Movie Time

OMG! My days are out of whack. I seriously feel like I’m losing my marbles here. I have been in and out of town so much this past month, I feel like any sort of normal routine has abandoned me.

That stress vented, I guess I can discuss the two (!) movies I saw last week. I normally don’t catch two movies at the theater in a single week, but I had two movie dates with two different friends on back to back days, so it just sort of happened. I guess I could have tried to consolidate dates/friends, but I think it would have been a weird combination, so…

SUPER 8

Going in, I felt about Super 8 the way I initially felt about District 9 (it didn’t seem like my kind of thing, but a lot of people said it was good, so…). Anyway, I loved it. I would recommend it to anyone. It’s about this group of kids in the 70s who get together to make monster movies, and who, while filming one night, encounter a real-life monster. The crazy kid antics make it feel like The Goonies, and the monster stuff is just the right amount of suspenseful. Let’s call it a quality summer blockbuster.

BAD TEACHER

This was funny in a different way than I expected. It’s the one where Cameron Diaz is AWFUL middle school teacher who is trying to marry money so she can quit her job. Her opportunity comes along in the form of secretly wealthy substitute teacher (?) Justin Timberlake, who she has to woo away from her rival, “perfect” teacher, Amy Squirrel (played by Lucy Punch). I thought it was going to be all dirty jokes, but it was more awkward characters being awkward a la SNL. A lot of parts were pretty funny, but several parts weren’t, so conclusion: funny, albeit uneven. Also, somebody in my theater brought their toddler (?!), and everyone knew it because the toddler kept making sounds that I translated to mean: I find this R-rated comedy distasteful. I wish I could leave, but alas, I’m not in control of anything I do so I will continue to make loud, disruptive sounds.

Verdict: Go see Super 8 while visiting your fam. It’s good summer fare, and there’s something in it for everyone. Netflix Bad Teacher when you’ve got a free Friday night (and a bottle of wine) this fall.

Did anybody else see these? Do you agree? Seriously, we’ll battle it out.