I spent far more time catching up on TV shows, although I only finished a couple. I did a rewatch of the NetFlix/Disney Daredevil since I realized I had never seen the third season. I also watched Helstrom, which is the one Marvel-based show you can easily skip if you decide to watch all of the Marvel content. My wife decided she wants to watch the new Dexter, so we temporarily have a Paramount account; I’m using this as an opportunity to finally watch Twin Peaks.
What I’ve Caught Up With, November 2025
Film: 1984 (1954)
Orwell’s novel is probably his most famous work and his most important, and it has been relevant since it was written, now just as much as then. This version was made in 1954, less than 10 years after World War II and during the ramping up of the Cold War. It features a youngish Peter Cushing (he was 40, but that feels young for Peter Cushing) as Winston Smith and Yvonne Mitchell as his lover Julia. This is a story not merely of oppression, but of rebellion against it, both in the necessity of it and the futility of it. Winston and Julia are desperate to be alive and doomed to be crushed under the heel of Big Brother. The more famous version with John Hurt has the budget, but the story is bulletproof, and this one also features Donald Pleasance early on.
Film: End of Watch (2012)
Two cops (Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña) work in Los Angeles, specifically in South Central. A lot of the film comes from Officer Taylor’s (Gyllenhaal) recording their activities for a college class. The film covers a number of their calls as well as their personal lives, including their marriages. Of ultimate importance is a bust they make leads to a house full of human trafficking victims, which puts them in the crosshairs of a drug cartel, and it’s not too long before they discover that they have been green-lit for assassination. The story is compelling almost in spite of itself. It’s easy to dismiss Michael Peña as a comic actor, but he’s really solid in this, and Gyllenhaal is almost always worth watching.
Film: Beyond the Lights (2014)
I realize that tropes exist for a reason, but I find it frustrating when I see a movie that I have almost literally seen before. Have you seen The Bodyguard, Notting Hill or Marry Me? Well, then you’ve seen Beyond the Lights. Singer on the cusp of stardom Noni (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is saved from a drunken suicide attempt by her police protection, Kaz (Nate Parker), a cop with political aspirations. Naturally, romance blooms despite her being famous, having problems, and also having an overbearing and shark-like mother (Minnie Driver). It’s not bad, but you’ve absolutely seen this before, probably multiple times. Additionally, the casting of Colson Baker/Machine Gun Kelly as Noni’s original love interest is nothing but stunt casting—the dude can’t act. Finally, most of the music is absolutely atrocious.
Film: Eephus (2024)
I don’t really pay attention to sports, but sports movies are often a lot of fun. Eephus is a baseball movie that really emphasizes the fact that baseball is a timeless game, and one where time is essentially frozen. This is the story of a baseball game between two teams of amateur players on a local field before that field is demolished to put up a school. That’s really it; it’s just a baseball game that runs over the course of a day. This isn’t a championship and there are no stakes—just a group of guys playing for the final bragging rights. And it’s lovely and sweet and poignant and often pretty funny. And, like the pitch it is named after, Eephus is deceptively slow and sneaks up on you without you noticing.
Film: I, Monster (1971)
While it’s true that there are only a few different possible main stories in the world, it’s sad when the movie that you are watching is very clearly a story you’ve already seen pretty much literally from start to finish, just under a different name. I, Monster is nothing more nor different from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in very slightly different wrapping. It doesn’t even bother to put this in a different time frame or setting; just the names are changed, with a few very minor details in terms of why the formula that releases the monster is developed. Certainly it helps that the Jekyll/Hyde adjunct is played by Christopher Lee and his lawyer is played by Peter Cushing, but this is sadly derivative, although a passingly decent version of the story.
Film: Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)
I don’t know why I’d never seen the third Die Hard, but I just never got around to it. This is very much an action movie in that ‘80s/’90s vein, where everything is bigger and flashier than in the previous movies in the series. This time, it’s not at Christmas, and John McClane (Bruce Willis) is back in New York, estranged from his wife. It’s personal for this film—the antagonist forces McClane to solve puzzles under threat of rigged explosions around the city. McClane winds up being assisted by locksmith Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson), with our nemesis played by Jeremy Irons. It’s fine. It’s bombastic and forces our heroes into battles that would kill anyone else—seriously, they take first season Daredevil levels of physical punishment. I do like seeing Graham Greene as an average Joe cop in this. He was always at his best when he wasn’t specifically playing a Native American.
Film: Hell’s Angels (1930)
A Howard Hughes production that took years because it began as a silent seems in a lot of ways to be walking on the same path that Wings did a few years prior. Brothers Monte (Ben Lyon) and Roy Rutledge (James Hall) enlist in the fledgling air corps during World War I. Roy is straightlaced and in love with Helen (Jean Harlow), while Monte is a womanizer and a coward. Monte attempts to steal Helen away from his brother, and without any real resistance from her. It’s a pretty standard war story, but the bombing and flight sequences at the end are really good, especially for the year in which this was filmed. There’s also an in-color sequence that is the only full-color footage of Harlow.
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