Rather that producing work over the weekend (it was my intention to write my final lecture on Agamben and Butler), we ended up watching a bunch of movies. Reviews are not in chronological order:
Running With Scissors – The advertisements seemed to suggest that it was (1) funny and (2) possibly in the vein of Wes Anderson. It was neither. It was supposed to be “serious,” I think. The only funny parts were the infrequent references to retardation and the poo pointing towards God. Otherwise, it was long and boring. And it had Gwyneth Paltrow – enough said.
The DaVinci Code – Long and confusing. Having not read the book, I was thoroughly confused. All the same, I guess the identity of “The Holy Grail” about five minutes into the film. I felt stupid at the end when I didn’t also guess the location of Mary Magdelene’s tomb. That one was just too obvious, I guess. Two things were confirmed in this movie: Amelie should have ended her career after one movie and Tom Hanks is one of the worst travesties foisted on the public by American cinema. He’s up there with Will Smith, Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise.
The Departed – Even longer and even more confusing. It is the sort of movie that people say is good because otherwise they fear looking stupid (c.f., Mulholland Drive – another big, fat waste of time). The best parts usually involved Marky Mark swearing. Otherwise, Matt Damon was essentially reprising his role as Will Hunting and Leonardo di Caprio admirably proved that he should have stopped “acting” after Titanic. Alec Baldwin was also funny, but that is to be expected. The best part was when Charlie Sheen’s dad died. For the first two hours, I couldn’t figure out who was supposed to be Italian and who was supposed to be Irish.
Borat – A classic. In the Canadian tradition of “baiting Americans to see what stupid crap they’ll say.” Often predictable, but, unlike Rick Mercer, it’s funny. Rather than suing the producers of Borat, those frat boys should sue their parents for giving them the short stick of the genetic lottery.
4 Comments
Craig the final line of your post is one of the funniest things I’ve heard in a while. Thanks very much.
I’m not terribly in favour of the nauseating variety of humour, so I’ll pass on Borat. I agree that the Da Vinci code was sophomoric. I liked The Departed and have become more of a fan of Matt Damon then I used to be, because I find his genericity and blankness intriguing.
I think you would like Fido, or maybe you’re insufficiently geeky to like a Canadian comedy about zombie pets.
Not sure why you characterize it as “nauseating.” Excessively politically incorrect so as to serve the purpose of reinforcing liberal niceties (i.e., “political correctness”) is what it is. Little more than that.
By “nauseating” I mean what is more conventionally called “gross”.
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