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sarea
I have been watching all the things. And doing some cooking, too.
I am currently having a really brutal morning, beginning with the fact that I have a visit from Aunt Flo, and she has brought with her a lot of pain and fatigue. Like every third or fourth cycle, it is particularly fatiguing on the first day, to the point where I can nearly fall asleep at the wheel while driving to work. And today I can't even duck out early because I have a bunch of meetings. UGHGHGHGHGH. Meetings scheduled for Friday afternoon are THE WORST. All I want to do is go home and sleep forever. 나는 자고 싶어요! 너무 피곤해요!
Anyway, I'm hoping writing this entry will help me stay awake in between meetings.
On the diet and exercise front, things are going well/as expected. Though if truth be told, I was kind of hoping to make more dramatic progress during the first month, because I feel my habits are SO different from what they were before. It's, as previously mentioned, a little demoralizing to have improved my habits so drastically but not see a drastic change in results, but that said, I haven't been entirely rigid with my diet, either. I want it to be sustainable, so I don't deny myself treats here and there, and I am not nearly as restrictive with myself as I was when I first did this, many years ago. I am simply being more responsible with my choices, and at least thinking about what I decide to eat before I eat it. I have been exercising faithfully every day, including this brutal morning, so I really can't fault myself on the exercise front. However, it just adds to that sense of disappointment that I haven't seen dramatic changes, because seriously, compared to how I was before, it's like night and day! Sigh.
This weekend is the Super Bowl, and other than rooting for the Patriots to lose, I don't really care. Still, I'm using it as an excuse to make chili in the Instant Pot, which will be nice during this cold and rainy weather, and because I haven't made chili in a long time (and never in an Instant Pot). It's comfort food! I also have to put together a coffee table that I bought from someone at work. It might be a little too big for the space I have planned for it. >< I am the worst when it comes to measuring ahead of time for furniture I buy. :/ I just assume it's going to fit like how I see it in my head, and that doesn't always work out.
Okay, so on to the things I have watched recently. Due to MoviePass, I have seen a bunch of movies. :Djade_okelani and I have watched a few of the Oscar nominees, including the two which seem most likely to win, as well as some fun movies just because. Some years, I've already seen many of the Oscar-nominated films, or are at least interested in seeing most of them. This was one of those years in which I had only seen one (Dunkirk), and the others I either had never heard of or didn't have any interest in.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure - Mostly I wanted to see this in order to support Dylan O'Brien. :D I am so, so relieved that he has now recovered from his on-set injury, and the movie also seems to be doing very well at the box office, so yay. It's not the best movie in the world, nor had I expected it to be, but my bar was pretty low going in, so I was very pleasantly surprised. Maze Runner was one of those book series that I enjoyed... until it started going in a direction I did not like. And I hoped, hoped that the movie version would actually fix it, though I didn't have that much hope, because these days the movie versions of books seem to try and stay true to their source material. But happily, THEY DID FIX IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Basically, I shipped Thomas and Teresa, and from the outset, given that she was the only female introduced in The Maze Runner, assumed that's where the story was going, at least with regard to that relationship. So imagine my surprise when Teresa ends up betraying the group and a new female character, Brenda, is introduced in the second book, and she's who Thomas ends up with! What!!! NUH-UH. Maybe because this was written by a man, who doesn't understand these things, but YOU DO NOT DO THAT.
Teresa's "betrayal" wasn't even much of one, because all she did was stick to the original plan. Thomas is actually the one who does a double cross, because he was originally working for WCKD and once in the Maze, even after recovering his memories, decides to stick with the boys. And I'm fine with that, obviously. But it doesn't make Teresa evil. They just have different philosophies about what's right -- if you're a Scully, who will see the greater good in things, willing to sacrifice one person for the good of the world, or a Mulder, who will not lose sight of the person most important to him and is willing to sacrifice the world for that person to be okay. They both want good things; they just come at it with different values. Teresa wants to save the world; Thomas wants to save the Gladers. Neither of them are wrong.
In the books, Thomas never forgives Teresa's "betrayal," and he moves on with Brenda. That did not sit well with me. Movie!Thomas never forgets Teresa, and is torn when she's in danger. And it makes sense, because they had a history together. He loved her. And he is the type of person who will give his all for the people he loves, and that includes Teresa. Brenda is still a force in the movie; she's still there, and she's pretty damn awesome. She clearly cares about Thomas, but Thomas RIGHTFULLY does not reciprocate those feelings, at least not openly. The woman he loves is Teresa. AND THAT'S THE WAY IT SHOULD BE. Now, Teresa ends up dying, just as she does in the books, in order to save Thomas. I'm a little disappointed I didn't get my fairy tale ending, but I'm also okay with it. I'm also okay with Thomas eventually moving on with Brenda, given that this happened.
But it was GOOD and RIGHT that throughout the course of the movie, he *chooses* Teresa. That's all I needed them to fix, and they did!
Actually, there's a lot different about the movie from the book(s). The plot in the novels gets SUPER convoluted; the movie streamlines it. And while for something like Harry Potter I didn't enjoy their simplifications because the original text was great as is; for Maze Runner, it desperately needed the deft touch of a screenwriter to make things UNDERSTANDABLE.
