Saturday Night at the Movies

I still haven't gotten around to signing up for Netflix, because I keep thinking I don't have enough time to watch the movies. Then we end up going to my father-in-law's place and realize that renting movies is a better option than depending on what's on television, so we stop and pick up something on the way there. The choice gets to be complicated because our tastes are so divergent that we have one heck of a time figuring out what to rent that at least one of us will truly enjoy and the others can at least tolerate.

We've learned that a certain narrow field of martial arts films works for all of us. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a prime example of what works, and Hero worked well enough. We need something with enough action to keep my father-in-law happy, enough plot/character to keep me happy, and enough artistically pleasing shot composition to keep my wife happy.

One of last weekend's rentals, Jet Li's Fearless, was a moderate success. It was no Crouching Tiger, but not much is. It's a good martial arts film if you like that sort of thing, but I wouldn't recommend it to a more general audience.

We also rented the western comedy Bandidas with Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek. Honestly, I didn't expect much of it, but I knew there'd be a visual element that would appeal to my father-in-law and I, and I hoped that the comedy would be executed well enough to keep my wife happy. She was actually the one who pulled it off the shelf as a suggestion. At the end of the film, she exclaimed "Cute!", so I'd call that a success, and a reasonably accurate one word review. I'd recommend it only to fans of the two lovely ladies starring in it or people who really enjoy watching bits with remarkably intelligent horses, but it's an inoffensive enough PG-13 movie for anyone who has to sit through it for the benefit of someone else who really wants to see it. It's the "buddy film" version of Cat Ballou.

Our third choice was a reach that didn't pay off. Ghost of Mae Nak was a Thai ghost story, also picked by my wife. It felt longer than the 103 minute running time, and I laughed out loud at some of the "scary" parts. Mystery Science Theater would've had a blast with this one. This is a shining example of why I need Netflix, which is so I'm not paying an individual price when we try something off the beaten path and it turns out badly. Highly not recommended.