It’s ironic that just as when I’ve been vocal about my being swamped with work, my cinema attendance significantly improved. I don’t want to dig if it is purely coincidental or not, but I guess it was mainly due to one’s initial reaction that the best thing to do after an exhausting week is to either pig out or snore or see a movie (not necessarily in cinemas) or a little bit of everything. Anyway, not all movies deserve to be seen on a bigger screen. Sometimes, they just happen to be around just when you needed them. Without qualifying much for the other movies that I’ve seen but never blogged about (especially Inception), I guess that in this batch of “just-because-they-were-on”, only the Legends of the Guardians and Scott Pilgrim are worth to be seen on the bigger screen.
Despicable Me, despite the predictable story line, is guaranteed to give you laughs.
On the other hand, Cats & Dogs 2 is guaranteed to make you sleep. Apparently, I’ve dozed off for the first time inside the cinema. I just want to think that probably I badly needed a nap. Maybe, if we’ve seen Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps I could have been wide awake.
The following weekend was better when we watched Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. Thanks to princessM for the heads up. It is an interesting movie giving us a chance to peek in the world of the owls. However, I have an initial disbelief when I saw them rolling their eyes because in theory, the owls cannot roll theirs since they are fixed in the eye sockets. To see what is behind them, they have the amazing ability to rotate their head 270 degrees and almost upside down. But for the sake of visual efficiency (especially in cartooning and 3D), there’s just too much to invest on eye movements to communicate to the viewers.
The filming of Eat Pray Love made me consider getting that book which I’ve been seeing at the best seller section for a long time. I don’t know why but there’s something nagging me that I do not really need to read that seems to be self-help book. Do not get me wrong, I can be really, really anything from the Twilight madness to Superfreakonomics to The Black Swan (which I haven’t finished until now). Anyway, I bought it, the one with the (new) Julia Roberts cover eating gelato beside the nuns. While the eating part in Italy, ashram experience in India and Bali (Indonesia) views were best seen in the movie than just being imagined, and that Julia Roberts, James Franco, Javier Bardem (wow, for the mixtape memories) graced the screen, the book is still much, much better. The novel itself is absolutely inspiring (though in real life, I think that a person doesn’t really need to travel in different countries just to find his or her balance; the eating, praying, and loving can actually happen with the same effect within the Philippines or other place alone), but there are missing links in the adaptation (especially the random mention of the Filipino accountant whom Liz met in India, haha).
On the other hand, I’ve really looked forward to seeing Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Aside from that I am a Michael Cera fan since Juno going to Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, I was too curious to see an original, funny and smart movie in a video game cum hipster style. And my expectations were surpassed. I must warn you, though, that it is not for everyone. It is either you will like it or hate it. Personally, I liked it so much. A postmodern epic movie!
As a side note, I don’t know what it took me so long but it was just lately that I noticed that there are always a couple of subtitles (Arabic and French) in the UAE cinema screens and that instead of popcorn, I like more the corn with salt, butter, cheese, chili, pepper, garlic, and lemon (yes, altogether).
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