Adventures in DVRing
Aug. 29th, 2015 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
citrinesunsetIn an attempt to get us to subscribe again, our cable company has given us HBO for free through the end of the month. I'm trying to take advantage of this as much as possible, because dammit, I miss HBO.
Since I'm working full-time and don't have the time or desire to watch TV all day, I've been DVRing every single thing that looks remotely interesting to me. My DVR was up to 75% full, which is a record for me, but I've gotten it down to 67% now (to be fair, some of the stuff on there is non-HBO stuff that I'm either saving indefinitely, like a few eps of White Collar, or haven't gotten around to yet, like the Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell miniseries that I'm waiting to watch until I finish the book).
The result has been that I'm watching a lot of stuff that I probably wouldn't otherwise, because there are a lot of movies I'll watch given the opportunity but don't really feel a need to seek out. Because of this, since giving up HBO, I've liked most of the movies I've seen. It's a little novel to watch movies that I'm "meh" about.
Here is what I've watched so far:
The Lego Movie -- This one was pretty fun! It wasn't something I was super interested in, but I really enjoyed how much detail went into it.
The Counselor -- I watched this because Michael Fassbender is in it and I like some of the things he's done. Yes, I remembered it got bad reviews, but I'm usually not that hard to please with movies, so I thought I'd give it a try. I didn't quite remember what the bad reviews had said. About fifteen minutes into the film, it dawned on me. 'Wait, is this that movie where reviewers complained about a gross scene where Cameron Diaz has sex with a car?' Yes, it was that movie. And yes, it was pretty weird. The whole movie was pretty weird, like a mix of sleaziness and misery porn. It felt like an exploitation flick. I'm not a fan. The cast was good, though.
The Fault In Our Stars -- I wasn't a huge fan of this, either. It wasn't bad, but I had some problems with it. I felt like it was trying a little too hard to be different and hip, while still ending up a bit predictable and cliched. Like, for what it is, I think it's pretty well-done. I just didn't find it very groundbreaking in the genre, except that it had a manic pixie dream guy instead of a manic pixie dream girl.
Gravity -- Thought it was very well-done. I can see why there was so much buzz about its special effects. This was a good movie to remind me of how terrifying I find space, though.
Girl, Interrupted -- I've actually seen this before, but it'd been years, so I decided to rewatch it. I have mixed feelings about this movie. I love the cast, and Angelina Jolie is great in it. I can't really begrudge it for taking some creative liberties with the memoir since the book is so episodic and doesn't really have a clear narrative. But it's kind of weird to watch presumably true stories turned into a more Hollywood-esque plot. And the film has an oddly different tone from the book. In the memoir, I feel like Susanna Kaysen comes across as much more conflicted about whether her diagnosis was correct, and the portrayal of psychiatry in the 1960's is more complex and cynical than in the movie (if I remember correctly, she says she was ultimately released only because she found a job on the outside). The movie is more about Susanna accepting that she has a problem and that she needs to work with the doctors to get better. It just feels like a strange way to deviate from the book, and it's hard to really buy into Susanna's success within the system when such a big point of book, I feel, is that the system back then over-relied on long-term, involuntary hospitalization and that the women did not have a lot of agency in their own treatment.
Edge of Tomorrow -- Really liked it! I didn't know how much I would since I don't care for Tom Cruise. But I thought it was great. It's the only one of these movies that I would probably watch again in the near future.
I still have a handful of things to watch, and several more scheduled to record. I will probably try to watch something tonight, but I have no idea what, yet.
Since I'm working full-time and don't have the time or desire to watch TV all day, I've been DVRing every single thing that looks remotely interesting to me. My DVR was up to 75% full, which is a record for me, but I've gotten it down to 67% now (to be fair, some of the stuff on there is non-HBO stuff that I'm either saving indefinitely, like a few eps of White Collar, or haven't gotten around to yet, like the Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell miniseries that I'm waiting to watch until I finish the book).
The result has been that I'm watching a lot of stuff that I probably wouldn't otherwise, because there are a lot of movies I'll watch given the opportunity but don't really feel a need to seek out. Because of this, since giving up HBO, I've liked most of the movies I've seen. It's a little novel to watch movies that I'm "meh" about.
Here is what I've watched so far:
The Lego Movie -- This one was pretty fun! It wasn't something I was super interested in, but I really enjoyed how much detail went into it.
The Counselor -- I watched this because Michael Fassbender is in it and I like some of the things he's done. Yes, I remembered it got bad reviews, but I'm usually not that hard to please with movies, so I thought I'd give it a try. I didn't quite remember what the bad reviews had said. About fifteen minutes into the film, it dawned on me. 'Wait, is this that movie where reviewers complained about a gross scene where Cameron Diaz has sex with a car?' Yes, it was that movie. And yes, it was pretty weird. The whole movie was pretty weird, like a mix of sleaziness and misery porn. It felt like an exploitation flick. I'm not a fan. The cast was good, though.
The Fault In Our Stars -- I wasn't a huge fan of this, either. It wasn't bad, but I had some problems with it. I felt like it was trying a little too hard to be different and hip, while still ending up a bit predictable and cliched. Like, for what it is, I think it's pretty well-done. I just didn't find it very groundbreaking in the genre, except that it had a manic pixie dream guy instead of a manic pixie dream girl.
Gravity -- Thought it was very well-done. I can see why there was so much buzz about its special effects. This was a good movie to remind me of how terrifying I find space, though.
Girl, Interrupted -- I've actually seen this before, but it'd been years, so I decided to rewatch it. I have mixed feelings about this movie. I love the cast, and Angelina Jolie is great in it. I can't really begrudge it for taking some creative liberties with the memoir since the book is so episodic and doesn't really have a clear narrative. But it's kind of weird to watch presumably true stories turned into a more Hollywood-esque plot. And the film has an oddly different tone from the book. In the memoir, I feel like Susanna Kaysen comes across as much more conflicted about whether her diagnosis was correct, and the portrayal of psychiatry in the 1960's is more complex and cynical than in the movie (if I remember correctly, she says she was ultimately released only because she found a job on the outside). The movie is more about Susanna accepting that she has a problem and that she needs to work with the doctors to get better. It just feels like a strange way to deviate from the book, and it's hard to really buy into Susanna's success within the system when such a big point of book, I feel, is that the system back then over-relied on long-term, involuntary hospitalization and that the women did not have a lot of agency in their own treatment.
Edge of Tomorrow -- Really liked it! I didn't know how much I would since I don't care for Tom Cruise. But I thought it was great. It's the only one of these movies that I would probably watch again in the near future.
I still have a handful of things to watch, and several more scheduled to record. I will probably try to watch something tonight, but I have no idea what, yet.
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no subject
Date: 2015-08-29 08:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-01 03:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-31 11:04 pm (UTC)I've been half-meaning to re-watch Girl, Interrupted, as I don't know how much I took in back in the day. Having not read it, it's fascinating to hear about how they changed the focus of the story so much.
The Counselor - phew, better you than me, mate. Even Fassbo and Bardem couldn't entice me.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-01 03:08 am (UTC)I want to re-read the book now, because it's been years. I feel like the movie makes Lisa much more of an antagonist.
Yeah, I can't recommend The Counselor. I thought maybe I'd like it, because I like Prometheus, and that's pretty unpopular. But neither Fassbender nor the rest of the cast could save The Counselor. It has a really weird tone where it's trying so hard to be salacious and dramatic, to the point where it's really hard to take it seriously. It's like if a Tarantino movie cranked up the melodrama and tried to present itself as a serious drama about the evils of the drug trade.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-01 06:46 am (UTC)