Netflixgiving is a tradition that I, as far as I am aware, invented 5 years ago, on the first Thanksgiving for which I was a Netflix subscriber. Spending Thanksgiving at my mom's meant I wasn't going to get a chance to help cook (apparently I'm somewhat of a distraction in the kitchen) so I usually just taste-test things and kill time, but now I had Netflix and a world of unwatched possibilities expanded out before me. So I decided to try to watch as many things from my queue as possible.
Of course occasionally I use the opportunity to watch that DVD I've been meaning to watch for forever, or sometimes I get lucky and something good just happens to be coming on TV... and nowadays I have access to a few more streaming services so maybe next year it'll just be called Flicksgiving? Time will tell, I guess.
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My Netflixgiving Day began too early. I actually wasn't spending it with Mom this year so I'd volunteered to go in to my (closed for the holiday) job and do some cleaning and upkeep stuff that had been needing to get done, so I was up at 8 a.m. to get over there. Anyway, three cups of coffee and a couple episodes of the excellent
We Hate Movies podcast later, I was done and could head home.
On my way home I saw three pigeons strutting confidently down the sidewalk and it was inexplicably funny.
It probably *wasn't* the GoodFeathers but I'm not positive.
Once home, I still had dishes to do, a shower to get and milk to buy, but after all that was done, I could start watching things.
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I started with a DVD of SHERLOCK HOLMES (2009), which I've actually seen several times before, but had recently just been hankering to watch again. I love this. I like the scenes that show how Holmes' mind works, and really love the score. I'm a sucker for Mark Strong and
especially as a villain but the whole cast is fun. And then there's Robert Downey Jr., who is just on another level as Holmes. His interplay with Jude Law's Watson is incredibly fun.
Oh hello, I didn't see you there.
I
recently mentioned how Edgar Wright's HOT FUZZ is an action movie that is also somehow soothing, which I understand feels like kind of an odd thing to say but is still true. Well Guy Ritchie's HOLMES is another one: despite having action scenes and explosions and whatnot, I find the rhythm of the movie kind of hypnotic. Like I said; soothing. Relaxing.
I regret not getting a chance to catch Ritchie's KING ARTHUR (2017) in theaters earlier this year.
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At this point I stopped to cook dinner (which, coffee aside, was also breakfast and lunch): roasted brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes and baked mac n cheese. It was my first time making baked mac n cheese and, all things considered I think it came out pretty great. I wasn't crazy with the crumbly topping so I'll probably leave that off in the future.
So delicious, I wish I was eating it right now.
Dinner in hand, I turned on JIM & ANDY: THE GREAT BEYOND (2017) on Netflix. This is the documentary about Jim Carrey's experiences filming Milos Forman's MAN ON THE MOON (1999). It's also about
experiencing Jim Carrey filming MAN ON THE MOON. My dude went... a little nuts. But I guess he felt that overall it was a very freeing experience, so good for him, y'know?
Jim & Andy, in that order.
Composed of all Behind-The-Scenes footage shot during the filming, cut together with a more recent interview with Carrey (as well as some TV & film clips), it was a very interesting snapshot of what it was like on set. Watching it really made me vacillate about whether or not I thought Jim Carrey was too crazy to be friends with or possibly just crazy enough. Overall, I feel like we'd probably get along but we couldn't hang out
every day. While the Jim interview was pretty interesting, I wish there were other people interviewed. Danny DeVito and Paul Giamatti especially.
The best part for me was Jerry "The King" Lawler in the BTS footage.
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I've had SICARIO (2015) in my Amazon Prime queue for quite some time, so it finally seemed like the right moment (plus I finally saw ARRIVAL (2016) about a week ago, so I'm kinda high on Denis Villeneuve at the moment).
Damn.
This film is incredible. I really really enjoyed it. It opens strong and just keeps running. The performances were great, especially Emily Blunt & Benicio Del Toro.
Apparently Del Toro cut his character's dialogue down a wild amount which lends everything he says more gravitas. There's a lesson there somewhere, but also the dialogue itself, by Taylor Sheridan, is amazing. For instance, early on Blunt asks Del Toro how the cartels do things and he replies "You're asking me how a watch works. For now let's just keep an eye on the time."
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I've been making my way through all the James Bond films on Hulu, so I put on the next chronologically, 1965's THUNDERBALL.
This is all the best parts in one image.
You know that old complaint (often voiced by me too) that "all the best stuff is in the trailer"? The same goes for THUNDERBALL and its poster. Every single cool, spy-stuff, James-Bond-y thing that happens in the movie is in that poster.
Maybe it was just that SICARIO was a tough act to follow, but THUNDERBALL was a *real* slow starter for me. I mean, Bond does use a jet-pack in the cold open (and a hilarious car gadget that sprays water at two guys chasing Bond who seem incapable of just stepping out of the way), but after that most of what Bond does is pretty much just shenanigans until around halfway through this movie.
For example: Bond is at a spa, on some automated stretch-your-back machine and the bad guy turns it all the way up (which is dumb for a death trap) and Bond only survives because the attendant comes back and turns it off. Worse, to get revenge, Bond uses a broom to lock the bad guy in a sauna box. It's... silly.
Add in the fact that a bunch of the 2nd half takes place underwater and that underwater fight scenes become tiresome pretty quickly and you'll understand why the underwater Bond films were always my least favorite growing up.
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By now I was pretty tired and full of carbs and could feel sleep (or possibly death) coming for me, so I decided to fall asleep to the 2nd season of ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT back on Netflix. I'd left off on the fourth episode "Good Grief" where the family thinks George Senior (Jeffrey Tambor) is dead in Mexico and, ultimately Gob (Will Arnett) decides to perform an illusion at at the wake to celebrate George Senior's life (as well as bring Gob the notoriety he feels he deserves).
Cue Europe's "The Final Countdown"
This is one of my favorite episodes as well as being one of the most-quotable (which for ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT is saying something). "It's as Ann as the nose on plain's face", "Where the F#@! are my hard boiled eggs!?!" & "I deserve to be in that Poof..." all come from this episode.
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Anyway, then I fell asleep, slept pretty well, woke up and wrote this. Happy holidays, y'all! If you enjoyed reading this, you can find me on
Twitter or
Letterboxd if you wanna find me on either of them and I'm a contributor to
MovieJawn which is a really rad site for movie discussion that you can actually get
in zine form as well (if you like getting cool stuff in the mail).
To everyone reading this, I hope all of your holidays go smoothly and may they be filled with the movies that
you want to watch. Cheers!
