Tag: Movies

The Great James Bond Movie Rewatch of 2022

I had been thinking about it for a while. Over the last month or so there have been a ton of television shows that I have been following closely. For the most part I watch new episodes while doing my morning walkies and that’s how I stay caught up. Most of those shows have ended now so I was thinking of what I could watch in their place (until the next round of must-see shows kicks off).

I started watching the first Hobbit movie but it wasn’t really holding me. I’ll get back to it, but I needed something more engaging. The answer to my conundrum? Bond movies. All of them. It should take me months to finish. Yeah, Bond movies will be the ticket.

I started The Great James Bond Movie Rewatch of 2022 last night with Dr. No. The first official Bond flick and Sean Connery’s debut. I forgot how mean he was in this movie. He’s pretty brutal for 1962 as well. He just plain murders that geologist dude, including a second insurance shot in the back. Blood thirsty.

During today’s walkies I started From Russia with Love. I didn’t get terribly far into it. I think it’s safe to say that Goldfinger is the template for all Bond movies that followed it, but for me personally, From Russia with Love might be my favorite of them all. It’s still a spy movie first and foremost. With Goldfinger they start devolving into fantasy action movies rather than spy movies. I don’t know. I love them all, and Goldfinger is easily one of the best, but there is just something about From Russia with Love that really works for me.

As with the Marvel rewatch I did a few months ago, I will keep an updated list of the movies as I watch them because… it’s my page and I can do whatever I want, dig? Note, I am not including the unofficial movies. I don’t acknowledge that the spoof version of Casino Royale exists (sorry, Woody Allen), and the final Connery appearance in Never Say Never Again was not made by the same studio and is just a remake of Thunderball. It’s a good movie and I might tack it on to the end, but it’s not official so it’s not on the list.

Here is the full list of Bond movies, in order of release:

  • Sean Connery
    • Dr. No (1962) – Finished
    • From Russia with Love (1963) – In progress
    • Goldfinger (1964)
    • Thunderball (1965)
    • You Only Live Twice (1967)
  • George Lazenby
    • On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
  • Sean Connery (Again)
    • Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
  • Roger Moore
    • Live and Let Die (1973)
    • The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
    • The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
    • Moonraker (1979)
    • For Your Eyes Only (1981)
    • Octopussy (1983)
    • A View To A Kill (1985)
  • Timothy Dalton
    • The Living Daylights (1987)
    • License to Kill (1989)
  • Pierce Brosnan
    • GoldenEye (1995)
    • Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
    • The World Is Not Enough (1999)
    • Die Another Day (2002)
  • Daniel Craig
    • Casino Royale (2006)
    • Quantum of Solace (2008)
    • Skyfall (2012)
    • Spectre (2015)
    • No Time to Die (2021)

Nutritionist Day

I have an appointment with the Nutritionist today. Not exactly sure what we’re going to talk about. Can I eat green veggies at will now? Can I eat bread yet? Should I change up my meal planning? Are there any more restrictions to think about? How’s my exercise routine working out? Should I start counting calories? All sorts of things like that.

I am working a half day. If the appointment ends early I might have some time for errands. I need to pick up a small order at the store I call Tall and Fat, I need to drop off a bag full of clothes for donation, I need to stop at the post office, stuff like that.

(Pause while I remove a small spider from the ecosystem)

I still have to put together the weight bench we bought a couple of weeks ago, along with a box of free weights. I’ve never been into lifting weights before so I am not sure what I should do with all of this stuff. Youtube will probably help me out.

Last night we watched the first episode of Stranger Things 4. I got some real Evil Dead 2 vibes and I am all for it. We also saw Thor: Love and Thunder in our first trip to a movie theater since the pandemic started. There were only four or five groups in the theater and we were all spread out. The only health issue we had was with Harry’s insulin pump, but that worked out fine and wasn’t really a problem.

The movie was good. It wasn’t as good as Thor: Ragnarok, but it was good. The laughs were genuine, the action was cool. My only beef was that it moved too fast. They cut it down to two hours, but it felt like another 30-40 minutes would have improved the story.

Okay then. Wish me luck on the Nutritionist appointment. Fingers crossed for low-fat Ritz crackers and quinoa, though not at the same time.

Movie Night

I have half an hour left in the work day. After that we will get some DoorDash (or something similar) Dinner. I ordered steak tips and broccoli. After that…

Movie night.

Thor: Love and Thunder.

My first trip into a movie theater since the Dawn of the Pandemic. I will be masked. I will be nervous. I will also be confident that I will be safe. I’ve had four vaccine shots. Let’s put ’em to work.

We are hoping that a Wednesday night movie will mean a mostly empty theater. We’re also going to the new cinema in Salem, NH. Harry’s been there once and said the theater seats are comfy. Nice. I will not be getting any food, but I will probably get a bottle of water, if I can.

Here’s hoping the movie lives up to my very high expectations. I’m sure it will.

Things to Do in the Coming Days

Tonight after work I need to go to the store and buy a new belt. My jeans are kinda falling off and the belt I am wearing can’t go any tighter. It’s sort of an emergency at this point. A belt has been purchased online, I just need to go and get it.

