Rifles-a-blazin'
Accurately diverse cast
Lack of backstory
Seven gun men in the old west gradually come together to help a poor village against savage thieves.
I've never seen the original The Magnificent Seven—nor Seven Samurai—but I was excited about this movie, regardless, from the first trailer. I mean, that cast!
However, though the cast was great, and the movie itself decently entertaining, I didn't love it as much as I had hoped.
My main dislike stems from the fact that there wasn't a whole lot of backstory explaining the characters' actions or the larger plot of the movie. I mean, I could make inferences in many cases, and my imagination filled in many of the holes from the little information we did get, but I never really connected with any of the characters or their motivations. And in some cases, the backstory came too late to make much of a difference.
That said, I thought the cast—specifically the diversity of the cast—was great. Denzel Washington's Sam Chisolm is a great, soft-spoken leader; Chris Pratt's Josh Faraday is a delightfully snarky ne'er-do-well (think Peter Quill in the old west); Vincent D'Onofrio's Jack Horne is crazy personified (with a seriously bizarre way of speaking); and Peter Sarsgaard's Bartholomew Bogue was thisclose to being a joke, but his quiet demeanor made his over-the-top villainy that much more real. The supporting cast were great at their roles, too, and let's just say that Martin Sensmeier's Red Harvest wasn't hard on the ol' eyes.
According to Colt, it was a really good example of a "standard" western film, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm not well-versed in the genre, so take all this with a grain of salt. I don't feel like I needed to see this one in theaters, but don't feel like it was a waste to have done so either.
Today marks my sixth wedding anniversary, and 16 years of being in love with the kindest, funniest, most loving man I could ever dream of knowing.
Colt—you are my calm during the storm, my sunshine when skies are grey, and my knight in shining armor. I couldn't ask for a better husband, partner, or friend.
Details have been released about the 2016 Doctor Who Christmas special, and they're "super":
This Christmas, the Doctor teams up with a comic-book superhero in New York for a heroic special titled, 'The Return of Doctor Mysterio." ... "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" sees the Twelfth Doctor, as played by Peter Capaldi, teaming up with an investigative journalist, played by Charity Wakefield (Wolf Hall), and a superhero to save New York from a deadly alien threat. Read more.
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about said superhero's look, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt until the special actually airs. (Yay for new Who!) Also of note:
More details about the Doctor Who spin-off Class—which, sadly, won't air in the U.S. until 2017—have been released. And here's a teaser trailer.
Next month sees the release of a new collection of Who short stories, Doctor Who: Twelve Doctors of Christmas. You can grab a PDF of one of the stories, "The Red Bicycle" here. (This totally reminds me of the 2014 Curtismas Card.)
Download this page of the 2016 Man Calendar for personal use by clicking on the image; it will open in a new window. Right/control click to save it. Then print the page on letter-size cardstock, and trim it to 6"x9".
