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Safe House

I think everyone should make it a point to see each Denzel Washington movie. If not at the theatre, at least after the fact. He’s especially reliable for gratuitous TV watching on hotel HBO. He makes it a pretty safe bet that you’re going to get something worthwhile.

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Food Writer from The Guardian Sorts Through Brit Love for American Comfort Food

[click] Food Writer from The Guardian Sorts Through Brit Love for American Comfort Food

[via Eater Chicago] Sometimes it’s surprising how much our pop culture gets exported. This makes me want to visit the U.K. and try a Jersey Royal.

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Searching for Sugar Man – Rodriguez

One of my clients mentioned the movie Searching For Sugar Man in passing and he seemed to have really enjoyed it. He said it was about a tortured American artist who had marginal success at home but was highly successful outside of the country.

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Liberal Arts

I have a friend whose daughter went to Kenyon, a small liberal arts college near Columbus, Ohio. He mentioned this movie a few months ago because the writer/director/star and a bunch of cast members went to Kenyon. It was filmed on location while his daughter was there. I kind of forgot about it, then Gail and I were flipping through iTunes looking for a movie one night and just before we were ready to hang it up and not watch anything, we saw this was available.

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Homeland – Season One

I don’t do movie marathons. I wouldn’t, for example, entertain the thought of re-watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy on a snowy winter weekend. I don’t do all night sessions with TV shows. I don’t really even have a desire to get “caught up” on anything. I have the attention span of a gnat combined with a guilt complex that forces me to stretch media consumption over a weirdly extended period of time. That is, until now; until Homeland season one.

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The Avengers

Somewhere, between sci-fi and fantasy, falls the super hero sub-genre. Of these three sub-genres, super hero is my least favorite; it seems to distract from the social commentary and political intrigue often present in the other two. That should set the scene for my take on this movie.

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Skyfall

This could probably be the most distinctly gratifying Bond film yet. It sets this franchise up nicely. In that vein, I saw a review that compared this to The Dark Knight, and I can certainly see that. It has the same type of serious back story that serves as a new beginning. Really cool stuff.

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Jack Reacher

It has to be tough for an author to see their work on the big screen. The chance of the film hitting all the right points even if the author is actively involved is pretty slim. That’s why Sue Grafton hasn’t sold out, because she knows Hollywood will “savage” her work and she can’t bear to do that to her main character Kinsey Millhone.

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Contraband

Beware, there’s a good chance my take could be clouded by the bad reviews this thing got when it came out. This is an ex-criminal gets pulled in for one last job to save his family story. Gail and stumbled upon it on hotel HBO while on vacation. That’s gratuitous TV watching, I know.

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Tig Notaro Live

This is wild stuff. This comedienne named Tig Notaro did a comedy show a few days after finding out she was diagnosed with breast cancer. I heard about it via an email from Louis C.K. (I’m on the list because I purchased his self-produced comedy show about a year ago). I paid $5 for Notaro’s 30+ minute audio file at Louis C.K.’s website, but now I think she’s selling it on iTunes.