So PROPS, script writer, props.
Disaster Artist - It is a travesty that this movie was not nominated for Best Pic, because it's what deserves it the most. It was fascinating and hilariously funny. I can only assume it wasn't nominated, despite winning the Golden Globe for Best Comedy, because Hollywood cannot stand the idea of giving an Oscar to a movie about someone they deem(ed) not worthy of being in their ranks. James Franco is a weirdo, but also a genius. For every really dumb movie he makes, he also makes something equally amazing, like 187 Hours, or Disaster Artist, or even Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I loved watching him and Dave Franco act together; after the first few scenes, I totally forgot they were even brothers.
The Shape of Water - This is apparently the leading contender for Best Pic, and I cannot support this. It was beautifully shot; the look and feel was top notch. For a good half of the movie, possibly more, I really loved it. And then it went downhill.
- I just could not go there with the merman romance thing. I was good with it being about two lost souls who struck up a friendship and mutual respect, but when it got into the territory of Elisa having to describe to Zelda how the merman's anatomy worked so that they could have sex, I was like, this has gone somewhere I cannot follow.
- My two favorite characters in the whole thing were Zelda (played by Octavia Spencer) and Dimitri (played by Michael Stuhlbarg). Zelda they mostly did right by. Dimitri, I had issues with what they did at the end. He was smart enough to know that his comrades were potentially there to kill him when they visited his apartment, and then he cluelessly went to meet them when he was being extracted, without any precautions?! This was basically all to facilitate his dying, so that Strickland could torture him into giving up the fact that it was Zelda and Elisa who had escaped with the merman. But I also have a problem with that! Dimitri was a scientist first. He was a Russian spy willing to risk everything in order for a majestic creature to survive (I really loved that he was a Russian spy btw. Turning that on its head into his being the one person who could help Elisa/the merman was awesome); why the HELL would he give them up when he was dying? There's no fucking way. It was just lazy storytelling, so that Strickland could then track down the women.
- Elisa was fine until she started doing really stupid shit. 1) Filling her bathroom with water. First of fucking all, she is supposed to be hiding him from forces that want to destroy him. Maybe don't do things that will inevitably draw attention to both you and him?! Second of all, there is NO FUCKING WAY towels could possibly create a tight enough seal to actually fill up a bathroom that way. Third of all, she hadn't put any salt in there, so all that fresh water should have killed him! 2) The scientist who helped her told her specifically that she needed to feed the merman raw protein, and yet ALL SHE GAVE HIM WERE EGGS!!!!!!! Cooked eggs! When he started to get sick maybe they should have considered his diet first! 3) When she was escaping with him, and planning down to the detail of how the truck was going to get them out of the building and all that, she did not once consider how the fuck she was going to get him out of those chains??? It would have NOT WORKED AT ALL if Dimitri hadn't been there to hand her the keys to the chains. Like WTF? How could you not have even considered how you were going to do that, other than ineffectually pull on them and hope that they gave way? 4) Once they were being actively chased, it was SO DUMB to have a this super long goodbye scene, just so Strickland could catch up and shoot them.
- The homophobic racist diner guy was laughably heavy handed.
- It's really a shame because I liked the movie so much at first, and then it started doing really lazy, bad things that turned it into something dumb rather than magical. Clearly I am in the minority of people who feel this way, given that it's the leading contender for Best Pic. Ugh.
Jumanji - This was the perfect movie to see with MoviePass. It's the type of movie I'd never pay actual money to see, and yet it looked enjoyable enough that I would probably like it. So with MoviePass, I have the perfect freedom to see it without feeling like I'm wasting money. It was pretty much what I expected and wanted. Kevin Hart was hilarious, and in general the video game actor crew was great. Jack Black as Bethany was freakin' awesome. I really like Karen Gillan, and I liked their "women are powerful" theme, but honestly, at the end of the day she was the only female, and she was in a skimpy outfit. So. I liked that Alex went back to his own time and we didn't get Bethany/Alex, which would have been too perfect. The ending is sort of the perfect example of something being bittersweet. Bethany was the WORST, but she had a better redemption arc than Fridge, who was really only likable because he was played by Kevin Hart.
Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri - Oh man, I loved this one so much. It definitely has my vote for Best Pic. Seems like it's the second-most-likely contender, but as far as I'm concerned, it's a crime if it actually loses to The Shape of Water. It's looking like Frances McDormand is going to get another Oscar, and Sam Rockwell will get his first. AND THEY ARE BOTH SO WELL DESERVED. The redemption arc for Dixon came insanely fast, especially considering the fact that when he's beating up Caleb Landry Jones and throwing him out the window, you're thinking to yourself that there is no one more despicable than Dixon, that you hate his guts, etc. etc. And then somehow they manage to turn it all around, and he becomes this unlikely hero. And it's weird, too, because when Woody Harrelson's character kills himself, I thought, oh maybe Dixon will redeem himself and help Mildred catch her daughter's rapist and murderer -- and then he did what he did to Red and I thought, NEVER FUCKING MIND. But then it happens anyway, when I would have thought it was impossible! I really, really loved one of Dixon's last lines: "Well, who the fuck else would have done it?" and both of their reactions to that. I honestly wanted the movie to go on for another two hours, with Mildred and Dixon going to that guy's house, maybe or maybe not murdering him, and eventually finding Angela's killer. It's fascinating, because had Chief Willoughby not died, the movie would have had to have been about finding out what happened to Angela. But because he was the Ned Stark of the piece, it changed the complexion of what the movie was about entirely... which is similar to Game of Thrones, too. Anyway, just an all-around fantastic movie.
