The Fall

Agent Scully plays Stella Gibson, a tough, cool high-ranking detective with a penchant for one-night stands, who has been placed in charge of a case review (and later task force) investigating what turns into a serial killer. Fifty Shades of Grey guy is Paul Spector - the serial killer. This is a Netflix original series produced in cooperation with the BBC and takes place in Belfast. The entire show is very dark, often disturbing, understated, and very compelling. Spector is charismatic, able to charm women into doing whatever he wants. His 15-year old babysitter practically throws herself at him, is real close to figuring out he's the killer and he is able to draw her onto his side by NOT seducing her. His wife lies for him. Etc. Meanwhile, Gibson is inquisitive, probing, dedicated but realistic. The show obviously revolves almost entirely around the search for Spector but there are other stories going on as well. This is good stuff - really creepy, well-acted, and dark. There's only a handful of episodes on Netflix (11 total covering the only two seasons made so far) but they're really good. Check it out - 8/10.

History of the Eagles

An official documentary on seminal rock band The Eagles. Not sure if this is the same thing as what ran on HBO/Showtime last year or not. Clocking in at just over 3 hours, this is pretty darn great. Every band member - past, present, former, etc - participates as well as managers and music execs. Because it's done by the band themselves, they don't go into a ton of detail on internal strife or controversy but every topic IS covered. Each membership change is discussed, all the major lawsuits and controversies are covered. LOTS of talk (and photos and film) of drug and alcohol usage. Lots of great discussion on the creation of various songs. Lots of great discussion on the music histories of each member. And tons of great archival footage of past interviews and concerts as well as home video footage. Truly a remarkable amount of that kind of stuff, quite frankly. And perhaps the best little tidbit - audio of an on-stage argument between Glenn Frey and Don Felder during their last-ever performance that features Frey telling Felder he's going to kill him after the concert. Seriously great stuff there. That's all in the first part of the doc. The second part covers the reunion in 1994 and subsequent albums and tours. Interesting tidbit: a reunion was planned before 1994 and all guys had agreed to it but Glenn Frey backed out. Didn't know that. Discussion of Don Felder's removal from the band. In general, most of the guys in the group come off pretty darn well in their interviews. Don Henley, who has a reputation of having a massive ego and being tough to work with, comes across here more as confident and not overbearing. Glenn Frey comes off the worst as he's the one telling the story of getting Don Felder involved in the reunion (Frey wanted Henley & Frey to make more money than the other three guys and Felder wasn't cool with that). It's obvious Frey has a very large ego and is much aware of his role within the Eagles and the music industry. On the flip side, Timothy B Schmit comes off as really humble and likable. He joined the band late and is still very much in the "Man, this is great!" mindset, loving what he's doing. Anyway, the whole documentary is really great and a must-see for fans of the band or rock in general. Great stuff. 9/10.

Mission to the Edge of Space

Mission to the Edge of Space - Documentary detailing Felix Baumgartner's famous skydive from 122,000 feet in 2012. This is a good documentary in the sense that you get a complete picture of all the preparation, the years of work, and so on that went into the jump. All the key players are interviewed and they all come across as likable and all of them seem to have really enjoyed their work on the project. That makes their interviews interesting as it's a story they obviously enjoy telling. There's lots of great, spectacular photography from Baumgartner's various jumps as well. Having said all that...this never quite rises to the level of greatness. Probably could have been a little shorter (125 minutes). Also, I was disappointed they never revealed the final tally for the cost of the mission. C'mon guys, that's something everybody wants to know! Still, if you're interested in the story, this is worth checking out. Hits right at the Tabedoza Line™ - 7/10.

Side note: I am apparently the only person on the planet who was not aware of this mission before it happened. I remember hearing about it afterward - since you pretty much couldn't avoid hearing about it - but not beforehand.

