I am over my disappointment with I Am Legend. Yeah, I know quick huh. But the reason for that is the promotions for Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story have increased and I am getting psyched for it. It is just what I need to get over the Holiday Blues, and relax a little from all the stress that comes with all the work you have to do for Christmas and New Years; shopping, decorating, coordinating who is visiting who and on what day. It’s a mock biopic like Anchorman or Taladega Nights, only instead of Will Ferrell, it stars famed character actor John C. Reilly as the Johnny Cash spoofed Dewey Cox. I feel Reilly is the perfect choice for this role, even though it looks like a film tailor made for Ferrell. Ferrell would have made the character too arrogant and smug. Reilly brings just the right amount of boneheaded sincerity and likeability to the part. My favorite scene from the trailers so far is his duet that begins, “In my dreams you’re blowing me….some kisses,” which he sings with a perfectly straight face. That pause really sells the joke. The 21st can’t come soon enough.
Archive for December, 2007
I know a couple of posts ago I had said I would not being seeing I Am Legend this weekend, but was going to see What Would Jesus Buy. The unpredictable Ohio weather put the kibosh on that idea. A huge winter storm moving in made going to the nearest art theater, in Cleveland, a dicey proposition, so I opted instead to go to the local multiplex only ten minutes away and see Will Smith in the early morning before the storm hit. Going by the title you know I didn’t come away with a good impression. I should say right off the bat that the first half is good solid sci-fi/action/horror entertainment that you come to expect from this kind of film. Will Smith is a scientist who discovers a cure for cancer that ends up turning everyone into zombie/vampires except himself. During the day he visits a DVD store, hunts for food (the running gag of him constantly trying to catch a deer goes on way too long), and holding conversations with his dog Sam and various store mannequins he has set up around town. He spends his nights locked up in his apartment working on a cure as the zombie/vampires try to get in to eat him. All well and good, you have a little action, some humor and a main character dealing with lots and lots of guilt. Then in the second half he meets two young survivors who are heading for a colony they have heard is located in Vermont and the characters start debating whether it is real or not, whether there is hope for humanity, and God’s will. All of which leads to a heavily contrived ending to explain the title that is both sad and uplifting at the same time, ripped off whole cloth from The Omega Man. My problem with this you can’t have it both ways. You can’t make a thought provoking film with a down beat ending and shoehorn in a mindless action film everything is okay wrap up right next to it. You have to go with one or the other.
I don’t know about anyone else, but for me the best time to go to the movies is in the morning, right when they first open. I usually frequent the Regal multiplex just outside Akron, and the morning showings at this one are great for two reasons. One, almost no one goes to the theater that early in the morning, especially in winter, so you practically have a private showing without worrying about being bothered by rude people, and let’s be honest here, you are free to be rude yourself by not being quiet. Second, the Regal has great coffee and at the first showing it’s fresh. I know what you are saying. Who goes to the movies and gets coffee. I do now. A large coffee is about the same size as a small pop, and is also about half the price. Plus the Regal carries Cinnabons. Why that’s practically breakfast right there. Though to be honest I’ve skipped getting the pastries as I am trying to lose weight so I can fit more comfortably into a theater seat, the only chair thinner than a theater seat is a plane seat. The early morning show is how I saw Transformers, Shoot’em Up, and Grindhouse, though I did have to run out for a bathroom break and a second cup of coffee on that one, man is it a long film. It’s also how I’ll probably see I Am Legend and Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I did do an evening show for Enchanted, but as that was a date night event with the wife I’m sure it doesn’t count.
