Just a couple this week... But good ones

Front of the drink special menu from the Iron Man Marathon

        It made for a short week from being home in Toledo, getting back into the swing of things here, an ongoing Weeds marathon, an Iron Man marathon and other stuff. I only got in 4 new movies under my belt. This may seem like a lot for someone that may only go to the movies once a month and occasionally rents movies. But looking at my numbers... below average. Luckily the 4 movies I saw were pretty good (well, the jury's still out on one of them). Here we go:

1.     Disconnect -

        This is currently out in limited release. Saw this at my new 2nd favorite movie theater (move over Violet Crown Cinema!) at the Regal Arbor 8 in central Austin. This movie has a Crash-type-setup of multiple seemingly unconnected story lines. Where Crash deals with more "racial and social issues" this deals with issues arising from people's interactions with technology. QUICK POINTS: 1) Jason Bateman is one of the main characters and it was really different to see him in a serious role like this... he did well, and I could see him doing more of this, 2) I don't watch True Blood, so I don't get the Alexander Karsgard thing... don't like him (remember Battleship?!), 3) Not on the same level as Crash, but still good (I'm a Crash fan). 4) The reporter is the red head from Oblivion... took me a second to realize it was the same girl. Love those redheads (ok, maybe too personal). 5) Slow-mo scene, very cool

        Over all I would suggest seeing it when it comes around to you.

2.     The Sessions - 2012
        A guy who lives in an Iron Lung goes to a sex surrogate. If this didn't get a lot of buzz last year, doubt I would have put this high on the list to watch. Glad I watched this. Made it even more interesting that it was based off true events (I thought this was an original story). John Hawkes and Helen Hunt both did a great job, but my favorite was William H. Macy as the priest. Macy will always be one of the best-but-slightly-overlooked actors. Even in his small roles, he is great.I haven't started Shameless yet, but a few people told me he is phenomenal in it. If an Oscar nomination goes his way again, I'll be rooting for him no matter what.  Last thought: Helen Hunt was up for Best Supporting Actress last year... Should she have been nominated? Sure. Did she get snubbed for not winning? Not at all.
         I would definitely suggest this; however, there is a lot of nudity in it (remember the "sex surrogate" thing), so if that might not be you're thing, pass on this.


3.     Primer - 2005
        Quite by accident, an engineer builds a machine that can transport the user back in time. But his discovery comes with an ominous caveat: At the heart of this puzzling device, nothing is as it seems on the surface. - Netflix description
         I like my time travel movies and I'm pretty good at understanding the whole time continuum thingy... but this was weird and confusing. I might have to watch this another one or two times to figure it out. It was good, but not sure if it was good enough to watch another one or two times... I might just have to stay confused on this one. If you don't like time travel movies, totally avoid this one.

4.     Iron Man 3 - 2013
      

Backside of menu

        Leading up to seeing this, I went to an Iron Man marathon at the Slaughter Lane Alamo Drafthouse. Started with Iron Man 1 and 2 in 2D, then The Avengers in 3D with the premiere of Iron Man 3 3D. This is the second time I have done a marathon event at the Drafthouse, the first was the Harry Potter movies, start to finish... that was a long day. These marathons are great, you're watching with 200 some people who all are pumped to be there for 10'ish hours. Everyone is cheering and clapping at all the great times. They have drink and food specials that are themed around the movies (I wish I could find the Harry Potter menu but I do remember Butter Beer and Bangers & Mash).

         Here is the backside of the drink special menu from the marathon (the front side is up top). I got a couple of the flights of Scotch, when in Rome. I never knew I would like Scotch (except the Laphroaig 10YR). The Glenfiddich and Dewars's were great. The Iron Man's Armor was basically a mimosa with grapefruit instead of orange... good drink, but not at 6PM during Iron Man 2. The Demon In A Bottle was probably the best. Kind of reminded me of a chilled SoCo and Lime with more of a clear rum taste.

        Some spoilers/context clues... As far as the movie overall, great. My first impression is it's neck and neck for the #1 spot in the Iron Man trilogy (the other is not Iron Man 2). It was a little bit different than what I thought it would be. A lot more story line which was great. Movie markers are understanding more and more that  the comic book story is as important, if not more, than the comic book action. There were surprises with the story line that I didn't totally like, but definitely didn't hate. The villain angle... not sure. Need to Not sure how I feel about how they left everything. There's a lot of talk of not continuing on the Iron Man series (only Iron Man in Avenger Movies). It's somewhat crazy to me this is the case seeing that this will put some MASSIVE numbers... not quite Avengers, but close. Also, like all movies tied to The Avengers, wait to the end of the credits for a little extra. This one is more funny than dealing with "what's next".

The Final Thought

        So after the last week or so of watching movies, best moment was being back at home watching Merida with her biggest fan, Logan. That boy loves his Merida.