Last weekend

I’ve been meaning to write this since last weekend, but I’ve been busy, procrastinating, and gone. Anyway I’m doing it now. Last weekend I went to see 3 movies. Well one was on Friday and one on Monday, but it was all centered around the weekend. May seems to be the month of movies this year. I managed to see “Next” and “Hot Fuzz” with my brother, but I had to see “Spiderman 3” by myself. I’ll ramble on about them after the link.

I saw “Next” on Friday, since SIII would have been way to full. It only got a 30% on RT, but I will usually go see a movie down to about 20% if I think the idea has promise. As I’ve said before, I enjoy watching the thought process behind the movie plot and much as I like watching the actual movie. “Next” is based loosely on “The Golden Man” by Philip K. Dick. I don’t think it deserved the 30% though. I was seeing it as more of a 40%, not good but not bad either. With Nicholas Cage you can never be sure about a movie, but Jessica Biel confirms B movie status. Although she did help keep eyes glued to the screen. In this one Cage has the ability to see two minutes into the future and see all possible outcomes of his decisions in those two minutes. A nuke has made its way to US shores and a federal agent believes that Cage can find it for them. As one critic said Biel proves her acting skills by almost making you believe she is seduced by Cage, 18 years her senior. Yeah. Well the ending of the movie really stuck as harking back to the short story’s origins in the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Having read some short stories from that time it strikes me as a very likely ending for the story as portrayed on the screen.

Later I went to see “Hot Fuzz.” RT has it at 89%, and I dare say it’s worth all of it. It’s made by and starring the same people responsible for “Shaun of the Dead,” which coincidentally also got 89% on RT. That’s just one jolly good time right there. Simon Pegg plays Nicholas Angel a cop that is just too damned good at his job. His fellow officers in London get fed up with him making them all look bad, so he gets promoted and sent to the quiet village of Sandford. Once there a series of accidents causes him to begin seeing a huge conspiracy behind the near perfect facade of Sandford. It’s just great fun, and it’s British.

Then I went to see “Spiderman 3” on Monday. It got a 61% on RT. I would say that’s about a fair assessment, but I probably would have given it a 70%. It’s not as good as the first one or the second one. Not really form an acting standpoint, or a plot standpoint. It’s like they tried to do a little too much in the movie. I have been told that Venom was kind of forced on the writer, which kind of shows. He seems to be tacked on a little more. I also heard they wanted to to be 2 movies, but the studio overrode that decision. That also seems plausible. Raimi seems to have done the best he could with the short time and huge number of plot points he had to make. The problem I had is that the character development in this one is lacking. You don’t spend and lot of time with the new villains to get to know them. So to make up for that some of the character building scenes are heavy handed and hammer the point home with one hard blow rather than taking many soft blows. These also make the movie seem like it lurched forward all of a sudden. A scene would change and it would move the action straight forward. I was expecting a short character building, tender moment but got dumped into the next big plot point. I’m hoping the director’s cut will be better, but I don’t know. I’m also hoping that if they do a 4^th one that Raimi and the writer can point to the bad reviews and press and get more control back. But the bean counters will say, “Look at all the money we made on it though.” Ug. You should still watch it though. That is if you liked the first two.

So in closure, rent Next if you like stories like that, Go see Hot Fuzz now and buy the DVD when it comes out, and go see Spiderman 3 if you liked the first 2, but you may want to see it at matinee. I can’t believe I had to shift a Spidey review to an almost matinee view. Anyway I am going to post some more stuff soon I hope.