Don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to add anything new in the next 24 hours, so I\u2019ll go ahead and drop this and knock one item off my new month checklist.<\/p>\n
Spring Baking Championship<\/a><\/em> B+<\/p>\n Formula 1: Drive to Survive<\/a><\/em>, season two I didn\u2019t think season two was quite as compelling as season one, but providing some good father-daughter time balances that out. We started season three as soon as we got back from spring break.<\/p>\n B+<\/p>\n Coming to America<\/a><\/em> Good news is that Coming to America<\/em> still holds up, for the most part. There are some pacing issues; a few scenes drag on just a little too long and some closing shots would cut away much faster today. But otherwise it remains a classic. S laughed at me laughing in anticipation of my favorite parts.<\/p>\n As for the new version? I read two reviews after I watched. One was effusive, saying despite some obvious flaws it was still a highly entertaining and funny movie, just the flick we needed right now. The other blasted the movie for being lazy, having too many call backs to the original, and generally being mediocre.<\/p>\n Fortunately my view was much closer to the first opinion. I laughed loudly and often. I watched almost the entire movie with a smile on my face. Yes, there were some lazy moments and some plot elements that did not work well. There was almost no way this movie could stand up to the original, though. I went in expecting to be disappointed because of the comparison. The fact it was competent, entertaining, and pretty damn funny made it a success.<\/p>\n A+, B+<\/p>\n Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker\u2019s Apocalypse<\/a><\/em> A<\/p>\n \u201971<\/a><\/em> Whew. A lot of shit for one dude in one night. The riot and chase scenes are wonderfully shot, making you feel like you are right in the midst of the chaos.<\/p>\n A-<\/p>\n Why Mount Everest\u2019s Height Keeps Changing<\/a><\/em> A<\/p>\n Bee Removal: Backyard Shed<\/a><\/em> A-<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s been awhile, but I finally decided to watch one of these shows that didn\u2019t wasn\u2019t focused on Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Easter. I\u2019m not sure why I enjoy these so much. I\u2019m not a huge baker. These shows are all kind of the same. But the same people have been watching The Bachelor<\/em> for 20 years. I can watch a damn food show mindlessly.<\/p>\n
\nAfter I blew through season one in February I wondered if L might want to watch season two with me. Indeed she did. She loved it, although I think she enjoyed all the f-bombs that get dropped as much as anything. We\u2019ve both taken a greater interest in F1 in general, which is apparently the new, hip thing to do. I watched much of Sunday\u2019s first race, while she popped in-and-out. I think the show might be more exciting than the races, because it\u2019s still auto racing. Plus I still have no idea who I support. Am I rooting for the driver or the car or the team?<\/p>\n
\nComing 2 America<\/a><\/em>
\nIn anticipation of the new Eddie Murphy movie in early March, I had to watch the classic. I tried to get the girls to watch with me, but they weren\u2019t interested. Even when I told them it\u2019s one of the funniest movies I\u2019ve ever seen. Kids\u2026<\/p>\n
\nI got down a Wikipedia rabbit hole one night that ended up with me reading about Marlon Brando and, eventually, Apocalypse Now<\/em>. I did a quick search and found this documentary of the making of that movie on YouTube and fired it up right away. At first I could not remember if I had ever seen it. By the end I knew I had, but it\u2019s probably been 15 years or so. AN<\/em> is one of the greatest movies ever made, and this is an excellent companion as it shows what madness the main of the film was.<\/p>\n
\nAn absolutely harrowing story (fictional, I believe) of a British soldier who, on his first day serving in Belfast in 1971, gets separated from his unit during a riot and is forced to spend the night working his way from a Catholic neighborhood back to safety. After seeing a platoon-mate shot and killed next to him, he is chased and shot at, hides in a public restroom until nightfall, finds a friendly bar that explodes when a bomb intended for an IRA target goes off too quickly, is wounded by shrapnel and then stitched up and hidden by a sympathetic former army medic, kills one of the men trying to capture him, and is on the verge of being executed by IRA men when he is \u201csaved\u201d by undercover British officers who, in fact, also want to kill him because he saw that they were behind the bomb that had blown up earlier in the night.<\/p>\n
\nShorts<\/h3>\n
\nThis month\u2019s Science! entry.<\/p>\n
\nEqual parts fascinating and horrifying.<\/p>\n