[As usual, there are spoilers head, so if you haven’t seen these movies, then skip along.]
Date Night
My wife and I have pretty different tastes in movies and entertainment, and romantic comedies are one of the few genres we can enjoy together. Sure, I usually grit my teeth and roll my eyes during most of them, but I tolerate them out of love. That’s what marriage is all about kids!
We watched Date Night with Steve Carrel and Tina Fey, which probably would have been awful without those two starring in it, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Marky Mark Wahlberg’s character made me laugh and any movie with outtakes always scores a few points in my book. Good comedies are so rare these days, that when I stumble on one that’s “pretty good,” I’m happy.
Kull the Conqueror
I did a bad, bad thing — I watched Kull the Conqueror. I had heard nothing good about this movie, but it was a sword and sorcery movie based on Robert E. Howard’s work, so how bad could be? When I saw Tia Carrera’s name in the credits, I should have known how painful the ride was going to be. Karina Lombard was quite fetching, as always, but her presence wasn’t enough to save this dreck. The fight scenes were entertaining and the plot wasn’t horrible, but I just could not get past the TV-movie quality of acting and giant mullet on the bad guy.
Okay, if you haven’t seen this movie, here’s a BIG spoiler: Kull defeats the big evil monster at the movie’s climax by kissing it. Yep. Full on tongue action is how you defeat a giant demon dragon thing. Ack!
This movie set out to be campy, and it was but not in a good way. A good campy movie is one you want to watch again.
Inglourious Basterds
I’ve been waiting a long time to watch this movie. I wanted to be in the right frame of mind to truly take it all in and savor it, and i’m glad i did because this movie was amazing.
I know it has its haters and a lot of people found it boring, but I was riveted to every bit of German/French/Italian/English dialogue. I wasn’t prepared to be reading so many subtitles but the use of the native tongue increased the tension ten-fold. Movies like this have scenes that you will never forget.
It wasn’t my favorite Tarantino movie, but Christolph Waltz was mesmerizing and Brad Pitt’s performance made me laugh out loud. From the trailers, you would think the entire movie was about Pitt’s crew killing Nazis, but that is so far from the truth that I can see why some people were disappointed.
It’s kind of strange because I found a lot of the Tarantino trademarks to be distracting. The use of typography and a narrator was unnecessary, but I guess he had to do it. I can see why a lot of Tarantino fans didn’t like this movie since it was a far cry from Kill Bill or Pulp Fiction, but I for one, enjoyed it wholeheartedly.
Hot Tub Time Machine
Never let it be said that I don’t have eclectic tastes. I’m ashamed to admit how many times I laughed out loud watching this movie, mainly due to the iconic 80’s references. It probably didn’t hurt that I’m the same age as the stars in the film, and have “similar” memories of that mythical era. Seeing the Kid ‘n Play hairdo on Craig Robinson’s character made Coke come out my nose (and it burned). This certainly isn’t a thinking man’s comedy, but I’ve never been accused of being a thinking man. There are a few cringe-inducing scenes I could do without, but overall it was a lot of fun. Crispin Glover stole the show.
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Okay, I’ve publicly admitted to watching Kull the Conqueror and enjoying Hot Tub Time Machine in a single week. Now it’s your turn. Be honest, who cried when Old Yeller got shot? (Bonus points if you recognize that quote.)
It’s from Stripes of course. 😀
That is a pretty eclectic line-up you’ve set for yourself. Hot Tub Time Machine is funny as hell (love doubling that up with Pineapple Express)! Haven’t seen Date Night yet…I guess it couldn’t be any worse than Kull (*burn*). Hahaha.
Yeah, I’ll pretty much watch anything once. Your Pineapple Express/Hot Tub Time Machine double header sounds like a pretty grand idea. 😉
Kull looks terrible. And not “good terrible” either. Just TERRIBLE.
Inglorious Basterds was awesome and I expected to not like it. My favs were also Brad Pitt’s Aldo Rayne and Waltz’s awesome Nazi.
HTTM was hilarious. Crispin Glover was good, but I really enjoyed Rob Corddry’s reactions whenever he thought the arm was going to come off. Corddry nearly stole the entire movie. Oh, and how about that cameo by William Zabka? I loved Hot Tub Time Machine.
I totally missed Zabka when I watched this! Now I have to watch it again. 😉
I loved all the references to 80’s classics like Red Dawn and Back to the Future.
I think, for me, the problem with Inglourious Basterds was that it actually turned out to be a really good movie. I went in expecting it to be all the Bear Jew, and Nazi Killing, which would have been awesome, but half way through, it hit me that I was watching some kind of art.
I think I was waiting for some kind of big punchline at the end, but ultimately what I got was just a pretty solid story told interestingly and I hate that. The less plot in my movies, the better.
Also, it could have used *at least* three more ninjas. And a dinosaur. With a Gatling gun.
HAHAHA! Chris, you nailed this one on the head! We were all expecting dinosaurs and ninjas but got an art film. awesome.
Yeah, it was a shame.
This is the movie I really wanted to see:
http://thebigtoyauction.com/images/Better_Movie_Poster.jpg
Oh well, maybe next time, Tarantino.
Epic! That poster is better than every other movie poster I’ve seen this year!
Inglorious Basterds is my favorite movie, I’ve watched it too many times to count. Til Schweiger and Christoph Waltz are great, but August Diehl breaks out as the SS Major in the tavern shootout scene. Great movie!
Yeah, I’m already itching to watch this one again. I’ve been remembering scenes from it all week.