Movie Reviews

Nothing much to write about so far this year. We had a very safe and sane New Year's Eve and a day as usual on New Year's Day. I went golfing and played so bad that I'm giving it up . . . again . . . for however long it takes to get my sanity and my health back. That left me with a weekend that was pretty usual. I worked till noon on Saturday, then went to Ace to switch the cart for the car. Then on to Harkins to see a movie. I'm way behind in the flicks I want to see. There were others I'd rather have seen, but I knew Rosalie wanted to see them as well. So I went to Sherlock Holmes. Probably more good than bad, but certainly not great. The best thing about it was the portrayal of turn-of-the-century London. London in all its majesty as well as all its muck and grime. Robert Downey and Jude Law made for an unusual pair as Holmes and Watson. Much different than most viewers would expect, much younger and seemingly more given to brawn than brains. The action was exciting and implausible, and there were way too many scenes in which people were walloping on other people, making it look as though everyone can take such wallops with no physical effect, sort of like in the old Westerns where the sound alone of fist to face should have knocked someone into a coffin but never did, in fact no one ever seemed to lose a hat. And there you have it, the good and the bad. It was a movie I will soon forget.

And today, since I was not golfing with my regular group, we went to see Avatar. This one, like Mel Gibson's Braveheart and Apocalypto, I will probably never forget. Avatar and Apocalypto are both memorable more for the special effects and the fascinating settings than for the stories. Also, Avatar was my first experience with 3-D since the very old days of my youth when we had to wear really silly little cellophane glasses to watch really bad 3-D effects. The world James Cameron envisioned and then created was fabulous. The moral lessons were a little too overstated, the battle scenes at the conclusion a little too violent and silly. But was it a movie everyone should see? Yes, a hearty yes.