WML: Jason Bourne

Hey, remember how I said I never revisited the Bourne franchise after I hated Supremacy on the first watch?

Yeah, so, as it turns out, I own a digital copy of the final installment.¹ I do not know what happens in Ultimatum or Legacy. I no longer even remember what happens in Supremacy except that Marie dies.

But we’re doing this anyway. Because those are the rules of engagement as I have established them.

A special note on the expected shaky cam:  I promise to make a good-faith attempt to watch this film in its entirety. But if I start to feel the least bit queasy, I’m turning it off.

Spoilers.

WML2020: Bourne Identity

Hey, check out this original release press kit I still have because I never throw anything away!

Once upon a time I thought I wanted to be a journalist, and during that period of my life, I actually published a handful of legit movie reviews and other entertainment coverage. I perhaps could have pursued that professionally, but instead here I am doing it for free on the Internet. *

I didn’t review The Bourne Identity. In fact, I don’t think I ever saw a movie I actually liked on assignment. But my BFF did, and that’s how I got the press kit.

A New Project: Watch My Library 2020

I have an idea inspired by two recent events.

1) I moved cross-country.  After more than a decade in the greater DC area, last month I relocated to New Mexico for a new job and to live closer to family. As I unpacked my belongings, I made a stunning discovery.

I own xXx on dvd.

Wait. Seriously? I spent money on that? Eventually I remembered fishing it out of the used bargain bin at Blockbuster back in the day. Considering that I haven’t so much as thought about the xXx franchise in many a year, it frankly surprises me that at one time I liked this movie enough to have it on my shelf.

There were other discs that I could also barely remember acquiring. Or didn’t remember at all. A shocking number of titles are still in shrink wrap. Such a waste.

Related:  I also recently redeemed a freebie code from my cell phone carrier for a digital copy of John Wick. The problem being that at some point in the past I had already done that exact same thing, making that my second copy. Luckily, the Lionsgate folks were understanding about swapping it out for John Wick, Chapter 2. Which I haven’t yet watched because I don’t even like Chapter 2 that much.

Dude, I suck at this. An inventory is definitely in order. And maybe some collection weeding, too.

2) Immediately after I left behind my entire social support network to move to a completely unfamiliar city, an epic public health crisis trapped me in my half-unpacked apartment.

No disrespect intended to the new city or new job that I was actually pretty excited about a few weeks ago, but if I had known back in October when I originally applied for said new job that I would make it out here just in time for the whole world to fall apart…  You know, I might have made different choices.

But what’s done is done. And now I’m waiting out a slow-motion disaster in a town where I don’t know anyone. I feel incredibly privileged that I’m able to work from home, keeping me out of any real jeopardy (so far). And I have done the work-from-home thing successfully in the past.

However, back then I had a cat, a live-in partner, and the freedom to go anywhere I wanted basically any time that I wanted. None of that is true now. I’m dangerously bored and lonely already, and it’s only been a week and a half.

Hence blogging!

So I propose “Watch My Library 2020.” I’m going to view everything I own A to Z. I’m going to try to watch at least one title a night (if I don’t have anything better to do). And we’ll see how far I get before my self-imposed isolation ends.

Treehouse of Horror Roundup 26-27

Like most other Americans, I spent the last couple of days consumed with a different sort of nightmarish joke. But life and the days of November march on, and now that it’s ten days past Halloween, we need to wrap this up.

It felt good to laugh and get one last sweet taste of Halloween for the year. I even ate some candy — gummy bears — to mark the occasion. And The Simpsons managed to let me end on happy note by providing two mostly solid episodes. I’m glad I took this ride with you all.

Deathmatch: Assassins

American Ultra vs. Hitman: Agent 47!

Images from IMDb

Recap: Summer 2013 Roundup

Even though I was too busy the last couple months moving and working and traveling and whatever else to broadcast my reactions on the Interwebs, I still wasn’t too busy to make it to the movie theater. I’m very rarely too busy for that. So here is a quick run-down of the new releases I’ve seen recently, along with the 30-second version of my verdicts on them. I do feel wistful that I’m not taking more time to engage in meaningful conversation about some of these titles – particularly Man of Steel. My complex emotions about just that one could probably fill an entire book. But realistically, more movies get released each and every weekend, I’ve started watching a new-to-me show (more on this later), and this fall television season just might see a genuine attempt by me to watch a current show or two for the first time in a very long while. So this is all you get.

Recap: Mother’s Day Marathon

Let it be known:  My mom could probably do a much better job of producing this blog than I ever could. She is a world-champion consumer of media.* As much as I love watching stuff, I have limits. I usually don’t watch more than one movie or show in a day.  If I’m doing a “marathon session,” I might watch as many as three episodes of a television show in a row. But any more than that burns me out. But not her.

When I lived in Kansas City, I worked in a library with an outstanding video collection that included DVD boxed sets of television seasons. I would check them out for her, and she tore through them with stupefying speed. One of her favorites was 24, and at one point I swear she finished a season of that in almost real-time. Amazing.

So when she came to visit me in DC, sure, we took in some monuments and ate at some great restaurants and toured some fun neighborhoods. But we also watched a fair amount of programming. More in a few days than I would probably get through in a month on my own.

Here’s a quick rundown: