Tag: Movies

Watching Star Wars in (Mostly) Chronological Order

Nick Momrik3 Comments

When the first episode of “The Book of Boba Fett” came out on December 29th I asked Brandi if she wanted to watch it. I wasn’t sure because I’d mentioned the idea of watching the nine Star Wars movies in order (something I’ve been wanting to do) several times and she never showed enough interest for us to get started. She enjoyed the episode, so I said we needed to watch “The Mandalorian” and as soon as “The Child” made his appearance she was hooked. We cruised through Mando’s two seasons in about ten days and then continued watching the Boba Fett episodes as they were released each week.

Somewhere during Boba Fett’s running we started our journey of the nine movies. I created a list, as I do. The list expanded to add “Solo” and “Rogue One”. Then a friend suggested watching some of the animated series, which would fill in a lot of gaps. That let to finding the Disney+ playlists of essential “Clone Wars” episodes and essential Ahsoka Tano episodes. I found a short list of essential Rebels episodes. We added some other Clone Wars episodes based on recommendations by another friend. “The Bad Batch” and “Resistance” were placed in the timeline.

Adjustments to the timeline were made as we went so I could share it when were were done. It’s not perfect by any means, especially since it’s impossible to eliminate all overlapping. If you look online there are countless debates about what “essential” episodes should be selected from the various animated series, but we didn’t want to invest the time to watch all seven seasons of Clone Wars and four seasons of Rebels. Feel free to take this list and make it your own. Leave suggestions in the comments for the next person’s benefits.

  • The Phantom Menace
  • Attack of the Clones
  • The Clone Wars (movie)
  • The Clone Wars
    • S1 (1, 5, 19)
    • S2 (5-8, 11-14)
    • S3 (2, 22)
    • S4 (14, 21-22)
    • S5 (6, 1, 14-20)
    • S7 (1-4, 7-10)
  • Revenge of the Sith
  • Clone Wars S7 (11-12)
  • The Bad Batch
  • Solo
  • Rebels
    • S1 (10, 15)
    • S2 (1-3, 18, 21-22)
    • S3 (15-16, 20)
    • S4 (1-2, 13, 15)
  • Rogue One
  • A New Hope
  • The Empire Strikes Back
  • Return of the Jedi
  • The Mandalorian
  • The Book of Boba Fett
  • Resistance S1 (1-2, 10-11, 19-21)
  • The Force Awakens
  • The Last Jedi
  • Resistance S2 (3, 5, 7, 8, 17-19)
  • The Rise of Skywalker

It took us four months to watch everything. In terms of the animated series, Clone Wars and Bad Batch are excellent, with CW providing a lot of extra details to the Star Wars universe. Rebels wasn’t very good but some of the episodes provided valuable stories. Resistance was pretty good, but didn’t give much extra information to tie in with the movies.

We really enjoyed the whole adventure and watching things in order helped a lot. It was great having someone as excited as I was along for the ride because we’d often pause to discuss something or ask a backstory question. Each of us would remember different things and have different questions, which really added to the experience.

One Line Movie Reviews – May 2019

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I watched several movies on the Utah trip flights, so it’s a good time to review everything I’ve watched over the last month or two.

Unicorn Store

I guess it was a feel-good movie about following your dreams, but I only picked it because I had watched Captain Marvel a week or two before.

Creed II

Solid addition to the Rocky series.

Breaking In

Do not get between a mother and her children.

Bohemian Rhapsody

Never really knew much about Queen before watching this and I really loved all of the music in the movie.

Avengers: Endgame

I managed to avoid spoilers for a week while I was out-of-town and was not disappointed in how they brought everything together for this chapter of the story.

The Highwaymen

Costner and Harrelson forme a great team in this incredible story.

What I’ve Been Watching – March 2019 Edition

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I’ve watched my share of series and movies since the holidays and
Unbreakable, Split, & Glass. Helps when I make a trip out west and watch 2 movies each way.

Punisher season 2

My favorite of the Marvel series on Netflix. Too bad they are all cancelled.

Bird Box

After everyone was talking so much about this Netflix movie I was really expecting something. It was good but nothing special.

Captain Marvel

Great movie. Can we get more female super heroes?

The Umbrella Academy

Really fun comic book series on Netflix. I binged it in 4-5 days.

Bumblebee

People like to give the Transformers movies a hard time, but I’ve always enjoyed them. This one was no exception.

Green Book

Great story. Going in, I didn’t realize it was based on the true story. People really can change.

The Catcher was a Spy

Pretty sure I hadn’t heard of this movie before I saw it in the list on the flight. Another interesting story based on real life.

In Search of Greatness

A documentary I hadn’t heard of either. I really liked how they compared growing up to the kids of today, based on the careers and interviews with Pelé, Jerry Rice, and Wayne Gretzky. Parents push children in sports so much more now and don’t let them just go out and play. Studies show that the kids with less structured practice time grow up to have more creativity, intuition, and feel for the games, making them better.

Unbreakable, Split, & Glass

Nick Momrik1 Comment

When the movie Glass was announced, I think everyone was a bit surprised. The first movie in the series, Unbreakable, was released in 2000! I remember seeing it and being excited for where it would go. Then nothing. Since it had been so long I had to watch it again.

It was a bit slower than I remember, especially by today’s standards. Unlike so many comic book movies of today, M. Night Shyamalan really took his time developing the characters and then there is the bombshell ending. That ending is why it’s so surprising it took almost 20 years to continue the story. It was neat how well the movie holds up though. If you didn’t tell someone it was made so long ago, I’m not sure they’d guess.

When I saw the trailers for Mr. Glass I thought one of the characters looked familiar, but until Friday night, I didn’t know that the movie Split was actually in this series. So of course I also had to watch it as well, the morning after Unbreakable. I would have bet this was out in the last year, but it was a January 2017 release in the United States.

While the development of this character was a process through the entire movie, the pace was much quicker than Unbreakable. James McAvoy did a phenomenal job with the multiple personalities. The ending was great for the continuation, so I’m glad I just watched it now.

I couldn’t wait, so went to watch Glass in the afternoon! All three movies in about 20 hours.

After having just watched Split, Glass was a bit of a letdown, because Split was just so good. Another ending I wasn’t expecting, but since the movie is new I won’t give anything away. Great series that I hope keeps going.

2018 Holiday Watches

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Each year I tend to watch a lot during the holiday break. This year it started a year and one day after sharing the Ocean’s 8 trailer. I was browsing iTunes movies and rented it as soon as I saw it. Exactly what you’d expect from the Ocean’s movies. Cool that there was some character carryover between the movies too.

On Christmas day I watched a few movies on Hallmark Channel with Mom. All very predictable and heartwarming. They were Christmas Made to Order, It’s Christmas, Eve, and Christmas in Evergreen: Letters to Santa.

When I’m sick, I usually tune in to some type of marathon, because I can fall asleep and not care about missing anything. The Incredible Dr. Pol is a fascinating show about a veterinarian right here in central Michigan. I’ve seen so many calves delivered I’m pretty sure I could do it myself.

I watched CrossFit – Killing the Fat Man – Season 2. Shows the power of the program, especially combined with solid nutrition. Inspired me to try an experiment of my own.

One night I was browsing movies on Netflix and Wind River caught my eye. I liked it and thought it was one of the best Jeremy Renner performances I’ve seen.

Tiger Woods: Return of the Roar on ESPN got me pumped for the upcoming golf season and reminded me how lucky we are to experience this comeback. 2019 could be something very special.

To close out my vacation I watched Mission: Impossible – Fallout last night. I almost went to see it when it was in theaters so it’s been on my watch list for a while. It was enjoyable.

I also watched countless videos on YouTube, but that’s the norm.

You know what I didn’t watch? A single play of college football. It was great.

What I’ve Been Watching on Netflix

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After not watching much most of the summer, I watched quite a bit in the last month.

Luke Cage (Season 2): downhill from season 1. Great soundtrack though.

Orange is the New Black (Season 6): The new prison really shook it up. Enjoyed this season more than the last couple.

The Titan: I was liking it until they made evolution happen overnight. The plot seemed to skip over a long sequence of events after performing some surgeries. Lost me for the rest of the movie.

Set It Up: Fun romcom, which I’m a sucker for.

I might start Altered Carbon next.

One Flight Five Flicks

Nick Momrik1 Comment

Yesterday on the flight from Barcelona to Atlanta I was able to watch five movies.

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The Post: One of my favorite movies in recent memory. I wonder if the current President’s attacks on the media had an influence on my opinion.

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American Made: I really enjoyed this one as well. Probably helped to have some of the background from watching Narcos.

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Murder on the Orient Express: I’ve wanted to watch this since seeing the first trailer. It didn’t disappoint. I had to pause and take a nap halfway through due to being up so early.

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Suburbicon: I would not watch this again. Some of the story lines didn’t seem to fit together.

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All I See Is You: I’d never even heard of this one but needed something under 2 hours in order to finish before landing. Was ok for a random pick.

Netflix Rom-Coms

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It’s a little-known fact that I enjoy romantic comedies, so when I saw the NY Times article Nine Underseen Rom-Coms on Netflix, it caught my attention. I’ve only seen Begin Again and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World from the list. I enjoyed both movies. Not surprising, they’re the two starring Keira Knightley. Most of the other 7 I’d never even heard of, but they’ve been added to My List on Netflix for those lonely winter nights.