In the past week, I saw three movies. One with my wife and two with friends.
Here are my thoughts, minus any spoilers:
Bridesmaids: Extremely funny movie. My only issue with the film is one I often have with films like this:
Am I really expected to believe that the best looking, smartest and funniest woman in the film can’t find a decent guy to date?
I have the same problem with the television comedy 30 Rock. Tina Fey’s character, Liz Lemon, is supposed to be unattractive, but Tina Fey is actually the best looking woman in the cast. So every joke or sight gag made to further exploit Liz Lemon’s supposed unattractiveness falls flat for me.
I don’t buy it.
If you want your female characters to be unattractive, and you want the audience to believe that they are having difficulty finding good men, stop choosing beautiful, funny, smart women to play the parts.
I actually had a couple other issues with the film, but as we were walking from the theater to the car, my wife said, “I don’t want to hear what you thought was wrong with that movie. Don’t ruin it for me.”
I’ve been known to do this from time to time, so I’ll abide by her request and remain silent.
The Hangover II: I saw the first Hangover at the drive-in with my wife while my infant daughter was sleeping in the backseat, so perhaps this influenced my opinion of the movie, but I thought the first film was funny but not as incredibly funny as so many others thought.
By contrast, I saw The Hangover II with three friends, two of whom were drunk, at a midnight showing and thought the movie was absolutely hilarious.
It was clear that a story line involving the bride’s brother was cut out during the editing process, which left a gaping hole in the center of the film, but it was still funny as hell and more than made up for the dangling story line.
X Men: First Class: I saw the first two X-Men films and thought that were good. I have never been a comic book guy, but I thought the movies were entertaining enough.
Not entertaining enough, mind you, to see the third and fourth installments of the franchise. But good enough to not hate myself for seeing them.
X-Men: First Class was also good, but it read more like a documentary than an actual film. Seeking to fill in the back story of more than a half a dozen characters, there was no central character in the film, and so there was no one to whom audiences could attach their loyalties. As a result, scenes were especially short throughout the movie and there was little depth to any specific story line.
I also thought there were elements of the film, including a bad guy’s submarine, that reminded me more of something from an Austin Powers film. The story is set in the 1960’s, so this makes sense on one level, but I thought it was overdone and slightly outrageous. This works in a comedy like Austin Powers but less so in a serious superhero movie about the Cuban missile crisis.
It was weird.
