Movies

Viewing Space

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I had contemplated seeing Project Hail Mary in theaters but preferred to wait and watch it in the comfort of my own home. This way I could control my own intermission. 🙂 At the beginning of July, it became available on Prime Video. I sat down to watch it all excited, and I turned it off after about 5 minutes of Ryan Gosling failing around.

Truth be told, when I first started reading the book this movie is based on, I didn’t care for it and stopped. Even tried a second time and didn’t get too much further. So I thought I should give the movie another shot. I started where I had left off, and after a minute or so, it segued to before when our protagonist was launched into space. He was a science teacher, and his teaching style seemed like he was failing around there too. Turned it off.

I had stumbled onto a YouTube video about Andor and it was being discussed as the best Star Wars property ever, a story for adults. So at lunch today, I restarted watching Episode One. That’s right, I had once, several months back, started to watch the series and quit on it halfway through the first episode. I backed up about 15 minutes and started. I just finished Episode Nine of the first season…

Star Wars

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This past April I started to rewatch the Star Wars movies. The original trilogy first and then the prequels (in B&W). But somehow I never got around to watching the sequels. I forgot all about this until today. While trolling YouTube for mindless time-wasting videos to kill some time, I stumbled on one that discussed the making of the originals.

Mindless? Yep, I’m pretty sure I didn’t learn anything. Time-wasting? You bet, it clocks in at over two and a half hours. Maybe tomorrow I’ll cue up the sequel trilogy, AKA the worst of the movies. I sense some black-and-white viewing.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 36.6%

 

It Was 51 Years Ago This Weekend

I just rewatched Jaws. This is a repeat of last year’s July Fourth post.

Donna and I had been paling around for a few months, watching movies at the base theater, going out for meals, etc. But for the Fourth of July weekend we planned a getaway trip to Pennsylvania, PA, to stay with Bob Brown, my old class leader at ‘B’ School back in Millington, TN, who was then stationed at Willow Grove. Bob and his wife Joanne had two teenaged daughters, so I slept on the couch and Donna bunked in with the girls.

I want to say it was on Saturday that all of us went out to see a movie. They have theorized that if you want to put your arm around a girl you would like to get closer to, just take her to a scary movie. That theorem proved true that day, because the movie we saw was Jaws. When Richard Dreyfuss’ character went down underwater to check on the boat he and Roy Scheider found, and that dead guy’s head popped out, BINGO, she grabbed my hand.

We both credit seeing this movie with cementing what was to become an almost 50-year-long love affair. We might have watched it a couple of times over the years, but it never was an annual thing. So today, it being the 50th anniversary and all, I rewatched it. I did kind of miss that hand, though.

On a side note, a dozen years later we both ended up working at the place that supplied the solenoid valves that operated the shark’s jaws, Automatic Switch Co.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 21.0%

 

Allergies?

Sniff, sniff. The last week or so whenever I’m out walking, my nose will get all stuffy, and my eyes will get a little teary. I don’t remember this problem in the spring before, and this is my third one here in the Portland area.

After a couple seconds I realized this is actually my first spring here. In 2023 I was hardly getting out of the house much, what with taking care of Donna. Last year I was gone on the big road trip from mid-April to mid-June. All three of my usual paths are typically lined on both sides with all these springy, flowery things. Maybe pop a Benadryl before heading out and/or some tissues.

Today’s evening movie showing was Life of Crime a movie based on an Elmore Leonard book…nuff said. Oh, and I restarted watching LOST yesterday. So far I’m just watching one episode a day, not like the 2 per day clip from before.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 17.9%

 

Thoroughbreds

Just another day in paradise. Today’s afternoon matinee was again on Amazon Prime and is billed as a crime/thriller with comedic undertones. Thoroughbreds is about two upper-class teenage girls in suburban Connecticut who rekindle their unlikely friendship and have a plan to solve one of their problems. IMDB says 6.6/10 and I’d bump it to a 7, I did not regret the hour and a half spent watching it. And I didn’t get teary-eyed at the end.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 23.2%

 

I’m Such A Girl

This could almost qualify to be included on the “Awkward Family Photos” website. Note Donna’s wet hair (and holy crap, ’80s glasses); she has probably just finished showering in the tub she and her sister Sandy are in while I am outside. I bet the original plan was we were all going to be in the tub, but the instant camera didn’t have a timer. I wonder what I’m using to push the shutter button? So, I guess I did have a Polaroid Swinger camera. I’ve stumbled on a bunch of them recently.

Today was just another typical day (maybe not it that order) for me. Until I went looking for a movie to watch this evening. I started at Prime Video and after watching a half dozen trailers, I settled a quirky little movie called Carrie Philby. It is a fish-out-of-water comedy/drama, and when it gets to the end, our protagonist finds herself, and someone to share it with. I actually got a little teary-eyed at the finale; I’m such a girl.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 17.4%

 

More Black And White

So, yesterday I watched Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, AKA Star Wars Episodes 2 & 3, again in black and white. First up was Attack of the Clones with its sappy romance between two actors with zero chemistry with each other and the sheer amount of screen-filling, fast-paced CGI just because they could. The lack of color did not help at all. After a dinner break I waded into Revenge of the Sith, where we get to watch the creation of big bad Darth Vader. Here is where Hayden Christensen did have chemistry; he really nails the angsty teen, pissed at the universe, persona. Still way too much excessive use of CGI to the point of distraction.

This afternoon I went ahead and cued up The Empire Strikes Back in B&W (remember I watched the OG Star Wars very recently). Stopped a little more than an hour into Episode five because the Red Sox game was starting. I’ll finish it after the game.

I wonder if I like this black and white thing because we didn’t get a color TV at home until I was almost thirteen?