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Snowpiercer

This was a great flick. Highly original and highly entertaining. It got some killer reviews globally but never really got any traction in the US. Gail and I queued it up on Netflix one evening and ended up really liking the experience. Once again, Gail gets most of the credit for the find.

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Draft Day

The problem is whenever I see a Browns game now I think to myself, “Wow, I guess Costner did put together a decent team.” In case you haven’t noticed the Browns are better this year than they have been in years, which coincides roughly with this movie. Weird huh?

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Homeland – Season Three

Whoa, this season was intense. I’m watching it a year late so I don’t get to see any reviews, but it doesn’t seem to dominate the award shows like the first season did. In my view, I think it just keeps getting better. I’m in lockdown mode on Homeland news now because we’re in the middle of season four and I won’t be able to see it until next summer. This hasn’t been hard to manage thus far.

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This is Where I Leave You

Round two of movie/Frank Lloyd Wright weekend with my mother and Gail included this movie on the big screen on a Friday night. Whoo hoo! This was an ensemble drama that was pretty decently funny and moving. In general, I like the family carnage style movies that occur with a big life event at the home of the parents and all of the siblings and their spousal types. Three recent ones come to mind.

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Love Punch

This was some lighter fare to kick off a weekend with my mother, who was in town for a bunch of Frank Lloyd Wright tours. We kicked back on a Thursday night and watched some Netflix, along with Gail. This was a Brit comedy starring Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson. You can’t really go wrong with that. It was funny and touching, with some action thrown in and with a few surprises. Not bad. Fit the bill well for the evening.

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Luther – Season Three

It’s difficult to describe the sensation of this BBC TV crime thriller. In once sense it’s a current-day thriller and detective story, but it’s so implausible and gory that I found it helps to treat it like sci-fi/horror. If you do so, you aren’t constantly blowing holes in the plot and you’re prepared for the intense moments so you can keep your wife updated when she turns away (I know this from experience).

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Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

This movie was directed by Kenneth Branagh, which gave it some street cred in my book. The Jack Ryan franchise is pretty dead in my mind and doesn’t have much of a future, but this was passable. Plenty of action and decent thrills, good for a rainy night on iTunes with G.

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The Escape Artist

The Brits have a monopoly on the creep factor. It amazes me that they create so man TV mini-movies with really, really creepy villains. This PBS Masterpiece Mystery thing is two episodes of about 90 minutes each starring David Tennant, the guy from Broadchurch, and his nemesis is one creepy dude.

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Philomena

This movie has a lot of potential to make you angry at the Catholic Church (or angrier), but remember, it’s a movie, so they use dramatic license. It’s based on a true story, but just keep this in perspective as you’re watching it. I try to box in my feelings so I can avoid the anger.

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Chef

Gail and I went to see this at the AMC 30 and it just sucked us in. John Favreau saw us coming and kidnapped us for 90 minutes with a simple, light, yet very cool food movie. Gail and I see a lot of food movies and we loved this. Keep in mind, we’re not very discerning when it comes to food movies.