A Few Reviews

Some of my thoughts on things lately:

1. Batman Begins. I saw this last weekend. On the way to the theater my husband and I chatted briefly about how bad movies were lately. And even though I had heard that the new Batman was good, I was still expecting it to suck by my standards. It just seems as though all the movie-makers seems interested in lately is making the movie look good. Who cares about content; people dont think much now adays anyway. And that's what I expected from this movie. Yet I went anyway. Turns out, I was wrong. I really enjoyed the movie (even though I dont care for any of the other Batman movies). It had a good story line, and the visual effects appeared more realistic than the current trend creates them. I actually found myself thinking about half way through "wow, this is good, I'm actually enjoying it." Not something I think very often, especially with action movies. One negative... all the close-ups during the action scenes, it just makes me nausious, so I tend to zone out during them. All I need to know is who wins in the end, and that's when I start paying attention again. As for Katie Holmes... she seemed so insignificant when compared with the other oustanding actors that I really didnt even notice her much. Thank goodness.
2. The Office. I had watched the first American episode when it aired several months ago (but then stopped watching due to 24 conflicts I believe.) And while I enjoy dry subtle humor, I didnt really care to much for it. The scene where the boss pretends to fire the receptionist as a gag was painful to watch (I think that's what was supposed to make it funny though). But then I watched the original British series. So much better. There are still painful moments in it (just because at times I have a difficulty seperating fiction from reality... not just with this show, but in general, whenever I'm watching a movie or TV show). But there are some things in the show that are absolutely hysterical. I dont really think many of them are laugh out loud moments for most people, but they were for me. Some of my favorite things... The Tim and Dawn thing- so much better than Friends' Ross and Rachel thing. Keith- funniest guy in the whole show... I love the one where he fills out the paper for his job review. Garreth- not my favorite character, but boy did they do a good job of casting for that one. Tim- he's the only one who reacts to the strangeness of the people in his office. And often times the faces he makes at the camera are the same one's I'm making while I watch.
3. War of the Worlds. All I have to say about this is: If those aliens were supposedly studying earth for millions of years a) why didnt they just take over before humans evolved, wouldnt that have been much easier? b) how much "studying" did they really do if they managed to find out that they couldnt survive on the planet in the first place... humans or no. I mean I studying things more throughouly when I want to buy a new keyboard for my computer... let alone relocate my whole species. Oh yeah, one other thing I loved was the part where Tom Cruise and his daughter find shelter with the farmer in his basement. I love the fact that the first thing the farmer does is stop right next to a lantern just long enough so the audience can see his face and recognize that it's Tim Robbins. As if we are supposed to say "oh Time Robbins, this should be good." As for the rest of the movie... see the first half of what I wrote for number 1.
4. Grocery Shopping. Okay I know this has nothing to do with movies or entertainment of any kind, but I just got back from grocery shopping. Which is one of my least favorite things to do. But I'm convinced, especially now that it's summer break and there are more kids being dragged to the store with their mother, that grocery stores must produce some kind of painful ultra-high frequency that only kids can hear. And it must be so painful to have to listen to it that all a kid can do is scream. Not just cry... scream... at the top of their lungs... the entire time they are in the store. Those poor kids, why do parents force them to go through such torture.

So out of everything discussed above I would recommend the following: see Batman Begins and the British version of The Office; dont see War of the Worlds, or Bewitched for that matter (even though I havent seen it I can predict that it's not good), and above all, dont go grocery shopping.