Weeds (Season 6)
2010 - Mary-Louise Parker, Justin Kirk, Hunter Parrish, Alexander Gould, Kevin Nealon
I had already seen the first five seasons of this show, and I had been putting off watching season six until numbers seven and eight arrived on Netflix. I changed my mind. I'll be honest with you, I loved seasons 1-3. Season 4 and 5, well...it started to drift away from the way it was in the first three seasons. I thought season six was going to be more of the same from 4 and 5, but they finally started getting the groove back by the third episode. I wish Romany Malco's character was still in this show, but he's been gone since season 3. Anyway, without giving anything away, this was a pretty good season. Alanis Morisette returned for one episode. Mark-Paul Gosselaar was there for one episode, and a rough one at that. The best guest was Richard Dreyfuss in the final four episodes of the season. Truly good stuff there. 3.5/5 for the season; 3.75/5 so far for the series.
Ned Kelly
2003 - Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, Naomi Watts, Geoffrey Rush
The dramatized biopic of Irish-Australian bushranger (highwayman) Edward "Ned" Kelly (Ledger). After a disagreement with Constable Fitzpatrick over his conduct toward Ned's sister, Ned's mother is arrested in place of Ned for shooting Fitzpatrick, a false charge by the constable. Ned, his brothers, and friend Joe Byrne (Bloom) come across some police officers in the Victorian bush, a firefight ensues, and Ned kills three of them. "The Kelly Gang" members are not considered outlaws, and Superintendent Francis Hare (Rush) is sent in to locate and subdue them. Overall, it was pretty slow, but it was a remarkable performance by Heath Ledger, but Orlando Bloom and Geoffrey Rush are left out too much. Despite the "western" (film, not location) feel of some of the sequences, it was a decent film. 3/5
Deep Impact
1998 - Elijah Wood, Robert Duvall, Morgan Freeman, Tea Leoni
The first of two sci-fi disaster movies to come out in 1998 (the other being Armageddon), dealing with a comet on an intercept trajectory with Earth. A shuttle crew is sent to land on it an detonate with nuclear explosives. Even though this one apparently had more scientific credibility, I preferred Armageddon. Why? In all honesty, this one had too much cheese. And bad dialogue. And some not-so-great performances. Plus, this one had a little too much "tugging at your parental emotions" for me. To that, I gift the shifty eye -_- and you lose some points. 2.25/5
Mary and Max
2009 - Toni Collete, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eric Bana, Barry Humphries
Claymation black comedy. Set in 1976, Mary Daisy Dinkle is a lonely, 8-year-old Australian girl. Her family is poor, her father is distant, and her mother is a kleptomaniac. One day, Mary decides to write to a random name out of the New York phonebook, and ends up becoming unlikely pen pals with Max (Hoffman), a 44-year-old, morbidly obese man with Asperger's Syndrome. A co-worker mentioned this one to me, and she wasn't wrong. A beautifully made film. Ignore the critics on this one. Yes, it's a bit slow, but it's a great story. 4.75/5
Outbreak: Anatomy of a Plague
2009
This documentary tells the story of the 1885 Montreal small pox epidemic that devastated the population. That story is weaved into a "What If?" experiment, where researchers take the 1885 catastrophe and draw eerie parallels of a modern day epidemic. Overall, pretty decent depiction, and just a little bit scary. 3.25/5
The Thirteenth Floor
1999 - Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol, Vincent D'Onofrio, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Dennis Haysbert
Science fiction film. To be honest, I think if I said anything about the plot of this film, it would ruin every twist and excellent plot point. Instead, let it suffice to say that, yes, there were a few odd things about this film that dated it. Namely technology. However, even that doesn't stop this from being a pretty impressive sci-fi-action-thriller. 4/5
Word to the Nerd
13 comments:
Husband an I just watched Cabin in the Woods, and that may have been enough for the entire weekend already. I might dive into the Bob Marley doc that's on there though... perhaps if I get more than four hours sleep tonight.
You've convinced me to watch Mary and Max. That has been in my suggestion feed forever. And I kind of want to check out the one about the plague because it sounds like a bummer and that's how I roll.
I absolutely LOVE Mary and Max. Seen it twenty times, at least and never get bored with it.
The rest, meh.
oOOH, Toni Collette. Enough said!
I bet if I went back and watched Deep Impact now I'd think it was cheesy bad as well.
At first I thought, "Craig Bierko was in a movie and it was good?" Then I realized I don't know who Craig Bierko actually is.
I agree with your assessment of Weeds. The only reason I stuck with it is because I started thinking of it as a live action cartoon.
I've been watching the BBC show Sherlock by Steven Moffat. The 2 series are available on instant and highly recommended. It's like 6 Sherlock movies and they are riveting.
I have the hardest time commenting by my iPhone. Just so you know, I do read. :-) You have me intrigued by The Thirteenth floor. Love a good sci-fi thriller. Happy weekend to you!!
I've heard Weeds is awesome. I need to watch that one for sue now.
I'll check out the thirteenth floor. Sounds like a great sci-fi flick. I love something that twists and turns are everywhere.
All I've ever known about Ned Kelly has come from reading the YA book by Thomas Keneally (of Schindler's List), Ned Kelly and the City of the Bees :-)
Mary and Max sounds good. I'll add it to my queue.
Love,
Janie
Hey Joshua! I;ve picked up THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR a few times but always put it down again, I shall now reverse that trend. Thank you. Indigo
I really want to start watching Weeds...I am slow on the uptake, I know...
Post a Comment