Binge Day

Yesterday Helena drove Isabel out to a lake where she’ll be spending a few days with her friend and her friend’s family, and Sam was working, so I had the flat largely to myself which, of course, meant Netflix binge day.
I watched three films, one by plan (Enemy at the Gates) and the other two on a whim, just because they popped up on the screen and I was curious, and then the 1st episode of season 2 of the Umbrella Academy, which I’ll give a chance but I suspect it may have already jumped the shark and this might be as bad as season 2 of Stranger Things.
Enemy at the Gates was a good movie. I think it might have been even better if it had been made in Russian, with Russian actors, for added realism, but that’s O.K. It was Hollywood, it was not a documentary. If you like war movies, and have nothing else better to do, and haven’t seen it yet, it’s worth watching. Otherwise, it’s not. No new ground broken, no historical views changed. War is hell, but watching it is fun. We are a horrible species.
Star Trek, the one with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto which is just called Star Trek, which I think is pretty darned arrogant considering that none of the other Star Trek movies dispensed with a subtitle, not even the very first one, which was at least Star Trek: the Motion Picture.
Believe it or not, I hadn’t seen this one, although I enjoyed ‘Into the Darkness’ very much. And I still haven’t seen the last one.
It was a great film and I think Chris Pine makes a far better Captain Kirk than Shatner ever did. I also like Zachary Quinto’s version of Spock. Not that I think he’s a better actor than Nimoy. I think the part was better written. He’s far more developed. Not just a sidekick. Like most things Star Trek, I give it multiple thumbs up, as much as the timeline will allow.
The third film just popped up on my Netflix feed and I figured “eh, what the hell.” It was a Seth Rogen thing, and I’m not a big fan of Seth Rogen. He’s sort of like today’s version of Woody Allen and not in the best way, but in the way of “total loser dude hooks up with girl who’s way out of his league and this could only possibly happen because he wrote the movie,” and that’s exactly what happened here. Charlize Theron played the Secretary of State and presidential candidate who fell for him. But, it did have some good laughs, some attempts at social commentary which weren’t more over the top than other films of this genre, and Bob Odenkirk (best known as Jimmy McGill) was funny as the totally clueless president. I’m still not a Seth Rogen fan, but the scene where he gets her stoned and then she has to negotiate a hostage release was pretty comical, in a Cheech and Chong sort of way. On a scale of 10, I’ll give it a 6.5.