When Kyle asked me if I wanted to continue to track what I was watching, I was excited. I also thought it might be much more balanced. Then, I watched 35 movies in January and realized that movies was going to be my focus area for this quarter. I did watch some tv shows and I did play some video games but my primary consumption was movies. I tried to be more well rounded, adding in some horror, some artistic films, and widening the range of release date. In total, I watched 75 movies, 1 documentary, 5 tv shows, and played 3 video games.

Quick hits:

As mentioned I watched very little in the way of TV shows, but WandaVision was amazing and it is beyond time for Scarlet Witch to be seen as the all powerful being she is.
Letterkenny is the dumbest show I have ever watched and I absolutely love it. One of the most quotable and delightful shows in recent memory.
I played 3 video games during this first quarter of 2021. I had already been playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey but I think it is one of the best games I have ever played. Replayability in the way of trying to do everything feels impossible (you could easily sink 200 hours into this game) but it was a very fun time and had a story that was very enjoyable for me.
I watched one documentary, Seaspriacy, and it really has made me think, as a pescetarian, about my impact and contribution to our planet’s destruction.
This may be an even hotter take than my Ballad of Buster Scruggs take. Prime Video is the best streaming service and it is not close. I know people love HBO Max and Hulu and Netflix have their supporters, but Prime Video is a game changer. Amazing exclusive movies and shows, easy access and profile nuances, and the X-Ray, which is the greatest feature ever added. Basically in any given scene it will tell you who is in the scene. If there is music it acts as a Shazam and tells you the song and artist and also gives you behind the scenes details. It has completely enhanced my viewing experience and it is noticeably absent in other services.

Movies

MVP: Eddie Murphy

I felt I had seen many of Eddie Murphy’s movies, but a random deep dive when Coming 2 America released showed me how wrong I was so I made a determined effort to watch several of his movies. As part of that deep dive, I watched his very first movie (48 Hrs.) and his most recent movie (the aforementioned Coming 2 America) as well as several others. I thoroughly enjoyed all of his movies and from day 1 he was clearly a star. It has been great to see him have some significant comedy roles in the last couple years.

Best Movie Watched: Arkansas

I randomly saw Arkansas on Prime Video and thought it looked interesting. I had Arkansas at number 3 in the initial ranking of my list, but every time I watched anything I found myself comparing it to Arkansas. Luke Hemsworth, Clark Duke, Vince Vaughn, John Malkovich, Michael Kenneth Williams, and Vivica A. Fox were all cast pristinely. It is broken down into 5 chapters and each plays well in the overall story with great background, good suspense and twists, believable drama, and good action. Do yourself a favor and give this one a chance.

Worst Movie Watched: An Imperfect Murder (also known as The Private Life of a Modern Woman)

What an awful, self-aggrandizing vehicle for James Toback. In the time of and after #MeToo he appears to be an absolutely terrible person. Toback plays an inappropriate psychologist/friend, so at least the casting was realistic, but everything else about this is a misfire. It was short at 71 minutes, which was probably about 30 minutes too long for the story they were trying to tell. It wants to be an art piece but fails at that as well as an enjoyable movie experience.

Movie that Surprised in a Positive Way: Chick Fight

I kept seeing this in my “movies we think you’ll like” on Prime Video, but I avoided it for awhile because the name took me out of it without knowing anything about it. However, it was actually a decent take on female empowerment through an underground fight club and everyone put their all into their roles. Alec Baldwin as a drunk boxing coach, Malin Akerman as the rookie trying to prove something to herself and others, Bella Thorne as the badass antagonist. The superb supporting role for Kevin Nash as Malin Akerman’s father, who has begun to be his real self (no spoilers), was the brightest spot of the movie.

Movie that Surprised in a Negative Way: Poison Rose

John Travolta, Morgan Freeman, Brendan Fraser, Famke Janssen, Kat Graham, and Robert Patrick in a neo-noir thriller, what could go wrong? Unfortunately, the storytelling, which lacked cohesion as did the distracting Texas accents that everyone affects. This movie felt like it was trying to tell two different stories and link them together without resolving them with much satisfaction. The twists were predictable which isn’t inherently bad if the rest of the story is fulfilling, but this missed the mark in several places. Shout out to Brendan Fraser, still the GOAT in my eyes and one of the only salvageable pieces of this movie.

Hottest Take: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs was not a good film

This film has an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and was written, directed, and produced by the Coen brothers, true genius filmmakers. However, for me, unlike Arkansas which was told in chapters (but were cohesive), this film tried 6 short stories and only half of them were entertaining. I would have preferred the 1st two chapters to make up the core of the film and to have some cohesion, but I can also see why people (especially fans of the Coen Brothers) would gravitate toward this film. Personally, it was just too distracting and the quality of the chapters varied dramatically.