I agree about Ex Machina vs Danish Girl, but I also just really really like Alicia Vikander. Her last name is even fun to say. Vi-kan-der. And the orange dress she rocks in Man from UNCLE. Wowz.

Don't get me wrong, I liked the new Star Wars, but this is too true to be funny. Even more so of Spectre though.

*people

My problem with West Wing is I have a really hard time getting around its optimistic view of politics generally. I more believe the truism that pwookie want politics to be like West Wing (or House of Cards), but it's really way way closer to Veep. Does American President share that Sorkian optimism?

Film: Watched more than usual this week due to being sick.

Dang it. Now all I want to see is an Alfred Hitchcock Mission Impossible movie.

Yeah, perhaps I came across as harsher than I intended. I am generally entertained by the Marvel films, although I was rather annoyed at the formlessness of Age of Ultron. Loved Guardians of the Galaxy, but thought Wintr Soldier was slightly overrated and not quite as good as the first Captain America.

Between you and @butters911 just above you, you've pretty much summed up all of the Thor movies. Heck, maybe the appeal/problem of all of the Marvel movies:
-cute and charming at first
-soon revealed to be utterly predictable
-still fascinating as a pop culture event due to the talent Disney can buy and their admittedly…

Oh, poor, sweet Mission Impossible 2. A movie without a time or a continent. It seems insane now that there is a Mission Impossible movie with so many random doves in it. Was it always so? Adieu.

The prequels as silent movies with just the music would be vastly improved, in my opinion.

Upvoted for those first two, then looked at the rest of the list and was still okay with it!

I was left cold (but distantly admiring) by that movie, but even I remember the soundtrack you allude to being fantastic. (Mr Fox) (sorry)

Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings or John Williams' Star Wars. I think in a way those two men understood those respective film series better than their directors. Either would be utterly magnificent to hear live.

She also has a very brief role in Spielberg's War of the Worlds.

Yeah, it always kinda surprises me when I remember he isn't really famous for anything else, except his (pretty small, I think?) part in Titanic.

And sooo agreed about the Rohirrim arrival. Also, I've always felt Bernard Hill's performance as Theoden is really really good and nobody talks about it.

Yeah, that scene is magnificent in the book. But in the movie (extended) they play it too much like the Witch King beats Gandalf for my tastes, whereas in the book it's more of a standoff that's about to become an epic fight before the Rohirrim show up. Still looks great, of course.

True enough. Although … may be time for a Silmarillion re-read soon.

I saw what you did there.

You could have just said Eowyn and we all would have know who you were talking about.