We’ve been watching quite a bit of movies lately, and I wanted to give you my/our view in a nutshell.
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Extraordinarily disappointing.
- Shoot ‘Em Up: Exactly what it promises. I’ve seen it twice now in a week. This is a movie that defies explanation. Watch it. Watch it and be a different person from hereforth.
- Howl’s Moving Castle: better than I remembered. Good to watch again.
- Blood & Chocolate: not as bad as expected. It’s more about werewolves than chocolate though. But watching it with chocolate is good anyway :)
- Iron Man 2: More of the same — which, in this case, isn’t bad. Lighthearted and lightweight entertainment
- Prince of Persia: a movie that takes itself too seriously, which ruins it.
- Ocean’s Eleven: a movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously, which saves it.
Actually, those final two remarks apply to more of these movies. All of these are very lightweight films. Nothing deep going on here. The League: takes itself too serious. Shoot ‘Em Up is laughing at itself almost as hard as it is laughing at the audience. Howl’s… okay, that isn’t so lightweight entertainment (though it isn’t that deep either, but compared to the rest…). But the difference was painfully obvious between Iron Man 2 and Prince of Persia. Neither has a story worth a damn. Both have the obligatory hot chick, the hunky lead character, and action aplenty. One is good, the other one really isn’t. Why?
Not only because in the one the hero is an arrogant c..t where you can’t help feeling good if the bad guy hits him (but trust me, that helps). It’s also because in the one movie, you feel as if they’re not taking themselves too seriously. Iron Man gives you the impression that they realise they’re making the equivalent of a popcorn meal. No pretense there. Prince of Persia, on the other hand… it’s like they’re trying to make it into a big action-adventure thingy a la the old Indiana Jones movies. Well, fail.
To conclude: see everything on the list (again if already seen recently), except Prince of Persia. Avoid that like the steaming pile of manure it desperately struggles not to be.