Logging

A quick holiday movie and tv round up:

Rogue One - I enjoyed it, despite some flaws. Considerably better than The Force Awakens to my mind. Loved Donnie Yen and the other Chinese guy. His first action scene was incredible and he was better in this than Ip Man or Kung Fu Killer, the only other films I've seen of his. In general, a number of the side performances were good - including Forest Whitaker.

Westworld - I feel asleep 3 times in the finale and have yet to finish. The grand total of times this show put me to sleep - around 10-11, dwarfs all other shows combined, except perhaps Law and Order, which I used to watch as a young teen before going to bed. Nevertheless, most shows I would've dropped long before, but for some reason I stuck with Westworld. It proved to be a mistake.

Kung Fu Killer - a good bad idea executed like a CBS procedural. An example of a good bad idea executed exceptionally: Se7en. An example of a great bad idea executed alright: John Wick.

Lethal Hostage - already mentioned, but perhaps my favorite Chinese mainland film I've ever seen (not that I've seen many).

Operation Mekong - a Michael Bay-esque over the top action film based on real events. Some good set pieces and terrible acting (although also some decent acting).

La La Land - struck all the right poses to get attention from the coastal crowds, but delivered very little in the way of music. My god, it made me want to rewatch Funny Girl and nothing has ever made we want to do that. But seriously...in a musical, shouldn't there be good music? And/or a talented singer? Did I miss something about this genre? I mean Les Mis got away with one poor singer - Russell Crowe - but was otherwise built on strong musical numbers and talented other performers, but for the entire movie to be built around non-singers and bad song writing...I dunno, folks...I don't get this.

Moonlight - at first I thought this was a rip off of early David Gordon Green or late Terrence Malick, but it turned for the better. I liked the melodramatic stuff. That said, I couldn't finish it in one sitting (young children), but would like to...

Fences - this was the surprise of season for me. I got into it and am looking forward to finishing it.

Dead Snow - fun dyi movie

Two Lane Blacktop - Watching it now was the first time I really appreciated the film, but I think the first half is better than the second half.