Coco: I had never even heard of this movie before Jade suggested a few days ago, lol. I don't know how Pixar does it every time, where they can tell a heartwarming story about family in a mostly unique way that reduces me to a sobbing mess. LOL. I really enjoyed this one, even though going in I knew next to nothing about Los Dios de los Muertos.
WHEW! That is a lot of movies. :D Because of MoviePass I'm also now Ruby status with Regal Rewards, and all the points I'm racking up will go toward movie treats I'm not allowed to eat and tickets I no longer need to buy! LOL. Maybe for a treat one day I will have a popcorn. I don't know why movie popcorn with that fake butter is so delicious, but it is. :/
Now, when it comes to drama watching, mostly I have finished things that I was already watching, only one thing here is new.
- Strongest Deliveryman: I love Go Kyung Po, and I like a nice-guy hero, and I generally liked the story, but it was simply ridiculous that he would have been responsible for everything that they gave him responsibility for. Why in the world would a delivery guy be in charge of finding local produce for the restaurants to use? Or to find the culprit who switched the products with imports? At what point are those useless restaurateurs supposed to step up and help with their own livelihoods? Instead, they were mainly assholes. And because GKP stepped up all the time, and was the strong one, for most of the show, when he gave up it was particularly disappointing. That's the problem with a hero like this; he starts out doing the right thing, so later when he does the wrong thing, it's a disappointment because YOU KNOW HE KNOWS BETTER. Whereas with a more traditional hero, his character grows throughout the course of the story, so that at the critical time, he can step up. And that is simply more satisfying to watch than someone who's stepped up this whole time, and then gives up as his defining moment (only to step up again, of course). Watching someone who supposedly cares about all these people, his friends, his community, give up on them and himself is super demoralizing, and made me like him LESS, not more.
- I'm Not a Robot: I don't know why Korean dramas find it so hard to end things in a super satisfying way, when they know from the start how many episodes they have to work with and in theory have a story arc in mind. But once again, a K-drama goes out with a whimper rather than a bang. It wasn't bad; it just wasn't as good as it could have or should have been. The show peaked at ep 28, I think. A lot of things still needed to be resolved at that point, but those resolutions happened so easily and quickly over the next four eps that it didn't seem like they were really done all that well. And the trope of having the hero and heroine separated for two years after their happy ever after -- so they can get their real happy ever after -- seemed totally out of place in this show. However, for the first time ever (that I've seen) it was explicitly because he did his military service.
- Shopping King Louis: Still in the middle of this one. I'm enjoying it a lot, though I keep picturing Sungjae in SIG's role. :/ DAMN IT, 성재. He's just conked his head again, though, so he better not have gotten amnesia AGAIN. I really hate the dad and the daughter, and hope they get jail time for what they did. The dad maybe, the daughter almost certainly not. I mean, she likely wasn't involved in the hit on Louis, but her willingness to keep him in the dark and deceive her grandmother, just for greed, makes her pretty despicable. I don't know if there's a legal case there, but it seems almost certain that she's going to either get together with the director (more than she deserves) or In-sung (still more than she deserves, but closer). The guy playing the director is still a horrible choice for a second lead, and I do not understand why he was cast. More than anyone, I really want the mom to get together with the cop, teehee. SHE DESERVES IT. She's way more decent than either her husband or her daughter, and she needs to divorce her husband and be with the handsome cop who's nice to her. I really, really, REALLY hope we get a satisfying resolution there.
- Descendants of the Sun: I've decided to quit this drama. I've given it a fair chance; I finished ep 12. I cannot watch 6 more episodes of it. IT GOES NOWHERE. The plot and the relationships never seem to actually go anywhere. It's the same push-and-pull cycle in every. single. freaking. ep. I'm not particularly fond of the main heroine, and even though I love Song Joong-ki, even he cannot keep me interested. Maybe it's all of the overly drawn-out speeches in English that his character is forced to have, maybe it's the fact that he keeps having to save her stupid, headstrong, reckless ass (she reminds me of Bella from the Twilight series), whatever it is, I'm not into their relationship and I'm not into the story. I like the secondary pairing a lot more; I love the actress, and the actor is okay. But they, too, suffer from the same boring cycle of we will-we won't that is plain TIRESOME. Both of these couples are constantly sort-of getting together and then breaking up again, and all the manufactured angst is not believable nor compelling. I mean, clearly I'm an outlier here, because many people loved this show (as they did Goblin, the other universally loved show that I did not enjoy). But whatever. I'm DONE with it.
