BWare

Swiss hasn’t really changed their lineup in three months, so it’s been kinda boring. They seem to have made a deal with the Broccoli family, so they have all 26 James Bond movies, and who really needs to see any of those again? But they do clutter up the lineup and take up all the disk space on the entertainment system. And annoyingly they’re listed under all the choices, so you have to scroll through one at a time through all 26. Action? 2/3 JB. Classics? 2/3 JB. Drama? 2/3 JB. World movies? 2/3 JB, in different languages. Note to self: load up the iPad next time with decent movies and crappy books.

I did end up watching Mr. Robot (promising, worth following up on, but not streamed online for free anywhere), Person of Interest (interesting, and I hear it gets better), Humans (interesting), and The Good Wife (meh). That said, JB was taking up all the disk space, and they had one episode of each, so I couldn’t even binge a little bit.

• The Martian. Three times. I’m bored and I don’t sleep well on planes.
• Room. Oscars, good reviews, etc. Sorry, I just can’t watch this.
• Spectre. About what you’d expect. Gratuitous Monica Belucci.
• The Man from UNCLE. I feel dirty.
• 99 Homes. Again, it’s probably good, great reviews, and I like Michael Shannon, but just can’t watch it.
• Steve Jobs. About what you’d expect from Sorkin. Lots of walk-n-talk. Better than I expected, really.
• Bridge of Spies. About what you’d expect from Spielberg. Lots of emotional button-pushing. “We’ll give you one.” “No, you’ll give us both.” “One.” “Both.” “One.” “Two.” I’ve heard more high-level negotiation from a pair of five year olds arguing over who gets the bigger slice of cake. Spoiler, in the end, they give him both, for no particular reason other than it’s Tom Hanks so what else are you gonna do.
   
  Also Spielberg fails to mention that the hero lawyer defending the American Way by representing the Russian spy was a shill for the CIA, and was General Counsel, i.e., the top lawyer, for the OSS (CIA precursor) in WW2 (the big one), without ever disclosing this rather substantial conflict of interest to his client. Of course the lawyer didn’t mention this at the time either. It’s a bit unclear to me why Spielberg decided to make a movie about a shady lawyer who represented a client without disclosing a conflict of interest and who in all likelihood tanked the case for his former employer. Unless that is the message of the movie – hero-worship people who break the constitution in service of our betters at the intelligence agencies.
   
  That is of course the American Way, really.

  It’s also a bit unclear to my why Mark Rylance who barely had 20 lines in the film, most of them the same one (“Would that help?”) managed to get a BSA Oscar instead of say, Sly Stallone. I haven’t seen Creed, but I’ve got a fiver that says his supporting role was a bit more substantial. I understand Rylance is an excellent actor, but there’s no evidence of that here.

• Southpaw. This got good reviews, surprisingly.