Ad Astra sucks, and other movie talk

I'm grabbing at the low-hanging fruit as far as stuff to talk about. So movies (the ones seen in a theater) it is.

I went back and looked, and the last time I talked about movies was September,  where I talked about Field of Dreams and Spiderman. So let's see, next we saw Ad Astra, which I hated, and Ghostbusters (the original, that is), which I really enjoyed, (Rob wasn't sure he had ever sat all the way through Ghostbusters in one sitting, that was the main reason we went.) Ad Astra was supposed to be about space - or so I thought - but was really all about male angst, which was why I hated it. I'm interested in space, not your relationship with your asshole father, Brad.

I really enjoyed the Zombieland sequel - the first one was ten years ago, which seems amazing to me. It was funny in more or less the same way that the first one was, but different enough to be interesting. (Basically you had them dealing with the same issues I gather The Walking Dead is now dealing with, which is more or less that apocalypse or no apocalypse, if you survive, life eventually has to go on. I wouldn't go so far as to say they're rebuilding civilization yet in Zombieland, but they're working on it, anyway.)

Ad Astra was really the only dud in here - I screen my movies choices pretty rigorously these days - but I've always liked the Terminator movies, and I liked this new one too. (I did skip Genisys and I can't say I was ever very sorry about that.) Dark Fate was I guess an attempt at a reboot of sorts, but it didn't make a lot of money so it's presumably a failed reboot. Still, I liked its whole Girl Power vibe. Really, the whole problem is that the original movie was meant to stand on its own, and any and all sequels are just ignoring the lesson of the original. I won't say they lessen the original because that's not really true. But even the best one - T2, I think we're probably all agreed on that - is really just a cash grab.

I also loved Ford vs. Ferrari, even though I normally think I don't like car-racing movies. (I also liked Rush, a few years ago, so I guess I need to just admit that I don't actually hate the whole genre. Well-done racing movies are fine, it's just that those are pretty rare!) And I've already mentioned previously that I loved Knives Out. We almost went back to see it Sunday, but I decided I wasn't ready to see it again yet and I sent Rob off to see Midway by himself, because there was no way on earth I was going to put myself through that torture. (Same thing applies there, really - I'm fine with a good war movie - I think we saw Dunkirk 3 times and we're planning to go see 1917 with my sister and bro-in-law at Christmas, but it's clear that "good" does not really apply to this new Midway retelling.)

(I thought about going on and talking about movies seen on TV and Disney+ and such, but I think I'll save that for another day.)


Movies seen at a theater in 2019:

(scroll down in this journal for more on some of these!)
1. Bumblebee

2. Into the Spider-verse (our second time)

3. Lego Movie 2

4. Captain Marvel (three times)

5. Shazam!

6. Avengers: Endgame (four times)
7. Field of Dreams (anniversary)
8. Spiderman: Far From Home
9. Ad Astra
10. Ghostbusters (anniversary)
11. Zombieland: Double Tap
12. Terminator: Dark Fate
13. Ford vs.Ferrari
14. Knives Out