This week we did the really unusual thing of taking some time off work to have some fun. That even included sneaking off to see 1917 while Beth’s parents watched Dean and Cliff went to school. The films starred Dean-Charles Chapman (Before I Go to Sleep), George MacKay (Captain Fantastic), and Colin Firth (The Kings Speech) and directed by Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road).
Beth’s review – “We watched this movie as part of our quest to see all the best picture nominees before the Oscars. This movie was good and it was well made. I like that it focused more on the second guy and less on the one that had the brother in the other company, I thought he was a more interesting and sympathetic character. I also thought this movie was pretty predictable based on the previews. 7.5 out of 10.”
Brent’s review – “This was my favorite of the Oscar nominated movies we’ve checked out so far. It’s a simple story but I got a little choked up twice during it and the director’s decision to make the entire movie look like two long shots was really interesting to watch him pull off. I enjoy a movie that accomplishes what it sets out to do, and this was a well made war movie. 9 out of 10.”
We also caught the documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice which was directed by Rob Epstein (Paragraph 175) and Jeffrey Friedman (State of Pride).
Brent’s review – “This movie did a nice job of giving you an overview of Linda Ronstadt’s entire career as a professional singer, going from her folk music roots to her rock star pinnacle and ending with her venture into latin, opera and standards music. It definitely did it’s job of informing me about its subject and I liked how much of the movie was old footage of the people involved, including early looks at Don Henley and Glenn Frye. 7 out of 10.”
Beth’s review – “One of my favorite things about watching documentaries is learning something about the subject. I knew who Linda Ronstadt was before watching this movie, but that was about it. This movie did a good job of giving you a full picture of her career and her life now. It also played a good amount of her music. As for music documentaries the story was not shocking or incredibly interesting which doesn’t make this one of my favorites of this subject, but I do feel I have a new appreciation for her. 7 out of 10.”
Finally, we also took the boys to the dinner theater to see Dolittle, starring Roberty Downey Jr (Iron Man) and the voices of Emma Thompson (Love, Actually) and Octavia Spencer (Ma) and directed by Stephen Gaghan (Syriana).
Beth’s review – “From the preview and the back knowledge of this movie, it would not have been a movie we picked to watch under normal circumstances. With that said when your three year old wants to go to the dinner theater for his birthday, you end up watching what is there. This movie was terrible. The plot was stupid, the cgi animals were not great leads, and Robert Downey Jr.’s accent and acting were so over the top. 3 out of 10.”
Brent’s review – “This movie seemed really poorly made. The audio was hard to hear a lot of the dialogue and Downey seemed like he was in a different movie than the rest of the characters. This was probably the worst kids movie we’ve watched since the new Lion King remake. My new theory is movies starring a bunch of CGI animals meant to look like real animals are awful. It kept Dean’s attention throughout but after the movie our two boys just said it was “OK” and they like a lot of garbage so they weren’t impressed either. 2 out of 10.”
This week’s ice skating lesson was a lot of fun. Dean’s still not able to stand up from the ground to the ice (he prefers to let mommy stand him up) but once he’s standing he’s able to stay standing a lot better on his own. Cliff got to take his puck and stick out on the ice and had so much fun playing he never wanted to leave. He is a little obsessed with hockey now.
Swim lessons continue to go great as well. Dean is going underwater without issue and Cliff’s back float is very controlled going across the entire pool. Dean has also gotten his own pair of goggles which he was very excited about picking out and using under water.
Dean turned three years old this week! We let him pick out how to celebrate the day, with him deciding on seeing Dolittle in the theater and then eating at a Chinese Buffet for dinner with his grandparents, Uncle Aaron and Aunt Shannon. He is such an easy going little guy, famous for his amazing hugs he gives and how much he looks up to his big brother. For his birthday he got a new Bob book (our boys love these Simon Bartram kids books), a plushy Yoda and Bot from Team Umizoomi, nerf guns (and targets) and his own hockey stick.
Continuing our look back on 2019, this week we’re talking about our favorite comics of 2019. One of our favorite things to do is make a trip to the comic shop every Wednesday and pick up our pull list of comics.
By comparison, here are our favorite picks for the following years:
As in previous years, the list was made by ranking each of our favorites of all the books that we both read, and then combining to find whatever our favorites were. Our standard disclaimer is Brent is caught up on Savage Dragon and Beth isn’t; it would also be in Brent’s top three. Our other honorable mentions, just missing the top ten were: Outpost Zero (Image Comics), Archie (Archie Comics), and Cyber Force (Image Comics).
