It’s a three-day weekend in the US, but we still only watched two movies, because we opted for a signature American activity in between.
Shaun of the Dead:
A while back, we did an Edgar Wright movie binge (as reported here and here), including the other two films of the Cornetto Trilogy, but didn’t watch this one because for a long time The Pip had a Thing about zombies. It was right at the top of the recommendations when I fired up Prime, though, and both kids were like “Let’s watch that.” The Pip did allow that if it got too scary, he could just take the giant bowl of popcorn upstairs to his room and watch YouTube instead.
Happily, that didn’t turn out to be a problem, and everybody had a good time with the movie. It was fun to watch this “out of order” because the kids were picking up on all the things that are signature Edgar Wright moves— repeated shots and conversations that are almost word-for-word identical— all the way through.
Interlude: Live-Action Bull Durham:
We didn’t do a Movie Night on Saturday because I took The Pip and two of his buddies to see the Tri-Cities ValleyCats, the local minor-league baseball team. Minor league baseball is pretty great in a lot of respects— seats in the literal front row (see photo) were $12 apiece, and the concession stand prices were just expensive, not extortionate. That last was really important, because rising sixth-graders can eat an astonishing amount of ballpark food.
Baseball-wise, the quality wasn’t the greatest— the starting pitcher for the visiting Empire State Greys lasted literally 20 pitches before getting pulled, and there were some mis-handled balls that you wouldn’t see at a higher level— but it was a 9-4 win for the home team, so a good time was had by all. The only problem was a sad lack of foul balls hit in our direction.
Supercop:
A few weeks back, we watched a really terrible late-period Jackie Chan movie (here), so for Sunday’s bonus Movie Night, we fired up a film from his 90’s peak. With bonus Michelle Yeoh (billed here as Michelle Khan).
Some bits of this haven’t aged wonderfully—Chan’s Hong Kong movies always include some slapstick humor and some gender relations that are a little cringe-y in the US in 2022— and the plot makes next to no sense. The action scenes remain incredible, though. Michelle Yeoh casually reaching over her shoulder to kick a dude in the face is amazing, and the train fight ending with Chan doing the fancy kung fu stance into a squat as his opponent gets clocked by the “Welcome to Kuala Lumpur” sign is iconic.
And that’s this week’s media consumption. Well, not counting the first episode of the second half of the fourth season of Stranger Things, but as usual, I’ll hold comments until I finish the whole show. If you want to know my reaction to that as soon as it’s available, here’s a button to click:
And if you have thoughts on Jackie Chan, Edgar Wright, or minor-league baseball, the comments will be open: