I watched The Martian this past weekend with friends. On the whole, we liked it. I've read there was a science adviser from NASA, and the science is pretty good (the only real nitpick would be that the Martian atmosphere is so thin that even during a storm it could never reach the forces shown in the movie. The movie makers knew this but took liberties to set up the plot).

There were some really impressive shots of the Martian landscape that I imagine would have been quite pretty on the big screen.

Also fun were some of the extras on the disc, which were written as if the world of the movie is real. Examples include an Under Armour advertisement that doubles as a recruitment spot, a Neil DeGrasse Tyson "StarTalk" episode about the trip to Mars, and a "documentary" showing behind-the-scenes troubles at NASA.

I've been waiting for Risen since before the first trailer and when that came out I just got even more excited about it! I kept up with the news and couldn't wait for it to be released! I kept my family up to date the whole time and showed them the trailers. None of them knew the movie was being made until I told them about it. And what do you know? First chance they get, my dad and brother go without me. But my dad didn't like it enough to go again so I can see it. So until it's on DVD, I probably won't be seeing it. I might not even manage to get my hands on a copy then either.

In other news, my family went to see Zootopia this weekend when my sister came back from college and I loved it! (I'm going to mark the rest as a spoiler because I don't know much people even want to know.)

Just saw Superman vs. Batman. For the most part it was ok. It had enough references to the DC comics history to keep older fans interested, and played it into the plot to keep new fans interested too. Some of the writing was a bit weak, and if a person was not paying close attention to what was going on I could see them getting lost quickly.

I'm so behind the curve it's not even funny. Everybody's talking Batman vs Superman and Captain America: Civil War and I'm all like "Hey, I just watched Age of Ultron last night. Go me!"
Anyways, I'm going to be in the minority (as always) and say I liked Ultron WAAAY better than the first Avengers movie which I really did not care for at all (and everyone loved for some reason I don't understand ). There were still some plot holes that bugged me, as is often the case, but it was an enjoyable, actiony, popcorn flick.
I'm loosely trying to catch up for Guardians of the Galaxy 2 due out in over a year, and it takes me like 2 months to watch a movie I get to my house on Netflix. I still need Ant-Man, and theoretically Thor 2 and Iron Man 3, but on the latter two I may just read a plot summary as I'm just not that excited to watch those. I'm also not at all interested in Civil War, but I may watch it just to be in-the-know (and also to prep for GotG2).

A few weeks ago I watched Pixels, and to quote Sokka from The Last Airbender, "This is the kind of wacky, time-wasting nonsense I've been missing!" It was horrible, but I really liked it. Totally bringing out the video game nerdiness in me. Not as good as Wreck-It Ralph, but definitely along the same lines. Some adult humor though, which was too bad.

Added Zootopia and Risen to my Netflix list for when they come out. Everyone seems to love them so I'm kind of curious now.

Eye In The Sky (Alan Rickman's last on-screen role) was great. I can't wait to see the Jungle Book, it has been getting amazing reviews.

Isn't anyone else excited that there will be four new mystery movies on Hallmark M & M in June? My sisters and I enjoyed both of this month's mystery movies. We enjoyed Flower Shop Mystery: Snipped in the Bud the best, really like Brooke Shields and Brennan Elliot together. I think I might be looking forward to Flower Shop Mystery: Dearly Depotted the most of the four June movies.

Other recently watched movies included Old Fashioned (2014), Blood Diamond (2006), Girl Shy (1924), and Welcome Danger (1929).

SnowAngel

I finally got around to watching Inside Out yesterday afternoon. I had my box of tissues ready to go.
Interestingly enough, I found this film to be, well, boring. At least right up until the point that Riley

.
It was more of a psychological look at the way the mind works from a cartoon animation point of view, and from that perspective it was very interesting. I read an article somewhere that said children's councilors and psychologists absolutely love this movie because it's opened a whole new way for them to communicate with kids. I can totally see that.
But as I said above, Joy and Sadness wandering through marble-memory world just didn't quite do it for me. Glad I watched it, probably won't watch it again.

My brother is going to be home for the weekend and I have several movies on the DVR for us to watch if he has time. One is At War With The Army (1950) which we haven't seen in years, but we had it on VHS when we were kids.