- Travelers: God, this show. It makes me so insane, and yet the story/plotline is compelling enough that I can't make myself stop watching. I just finished S2. Seriously, other than Trevor and Phillip, I want them all to DIAF. These people are all in contention for the distinction of what I am calling The Britta Award:
McLaren: He's the fucking leader and yet he breaks protocols LEFT AND RIGHT. And he expects everyone to follow the protocols, except when they apply to him. He has NO RIGHT to ever expect or ask anyone else to follow protocol, when he's broken like every single one of them, including the one to not procreate!! God I hate him. I also super hate his wife, but I think it's mostly because I can't stand the actress.
Marcy: I am so fucking sick of Marcy nearly killing herself, not because she does this weird experimental shit, but because she always DOES IT ALONE. It's so fucking dumb. And I do not care about her relationship with David AT ALL. I like them both okay separately, but the show realllllly wants me to be into their romance and I'M NOT.
Carly: I hate Carly less than I did before, but she's definitely still not one of my favorites. It's fucking baffling how the show has insisted on making her abusive ex-husband a feature of the show, and to constantly force them into close quarters, and to even have them start to develop a maybe relationship? It's fucking INSANE! This creep should DIE. Or at least be exposed for the abusive asshole he is, and be put away.
Phillip: I really hate that his role as "the addict" is just reinforced over and over again by contrivances. Oh, have these eye drops! Oh, get a history download, but in order to manage the side effects, you have to take these pills! It's just so dumb.
Grace: I like Grace for the most part, because she's a breath of fresh air... but she can also be really grating at times.
Trevor: The best one.
I have no fucking idea what happened in the S2 finale. Were we SUPPOSED to understand it? So Traveler 001 switched bodies into the psychologist woman, okay, I get that. But what happened to Enrico Colantoni?? Why was he comatose/dead? Did he then get overwritten by the Director when he went on the webcam? But how could he have, if he was dead?
There's also no seeming logic to what they know in the future vs what happens in the past. In theory, IT'S THE FUTURE, so they should already know everything that happened. In which case, why would the Director bother to overwrite 001 in the first place, when by the time of the Director's existence, it would already know that 001 was no longer in that body?
All the contradictions of time travel rear its head when it comes to this show, ugh.
WTF happened to Simon?
Am I supposed to care that everyone now knows? Why the fuck would they have captured Grace instead of one of Trevor's parents? Why would they have captured the stupid lawyer guy, who has barely been a presence in recent times, rather than the girl who played Jenny, or pretty much, ANY RANDOM PERSON? I don't see why Phillip would give that much of a shit about that guy. How could Carly let Jeff tell her off about not knowing who she is and being unsafe around Jeffrey Jr, WHEN HE IS A FREAKING HISTORICAL MURDERER?! Christ, this show is frustrating.
- The Great British Baking Show: I finished S1 and have just started S2. I liked the S1 bakers a LOT more. The S2 bakers are constantly injuring themselves, making stupid mistakes, and also don't seem to be as nice and supportive toward one another as the S1 bakers were. My only issue with S1 was that the person I wanted to win, didn't. In fact, I thought the person who won should have finished 3rd overall, but whatever. Richard. I wanted Richard to win. And if not him, then Luis. But Nancy?! Ugh, I don't know how she made it to the final to begin with! That said, I still like Nancy way more than any of the S2 bakers.
- Rebel, Thief of the People: I've only finished the pilot of this sageuk, but I like it so far. I've only actually seen the adult main characters for a few brief moments; I wasn't into the male lead, and the female lead is, once again, Chae Soo-bin. She's apparently in everything these days. This is another one where I'm going off the rec of Drama Beans.
As for food, I have made:
- Croissants: I tried the shortcut version shown on Food Wishes. It actually turned out fairly well! They didn't look perfect, but they tasted great. I made both plain croissants and ham/cheese croissants. The only problem was that even though I only baked a half batch, it still made 8 croissants, and we could not finish them in a day. Yet after the first day, they lose their crunch and basically turn into highly caloric dinner rolls.
- Parmesan cheese crisps: I had a huge tub of Parm in the fridge because Costco. I can't even remember what I purchased it for, and wasn't sure what to do with them. And then I thought -- of course! Delicious cheese crisps! They were super easy to make and are extremely delicious. Not so great for the diet, though.
- Murgh makhani (Indian butter chicken): Made this in the Instant Pot using chicken drumsticks, and it turned out really well. However, I think it was definitely excessive with the butter. I'm going to try a different recipe at some point that will hopefully be more aromatic and less buttery.
- Chana masala: Also made in the Instant Pot! I even made my own chana masala powder, which required roasting a bunch of different spices. However, the end result was AWESOME. I've always said that if I had to become a vegetarian, I could maybe do it with Indian food.
Subject line: From The Disaster Artist, but first from The Room.
I am currently having a really brutal morning, beginning with the fact that I have a visit from Aunt Flo, and she has brought with her a lot of pain and fatigue. Like every third or fourth cycle, it is particularly fatiguing on the first day, to the point where I can nearly fall asleep at the wheel while driving to work. And today I can't even duck out early because I have a bunch of meetings. UGHGHGHGHGH. Meetings scheduled for Friday afternoon are THE WORST. All I want to do is go home and sleep forever. 나는 자고 싶어요! 너무 피곤해요!
