We watched the film "Rampart" with Woody Harrelson last night.  It was a well done movie, but I am not quite sure where it was going, or what the point was.  Woody plays the bad, corrupt cop, that has a good or well intentioned moral center, he just has anger management issues and a hard time following the rules.  He also has a very weird home life and what appears to be an eating disorder, but there was no real back story on that part, so it was hard to make sense of why those details were included. I suppose they were included to make the viewer think, yup, this dude is multi-dimensional and freaky.
I always enjoy a good corrupt cop movie, next to a mob movie, they rank high on my scale of goodness.  I suppose I like to think everyone is layers of dark and light, and complicated.

Hanna the movie

We watched Hanna this evening and I loved it.

I am a sucker for a good spy film with a revenge angle.

I also loved, loved, loved the professional  so perhaps it is a bit of a fetish?

Media blitz

From the state of my posting you would almost think we had given up reading and watching lately.

Well, that is a false assumption my friends, we have been as slothish as ever.

We are pretty fresh out of anything very highbrow from Netflix and have been watching Dexter, which I like mostly for the concept.  I like the idea of the bad guys getting killed.  I find the writing pretty mediocre most of the time and the actress that plays Deb gets on my nerves.  The Captain, Maria,  is one dimensional and awful serving only as distraction. Women don't get great treatment here.    I liked the actor that played the animal disposal dude.  He played the part well and brought some depth to the episodes he was featured in.

We are also watching Eastward Bound and Down, which is so offensive and over the top, that I can't even find words.  I laugh out loud frequently- just make sure no children are around.

I just finished Townie  (this review is not at all what I would have written, much harsher, and it is clear the author can't relate to Dubus, but I am much too lazy to come up with something better.) Which I enjoyed, but didn't love.  I found the author's rage sort of misplaced, he was busy beating people up for most of his youth, but never got really angry at his father, the source of the family's misfortune.  I found him overly generous.  He does have a gift for setting  mood and scene.  He brought me right back to the 70's, it is hard to put into words, but he really evoked the feeling of that time.   That  feeling of nostalgia kept me engaged and reading through the pages and pages of bar and street fights. 

watching and waiting

We haven't gotten anything good from Netflix in forever, which I take as a personal insult, but Mark assures me is just because there is a long queue (when he says queue, I always ask him if he is thinking of his time growing up in England, and he tells me "no" each time,  that queue is what Netflix calls it, and then we have the conversation all over again the next time it comes up.)  for everything we want, or everything he thinks we want.

I personally want season two of Hoarders, but I doubt he ordered it.

It has been suggested that I figure out how to order things, but anything to do with the VCR makes me nervous, and yes I am well aware that it is not really a VCR.

What we have right now is Luther, a British crime drama, starring Idris Elba, who was wonderfully evil as Stringer Bell in The Wire, and is suffering from terrible plots and poor writing here, not that it stops me from watching.

There is an actress, Ruth Wilson, that plays a reoccurring role as a villain that has one of those weird faces that is  really beautiful, but then there is something off, that you can't quite put your finger on, in this show, and she alone is reason to keep me watching.
Does she have slightly bucked teeth?
Is her upper lip too large for her face? 
Is her mouth overly wide, like the joker? 
Eyes too close together?  
Forehead too pronounced? 

My picking this poor woman apart can provide untold hours of entertainment.

watching, watching

This week we have been watching season one of  Men of a certain age, which is pretty thoughtful, relatable and FUNNY.  

When Mark told me that he had ordered this from Netflicks I was pretty skeptical.  I really like both Scott Bakula (ok, I actually have only seen him in "Quantum Leap", but I loved it, plus he is hunky, in that sensitive guy sort of way, that I find irresistible) and Andre Braugher (from Homicide) but I was dubious about anything with Ray Romano involved.  I hated his other show, and his voice gets on my nerves.  He really pulls this character off well, and I have to give him credit for his writing too, which is excellent.

watching, watching

we watched "get low"  last night, and really enjoyed it.  It is a small, moving,  charming film, with good pacing and the setting is lovely.  The lighting is good, which sounds like a weird thing to notice, but lately so many indie films look super dark to me, which is annoying, since my sight is pretty bad, without my glasses.
What can I add?  Robert Duvall and Bill Murray, awesome, nuff said.

We rented and watched "the ghostwriter", with Ewan McGregor last night.

It was a well done thriller/mystery, but had I know it was directed by Polanski, I would not have watched it.  Mark claims he didn't realize it, but I dunno if I believe him.
Creepy.

funny Haha

We watched In the Loop last night and enjoyed it, I laughed out loud several times in fact, which is rare for me.  I usually hate comedies.
James Gandolfini plays a general that is opposed to the war.  He manages to make you forget about Tony Soprano, which I though would be pretty tough. 
Peter Capaldi, is brilliant as the hot headed, foul mouthed director of communications, of the Prime Minister.

The entire cast is just really excellent.
Ugh the computer is acting all wonky and making writing really unpleasant. 

Just rent it, ok?

speaking of big guns!

We are watching "generation Kill", another fine HBO product.

This show is about a troupe (platoon?) of marines invading Iraq. It is well done, thought provoking, irreverent and bawdy.

Perfect for me.

The actor that played the junkie, drug dealing son of the longshoreman union boss, from "the wire" plays one of the protagonists, and I love his character, a wise cracking, foul mouthed, whiskey tango (that stands for white trash, y'all) kid.

I loved the actor in the other part, with his comic/tragic vibe and pet duck and I love him even more in this, what can I say? I am a sucker for skinny wiseacres. His character cracks me up.
There is also the prerequisite blood thirsty, gun freak, a bad lieutenant that you are just waiting for someone to frag and a host of other predictable fellows, but all done very well There is an actor that I liked from OZ, that plays a Rolling Stone reporter that is embedded with the guys. He is also really excellently cast.

There are tons of great performances in this show, really worth a rental.

Don't watch it if you are sensitive to violence.

It is about war after all and violent.

I love netflicks so much!

Harold & Maude

I love this movie so very much.

I love the scene where they are lying in the field of daisies, and when the camera pans out it turns out to be a cemetery, no silly, I don't love it because of the cemetery, I love the part when she tells Harold that at a distance all of the daisies look the same, but that each one is unique- who doesn't want to be a unique daisy?

I also love it when the rescue the tree on the motorcycle.
Oh, and I love the music, all of it.
A LOT.

If you want to sing out, sing out

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
'Cause there's a million things to be
You know that there are

And if you want to live high, live high
And if you want to live low, live low
'Cause there's a million ways to go
You know that there are

Chorus:
You can do what you want
The opportunity's on
And if you can find a new way
You can do it today
You can make it all true
And you can make it undo
you see ah ah ah
its easy ah ah ah
You only need to know

Well if you want to say yes, say yes
And if you want to say no, say no
'Cause there's a million ways to go
You know that there are

And if you want to be me, be me
And if you want to be you, be you
'Cause there's a million things to do
You know that there are

Chorus

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
'Cause there's a million things to be
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are

I may force my poor husband to sit through H&M tonight.

It is kinda that kind of night.