Friday, April 27, 2012

A Movie A Week: Week 14 - Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Movie: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Theater: Regal Tara Cinemas 4
Snack: Caramel Popcorn and Coke

This was probably the worst movie experience I've ever had.  Not because of the movie, which I enjoyed.  Nor because of the theater, which has apparently been renovated since the last time I was there and is now a really nice space to watch a movie.  No, the problem was that a few minutes before the movie started, I began to feel sick to my stomach.  Long story short, I ended up projectile vomiting in the bathroom.  Not a great opening act for a movie to follow.  Was it the food from the theater?  Well, I didn't finish any of it just to be on the safe side, but I don't really know (and there did not appear to be an epidemic of sick movie-goers that day).  It was definitely something I ate, though.  Once I had emptied my stomach I felt fine, if a little gross.  So, that incident tainted this week's movie-going experience, but even so, I stayed and watched the whole movie.

As for the movie itself, I enjoyed it.  Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt are both very appealing actors and they have really good chemistry here.  The story is fun, too.  I particularly enjoyed Kristin Scott Thomas as the aggressively disingenuous bureaucrat hell-bent on generating positive PR.  For all that I liked the film, I did leave with a couple of complaints.  There are mild spoilers involved in discussing them, so if you are reading this and are concerned about such things, consider yourself warned.  There is a scene in the film that is almost action-movie-esque, where Ewan McGregor's character disarms a would be assassin with a skilled casting of a fishing line.  It just felt ridiculously incongruous with the tone of the rest of the film.  I understand that the scene exists to cement the relation ship of McGregor's character and the sheikh character, but surely there was a less absurd way to accomplish this.  I also felt that the subplot with the boyfriend of the Emily Blunt character was an unnecessary diversion.  Again, I understand the reason it exists from a story perspective, as a dramatic obstacle to our two leads getting together.  I just found that the third act "surprise" with the character was completely unsurprising and that this complication just wasn't needed to give the relationship between the lead characters a satisfying arc.  Still, these flaws are not crippling.  This may not be one of the great films, but it is a good one.

Friday, April 13, 2012

A Movie A Week: Week 13 - 21 Jump Street

Movie: 21 Jump Street
Theater: AMC Colonial 18
Snack: Hot Dog and Coke

I wish that I could say that the delay in this write-up and the following one was due to something fun.  Unfortunately, that is not the case.  It is crunch-time at school and that has pushed things to the back burner.  Quite frankly, I should probably be working on a paper or presentation rather than posting this now, but I am nothing if not a procrastinator.  I have been seeing my weekly movie and will get caught up with the posts in short order.  Better late than never, right?

I didn't have many expectations going in to "21 Jump Street."  I remember watching the old TV show years ago, but it is not something that has loomed large in my memory or that is awash in nostalgia for me.  That is just as well, since the movie takes the basic concept and plays it for laughs.  What surprised me was how many genuine laughs are to be found in the movie.  "21 Jump Street" manages to walk the line of making fun of its own ridiculous premise while not mocking the audience that came to see it.  The cast does a good job, and there are even a few nice bits of business for some of the cast members of the original series.  One of these moments came as a real surprise and that surprise was a lot of fun, so I won't spoil it here.  The whole move was a surprise really, and a pleasant one at that.  I definitely left the theater feeling that I had gotten my entertainment dollar's worth.