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When free preview weekends for movie channels come around I record pretty much everything I haven’t seen and then I try to watch them all before the next free-preview weekend comes around. Because of this habit I sometimes watch movies I normally wouldn’t bother with just because it’s there.

I should try to do these once a month so the list isn’t so large.

YouTube

Three channels I enjoy on youtube right now are:

spricket24

ponceman

TheReceptionist

TV

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – I’m sorry this got cancelled. I really liked where it was going and the character growth and one more season to finish it off would have been nice. Also it would have been nice if some of the elements int eh series were carried over to Terminator Salvation.

Chuck – I thought the season finale of one of my favorite shows was great so it might seem a little odd that I’m disappointed that it was renewed for another 1/2 season. They wrote the end of the second season like it was the end of the series and in doing so they brought it to the problem point in The Greatest American Hero. The problem being that in The Greatest American Hero at some point he no longer needed his FBI partner to do things as he mastered the suit and so the FBI partner was in the show less because there was less for him to do. Without that interplay the show then became generic. The writers of Chuck have skillfully walked that line until the final episode where it’s clear that the government agents are no longer needed. That wasn’t the only line they crossed though, they crossed the same point that caused Cheers to lose a big portion of its audience when Sam and Diane hooked up. Chuck and Sarah connected and now that tension is gone and hard to put back. I’ll give it a shot but I’m pretty sure this last half season is really the end.

Time Warp –  This is a newish show on Discover that I like most of the time. They take high speed camera that can record up to about 40,000 frames per second and slow down everyday things to see what’s happening in detail. A lot of the time it also just focuses on things getting squished.

Movies

College Road Trip – Why is a movie about picking out a college and visiting it rated G? Would this even be interesting to young kids? I think I G-movies like this are useful in showing more adult things in a way kids can accept, assuming they were interested enough to watch it. Bonus points for the genius super-pig, but as a whole not too interesting.

Wind Chill – This was a pretty good creepy story until the end. What kind of ending was that? Turn it off five minutes before the end and you will be more satisfied.

Knowing – Overall this was entertaining, but I was surprised at the heavy religious messages throughout.  The ending went on forever, but that might just have been because I really had to go to the bathroom at that point. Also I take issue with the GPS coordinates in the movie, having recently worked with GPS coordinates. Those given in the movie would only be accurate to a diameter of about 3000 meters.

Outlander – You see a movie with vikings and aliens and you think that you’ve got something worth watching. It’s true, this movie is a lot of fun. Don’t think about it though or you’ll spoil the illusion. I think it would have been better had it been set in the times when the Norse gods were still running around. Playing into that would have been a lot of fun.

The Secret Life of Bees –  I’m starting to think that rural semi-mystical stories might be saying something about how humans work. The fact that they’re always good to watch probably reinforces whatever that message is. Anyway, I liked it.

Being There – I think this is the most subtle, low-key, comedy I’ve ever seen. When the credits start stop watching so you can avoid the bloopers. They really detract from the film. Also I’ve found a lot of good arguments on a number of viewpoints on the final scene. I might have to watch it a few more times before I really decide what I think though.

WarGames – I watched this because I recently watched the sequel and this one holds up better than I expected. Partially because WOPR is a great looking movie computer and actually has personality on screen. I think Professor Falken’s portrayal when in NORAD is not right though. Still enjoyable!

Mutant Chronicles – Avoid this movie. Yeah it has Ron Perlman and John Malkovich but I’m pretty sure they want you to avoid it too. It tries to be kind of an Art-Deco/WWI/WWII style but it can’t really make up its mind. People have to be brought to the machine to be converted which should make it spreading different than what it is. It gets worse from there.

Next -Nicholas Cage must be having a thing for knowing the future between this and Knowing. I liked it. I thought it was pretty smart in how a person like the main character would have to hide himself. Maybe that was covered in the book, I don’t know, but it came across well on the screen.

Star Trek – Such a fun movie. Tons of nods to the old series but they didn’t get in the way. At the same time they didn’t wimp out in the end. Pushing the boundaries of too much lens flare though.

Fred Claus – I’m a fan of Christmas movies. This one I wasn’t looking forward to so much because the trailer looked pretty dumb. It turned out to be pretty funny and even had a touching spirit of Christmas type moment in it.

