1. As it turns out, this must be the summer I disagree with everything everyone thinks about everything. It started with Mad Max: Fury Road and has found it’s way into Terminator: Genisys. I disliked the former and liked the latter. I’m not really sure where all the hatred for the newest installment to the Terminator franchise is coming from.

Sure I’ve heard the arguments:

“It deviates too far from the original story line.”- It’s kind of suppose to, it’s a reboot.

“It takes what we loved about the originals and turns them into jokes and punchlines.”- Umm… yeah that’s what makes this one funny. And “I’ll be back.” has always been a punchline.

“Arnold doesn’t look the same.”- Yeah it’s called aging, and I think they did a pretty great job at not only explaining it, but also creating a really sweet present day Arnold vs. 80’s Arnold battle.

“Arnold can’t act anymore.”- Yeah it’s such a shame a guy with so many Academy Awards has lost his skills. Get over it, he’s hilarious and probably as good as he’s been in decades.

“The story is convoluted and hard to follow.”- It’s called paying attention.

I don’t know what more you could want. Terminator 1 and 2 were gold while 3 and 4 were garbage. The first two were groundbreaking and the second two were heartbreaking. You can never recreate the “OH MY GOD” moment you have when watching the first two especially as special effects only get better over time. But following up on the last two installments, this story creates a pretty great basis for a new trilogy, while paying homage to the originals.

2. HBO is just killing it right now. I’m generally posting about how great Netflix is but right now HBO deserves my attention. First, True Detective is back. Is it as good as the original, well not to this point anyway, but what is? When something is just so good and so different, you’re probably not going to get the same feeling from a second go-around, you just hope for a compelling story and good acting. (Refer to statements made in my first point.) There haven’t been any jaw dropping performances like the ones we got from Harrelson and McConaughey, but it’s still early and Colin Farrell is proving to be no slouch. Second, Tim Robbins and Jack Black are starring in The Brink, a comedy about inept government officials and operations. It’s reminiscent of a modern day Dr. Strangelove. It’s a true comedy of errors and every bit as funny as almost anything else on television right now. Lastly, they released Ballers. An interconnected web of pro football players at different stages of their career. It’s a little cheesy and pretty much Entourage for athletes, but it had Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Need I say more?

3. This week’s Entertainment weekly was a double issue devoted mostly to talking about the upcoming barrage of DC Universe films. I won’t lie, they look pretty awesome. I do have a question though: Can they compete with Marvel at this stage in the game? Marvel has already developed their universe, made billions of dollars, and have numerous movies in different stages of production to keep the train moving along. DC is about 10 years late to the game. After spending years trying to find their Superman and not establishing characters (other than Batman) that anyone cared about, they are full speed ahead but is it too little too late? It’s not uncommon to see kids wearing Captain America gear over the historically more popular Superman these days. The Marvel films are definitely more family friendly, while the DC counterparts are far darker in tone. While the Batman series from Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale was spectacular and made tons of money, it didn’t make Avengers money, and Nolan and Bale are no longer around. There’s always a point where the bubble bursts and superhero films will reach this point as well. You can only make so many films with budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars before a couple of duds send studio execs running for greener (and much cheaper) pasture. DC is betting heavily and trying hard to catch up, will the gamble pay off?

Thanks for reading!