#2,367: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Nuts! - ★★½☆☆
So this is the documentary (which was itself based on a book) that was the basis for a podcast that has been optioned for development as a movie. Ultimately, I was a little bit disappointed - in part because I was hoping there was a lot more to the story that I hadn't already heard in other forms, and in part because some of the art styles just aren't my bag.

Aliens - ★★★½☆
This is the one Alien-franchise movie I know I've seen all the way through before, and I was surprised at how much I'd forgotten. The manner of the traditional long, slow build-up. The way everything keeps getting worse. The part where Ridley is crucified for our sins. Wait. No. That's Christianity. I always mix up Christianity and the film Aliens.

Shimmer Lake - ★☆☆☆☆
Points for effort, but this wasn't so great. kind of feels like something you'd stumble over on deep cable. Or a Sci-Fi Channel original if there had been any sci-fi elements. Although the fact that the story is told backwards probably did make me more interested in watching this, the gimmick isn't used very well.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - ★½☆☆☆
Right after viewing, I figured it was probably better than part 1 because it bothered me less, but on reflection the sequel is probably the worse movie. It's pretty long given how little happens, and of course, because it's a comic book sequel, it's the 'what if they lost their powers' plot. In this case, that means we split up the team. You know, the team we spent a whole movie getting together, the one where everyone made the same speech over and over about finding their family? More like the team who all go on separate adventures in the sequel.

I've heard the original described as "Star Wars for a new generation," but Volume 2 feels more like a Trek movie to me. It's slow, it's mostly guys standing around talking instead of exploring space, and the wily and reckless captain has to face off with a weird, cosmic consciousness and its machinations.

#2,364: The Verdict

Diani and Devine Meet the Apocalypse - ★★★★★
I've been to a couple of festival screenings of the movie.  We had one at the San Diego Comic Fest and another at a festival here in LA that doubled as a cast and crew screening.  I still like seeing what parts audiences enjoy.  The LA screening was unusual because there was so many cast and crew in attendance that the audience was a little too hot; their laughs stepped all over jokes the regular audiences enjoy.

Alien - ★★★★★
Watched alongside reading the book of production designer Roger Christian, Cinema Alchemist. The movie remains a classic. The book was badly in need of an editor.

Doctor Strange - ★★★½☆
On a rewatch, I was really pleased with how much more filmic, more cinematic, Dr. Strange is than other, similar movies.

I was wrong when I originally guessed that it would be set in the recent past (in order to make it make sense when he's name dropped in Winter Solider), but I'm going to try again by predicting Strange gets into it with Star Lord about when some song from the 70s charted.

The Verdict - ★★★½☆
Man, Lumet, Mamet, Newman.
You know that ridiculous trailer for House of Games, where "David Mamet writes the way people speak" (even though nobody in that movie sounds anything like a human)? It's movies like this one that got all that praise. Plus, I like the way they slow play a reveal so long that you might start to think it's not coming. I feel like the pacing is more a product of its time, but if you did it today it would seem deft.

#2,362: Avalanche! (And the start of MST3K s11)

MST 1101: Reptilicus
MST 1102: Cry Wilderness
MST 1103: The Time Travelers
MST 1104: Avalanche

I was worried that I was going to be completely weirded out by the new season of MST3K. I've met most of the previous casts of the show, but I knew Jonah and the new bots long before they got this gig. I was worried it was just going to seem like some dudes I know doing a podcast. And while it is a little weird to me to hear these guys making callbacks to jokes made by their predecessors 20 years ago, I think I've been pleasantly surprised by the quality. 

I've also been very surprised to see this incarnation turn everything I know about MST on its head. I used to watch this show for the host segments above all else. And while I appreciate the effort to check the boxes of the original series, so far they're mostly... not good. I can't believe that I like the theater part more, and I can't believe that Crow / Hampton is my favorite. I'm so glad he's doing a character voice. Baron is a terrific comic, but has enormous shoes– or, an enormous hoverskirt to fill. 

