Movie Reviews Through 06/27/21

Mac Boyle June 27, 2021

That picture is all you need, really.

Little known fact: Mariel Hemingway is actually from the planet Krypton, and could breathe in space.

Movie Reviews Through 05/24/21

Mac Boyle May 24, 2021

Quite a bit of Superman here for you, including the stultifying bad Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (1987). Oh, and here’s the really good part: My 400th review on the site was for Fargo (1996), and it was my first film back in the theater post-vaccination. I can’t imagine a better movie to go back on. At least it wasn’t Superman IV: The Quest For Peace.

Movie Reviews Through 04/22/21

Mac Boyle April 22, 2021

As I write this, I’ve had my second dose of the jab for over two weeks now. It’s been over a year since I’ve been inside a theater, but now I could, theoretically go.

It leaves me with a hard choice. How? When?

I could walk away from this keyboard right now and fit in a screening of Godilla vs. Kong or Nobody right away… I’m not sure if either of them will do it for me, though, and this needs to be a special movie, as it will be a trip to the theater right up there with the first time I saw Batman Returns (1992) or Back to the Future Part III (1990). I could pay 100-ish bucks to make one of the big chains play some movie for me, and that feels… off, somehow. Maybe it’s because in each of those scenarios, I’m watching a movie I could very easily watch at home.

If only I could find some truly great movie I’ve never seen (or at least, never reviewed here on the site) on the big screen and make that my first trip. That would be the ticket. Twenty-fifth anniversary screenings of Fargo (1996) are coming up weekend after next. That just might be the ticket.

At any rate, I hope to see my friend again. I hope to sit in its chairs and eat popcorn in the dark. I hope to see a film the way it was intended to be viewed again.

I hope.

I know. Wrong movie.

Movie Reviews Through 03/20/21

Mac Boyle March 20, 2021

I was going to write a review of Zack Synder’s Justice League. Honestly I was. But there is nothing in that four hour movie that you can’t glean from just hearing about the parameters of its existence. Love-of-my-life Lora, however, had a lot of thoughts on the subject, so for the first time in two and a half years, I’ve a got a guest reviewer.

Movie Reviews Through 02/14/21

Mac Boyle February 15, 2021

Like some kind of chump, I started my re-watch of the Babylon 5 a few months ago. I’m nearly done now, and HBOMax decides to start running remastered versions of the show. One can only wonder if the special effects work better now, and I’ve only got two of the TV Movies and the back half of Season 5 (the wheel spinning of fire, if you ask me, don’t @ me) to find out.

This is all to say that now more than any other time is a good one to start your own re-watch of Babylon 5. All of the more dramatic political machinations of that universe seem oddly quaint to the stormy present.

Speaking of HBOMax… There’s a better than even chance that by the time I do another one of these updates, I will have endured Zack Synder’s Justice League. I’m relatively sure it won’t be any better than the theatrical cut. I’m not even terribly sure I want to watch it. But it’s there, and it’s inevitable, and I should just start preparing myself now.

Oh, one more HBOMax note: I kinda liked Wonder Woman (1984) more than most people. Shrug. What can you do?

**No, the Away Team on *The Holodeck is Broken* has not gotten this far yet. But we will. We will.**

Why? What Else Happened This Year? - Thoughts on 2020

Mac Boyle January 1, 2021

With The Fourth Wall coming to an “end”* in 2019, I needed to look for the next big thing to conquer. I dropped some things that weren’t working anymore, and took on some new things. I wrote—by my own estimation—191,810 words this year, a new record, even if some of those words aren’t ever intended for public consumption. You’ll be reading some of them soon. Honestly, there’s a better than even chance that The Once and Future Orson Welles might even see the light of day in 2021.

I lost 66 pounds, and am therefore, always hungry. It’s helped that for some reason, I haven’t been able to go to a movie theater and lose myself in a bucket of popcorn since February.

