Tip #10: A space opera for adults

While Star Wars often delivers excellent all-ages entertainment, the new series Andor (now streaming on Disney+) is unapologetically Star Wars for adults. The plots are complex so you need to pay attention, and we really see the brutality and moral compromises of war. Surprisingly, Star Wars has demonstrated that it is flexible enough to accommodate the more nuanced fare presented here.

Tip #11: Follow Matt Scudder around town

With my recent enjoyment of All The Flowers Are Dying in print and A Drop of the Hard Stuff on audio,  I only have one book left in Lawrence Block's classic Matthew Scudder detective series. If you read crime fiction, you really should dip into these books. They are talky but never tedious, nicely balance plot with Scudder's own interesting life, and feature New York itself is a major character: we see how the city changes over the course of this long series. I really hope Block writes another one or two of these.

Tip #12: Weather the long running time

Avatar: The Way of Water surpasses the stunning visuals of the first film, in both craftsmanship and in the variety of things we see, and I found the story to be a little more compelling and involving, too. But, yeah, it's long, more than three hours. But it really should be seen on the big screen. Just go already.

Tip #13: Stone Barrington still delivers

After reading the first dozen or so entries in the late Stuart Woods' (sadly, he passed earlier this year) Stone Barrington series, I'm still enjoying the different types of stories- some moody, some funny, some exciting- featuring Woods' lawyer, investigator and adventurer. Two Dollar Bill and Dark Harbor were two recent good ones. 

Tip #14: Weird horror is always good

Barbarian, which has nothing to do with Conan, is a decent, offbeat horror film now streaming in various places, following a theatrical run earlier this year. It starts off as an unsettling two-person drama but then launches into crazy horror that you won't soon forget.

Tip #15: Take vacations while watching TV

The two short seasons of HBO'S The White Lotus are literate, fun, and visually striking. Set in the first season at The White Lotus Resort in Hawaii and in the second season at its resort in Italy, you'll enjoy the various stories of the lavish resorts' guests and staff. The show demonstrates that smart can be fun.

Calm before the storm

Saw a couple of movies in the past day or two that were amiable time passers and not much more, but that's okay. It's still a novelty to be back to going to movies again. I suspect the producers, too, knew these movies were perfectly okay but not much more, hence the early spring release dates, keeping them away from the summer's heavy hitters.

The Lost City, with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum, has a little romance, a little adventure, and a decent extended cameo by Brad Pitt. I liked it well enough, though it'll play much better when it's available to see via streaming, without the hassle of driving to the theater and buying an expensive ticket. It's not quite good enough to justify those two things, but as a couch movie in the near future you'll likely enjoy it just fine.

Morbius is one of Sony's superhero movies, the ones that try to compete with Marvel Studios' polished-to-the-nines superhero films, with varying success. Morbius was created in the comic books as a villain to fight Spider-Man, but here he's on his own. So Sony did what they did with its slightly better Venom movies, which also involved giving a Spider-Man villain its own movie: they made the Morbius character a bit more sympathetic than his comic book counterpart, and gave him an even bigger villain than he is to fight. 

Like The Lost City, Morbius also passes the time without too much restlessness, but again will come off as more enjoyable at home without the effort and cost to go out and see it. And I'm speaking as someone who likes getting in the car and going to see a movie.

Anyway, these two films did their jobs and helped me mark time until the big, anticipated films of late spring and early summer arrive. After all, it's like I blinked and the new Dr. Strange movie is only a few days away!