Okay, Kind Of
Posted on | September 14, 2008 at 1:16 pm | 5 Comments
Movie Review Sunday!
I know it seems like the girlfriend and I have been watching a lot of romcoms lately, but that’s sort of because of random happenstance. It’s not like we’re terribly interested in the genre more than others, although it does give us something we can more easily watch together. We have two ways of watching discs these days, since I don’t usually buy them any more. N checks stuff out of the library, where’s she got a hold list with a lot of stuff on it. I have my Netflix account, which I use for Blu-Ray discs and for movies we want to watch that have a long hold time at the library. So, we’re somewhat dependent on what the library coughs up, which we have to watch quickly because you can only have them out for like a week. We can have the Netflix discs out longer, so they tend to sit around a bit.
So, this week, Definitely, Maybe came in from the library. As one of the better reviewed romcoms from the past year, we were looking forward to it. The first thing that struck me about it is that it didn’t really put the “comedy” in “romantic comedy”, which also applied to Feast of Love, which I reviewed a few weeks ago. It was more of a drama with some comedic elements. The movie stars Ryan Reynolds as a guy just getting divorced, who has partial custody of his young daughter played by Abigail Breslin. The daughter wants to know the story of how her dad met her mom, so he tells her (most of the movie is in flashback), but mixes it up by telling the stories of his three major girlfriends, and lets the daughter figure out which one is her mother. (Obviously he had to leave out details like their real names and what they look like.) As usual with this sort of the thing, there’s that predictability hovering over everything. For example, early on there’s a big deal made about a certain book, and you just know that’s going to turn into a major plot point later in the movie. But the movie does entertain as the story winds itself around and in and out of the lives of these four characters, and it keeps you guessing about the identity of the mother and how the whole thing is going to wind up. And of course it has a happy ending that can only happen in the movies. (Spoilerish hint: The one he married was not the one he was meant to be with, and that gets rectified by the end.) Good movie, though I wished it was funnier, especially with such comedic talent as Ryan Reynolds, Isla Fisher, Elizabeth Banks, and Kevin Kline (playing an old drunken author). Oh, one additional beef: Some of the characters, especially those played by Reynolds and Fisher, didn’t appear to physically age much over the course of the 15 years or so in which the movie takes place.
The movie I watched on my own was the Netflixed Blu-Ray of Stargate: Continuum. This is the second of two direct-to-video movies tying up the loose ends from the canceled Stargate SG-1 TV show (I reviewed the first one, Ark of Truth, here.) This one is probably more entertaining to the longtime fans of the show, since it features appearances by some of the old time cast who were missing from Ark, including Richard Dean Anderson’s Jack O’Neill and the late Don S. Davis’s General Hammond, in what must be one of his last roles. Although neither of those gents have much screen time or much to do compared to the other folks. I was a little disappointed in the story, which brings back the loose ends involving Ba’al and the Goa’uld System Lords, a storyline that took a backseat in the final seasons of the show to concentrate on the Ori threat (tied up in Ark). What I didn’t like about the plot was that it was another time travel/alternate timeline/parallel Earth story, which we’ve seen dozens of times on this show as well as on so many other SF shows. C’mon guys, couldn’t you come up with something at least slightly new? In fact, the final SG-1 episode proper focused on time travel and alternate reality elements. If anything, it goes to show that they’re definitely running out of ideas for this franchise and it was a good idea to end it. Even the spinoff show Stargate: Atlantis has been canceled as of the end of this current season, although it is also getting a direct-to-video sequel or two also. And then there’s a new show forthcoming called Stargate: Universe, which sounds way too similar to the plot of Star Trek: Voyager for my liking. But anyway, Continuum was an okay way to wrap up the SG-1 plot threads, and the effects were better than the standard TV show episode, especially on Blu-Ray. It was good to see some old friends, and there was some emotional weight to the story here and there. I predict this won’t really be the last of the SG-1 movies though.
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 47°F) Still working my back up to the full route after the laziness hiatus. Also, it was drizzling today.
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Fair Winds And Flying Boats” (Bill Nelson)
- “Oh, Madalene” (The Oranges Band)
- “Never Believe” (Elf Power)
- “Soul Reactor” (The Connells)
- “Upside Down Frown” (They Might Be Giants)
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “running phobia of passing people while jogging”.
Comments
5 Responses to “Okay, Kind Of”
September 14th, 2008 @ 3:17 pm
I saw DefMay (without the sound) on a ferry crossing Lake Michigan (twice), and unless the dialogue is genius, the movie struck me as utterly annoying. First, Ryan Reynolds: I didn’t know who he was, but he struck me as Jason Chad McBland in this one. Second, that premise: in real life, that would be called “child abuse” of a sort…and I’m thoroughly sick of the sort of movie that gives to ten-year-olds the wisdom of the ages (you didn’t say, but it’s almost inevitable that something the girl did or said in McBland’s retelling of his romantic narratives allowed him to realize who the “right girl” was. Right?). Plus: the premise is uncomfortably similar to that of Mamma Mia which, in musical form, predated the movie, no?
September 14th, 2008 @ 5:26 pm
My theory about alternate dimensional story devices is that they’ve slipped into our universe’s timeline from a far distant realm where such cliche’d premises are actually revered as clever and innovative. And hot dogs eat people.
I hope there’s some top-secret organization dedicated to sealing the rift that this hacky crap comes in through, thus leaving our TV screens free for the truly creative writing that we all yearn for.
September 14th, 2008 @ 6:23 pm
The continuing success of everythinhg Stargate related baffles me. It must meed a need somewhere, but there seems to be such better stuff out there.
September 14th, 2008 @ 10:38 pm
The continuing success of everything Stargate related baffles me. It must meed a need somewhere, but there seems to be such better stuff out there.
It is kind of the lowest common denominator SF, and I resisted for a long time, only getting into it a few years ago. It did fulfill some kind of need, since there just aren’t a lot of “space” shows out there these days. And at least it’s reliable. I get a little tired of seeing 10 episodes of BSG and then having to wait a year for another 10.
And I would say it’s a “simple” show that doesn’t task the brain too much, except that it has years and years of backstory that only the most dedicated fan could hope to understand. I sure don’t.
I think the Stargate star is about to set though, witnessed by the relatively quick cancellation of both SG-1 and Atlantis. I doubt the new show will have as much of a following.
September 15th, 2008 @ 1:01 am
> It is kind of the lowest common denominator SF
Oohhhh, no no, there’s WAY lower denominators! The first 5-or-so seasons had a lot going for them, relative to what else is on American TV these days anyway. Too bad they did 3-4 more…