10. Five Years
Publisher: Abstract Studios
Writer: Terry Moore
Artist: Terry Moore:
Last Year’s Rank: Not present (but it’s prequel series Strangers in Paradise XXV was number 10)
It seems like every year one of Terry Moore’s books crack our top ten, with the last few years bringing Motor Girl and Strangers in Paradise XXV. This series is a culmination of all his other books with characters from all of them showing up in a series focused on Katchoo (who Moore calls his Wolverine) trying to stop the end of the world.
9. Doctor Doom
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Christopher Cantwell
Artist: Salvador Larocca
Last Year’s rank: Not In publication at that time
We’ve really been enjoying this series focusing on Doctor Doom being framed for a crime he didn’t commit and his struggle to return to Latveria as king. This series has been better when it’s focused more on the political struggle than the magical characters of late, so hopefully it continues or wraps up the promising story it’s begun.
8. Ascender
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Dustin Nguyen
Last Year’s Rank: Not being published, but it’s prequel was Descender was #2
This series is a fairly direct continuation of the Descender series from the last few years. The new title and story have made continuing the story easy to do as it’s basically a story now of a dad, daughter and robot on the run, but instead of big government conspiracies and aliens the bad guys are local bloodsuckers.
7. Red Sonja
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Mirko Colak
Last Year: Not Ranked
Mark Russell provided a few entertaining series this year, with this being our favorite of them. Told primarily as a story about a conquering madman and Red Sonja’s struggle to avoid/defeat him with occasional flashbacks mixed in, this series had a few of the bigger laughs we got in comics this year including a bad guy whose whole plan was to cut off his own nose to infiltrate the good guys.
6. Skyward
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Joe Henderson
Artist: Lee Garbett
Last Year’s Rank: 7
Skyward wrapped up its story this year. The premise was something happened (a mystery) and gravity stopped working on the planet. The scientist at the heart of the mystery has a daughter and the story begins years after the event from the daughter’s perspective. Our guess is this gets turned into a movie at some point, as the art and story were very cinematic.
5. Ghosted in L.A.
Publisher: Boom Studios
Writer: Sina Grace
Artist: Siobhan Keenan
Last Year’s Rank: Not Present
This is a story about a girl who goes away to college, gets dumped by her boyfriend, has a falling out with her best friend, and ends up living in a haunted mansion. The story has alternated between human character progression and also reveals about the ghosts living in the mansion. This is one of those books that has a lot of story and you always feel like you get your money’s worth by the end.
4. The Wildstorm
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Jon Davis-Hunt
Last Year’s Rank: 4th
This was another series that wrapped up this year. Warren Ellis reimagined the Wildstorm Universe (which was interesting because he originally created a lot of the biggest parts of it. If you enjoyed or are familiar with the characters from WildCATS, the Authority, Backlash and Deathblow, this is really worth checking out, probably not as much for those who are going in blind.
3. Something is Killing the Children
Publisher: Boom Studios
Writer: James Tynion IV
Artist: Werther Dell’Edera
Last Year’s Rank: Not Published
James Tynion IV has a knack for coming up with great ideas and hooking us right away. Last time he did it with The Woods, a story about a school that got transported to another dimension with deadly monsters and crazy people. This time there’s… Something Killing the Children in a small town and a mysterious woman trying to stop it. Hopefully he sticks the landing better than he did on The Woods but we’re still at the point where we’re fully on board on this one.
2. Postal: Deliverance
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Bryan Hill
Artist: Raffaele Ienco
Last Year’s Rank: Unranked
Every now and then we stick with a book that continues to get better and better. Postal was an interesting series about a town of former murderers all living together off the grid told from the perspective of the autistic mailman. Postal: Deliverance picks right up where that series ended with that same lead character now the mayor of the town and somebody violating the law of the town by killing other residents. Along with his work in Cyber Force, Bryan Hill was doing great work writing comics this year.F
1. Fantastic Four
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Dan Slott
Artists: Sara Pichelli, Aaron Kuder, Stefano Caselli, Paco Medina, Sean Izaakse
Last Year’s Rank: #1
Dan Slott’s had a lock on the top of this list for a bit now, dating back to his Silver Surfer comic with Mike Allred and now his excellent Fantastic Four book. While last year’s issues were about the team coming back together after years apart, this year is telling a great story about the team completing their original planned mission of journeying to another star and finding alien life. This is everything you want in a superhero comic.
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