Movies

First, The Bad News:

You can add Top Gun: Maverick (along with No Time to Die and many others) to the list of movies with release dates delayed owning to COVID-19.  At this time December 23, 2020 is the newly scheduled release date.


Now, Some Good News:

The 2020 SXSW Film Festival will stream this year's films through Amazon Prime.


More Good News:

Thanks to the 13 Days of James Bond marathons in the 90's, my studying for certain final exams took a hit (it's like the jerks at TBS knew I'd rather watch The Man With the Golden Gun than review my notes).   Well, now that I'm temporally distanced from college and we're all social distancing, it's a good thing multiple titles of old James Bond movies have been released on Amazon Prime this month.  There are some bad ones (I'm looking at you, Moonraker) on the list, but we also get From Russia With Love, Thunderball, and Goldfinger in the mix.

A View to a Kill is already on Amazon Prime (for free), and other Bond movies may be as well (you can look for yourself).  While certainly not the best movie in the Bond franchise, it does come with: Christopher Walken as the blimp-loving villain, Grace Jones as a bad Bond girl, and a great theme song from Duran Duran.  If you don't believe me about the theme song, just watch the video.

[note: it does appear these movies will no longer be free after 5/1]

Netflix Party Lets You Interact Over Movies While Social Distancing:

The Netflix Party browser extension lets you watch Netflix with friends (virtually).  You can chat, play/pause in sync, and so forth while drinking at home and maintaining your social distance.  The folks at CNET have an article which will instruct you on setting it up.


And Finally, a Movie Rec:

I have been watching more TV series than movies these days.  Last weekend, though, I watched Collateral (2004).  This movie stars Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.  It was directed by Micheal Mann (Miami Vice, Heat, Last of the Mohicans).  I hadn't seen this one since 2005, and I'm glad I took the time to watch it again.  Tom Cruise plays a very intense hitman who forces Jamie Foxx's cab driver to take him around Los Angeles while he kills his targets.  If you haven't seen it in a while, it's worth a return visit.