Anyway, I'm hoping writing this entry will help me stay awake in between meetings.
On the diet and exercise front, things are going well/as expected. Though if truth be told, I was kind of hoping to make more dramatic progress during the first month, because I feel my habits are SO different from what they were before. It's, as previously mentioned, a little demoralizing to have improved my habits so drastically but not see a drastic change in results, but that said, I haven't been entirely rigid with my diet, either. I want it to be sustainable, so I don't deny myself treats here and there, and I am not nearly as restrictive with myself as I was when I first did this, many years ago. I am simply being more responsible with my choices, and at least thinking about what I decide to eat before I eat it. I have been exercising faithfully every day, including this brutal morning, so I really can't fault myself on the exercise front. However, it just adds to that sense of disappointment that I haven't seen dramatic changes, because seriously, compared to how I was before, it's like night and day! Sigh.
This weekend is the Super Bowl, and other than rooting for the Patriots to lose, I don't really care. Still, I'm using it as an excuse to make chili in the Instant Pot, which will be nice during this cold and rainy weather, and because I haven't made chili in a long time (and never in an Instant Pot). It's comfort food! I also have to put together a coffee table that I bought from someone at work. It might be a little too big for the space I have planned for it. >< I am the worst when it comes to measuring ahead of time for furniture I buy. :/ I just assume it's going to fit like how I see it in my head, and that doesn't always work out.
Okay, so on to the things I have watched recently. Due to MoviePass, I have seen a bunch of movies. :D
jade_okelani and I have watched a few of the Oscar nominees, including the two which seem most likely to win, as well as some fun movies just because. Some years, I've already seen many of the Oscar-nominated films, or are at least interested in seeing most of them. This was one of those years in which I had only seen one (Dunkirk), and the others I either had never heard of or didn't have any interest in.Maze Runner: The Death Cure - Mostly I wanted to see this in order to support Dylan O'Brien. :D I am so, so relieved that he has now recovered from his on-set injury, and the movie also seems to be doing very well at the box office, so yay. It's not the best movie in the world, nor had I expected it to be, but my bar was pretty low going in, so I was very pleasantly surprised. Maze Runner was one of those book series that I enjoyed... until it started going in a direction I did not like. And I hoped, hoped that the movie version would actually fix it, though I didn't have that much hope, because these days the movie versions of books seem to try and stay true to their source material. But happily, THEY DID FIX IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Basically, I shipped Thomas and Teresa, and from the outset, given that she was the only female introduced in The Maze Runner, assumed that's where the story was going, at least with regard to that relationship. So imagine my surprise when Teresa ends up betraying the group and a new female character, Brenda, is introduced in the second book, and she's who Thomas ends up with! What!!! NUH-UH. Maybe because this was written by a man, who doesn't understand these things, but YOU DO NOT DO THAT.
Teresa's "betrayal" wasn't even much of one, because all she did was stick to the original plan. Thomas is actually the one who does a double cross, because he was originally working for WCKD and once in the Maze, even after recovering his memories, decides to stick with the boys. And I'm fine with that, obviously. But it doesn't make Teresa evil. They just have different philosophies about what's right -- if you're a Scully, who will see the greater good in things, willing to sacrifice one person for the good of the world, or a Mulder, who will not lose sight of the person most important to him and is willing to sacrifice the world for that person to be okay. They both want good things; they just come at it with different values. Teresa wants to save the world; Thomas wants to save the Gladers. Neither of them are wrong.
In the books, Thomas never forgives Teresa's "betrayal," and he moves on with Brenda. That did not sit well with me. Movie!Thomas never forgets Teresa, and is torn when she's in danger. And it makes sense, because they had a history together. He loved her. And he is the type of person who will give his all for the people he loves, and that includes Teresa. Brenda is still a force in the movie; she's still there, and she's pretty damn awesome. She clearly cares about Thomas, but Thomas RIGHTFULLY does not reciprocate those feelings, at least not openly. The woman he loves is Teresa. AND THAT'S THE WAY IT SHOULD BE. Now, Teresa ends up dying, just as she does in the books, in order to save Thomas. I'm a little disappointed I didn't get my fairy tale ending, but I'm also okay with it. I'm also okay with Thomas eventually moving on with Brenda, given that this happened.
But it was GOOD and RIGHT that throughout the course of the movie, he *chooses* Teresa. That's all I needed them to fix, and they did!
Actually, there's a lot different about the movie from the book(s). The plot in the novels gets SUPER convoluted; the movie streamlines it. And while for something like Harry Potter I didn't enjoy their simplifications because the original text was great as is; for Maze Runner, it desperately needed the deft touch of a screenwriter to make things UNDERSTANDABLE.
So PROPS, script writer, props.
Disaster Artist - It is a travesty that this movie was not nominated for Best Pic, because it's what deserves it the most. It was fascinating and hilariously funny. I can only assume it wasn't nominated, despite winning the Golden Globe for Best Comedy, because Hollywood cannot stand the idea of giving an Oscar to a movie about someone they deem(ed) not worthy of being in their ranks. James Franco is a weirdo, but also a genius. For every really dumb movie he makes, he also makes something equally amazing, like 187 Hours, or Disaster Artist, or even Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I loved watching him and Dave Franco act together; after the first few scenes, I totally forgot they were even brothers.
