Author: Shmee

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Shmee Catches The Midnight Special!

Have you been thinking there have not been enough 80ish Spielbergian movies made recently?  Well apparently Jeff Nichols felt that way so he made Midnight Special.  While Midnight Special has nothing to do with a southern midnight prison train, it is very good, and it seems right at home in today’s media climate with shows like Stranger Things on the air.

I don’t wish to give away any of the plot, but it revolves around a man (Michael Shannon) trying to get his son (Jaeden Lieberher) to Tallahassee with the help of his friend (Joel Edgerton), and his son is not quite normal.  Intrigued? I hope so.

Even though Midnight Special is Sci-Fi, it is really a road trip drama, so special effects are used sparingly, but when effects are used they create more awe than if they were used all the time like in other films.  The writing is what makes this all work.  You can tell they are a family on the run, and they are doing whatever they can to get to where they are going for the sake of their son.

Dramas fall flat if the actors don’t hold up.  Thankfully this is a talented cast, and they keep this movie running.  I never doubted any of their performances for a minute.  I guess there is a reason Jeff Nichols uses the same actors over and over.

I didn’t know what to expect when I started watching Midnight Special.  I had just heard that it was good and Steven Spielberg kept being mentioned a lot.  Though to be fair this is not a straight up Spielberg copy.  It is more like someone watched a lot of Spielberg growing up, and then made their own version of something in his family Sci-Fi genre.  Anyway, what I am trying to say is that Midnight Special is a great movie, and you should watch it (even if you don’t like 80’s Spielberg movies).

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Kubo And The Two Strings Was 2016’s Best Animated Movie!

If you have followed my site, you know that I have a giant soft spot for stop motion animated movies, and Laika in particular brings me more joy than any one animation studio should.  That being said, Kubo and the Two Strings might be my favorite movie of theirs yet.  I just watched it, but I already want to watch it again.

The movie is about a young boy named Kubo (Art Parkinson) who has to find his father’s magical armor.  He will be joined on this quest by a talking monkey (Charlize Theron) and a beetle samurai (Matthew McConaughey).  He is armed only with his mother’s magical shamisen (kind of like a Japanese guitar).

There is so much to Kubo and the Two String’s story, but I don’t want to give any of it away.  It is simple in its premise and plot, but it excels in its execution.  It is sad, scary, funny and hopeful in just the right amounts.  The movie is an hour and forty minutes long, and none of that time is wasted.  It is fantastic story telling.

The look of this movie is flawless.  There are always incredible things to see.  I haven’t had this much fun just looking at a movie in a long time.  It is truly candy for the eyes.  It makes other films dull by comparison.  Even if I have a bias towards stop motion, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t believe me when I say Kubo and the Two Strings is a visual feat.

Another bias I have is Charlize Theron, so you will just have to trust me that she was great anyway, and she brought the monkey to life with her voice perfectly.  McConaughey and Parkinson also did amazing jobs.  With their talents it is easy to forget that you are looking at little models in front of a green screen.

Kubo and the Two Strings is so good that if it was a blanket I would wrap myself up in it and never take it off.  Sadly (thankfully?) it is not.  One word of warning, Kubo can be a tad scary, so if your kids are easily frightened you might want to wait until their are older.  Other than that, Kubo and The Two Strings is a great film for the whole family, and one I wholeheartedly recommend.

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Nintendo Switch Controllers Cost How Much!!!!

Some people have been griping about the price of the Nintendo Switch.  It will cost $300 with both the left and the right Joy-Con controllers and the dock.  That doesn’t bug me too much.  If it is $300 now it won’t be long until you can find a sale where they are probably $25-$50 less than that.  The Dock costs $90, again not a big deal.  How many people are going to need more than one Dock?  Since I work in the IT industry I can tell you that $90 for an HDMI dock isn’t that bad.

What is bad is the controller price.  You would think that when you buy a new Switch controller that it would include both the left and the right Joy-Cons, you know so you could play any game with it, but that is not the case.  Each left and right costs $49 each.  You do save $20 buying them together for $79, but still, $79 for a new non-premium/special edition controller is a lot to swallow.  It makes it hard to justify for families.  I know that like the console itself the price will drop on those pretty quick.  However, that means they will be $60ish on sale.  The price of a full price game.

The Switch still looks really cool, and I can’t wait to try one myself, but those controller prices are ridiculous, and that is coming from a guy who spent $150 on an Xbox One Elite controller (I still love it by the way).

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Is There Any Room Left In Avengers: Infinity War?

With the announcement that they are adding in Peter Dinklage and Zoe Saldana’s Gamora to Avengers: Infinity War my question is, how will any of these people have any screen time?  My only thought is that they have to start killing off some heroes.  Meaning Thor probably doesn’t make it through Ragnarök, and then Hulk stays on his planet, so that would take out a couple of characters.   Having said that, Civil War didn’t have Hulk or Thor in it either, and it had too many people in it.

I can only hope that most of these folks just show up for the titular Infinity War, so we only really follow a couple of people for most of the film.  My guess would be Thanos and Stark, since the Avengers movies are pretty much the new Iron Man movies, and there is no way Robert Downy Jr. would play a bit part.  Not to mention after four years teasing if Thanos isn’t a big part of this movie it would have been the worst long con of all time.

I hope this all turns out, but every time they announce another big actor to be in the next Avengers movie, I get apprehensive not excited.  Marvel has had a pretty good track record, so they get the benefit of the doubt, but there is a fine line between jam-packed and overstuffed.

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Shmee Gets Acquainted With The Trollhunters!

I am a huge Guillermo del Toro fan, but his new show Trollhunters just doesn’t seem to click with me.  It has a cool visual style that I love, but it is just missing that hook that makes me want to keep watching.

The series follows Jim (voiced by the late Anton Yelchin), the first human ever to be name Trollhunter, as he learns about the troll world and how to protect the world with his new powers.  Meanwhile a threat is growing for both troll and man, and ready or not Jim is the only person who can stop it.

It is the standard good kid becomes a superhero plot, and of course his friends have to help him on his way.  I think this is why I am having so much trouble with Trollhunters.  It all feels so familiar.  Like I said, visually it I a homerun.  The cave world of the trolls in particular is amazing.  I just wish some tropes were turned on their heads is all.

To be fair I haven’t finished the show, but that is because I am having a hard time staying interested.  With twenty-four episodes it is twelve hours of TV to watch, and I already have a lot of TV to catch up on, so if the hook of the show isn’t great in the first few hours, I am going to have a hard time finishing it.  Something tells me if I was in the target demographic I would probably love this show.  Maybe I will have time later to finish this show, and I will change my mind.  You will be the first to know if I do.