The Coen Brothers' latest movie, Hail, Caesar!, is a lot of fun. I've been looking forward to it since the trailers showed up a few months ago. It's a homage to the Golden Age of Hollywood, an age where quirky talents like the Coens could not have made Coen Brothers' movies. We see song and dance numbers, syn­chro­nized swimming, singing cowboys, and ballroom dramas. Most of all, we see a big-budget swords-and-sandals epic, whose star, Baird Whitlock, has been kidnapped by The Future, a group of Communist screen­writ­ers, and is being held for $100,000 ransom. Eddie Mannix is the studio fixer who has to wrangle the studio's stars and keep them out …continue.

We saw Mad Max: Fury Road at the Cinerama tonight, as part of its Eight Days of Oscar—Fury Road having being nominated for ten Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. I have no idea if it will win any awards from the Academy, but it's no ordinary action movie.

Action there is aplenty, a kinetic feast of racing cars and roaring maniacs that rarely lets up. Imperator Furiosa and Max flee across the desert, taking Immortan Joe's five nubile wives to a better place. They seek hope, Furiosa seeks redemption, and Max seeks mostly to survive. Furiosa sets the plot in motion; Max is a loner battered by fate, grudgingly coming to …continue.

We saw The Big Short tonight, which does a creditable job of explaining the basics of the 2008 financial collapse. It's written as a comedy-drama, which makes it far more watchable and en­ter­tain­ing than a more sober doc­u­men­tary. The infodumps are cleverly handled, often breaking the fourth wall with celebrity explainers. The characters let their anger and outrage at Wall Street fraud­u­lence bleed through oc­ca­sion­al­ly, as well they should. I'm appalled that not only did no one go to jail, but that the too-big-to-fail banks are bigger now than they ever were.

Rec­om­mend­ed.

We attended the Sherlock Seattle Mini-Convention at the Broadway Per­for­mance Hall. It was much more lightly attended than previous previous Sherlock Seattle con­ven­tions.

The final event of the evening was a Mystery Science Theater–style treatment of Sherlock Holmes (2010 film) given by some of the con's organizers. We had seen Young Sherlock Holmes get the MST3K treatment at last year's con and the show was quite funny. This show was also funny, but I was appalled at just how bad Sherlock Holmes was. (I suppose that's the point of getting the MST3K treat­men­t—the movie stinks and deserves to be heckled.) It was totally incoherent and anachro­nis­tic and ineptly made.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears…in…rain. Time to die.

—Roy Batty, the Tears in Rain monologue

According to Blade Runner, the replicant Roy Batty's incept date is January 8th, 2016. The Sydney Morning Herald has an article.

In honor of which, we watched Blade Runner tonight.

[Spoilers]

Young orphaned scavenger living on a desert planet finds droid with a message, then hooks up with two rogues in a beat-up ship. Young hero starts developing a talent for the Force. Dark-side dork with daddy issues slays daddy in death star duel. Ace X-wing pilot flies down trench and kills death star.

Where have I seen this movie before?

Episode VII is a distinct im­prove­ment over the last set of Star Wars films, the Anakin prequels. We care more about Rey and Finn than we ever did about Anakin and Padme. George Lucas's characters were wooden and un­con­vinc­ing; Lawrence Kasdan (who wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the …continue.

Tom Hardy has had a very good year, starring in Mad Max: Fury Road and playing both Reggie and Ronnie Kray in Legend.

Legend loving recreates London in the Swinging Sixties when the Kray twins were not only notorious gangsters but also celebri­ties, mingling with the rich and famous in their nightclubs. Reggie is portrayed as the smarter, charming, and stable brother; Ronnie as erratic and psy­cho­pathic; both are capable of great violence. The film is narrated from beyond the grave by Reggie's wife, Frances, and con­cen­trates mostly on Reggie. Hardy is excellent as Reggie, but hard to understand as Ronnie, while Emily Browning does a fine job as the young wife who's …continue.

We have three non-tra­di­tion­al Christmas movies that we watch almost every December, Die Hard, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, and The Ref.

Die Hards 1 and 2 are the best in the series. Although they seemed wildly over the top when they were made (1988 and 1990), they seem un­der­stat­ed compared to the thrillers that Hollywood pumps out now.

We saw Die Hard again tonight. Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman shine in their breakout roles. Willis exhibits the trademark cockiness that was already familiar from Moon­light­ing, but he's not as obnoxious as he often was in later roles. Rickman gently nibbles the scenery as a terrorist turned master criminal.

After reading Layer Cake earlier this week, I decided to rewatch the movie. The screenplay was written by J.J. Connolly, adapting his own novel. Although the convoluted plot has been much simplified and somewhat rearranged, it's still complex and tricky to follow. Most of the humor is gone, as director Matthew Vaughn didn't want to make Lock Stock III. It's more of a straight thriller. The Cockney is toned down, making it easier for a non-UK audience. And Daniel Craig is somewhat older and calmer than the narrator of the book.

The film succeeds both in its own …continue.

Torchwood began as a more adult spinoff of Doctor Who, but came into its own right in its third season, the five-part mini-series, Children of Earth.

One day, all the children of Earth freeze up and announce, “we are coming” over and over, before carrying on unawares. The aliens known as the 456 are announcing themselves. What soon becomes apparent to the audience is that the British government had dealings once before with the 456 back in 1965—and they don't want it to be known. They attempt to destroy the Torchwood team, blowing up the immortal Captain Jack Harkness, to keep …continue.