Happy Birthday to Me (36)

Oh, hello. I didn't see you there. No it's fine, really, please stay. Y'see, I'm turning 36 today and while I'm not having a big, capital P "Party" I am gonna have breakfast for dinner, take it easy and hang out with a few good friends, family and roommates. But while I'm doing that, I've actually got some presents for you!

I know that might seem a little non-traditional, but hey, I'm a non-traditional guy. I mean, I'm eating breakfast... for dinner! Pretty unconventional, I'd say! Innovative, even!

I love, live and breathe movies; I even write about them for MOVIEJAWN, so I thought they'd be a fun thing to focus on. So, since I'm turning 36 and all, here they are, my gifts to you: 36 film-centric facts about yours truly.

Hidden Gacy

Do y'all know about "Hidden Mickeys"? Well I found a sort of "Hidden Gacy" in Terminator Salvation today.

I dunno if this is, like, a well-known thing or whatever, but I'd never heard of it and I noticed it and thought I'd post the pic I took of it:

"Glass (2019)"

M. Night Shyamalan's latest, Glass, is the culmination of somewhere between 2 and 19 years of collective work, depending on how cynical a viewpoint you take. Regardless of how you ultimately feel about Glass, this Glass-verse Trilogy (trademark pending) will go down as one of the most unusual and unique trilogies in film.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN 7

Happy new year! Welcome. Whether you're a regular reader or this is your first time, this is Everything Old Is New Again, my bi-monthly column covering remakes, adaptations and legacy sequels.

Twenty Eighteen in Film

This is simply a list of the movies, flicks, films and what-have-yous released (or widely released, or finally released) during the calendar year. I don't have any hard and fast metric for how I order this list, it's some ephemeral combination of components. Overall quality (of course), rewatchability, originality, voice and novelty all factor in, combined with my personal interests and fetishes. Point is: this is my list. Don't like it? Make your own list. (And send me the link and I'll check it out)

Last year I watched 47 movies. I thought that was a lot (and it is) but I still wanted to break that record. This year I saw 68. Sixty-eight! Next year I hope to watch 69. (Nice.)

Anyway, see below for my list:

"Mary Poppins Returns (2018)"

Long-gap sequels, or "legacy sequels", are a tough nut to crack. Picking up an intellectual property from ten, twenty, thirty years or more ago, dusting it off and making something hopefully new and exciting out of it isn't as easy an undertaking as you might think. You have to draw enough from the original source material(s) to please older fans while remaining accessible to new audience members. I am immensely happy to say that Mary Poppins Returns is one of the best I've seen.

"Robin Hood (2018)"

Robin Hood is fun, in a big, silly, action movie way. Much more fun than I was expecting, honestly, but it wears its influences on its sleeve so earnestly that it got a little exasperating. As it is the Thanksgiving season (and I've been watching probably entirely too much Great British Baking Show), I'll use a cooking metaphor: Otto Bathurst's Robin Hood isn't a new recipe, but it adds new spices: war movies, Christopher Nolan Batman films & political protest imagery. I guess then, my biggest problem is that certain bites felt over-seasoned.