bradbice.com

New ratings, June 2022

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Sat, 25 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Newly added ratings in TV and Movies for June 2022

As always, all ratings are in the Library.

Movies

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

78%

Dune

88%

“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” was a great popcorn movie. There was enough craziness and special effects to forgive a less-than-stellar plot (and Benedict Cumberbatch’s stiff acting, he does much better in other roles) and it kept me interested throughout, something the previous installment did not do.

“Dune” suprised me as I went in thinking this would be more of a Stargate clone, but it relied more heavily on dark cinematography and drama, which worked. The size of the visuals is worth the price of admission here, and I’m excited to see a sequel if it’s made.

TV

“Moon Knight” started out hot but then got its feet caught up in the sand and too many levels of Egyption-type lore. Also having little-to-no connection to the Marvel Cinematic Universe hurt it a bit, as I was waiting for that to happen all series. Ultimately decent and entertaining, though not as good as I was hoping for.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi” was saved by incredible Darth Vader scenes, and the return of James Earl Jones and Hayden Christiansen as Vader in and out of suit, respectively. Ewan McGregor is fantastic, as usual, but the series didn’t have enough vital “meat” to it to feel truly significant.

“The Boys” is shock-TV superheroes for a Trump-era America, basically poking fun at everyone who thinks conservatism will save America. Some funny moments, some cool drama and tension-filled scenes, some over-the-top blood, sex, and gore… It’s not something I’d recommend to almost anyone, but it’s been a fun ride for what it is so far (2 seasons in).

“Yellowstone” started out hot: my wife and I were absolutely hooked about 3-4 episodes in. Season 1 was all over the place plot-wise, but it was fun to watch. Season 2 was bad, and season 3 was slow. Season 4 picked back up a little, but it ultimately never hit its high spots ever again. Worth watching, for sure, and we’re looking forward to season 5, however we’re hoping it can gain back a little of its lost luster.

New ratings, April 2022

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Sat, 16 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Newly added ratings for TV and Movies

As always, all ratings are in the Library.

Movies

The Lighthouse

85%

Spider-Man: No Way Home

64%

“The Lighthouse” was a “beautiful in a creepy way” telling of a classic going-mad tale. Willem Dafoe is brilliant as always, underscoring my new appreciation for his acting prowess. The film style lends to the drama and suspense as well, providing a thrilling atmosphere of suspense and fear.

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” didn’t live up to the hype for me, though I was spoiled by the reveals having waited until it was available to rent to see it. Ultimately it seemed a bit of an overstep for the formula, repeating a lot of the same types of jokes and stretching the cast and story a bit too far without fundamentally changing it enough to be fresh. Hopefully this is the last for this rendition of Spider-Man, and maybe we’ll see a new take (but keeping within the MCU continuity).

TV

Severance

90%

“Severance” is brilliant. Its combination of comedy, drama, sci-fi, and suspense, all built on top of a very intriguing and intertwining mystery, made it a must-see for me each week. Those benefitting from being able to binge this entire season will love it. There were hints of Stanley Kubrick as well as Black Mirror-type storytelling and settings throughout, which added to the thrills.

My Favorite Holiday Movies, Ranked

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Here are my favorite holiday movies, and how I’ve rated them.

The criteria for the rating system is explained here, and does not necessarily take into account which is the best holiday movie. This list is fairly accurate however. As you can see, guilty pleasures like “The Holiday” and “Love Actually” represent the corny – yet necessary – side of the holidays.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

87%

Four Christmases

81%

The Nightmare Before Christmas

84%

How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

It's a Wonderful Life

69%

Introducing Dark Mode

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve added a dark mode to bradbice.com, as well as some quick and simple ratings comparisons.

Dark mode

My website has been a little too bright lately, so I’ve implemented a dark mode which will activate according to your OS settings. Thanks to CSS custom properties and the (prefers-color-scheme: dark) media query, this was really simple to do and was completed in about 30 minutes and around 20 lines of CSS. Most of the time was coming up with alternative colors (granted mostly shades of black, gray, and white at this point) and checking color contrast ratios.

I hope it’s a little easier on your eyes if you’re viewing the site at night or if you’ve turned the rest of your computer dark.

Movie comparisons

My other side project is rating movies. Here I’m collecting every movie I’ve ever watched in my entire life, documenting them, and rating them. My wife will join in when we watch the same movie together.

At times, I may want to compare movies of a certain run, certain eras, that have similar actors, etc. Now I’ve created a simple shortcode in Hugo that allows me to do that by passing in a list of movies like so:

blog-movies "batmanbegins:thedarkknight:thedarkknightrises"

The Dark Knight Rises

61%

Now I can compare any types of movies, and as many as I can list (as long as I’ve already rated them).

Back to the Future

94%

Back to the Future Part II

90%

Back to the Future Part III

91%

However, as of this writing I’ve only rated 153 of 737 movies (21%), so I’ve got a ways to go before I can fully utilize this feature.

And Now... The Movies

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Sun, 29 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A lot can happen when you’re sick and the wife and child are away. Movie ratings are here.

I’ve had a bit of an upper-respiratory infection (undiagnosed) this weekend, and the wife and child are away for a couple of days, so I’ve had a lot of time to sit around the house. This also has meant watching a few movies I normally wouldn’t have.

I’ve long wanted to add movie ratings to my site and so now I’ve done it. Now Natalie and I can both rate movies as we watch them and tally our scores. Check it out at the Movies page.

It’s sparse for now, but we’ll be adding more as we have the time. I’ll also want to redesign the Movies home page a bit to better show our top rated movies, as well as being able to sort by criteria such as rating, genre and date. All in due time.

Enjoy!