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Whiplash movie review

If J.K. Simmons doesn’t get an Oscar, he wuz robbed. Not sure about the lead, Miles Teller. I’m still turning over his performance in my head. Which means it was probably better. Less showy, more subtle – there are layers there. Which the awards ceremonies rarely reward. Excellent movie. It had me squirming and sitting […]

Twice as much

There’s a new movie popping up on Netflix starring not just one, but TWO of my if-he/she-is-in-it-don’t-go-see-it actors: The Frozen Ground. Without actually looking at that IMDB page, I’m guessing it was S2V. Yeah, Cusack has done some things I liked (Grifters), but I think the last one was Grosse Point Blank. Even though when […]

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Airplane movie reviews

Wolverine – awful All Is Lost – good, except for the ending Rush – good (the actors were well-chosen to match the real people, and the story was pretty much true to the documentary) Lauda/Hunt documentary – good Malavita – insulting I watched parts of a few others, but nothing else leaps to mind.

X of the year 2013

Climbing: El Chontacoatlan, Taxco del Alarcon, Guerrero, Mexico, Thanksgiving. I sent Mantis, the first pitch of Mala Fama, and Procopio, all third try. Great climbing, fun partners, one of the best trips ever. This is my favorite kind of climbing. Close second: Maple, May and September. Sent ZT and 49, several one-fall burns on Dry […]

Bad moves

Anchorman 2 is quite possibly the worst movie I’ve ever seen. Pitch for a third movie – having given $44 to Will Farrell, a team of movie lovers must stop the making of Anchorman 3 at all costs. In any other year, however, Pacific Rim would be up there in the running for the Prometheus […]

Gravity: review

Aside from the minor orbital mechanics impossibilities and the Spielbergian dead kid tear-jerking, why did she keep taking off her helmet? If you were entering a spacecraft you had never been inside in the middle of a debris storm that had caused every one else to abandon ship, would you take your helmet off? I […]

Looper

Deus ex machina. I like when a movie sets up a set of rules that it's going to play by, and this is especially important in time travel movies. It doesn't have to be logically consistent, but if it's not, you have keep things moving so that there's no time to dwell on it during […]

The Art of Fielding

Review: Infinite Jest lite, without the sort of near-future dystopian SF aspect. But a good fast read. Get it here. No, I’m not an affiliate.

X of the year 2011, update

In the previous year end summary, I forgot this. And the other Bigfoot memoirs. Laugh out loud funny. Seriously. I sat on the porch and guffawed through the whole thing. Woulda been funny even without the G&Ts.

Take time

Take Shelter: 30 minutes too long. I kept wanting to hit fast forward. I liked the idea, I liked the performances, the story was fine, I suspended disbelief. But it was too damn slow! I am not speaking as a child of the internet and MTV, even though I am. Look, if Hitchcock could do […]