so I really don't know if this is an accurate depiction of the characters and their drug counterparts. This is simply what I was contemplating while watching the episode, which is the point of these posts.

(Not) Live (Not) Tweeting 'Legion' Episode 2.1

It's a new season for David and his mutant friends. That means another season of not live tweeting about Legion. Instead, I will post my collective thoughts after the show has aired and post it to the blog. So instead of live tweets, you are getting carefully constructed and thought-out blog posts.

It should be noted that if you haven't yet watched this week's episode, don't read on. Spoiler alert provided.

Jon Hamm!!! Voice-over narration by Jon Hamm. I'm already in love with the second season.

What is the cost of a single episode of this show? The production value is incredible. Sheesh!

Thanks Hamm. Now every crazy idea I ever have will be rendered in my mind as an oily mess of a stillborn chick.

I love the way Rachel Keller says, "He's my man." It's been used in a lot of the promos leading up to this season and there's something in her deliver and inflection that is solid.

What it must be like in the Legion writers' room: "Guys, we are really onto something, but you know what we need in this episode? A dance off!"

This show shouldn't exist. No network has executives smart or patient enough to let a show like this on the air. Let alone renew it for a second season.