Fuck you, Benjamin Franklin.
For Christmas, Marisa got me tickets to Sweeney Todd, which I've been vaguely interested in seeing for about ten years, and we went this weekend. I have probably never liked a musical so much without actually particularly liking any of the songs. You can go to Marisa's journal for an account of how it was set up and how that was pretty kickass.
Then we went to three movies:
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story is sort of Adaptation lite, but it's looser and sillier and less ambitious, so even though it's nowhere near as great as a Spike Jonze jointz, it's a lot of fun and it even made me want to read the actual Tristram Shandy book, which has never sounded like something I'd enjoy in any descriptions I'd ever read.
Then we ducked into The Pink Panther, which I wanted to see because I'll always give Steve Martin a chance, and I also love Kevin Kline and Jean Reno. Unfortunately, the film inspired me to mull over a column asking why it is that most major comic actors have so many mediocre vehicles to their credit. I loved the Pink Panther comedies as a kid, and I haven't seen them in years, but it's not so much that this new one bastardizes the great Peter Sellers performance; it plays more like one sequel too many. That is, it's possible that if I saw it in the early nineties, maybe in a double feature with The Pink Panther Strikes Again, I might've liked it at least OK. But, no, it's not good. There are some funny moments here and there, but nothing you could hang a whole movie on.
After dinner, we made it a proper teenage date and saw Final Destination 3. I am a fan of the Final Destination series and this one is just about as good as Final Destination 2 but the franchise has run its course. The various enjoyable tricks it employs (insanely elaborate death scenarios; morbid humor, especially in sudden and gory deaths; amusing fatalism) repeat themselves after awhile. I'm kind of surprised that Morgan & Wong, the former X-Files staffers who handled the original FD, the Willard remake, and The One, wanted to do this one (they didn't make FD2). It's fun but doesn't bring much new to the party.
However, the movie did feature the lead actress of The N's non-Degrassi soap Instant Star, which had its season premiere this weekend. This adds up to, yes, an Alexz Johnson media blitz!!! (No, that's not a typo, she really does spell her name that way.) Lincoln's birthday weekend? Opening of the Olympics? I think not. This weekend was the time of Alexz Johnson.
Speaking of TV: If Arrested Development is truly over, it went out beautifully, producing an episode that would make a fine series finale, but, c'mon, Mitch Hurtwiz, hammer out a deal with Showtime and get us another couple dozen episodes. I'm not greedy. They don't have to run for a decade. Just get the episode count into the seventies or eighties. See what it's like to plan out a season without the cancellation threat constantly looming.
Then we went to three movies:
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story is sort of Adaptation lite, but it's looser and sillier and less ambitious, so even though it's nowhere near as great as a Spike Jonze jointz, it's a lot of fun and it even made me want to read the actual Tristram Shandy book, which has never sounded like something I'd enjoy in any descriptions I'd ever read.
Then we ducked into The Pink Panther, which I wanted to see because I'll always give Steve Martin a chance, and I also love Kevin Kline and Jean Reno. Unfortunately, the film inspired me to mull over a column asking why it is that most major comic actors have so many mediocre vehicles to their credit. I loved the Pink Panther comedies as a kid, and I haven't seen them in years, but it's not so much that this new one bastardizes the great Peter Sellers performance; it plays more like one sequel too many. That is, it's possible that if I saw it in the early nineties, maybe in a double feature with The Pink Panther Strikes Again, I might've liked it at least OK. But, no, it's not good. There are some funny moments here and there, but nothing you could hang a whole movie on.
After dinner, we made it a proper teenage date and saw Final Destination 3. I am a fan of the Final Destination series and this one is just about as good as Final Destination 2 but the franchise has run its course. The various enjoyable tricks it employs (insanely elaborate death scenarios; morbid humor, especially in sudden and gory deaths; amusing fatalism) repeat themselves after awhile. I'm kind of surprised that Morgan & Wong, the former X-Files staffers who handled the original FD, the Willard remake, and The One, wanted to do this one (they didn't make FD2). It's fun but doesn't bring much new to the party.
However, the movie did feature the lead actress of The N's non-Degrassi soap Instant Star, which had its season premiere this weekend. This adds up to, yes, an Alexz Johnson media blitz!!! (No, that's not a typo, she really does spell her name that way.) Lincoln's birthday weekend? Opening of the Olympics? I think not. This weekend was the time of Alexz Johnson.
Speaking of TV: If Arrested Development is truly over, it went out beautifully, producing an episode that would make a fine series finale, but, c'mon, Mitch Hurtwiz, hammer out a deal with Showtime and get us another couple dozen episodes. I'm not greedy. They don't have to run for a decade. Just get the episode count into the seventies or eighties. See what it's like to plan out a season without the cancellation threat constantly looming.