A drought at the cinemas ... until, until

I was all ready to write a post about how there’s absolutely nothing of interest at the local bijoux to take myself to this week or next. 47 Ronin? Japanese historical adventure flicks don’t turn me on. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: I’ve never been a fan of these fantastical worlds not even in book form. Frozen is for kids even if it’s the “coolest” comedy-adventure and after this week’s Arctic blast who needs “eternal winter?” The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is part of what I consider a rip off (see Dec. 15 post) and likely inferior to the original as only a North American teenage classic can be. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty has more potential. Based on James Thurber’s famous short story it stars Ben Stiller, whom I’m getting a bit tired of. I think the 1947 version with Danny Kaye is likely a lot funnier. Danny Kaye was truly hilarious, not like today's comedians. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones? Ho-hum. Horror films are usually mediocre. And Rotten Tomatoes' 39 per cent approval just confirms that. Ok, I saw Anchorman and it was funny enough. But Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues? Perhaps it’s just me but I’m tired of the 1970's even send-ups of said decade. Which brings me to American Hustle, which has been getting pretty good reviews. But I don’t want to see 1970's era outrageous shirts, fluffy hair and wide collar jackets, and I’ve increasingly soured on period movies. There’s Grudge Match, also getting fair reviews. But this is a movie about has-beens starring has-beens, which seems to be the only role Robert De Niro gets these days. Sad. There’s Lone Survivor, a kind of Band of Brothers featuring Navy SEALs stuck in the Hindu Kush. Been there, done that if only through news headlines. If I was a kid I’d like Walking With Dinosaurs. If I had kids I’d probably take them to see it. Saving Mr. Banks is about the making of Disney’s Mary Poppins, so why didn’t they call it that? It has respectable Emma Thompson and Tom Banks but do I really want to see a movie about this? There’s The Wolf of Wall Street. It’s promising and directed by the respectable Martin Scorsese. But it’s this decade’s version of The Bonfire of the Vanities. And I’m so tired of movies attacking Wall Street and what (rich) filmmakers believe  the American way of capitalism. 

And then, and then, I open the online newspaper today and what do I see? I almost fell over when I saw three decent films opening ALL IN ONE WEEKEND AND ALL IN WINDSOR. It’s positively unheard of, at least in recent years at the big boxes!….. There’s Spike Jonze’s Her, featuring Joaquin Phoenix and current flavour of the month Amy Adams. Now this is a movie I could sink my virtual teeth into since it’s about a man’s over the top love affair with our increasingly over the top hi tech world. And Phoenix is in it, worth seeing for that reason alone. ….Also, there’s Inside Llewyn Davis by the Coens but which I already saw in Detroit (Dec. 23 post), and August: Osage County, with the star-stunning cast led by Meryl Streep but which strikes as a tour de force of family anger and angst, and so I will probably take a pass, thank you very much.