Lately my sisters and I have been watching the third season of Remington Steele, but it's finally close enough to the June Hallmark movies that the DVR is now set to record for the first three movies. Currently we are planning to watch all nine new movies on both Hallmark and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.

SnowAngel

How have the Hallmark movies been, SA?

I got to watch The Peanuts Movie the other night; it was fun. I enjoyed

There were also a lot of little details that I liked, such asFor the most part I thought they did pretty well with mixing the familiar comic book aspects/plot points with new material; it kept the familiar feel of the comics without it either being a set of vignettes or a rehash of one of the specials. I won't rush to watch it again, but it's a movie I'd likely sit down again to watch it if others are (which is getting rarer).

The Peanuts movie is on my list to watch soon.

I watched 'The Good Dinosaur' the other night. The story, 'meh'. But the animation was gorgeous. But the Rocky Mountains are one of my favorite places in the world sooo... I may have been a bit biased.

I'm curious if anybody else has noticed this. Recent Pixar films have almost always had gorgeous scenic animation (Cars, Finding Nemo), but in the last few works of theirs, it's actually gotten SO good, that I can no longer tell in some shots if it's real or animated. But then, they add their classic characters in that are very animated looking. It's starting to bug me a bit. Reminds me of some of the old Disney movies like Pete's Dragon or Mary Poppins where they've mixed real life and animation. I never did care for it.

Let's see...

I saw the new Ghostbusters already. I thought it was very funny and generally excellent. A handful of very lame parts (like a painful Pringles product placement), but overall very good. I was never a fan of the original (actually only watched it this month and thought it was kind of 'meh'), but I thought this one was much better. Still pretty spooky/creepy with the ghost stuff, but almost entirely lacking in, shall we say, "adult" (that is, immature frat boy) humor and anti-women elements that I saw in the original. And Chris Hemsworth is unbelievably funny. Cracked me up so hard and with so little apparent effort.

I want to see the Secret Life of Pets but I'll probably wait until it comes to our second run theater.

I liked the old Ghostbusters movie, although you're right in that the "adult" humor was blegh. I'm interested in seeing the new one. I thought it looked funny.

I was hoping to take my kids to see The Secret Life of Pets at the drive-in theater here in town, but they stuck it in as the second showing behind the latest Ice Age movie... which meant Pets started at 11pm. Soooo, I'll just wait for the DVD.

I watched Zootopia last night with the family. It was good, but I was kind of turned off by the underlying PC rhetoric. Fine, whatever, it's not a bad thing. But I don't like being preached to in movies when I just want to be entertained. The only movie that's gotten away with the not-so-subtle preaching is Wall-E, and I know others were really put off by it in that movie.

I saw Zootopia last week, fk, and either I missed a bunch of the rhetoric or I just saw it from a totally different filter? I mostly saw it as a general reminder that

And I thought there were a lot of fun parts, so overall I enjoyed it pretty well.

I also saw Star Trek Beyond last week and really enjoyed it. While the first two movies mainly focused on the relationships between Kirk, Spock, and Uhura, the characters get scrambled in this film so we get to see different relationships and it was great. The "minor" characters at least appear to get a lot more screentime, and it also resulted in some hilarious banter and moments (especially between Spock and Bones

. There are a few things I wasn't quite happy withMy head also reeled a bit in some of the fight scenes, but that may've just been me. Overall, I thought it was quite good.

How have the Hallmark movies been, SA?

Sorry I didn't reply sooner, it's been crazy here for the last month. The mysteries movies were really good. My sisters, mom, and I had a terrific time watching them. Murder She Baked: A Deadly Recipe was narrowly the favorite of the June releases.

Since the Olympics are starting, we are going to watch Chariots of Fire this weekend. It's been years since the last time I saw it, looking forward to watching it again.

SnowAngel

I recently saw "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" and I cannot reccomend it enough. It's hilarious, exciting, unique, and genuinely touching and heartwarming. The performances are excellent and the cinematography is gorgeous. Best film of the year so far. On a $2.5 million budget it puts pretty much every blockbuster of the year to shame. It takes place in the New Zealand bush, too, so Narnia fans in particular should enjoy it!