Watched: Ender's Game

A serviceable children's/action/sci-film, although the book is way, way better. I think part of the problem is that the twist in the book, at least for me, was such a huge revelation (and I did feel like a bit of a dum-dum for not seeing it before, although in my defense I listened to the audiobook so I wasn't really going back to recheck things, just floating along following the story) that revisiting the story, some of that suspense is gone. But I think the other problem is one many books to movies have, it's hard to put on film something quite as intense or wondrous as what the mind can conjure. So a lot of film adaptations just fall short in that regard. I think this one is among them, decent as it is.

Watched: Cocktail

This is an insane 80's movie ruled by insane 80's people logic in which the hero's journey is transcribed onto the story of the rise and fall and rebirth of a fucking horrible asshole/bartender and his even worse person bartender mentor. Were people supposed to deeply care about anyone in this films, besides perhaps Elizabeth Shue? And why is the first half of the film like a love letter to corporate bars and bizarrely painful-looking sex scenes and the second is a sordid tale of crushing debt, failing marriages, unplanned pregnancies, demoralizing cougars and some bizarre late third act Romeo and Juliet bullshit? No one in this movie behaves in any way recognizable as a human being. Everything is so 1000% over the top.

Everything in this movie is absurd to the point of hilarity, Tom Cruise most of all. Watch with Rifftrax, if at all.

  

 Um. Okay, movie.