Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (2023)

This is typically deemed the best Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to come out since Spider-Man: No Way Home. So why did I wait this long? Perhaps I wanted a break after recent underwhelming entries. Perhaps I feared that I had to watch Thor: Love and Thunder to understand enough. Thankfully, as I later learned, Thor parted way with the gang early on.

Rocket (Bradley Cooper) has never told the other Guardians about his past, but it catches up with him when the forces of his "creator," Orgocorp, attempt to recapture him for neurological study. The Guardians fend off powerful emissary Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) for the nonce, but Rocket is left comatose and fading. Standard medical procedures won't work, thanks to Orgocorp's nasty bio-programming. The heroes' best bet is to swipe an override sequence right from the heart of Orgocorp. Hey, it matches their skillset.

tick...tick...BOOM! (2021)

This sat on my Netflix list quite a while before I actually looked at the description. The title and poster image didn't grab me, but then I saw that it was a musical directed (not composed) by Lin-Manuel Miranda. And at about two hours, short enough for a comfortable night's viewing.

In 1990, 29-year-old Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield) is a bit of a starving artist, waiting at a New York diner but failing to pay his energy bills. He badly wants the sci-fi musical he's writing to be a Broadway hit, but he's stagnating on a key song advised by Stephen Sondheim (Bradley Whitford) in a workshop. As the deadline draws near, Jonathan neglects everything else, including girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp) and gay best friend Michael (Robin de Jesús).

Surf's Up (2007)

I wasn't sure I would ever get around to watching this. It was clearly riding the wave of success from March of the Penguins and especially Happy Feet, and the ad I saw didn't suggest much of a plot. But now SU actually has slightly higher IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes ratings than HF. Besides, I wanted something short from my Netflix list, and this runs 85 minutes.

Teen penguin Cody (Shia Laboeuf) has been the only surfer in an otherwise busy, disapproving Antarctic community when he gets the chance to enter Pen-Gu Island's 10th annual contest in memory of his idol. He soon finds himself in a practice face-off with longtime champion Tank (Diedrich Bader), the sports flick's requisite jerk. The resulting wipeout leaves Cody in critical condition, and Lani (Zooey Deschanel), the lifeguard on whom he has an instant crush, desperately takes him to a hideaway in the island's rainforest, where her washed-up, largely apathetic uncle (Jeff Bridges), who goes by "Geek," can look after him. Once Cody's on his feet, he and Geek have a lot to teach each other in the three days before the contest, which includes a region of deadly rocks.

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Here it is, folks: my final DVD from Netflix. I made a point to pick a reputed classic and also to wait until after October, but perhaps I should have waited for late December, because my hunch that the story would take place around Christmas was correct. Perhaps I dimly remembered something similar from She Loves Me, a musical adapted from it. I know it wasn't the case in the modernized remake, You've Got Mail.

In keeping with the source material, Miklós László's play Parfumerie, the setting is Budapest, albeit with mostly American-accented English. Despite long being the best salesman at a gift shop, Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) has begun to lock horns with boss Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan), for reasons not immediately clear. He locks horns considerably more with new hire Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan). But he and a pseudonymous pen pal he discovered through a newspaper ad have become smitten with each other. Less than halfway through the picture, he realizes that Klara is that pen pal. Of course, this wouldn't be much of a comedy if he told her right away....

Cliffhanger (1993)

I'd encountered very mixed reviews about this picture since it came out. I put it on my list but wasn't sure whether I'd go ahead with it, until (1) I wanted something thrilling for Halloween and (2) Netflix was about to stop streaming it.

In the Colorado Rockies, Rangers Gabe (Sylvester Stallone) and Hal (Michael Rooker) answer a distress call. Since an initial snowstorm precludes a helicopter rescue, they climb -- to find guns trained on them. These five "hikers," led by one Eric Qualen (John Lithgow), have actually robbed a plane transporting three suitcases full of money, only to drop the cases and crash. The robbers now demand that the rangers help them recoup the cases, which have trackers. It soon becomes clear that the ingrates plan to kill the rangers afterward. But given who plays Gabe, they underestimate his survival skills and determination not to let them get their way entirely. And as other rangers grow uneasy about the paltry radio reports, Gabe's girlfriend, Jessie (Janine Turner), joins the action.

Batman: The Long Halloween (2021)

This isn't the first time I've watched a two-part Batman animated direct-to-DVD movie for my October set at a friend's suggestion, but it is a more appropriate choice than before. I won't split this into two reviews, partly because I watched both halves back to back and partly because it doesn't feel like two stories stuck together.

In contrast with The Dark Knight Returns, this takes place pretty early in the Caped Crusader's (Jensen Ackles) career: Old-school mafias are still big in Gotham, Barbara Gordon (Amy Landecker) is a little girl, and a moderately sane Harvey Dent (Josh Duhamel) has just become the district attorney. From one Halloween to the next, an anonymous killer code-named "Holiday" picks off people close to Carmine "The Roman" Falcone (Titus Welliver) on major holidays, leaving a seasonal decoration and a handgun with a bottle nipple for a suppressor. (Seems a bad strategy to leave the weapon in plain sight every time, but Batman enemies aren't known for their caution.) As usual, Gotham police protection is inadequate. Any number of people could have a reason to get at a mob boss, so Batman and Commissioner Gordon (Billy Burke) must examine many a suspect.