Technical production on the show, from what I've heard about it, seems just plain weird. I think part of what made the original, or the early era of Adult Swim so great, was that it was made by creative people with a lot more time than money. While this season is probably constrained by budget as much as anything, it still seems like the mass-produced version of the show. The timing feels weird, and it's because they're not actually in the room together recording the riffs. The characters don't necessarily match what they're saying because they're shot separately. The host segments don't have time for another take. The whole thing feels way more digital. 

In high school, it was my dream job to work on MST3K, and between how many other odd opportunities I've had to work with my heroes of that era, and how many people I knew that were involved in this version, I'm almost surprised I didn't have any involvement aside from donating $1. But at the same time, I'm not sure if this is the version I would have wanted to be a part of.  (Oh, I talk a good game, but I'm sure I'd've jumped at the gig!)

As for the episodes themselves: some of the movies aren't that bad. I'm intrigued by the weird little hints of continuity between them and hope that pays off somehow. The guest stars have been really disappointing. The set is weird in a new aspect ratio (and yet no hexfield!). And I hate TV's Son of TV's Frank. Sure, the name is dumb, but something about casting 'names' into MST3K, no matter how much they may have loved the old show, makes the new one feel like fanfic. 

#2,358: Free Fire

The Circle - ★½☆☆☆
The most millennial thing about this movie is how actions are decoupled from consequences. The main character's actions don't seem to mean anything, good or bad. She's just intuitively correct about everything at the beginning of the movie, and has no need to change or grow. Like any time you start to think 'oh no, I wonder how she'll get out of this one!' the answer turns out to be 'everything's okay, and it always has been!'

The supporting cast makes even less sense. Their behavior from scene to scene is baffling.

Some people would probably say that it's anticlimactic when all of a character's plans work on the first try, but those people will probably suffer a nonsensical death that won't be mourned for more than a scene or two.

I was happy for some people I know that got to be in the movie.

Ant-Man - ★★★☆☆
I think I liked this more with the benefit of time, and Civil War. Despite the cosmic and magical entries, this is still the most nonsensical MCU entry.

Going in Style - ★★★☆☆
Safe, smooth, and destined for a long life on TBS.

Free Fire - ★★★★☆
It seems like a shame that nobody was there to see this on the opening weekend. I think it's got one of those trailers that makes you feel like you've already seen it all. It's fun, it's funny, it's got a good mix of banter and slapstick. I would have liked it to either be a little bit shorter or to have had one more complication enter the fray towards the end, but I liked it. It feels like cinema.

#2,354: Power Rangers

Guardians of the Galaxy - ★★☆☆☆
I still don't think this is very good, but I'm not as mad about it. I do feel comfortable keeping Guardians in its spot as the worst MCU movie though.

Magicians: Life in the Impossible - ★★★½☆
This documentary makes the argument that magicians are even sadder than open mic comics.

Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World - ★★½☆☆
This is almost an anthology film of short documentaries about the internet. Some folks seem to be saying that since Herzog is not from the internet, he shouldn't be making them, but this is nonsense. He's an outsider to many of the niches his documentaries visit, and we like that about him and them. Still, I would have cut maybe two chapters.

Power Rangers - ★★★☆☆
Krispy Kreme's Power Rangers is... kind of okay! It's got a lot of good ideas for a power rangers reboot, but it doesn't quite get them all on the screen. I wonder if there was a rewrite done to specifically address the fact that the suits are impractical and boring. It makes the movie feel like a cinematic stress dream.

It would have been fun if they were able to use their powers, so that we could watch the rangers learn to handle them. Maybe they could have left the Batcave at some point and fought some bad guys– puttys attacking the playground (I mean, town) is kind of a staple. Instead, everyone knows how to use all of the alien technology automatically. Maybe it's all really well designed. Maybe one of the ancient rangers was their civilization's Jony Ive.

And it's got the theme song! I was expecting a modernized version under the credits that never turned up, but at least this movie succeeded where X-Men: First Class let us down.

I am curious though– what are the power rangers supposed to do now? I mean, presumably Zedd or someone shows up in the sequel, but what do they do until then? Are they fighting street crime? ISIS? Attending book fairs? They seem pretty popular with the public despite the fact that it's probably against their code to ever appear in public again.