I saw a few movies over the weekend, and I thought I would record my impressions.
Friday night, Berta and I dropped Abby over at Mom’s for the evening. This could be our last weekend alone before Kid Two shows up. Instead of going to the theater where nothing good was playing (that we wouldn’t be able to see with Abby, anyway) we stayed home and watched one of the many DVD movies we’ve bought and haven’t watched because they’re too old for Abby.
The first one was Kill Bill part 2. I don’t remember having written about Kill Bill part 1, but let me summarize: “Eh.” That is to say, it was pointlessly bloody, painfully poorly acted, and devoid of anything but a threadbare plot. Kill Bill part 1, at least in comparison to Kill Bill part 2, was a don’t-miss thrillride with a bangup ending that will leave you speechless.
In other words: Kill Bill part 2 sucked. Don’t bother.
Immediately after that we took in The Day After Tomorrow, which is redeeming only in its special effects. Scientifically, it’s a little shakey. Ok, a lot. Ok, forget it, it’s total fiction. And we fell asleep mid-play anyway.
On Sunday, we took Abby to see The Incredibles. Let me pause a moment here to reflect on the difficulty in getting Abby to the movie theater. (pauses, grumbles) Ok.
The Incredibles was quite awesome. It’s inspiring me to do a ton of things, such as: Render 3D models, play superhero RPGs, and mentally engineer super arch-villains and their lairs. Yeah, it was darn good. And in spite of the fight that Abby put up while trying to get her to go, she enjoyed the whole thing. Especially the stupid “Bounding” short before the actual movie - Gah.
The Incredibles is an intersting twist on the superhero genre, which leaves the heroes - now with three kids and a suburban life - retired and placed in hiding by the government, working mindless day jobs and secretly wishing to be back in the hero golden years. The father, Mr. Incredible, finds a way to get back into the hero game, and his family gets sucked in. Pixar did a great job with it. I hope that their next movie, Cars, doesn’t suck like it looks it will.
I also watched A Man on Fire on DVD. Wow. That was a good movie. A little bloody, but quite satisfying. Haven’t seen it? Denzel Washington plays an ex-CIA (or something) agent who is on the bottle. He takes a job as a bodyguard protecting a little girl in Mexico, who he befriends, but who is then (duh) kidnapped on his watch during which he takes four shots to the chest. Anyway, he comes around and kills everyone associated with the kidnapping.
Ok, so it sounds like a Stephen Segal movie, but it’s not as simple as I’ve described (do you want me to give the story away?), and it’s quite good. Check it out.