After that, Bellana is super hyped about watching the first episode of season four of Stranger Things. We’re going to try and watch it tonight. Harry wants in too but he’s working and has an after-work task. Bellana’s at her aunt’s house. They are both going to be here tonight but they are going to be on the late side. We should still be okay but if not the make up date is Thursday.

Why Thursday? Because tomorrow night after work we are going to see the new Thor. Tomorrow is the make up date for the movie we were supposed to see over the weekend.

I also think I might be going somewhere and buying a lottery ticket tonight. The Massachusetts Mega Millions jackpot is pretty huge right now. Do I risk it? Where did I put my KN95 mask? Oh yeah, I have 100 of them and they are everywhere. Let’s do it!

Movies Revisited

Okay, so the movies didn’t happen. It’s okay. It was a scheduling thing, not a fear of viral infection. We moved our tickets to Wednesday.

Instead we have continued with The Great Stranger Things Binge of 2022. We are in season two and we just watched that episode. You know the one. The one that is so terrible it makes you want to puke. Every episode of the series that I have seen (I haven’t seen season four yet) is an A+ excellent experience except for that one. That one is suck. Pure suck.

Now that we’re through it though… bring on the good stuff.

Friday at Last

It wasn’t really a long week, but now that we’re up to Friday it suddenly feels like a long week. Eight hours and 11 minutes to go until the weekend. Who’s ready?

I was hoping for some car music today but I didn’t get a chance to write any lyrics last night. Maybe tomorrow. The plan as it stands now is to go to see a matinee of the new Thor movie tomorrow. That is both exciting and nervy. It will be our first visit to a movie theater since the pandemic started. That’s why we’re going to the first showing of the day. We’re hoping the place will be empty. We’ll see.

I thought about asking the bariatric surgery facebook group about the pros and cons of small amounts of popcorn, but then I re-declared the facebook boycott so… yeah. I’ll stick to water, thanks. Wicked smaht there, Robert.

I am going to visit my mother tonight. Hopefully I’ll get there once or twice more over the weekend. I need to stop by Dad’s too. We’ll see how things shake out.

I want to do some music, preferably car music and guitar playing and some lyric/melody/riff writing. The faux 50/90 is still happening, but I am about an astronomical unit* behind schedule. There are only six songs in the pipeline right now and none are even remotely close to finished. Also, July ends next week. I should have 13 songs complete by the end of the month. Not happening. Not even close. Still, it’s fun. I just need to get into the groove somehow. I was feeling pretty good on Wednesday. Let’s channel that and do some more.

Photography… I don’t know. Downtown Andover? Downtown Lowell? Boston and Cambridge? We’ll see. I want to have one or two more rolls finished (I have two finished now and one in progress) before I ship off to a lab somewhere, but that could take ages at this point. We’ll have to see.

Okay. Let’s get through the work day before we worry about any of this stuff. Happy Friday, folks!

*An astronomical unit is defined as the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. That is a perfectly accurate description of how far off the pace I am at the moment.

Star Wars Thought

We are watching the entire Obi-Wan Kenobi series in one shot today. Think of it as a 4.5 hour movie titled Star Wars Episode 3.5.

It begs the question, what is the best light saber fight?

My usual answer is Darth Mail/Qui Gon/Obi-Wan fight in episode one. The Anakin/Obi-Wan fight in episode three is my other answer. I’ve always felt it was one of those two.

The Kylo/Rey/Snope’s guards fight in episode eight is in the ballpark too. I’ve also always had a soft spot for Luke/Vader in episode six. Those are great, but for my money it’s generally been the big two.

Now that we have the Kenobi series…. No spoilers, but it’s safe to say the big two is now the big three.

Go watch the series. It’s friggin’ amazing.

Clever Girl

Jen and I just watched Jurassic Park. It absolutely still holds up. Great flick.

I wonder why they never made a sequel (cough cough). You’d have thunk they could have cashed in big time if they had ever made a sequel (cough cough). They could have turned it into a franchise or something (cough cough).

Marvel Postscript

Just when you thought it was over… one more Marvel rewatch post!

Here is The Great 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe Chronological Rewatch of 2022 Update:

  • Phase One-ish
    • Captain America: The First Avenger
    • Captain Marvel
    • Iron Man
    • The Incredible Hulk
    • Iron Man 2
    • Thor
    • Marvel’s The Avengers
  • Phase Two-ish
    • Iron Man 3
    • Thor: The Dark World
    • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
    • Guardians of the Galaxy
    • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
    • Avengers: Age of Ultron
    • Ant-Man
  • Phase Three-ish
    • Captain America: Civil War
    • Black Widow
    • Spider-Man: Homecoming
    • Black Panther
    • Doctor Strange
    • Thor: Ragnarok
    • Ant-Man and the Wasp
    • Avengers: Infinity War
    • Avengers: Endgame
    • Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • Phase four-ish
    • Eternals
    • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
    • Spider-Man: No Way Home
    • Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

When Harry came home from school he was super interested in breaking down the latest Marvel movie so we went ahead and watched it. It wasn’t as good as No Way Home, but it was better than the other two phase four-ish movies. I liked it a lot.

So that is it. All of the Marvel movies that were available for viewing have been viewed. Bam. So I guess we’ll return to this topic in a few months when the next Thor comes out.