My favorite month of the year is here. It’s Star Wars month!! Happy Star Wars month everyone!! Also, since it’s May 1st it’s also “501st Day” so a shout out to the 501st Legion (aka Vader’s Fist)!
I hope to provide a few extra Star Wars themed posts this month. Most of them nobody really asked for. The month will culminate with the first two episodes of the new Kenobi series premiering on Disney+!
My goals this month will be the same every May … watch all 11 movies and as many series as possible. Although I am giving some consideration to watching the Clone Wars again. It has been a while since I’ve seen it and perhaps its time for a refresher.
Yes, we have another Batman movie. There are so many movies that tell the story of this capped crusader that it feels exhaustive. It also becomes difficult to invest in another Batman movie when they keep changing the actor that portrays him.
I’ve made myself pretty clear as to how I feel about the various Batman actors. I am NOT on the Batfleck train; I rank him just barely above George Clooney’s Batman (who is probably the worst portrayal). Will Robert Pattinson fair better?
The Riddler is terrorizing Gotham. He’s murdering people of affluence and power and leaving only cryptic clues for the Batman. The Gotham Police, with Lt. Gordon (Wright) and Batman must hunt down and capture him before more die.
I highly recommend this film, especially if you are fan of the franchise. I believe it’s still in theaters and on HBO Max (at the time of this writing). It’s a long movie (almost 3 hours) but it’s worth your time.
Usually I don’t discuss main characters; I generally pick more obscure roles. However there are times when I think certain actors deserve some extra appreciation regardless of their role. Oscar Isaac is deserving of extra recognition. In the Star Wars universe we all know him as the charismatic and witty ace pilot Poe Dameron. Besides Poe, what else do you know about Oscar Isaac?
Oscar Isaac was born in 1979 in Guatemala but he was raised in Miami, Florida. Currently he is married to Elvira Lind and they have one son together. He is also a very talented musician.
Speaking of Music
He is a singer and plays guitar. In fact he’s been playing the guitar since he was twelve years old. He co-wrote (with Alan Doyle) and performs the song “Never Had” for the movie 10 Years. You can check out a video of the performance below:
He also stars and performs in the Amazon movie Inside Llewyn Davis. His co-stars are Justin Timberlake and, fellow Star Wars actor, Adam Driver (who is quite funny in it). It’s kind of a strange movie but I enjoyed it and Isaac gives an excellent performance.
And Speaking of Excellent Performances
Let’s quickly review Oscar Isaac’s other roles. His first major role was Joseph in The Nativity Story and you may have noticed him as Prince John in the Russell Crowe version of Robin Hood. Oscar plays the main antagonist Apocalypse in X-Men: Apocalypse (by the way, Oscar is a avid X-Men fan so this probably fulfills a childhood dream).
He is the voice of Gomez Addams in the latest incarnation of The Addams Family and he plays Duke Leto in the newest interpretation of Dune. By the way I recommend checking out that movie, it’s actually pretty good.
Most recently he is the lead in the newest Marvel series Moon Knight. He truly demonstrates his versatility in this series. The main character has Dissociative Identity Disorder; commonly known as multiple personality disorder. Oscar Isaac gives a spectacular performance! The show is a little strange (like stranger than Doctor Strange) but it’s worth watching for his performance alone!
Four episodes are available and you can catch up and watch the final two episodes every Wednesday on Disney+. No, I was not compensated for this endorsement 🙂
The Monthly Movie Theme (MMT) for March is Comedy. March is the month in which I celebrate my birthday and I felt Comedy is probably my favorite genre. The comedy movies I picked for 2022 are:
Grumpy Old Men
Grumpier Old Men
The Odd Couple
The Odd Couple II
Out To Sea
A Theme Within a Theme
If you are familiar with these films you probably notice a theme within these selections. I was originally intending to only watch the first two movies on the list and then add other selections later. As I said in another post, they are two of my favorite comedy movies. After watching them I decided to make it an “Ode to Lemmon and Matthau” month.
Watching those movies is very nostalgic for me. They still make me laugh. My college roommate and I loved these movies and watching them really makes me think of those days. Even to this day he and I still frequently refer to each other as “Putz” and “Moron”.
Special Event Movie(s)
Some month have, what I call, special event movies. These movies often correspond to some nerdy holiday and I try to watch those movies on, or around, those days.
March has two: The Day of the Dude and Mario Day. The Day of the Dude is on March 6th and I watch The Big Lebowski. Mario day is March 10th (because Mar 10, looks like MarIO … get it?). Anyway. I will put on the Super Mario Brothers movie. I know that movie isn’t the greatest film ever made. It’s kind of become a bit of a cult classic despite it’s reputation.
I ran out of things to write about. It’s something that happens often. I guess I need to come up with more periodic themes and I think I’ve kind of come up with one. We will try it out for a few months and see how I like it.
Of course May is coming up next month and that means there will be a flurry of Star Wars posts. However I do feel like I need something else to talk about some times. Granted I live and breath Star Wars but I am a book nerd, software engineer, general tech nerd and a movie nerd.
Monthly Movie Themes
My friends and family know that I have a fairly large movie collection (over 1,000). Obviously I don’t just collect movies to let them sit, they need to be watched. When there are so many movies to choose from, how do I pick what movie to watch?
I decided to assign a theme to each month of the year and then choose movies based on that theme. Just a couple movies; five at most. At the end of each month, if the mood strikes, I will write a post on the movies. I may share some thoughts on why I chose the movies or why they are in my collection. I’ll keep track of which movies I watch so next year I can watch a different arrangement of movies (that match the theme).
There will be a few exceptions. May will always be Star Wars movies. October will always be Halloween themed movies and December will always be Christmas.
It is Women’s History Month so it’s only appropriate that I pick a woman for this month’s HMDYK topic. I am going really obscure this month. You may recognize the person in the picture but you’re probably wondering where you may have seen her face in Star Wars. I will get to that shortly. In the meantime, how much do you know about Shirley Henderson?
Of Wands and Droids
The most surprising detail I found about Shirley Henderson is that she is 56 years old (at the time of this writing)! She was born in 1965 in the village of Kincardine in Fife, Scotland. Before I delve into her filmography, I’m going to get the obscurity out of the way. You may have figured out by now how this actor is connected to Star Wars (because of the banner). Shirley Henderson is the voice for the adorable Babu Frik (from The Rise of Skywalker)! A male character doesn’t always have to be voiced by a male actor, take Bart Simpson for example.
I do not expect too many people to know her as the voice of Babu Frik, but I’m sure you all do recognize her from another franchise. She is Moaning Myrtle from Harry Potter. The first appearance of Moaning Myrtle was 20 years ago. This means Shirley Henderson would have been 36 when she portrayed a deceased 14 year old. Gotta love CG.
She’s Not In That Frozen
She has had other roles beyond a dead, teenage witch and a shifty, adorable droid mechanic. She’s Jude in all three Bridget Jones movies. The more interesting role is the lead in a (not-Olaf version) film called Frozen. In fact she was nominated and/or won for her performance at various film festivals. While it is a mediocre score on IMDB, I’m still inclined to watch this movie. I’ve checked out other movies for similar reasons and been very surprised.
She’s been in one episode of Doctor Who (and any appearance in Doctor Who is worth mentioning!). She has about 89 credits (at the time of this writing) but, unfortunately, I don’t really recognize most of them. I suspect (but did not confirm) most of them are probably UK series.
If you there is a show or movie you’ve seen her in that you enjoyed, please leave a comment and perhaps I will check it out.
