Last night, I watched Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. I was mistaken remembering it as a pale imitation. It's actually a step up from the original. The film is basically a mashup of James Bond and Indiana Jones, part exotic-locale-jumping and part espionage gun-play. The film gets a Bond-esque villain (Ciarán Hinds' deranged scientist), and Lara gets another "Croft boy" (Gerard Bulter). I really wish the film had done enough to spawn another sequel or even a franchise.

I enjoy Hulu. I don't mind commercials on TV shows, and cartoons and movies are all commercial free.

I love the show, but it hasn't been as good the last two seasons, unfortunately.



We actually have season tickets to see the show in May, but I couldn't wait so I picked up a cheap same-day ticket. This was in a much smaller theater than this company usually uses, and it really heightens the intensity. I figured there'd be ticket deals because the run is late February to early May, and I can't imagine a Sondheim show selling for that long, even in a small theater. (Usually this theater runs its productions for about a month.) But this company loves Sondheim and for a while was doing one Sondheim show a year, which is great because it's one of the two big Broadway theaters in the city and they put on their own, very polished productions (the other one just hosts touring companies). Their Sweeney Todd remains one of the best things I've seen on stage. Their accountants probably looked at the tickets sales for Follies, though, and stopped the trend before they could get to Pacific Overtures and Anything can Whistle.

I found it interesting that they doubled up the roles of the Balladeer and Lee Harvey Oswald, but I guess that was done in the revival and has stuck for a number of productions since. The revival is the moment I really started taking post-Doogie Neil Patrick Harris seriously.

Martial Law...!

Louis "You know how to say 'smartarse' in Chinese?"
Sammo Hung "Yep."

I woke up in the middle of the night, so got an early start on the last day of the Challenge, with a viewing of San Andreas, on HBO. While there was nothing that jumped out at me, , I thought it was an enjoyable movie.

Working the last three days of the Challenge here is making me go out with a whimper. But, I did have fun catching up on Arrow seasons earlier this month, and had fun at the theater with Deadpool, so a successful month for me!

I enjoyed the Challenge. Thanks for running it Trevor. My only regret is I didn't discover The Batman until today.

Luckily a lot of the movies will work on next month's challenge, but I have been watching a lot on Amazon Prime lately. A nature show about animals in Venezuela is classified under Action Adventure movies on Amazon Prime, so I've been watching them. They won't count next month, but I've seen a lot of ninja movies on Amazon Prime.

I managed to hit 100 yesterday!

I plan to finish the challenge by seeing Batman v Superman later today despite the generally mediocre reviews that I've been hearing about.

Congratulations!

Yesterday, I watched Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, Zack Synder's animated feature about owl wars. I blind-bought it on Tuesday completely on the endorsement of Cinefix, a channel on YouTube that named the film as one of the most beautiful animated films. They weren't over-hyping the film; it is absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, the story is lacking, and the editing makes the film feel more like the CliffsNotes version.

My numbers may be high, but that's more a reflection of half hour and hour shows than anything. I only got a few movies in. I also watched a lot of 5 minute or less content.

IIRC they're planning on rebooting the franchise with a movie featuring a teenage Lara (ŕ la the current video games) in the next year or two-ish.

There's nothing like true life action. I'm watching the Mig Alley episode of Dogfights right now.

That would be awesome! I'm a fan of the character and the first couple of games. I never played any beyond that. If I break down and buy a new console, I'll have to give the new games a try.

Thanks! I remember seeing previews of Legends of the Guardians and thinking it might be worth seeing but I never got around to it. What you said makes me want to see it (but probably not own it). Your comments are similar to what I thought of Batman v Superman. It was often visually impressive but the story and several of the characters just didn't work for me. Also some of the action scenes weren't all that exciting although others were better. Wonder Woman was very well done though.

I put up good numbers this year but miss the days when The Amazing Race was on Sundays instead of going on hiatus for basketball and we could count those too.

She's not a teen, but they should totally cast Lara's voice, Camilla Luddington.

My list is finalized.