Wednesday, June 15, 2005

My Kingdom for a Good Movie

What's happening to the film industry lately? It used to be that when I went to the video section of the shoppette here on base, I could always find at least one movie that I deemed worthy of renting. However, for the past several weeks, everytime I go in, there's just nothing.

Now, in the interest of fairness, we don't have a huge selection of movies to choose from. The video rental section is definitely not Blockbuster. But geez, you'd think there'd be at least one freakin' movie worth renting. Sadly, no.

I would even go so far as to say that in the last 6 months, I've only rented one movie that I absolutely loved - "Sideways". And I loved that one mostly because it was about wine. It seems like every movie that I rent just disappoints me. I even consider turning most of them off halfway through. For example, I had seen the previews for "Are We There Yet?" and it seemed hilarious. So I rented it. It sucked. Every funny part was in the previews. Sometimes I try to find a good independent film that I've never heard of. So I tried out a movie called "Bad Trip". It sucked. I started reading a magazine halfway through. Another big budget one that I couldn't wait for was "Anchorman" with Will Ferrell. I absolutely love Will Ferrell so I thought there's no way I could be disappointed. I was. The only one that has come out in the past couple weeks that I was anxious to see was "Be Cool", the follow up to "Get Shorty". I liked the original and I like Elmore Leonard movies, so I thought it'd be good. It didn't suck, but it wasn't great.

And it's getting worse. In the past couple weeks, there has not been a single movie that made me think "Oh yeah, I've been wanting to see that one". There hasn't even been one that made me think "Well, it looks sort of interesting".

Nothing.

I guess I'll have to stick to renting DVD's of television series that I've missed because I'm overseas. I've hearing good things about "24"...

Rik

3 comments:

Ed said...

Sideways was the last major motion picture that I have liked too. It has been a long dry season for good movies. I rented the Aviator a week ago and thought it was absolutely horrid. I'm anxiously waiting for the release of Million Dollar Baby because everyone has been raving about it. Star Wars was pretty good but I think I say that because the last two were awful and it was after all, the last one... at least for a long long time.

So, like you, I have gone to some small independent films and have had some limited success there but because they are small and independent, I always forget their name just about as soon as I hit the off button.

Rik said...

ED - We nevergo to movies on base here as we get them months after they come out and military movie theaters suck anyway. I was lucky enough to be able to see the new Star Wars (twice) in English while in Rome last month.

ethib - Yeah we watched that one a few months ago. I usually like quirky, off-kilter films like that, but I thought that one was just ok. However, that dance he does at the end was well worth the price of the rental alone. That was so damned funny I almost peed myself.
I have a feeling that if I watched ND a few more times I'd probably start to like it even more..."Vote For Pedro". He's got your back.

Rik

Anonymous said...

Napoleon Dynamite, now what can I say about this movie...

it scared me, reminded the Gringo and myself about his boy Caleb, he was the one who told us about it, but perhaps our stay in Europe has rubbed american humour out of us, but we just didnt find anything funny about it.
First thing we have to do when we get to the states is have a good long talk with the boy and his choice of movies.

you are right, there are no good movies around. Even the war of the worlds was a disappointment. Doug says it was true to the original novel but the effects could have been better.