DeepSpace9MM

A lot of my time (but mostly my money) is spent on watching movies and TV. Right now I have a blu-ray collection that's around 200 to 300 deep or so. Something like that. I have a bad habit of buying newer movies that I've never seen, but I mostly buy stuff from distributers like the Criterion Collection, Scream Factory and Arrow Video. Ever since filmstruck launched in November, I've been working my way through a lot of Akira Kurosawa's catalog and Yasujiro Ozu.

I've also been thinking about playing the guitar again. I played it for around 10 years and then dropped it about 6 or 7 years ago. I've got a Telecaster just sitting there that I barely played. I need to get back on that shit.

Valhalla Rising I remember being pretty alright. I've not seen Macbeth but have been meaning to for a while now. I remember Valhalla Rising not being what I expected it to be but that can be said for most Nicolas Winding Refn movies.

I don't really ever eat cereal anymore but when I do I do not drink the milk.....WHICH I KNOW IS THE WRONG THING TO DO! You're supposed to drink the milk, but for me it was always a texture thing. That said, when I eat cereal I use the bare minimum amount of milk so I don't waste as much milk.

Blair Witch (2016) - Holy shit this was bad. I heard a lot of shit being talked about it, but none of it could have prepared me. I gave it a chance, though, hoping that maybe I would like it, mostly because I'm a fan of Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett's previous films (You're Next is fantastic by the way). I’m not a huge fan of the original Blair Witch either, but at least it was unique when it came out. The original had an amazing amount of verisimilitude. It may have been tame and boring, at least to me, but it felt fucking real. The new one doesn’t even fucking try at all. It’s the most found footage movie you have ever seen and ranks up there with the worst of them. The characters are intolerable and do stupid shit that makes no sense, shit just happens and is never explained, and 99% of the jump scares are just loud microphone pops and snaps. It fucking sucks and makes me very angry. If Suicide Squad didn’t exist it would have been the worst movie of 2016. Speaking of which…..

Suicide Squad – One of the worst action movies I’ve seen in a long time. It’s pretty obvious while watching it that the movie was edited and assembled by a trailer house as it feels like it was made by a board of directors at Warner Bros. I would feel bad for Will Smith for being in this but he probably got paid more than a small country’s GDP so fuck that. Also, I’m amazed at how bland and boring Joel Kinnaman is. They managed to find someone that makes Jai Courtney look like Sir Lawrence Olivier by comparison. Dude can't even eat a piece of chicken and look convincing! I also never want to see Jared Leto in another movie ever again. Just…. terrible.

Diablo 3 for sure. I hadn't played it since it first came out and it's kind of crazy to see how much they changed. I pretty much hated it when it first launched and thought that the real money auction house ruined the essence of Diablo, but this year I've probably put in over 100 hours doing season stuff with friends. It's still no Diablo 2 but I like what they've added to it over the years. I'm super excited for the new stuff they're adding next year too.

I saw this post and had a little bit of a breakdown, because I realized that I didn't listen to a whole lot of stuff that came out this year. I'm usually on top of this stuff I swear! Anyways, I think I listened to like 5 albums that came out this year, which is kind of pitiful.

1. Andrew Jackson Jihad - The Bible 2

2. Radiohead - Moon Shaped Pool

3. Clark - The Last Panthers

4. Pity Sex - White Hot Moon

5. Shearwater - Jet Plane and Oxbow

I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of. It's been a rough year you guys.

Honorable mention: Amnesia Scanner - AS Crust

Arrival - I fucking loved it! I love 70's sci-fi like The Andromeda Strain and Close Encounters so I'd been looking forward to this for a couple of months now. Denis Villeneuve is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors currently and it did not disappoint. Just some good, classic, heady sci-fi with a lot of thought and care put into it. 5 Sapir-Whorf hypotheses out of 5.

8 1/2 - Finally got around to watching the Criterion copy I've had on my shelf for like 2 years now. It's a little long but it's just a gorgeous movie to look at. Also, Marcello Mastroianni looks fucking sharp throughout that entire movie. A dapper looking man. Good stuff. 4 mid-life crises out of 5.

Wow, seriously? I never would have guessed that he was so passionate about it considering that none of it shows up on the screen. It all just comes off as mercenary work. In fact, everything he's done since Dark City comes off that way, which is sad because Dark City is a fantastic movie that still holds up. Too bad everything he's done since has been trash.

I'm done with classes for the summer so I've spent a lot of time catching up on films and re-watching season 1 of Preacher. In the past week I watched:

10 Cloverfield Lane (4/5)- A very pleasant surprise! I really did not care for Cloverfield when I saw it in theaters so I really wasn't expecting too much out of it's "sequel". Luckily they took it in a fun, suspenseful direction and didn't make another found footage monster movie. Everyone's great in it, and except for the last 10 minutes or so, is a well paced suspenseful thriller.

Midnight Special (4.5/5)- My favorite movie of the year so far. I kind of love how "Spielberg in the 80's" has become a descriptor for a lot movies lately. It's best if you know nothing going into it and just experience it fresh. I'm sure a lot of people have problems with its ending and how the movie doesn't give you a lot of information to go on, but I loved it nonetheless.

Green Room (4/5)- This fucking movie nearly gave me a heart attack. It's by the writer and director of Blue Ruin, which was my favorite movie of 2014 so I was super excited to finally watch this. It didn't disappoint. I had no idea that I wanted Assault on Precinct 13 with skinheads, but that's what I got. Pure ownage.

Gods of Egypt (1/5 but in a good way)- Holy fuck, what a pile of trash. I loved it. If you love hot garbage movies with cgi that is straight out of 1999, this one will not do you wrong. People made this! A board of mindless executives said it would be a good idea to give this movie a $144 million budget! Someone thought it was a great idea to cast Gerard Butler as an Egyptian god! This movie should not exist in 2016!

$209.5 million

The bad reviews won't mean a thing. I mean, come on, it has Batman and Superman in it. It's gonna be a 3 hour gloomy, grit fest, and people are gonna eat it up....at least for the first weekend.