Movie-palooza

I’ll start off by writing about the latest movie that M and I saw together:Saw IV. He’s seen the very first installment, I believe whereas I hadn’t seen any previous version of the Saw Franchise. To say I was disappointed would be putting it lightly. I was so underwhelmed that I would have demanded my money back (it cost $4 for both of us to watch the movie). The word that kept resonating in my mind as I watched was: corny. Where do I begin? Okay, what was up with the Chucky-like doll? Chucky was even prettier than this "doll". Even after featuring it a gazillion times, they didn’t even bother explaining or hinting at the significance of this stupid doll. What about the SWAT team that was too stupid to communicate with each other? Or the FBI woman who heard a ticking sound and still put her face close to what was ticking? What the f**ks name was she thinking?? Where did she get her "degree" from? Even I know that it pays to be merely cautious not to talk about being overly cautious. M knows i like my plots so if you are looking for a plot that makes sense, don’t go to see Saw IV. Maybe if I had seen the first 3 Saw movies, I might have had a better handle on the movie, but if what I just saw in Saw IV is any indication, I have a feeling I’ll probably have no hair left because of the idiotic behavior of characters who ought to have more sense. Lightly put, it sucked.

One movie that we both saw together (for free through one of my free-awoof schemes at BlockBluster) was called Pan’s Labyrinth or El Laberinto del Fauno (Labyrinth of the Faun). It was actually done in Spanish so we watched the movie with automatic English subtitles. I have to say that it was a very different experience with the fantasy creatures speaking Spanish. lol. M & I both agreed that this was a very well done movies filled with relatively unknown actors and actresses. They were believable and my liking it won’t do justice to what this movie apparently was about: historical events in Spain. Just do a google search of Pan’s Labyrinth and go from there.

I finally saw the Bee Movie and I have to say I laughed a lot. The little kids did too so they were a roaring success in that department. If you just want clean PG-13 family fun, this is the definitely the movie to go check out with the family. In my opinion, recent movies aren’t good enough to warranting paying the ~ $9 price, but thankfully, I live rather close to the dollar theater that shows relatively recent movies for the dirt-cheap price of $1 before 6pm and Tuesdays. It goes up to $2 past 6pm and on other days of the week. I won’t bother going into the plot of the movie because it was funny, but totally forgettable.Lastly, I saw the Golden Compass. Now, I’m a total sucker for well done fantasy movies. However, the key word is: well done which involves actually having a plot and not just prettily imagined characters. Apparently, there was some furore with the Vatican objecting to the somewhat overt characterization or depiction of the Magisterium as the Catholic Church or Vatican. We all know how touchy the church is when films come out that remind people of those days when peopel would be killed for bucking the doctrines. Well, I don’t see what the furore was about. I wish the church would stop rising to Hollywood’s bait. This movie doesn’t help matters by "fondly" calling the pets that accompanied the humans constantly "demons". No, it will not make the word cool and the only redeeming feature of this movie was the CGI or whatever fancy mechanism they use to generate the characters. I love the ice bears (hi Iorek, who was voiced by majestic Ian McKellen and the little girl’s pet (Pan). So, that’s all on the movies front. I’ve got to go tinkle.