Standing Up

Came across this one on a "what's new on Netflix" site a few months back and the premise (victims of a horrible summer camp prank go on a journey of self-discovery and stuff) sounded promising so I added it to my list. Last night, decided to give it a shot. it's apparently based on a beloved children's/juvenile book. I wouldn't know. Anyway, admitting that I'm not the target audience, I still thought this wasn't very good. And wouldn't have been when I was 12 either. Howie & Grace are stripped naked and left alone on an island by their fellow summer campers. They decide to find some clothes and wander around for a few days instead of returning to camp. They make some friends at another camp and sort of try to get Grace's mom to come rescue them. I say "sort of" because Grace calls her mom, screaming and crying for mom to come get her but when pushed for a reason why, instead of coming up with something even remotely close to what happened to her, she just says "they're all a bunch of hypocrites". Yeah, THAT will get mom to come take you home from camp. Whatever. It does do a nice job of not having completely ridiculous situations or adults that are over-the-top. And we get a nice feel-good ending. In the end, not quite what I'd hoped for from the IMDB reviews. 4/10.

Out of the Furnace

Christian Bale is the steel-plant-working older brother of Casey Affleck. Affleck is an Iraq War veteran struggling to find his way in post-war life. To make ends meet, he's fighting in bare knuckle underground fights. Woody Harrelson is a big deal in that scene. Affleck gets in over his head and Bale, after serving a stint for killing 2 people in a DUI, has to rescue him and get revenge. This is a movie that's dead-set on being gritty and it works in that regard. Unfortunately, there's not actually any tension. Coupled with a ridiculous ending, it just ends up not really working. 5/10.

The Frozen Ground

Nicolas Cage is a detective who locks onto the scent of a possible serial killer in Alaska. John Cusack - spoiler alert - is that serial killer. Vanessa Hudgens is the prostitute victim who got away and brings the whole thing to light. Cage, Cusack & Hudgens are all fine in their roles but the movies ends up being nothing special. There's not a lot of tension or drama. Instead it kind of just lurches forward from one example of Hudgens' character running away from safety to some other dangerous situation for no apparent reason. Speaking of Hudgens, it's pretty obvious she took this role to show how grown up she is. Look, she's a hooker who smokes, does drugs, and says the f-word a lot! This is all based on the real story of serial killer Robert Hansen. In the end, it's pretty good but never rises up. 6/10.

The Iceman

Michael Shannon is Richard Kuklinski, a contract killer for the mob - and husband/father. He earns the nickname "Iceman" by freezing his victims for up to 2 years before disposing of their body parts. Kuklinski starts out as a guy with a vicious streak who is then recruited to be a killer for the mob. His financial profile benefits, he lands Winona Ryder as a wife and eventually gets older and sloppy with his killings. Shannon is very good here as the stone-faced killer. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't really give us much in the way of background on Kuklinski - we learn he has a brother in prison and was beaten as a child but that's it - and starts with his first killing right away. Also, though based on a true story, the movie apparently has a questionable relationship with the truth. His real-life wife claims he beat her but the movie shows him as not abusive (other than one angry outburst). He claims 100+ murders and that's what the movie shows but his mob associates put it more like the 5 he actually got convicted. Whatever. This is a pretty good movie. 6/10.

Grudge Match

Stallone and De Niro are a couple 60-something retired boxers who split two fights back in the 70s and never had a third. They have a personal feud and it gets reignited when they show up to do motion capture for a boxing video game. That leads to a third fight. There are some decent laughs in the movie but ultimately the movie just never really delivers. They do some CGI and other wizardry to try and make the two guys look younger or whatever and sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. There's a funny bit that refers back to Rocky. I'm sure there's a similar moment for Raging Bull but, since I haven't seen that movie, I can't confirm it. Anyway, this ends up mildly amusing, occasionally funny and ultimately not great but not terrible either. 6/10.

Dark Tourist

Michael Cudlitz is a security guard who likes to visit sites related to serial killers. He visits another site, meets a waitress played by Melanie Griffith. And that's where it goes south. He freaks out then hires a tranny prostitute. He eventually attacks another transvestite hooker and kills her. And then commits suicide. And then we get a reveal that doesn't fit. This is a movie that's really dark but really has not much substance. Cudlitz is fantastic as always. Griffith is perfect in her role as a once-possibly-attractive waitress thanks to the mess she's made of herself via plastic surgery. Anyway, a not great movie. 4/10.

