movies and more

Did I already mention going to see The Break-Up while we were at the beach? Probably not, because it really is hardly worth mentioning. Not a bad way to spend two hours or so of an evening--Judy Davis and John Favreau are especially delicious--but I really wanted more about real estate and less stupidity about relationships. That is, the Aniston and Vaughn characters are supposedly breaking up because he's a selfish boor--and that is so well-established in the first few minutes that you're with Jennifer, agreeing with her as she enumerates the reasons she just can't do it anymore--but then she changes her mind, and not just because they share a fabulous condo. It's one of those relationships that works only for mysterious reasons--they really seem to have nothing in common--and so when it stops working that makes total sense. It would have been much funnier if the break-up had been real, if they had both really wanted to break up, but they couldn't give up the real estate. As Caroline said, they were acting like they were in their twenties when they were obviously not, and that made the whole thing just fall apart in places. Oh well. As I said, John Favreau=very funny.

Then this last weekend we went to see Cars, which I didn't hate. I even liked some parts of it--especially Paul Newman parts--but overall I found it predictable and a bit tedious. There's just something a bit weird about glorifying the open road, Route 66, automobile travel, in an age of global warming and gas shortages, don't you think? And then there's an interesting critique of corporate America (="Dinoco," a fuel company), except it turns out that really Dinoco is run by a big-hearted Texas oil man who values loyalty and friendship above winning. Yeah, right.

OK, so I'm cynical and jaded and I overthink my entertainment. But really, when my entertainment asks me to think and then wants me to stop thinking, all in two hours, I get annoyed.

The best part of Cars is the closing credits where a bunch of Pixar hits from the past are recast with cars. That was genius, well worth staying in the theatre and annoying the people trying to get out and go on to the next thing.

I'm ranting over at LiteraryMama today as well, this time about kids' books by celebrities.