Recent movie viewing

I guess I watch movies from time to time, but it doesn't seem to be a major part of my life, which is presumably why there isn't much discussion of such topics here on Montifax. So, in a break with tradition, I having been thinking that there are two movies that I watched recently that I might like to briefly discuss.

For no reason other than for simplicity's sake, I will go in the order in which the movies were viewed.

On Tuesday evening all four of us attended a Dalhousie Alumni Association organized pre-release screening of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Given the timeliness of the screening (that it occurred before the movie's official release) made the event rather popular. As we suspected that this would be the case we showed up about an hour before the movie was to start. Amazingly, even as early as we arrived we still had to rush to get four seats together.

After some amazingly bad Dal Trivia and a short promotional video about a Dal program we made our way onto the more traditional pre-movie fare, meaning the previews. Most of the previews weren't particularly enticing, but one stood out from the crowd as particularly ridiculous. The trailer was for the movie Sherlock Holmes. The problem stemmed from the fact that the movie doesn't seem to have much to do with any of the Sherlock Holmes stories, the main connection seems to be the names of the characters. I don't imagine that I will be making an effort to see this film in the theatre when it is eventually released.

Anyway, I guess I might get on to the actual movie. While this installment in the series again sticks to the main plot points, I felt that really skimmed the surface more than the other movies. I guess my overwhelming sense of the film was that they were racing as quickly as possible to the end, which was less of an end than a set-up for the movies based on the final book. Much of the texture and feel of the experience was just abandoned, seemingly without much gain.

If one is into these movies it is likely that they have already seen it, if one isn't into these movies all that much, but expects to eventually see it, I would suggest that you wait for it on DVD (I just don't think that the theatre experience added that much). Anyway, it seems that my assessment, and other like it, aren't really all that important as the movie has already brought in millions of dollars, and we aren't even through the opening weekend. I guess this is just another sign that quality and box-office revenues are not always as tied to one another as one might hope.

On Wednesday, after running a few errands, Kirsten and I stopped by Video Difference to rent a movie. For some reason Kirsten wasn't particularly willing to involve herself in the search, so most of the responsibility for the selection fell to me. After a brief search we settled on Wet Hot American Summer, a movie that has been recommended by Jesse Thorn of The Sound of Young America and Jordan, Jesse, Go! several times.

Almost as soon as we started watching the movie, which pokes fun at summer camp movies (among other things), we found ourselves laughing quite aggressively. The portrayal of hormonally driven teenagers was particularly good (it seems all of the counsellors were making out with, or trying to make out with, their co-workers almost constantly). The intentional continuity issues were also great.

One of the aspects of the movie that I liked was that while there were elements of plot, it seems like a movie that one could just start watching at almost any point and still find it funny.

So in conclusion, high points for Wet Hot American Summer, and not-so-high points for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.