Two family movie nights this week, each with just one kid watching:
Tombstone: On Friday, we went over to Vermont to get together with a friend of mine from college and his family at a park there, getting back right around the time I usually go to happy hour with friends from work, so I dropped the kids at the house and came back a while later. In the time I was off at my local, SteelyKid got all caught up in watching one of the MCU shows, so bowed out of Movie Night. The Pip was very tired, and agreed to just scroll through recommendations on Amazon Prime, where we settled on Tombstone.
I didn’t actually see this in the theater, and I’m not entirely sure why. It came out in late 1993, when I had just started grad school, and was at a period when I was regularly seeing lousy movies in theaters just to get out of the house. (I mean, really lousy— I paid to see Robin Hood: Men in Tights…) Somehow this one got by me, though.
I rented it a year or so later after my Uncle Dick was raving about it on one of his visits to the DC area, and it is, in fact, an excellent Western, with an absolutely iconic Val Kilmer performance as Doc Holliday. Michael Biehn as Johnny Ringo and Powers Boothe as Curly Bill are also great. It’s been a few years since I watched it, but it still holds up for me.
I’m not sure The Pip was as blown away as I was circa 1995, though, mostly because he was very tired. There are quite a few bits that are a little slow for a nine-year-old video gamer. Once the gunfights started in earnest, though, he enjoyed it.
Birds of Prey: Since The Pip was the only one watching on Friday, I let SteelyKid pick for Saturday, and following on the success of The Suicide Squad last week, we ended up with Birds of Prey, also featuring Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. This is a little more graphically violent than The Pip is really into, so he went upstairs to finish his re-watch of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
As with The Suicide Squad, this is a thoroughly ridiculous movie that is 100% aware of its own ridiculousness, and goes at it with some verve and visual flair. Robbie’s accent is thoroughly absurd, and Ewan McGregor is particularly over-the-top as the Big Bad— SteelyKid kept saying “I hate him…” and I kept replying “Yes, that’s the point.” The recurring “They call me…” gag with Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s character was also cute, and the final payoff was great.
It’s very dumb, but fun all the same, and SteelyKid was all fired up about it.
That’s it for this week; I sometimes watch a third movie on my own while biking to nowhere, but this week opted for prestige tv instead, as grumbled about earlier. Here are the obligatory buttons:
And if you’d just like to quote Doc Holliday lines, the comments are open.
>so he went upstairs to finish his re-watch of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
A man of good taste!