So I have a bud that comes over about once or twice a month on Sundays to hang out, basically whenever I have a Sunday off. He comes over, we head out to do whatever for a little bit, and then back to my place to shoot the shit and relax until it's time to call it a night. We've recently started tweaking our routine actually, where we go through my movie collection and play films I think he'll enjoy. Oddly enough, it started out with first watching The Hulk (The Edward Norton one, not that Eric Bana POS) and followed it up with Thor.

So far, we've watched The (Good) Hulk, Thor, True Grit (Coen Brothers Version), No Country for Old Men, Fargo, Mad Max: Fury Road,Dredd, and John Wick. It's actually been a lot of fun, partially because I'm looking at my movie collection critically, trying to figure out what I should show him that I think he'll enjoy. More importantly though, when you're exposing people you love to films you love, you all of the sudden start viewing those films more critically. You're worried about whether or not they'll enjoy them the way you enjoy them, so every sweet moment and every flaw stands out that much more. If you haven't done it before, I highly recommend it. It honestly makes it seem like you're watching your favorite movies for the first time all over again.

Recently, I've been on a bit of a Western kick, thanks to my watching the TV Series Hell on Wheels. When I get on a kick, I like to stick with it. So when we got home today, I asked "Have you ever seen the Dollars Trilogy starring Clint Eastwood?" To my surprise, he said not only that he has, but they were honestly the only westerns he's ever seen before I showed him True Grit and No Country for Old Men. Oh. My. Lord. There is not enough time on this earth to show him all of the amazing westerns there are out there.

So I immediately sat his ass down on the couch and whipped out The Good, The Bad, & The Weird. 10 years ago, if you said that one of my favorite western movies would come from Korea, I'd have said "They make films in Korea?" God. I don't know how I stumbled on this film, but I'm glad I did. It's thin on plot, but long on gunplay. You know how Mad Max: Fury Road was basically one long chase seen? Well, this movie has a similar action/story ratio going for it. I was a bit worried he'd get bored with it. The actions scenes really are a bit drawn out and sometimes a bit over the top. Plus, it being a foreign film, I don't know how he'd feel about it overall. I had nothing to worry about. He loved it. I'm glad he loved it.

So with one foreign western film down, I had to show him my favorite other El Mariachi. I'm not going to lie. This movie is a movie for movie people, not casual viewers. It's low budget with noticeable wooden acting and it's a bit of a throwback to some of those over the top '70s action films. We weren't even fifteen minutes into it when I started to remember how rough this movie really is. I turned to him and said "Hey, if this isn't your thing, we can watch something else." To which he replied "Nah bro. If this is something you enjoy, I want to see it." After we were about 30 minutes in though, I started to relax. After a while, you start to not notice the poor film quality, the cheap special effects, or the wooden acting. When all was said and done, he said he liked it. Though, I have my nagging doubts. He's a nice guy. He might just be humoring me.

I think for now, I'll give the foreign action films a break. Though I don't think I can live with myself if I don't make him watch Hardboiled sooner or later. I'll probably have to wait for a time when the wife isn't home though. For some reason, she hates that movie.