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Hobby Break For Movie Time

10.09.2018

I'm taking a little bit of a hobby break. After wrapping up the gas station, and it taking as long as it did, I just haven't had the gumption to finish up, well, anything. I could force it, but a hobby is supposed to be something for fun, not because I have to.

I've been catching up on watching TV, which for me is Netflix and Amazon Prime. The great thing here is that I no longer feel guilty when I start to watch something and don't finish, after deciding I don't like it. On the other hand, I'm more likely to watch something I'm iffy about in case I like it. After wrapping up season 5 of Agents of SHIELD, I was in the mood to watch some movies. While this may not make sense to common folk, there are times I want to watch something that's a story encapsulated within 2 hours, and other time I'd prefer the serialized adventures of a TV show to develop characters and story. Also, there's a fresh batch of DC and Marvel shows on Netflix (7 shows, I think) to watch, and I while I don't binge I like to keep a steady trend of watching so I don't forget what's going on. I've taken breaks from Game of Thrones and Walking Dead to where I don't know if I could remember what's going on or who's doing what at the point I left off without going back and re-watching more than I really want to.

So with that, here's some of what I've seen recently.

• Annihilation - I liked this one, more than I thought I would. It's slow, but it a bit of a hard science feel that I was in the right mood for.
• Extinction - Battle Los Angeles mixed with some Skyline. A good trailer had me add this to my list. About 30 minutes in I stopped and just looked up the ending on line to see what the plot twist was going to be (and it was a pretty good plot twist, but not worth another hour of watching the movie).
• Destination Wedding was terrible, and I loved it. Keanu and Winona are the only people with speaking parts. I'm not sure if Keanu knew he was supposed to speak to Winona. Watch it with the mindset of "John Wick Goes On A Blind Date" and it's hilarious.
• Baytown Outlaws - I'm not sure about this one. I don't know if I liked it, or didn't like it. Nothing new, but it was all pulled off well enough that I didn't feel like I wasted my time watching it. How's that for a rave review? Or a panning?
• The Girl With All The Gifts - another (mostly) slow movie that I was in the right mood for. The zombies/hungries made me think of World War Z. This movie was just well pulled off.
• Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy - I like (watched) the Death Race movies. This one was supposed to be released on video, I think, back in February. Something happened the week before release, and then over the weekend I saw that Netflix had it. Lighter on the car mayhem than other Death Races, but on par with them. I can honestly say that now I like (watched) this one as much as the other Death Race movies.
• Special consideration goes to the Netflix limited series Maniac, which I decided halfway through the 2nd episode that I didn't like because I didn't know what the hell was going on. I might give it a 2nd attempt later, very very later. The previews were reminiscent for me of Cloud Atlas, which I had to get into a second viewing of before I really appreciated it.

I'm not just vegging out in front of the TV. Hard to tell with that list, I know. I'm reading Crucial Conversations in an effort to better myself while not biting the heads off people I think are trying to sass me. It's a good book, but I'm rueing my slow reading speed on getting through the 240 pages because I can really use this stuff at work!

This weekend also sees Dr Blondie turn 50. The first of my "school friends" to hit 50. I have to push down urges to give her hard time about her elderly status. Mainly because it's my turn in March.

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