Interesting to see the comparisons between the things Jobs was involved in designing. As is clear from his biography he was a perfectionist, even making sure that the inside looked beautiful.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR APOLLO 18

To me Apollo 18 isn’t paranoid about our fellow citizens. The guys risk their lives to save each other over and over, even after it’s clear that one of them is dangerous. The paranoia is firmly directed at the all-powerful, unseen institutions. Even NASA has been taken over by a more powerful, more deadly institution.

The problem for me is how that ending confirms the rightness of that institution. Instead of a big Paths of Glory thing where the pawns ignore their commands to die and help each other to live, it turns out the DOD was right because they’re all infected. We’re supposed to want them dead now to save the planet. It’s a step too far for me, and one that sinks it further the more I think about it.

Counting and writing style aside, I think Brandon nailed this movie comparing it to the Blind Side, which I thought had a “made for TV” feel to it.

For the Expendables it’s an atavistic allure. The chance to revisit a politically incorrect past, where a man is a man, and killings are performed with relish and gusto.

For Apollo 18 it’s the chance to luxuriate in turgid, mind numbing paranoia about our fellow citizens and institutions.

In their attempt to plumb the depths of partianship, both films move 180 degrees in opposite directions, and meet at the point of idiocy.