The Movies

Frankly, I don't care if Daniel Day-Lewis gave the performance of the lifetime. There Will Be Blood sucked. Don't bother seeing it.

There was a trailer for some movie about two creepy guys that terrorize a family. People in the theater cheered for it, like it was going to be some cool movie, but it looked pretty awful. I wish I could remember the name of it -- something with the word fun in it. It looked pretty violent and depraved.

What makes people enjoy really messed up movies? I guess it could just be a matter of personal taste, or maybe it's that there's a certain novelty to a really terrible situation if it's on the big screen. You know, sort of a "woah, I never would have thought to do that" reaction. Maybe it makes people feel hardcore if they can stomach them, like roller coasters.

Don't get me wrong. I understand if it makes some sort of statement. I've discussed why I hate Fight Club, and I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone that I hate Pulp Fiction (actually, I think the statement in that one is often missed -- perhaps even by Tarantino), but, you know, there's some artistic and literary quality to both of those. There Will Be Blood was filmed well, written well, and well-acted, but it's pretty much just the story of someone's miserable life. People in the theater cheered when one character clubbed another to death. There really wasn't any reason to identify with either the clubber or the clubbee, either, so it's just like they were excited to see the blood they were promised.

As for that other movie, about those two creeps that beat up a family with golf clubs, yikes. The movie guy that talks over previews was using his funny voice for it. It wasn't funny at all. It would be like billing Hostel as a comedy. Or maybe like putting Saudi executions on America's Funniest Home Videos.

Yeesh. I'm not one to lose sleep over much of anything, but it took me a solid 45 minutes to get all of that crap out of my head and fall asleep peacefully.