The Shape of Water - This is apparently the leading contender for Best Pic, and I cannot support this. It was beautifully shot; the look and feel was top notch. For a good half of the movie, possibly more, I really loved it. And then it went downhill.
- I just could not go there with the merman romance thing. I was good with it being about two lost souls who struck up a friendship and mutual respect, but when it got into the territory of Elisa having to describe to Zelda how the merman's anatomy worked so that they could have sex, I was like, this has gone somewhere I cannot follow.
- My two favorite characters in the whole thing were Zelda (played by Octavia Spencer) and Dimitri (played by Michael Stuhlbarg). Zelda they mostly did right by. Dimitri, I had issues with what they did at the end. He was smart enough to know that his comrades were potentially there to kill him when they visited his apartment, and then he cluelessly went to meet them when he was being extracted, without any precautions?! This was basically all to facilitate his dying, so that Strickland could torture him into giving up the fact that it was Zelda and Elisa who had escaped with the merman. But I also have a problem with that! Dimitri was a scientist first. He was a Russian spy willing to risk everything in order for a majestic creature to survive (I really loved that he was a Russian spy btw. Turning that on its head into his being the one person who could help Elisa/the merman was awesome); why the HELL would he give them up when he was dying? There's no fucking way. It was just lazy storytelling, so that Strickland could then track down the women.
- Elisa was fine until she started doing really stupid shit. 1) Filling her bathroom with water. First of fucking all, she is supposed to be hiding him from forces that want to destroy him. Maybe don't do things that will inevitably draw attention to both you and him?! Second of all, there is NO FUCKING WAY towels could possibly create a tight enough seal to actually fill up a bathroom that way. Third of all, she hadn't put any salt in there, so all that fresh water should have killed him! 2) The scientist who helped her told her specifically that she needed to feed the merman raw protein, and yet ALL SHE GAVE HIM WERE EGGS!!!!!!! Cooked eggs! When he started to get sick maybe they should have considered his diet first! 3) When she was escaping with him, and planning down to the detail of how the truck was going to get them out of the building and all that, she did not once consider how the fuck she was going to get him out of those chains??? It would have NOT WORKED AT ALL if Dimitri hadn't been there to hand her the keys to the chains. Like WTF? How could you not have even considered how you were going to do that, other than ineffectually pull on them and hope that they gave way? 4) Once they were being actively chased, it was SO DUMB to have a this super long goodbye scene, just so Strickland could catch up and shoot them.
- The homophobic racist diner guy was laughably heavy handed.
- It's really a shame because I liked the movie so much at first, and then it started doing really lazy, bad things that turned it into something dumb rather than magical. Clearly I am in the minority of people who feel this way, given that it's the leading contender for Best Pic. Ugh.
Jumanji - This was the perfect movie to see with MoviePass. It's the type of movie I'd never pay actual money to see, and yet it looked enjoyable enough that I would probably like it. So with MoviePass, I have the perfect freedom to see it without feeling like I'm wasting money. It was pretty much what I expected and wanted. Kevin Hart was hilarious, and in general the video game actor crew was great. Jack Black as Bethany was freakin' awesome. I really like Karen Gillan, and I liked their "women are powerful" theme, but honestly, at the end of the day she was the only female, and she was in a skimpy outfit. So. I liked that Alex went back to his own time and we didn't get Bethany/Alex, which would have been too perfect. The ending is sort of the perfect example of something being bittersweet. Bethany was the WORST, but she had a better redemption arc than Fridge, who was really only likable because he was played by Kevin Hart.
Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri - Oh man, I loved this one so much. It definitely has my vote for Best Pic. Seems like it's the second-most-likely contender, but as far as I'm concerned, it's a crime if it actually loses to The Shape of Water. It's looking like Frances McDormand is going to get another Oscar, and Sam Rockwell will get his first. AND THEY ARE BOTH SO WELL DESERVED. The redemption arc for Dixon came insanely fast, especially considering the fact that when he's beating up Caleb Landry Jones and throwing him out the window, you're thinking to yourself that there is no one more despicable than Dixon, that you hate his guts, etc. etc. And then somehow they manage to turn it all around, and he becomes this unlikely hero. And it's weird, too, because when Woody Harrelson's character kills himself, I thought, oh maybe Dixon will redeem himself and help Mildred catch her daughter's rapist and murderer -- and then he did what he did to Red and I thought, NEVER FUCKING MIND. But then it happens anyway, when I would have thought it was impossible! I really, really loved one of Dixon's last lines: "Well, who the fuck else would have done it?" and both of their reactions to that. I honestly wanted the movie to go on for another two hours, with Mildred and Dixon going to that guy's house, maybe or maybe not murdering him, and eventually finding Angela's killer. It's fascinating, because had Chief Willoughby not died, the movie would have had to have been about finding out what happened to Angela. But because he was the Ned Stark of the piece, it changed the complexion of what the movie was about entirely... which is similar to Game of Thrones, too. Anyway, just an all-around fantastic movie.
