Yesterday was what I'd call a refreshing day. Refreshing in that, I stayed away from the news (except for the occasional peek into the Thai soccer team cave situation), and we went to a wedding and watched a couple of movies - one and a half, actually.
The news has been so dire lately, that I've gotten to the point of shutting the noise out. I'll take a quick peek at headlines to make sure we're not at war with a former ally yet and then close the page. It's amazing what's happened to the notion of what leadership in this country should be and how that notion is supported by a growing minority of Americans. A seismic shift is happening, that's for sure. But I'm tired of the noise from it.
So we went to a wedding. Nothing can pick you up faster than seeing two folks exchange their vows and being surrounded by a lot of other happy folks. I may start looking for random weddings to go to. Yesterday's wedding was nothing short of a reunion of Emo's folks from the early to mid-90s. Great to see everyone; truly heartwarming. And the couple had everyone fed at Opie's BBQ afterward. What a great touch; a filling one, too. Michelle and I had planned to go to the second party celebrating the wedding, but we just couldn't make it there. We did make it out of the house with about an hour to go but ended up driving back home. We were both tired from earlier, and she had gotten home from work at about four in the morning, so it just wasn't in the cards. Time to stay home and grow into the couch a bit. We watched a couple of movies - one we finished, one we didn't.
The first movie ("Sunshine Cleaning") I can't comment on much, as we didn't finish it. I think I'll probably finish it at some point, but it seemed fairly predictable what was going to happen. Maybe I'll be surprised later. I think Michelle's done with it, though.
The second one was "The 'Burbs," a movie both of us had heard good things about. Man......oh, man.....it's a mess. We were determined to finish it, though, and we did. There's something about studio movies produced in the 80s that just rubs me the wrong way, and this one was no exception. As I have commented to others, there's a reason I've only seen "Gremlins" once. Joe Dante is a guy who I find fairly invaluable to movie preservation, and his comments on the Trailers from Hell site and other forums are always welcome. He's a fountain of information and coming up through the Corman finishing school, as he did, he knows what he's talking about. That being said, I'm not a huge fan of a lot of his output....at least his "hey, I have a budget!" output. I dig "Piranha" and love his two Masters of Horror episodes, but his 80s output after "The Howling" leaves me, not just cold, but kind of pissed off. (Come to think of it, I'd better watch "The Howling" soon, it's been awhile. Maybe I'll have a different take? Yeesh.)
I'm a lot easier on movies than a lot of folks I know, but this flick sucks. Period. Tom Hanks can't even save it, and he's his usual charming self. Carrie Fisher, as his wife, has nothing to do. Nothing. His neighbor, played by Rick Ducommon, and the plot driver, is annoying, and not in any sort of interesting way. Bruce Dern plays the crazy (surprise!) veteran neighbor with a young, hot wife. Corey Feldman lives in one house with.....nobody else? I wasn't clear on that. He's sort of the Greek chorus for the film, I've been informed, and I think that's true, but he has almost no function even if he is a Greek chorus. Except to have bad "Hollywood Rock n Roll" hair and clothes.
I think the problem with this movie is this: the stem of it is a good idea....almost a "Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" riff.....but then too many not-so-good and just flat out ill-informed ideas (Feldman) are shoved into it, to the point that the whole isn't remotely believable. And, if you don't have a believable base to start with, what's the point of having fantastic happenings? So, there's that, and......aah, the whole fucking thing ended up annoying me. There was a point about 30 minutes into the movie that I thought things were looking up, and then you have a scene that is a figurative brick wall for the movie. It stops cold for ten minutes, at least. You can see the intent of tension on the screen, but it just does not work. Period. And the movie's all downhill from there. I kept thinking maybe Carrie Fisher's character might expand toward the end. Nope. Not a bit. Joe, I look forward to seeing you more on Trailers from Hell.
Wait, I said I was refreshed yesterday! Well, I was....even if a movie was bad (ha ha!)....maybe the end of "Sunshine Cleaning" will surprise me.
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