Spending the Summer Inside

Instead of being outside enjoying the last of the hundred degree weather or pouring down rain (HA!), I’ve spent the remainder of my summer in front of my TV. I recently watched:

“The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep” which was a pretty good family film in a restrained British way. Everyone was good, the CGI creature was very believable. And the script threw in a a little bit of conflict in the form of a priggish British officer. Not a bad way to spend a couple hours.

“Lars & The Real Girl” I watched this with my mother and although it’s odd, it is also a very good movie. Given the premise, there’s surprisingly little crude humor. The overall tone is quite sweet. Ryan Gosling does a wonderful job as the painfully shy “Lars”. Heck, everyone’s really good in this. Also, they do a remarkable job selling “Bianca” as a real person. When they got to her funeral, I was a lot more affected than I expected to be. All in all, this is an interesting premise executed very well.

“Chaos Theory” This was a impulse buy based on a trailer I’d recently seen. Amusing movie with quite a few twists. They did a nice little bit of past/future framing for the story. Ryan Reynolds was hilarious and moving as the main character. A funny movie about surprises and forgiveness in families. Not bad for a whim purchase.

“Resident Evil: Apocalypse" Caught this on Sci-Fi channel last night. I could not get through the first movie at all but this one was a lot better. The action better and the main character a lot more watchable. I did especially like how they tied on with the ending of the first movie in an emotionally effective manner. The only annoying thong was Sci-Fi's terribly ineffective bleeping-out of the expletives. Seriously, who does the FCC think they are kidding when they do this? Aside from that, I found this one good zombie fun (and a great juxtaposition when I was flipping between this and the closing ceremonies of the Olympics).