Saturday, June 21, 2008

The Summer of My Discontent: What Would MacGyver Do?

(It's actually winter in Australia now. But let's not argue semantics now.)

Summer movies as a whole aren't lauded for their Oscar-worthy material. To reflect the warmer weather and longer days, Hollywood churns out easy-going crowd-pleasing fare that requires very little thought-processing after you've figured out how much change you should get for your ticket.

Nonetheless though, I'm finding that in 2008, Hollywood is really scrapping the bottom of the entertainment barrel here. Thus far the majority of the films I've seen and those that are coming out soon inspire very little but apathy and "Seriously?!"s.

These are the movies I've watched recently that I couldn't even bothered be typing up a review for because all my thoughts point to one word: FAIL.

What Happens In Vegas
Indiana Jones and the Epic SkullFuckery (or something like that)
The Chronicles of Narnia 2: Where The Theme of The Day is Killing and Plundering is A-Okay even if you're not 17.

And these are the movies that are screening (soon) that I can only work up a "Meh" at.

The Happening
You Don't Mess With the Zohan
The Love Guru
Sex and the City
Speed Racer
Get Smart
Mamma Mia!
Meet Dave
Star Wars: The Clone Wars aka Morefanboy wank material from George Lucas
The Mummy 3

In fact, apart from Iron Man, everything else has just sort of been really disappointing. That includes The Incredible Hulk. Although that is mainly because I am one of the few who liked Ang Lee's movie and didn't see the need for a remake, even if it included Edward Norton and his impressive body. Although to be fair, I did like the, "You won't like me when I'm... hungry?" subtitled joke.

It has gotten to the point where in a very dreary movie, I remedy my boredom and disappointment by thinking to myself, "What would MacGyver do?"

It's a little childish and lame, but thinking up how MacGyver, the titular man's man, would react to the scenarios on screen brings the hilarity that the film fails to project. Honestly, it's rather pathetic having to think up entertainment when I'm paying to be entertained.

I'll keep going to see the moving pictures because I must. But I can't help but wonder if anyone else is noticing the massive suckage that are the summer movies of 2008. Hell, even the viral marketing for The Dark Knight is ironically taking away all my anticipation for the film. Turns out there is such a thing as overkill. I would have thought a lesson would have been learned from Snakes on A Plane. Apparently the movie execs think otherwise.

4 comments:

Adeline Lee said...

I HAVE to drum up some enthusiasm for You Don't Mess With The Zohan, The Love Guru and Get Smart.

C'MON!

Rally with me here... Who cares if the latter 2 were panned? We're all for the craptastic films which we can snort about when lame, potty jokes come on cause you know, we're lame that way. And Zohan is actually getting decent reviews...

Show some love, man...! JT in a speedo...? No?

-k said...

I'll consider Zohan. If only because I'm coasting on memories of old school Adam Sandler.

A definite no to the other two though. Get Smart is strictly DVD rental fare. And The Love Guru should be avoided like toxic waste. Even more so because there's JT in a speedo!

Sam I Am said...

My friend who is a BIG Adam Sandler fan said she couldnt last 20mins though the movie. But she also said it was partly to do with the terrible accent as well.

-k said...

BUT HE IS FROM AHUS-TRA-LAYA, YA KNOW? KHANGAROO.