At home in east TN this weekend, very little on the plate today except to see abovesaid movie this afternoon at 3:15 and then, as Mom and Dad are feeling the ill effects of colds, to probably order a pizza, pick 'er up, and take 'er home. (Did I just split an infinitive?)
I don't hold out a lot of hope for the new Indy, but it still might be enjoyable. I will go in with no expectations. I enjoyed the first three just fine. If this one holds true to form, it'll move so briskly I won't have time to think. What I remember about Lost Ark and Last Crusade in particular was how much fun the filmmakers were having with the Saturday-morning serial form, so if this new one can do that, I'll be fine.
Which leads me for no reason into the shameful admission that I laughed out loud while watching Anger Management. More than once. The movie's total bullshit, as are most Sandler joints, but he has the knack of eking out a genuine laugh or two. OK...and I laughed more than is healthy during Happy Gilmore, back in the day.
Sandler's movies strike me as very conservative and Republican--I mean the ones he produces and stars in. There's always a healthy level of hoo-ah male bonding, lots of sports, and always these groan-inducing "patriotic" moments like the Giuliani cameo in Anger Management, and Sandler's "You did the right thing!" Overall, the movies are also really shoddy in their character development and scene management. I remember being offended by that clumsy courtroom scene in Big Daddy, as well as the whole idea that a man who teaches a kid to urinate in public could conceivably make a good father.
The man has some acting chops, I think--or at least he can be convincing playing a certain kind of soft-spoken, warm-hearted guy who is seething inside (see Punch-Drunk Love, even parts of Spanglish). But the fatal flaw of Sandler productions is how, time and again, they hold up the Sandler type as misunderstood and thus admirable. At least in Anger Management he has Nicholson's even more raging character to eclipse him.
So to sum up: 1) at home this weekend; 2) going to see Indy; 3) going to eat pizza; 4) I've seen more Sandler movies than I care to admit.
2 comments:
A small confession...at one point in time, I had considerable stretches of dialogue from Billy Madison committed to memory. It's been several years since I've seen it, and I don't know if I could recite the lines verbatim if I were to watch the movie tomorrow, but the fact remains that I still own it on tape despite the fact that I got rid of 85-90 percent of my VHS collection when we moved, in the interest of conserving shelf space for stuff more likely to be used.
Billy Madison I have not seen. There must be some talismanic pull to it, though, if you still own it. :) Something about him squeezed into the schoolroom desk?
Maybe I protest too much about the Sandler persona; all the chicks seem to warm to it. He does come across as sweet and lovable, in a testosterone-ish way.
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