But hey, at least Emmerich does let a black character hand Jeremy Irvine's ahistorical twink protagonist a brick so the latter can be the one to spark the riots. I know when I'm boiling over with outrage at an injustice happening before my eyes my first impulse is to look around for the nearest handsome teenage boy so I can pat him on the back and say "go get 'em, Tiger!"

Vanity Fair review

PBS review

I listened to The Martian on audiobook for at least 50% of it and the reader sounds nothing like Damon, so even though I knew he was in it I escaped the image. The book is really amazing, and the audiobook made the sciency parts a bit easier to follow I felt (though I am a math and science teacher and an engineering major so my perspective is not everybody's.) Definitely a worthwhile read. And it was my first experience with buying a kindle book that had the cheapish Audio narration addition that auto magically syncs with your reading spot, which is my new favorite thing.

Just came back from the latest Mission Impossible movie and had a whale of a time. I mean, of course it's all ludicrous nonsense, but it's slick, fast-paced, super-fun nonsense. A+ entertainment, will watch again!

I particularly loved Rebecca Ferguson, the actress who played Ilsa. I heard her name being thrown around as the potential pick for the Captain Marvel movie and gotta say, the lady can kick ass like nobody's business and has charisma to burn.

Among the trailers shown before the movie: Michael Bay apparently made a movie about Benghazi. Good lord.

Seeing Iron Giant: accomplishment unlocked. I did not stay for the preview of the making of documentary or whatever, because I really am tired, but I'm glad I saw the movie on the big screen.

We saw The Martian today, and I was impressed with how well it was adapted from the book. It's a credit to Jeff Daniels that it took me until the very end to think "Hey, that's the Dumb and Dumber guy!"

Also, I secretly think the only reason the movie got made was so that they could use "I Will Survive" over the closing credits. (I laughed a lot throughout the movie, but that probably got the biggest laugh from me. Well played, movie. Well played.)

I did miss a lot of the scenes that they cut from the book, but a lot of those scenes were also the reason I was thinking, "I don't see how they can make a movie out of this," so it makes sense. They made the movie with the scenes that made good movie.

I saw The Martian today. I have not read the book.

I was amazed that I only had small nitpicks.

The gravity on Mars is shown as Earth normal. Nuh-uh. should be about 40% of Earth.

The second one is really minor, and came from the gardener in me. f you are trying to stretch what you have, you only need one potato eye per mound, not a whole small potato.

All said, one only has to scrape residue off the lid of Handwavium to watch.

As usual, I give sound in near-vacuum a pass. I don't need Handwavium to understand the usefulness of it.

Plus? Troy from Community!

Now, we need to get Community back to have a referential, "Troy and Abed watch The Martian!"

The second one is really minor, and came from the gardener in me. f you are trying to stretch what you have, you only need one potato eye per mound, not a whole small potato.

That surprised me, too, because he did it the right way in the book, with explanation for why.

Troy-and-Abed-in-a-Rover!

I loved the movie. Smart people being smart is one of my favorite things to watch, so it hit my sweet spot (same reason I love the Buffistas, come to think of it). Also Matt Damon was hella charming without being smarmy.