After watching the first episode of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the pace wasn’t very engaging. My attention kept wandering. Then I realized the same thing was happening with the characters. If the opening scene was supposed to be a continuation from the movie, they were much more skilled there than viewers were led to believe here. The new couple’s status as washouts explained why they kept getting distracted. Still, it changes the dynamic from spy vs. spy to something else.
Also, I’m really hating the way John comes off as a pest/creep who doesn’t respect Jane’s boundaries at all. Worse, she’s apologetic for reacting negatively to his repeated bad behavior. This is not a good beginning, IMO.
I was scrolling through Prime and came across the show Hazbin Hotel. I had no idea what to expect, but it looked interesting so I gave it a chance. I was hooked within the first 5 minutes.
Here’s the pilot episode (it has different voice actors)…
My attention wandered too. So much that I stopped watching and started over a day later. I watched 2 or 3 episodes, stopped and have yet to return.
I was not a fan of John’s behavior towards Jane and that was probably a big reason why I haven’t gone back.
It seems that instead of actively looking for a new home for Coyote Vs. Acme, the company was actually just trying to “run out the clock,” as one source put it. Sure, big studios like Netflix, Amazon, and Paramount made offers (Paramount even apparently wanted to give the movie a healthy theatrical run), but WBD rejected them because they came in below the desired $75 to $80 million price tag. Here’s the crucial part, though: WBD reportedly didn’t tell anybody that was the price, and it didn’t allow any of the studios to give a counteroffer once the initial offer was rejected.
I finally got around to seeing American Fiction. I quite liked it, but I just couldn’t stop thinking about how much it reminded me of the much better, criminally underrated Spike Lee Joint called Bamboozled.
They were both satirical and both got a bit absurdist toward the end, but Bamboozled really took the absurdism and ran with it in a way that kept me surprised throughout. American Fiction had better acting for sure, but the story was a bit predictable.
To be fair, I haven’t seen Bamboozled in years, but there are still a lot of scenes that stick out for me.
Fair enough. It all boils down to personal preference really.
American Fiction reminded me more of an even earlier movie, Hollywood Shuffle. I think it’s even more similar because it too directly addresses the entertainment industry’s insistence on stereotypical black charcters. It’s even rougher than Bamboozled, partly because its maker couldn’t find financing for it (and even did so partly by maxing out his own credit cards), but I think it’s nonetheless a “great” movie because it’s so pioneering.
Will check out Hazbin Hotel instead.
