Let's Go To The Movies

With peace finally coming to the Middle East (I mean it must be peaceful if all the 24 hour news networks can focus every waking moment on a decade old murder case), Tash & I decided to take some time off from child reaering (and work) to go on a date. So we dropped Malcolm off with his grandparents and trekked out to the theater.

When we didn't have a child, we'd go to the movies often. We'd trade off seeing things the other really wanted to see and mix it with things we both wanted to see. Now that we don't go as often, we're a bit more selective about what we do see on the big screen (well...the big screen is a bit of a misnomer as we saw Clerks II on a theater screen that is a bit smaller than the drop down we have at home). Here's a peak at our process:

Here is a list of what was playing on Friday August 18 in our theater-going area (not including things playing at local IMAX Theaters):

Zoom
Scoop
The Devil Wears Prada
World Trade Center
Little Miss Sunshine
Accepted
Material Girls
Snakes on a Plane
Pulse
Barnyard
The Decent
Miami Vice
You, Me and Dupree
Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Step Up
John Tucker Must Die
The Boyton Beach Club
An Inconvenient Truth
Wordplay
Monster House
The Night Listener
Little Man
The Ant Bully
Clerks II


So...let's look at how we came to decide what we saw. We eliminated things we had already seen (Clerks II, The Devil Wears Prada). We then eliminated kids films as we'll catch those on video where Malcolm may get some brief use out of them (so long to The Ant Bully, Monster House and Barnyard). Neither of us felt like seeing comedies from the current "hot" group of "young" comedians (so there'd be no You, Me and Dupree or Talladega Nights or Little Man). Since it was a date night, documentaries were out (Wordplay, An Inconvenient Truth) and Tash doesn't like horror films (Snakes on a Plane, Pulse, The Decent). We both agreed that while we wanted a fun film, we'd catch Pirates of the Caribbean on video like we did with the first one. Wanting a fun film also ruled out World Trade Center (which we both want to see) as well as Miami Vice and The Night Listener.

Now we're left with choices of:

Zoom
Scoop
Little Miss Sunshine
Accepted
Material Girls
Step Up
John Tucker Must Die
The Boyton Beach Club

Neither of us had any interest in Zoom, Material Girls, Step Up (in spite of Kevin Smith's thumbs up when substituting for Roger Ebert) or John Tucker Must Die.

Scoop has gotten mediocre reviews, so it's not "special" enough to warrant a potential theater-going experience.

We had no idea what The Boyton Beach Club was about.

So now we've got it narrowed down to Little Miss Sunshine and Accepted.

We both have an interest in seeing both films at some point. Little Miss Sunshine has that indie appeal we both like and has gotten loads of acclaim. Accepted looks like it could either be funnier than it has any right to be (like Eurotrip) or just terrible (like any other comedy we had already eliminated).

And the winner was...

Accepted (pretty much because Tash wanted to stop off at a store near a particular theater and Little Miss Sunshine wasn't playing at this theater -- even though it has 14 screens).

So...how was Accepted?

It was just what we needed. Sure, the plot is preposterous, but it was very funny (although not as funny as Eurotrip to give an example of another teen comedy of the last few years that looked like it could have been a stupid waste of time and thankfully wasn't).

Justin Long stars as Bartleby Gaines, a loser of a high school senior who has been rejected by all the colleges he applied to. To ward off the inevitable criticism from his parents, he fakes an acceptance letter from a fictional college (South Harmon Institute of Technology) and with the help of some friends (who have also been rejected from everywhere they applied) get another friend to fabricate a website to make it seem legit.

But then things get a bit out of control. Mom & Dad want to see the campus, so he uses the tuition money to rent a building (an abandoned mental institution that they renovate). Then his parents want to meet the dean, so they hire his friend's uncle. And then as a final complication, Bartleby and his friends discover that the website was made to look too legit as hundreds of students who have also been accepted (since acceptance is just a click away) show up for the first day of school

Can Bartleby keep the sham going without getting into real trouble? Will his friend Sherman join them in this endeavour or continue trying to fit in with the frats of a real college? Will the other college's dean get his way and but up the land that S.H.I.T. sits on to build the new entrance for the real school? Will Bartleby get the girl? (No, Yes, No, Of Course)

Sure the film was predictable, but it was fun in its own way. The cast is exteremly likable and very believable as kids who have no real direction (let's face it, Justin Long is almost 30 and he's still playing high school kids...if that isn't an example of not having a direction, I don't know what is). Lewis Black appears as Sherman's Uncle Ben who gets hired to be the Dean of S.H.I.T. and whenever he's on screen, the film becomes something else. What spends most of its time being something of a "lite" version of Animal House surprisingly becomes a biting commentary on the current state of the American educational system.

Fun and a message? What more could anyone ask for?

Maybe you don't need to rush out and catch this in theaters, but don't miss it on video.

So...what will catch in theaters next time? Since we don't know when that will be (aside from November 17 when Casino Royale opens cause there's no fucking way I'm not seeing a new James Bond film opening day in theaters), who knows what we'll choose that will cause people to look at us funny and think we've gone off the deep end (We had a chance to go to the movies and you saw ACCEPTED??)

I'll be back in a few days with some more reviews of DVDs.

Be seeing you.