I Saw Some More Movies

SICKO
This movie didn’t outrage me as much as I thought it would, mainly because none of the ideas were new to me. I guess I was already sufficiently outraged about our national health care situation before seeing it. All of the stuff about how the national health care plan was actually set up in the 70s by Nixon was new to me – and made my blood boil. This is probably more terrifying than any horror movie out in the theaters at the moment.

EVAN ALMIGHTY
Blah, how much money did they spend on this bloated, so-called comedy? I think I chuckled two or three times. Steve Carrell was wasted along with all that money.



SUNSHINE
Good for those people who are interested in slow-paced, cerebral sci-fi (probably less than 1% of the general population). Outstanding performances by all of the actors involved, especially Chris Evans and the lovely Cillian Murphy (as always). The last third does go a bit off the rails, but I think it’s more than justified. I probably need to see this again, if nothing else for the stellar cinematography (stellar, get it? Ha, ha).



THE SIMPSONS MOVIE
Whoever hasn’t seen this movie really just needs to get to the theater and see it immediately. The first half hour in particular will make you choke on your popcorn. I thought the writers wouldn’t be able to come up with new material that’s still funny – I was dead wrong.



I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY
The most surprising thing about this movie is that it’s actually very funny. I laughed through the whole thing. I thought it was fairly sensitive in spite of the barrage of gay jokes, and I’d definitely recommend this as a rental or budget theater movie. There’s Hollywood stupidity galore, of course, but it’s really one of the funniest mainstream comedies I’ve seen recently.



THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
The thing I liked about this franchise (the first one in particular) was the crystal-clear cinematography which allowed you to see every detail of the fight and chase sequences vividly. That’s completely abandoned in this film for blurry, camera-jiggling, quick-cut editing, which results in the general impression of violence. I don’t like not being able to see what kind of action the characters in action movies are involved in. Especially when the actor is Matt Damon, and he looks great, and you know he trained damn hard to get in shape. This movie will get your adrenaline pumping, especially during the sharp-shooter assassin sequences, but overall I was somewhat annoyed by my inability to see anything.



4: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER
Thanks, budget theater, for my almost-private screening of this movie. One other person was in the theater with me – I still can’t believe that out of all my matinee viewings in Chicago, I have never seen a movie in a completely empty theater yet. Anyway, this was marginally interesting. Horrible acting and dead, flat dialog, of course – but I didn’t expect anything more from it.