1971 - House of Cards: season two

If you haven’t caught up, stop reading now.  Spoilers abound.  I have to admit that it took me a while to get into the first season of this show, but the second one went down smooth as silk.  Kate Mara’s exit made my jaw drop - and that’s no small feat.  I respect a show that isn’t scared to fuck with the status quo.  It was a move that let you know that this season was going to take no prisoners.  This is character who has literally murdered his way into the most powerful position in the free world.  It’s Dexter with politics, although a stronger, fiercer show - and I just can’t imagine a show would have this title if it wasn’t going to start watching the house topple at some point.  The beauty of where the show is now, and having him on top of the world, is the joy it’s going to be watching him get his.  This is one of the things that make your Netflix subscription a no brainer.

1847 - The Princess Bride

God bless small children for giving you a reason for revisiting your old favourites.  Watched this with my little guy tonight and he loved the shit out of it, which of course made me proud.  My wife threw him some spoilers on the characters and so he was obsessed with trying ti figure out who the six finger man was.

This film is such a fantastic classic.  An endless amount of quotable lines and performances.  It's the kind of family that every one really can enjoy and it stands up viewing after viewing, which I'm sadly learning isn't always the case with some of the films from my youth.  If you've never seen this film, I feel badly for you, please remedy that right away - do yourself a favour and watch it with your favourite kid.

1832 - What Just Happened?

It's funny, when I was younger I was really obsessed with films about the inside of the industry, especially dark comedies like this that shed it's light upon the underbelly - there was some joy in the mystery of this world - but now I can't imagine myself writing something that's so inside baseball.  I have no complaints about those that do - but it just makes the whole business seem so ridiculously petty - and maybe that's the point.  There's a lot of truth in the insanity that's shown in here, and the actors who play themselves do a pretty great job of leaving their egos at the door.
DeNiro plays a producer who is having the week from hell, dealing with a director who wants to keep his uber-bleak ending for a film about to go to Cannes, and Bruce Willis refusing to shave his beard for an upcoming film.  This sound terribly first world problem-esque - and they are, but I don't think the film is ignorant of that, in fact I think it takes great joy in playing up those of us who just take this shit a little too seriously.
The cast is great and seems to enjoy lampooning us a tinge.  It's not essential viewing by any means, but it's entertaining enough.