Movie roundup for the week (movies I happened to see this week, not movies that are new this week):
The Good: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I wasn't expecting this to be very good (I was afraid that like Being John Malkovich it would never make any discernible point), but got it on a lark, and found it to be excellent. It was very thought-provoking in its exploration of the bittersweet aspects of relationships, but with a subtly that I find lacking (and aggravatingly so) in so many stories that try to make a point. I can't stand movies and books where you can practically hear the author shouting: “Now I am going to talk about topic X! Here is what I think about topic X. In case you missed that, I think this about topic X. Really! Lets go over that one more time—you stand right there, and I'll beat you over the head with my views. Great! Now back to the movie.”
Eternal Sunshine certainly had its share of really bizarre scenes that made no sense at the time, but by the end in most cases I could see how it fit in to the story being woven, and how its presence enhanced (again, subtly) the ideas.
Two thumbs up.
The Bad: Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Bad does not even come close here—we borrowed it from the library, for free, and I still feel robbed. 106 minutes of my life are gone and I dearly want them back.
The theory that Laura and I have is that this sequel is the universe's way of balancing itself out. We got the original expecting it to be awful, and instead found it to be an entertaining, humorously campy experience. We got the second expecting another fun fluff movie, and instead had our very low expectations for the original realized this time around. Apparently the distinction between “campy” and “mind-bogglingly stupid” was lost on the scriptwriters/producers/directors.
I do not have enough thumbs to put down.
The ‘Meh’: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I actually saw this about a week and a half ago, but “The Good, The Bad, And I Didn't See A Third Movie” just didn't have the same ring. I wouldn't recommend Hitchhiker's to anyone, but I wouldn't actively dissuade anyone from seeing it either—that's about the best I can say about it. I know that The Man himself did a fair amount of the screen adaptation for this version, but I think some serious damage must have been done afterward. I simply can't believe that removing most of the funny dialog was his idea—presumably someone had to cut brutally to make room for important additions like the totally pointless dolphin scene at the beginning. On the bright side, there were sufficient amusing moments that I wanted neither my time nor my money back when I left the theater.
I guess my feeling is that if you already have two excellent adaptations (in the forms of the book and the radio show), making a significantly inferior third adaptation isn't a terribly good idea. But maybe I just miss Peter Jones.
Two thumbs that can't really be bothered to vote one way or the other.
Category: A & E
Subscribe