Another week, another couple of movies with the kids.
The Social Network:
SteelyKid speifically requested to watch this, I think as part of a recent Andrew Garfield kick. I said we could watch it, but cautioned “You’re going to hate every single person in this movie, with the exception of maybe two.”
As it turns out, that more accurately described Kate’s reaction; SteelyKid was a little more charmed by the story’s efforts to make Zuckerberg and Saverin sympathetic. Though SteelyKid did spend a lot of time laughing at and mimicking Jesse Eisenberg’s awkward gait.
Anyway, as I said back when I initially watched it a couple of year ago, this is quite possibly the most Aaron Sorkin script that ever Sorkined, but it works. Basically everybody in this sucks, but then, they’re all at Harvard or from Silicon Valley, so…
The Italian Job:
I pitched The Fugitive at dinner, and thought we had agreed to that, but then SteelyKid balked at the last minute, and we went scrolling for other options. Thought about The Thomas Crown Affair, but the kids are vehemently anti-romance, so that was probably out. The combination of “caper movie” and thinking about Justin Timberlake’s supremely douchey Sean Parker reminded me of this, though.
This is very slick, with a new pop song on the soundtrack every ninety seconds or so, and ultimately pretty slight, but it kept the kids entertained, which is the main goal. I got an extra topical chuckle out of the fact that the axe-wielding gangster who shows up late in the film is identified as Ukrainian.
(I realize this will sound sacriligious to people from Commonwealth countries, where the Michael Caine original is more of a Thing, but I saw this version first, and actually liked it better. The 60’s version has 60’s pacing, which would have me looking at my phone a lot, and there’s almost no chance The Pip would stick it out.)
And that’s the week in media; the weather was reasonably good, so I only watched one episode of The Witcher season 2 while biking to nowhere; I’ll write it up whenever I finish the season. Here are some buttons:
And if you want to berate me as a cretinous American for disrespecting Michael Caine, the comments will be open: