Redbox!

My obsession the past few years has been getting cheap movies from Redbox.  I did the same sort of thing from actual video rental stores when they still existed, so I'm glad Redbox has continued the tradition.  Sometimes I buy movies just because they're cheap and look interesting.  Here's a look at some that I bought in recent months (and have gotten around to watching):

• Annihilation (2018) - This was a much-buzzed-about movie last year that I found less interesting than others, notable mostly for its female cast than for the cheap horror thrills that pad out the story.  It's like the B-movie version of Arrival.
• Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) - Unlike a lot of MCU fans, I consider Ant-Man a huge highlight of the series.  This was one of the two entries released between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame (meant to write up something about Captain Marvel but I've been a bad blogger lately), and it's got just about everything going for it.  One of my favorite MCU movies.
• Darkest Hour (2017) - Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill isn't the only reason to watch this, but the sheer audacity of Churchill's existence itself, in an age that still wants us to believe personality trumps policy (or indeed has anything at all to do with it).  To watch British officials try and weasel their way out of WWII (which in hindsight is unthinkable) is itself worthy of documenting. 
• I Kill Giants (2017) - Based on a comic book (basically the reason the girl wears those rabbit ears), this is a low-impact version of the brilliant A Monster Calls.
• Passengers (2016) - You can always tell when there's a push against a movie, and there was a massive push against Passengers, I think mostly to try and derail Chris Pratt's popularity at the box office (this is an era that seems hell-bent on destroying the idea of movie stars).  I don't give a shit what people say about it (the whole notion that it's unintentionally creepy can only be defended by people who haven't actually seen it), it's a good movie.
• Paul, Apostle of Christ (2018) - The hook of this one was that it was Jim Caviezel's return to biblical filmmaking (following, of course, The Passion of the Christ, needlessly dismissed as controversial despite being a seminal work of movie art), depicting the early Christian era.  I confess to not having properly watched this one yet.
• Teen Titans Go! to the Movies (2018) Unlike the increasingly spastic cartoon series from which it derives, the movie mostly restrains itself as one long in-joke that's a fine commentary on our superhero-saturated movie era.
• Terminal (2018) - I got this one mostly because I've become interested in Margot Robbie's career but also because it's a rare recent film appearance of Mike Myers (who's indeed, based on an incomplete viewing, an expected highlight). 
• Woman Walks Ahead (2017) - What has continuously confounded me is how Jessica Chastain can be the best actress of her generation and be so consistently overlooked.  She gives yet another compelling performance in this one, a historical drama based on true events (any disputes about its accuracy only serves to confirm the maxim that ought to exist about not taking all your historical facts from movies), an unexpected relationship between a widow and Sitting Bull.  Sam Rockwell, also always worth following, provides a fine supporting role.
• The Yellow Birds (2017) - An Iraq War drama with some of the best young actors working today (Alden Erhenreich, Tye Sheridan, Jack Huston), deserves to be considered among the classics of its genre.