Week of Movies

10 September, 2017. 538 words.

I've been in a very passive media consumption mood for the last week, so I've spent most of my free time watching movies instead of playing games. Here's what I've watched in the past week or so:

Amazon Prime

Oasis. Pilot for a stylish science fiction series. A priest is requested at a struggling offworld human colony. I always find it interesting when people of faith are portrayed as something other than stereotypical villains, especially in science fiction. This priest is a little too far on the stereotypical "cool guy therapist" anti-trope side, though, but hey, it's a step in the right direction.

Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation. Popcorn flick. It was okay. Good stunts, as usual.

Terminator: Genisys. Popcorn flick. It was terrible. #NotMyTerminator

13 Hours. Story of the Benghazi attack. I expected this would be a typical Michael Bay seizure-inducing flick, but it was remarkably reserved. I question the details of the film, but overall it "sort of" matched what I had read of the incident and was better than I expected. The entire film I was distracted by the fact that John Krazinski looked exactly like Zachary Levi from Chuck.

The Battle of Chosin. Documentary on a disastrous Korean War battle that I had previously not known about, and the entry of China into that war. I watched it because I wanted to know more about how we got to where we are today with North Korea, and the roots of that are very much in the Korean War. It was a good documentary, but a terrible event.

Hornet's Nest. Documentary following two embedded reporters during the Afghanistan War and an intense battle with the Taliban. Initially I watched this to understand more about the conditions of fighting in Afghanistan, but as it went on I felt it was more important simply to bear witness to what those guys went through. (Incidentally, Sand Castle is another good movie about the Afghanistan War-it's a drama but it presented the political situation pretty well.)

Apocalypse Now. I'd never seen it before, and it's been on my "I should watch that someday" list for ever. It was okay. Some parts were good, other parts seemed to be drowning in pretentious cinema or like you had to be high to enjoy it. Not surprisingly, young Martin Sheen looked exactly like Emilio Estavez from Young Guns.

Netflix

Jaws. Never seen before. It was pretty good. Better than I expected a movie from the 1970s to be.

The Siege of Jadotville. Dramatization of a Cold War incident that I'd never heard of before, about Irish soldiers trying to defend a town in the Congo during the 1960s.

Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden. A dramatic recreation in the form of a documentary. It was okay.

Tropic Thunder. Parody of Vietnam War movies by Ben Stiller. It was funny, but it was the kind of humor that you're ashamed to be laughing at and would probably not admit to anyone that you thought it was funny. :) Generally I prefer my humor to be a little more subtle, and this movie kind of hit you over the head with it. Still, it was better than I expected it to be.