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.
