Bloodline

Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) is John Rayburn, the #1 (but not oldest) son of the Rayburn clan. Linda "Good God, I was annoying on ER" Cardellini is Meg, his sister. They have two brothers, Danny and Kevin. The show is set in south Florida, with the Rayburns being the wealthy owners of some kind of resort hotel down there. On the surface, they're the All-American family. But things are not quite what they seem. "We're not bad people. We just did a bad thing", John says. And the show spends just about all of the 13 episodes of season 1 getting around to that bad thing. This is a reaaaaaaaaaaallllly slooooooooow burn of a show. Lots and lots and lots of build. Lots of hint at past issues in the family that are sloooooowly revealed. Lots of meaningful glances, sentences with double meanings and so on. That's mixed with a sometimes confusing structure that mixes dreams, flashbacks, looks forward, and so on in a way that sometimes isn't real clear. And all of that adds up to a show that might just lose a lot of its audience along the way. The pacing is pretty glacial but it does pay off eventually (you can argue whether that payoff is worth it or not). The cast, which also includes Sissy Spacek as the Rayburn mom and MTV alum Jacinda Barrett as John's wife, is stellar. I was entertained but this isn't quite the home run I'd hoped for. And the big reveal at the end of season 1 to set up season 2 was pretty laughably obvious, which was a letdown. Still, I liked it and I want another season. 7/10.

Focus

Will Smith is Nicky, an uber-accomplished thief and con man who runs a crime ring that targets major sporting events. Margot Robbie is Jess, a small-time criminal who tries to rob Nicky but ends up joining his team instead. What follows is 2 hours of pickpocketing (the scene of them in New Orleans ripping people off will probably terrify every tourist - the little bit with them stealing a camera lens is dead-on), capers, and double crosses. It's a fun time but...never quite gets there. This is a movie that's supposed to be style over substance, to be super-slick and super-cool and just isn't quite slick or cool enough. There's a couple things that strain believability (like the setup for one crime that simply would never happen) as well. And the pacing is a little off, with some scenes that simply move too slow or are too long. They probably could have chopped about 15 minutes off and improved the movie. The cast is great and it's certainly nice to stare at Margot Robbie in super-sexy outfits for 2 hours but it ends up being not quite enough. 6/10.

From Bedrooms to Billions

This is a kickstarter-funded documentary covering the rise of British computer & video game development companies in the 1980s. Because of the diversity of the UK computing scene (lots of different computer formats) and the relatively low bar of entry (systems were usually cheap) to get in, there was a ton of creativity in the game community back then. And a lot of companies that rose from...bedrooms...to form part of the industry that is now worth billions. I was recently able to finally watch this and...

Is it possible to think something is well done and yet still be disappointed? If so, that's where I am. In terms of production, the movie is well done, with better production values than I've seen in similar documentaries. As for the rest...

I am a US gamer. 99% of my familiarity with the history of British gaming comes from reading Retro Gamer. I'm familiar with all the big players but am hardly an expert. Still, there wasn't a TON of new information in the movie for me. Not that there necessarily SHOULD be but when you're pitching a product to a niche market, and that market is already going to be very familiar with what you're pitching, it seems like you dig harder for "new" info. Additionally, for a movie whose title is "...to BILLIONS", I expected a little more on the numbers and figures - there were a few mentions but nothing as specific as I would have liked. I did like the flow of the movie as it seemed to do a nice job of moving from one era to another with lots of accompanying game footage to show the improvement in graphics, etc. And the last bit about the increased size in dev teams and the disappearance of so many UK devs was also really good.

In the end, though, this felt "solid" or "good" rather than great. Perhaps it's just too large a subject for 2-1/2 hours to give me the depth and detail I want? I dunno. Not having the Stamper brothers in the film hurt it as well though that's obviously not necessarily the fault of the filmmakers.

Side note: wish they'd done overlays on top of the gameplay footage stating the game and platform.

Bottom line: 7/10, maybe 7.5/10.

McFarland, USA

Kevin Costner is Jim White, the cross country coach at McFarland High School, an almost entirely Latino high school in a very poor agricultural area of California. White takes his rag tag band of kids, who work in the fields before school and after practice, and transforms them into a real team. This movie is based on a true story* and is made by Disney, so you can probably guess how most of the movie will play out. Still, it has some nice moments, the cast is good, and the movie is entertaining. Costner is Costner. Personally, I love the guy and enjoy his work in pretty much everything. He's a great "everyman" and fits that role here very well. Bottom line: liked this a lot. 8/10.