Friday, April 2, 2010

Oscars and Razzies

Several award winning movies are out there right now that I'd love to see. I recently saw Sandra Bullock's award winning performance in 'The Blind Side' On Demand at the home of my pet client de jour. I've seen 'Up in the Air' which I found better than expected and thought provoking.

I haven't seen most of the other winners, though. I'd still like to view 'Avatar' (in 3D, of course), 'Precious' (also listed On Demand right now), and 'The Hurt Locker'. 'An Education' and 'Young Victoria' are other notable films that warrant a visit.

Although it's gotten mixed reviews by friends, I'd like to see "Alice in Wonderland" at the IMAX. One friend said it was a fun, entertaining and a great movie, another said he walked out on it. Very mixed reviews.

There are lots of great movies to choose from right now. So what, pray tell, possessed a group of educated and savvy urban women to fork over $10.50 each to see 'The Bounty Hunter' last Saturday night? We chicks just wanted to indulge in a light, romantic comedy. Something predictable and easy on the eyes. Apparently, we weren't in the mood for the Oscar films that night, a.k.a. the worthy films. We were in classic chick flick mode and figured this one would be fun and entertaining.

We aren't a bunch of stupid broads by any means. We knew full well going into this movie that it wouldn't be any Oscar nominee. And we even were pretty sure it might be kinda bad. We had no idea, however, just how bad. It was baaaad. It was beyond bad. If it weren't for the fact that I was with other people, and one of those people was my ride home, I might have walked out. I never feel the urge to walk out of a movie. I always need to know how it ends. I've only recently been able to give myself permission to give up on a book I can't get into. I'm one of those optimistic sorts who is sure the plot will get better, something great is going to happen at the end, or there will be an interesting twist.

Our current book club book is just one of those books. "Rapt" by Winifred Gallagher argues that your life success is the sum of what you focus on. While the subject matter sounded interesting - Attention and the Focused Life- it felt like reading a text book. I've read text books that were less dry. I made it to page 35, but just couldn't ....well...focus. I jumped toward the end of the book to see if things seemed to pick up. They didn't. The book was due back to the library the other day. Rather than renewing the loan, I gave it back. I might be missing something, but I'll take that chance.

In many ways, I wished I'd given up on 'The Bounty Hunter'. Nearly two hours of watching Jennifer Aniston (who really is hot) run around in a skimpy outfit and 4" pumps like Erin Brachovich was exhausting. The acting was lame, the plot unbelievable, and the comedy non-existent. A "Razzie" nominee for sure.

You may be wondering, knowing my financial state, "why, why, why, WW, would you spend your limited hard earned dough on this trash"? Luckily I had a movie gift certificate, so it wasn't my own hard earned cash. However, I do feel a little guilty spending someone else's hard earned cash in such a careless and unappreciative manner.