The Connecticutian

I have seen a bunch of movies since the beginning of the summer, but honestly, I have not been inspired to write much about them because they have been pretty lame. When Sujal and I went to see Get Smart, I thought it was okay, but nothing to write home about. I began thinking about movies I have really liked. I like a good comedy, and I tried to think of comedies that I thought were really funny, comedies like Little Miss Sunshine, The Royal Tennenbaums, or The Forty Year Old Virgin, Sujal pointed out that there is a degree of seriousness in them. I don’t know. I used to think comedies were really funny. And now, they often seem kind of dumb. I’m not sure if movies are just getting worse, or if a “good movie” is defined by the kinds of movies one liked in one’s youth. It’s just hard to come by funny movies that make me really laugh out loud, and just ask my mom, I laugh very easily. She used to be quite amused by me watching a movie.

So what have I seen lately? The Incredible Hulk. This was one of the worst movies I have seen in a long time. Granted, I would neverhave gone to see this on my own. Sujal wanted me to go. I can’t say I have ever been that impressed with computer-generated special effects. I don’t care about flashy screen moments. I prefer subtlety. But what was so badabout this film was the writing! The dialogue was so inane that it insulted its audience, no matter how idiotic the audience might be. At one point, this scientist is speaking in what I shall call “science-speak.” He was trying to sound all technical, and he said something along the lines of, “If it is off by one integer, he might die!” The scientist literally used the word “integer.” It was a ridiculous use of the word in that context. Couldn’t they think of anything more intelligent sounding? Or did they think the audience would have been too stupid to understand? Ugh!

We did see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which I did like. I am a big fan of the Indiana Jones flicks. We went to see it with one of Sujal’s co-workers. He said he thought National Treasure was better, whih I took as blasphemy. That movie was terrible! He asked me what I thought the difference was, seeing how they were both adventure flicks. 1. I don’t like Nicholas Cage as an action hero. He plays a great fuck-up, but not an action hero. 2. NT takes itself seriously. IJ pokes fun at itself for the genre it is.

We also saw Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation at Real Art Ways, which was very funny. It is a shot by shot remake of the original, shot by kids (11-17?). Here’s a review.

I saw Kung Fu Panda, which frankly had far too many “fat” jokes. It was okay, but nothing to shake a stick at.

Earlier in the week, Sujal and I saw Wall*E. Sujal was annoyed that I didn’t like it. He thought I went to the movie predisposed not to like it. But here’s the truth: I tend to really like Pixar movies, so i was thinking I’d really like it — even though I’d heard the premise and it sounded uninteresting. I told Sujal after the movie that I obviously have no problem with animals being anthropomorphized. In fact, I like anthropomorphizing animals. I do it to our cats all the time. But an anthropomorphized robot? I have a hard time sympathizing with that. I’m not 100% sure why I do, I just do. Besides, this one robot (I thought robots were genderless) — a boy robot — falls in love with a girl robot. There’s no talking for close to the first half of the movie, so when the robots start speaking (and the boy robot has trouble speaking and says next to no words), they speak English. Why? (I know it is an American film…) How the hell do robots fall in love? Then the story becomes an allegory about being good to planet Earth, again via depicting fat Americans. Always with the fat Americans. If the movie is going to go so far as to be scientifically accurate that humans would lose their bone mass in space, how do they even survive for 700 years? I often can suspend disbelief, but this movie felt contrived and preachy. Even though I agree with the message, I don’t want to be preached to. Ultimately, I could not sympathize with any of the characters. When I cannot sympathize with at least one character, I have a tough time hooking into any story.

So when Sujal wanted to see another movie this weekend (Wanted or Hancock), I just didn’t want to go see anything. I haven’t even seen Sex in the City because of the abysmal reviews it is getting, and I loved that show.

Maybe soon something good will come out.