Coco: I had never even heard of this movie before Jade suggested a few days ago, lol. I don't know how Pixar does it every time, where they can tell a heartwarming story about family in a mostly unique way that reduces me to a sobbing mess. LOL. I really enjoyed this one, even though going in I knew next to nothing about Los Dios de los Muertos.
WHEW! That is a lot of movies. :D Because of MoviePass I'm also now Ruby status with Regal Rewards, and all the points I'm racking up will go toward movie treats I'm not allowed to eat and tickets I no longer need to buy! LOL. Maybe for a treat one day I will have a popcorn. I don't know why movie popcorn with that fake butter is so delicious, but it is. :/
Now, when it comes to drama watching, mostly I have finished things that I was already watching, only one thing here is new.
- Strongest Deliveryman: I love Go Kyung Po, and I like a nice-guy hero, and I generally liked the story, but it was simply ridiculous that he would have been responsible for everything that they gave him responsibility for. Why in the world would a delivery guy be in charge of finding local produce for the restaurants to use? Or to find the culprit who switched the products with imports? At what point are those useless restaurateurs supposed to step up and help with their own livelihoods? Instead, they were mainly assholes. And because GKP stepped up all the time, and was the strong one, for most of the show, when he gave up it was particularly disappointing. That's the problem with a hero like this; he starts out doing the right thing, so later when he does the wrong thing, it's a disappointment because YOU KNOW HE KNOWS BETTER. Whereas with a more traditional hero, his character grows throughout the course of the story, so that at the critical time, he can step up. And that is simply more satisfying to watch than someone who's stepped up this whole time, and then gives up as his defining moment (only to step up again, of course). Watching someone who supposedly cares about all these people, his friends, his community, give up on them and himself is super demoralizing, and made me like him LESS, not more.
- I'm Not a Robot: I don't know why Korean dramas find it so hard to end things in a super satisfying way, when they know from the start how many episodes they have to work with and in theory have a story arc in mind. But once again, a K-drama goes out with a whimper rather than a bang. It wasn't bad; it just wasn't as good as it could have or should have been. The show peaked at ep 28, I think. A lot of things still needed to be resolved at that point, but those resolutions happened so easily and quickly over the next four eps that it didn't seem like they were really done all that well. And the trope of having the hero and heroine separated for two years after their happy ever after -- so they can get their real happy ever after -- seemed totally out of place in this show. However, for the first time ever (that I've seen) it was explicitly because he did his military service.
- Shopping King Louis: Still in the middle of this one. I'm enjoying it a lot, though I keep picturing Sungjae in SIG's role. :/ DAMN IT, 성재. He's just conked his head again, though, so he better not have gotten amnesia AGAIN. I really hate the dad and the daughter, and hope they get jail time for what they did. The dad maybe, the daughter almost certainly not. I mean, she likely wasn't involved in the hit on Louis, but her willingness to keep him in the dark and deceive her grandmother, just for greed, makes her pretty despicable. I don't know if there's a legal case there, but it seems almost certain that she's going to either get together with the director (more than she deserves) or In-sung (still more than she deserves, but closer). The guy playing the director is still a horrible choice for a second lead, and I do not understand why he was cast. More than anyone, I really want the mom to get together with the cop, teehee. SHE DESERVES IT. She's way more decent than either her husband or her daughter, and she needs to divorce her husband and be with the handsome cop who's nice to her. I really, really, REALLY hope we get a satisfying resolution there.
- Descendants of the Sun: I've decided to quit this drama. I've given it a fair chance; I finished ep 12. I cannot watch 6 more episodes of it. IT GOES NOWHERE. The plot and the relationships never seem to actually go anywhere. It's the same push-and-pull cycle in every. single. freaking. ep. I'm not particularly fond of the main heroine, and even though I love Song Joong-ki, even he cannot keep me interested. Maybe it's all of the overly drawn-out speeches in English that his character is forced to have, maybe it's the fact that he keeps having to save her stupid, headstrong, reckless ass (she reminds me of Bella from the Twilight series), whatever it is, I'm not into their relationship and I'm not into the story. I like the secondary pairing a lot more; I love the actress, and the actor is okay. But they, too, suffer from the same boring cycle of we will-we won't that is plain TIRESOME. Both of these couples are constantly sort-of getting together and then breaking up again, and all the manufactured angst is not believable nor compelling. I mean, clearly I'm an outlier here, because many people loved this show (as they did Goblin, the other universally loved show that I did not enjoy). But whatever. I'm DONE with it.
- Travelers: God, this show. It makes me so insane, and yet the story/plotline is compelling enough that I can't make myself stop watching. I just finished S2. Seriously, other than Trevor and Phillip, I want them all to DIAF. These people are all in contention for the distinction of what I am calling The Britta Award:
McLaren: He's the fucking leader and yet he breaks protocols LEFT AND RIGHT. And he expects everyone to follow the protocols, except when they apply to him. He has NO RIGHT to ever expect or ask anyone else to follow protocol, when he's broken like every single one of them, including the one to not procreate!! God I hate him. I also super hate his wife, but I think it's mostly because I can't stand the actress.
