Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Choose Your Own Adventure!

You're a fellow in his mid-40s who's approaching an August weekend in which there's not a lot going on. You'll probably catch a movie at an area theater. Here's your choices:

1) New movie with Julia Roberts. She's funny, and you liked her in a lot of her movies. And she's attractive, as she demonstrated when she played the Sleeping With Anyone Beauty title role in Pretty Woman. The movie's from a book by a lady who wrote the article that they used as the basis of the movie Coyote Ugly, which is intriguing. This new one is about a woman who goes off to find herself and the title reflects the steps she takes to do it, something like Eat, Pray, Love, Have a Book Deal Already Signed to Finance the Year-Long Sabbatical Trip You Take To Get Over the Divorce You Initiated While You Were Having an Affair Behind the Back of the Man You Said You Married Because He Had the Nicest Proposal of All the Customers Who Proposed to You While You Were Tending Bar. The posters seem to show a shorter title, though. Iffy.

2) Comic book geek movie with Michael Cera. Cera plays a Canadian slacker who discovers he has to battle the seven evil ex-boyfriends of his new crush. Geek factor high, which is good, but Michael Cera basically is a Canadian slacker and has been playing that role in every movie he's ever been in, every now and again stretching to give the character a different national origin. In Year One, for example, he was not Canadian since there was no Canada yet and the people in the time period when the movie was set did not know of the Western Hemisphere. Or of the Atlantic Ocean. Or Japan. Or Russia. Problematic, due to lead actor's amazing gift for playing a blank spot on the screen.

3) Action movie with everybody.

More on this as it develops.

4 comments:

latoberg said...

Just for pure enjoyment factor, action movie.

Friar said...

That, and the fact that Eat, Pray, Love is self-indulgent hokum and the only difference between watching Michael Cera and watching paint dry is that the dried paint is useful.

philipvm said...

next time, pose a DIFFICULT dilemma. this one's easy:

see #2 first, and openly, because it's an edgar wright film. edgar did "shaun of the dead" and "hot fuzz," and attention MUST be paid.

when no one's looking sneak off to see #3, because...well, you know you want to.

see #1 only in the case of emergency. the following conditions constitute an emergency: 1.) terrorists will kill thousands if you cannot recite the plot. 2.) mgm will only agree to make another bond flick if you can recite the plot, or 3.) some babe whom you have a chance with requests that you accompany her. (in the case of this commenter, said babe could be his wife. but she better put out after, dammit.)

Friar said...

I might; I've sat through decent movies with monumentally annoying actors before.

And re your emergency conditions, 1) I can already recite the plot, 2) If they're going to make crap like Quantum of Solace it may be time to pass the torch to another outfit and 3) What happens in the VM household stays in the VM household...