Couch Potato: Suicide Squad Take Two, Day of the Siege, Crawdad Crew

Diablo doll on Amazon

Suicide Squad

Last week we had a guest review of Suicide Squad. Based on that and other buzz, my expectations were not very high when we watched it yesterday with the kids. Happily, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I have a certain approach to movies based on comic books - I assume that there will be details that are there for the comic book fans which will go over my head. So I just go in with an extra large helping of disbelief suspension and take it as it is.

This was Kid the Younger's pick, and as her birthday is coming up, I also got her popcorn. I got a the big tub, which got me a shocked look, so I told her, that's ok, it's only slightly bigger than your head.

The best parts of Suicide Squad were Harley Quinn, and when he was on, Joker. They totally steal the show every time. Their story has great Greek tragedy potential and is an interesting take on the psychology of an abusive relationship. After the movie, I asked Kid the Younger what she thought of the movie (she enjoyed it) and one thing she brought up is not liking the Harley-Joker relationship. Which let to a nice chat about abusive dynamics with narcissists.

Also great was Viola Davis, who basically reprises her role in How to Get Away With Murder as a stone-cold amoral rhymes-with-witch. Will Smith is miscast as Deadshot - in my opinion he just can't project either villain or anti-hero. Rick Kinnaman as Rick Flag did a good job, but they might have done better to switch the two roles.

If you watch Suicide Squad, there is an extra scene that comes up during the credits that you won't want to miss.

Day of the Siege: September 11, 1683

Shifting gears from comic book villains to historical villains, if you have Netflix, this is an interesting movie to watch. Day of the Siege is a small budget Polish-Italian film about the Battle of Vienna. The production values are at a made-for-tv level and the CGI is awful. All that aside, the movie is a wonderful look at a very important turning point in Western History - when the Ottomans were repelled at the gates of Vienna. It features historical figures few of us have heard of - St. Marco d'Aviano, King Jan III Sobieski, Kara Mustafa Pasha. I enjoyed the unabashed pro-Western Civilization and pro-Christian presentation of the movie. I can't imagine such a politically incorrect movie being made in Hollywood toady - thank goodness there is still freedom in Poland. The movie includes some fictional characters but the main historical points are surprisingly accurate, including the presence of winged Polish Hussars (how cool is that). The actor playing Leopold I (Holy Roman Emperor) was specially fun to watch.

If you are interested in reading about the Battle of Vienna, The Enemy at the Gates by Andrew Wheatcroft is a good account of it.

Crawdad Crew

I just finished listening to the debut broadcast of the Crawdad Crew. My blog buddies over at TCH got together to talk about the media and Trump. It had me chuckling a lot. Anthony is smooth and experienced talk radio host. Angie had a few minor audio glitches. Dandy Tiger and Lola were interesting and informed. The callers were the best part - cool to put voices with screen names. I look forward to their next show.