Here's a tip: If you're looking for something to do on a Friday night don't rent Wild Hogs. Similarly, I would recommend never renting Wild Hogs. It has the humor of a straight-to-video Disney sequal mixed with PG-13 sexual induendos...and, you get a couple butt shots thrown in for free. It's the first movie I've turned off halfway through and returned since the Steve Martin remake of The Pink Panther. Another tip: The video store won't refund your money if you don't like the movie. Or, in the words of the 21-year old kid at the register, "I'm sorry sir, but we don't guarantee that you'll like the movie...". I need to give him some credit because as the saying goes...you ask a stupid question, you get a stupid answer.
But, really, anywhere else...if I buy or rent something that doesn't live up to the advertised quality, I can get my money back. My theory is: if more people turned off their movies and returned them...or, walked out of the theater and requested a refund maybe there would be some glimmer of a blip forward in the quality of our art. I'd like to see the Top 10 movies at the box office and the Top 10 Refunded tickets placed side to side. However, I don't give alot of credit to the American movie goer, so these statistics may reveal absolutely nothing. After all, there were about 2 million copies of Wild Hogs on the rack, and I have a hunch they are there for a reason.
...so, I dished out another dollar or two and rented Thank You For Not Smoking and An Inconvenient Truth. Thank You For Smoking was probably one of the best movies I've seen this year. I've only watched a half hour of An Inconvenient Truth (a.k.a. - An Ode to Al Gore), and I was hoping for more...what are you going to do on a Friday night anyway? ...read a book?
3 comments:
Andy made the mistake of watching Wild Hogs on the way back from Italy, and it made the flight seem longer.
Thank You For Smoking is in my Top 10--right up there with Little Miss Sunshine and Stranger Than Fiction. (I generally hate Will Ferrell, but he surprised me.) My libertarian persona was pleased with the premise and the very perfect ending. Also, for the record, the main character of TYFS argues in the exact same manner that Andy does, and it drives me insane. Andy laughed himself silly during the first ten minutes of the film, and all I could do was gape at the surreality of it all.
I'm with Andy, the first ten minutes of Thank You For Smoking are hilarious. That scene in his kid's classroom is probably the best in the movie.
I think Thank You For Smoking made me dislike An Inconvinient Truth, though. Half the movie seemed like it was spinning itself like TYFS was warning against. ...the other half I liked...maybe, only the other quarter.
Have not seen Al Gore's manifesto yet, but anything that leans toward the didactic often feels dogmatic by the end. Sort of like Upton Sinclair's The Jungle--great story until the last 10 pages or so when he gets preachy.
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