The Godfather: Part II – Finally I get to see parts two and three.  Part II is two movies in one spliced together showing what led up to and came after the first one. I think the early story of Vito is more interesting than Michael’s ongoing quest for legitimacy for the family but both are good.

The Godfather: Part III – I think this one is looked upon unfavorably because it seems more fantastical than the other two. It’s taken to such a high level of corruption that shows the quest for legitimacy is futile and shows it all to be a tragic cycle. I like the whole series.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall – It’s kind of like a Love Boat episode but more raunchy and not on a boat. It is pretty funny though. I liked it.

Step Up 2 the Streets – Yay dance movies! The best dancing isn’t in the finale and they didn’t use any of the character’s super powers specialties but I still liked it. It has the feel of guilty pleasure when watching it.

The Incredible Hulk – The on-foot chase through the dwellings in Brazil was great. The rest of it was like the tv show but bigger and faster. They referenced the theme music, the hulk is of constant size. It was still entertaining but it just kept making me feel like I was watching a version of the tv show with more action and bigger effects. I liked it but I also liked Hulk.

The Seeker: The Dark is Rising – I liked this series of book a lot as a kid so I was looking forward to this movie. Unfortunately I don’t htink this movie would make much sense to anyone who hadn’t read the books. It’s just not very good. Nothing is explained it’s just a string of events. I think the acting of the main character was pretty good though despite the rest of the writing.

Leatherheads – I wonder how much of this fictionalized account of the beginnings of pro football are true; not enough to look it up though. It’s light-hearted and fun but some of the music doesn’t match the period.

The Game Plan – Dwayne Johnson is almost always entertaining to watch so I gave this one a shot. He doesn’t really disappoint here either. His co-starts make him look small by comparison in some scenes too. It was predictable but it still sucked me in.

The Great Buck Howard – I had no idea what to expect. Unlike Mutant Chronicles, John Malkovich wants you to see this one. Good story based on the director working for The Amazing Kreskin.

In the Valley of Elah – I didn’t intend to but I watched this on Memorial Day. That seemed to make the film more heavy and made me think about Memorial Day more in general that day. I cried a little while watching it and in light of the recent killing soldier turning on his own troops I wonder again how much damage is being done in Iraq.

Terminator Salvation – I liked the choice of time periods to cover in John Connor’s life but I wish it incorporated some characters and elements from the television series. Maybe that will come in the inevitable sequel but I doubt it. The characters of Marcus and Kyle Reese were the more interesting characters in the movie.

Big Trouble – This movie had me laughing out loud quite a bit. I think perhaps more than any other movie I’ve seen in the last year.

License to Wed – The first half is fairly funny and then then it turns to not caring a whole lot. I also thought the groom was just not right. Mandy Moore and Robin Williams hold it together though/

Lady in the Water – I liked this more than The Happening and Signs, also by M. Night Shyamalan. It wasn’t the normal structure his stories take which made it a nice change up. All of the characters were entertaining!

Be Kind Rewind – An overlooked low budget movie about low budget film making! I think you should give this movie a chance. yeah it’s a little weird but it works. I wonder of anyone has Sweded this movie.

The Simpsons Movie – Simpsons humor but in a much longer episode. I saw it for spider-pig but the rest was funny too.

The Gathering – A creepy English church-based horror film that has a good amount of creepy. Like the kind of creepy you get from 70s English church-based horror films. The ending is a little weak but it works.

Convoy – This movie clearly wou;dn’t have come about if Smokey and the Bandit hadn’t happened a year earlier but it is fully its own movie and the climax is great! I swear some of the road music had to be the inspiration for the Knight Rider music.

Australia – It’s two movies in one. The first half is a comedy an the second half is a love story. However people usually like their movies to be single movies or at least integrated and not sequential. Each half was good on its own and wouldn’t have made sense without the other but the feel of them didn’t feel right together.

Land of the Lost – This movie isn’t for kids yet a number of kids were in the audience. I thought it was fun, but I think if I thought it was going to be like the show I’d be disappointed. Everything about it is cartoony from the cg creatures to how everything acts. So I guess entertaining but don’t expect the tv show.