House of Cards

"The exploits of this compelling anti-hero held my interest"

But wait, let's backup and start with the basics.

Synopsis

House of Cards, a Netflix-produced political drama series, is based on the novel by Michael Dobbs. The show stars Kevin Spacey and boasts five prominent directors rotating on direction duties. Netflix released the entire first season, (13) episodes, in February 2013, a move some see as a nod to recent binge-viewing trends.

After Earth - K

Tell me when Will Smith isn't a – okay, not sure thing – but at least a good bet in a movie?  And then with After Earth, a movie basically made to showcase his kid?  Well, in this case we went in knowing it was a crap shoot.  We were too late for the movie we wanted to see, the latest Fast and Furious installment, and too early for another interesting looking movie, Now You See Me.  I wouldn't say so we were “stuck” with After Earth, since we chose not to wait, but that’s what we went with, for better, for worse.  And it was….well, you’ll see.

Oblivion - K

I wouldn't call myself a Tom Cruise “fan” because I don’t go see just any of his movies.  I would say that when I see his name involved with a movie, I make a pretty safe bet it’s going to be solid, Minority Report, Mission Impossibles, Top Gun, A Few Good Men to name a few.  So when I went to see Oblivion I was going to see a movie that had a fun sci-fi premise and at least one talented actor.  What I didn't expect or count on was less than mediocre acting from the rest of the cast (not quite including Morgan Freeman) and the plot to, not...fall apart, but become ludicrous and cliché at the same time. 

Blue Like Jazz (Book)

     Donald Miller delivers an adventure through topics of humanity and Christian spirituality in encounters primarily based in Portland, Oregon and around Reed College. The tangible essays look at challenging ideals, lessons in maturity and the search for that esoteric “other” through Donald Miller’s journey.

Olympus Has Fallen - K

To be fair, I wasn't horribly interested in seeing Olympus Has Fallen, but we needed a good theatre diversion after having gone through the likes of the new wanna be Die Hard where Bruce Willis (my favorite action actor ever) mailed it in, and the new GI Joe where expectations were not high and still we were rocked (and not in a good way).  So, we wanted a neutral movie. And, neutral is what we got. 

It's A Good Day to Die Hard

I have long been a fan of the Die Hard series. I was even OK with the cartoon version (4) that came out a couple years ago. To be perfectly blunt the latest installment in the Die Hard franchise was a piece of crap. See below if you really want to know how big of a piece of crap it was.

Prometheus - D

Yeah not so much

OK so a little while ago my wife (K) and I went to see Prometheus. We were both pretty excited for one of those few movies that make it so you understand why horror/sci-fi are often grouped together in video stores (yes some of those still exist!). We wanted a great thriller in space, like Event Horizon, or Pitch Black (both excellent films). This was originally billed as a "prequel to Alien" until Ridley Scott backed out of it and gave the whole "Same universe, different story" interview, this of course was complete bullshit. In all fairness I was never a huge fan of the original Alien trilogy, but I was definitely looking forward to a intense sci-fi thriller, and boy howdy was I ever let down. If you're a big fan of the series by all means you'll probably like it, a lot of people have. If you're hoping for an intelligent thriller, well you should just skip it, or at least wait till it hits those video stores and find a local one to support. (SPOILERS ABOUND BELOW)


Update: I saw this and found it to be both hilarious and accurate :)