1979 - The Way Way Back

I’d heard lovely things about this film so I was really happy to see it come to netflix.  It’s got an insanely awesome cast and tells the somewhat typical coming of age story of a boy forced to go away for the summer and how he came back a bit more of a man.  Carell plays his mom’s asshole boyfriend.  Toni Collette is the mom in question, and you only need to watch the last scene and shot of the film to know what a force of nature she is as an actor.  She does so much with so little, it’s beautiful.  Sam Rockwell is and will always been a favourite of mine, he’s not doing anything he hasn’t done a million times before here, but he does it well and with charm.  It’s nice to see Amanda Peet, Alison Janney, and Maya Rudolph rounding out the cast, but they’re a tad bit under used here.  If you dig coming of age stories this is a sweet one, and easy to find on Netflix.

1891 - Despicable Me 2

It's been about a year since I took my son to see a movie, which shames me to no end, but here we went again.  We watched the first together and it gave him some genuine belly laughs, as it did me, so I was happy to check this out with him.  The minions, obviously, steal the film - and what I like about here that was smart was that they used them as a major plot point in the film as opposed to just filling the film with more random scenes of them as a lesser movie would have done.  In fact, the minion stuff is so strong that it eclipses the rest of the film, and that's not always a great thing.
I had some story logic quibbles, which I won't bring up here in great detail.  Mostly, it just bothered me that they didn't go as far as they should have with some of the character stuff, with Gru in particular.  There were some missed opportunities.  All in all though, I quite enjoyed it, and I think I even liked it better than the original - which is nice since the second film should be better if there's a point in making it at all.
I see that there's a Minions film coming out, so I'm sure my little guy and I will find our ways over there when it's released.  If you want to see a kid's film that's pretty enjoyable for the parents as well, this is a good one!

1567 - The Office: season seven

When you watch a season as it plays out (as opposed to catching on after-the-fact) it's hard to review it without the review being, more-or-less, a commentary in the finale.  I'll do my best...
This is going to sound harsh, but I say it with love, The Office fucked up.  I realize that it's tough for a show to go on as long as this one has and try to keep it fresh and interesting - but The Office has not been keeping up to the challenge.  Does it do interesting and surprising things lately?  Sure!  But it also announces that it's going to do them months ahead of doing them.  Everyone knew Carrell was leaving.  Everyone knew that Ferrell had a guest spot coming up - and everyone knew who the cameos in the finale was going to be.  It would appear that NBC is so worried about not having viewers that they can't keep anything to themselves and let the audience discover it through watching the show.  Don't get me wrong - there was some really really great stuff in this season, and if you're a fan of the show, or just catching up, it's worth watching still - absolutely.  But for those who haven't watched - I'm about to go into SPOILER TERRITORY, so beware...
There is no denying that this season has been the Michael Scott Farewell Tour, and to it's success, by the time he was gone I didn't miss him from the show - not to say that I don't like Carrell or the character - but he had out-served his usefulness.  Many can and will argue that the show itself has as well.  The big question has been "Who will replace Michael?"  And we thought that the finale was going to resolve that - it didn't - and not in an awesome cliff-hanger way - more in a way that made me feel like they were just bidding their time.  And the worst part is that they're probably going to announce it prior to the first episode anyway (if they don't I'll happily eat my words).  One of my larger issues is that there is some sad character inconsistencies.  Darryl has always been a bright level headed guy, but because they don't want to have him take over all of a sudden he starts acting weird and unqualified.  It felt like a stretch.  And as much as I enjoyed how horrible Dwight did when he was filling in as manager, part of me thinks that they pushed that forward a bit too much.  I don't want Dwight to be the boss, but I'm not sure that he would have made those mistakes.  The biggest flaw with the show right now is that it's just not acting logically.  Jim is refusing the job - why?  For no reason whatsoever - and why isn't Pam in consideration?  She was essentially Michael's second for a long time.  Will I tune in next season?  Of course I will, but this show has to find something for itself to anchor to.
The Office: Season Seven