But nowhere did I realize how much I would fit in with my then future in-laws more than in December of ’05. Clelyn and I went and saw a movie with her dad while visiting Little Rock for the holidays, and afterwards we were leaving to go hang out with some friends. As we were walking out of the movie theatre and towards the exit, her dad careened towards and into another theater.
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| Homer & I both love popcorn & double features |
Me: “What’s he doing?”
Clelyn: “Oh, he’s just doing a double-feature.”
Me: “Whoa.”
The next morning at breakfast he told us that he saw not a double-feature, or a triple-feature, but a quadruple-and-a-half-feature. 10 straight hours of film accompanied by a refillable large popcorn and coke.
Now this is a family that I knew I had to be a part of.
Anyway, in the spirit of the Chapin family, we try and catch a double-feature every once in a while. On Saturday we saw Easy A followed by The Town. Easy A is probably my favorite teen comedy since Superbad, but it’s a completely different type of comedy. As far as comparisons go, it’s much more along the lines of Clueless and Mean Girls—satire on the politics of high school social life. Emma Stone is hilarious and has more than enough chops to carry the film, but it doesn’t hurt that Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci play her parents, and all-but steal every scene they are in. You can bet this film will be a big hit and have lasting impact.
The Town is the type of movie that makes me wish I didn’t ever talk about movies with other people, or constantly read about/analyze film on the web. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was a really solid film. But everyone I talk to thinks it’s the best crime movie since _________________ (insert whatever hyperbolic comparison you wish, ranging anywhere from The Departed to Mystic River to Pulp Fiction). And others have already handed it the Best Picture envelope. Anyway, the point is that it is a really high-quality heist film that is well-directed by Ben Affleck (in his second effort), and features an incredible ensemble cast (highlighted by the amazingly evil Jeremy Renner), but that’s ALL it is—a good, solid heist film. I’d venture to say that it’s not even as good as Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck’s directorial debut), which had at its center quite a bit more substance than The Town—it was morally and ethically ambiguous in a way that The Town wasn’t (not that it didn’t try), and moreover, it did a better job at representing all the different layers of Boston society. Having said all of that, The Town is definitely an entertaining flick worth seeing, and I really wish my enjoyment of it hadn’t been curbed by people freaking out about how amazing it is; but I guess that’s really my own fault.
All in all, great Saturday at the movies.
(Note: this blog post in no way condones theft of any kind. Any person seeing more than one movie in a row should obviously pay for both tickets, even if that person was gouged up the rear by popcorn and/or coke by paying upwards of 5,000% of its value.)
2 comments:
You don't call it theft when you ride more than one roller coaster at six flags. Obviously once you have paid for admission to the theater you are entitled to all of the rides.
Anonymous could not have stated it more clearly.
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