The Martian was, somewhat astonishingly, as good as everybody's been saying it is. In so far as I had any objections to the plot, it was that their eventual solution seemed obvious to me from the moment the problem was presented, but I assume I'm part of a relatively small subset of people who went "well, obviously." :) But it's a really terrific movie, and people keep saying it's nearly as good as the book, so I'm apparently going to have to read the book now, too.
Everest was also good, although not nearly as much fun as The Martian. The scenery is spectacular, and verified for me (as if there was any doubt) that I wouldn't even be able to get to the mountain, much less actually climb it, as there are death-defying heights and rope bridges ON THE WAY THERE, never mind the actual mind-blowingly terrifying climb itself. In case of zombie apocalypse, possibly. Under any other circumstances, nope. But it's a good film with a lot of good actors, and worth watching.
I've also just finished watching Grace and Frankie, a Netflix Original with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin playing women who don't like each other very much but have known each other and been married for forty years to Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston, who at the beginning of the first episode, announce they're in love with each other and will be divorcing their wives so they can get married themselves, now that it's legal. It's pretty damned terrific, and it ENDED ON A CLIFFHANGER, which I totally didn't expect (I thought I had two episodes left!) and now I'm clawing at the TV for the next season. Which will drop sometime in 2016, apparently, as it *has* been renewed, but agh! I MUST KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!
My reaction to The Martian was exactly the same as yours, although I wasn't sure how they work going to make that solution actually work. Matt Damon probably did his best work ever (and that's really saying something). The movie was pretty near perfect.
I only watched the first couple of Grace and Frankie (I saw the one on the beach with the drugs) and wasn't sure about continuing. I guess now I'll give it another chance. I love Lily Tomlin.
The one on the beach with the drugs is actually pretty well the show's nadir, so try the next couple episodes. There are a couple of moments of "oh god this situation is so awful I can hardly stand to watch it" things that you usually see with, like, TEENAGERS, not 75 year olds, and it's just as awful and excrutiating, but it's not, sort of, like, actually bad. I think the one on the beach with the drugs was actually fairly bad.
Matt Damon was, yeah, pretty goddamn amazing in it. And I generally like him, so that's a lot, yeah. Wow.
I listened to the audiobook of The Martian on a drive from California to Montana last spring, and was blown away. I have to say that while I usually like Matt Damon he will have to work *really* hard to be better than the audiobook narrator.
The Netflix show has some of my favorite actors! I have have to put it on my list. Thanks for the heads up.
Oh yeah? Wow. I don't usually do audio books but now I'm kind of tempted to try that one!
I LOVED Grace and Frankie!!!!
OH MY GOD THE END, RIGHT??!?!? I honestly thought I had two episodes left, I was like NO YOU CAN'T STOP THERE AAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!
I really, really enjoyed it. It's a ridiculously great cast, and it was just so much damn fun to watch people older than 35 in such terrific roles!
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3!!!!