I’ve also found that next big thing. Shortly before the end of the year I applied for Grad School. Real talk, despite all the things I’ve done here on the site over the last several years, there have been far too many times I’ve felt like I’ve been hiding out in a day job that has always been the occupational equivalent of a blind date that has now lasted for over a decade. Time to end all of that.

Is it possible 2020 has been the best, most productive year of my life? :checks notes: That can’t be right...

Started a new podcast with Lora and friends Eris and Z. We’re rewatching all of the various Star Treks from the very beginning. There are plenty of good reasons to not podcast, and only a few good reasons to podcast. Among the latter, the fact that it’s been a lot of fun is one of the better reasons. That being said, leave it to me to start a Star Trek rewatch podcast in the year we get the most new Star Trek since the 1990s. Don’t tell my fellow podcasters, but The Holodeck is Broken is actually further away from the end of Star Trek than we were when we recorded our first episode about a year ago. Something about this year had the feeling of being on a treadmill, although I can’t quite put my finger on why...

On that note, my only political thought for the year (that I’m going to share) is this: I’m thinking I’m going to have to join the Republican Party indefinitely. Many of us are wondering/promising what we can do to prevent all of :gestures wildly: this never happens again. I’ll still vote the way I like in general elections, but I’ve always been able to live with whoever the Democratic Party nominates, and the Republican Party has long since showed us that it can’t make decisions for itself anymore. So, welcome me, Republicans. You’re going to love me. Hope you like typewriters, pinball, and an unhealthy fixation on the films of Michael Keaton. We’re going to get along great.

And so we all head to 2021. I have no predictions for the year, as those who reign from Olympus have made it very clear how they feel about our collective hubris.

Why? What else happened this year?

P.S. Here is my reading list for the year. I went a little light on myself this year, and decided to count graphic novels in the count. It definitely helped me reach my goal of 66 books this year, and I only managed to feel a little bit guilty about it, as I definitely had a more thorough literary experience with From Hell than I did with “real” books like the novelizations of Batman Forever or Ghostbusters II, which I read this summer for reasons which have since become murky to me. I probably read more Star Trek books than I should/would have normally, but something about this year needed a little more escapism than most. More than my usual load of screenplays, too... But I finally found time (again, no idea why) to get through that Aaron Sorkin masterclass I bought a lifetime ago, and the workbook associated with it recommended a lot screenplay reading. Graphic novels are denoted with a (c), while, as usual, audiobooks are noted with an (a).

1. Doctor Strange Masterworks, Volume 1 (c)

2. Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays

3. Benjamin Franklin (a)

4. Darth Vader, Vol. 1 (c)

5. DC New Frontier, Vol. 1 (c)

6. Star Trek Picard - Countdown (c)

7. The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols (a)

8. DC New Frontier, Vol. 2 (c)

9. Khan: Ruling In Hell (c)

10. Millennium Falcon (a)

11. The Last Best Hope (a)

12. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

13. Zen In the Art of Writing (a)

14. Batgirl: Year One (c)

15. Loyalties

16. Nobody Does It Better (a)

17. The Office (a)

18. The Fifty Year Mission: The First Twenty-Five Years (a)

19. The Sky's The Limit

20. Cruel Shoes

21. Worf's First Adventure

22. Process (a)

23. Doc Savage: Man of Bronze

24. Pure Drivel

25. Doomsday Clock Vol. 1 (c)

26. The Q Conflict (c)

27. The Big Goodbye (a)

28. Get Thee Back to the Future

29. Catalyst of Sorrows

30. Batman Forever

31. Casino Royale

32. The Tower of the Elephant

33. The Fifty Year Mission: The Next Twenty-Five Years (a)

34. Galaxy Quest - The Journey Continues (c)

35. Batman: Knightfall: Knightquest (c)

36. Forever and a Day (a)

37. The Rocketeer - The Complete Adventures (c)

38. From Hell (c)

39. Watching the Clock

40. Rogues in the House

41. Masks (c)

42. Fletch and the Widow Bradley

43. The Fall of Terok Nor

44. iWoz (a)

45. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 1 (c)

46. Darth Vader, Vol. 3: The Shu-Torun War (c)

47. Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life

48. Shadows in the Moonlight

49. Ghostbusters II

50. The Martian Chronicles (a)

51. Zero Sum Game

52. Dead Endless (a)

53. The Royal Tenenbaums - Screenplay

54. Cast No Shadow

55. Poetics

56. Black Colossus

57. The Dark Knight Trilogy Scriptbook

58. Fletch's Moxie

59. Walter Ralegh: Architect of Empire (a)

60. Wet Hot American Summer Annotated Screenplay

61. Batman: Dark Victory (c)

62. My Dinner With André - Screenplay

63. Die Standing (a)

64. Rodham

65. Queen of the Black Coast

66. The War of the Prophets

67. So We Read On (a)

68. Bossypants (a)

69. The Witches

70. The Bassoon King (a)

71. A Magnificent Catastrophe

72. Becoming Superman (a)

73. Slayers and Vampires (a)

74. The Rocketeer at War (c)

75. City on the Edge of Forever

76. City on the Edge of Forever (c)

77. Seize the Fire

78. A Promised Land (a)

*No, I’m not going to explain the quotes there, but I might one day.

Movie Reviews Through 12/13/20

Mac Boyle December 13, 2020

I might break down this list a bit further, but there’s really only one thing I could add to this that wouldn’t be covered in the reviews themselves.

Unbreakable is twenty years old.

Oy.

Movie Reviews Through 11/09/20

Mac Boyle November 9, 2020

A long list, with a little something for everyone…

But what I really came here to say was this:

You can all unclench now.

I’ll have more on that later, probably with my annual end-of-year blog post.

Anyway, heres Wonderwall…

Reviews through 10/06/20

Mac Boyle October 6, 2020

A longer than normal list, with more than enough variety. Some I am surprised it has taken this long to get around to review (Duck Soup) and more than a few where I’m surprised I ever talked myself into watching time (mostly the Momoa-led Conan the Barbarian.

I had some mild hope I would get things together enough to catch Tenet at a local drive in, but sadly they too have seen the writing on the wall and started showing older movies, and I’m not going all the way out there to watch Hocus Pocus (1993). And I’m certainly not going to go to a real theater to see the movie. None of you should be going to a traditional theater at the moment. We’re never going to get through any of this if we don’t take, like, the bare minimum of precautions. if I haven’t been in a movie theater in over six months, you can stay away, too.

Reviews through 08/31/20

Mac Boyle August 31, 2020

I am totally okay with my 300th review being The American President (1995). I am totally okay with my favorite movie of this year being Bill & Ted Face The Music (2020). I’m totally okay with kind of liking The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and being completely bewildered by The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). For the moment, it would appear I am totally okay.

**And now you know what it’s like to sit at my dinner table.**

Reviews through 08/05/20

Mac Boyle August 5, 2020

Well, here we are again. These updates have been few and far between, but they may pick back up again. Since quarantine became the core experience of the year, I’ve been sublimating my desire to go to the movie theater by serving on the screening committee for a film festival. I won’t say which festival it was, as decisions are still being made about what films to feature, but I did end up watching 160 additional films over the last four months. It was daunting, but it’s done now! I may end up going to the festival in the fall (assuming it actually ends up happening in the traditional sense, which is assuming a lot.)

On the topic of going to see movies at theaters, even though I’ve got local theaters who are up and running, I’m not particularly interested in going back into that world until there’s a reliable vaccine out in the world, which feels like its going to be a while. My local theaters have taken to running older movies to fill in the gap left by an essentially abandoned release schedule. Normally, that would be the kind of thing I would love to go do, but now I see many films being featured that I already own on physical media, and it feels like the height of recklessness. Now, if one of my local movie houses decides to show the Back to the Future films, I’m going to have to white-knuckle my way through the exhibition.

