Movies

The climactic fight scene in 'Under Siege.' Tommy Lee Jones as a bad guy!

Under Siege - DVD | I let Carey shop without supervision again, so she came home with half a dozen old-school DVDs that she says will someday make someone happy on a rainy day at South Lake. We didn’t wait for that future day, watching this Steven Seagal classic at home the last weekend of the month. I’d forgotten the entirety of it, of course. But in my defense, it’s been 31 years! I’d give it 3 out of 5 stars after all these years.

Plane - Redbox | Carey, Greta and I have loved Gerard Butler in all the “___ Has Fallen” movies, but his character in this one is no Mike Banning. It’s respectable enough as an action flick, I guess, but I neither laughed enough nor felt too edge-of-my-seat. Oh well. A fourth film called “Night Has Fallen” is expected either this year or next!

Memory - Redbox | Greta and I had a Daddy-Daughter night recently and she wanted dinner and an action movie. Liam Neeson once again won out. How many of these movies has he made since turning 60? This one also starred Guy Pearce and Neeson’s character has early onset Alzheimer’s, but don’t worry, Action Neeson fans, the bad guys don’t stand a chance.

Ghosted - Apple TV | I’m taking credit for watching this one, but truth be told I slept through half of it. Carey and Greta giggled a bit though. A mindless way to end a busy weekend featuring not-bad-on-the-eyes Chris Evans and Ana de Armas.

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Hulu | It only took a year or so, but we made it through all eight seasons of this Andy Samberg workplace comedy set in a Brooklyn police precinct. I thought it was pretty up and down in terms of yuks, but the annual Halloween Heist episodes were definitely my favorite.

Daisy Jones & the Six - Amazon Prime | Greta and I agree that the series did not live up to the book by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Everything was slightly skewed to make Daisy more heroic and less fragile. Fine performances by both Elvis’ daughter Riley Keough and Sam Claflin, though, who avoids being typecast as “the guy with a trident in The Hunger Games.” Plus, they really did sing for their supper.

Mandalorian, S3 - Disney+ | Linc and I continued our weekend tradition of watching the man in the mask and his baby Yoda adventure across the galaxy. I thought S3 improved upon S2, but overall the series isn't aging that well. The novelty of seeing these characters come to life from the Star Wars canon has faded and the narrative is too stilted, with characters saying what they're about to do before they do it, and Force-proficient heroes always invincible when push comes to shove. More "Andor," please.

Books

Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret Atwood | I neglected to include this one in my March diet. Maybe because it was sort of forgettable, at least in comparison to her more visionary work, like “The Handmaid’s Tale?” It’s a collection of short stories, obviously loosely inspired by the author’s own life. Most feature an elderly Canadian couple with a life in Toronto and a cabin somewhere in the woods, just like Atwood and her late partner, Graeme Gibson, who passed away in 2019. | My AP review.

The Trackers by Charles Frazier | Not “Cold Mountain” level good, but a fine historical fiction with echoes of today. It’s set in the U.S. after the Great Depression, as a struggling artist receives a contract to paint a mural in a Wyoming post office as part of FDR’s Works Progress Adminstration. I’ll never complain about inflation or waiting in long lines again. | My AP review.

The 1998 Yankees by Jack Curry | I try to sign up for all Yankees books on the AP review list. This one was pretty straightforward, written by a beat reporter who covered the team 25 years ago and now insists it’s the greatest team ever. Hard to argue with an overall (including postseason) record of 125-50 and a World Series title! | My AP review.