Marcy: I am so fucking sick of Marcy nearly killing herself, not because she does this weird experimental shit, but because she always DOES IT ALONE. It's so fucking dumb. And I do not care about her relationship with David AT ALL. I like them both okay separately, but the show realllllly wants me to be into their romance and I'M NOT.
Carly: I hate Carly less than I did before, but she's definitely still not one of my favorites. It's fucking baffling how the show has insisted on making her abusive ex-husband a feature of the show, and to constantly force them into close quarters, and to even have them start to develop a maybe relationship? It's fucking INSANE! This creep should DIE. Or at least be exposed for the abusive asshole he is, and be put away.
Phillip: I really hate that his role as "the addict" is just reinforced over and over again by contrivances. Oh, have these eye drops! Oh, get a history download, but in order to manage the side effects, you have to take these pills! It's just so dumb.
Grace: I like Grace for the most part, because she's a breath of fresh air... but she can also be really grating at times.
Trevor: The best one.
I have no fucking idea what happened in the S2 finale. Were we SUPPOSED to understand it? So Traveler 001 switched bodies into the psychologist woman, okay, I get that. But what happened to Enrico Colantoni?? Why was he comatose/dead? Did he then get overwritten by the Director when he went on the webcam? But how could he have, if he was dead?
There's also no seeming logic to what they know in the future vs what happens in the past. In theory, IT'S THE FUTURE, so they should already know everything that happened. In which case, why would the Director bother to overwrite 001 in the first place, when by the time of the Director's existence, it would already know that 001 was no longer in that body?
All the contradictions of time travel rear its head when it comes to this show, ugh.
WTF happened to Simon?
Am I supposed to care that everyone now knows? Why the fuck would they have captured Grace instead of one of Trevor's parents? Why would they have captured the stupid lawyer guy, who has barely been a presence in recent times, rather than the girl who played Jenny, or pretty much, ANY RANDOM PERSON? I don't see why Phillip would give that much of a shit about that guy. How could Carly let Jeff tell her off about not knowing who she is and being unsafe around Jeffrey Jr, WHEN HE IS A FREAKING HISTORICAL MURDERER?! Christ, this show is frustrating.
- The Great British Baking Show: I finished S1 and have just started S2. I liked the S1 bakers a LOT more. The S2 bakers are constantly injuring themselves, making stupid mistakes, and also don't seem to be as nice and supportive toward one another as the S1 bakers were. My only issue with S1 was that the person I wanted to win, didn't. In fact, I thought the person who won should have finished 3rd overall, but whatever. Richard. I wanted Richard to win. And if not him, then Luis. But Nancy?! Ugh, I don't know how she made it to the final to begin with! That said, I still like Nancy way more than any of the S2 bakers.
- Rebel, Thief of the People: I've only finished the pilot of this sageuk, but I like it so far. I've only actually seen the adult main characters for a few brief moments; I wasn't into the male lead, and the female lead is, once again, Chae Soo-bin. She's apparently in everything these days. This is another one where I'm going off the rec of Drama Beans.
As for food, I have made:
- Croissants: I tried the shortcut version shown on Food Wishes. It actually turned out fairly well! They didn't look perfect, but they tasted great. I made both plain croissants and ham/cheese croissants. The only problem was that even though I only baked a half batch, it still made 8 croissants, and we could not finish them in a day. Yet after the first day, they lose their crunch and basically turn into highly caloric dinner rolls.
- Parmesan cheese crisps: I had a huge tub of Parm in the fridge because Costco. I can't even remember what I purchased it for, and wasn't sure what to do with them. And then I thought -- of course! Delicious cheese crisps! They were super easy to make and are extremely delicious. Not so great for the diet, though.
- Murgh makhani (Indian butter chicken): Made this in the Instant Pot using chicken drumsticks, and it turned out really well. However, I think it was definitely excessive with the butter. I'm going to try a different recipe at some point that will hopefully be more aromatic and less buttery.
- Chana masala: Also made in the Instant Pot! I even made my own chana masala powder, which required roasting a bunch of different spices. However, the end result was AWESOME. I've always said that if I had to become a vegetarian, I could maybe do it with Indian food.
Subject line: From The Disaster Artist, but first from The Room.
Tags:
- hobby: cooking,
- kitchen equipment: instant pot,
- movie: coco,
- movie: disaster artist,
- movie: jumanji,
- movie: maze runner,
- movie: the shape of water,
- movie: three billboards outside ebbing m,
- tv show: descendants of the sun,
- tv show: i'm not a robot,
- tv show: rebel thief of the people,
- tv show: shopping king louie,
- tv show: strongest deliveryman,
- tv show: the great british baking show,
- tv show: travelers
no subject
Date: 2018-02-03 01:57 am (UTC)Let me know if you'd like it. It uses the Instant Pot.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-03 02:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-03 10:16 pm (UTC)(It makes enough sauce for one meal and then enough sauce for another meal, so that four ounces of cream and four ounces of butter is well stretched. I also end up adding a lot more chicken and rice.)
no subject
Date: 2018-02-04 12:09 am (UTC)