4 Recommendations from This Weekend

Up until this past weekend, I hadn’t watched any new movies in 2018, which is somewhat abnormal for me. But over several lunches, dinner, and a theater visit today, I ended up seeing 4 movies (or shows that felt like movies).

Amazingly, they were all good. Really good. I don’t have a full blog entry’s worth of content for any of them, so I’ll just summarize why I recommend each of them here.

When We First Met: I had very low expectations for this Groundhog Day-style movie about a guy who repeats the same day 3 years ago in an effort to win over the girl he loves. But I love rom coms, and I love the Groundhog Day premise, so I gave it a try…and it turned out to be one of the best rom coms I’ve seen in a long time. It’s funny, heartwarming, and it doesn’t fall into most rom com tropes.

Black Mirror: USS Callister: This is the first episode of season 4 of Black Mirror, and I absolutely loved it. At 75 minutes, it felt like a movie, and it uses those minutes wisely. There are so many twists that I don’t want to really say anything about it, but I’ll just say this: If you like Galaxy Quest, this is a must-watch.

Black Mirror: Arkangel: While the scope of this episode is much smaller than USS Callister, it demonstrates what Black Mirror does best: It introduces a technology that has true merit in principle, and then it shows you the devastating impact it can have in practice.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle: Given how well this movie has done in theaters–not to mention the stellar cast–I figured this would be entertaining. It was exactly what I signed up for in terms of action and comedy. What surprised me was how it brought video game concepts into the Jumanji world and the level of character development. It’s leaving theaters soon, but I certainly think it’s worth renting if you miss out.

Have you seen any of these? What did you like about them?

8 thoughts on “4 Recommendations from This Weekend”

  1. I have not seen the movies you recommended but I did watch the new Black Mirror and really enjoyed most of them! USS Callister was great and definitely a must-see for sci-fi fans. Definitely did not expect it to go where it went. Arkangel was also very good. I was actually surprised at how *light* the episode was. Black Mirror is not afraid to go into dark territory and I was fearing the worst with that premise.

    Am I correct in assuming you only watched the first two episodes? For the sake of discussion, I’d rank Season 4’s episodes from best to worst:

    Hang the DJ
    USS Callister
    Crocodile
    Black Museum
    Arkangel
    Metalhead

    I look forward to see others’ views on the season! 🙂

    Reply
    • Thanks for the rankings! I’ve only watched the first two so far. I tend to watch them in order, so Crocodile is next, and now I’m really looking forward to Hang the DJ!

      Reply
  2. Haven’t seen the first one but wholeheartedly agree on the other three. I didn’t expect to like Jumanji as much as I did, it was delightfully entertaining! What did you think about the Hang the DJ episode of Black Mirror Season 4?

    Reply
    • I haven’t gotten that far into season 4 yet, but it sounds like Hang the DJ is going to end up the topic of a future blog post based on your question and Charles’ recommendation. 🙂 We’ll see!

      Reply
  3. Thanks for the recommendations! I gave up on When We First Met after about 10 mins as I thought it would be predictable. I will give it another shot. I’d like to recommend Waco the 6 part series running on Paramount. Well known actors in the series and I now realize I really didnt know a lot about the Waco situation. Also, if you havent seen it yet Manhunt on Netflix is also good. The Janet Reno conversation in Manhunt made me seek out Waco.

    Reply
    • James: There are some predictable elements to the movie, but there were definitely some things I didn’t expect (big and small).Thanks for the recommendations! I have Mindhunter on my Netflix list but not Manhunt–I’ll check it out.

      Reply

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