What We've Been Watching

We've been watching movies again so I thought I'd post my thoughts on them. Unfortunately, we haven't seen really good ones so this edition will be broken down into the mediocre, the bad, and the ugly. If anyone cares to send some movie recommendations our way we'd love it since we're clearly not doing so hot at picking good ones for our Blockbuster Queue!

The Mediocre:

September Dawn - If you're looking for yet another reason to distrust organized religion then this isn't the movie for you. It's a pretty horrible picture of a massacre that took place at the hands of a large group of Mormons in 1857. It is slow in parts but an interesting look at a historical event.

The Namesake - I want to be an intellectual. I tell myself I am smart and cultured. Then I rent movies like the Namesake and realize I must not be all that smart and cultural because I just can't get into it. It's the story of an Indian family and how being Indian and embracing and/or rejecting one's culture affects decisions across one's entire life. It has some definite beautiful moments and overall is a good movie. Maybe I just have too short of an attention span to watch the whole thing without getting bored, but it seemed a bit long to me in parts. And, I am ashamed to say, I am looking forward to seeing Kal Penn in "Harold and Kumar go to Guantanamo Bay" more than I did seeing him in this movie...

The Bad:

Beowulf - Shamefully, I am the only person in America that didn't realize this was basically an animated 100% CG movie. I realized it about 2 minutes in and was pretty pissed that I'd agreed to watch it with Thomas. Here's my basic summary of the movie. Recall the beautiful and complex Beowulf you read (or for some of you, were forced to read) in school. Recall the subtleties. The complex nature of good and evil. Now, imagine that is replaced with Angelina Jolie hanging out without her clothes on and an "evil" Grendel who is grotesque purely for the shock value. Imagine giving a complex story to a group of 17-year-old boys to translate. That is what Beowulf became. Naked chicks, graphic violence, and cool computer graphics. A complete and total perversion of the original story. And now I'll get off my literary soapbox.

The Ugly:

The Mist - I'm going to say it again because I can't think of any better way to describe my feeling about this movie. If you are thinking about watching this movie have a friend punch you in the stomach and then go take a 126 minute nap. If I had done that instead of watching the movie I'd be better for it. Truly. In all fairness, the majority of the movie was really good. It was suspenseful and interesting and thrilling. And then the last 5 minutes come and it killed it for me. The ending was so horrible it made me hate everything that came before it. Think about it like this. You could have the best childhood ever. You could have a great relationship with your dad and think he was a great father. And then you turn 35 and your dad tells you he used to be a woman and he's actually your mom. The ending to your parental story would be so awful it would override everything that came before, right? That is what I'm talking about with The Mist.