Mission Fail

Aftermath - The Front Yard Tree Shorn of Lights

I failed in a mission yesterday. With my huge backlog of free movies to redeem I hoped to see three movies over the span of the day. I only made it 2/3 of the way to my objective. I normally avoid Saturday movie going and yesterday I was reminded why. I’ve become used to having the movie theater almost to myself on most of the days I go but it turns out a lot of people go to the movies on Saturday. I’ve always wondered why the movie theater had this humongous parking lot and when I came out from my second movie in the early evening I understood. The normally deserted lobby and parking lot were both teeming with activity. I decided to forego the third movie because I didn’t want to wait in the very long ticket lines. It’s not as if I didn’t have a stack of Christmas gifted movies to watch, a fully stocked DVR backlog, and those putrid bad cinema films I’ve subjected myself to fall back on.

What I Found Out There

I did fit in some actual tasks around my movie going adventures yesterday. It was moderately warmer so I ventured outside to retrieve the last of the Christmas lights. We always put these up in the warmer times of late November and early December while it always falls to me to retrieve in the frigid January wastelands. I’m always amazed at how much we put up. I think my wife sneaks out during the day to put more up while I’m away at work. Since she is enjoying warmer climes (see pictures below) I made use of her lack of supervisory presence to move my tool chest out of the dark corner she consigned it to a more accessible location. Since her garden tools had to be moved I anticipate a lively discussion on that decision.

Meanwhile - Wife is Still on the Beach - Dancing with a Cousin

Enjoying the Pool

Along with My Mother in LAw

Family Dinner at the Condo

I also had a lot of my usual Sunday chores to knock out since I’m traveling north to watch the Pats’ game with my Favorite Son and the ABFA today. I’m very excited about that invitation since playoff football should not be watched alone. The FBR checked in while still in the midst of her post-nap funk. I was able to get a couple of sneaky smiles out of her despite her best efforts to remain grouchy. The big question now is whether to undertake her first ever haircut.

To Cut or Not to Cut

  

Of the movies I did get to see the first was Den of Thieves. This was a director channeling his inner Michael Mann and trying to duplicate Heat. The main lesson pulled from this is Gerard Butler and Pablo Schreiber are no Pacino/Deniro but we already knew that. We follow two sides leading up to a major L.A. bank heist with equal time spent with both teams. Butler plays an out of control policeman who’s really difficult to root for while Schrieber builds on the interesting screen presence he displayed in last year’s 13 Hours. In the end the movie tries to be a little too clever for its own good and the action is parsed out sparingly until the final shootout which was impressive. 50 cent is somehow cast in another movie although his main contribution is to glower. O'Shea Jackson held his own on screen with Butler and continues his strong roll. In the end this is a passable cops and robbers piece, but again, it never really decides who the good guys are.

Winston Churchill is one of the most fascinating people in modern history and Darkest Hours chronicles his rise to power in the opening stages of World War 2. It provides an interesting view into British politics and the very small men who held power before him and tried to thwart his initial countermoves to Hitler. Stannis Baratheon still can’t grasp that elusive power he always grasping for, maybe it was the lisp. Gary Oldman is unrecognizable and thoroughly transcendent as Churchill dealing with Europe falling to the Nazi war machine while all around him quake. Its hard to remember who else is in the movie because of his towering presence. It isn’t a complete homage because it depicts some of his shortcomings and doubts but at the same time shows how different our world might have been if he hadn’t been placed by history in this critical role. I loved the scene of Churchill on the underground connecting with the commoners to recover some spine as well as his time with the king. A film that made history, even this very dark episode, kind of fun, back when you were allowed to tell good from evil.

The Bad Cinema project count rises to #94 out of 100, with Life returns a depression era film about bringing dogs back to life.