#treadmill theater

[middlemanagementlivingthedream]

Treadmill Theater: Suicide Squad

Ugh. This movie was just terrible. I didn't care about anyone in this movie. Will Smith was tolerable as Deadshot, if only because he's Will Smith. Margot Robbie did well with Harley Quinn, but I'd rather just see a kind of Natural Born Killers road trip movie with her and the Joker than this disaster. And Jared Leto was just kinda lost in his Joker portrayal. He kind of tired to do a lot, but never landed on anything that worked. The rest of the cast was just so flat. And hey, the random guy you introduced 45 minutes in? Just go ahead and put a redshirt on him and name him Sargeant Fodder. Even the villains motivation was dumb. Kill the world's armies? They were doing a fine job killing people on their own. And there was a spell they were working on? When did that happen? It's impressive when a movie can limbo under my already low expectations. Again, ugh.

[middlemanagementlivingthedream]

Treadmill Theater: Star Wars - The Force Awakens

...I mean, c'mon. I already want to watch it again. Side note: my hunger games post was supposed to be on Monday, but accidentally sat in drafts. I didn't watch 5 movies in a day while working out.

[middlemanagementlivingthedream]

Treadmill Theater: The Hunger Games Quadrology

I’ve watched all 4 movies over the course of a couple weeks, interspersed with other films. I read all the books a few years ago in one block, and found them enjoyable. I finished the 4th movie today, so I thought I’d lump them together.

The Hunger Games: Hey, a decent adaptation of the first book. A couple things kinda left out, but the feel is there.

Catching Fire: The second book was a bit more gritty. This kinda follows that. Not bad. But the third book goes from teen dystopia to a rather brutal war story. They’re not going to do that in these movies…

Mockingjay Part 1: Huh. Well that’s kinda rough.  I mean, so it’s not Saving Private Ryan, but it’s a little heavier than I’d expect a teen-aimed movie series to be.  SIDE NOTE:  I have this movie on BluRay, but wanted to watch on my iPad.  I sometimes rip my movies for my personal use.  yes, there’s a gray area of copyprotection and ownership rights here.  Let’s skip that.  If you ‘rip’ the bluray disc of this move to play on your iPad, there’s an interesting little trick they put on the disc:  It shows up twice in the file structure:  One version has the movie as shown, and the other version randomly moves scene portions around, so if you rip the wrong version, it completely blows up the edit and pacing of the movie.  Fascinating bit of copy protection.   

Anyway, as far as the movie goes, this is kinda dark, but they’re not going to be as brutal and kinda somber ending as the books right?

Mockingjacy Part 2: Oh.  Well.  Damn.  Nicely done.  Pretty damn horrific.  I mean, not Battle Royale horrific, but darker than i thought they’d go.

So, good times had.  Thumbs up

[middlemanagementlivingthedream]

Treadmill Theater: Taken 3 (pt 2)

sigh...

Sure, let’s introduce your red herring villain in the opening 2 minutes, then not see, hear, or be aware of him until 70 minutes into a 95 minute movie.  

And sure, let’s just casually mention Liam Neeson’s character murdered dozens of people in the two previous movies, but not consider any impact from that.

Also, forget the fact that his character does crazy background checks on everyone related to or dealing with his family in the first two movies, but in this one, he skipped looking into his ex-wife’s new husband’s business dealings.  M’kay.

And yes, please do all the close ups in the few fight scenes in this movie, because Liam Neeson was having a lie down during that bit of filming.  Most of the work he does is growling, throwing an errant punch or elbow, and looking stern.

Look, it’s Liam Neeson.  He’s awesome.  But this movie is not.  

[middlemanagementlivingthedream]

Treadmill Theater: Taken 3

I hate running.

I love movies.

So during the great Unfattening of 2014-Present, I’ve merged the two to have a tolerable exercise experience.  I watch movies while I work out to distract me from how much I hate running (or lifting).  I can get through a movie in ~2 sessions, so I’ve watched a lot of movies in the last 2 years.  Rewatched moves, and first views.  Action, drama, comedy, good, bad, other... I’ve watched it all.  How Did This Get Made has helped fill in some of the watch list.  I thought I’d keep a log here because why the hell not?

Today, I started watching Taken 3, in which another series of people seriously underestimate the particular set of skills of an aging super spy who old-man walks his way through action scenes.  I’m an hour in, and I really want to give Liam Neeson a cup of tea and let him have a nice lie down.  Seriously, Liam has been a badass in movies for a while, but this movie he moves just like he’s sore all the time. Or plain old.   

We’ve had the obligatory gravely voiced threatening phone calls, police chase, and extraneous exposition dumps by ancillary characters.  

So far... glad I borrowed it from the library.

Good luck eveyone else.