Downloaded

Documentary covering the history of Napster. Pretty good look at all the aspects of the rise & crash of Napster and includes interviews with both Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. Lots of good information to be found here. Not gonna lie, I was an early adoptee on Napster though I didn't like it very much. Funny that Fanning created it because "mp3 downloads were so unreliable" - which is exactly the problem I had with it. I was much more of an Audio Galaxy guy. Anyway, good doc and worth checking out. 8/10.

Computer Chess

And then there's this one. This is a mockumentary about a computer chess tournament and it's set in 1980. You've got a cast of characters about like what you'd expect - lots of nerdy guys and then the commentator for the whole thing, who will play the winning chess computer. The movie is seemingly one random scene after another with "real" dialogue that just ends up being nothing. There's an awkward scene with a middle-aged couple trying to seduce one of the nerds, there's an awkward scene of some kind of "spiritualist" group doing a "re-birthing" exercise and so on. It's pretty obvious that the filmmakers are in love with themselves and think all these scenes are just hilarious and.....they're just not. They go for the "look how clever we are, we filmed it all in black & white!" thing because, ya know, nobody had color movie cameras in 1980. Bottom line: I *AM* the target audience for this movie. I get all the techno babble 1980 stuff they did. I wrote code to play chess games and so on. I get it. But this movie sucks. 1/10.

Terms and Conditions May Apply

An alarmist documentary on the state of privacy in the age of Google, Facebook, and pervasive monitoring. The movie has a very obvious slant to it but does a very effective job of scaring the crap out of the viewer when it comes to data, privacy, and government overreach. This is a movie every internet user and legislator should watch, without a doubt. Generally well made, too. 8/10.

Barbershop Punk

Documentary on net neutrality focusing on the story of Robb Topolski, a software quality engineer who conclusively busted Comcast's practice of throttling and degrading the performance of P2P applications. They do an excellent job of covering the downsides of net neutrality while also giving voice to the pro-ISP side of things. Lots of folks heard from and this is generally well-done. However, the movie is hurt when it kind of goes off the rails and starts talking about police squads turning into the military. That's a worthy topic, one with a LOT of merit, but has no place in this movie. Movie is also hurt by its release date since the topic is still evolving really quickly and stuff has changed since the movie was finished. 8/10.

Ring the Bell

Sometimes I just flip through my Netflix queue looking for stuff that is a particular length. Don't really care what it's about, just needs to be the right length. This one fit that criteria. The better question is how it made my queue in the first place. Ring the Bell tells the story of Rob Decker, an obnoxious, ethics-challenged, high-profile sports agent headed off to a small town to try and convince Sean Hart, the nation's top baseball prospect, to go pro instead of going to college. When Rob's BMW (that somehow has the GM-only OnStar in it) breaks down, Rob is stuck in town for a few days. He meets a cast of characters in town that will show him the error of his ways and he comes around. This is the standard city-slicker-stranded-in-a-small-town we've seen so many times before, like in the far-better Doc Hollywood, among others. The twist here is that Ring the Bell is a Christian movie, a fact it will beat you over the head with throughout. I knew that going in and didn't care. I watch and enjoy Christian movies all the time. Some are good and pretty well-done - Moms Night Out, for example. Others, like this one, not so much. You get the standard decent-but-not-Hollywood production values but also get a bad script, lame characters, and not-great acting. Every conversation turns into a ham-handed sermon. The result is a movie that, even if you judge on a "it's a Christian movie so I'll lower my standards" scale, is terrible. But, hey, look for cameos from major leaguers Rick Sutcliffe, John Kruk, and Ben Zobrist and a nice (but too long) concert clip from Christian stars Casting Crowns. 2/10.