As far as new movies are concerned, those are a thing of the past, largely. The only looming film I’m interested in seeing is Bill and Ted Face The Music, and I’m quite relieved that is going to on-demand distribution. Tenet will be a far off fantasy, as I would imagine that Nolan would ultimately rather delay than impede a theatrical distribution, and I think I’ve even come around to the idea of No Time To Die being delayed further, as I would like to see that on the biggest screen possible.

Reviews through 07/04/20

Mac Boyle July 4, 2020

My apologies, first of all, for the scantness of these updates, dear reader. These are literally all of the movies I’ve watched in the last month for which I could write a review. Part of that is due to movie theaters either being closed (or should still be closed). Part of that is that I’ve been working on a number of other projects, one of which has very pointedly eaten up my movie screening time. Maybe next month I’ll be able to talk about that a little bit more.

Honestly, I’ve been watching more movies these last few months than I have at any other time in my life.

Reviews through 05/31/20

Mac Boyle May 31, 2020

Well, here we are, a little further from the last update than I would have liked. Don’t worry (I’m not convinced you were worried, but work with me here), I’ve been working on plenty of things but watching commercially released films for review has taken a little bit of a back seat. That’s about the only hint I’ll give at the moment, but I may get to talk about it a little bit soon.

In the mean time:

Sonic The Hedgehog (2020) is pretty, pretty good. Took me a while to get used to the idea of seeing new releases outside of the theater, but until there is a vaccine, I think that’s the best answer for me.
The first Pirates movie still works, even if the sight of Johnny Depp has become kind of a drag.
Time After Time (1979) is still one of my favorite movies and it is absolutely inexplicable that I haven’t watched it at all in the last year and a half.
There is systemic racism in America, and significant, uncomfortable change is the only hope to turn that around.
Scientists aren’t that interested in fooling you. You’re not that interesting. Wear masks and stay six feet away until further notice.

So, here are some reviews.

Reviews through 05/02/20

Mac Boyle May 2, 2020

Well, for some reason I re-watched all of the Austin Powers movies for some reason. Now, you don’t have to. They don’t hold up, but I think we all suspected that. Meanwhile, movie reviews may be a little few and far between over the next couple of weeks. Sure, I miss movie theaters, too, but I’m going to need more than governments easing stay-at-home orders. I mean, a few wide releases would help. Also, I’m working on a few things that I can’t/wouldn’t quite talk about yet. The world may be weird, but I’m still privileged to get some things done. I probably better not let the time go by.

Reviews through 04/14/20

Mac Boyle April 14, 2020

Fewer movies with this update, to be sure. That’s a good thing. Even with the world-at-large threatening to come apart, I’m keeping busy. Maybe I’ll show you some of that busy work one day.

Also, it turns out The Living Daylights is one of my favorite Bond films. Who knew?

Reviews through 03/28/20

Mac Boyle March 28, 2020

A big update, to be sure. It’s almost as if some giant cataclysm has given us all more time to watch movies. Oh, and also, I finally got around to watching Space Jam (1996), twenty-five years after it was released. Why do people like that movie?

Reviews through 03/14/20

Mac Boyle March 14, 2020

Well, here we are. I now know everything there is to know about film. Something tells me I’ll have a little more time to sit at home and watch movies soon. Hope you all are safe.

Birds_of_Prey_(and_the_Fantabulous_Emancipation_of_one_Harley_Quinn).jpg

Reviews through 03/01/20

Mac Boyle March 1, 2020

Review List: The Star Trek Movies

Mac Boyle February 21, 2020

Finally amassed a review of all the Star Trek movies, after getting to see The Wrath of Khan with a big, excited crowd and forcing myself to watch Nemesis (which improves when paired with the new Star Trek: Picard.

I normally resist ranking a series of movies. In this case, I even kind of like the entries near the end, but for those interested:

They are also, incidentally my top thirteen numerals between 1-13.

Reviews through 02/12/20

Mac Boyle February 14, 2020

Two of my favorite movies of all time are on this list. Bet you can’t guess which two.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) (Guest review by Lora)