B is for Breathe

I had been quickly knocking out movies for Watch My Library, but then I guess I needed to stop and take a breath. Apparently I also needed to play a bunch of Super Mario Odyssey. I’ll start making progress again this week.

You know what else B stands for? Bitch. Reviewing my recent Back to the Future entry, I feel like it’s unnecessarily negative. Part of that is struggling to come up with something at least quasi-original to write, but I also think I’m just a bit too jaded.

YouTube recently recommended the following videos to me, in which someone who claims* to have never seen the BTTF trilogy reacts to watching them for the first time. And it’s just delightful to see the films with new eyes.

Part I
Part II
Part III

So, for the record, my ultimate opinion is that BTTF (all BTTF) is awesome, and any complaints I have are nitpicks borne of endless re-watching. But I will never forget that the only reason why I’ve seen all of them a million times is because they are just simply the best.

 

 

 

 

* I choose to believe him. He strikes me as young enough that it’s plausible.

WML2020: Big Hero 6

We have arrived at the first superhero movie of many in my home video library. I suspect I own more superhero stuff than any other genre, but that’s an interesting question I’ll have to explore as this series continues.

Also, spoiler warning.

WML2020: Below

In the Before Times, back when you could actually go out in public and sit for over an hour in a tightly packed, dark room with strangers, I saw Underwater. It had decidedly mixed reviews, but I felt charitably toward it as I often do with unpretentious B movies that get the job done.

Another deep sea horror film, Below, exists in that same underrated, watchable space. Personally, I might even grade Below a bit higher than that. I think it’s pretty great in a low-key way.

Ghosts on a Sub

WML2020: Back to the Future Trilogy

We come to the first boxed set of Watch My Library, which is a part of the excuse for this last big lag in activity. I may not have been posting much, but I assure you I’ve been slamming through B titles as quickly as possible.

I’m very nervous about this one because what can I possibly write that hasn’t already been covered by a zillion other bloggers? If you’ve heard the one about a white dude stealing Chuck Berry’s legacy once, you’ve heard it a thousand times. So many think-pieces written just a few years ago when we hit October 21. 2015, and now the whole of the franchise exists in the past, but it seems ever-present in the pop culture conversation nonetheless.

Oh, well. Just gotta bang it out.

WML2020: Baby Driver

So apparently this is accidentally timely because Ansel Elgort is even as I write this breaking the Internet with his nakedness or something. I have no response to that. Moving on…

I don’t own Baby Driver on physical media so I can’t take a photo for you all this time. Have a relevant meme instead.

LOL. Source.

WML2020: Arrival

This is the first relatively recent entry in Watch My Library, so out of courtesy…

THAR BE SPOILERS HERE!

WML2020: American Idiot

I suspect you all can tell when I’m not excited about the next title on deck by how many days it takes me to get around to posting about it. And so it goes with this little gem, debatably the weirdest DVD I own. Also, I knew it was probably going to require some additional homework beyond just re-watching to do this one properly.

What even IS this?

Is it a recording of the Green Day Broadway musical? No. That would actually make sense. *

No, this is far stranger. It’s basically just a bunch talking heads indulging in a track-by-track analysis of the titular album padded out with a little bit of the band’s overall history. It bills itself as a “critical review,” but it’s basically just a big love fest. To give you an idea of the level of discourse at play, this is part of a series called The World’s Greatest Albums. ** Keep in mind that this documentary (to use the term very loosely) came out just 13 months after Green Day released American Idiot. Even to a fan like me, that seems a tad fast.

The random assortment of expert reviewers includes the host (a seemingly prolific Scottish actor unknown to me), a couple of UK musicians I’ve never heard of, the owner of a studio where Green Day recorded, the author of a Green Day biography, and a music journalist who hasn’t written for any publication I recognize but at least does have a Wikipedia page.

WML2020: Amelie

Now is the time for Amelie. Right now.

It is a film entirely about the effects of loneliness, the consolation a vivid imagination can bring, and both the effort and rewards involved with reaching out for connection in the midst of isolation. TBS should be playing it on repeat like A Christmas Story.

WML2020: Aladdin

This is the first time I’ve ever popped this disc in a player. It would still be in shrink wrap if I hadn’t cracked it open when I first bought it to get the digital download code loaded onto my computer before it expired. Which I also have never bothered to watch.

I purchased this in 2015, y’all. I know that because the previews before the movie advertise Inside Out on home video and The Good Dinosaur coming soon to a theater near you. Evidently I bought this the same year the Cinderella live-action remake came out (which was only the third one of those in the modern collection, mind you), and I still managed to see Will Smith’s Genie hit the screen before I fired this up.

Clearly money well spent.

WML2020: Accepted

I first saw Accepted in theaters when I was fresh out of college myself, and it definitely resonated with me then. This is the first time I’ve revisited it since I started working in academia myself, and it’s a different experience now.