Between Us

Two couples reunite two years after a weekend visit that turned really nasty and ugly for one of the couples - so bad that it ended their friendship. The reunion lets us catch up and see where each couple is in their lives. Basically, what we have here is four characters that are not likable yelling at each other and saying really, really mean stuff to one another, so much so that you question how they were ever friends in the first place. The cast is decent enough, the acting is decent enough but in the end, the results are just mediocre. But, hey, Julia Stiles looks perhaps the hottest she's ever looked in a movie and that alone is worth an extra point from me. We'll say... 5/10.

Empire State

Apparently The Rock likes "based on a true story" heist movies. Unfortunately, this one ain't Pain & Gain. Empire State tells the tale of the robbery of the most-comically-unsecured armored car depot of all-time, a heist that netted somewhere between $8m and eleventy billion dollars. I give that range because the number frequently morphs in the movie and we're presented with math that makes no sense (like $8m being "half" of $11m). Liam Hemsworth stars as the security guard who assisted in the robbery. The story told is a convoluted mess of a movie and is just a disaster. Hardly anything makes sense, scenes are disjointed and thrown together and simply doesn't work. It seems to want to be a "funny caper" movie like Pain & Gain but doesn't succeed. Bottom line: this movie stinks. 2/10.

Dear Mr. Watterson

Here's a fabulous idea for a movie. Take a book - a not particularly well-received book - written by somebody else and then copy that book, only in movie form. Be nice about it, though, so you can get the author of the book to participate in your movie. And that's what we have here as Joel Allen Schroeder copies the book Looking for Calvin & Hobbes by going to Bill Watterson's hometown and interviewing lots of people about him and his comics. While there's some useful information here (though not much), in the end we don't learn much. Watterson, as always, didn't participate, so we don't get anything from him. So we're left with a bunch of cartoonists talking about how awesome C&H was, mixed in with a visit to the library at Ohio State where almost all of Watterson's original artwork is stored. Whoop dee doo. 3/10.

The Lifeguard

Kristen Bell is a 29-year old AP reporter who is really angsty over her life so she quits her job, moves back home with her parents, takes her old high school job as a lifeguard and screws a local teenager to figure everything out. This movie hits all the indie checkboxes - Disproportionate number of characters smoke? Check. Smoking plays a role in multiple scenes? Check. Angsty characters who are all angsty for no apparent reason? Check. The only semi-stable adults portrayed as being the bad characters because they're not dope-smoking idiots banging teenagers? Check. Angsty guitar folk hipster soundtrack? Check. This movie is just a mess with Bell's character being just...unlikeable. Ugh. 4/10.

Pain & Gain

Marky Mark is Daniel Lugo, a bodybuilder personal trainer dude who hatches a plot to kidnap one of his rich clients and force him to give him all of his possessions. The Rock and Anthony Mackie are his bodybuilder compatriots. This is a black humor movie that's funny and beautifully shot and that's the problem. See, this is a true story and it adheres to the facts fairly tightly but changes them just enough to turn real life psycopathic killers into goofballs who didn't intend to hurt, let alone kill, anybody. And that's what makes it messed up. The movie is enjoyable and entertaining and then you're reminded it's a true story and that these guys really did torture some poor guy for a month and that they really did use a chainsaw to dismember two others and that's just messed up. So you end up entertained and feeling conflicted about it. 7/10.

JFK Smoking Gun

A documentary that I started, not knowing the theory behind it. Turns out to be a rehash of Bonar Menninger's laughable "Secret Service agent firing from behind did it accidentally" theory. It's so laughable on its face and unsupported with facts, no matter how hard this dreck tries. And, oh yeah, let's not have the movie mention that the agent in question sued over these allegations and got a settlement.

Friend of mine says that a lot of people have basically forgotten that JFK's murder was a REAL incident with REAL people involved. A man REALLY died. A wife REALLY was widowed. And, because, they forget/ignore that real people are/were involved, they feel safe throwing out any cockamamie theory without regard to the damage it might cause. This movie is a great example of that and my friend is dead-on with that theory.

1/10.