Quick Thoughts on Two Movies

I went for a couple of movies over the past week. The first one was Knocked Up and the other one, Ocean's Thirteen.

I kinda liked Knocked Up. It had everything you could ask for from your average summer romantic comedy. The chance encounters of the boy and girl. The stark contrasts in their respective lifestyles. The comic timing and the goofs. The innocent naughtiness of Seth Rogen. The confused cuteness of (Grey's Anatomy's) Katherine Heigl. Some funny moments interspersed with stoned clownish looking people who had 'pink eyes' from inhaling too much fart particles. And the satisfyingly happy conclusion. I liked it because it reminded me a bit about Nine Months, but not too much that I would start complaining about the similarities. I was smiling when I came out of the hall, just as I would have after watching much of the romantic comedies that I liked.

What I didn't get was America going ga-ga over it. Well. Even that I could get myself to accept. What was more surprising was IMDB's rating of an 8.5. And as if that was not enough, Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer showed an astonishing 91%. This kind of a stamp of approval from two relatively respectable sources can sometimes be unnerving. I am not trashing the movie. (Remember I said I liked it?)

Just that some other movies I thought were really good weren't really that high on the Meter. Oh well, time will level them out. And anyway, my kind of a comedy is generally more the absurdist and black humor types. Of the likes of The Big Lebowski, Lock Stock, Snatch and Dr. Strangelove. Go watch them if you haven't.

The other movie that I watched was Ocean's Thirteen. I liked Ocean's Eleven. I believe most of you might have liked it. Great plot, an almost perfect cast and great fun. Twelve was a let down because it was over the top. (But then many of you might say it was meant to be that) You know a movie is both, over the top and not fun, when it tries to be smart on you.

Anyway, Thirteen was in between the two and as van Kalip would say, the producers tried to play safe. The plot was kept simple, no major twists as such and the laughs were kept at a minimum. This was probably my main gripe. I also felt short changed at the lack of use of Al Pacino. There wasn't any brilliantly engineered heist plan. And we saw very little of Danny Ocean here. Actually we saw very little of every one.

I wasn't too let down by the movie due to my relative low expectations (I did have a bit of fun), but I think I agree with IMDB and RT on this one.

Anyhow, go watch both of them, before Steve Carrell with his Evan Almighty comes to a cinema near you trying to build an ark. I am loving summer time (and student's discount on tickets) in the US.