My movie viewing for the past month has been kind of awkward since I’m a MoviePass subscriber (and have been since 2012, years before the current owners came in and tried to really do something radical and unsustainable) but I’m not digging into all those problems as I’m just riding it out at this point. So, that’s left me to dig into the things that I actually own and haven’t watched yet – which also meant avoiding Netflix this past week so I could do so.
This week saw only one new Blu-ray purchase and that’s because it was $5 as I got to finally own the Get Smart film. I’ve long enjoyed Anne Hathaway in just about everything and I thought this movie was just silly in all the right ways. I avoided picking it up for years because it was one of a number of films that Warner Bros. put out in the early days of Blu-ray where it got DVD-level audio. That still frustrates me but for $5 I’ll just suck it up and enjoy it.
Where I’ve spent most of my time is in catching up on a number of iTunes purchases I’ve been making as I’ve been doing a heck of a lot of price-checking through some sweet apps. The end of the week got me to see the Game Night movie and the kids and I just had a blast with it. It was silly, weirdly vulgar in some places, had some great nods to other films like Pulp Fiction, and provided just enough twists. It’s definitely a group movie because the laughter from it was infectious. It’s got a great cast that definitely helps as well.
I also got to check out another relatively recent film with Wonder. While I could easily figure out much of it based on the trailer (and you can do that with most films to begin with), my youngest daughter had read the book for this previously and wanted to see it. We missed it in the theater so we had the fun of checking that out together. It’s predictable to be sure but it has the right kind of nice moments and I’ll admit I grinned stupidly over some of the Star Wars bits that are thrown into it. I totally get why people avoid films like this and I’m pretty particular myself, but I’m glad she nudged me into this one.
Having been buying DVDs since they first came out, seguing in from being a LaserDisc buyer, there were a lot of things I bought during sales back in the day. Anyone who remembers the three for a dollar deals knows what I mean. One of the best things I got during that period was the Disney release of the live-action George of the Jungle film. It’s got a great cast and was my first introduction to Leslie Mann, who has been delivering ever since for me with some good drama and comedy. Sadly, for this film, it never saw a Blu-ray release and I don’t think it even got any DVD re-releases over the years to the mainstream. So that one hit on iTunes for $10 and was so worth it.
Last Night I took some time away from writing to just enjoy two very different films as I wanted to do some catching up. I’m not a fan of horror films but I had the first part of the 2017 It film in my HBO queue and decided to finally get it done. It’s almost good enough to get me to go into the theater to see the second part, especially with the adult cast, next year. Almost.
I shifted gears after that to Blockers, a film that I missed out on trying to see earlier this year. I grew up in the 80’s which mean the raunchy teen comedy films were king and those are really few and far between these days as they’re often more saccharine that they should be, ala Netflix style pieces. I won’t say Blockers is a great film or even a good film, but it’s a fun film that doesn’t suffer quite as much tonally at home as I think people found it to be in theaters. It really has me interested in seeing where some of these kids go from here, particularly Gideon Adlon, who has quite a family history in entertainment including her mother as the lead/creator of Better Things on FX.
Next week I’m hoping that MoviePass will let me get back out to the theater as I want to see Crazy Rich Asians as it looks fun and has a great cast. But first, I have to head to the theater on Monday night for a theatrical limited showing through Fathom Events and GKIDS for Grave of the Fireflies – which will be my kids first experience with the film ever.
Chris has been writing about anime, manga, movies and comics for well on twenty years now. He began AnimeOnDVD.com back in 1998 and has covered nearly every anime release that’s come out in the US ever since.
