Sunday, June 24, 2007

The Dogs of Summer

I can't remember the last time that a summer roster of movies has left me so unimpressed. I have not felt the slightest urge to see any of the 3's that have filled multiplexes so far. I'm even more disappointed that two directors whom I used to respect, Sam Raimi and Steven Soderbergh, have become so enwrapped in the Hollywood love affair with the blockbuster that they have stopped pushing their talents and forgotten the risk-taking that produced such classics (to me, anyway) as Army of Darkness and The Limey.

One movie I am looking forward to is Pixar's Ratatouille. Its director, Brad Bird, was the guiding force behind The Incredibles, a movie that was so right on so many levels, yet so different from other Pixar triumphs as Toy Story and Finding Nemo. The only problem with watching Ratatouille here is that I will probably have to make a 180-mile round trip to see it in a decent theater, since the local theater owner automatically puts any movie remotely classifiable as kids' fare on a screen that is insufficiently lit, with a monaural sound system to boot, on the grounds, I suppose, that the kids won't care about the conditions.

Bring on the rats.

5 comments:

Harry said...

I've been reading you for a few days, including some archived posts, and I enjoy your sensibilities and choices of subject.

I agree with you about the lame summer movies. Along those lines, you might be intersted in my post about Spider-man 3.

Keep up the good work!

Eric Little said...

Thanks! I enjoy your posts as well, and have commented on a couple already.

Harry said...

I'm so glad you mentioned your previous comments, which I missed. Blogger alerts me by sending emails, but for some reason, yours got caught by my spam-filter (which is set on steel-trap -- though others' comments have gotten through...). So sorry not to respond before. I've done so now, on my site.

Adam Thornton said...

Aww, it's nice to see bloggers get together!

Eric Little said...

Muffy, we have you to thank for that!