The Summer of Good Movies

I've already written my personal reviews of the summer in food and magazines.

Now it's time for movies.

Incredibly, this summer, I batted .750 when it comes to watching a good movie.

If you take one thing from this review let it be this--don't let someone else pick out the movie you're going to watch, unless it's your older brother by 18 months.

This school year, I watched so many terrible movies because I passively agreed to watch what someone else picked out, and said was going to be great. Snatch, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, All The King's Men. They all sucked.

This summer, the only two bad movies I watched were picked out by others. They were Fast Food Nation and Little Miss Sunshine.

Little Miss Sunshine was recommended by half the civilized world. "Oh you have to see it," the girls in my dorm said. "It's such a great movie," my mom told me. I watched the movie waiting for greatness. There was no way, I thought, that so many people would recommend it, and it'd end up being a dud. The greatness never came. It wasn't a terrible movie, but considering the expectations, it was a monumental letdown. It was like the Roberto Alomar trade to the Mets, or going to Valentine Dinning Hall expecting corn muffins and getting Bunker Hill Biscuits instead. Downright depressing. Go ahead and write in the comments about how wrong I am about this one. I won't listen to you, but it's always nice to have comments on my posts.

Not much needs to be said about Fast Food Nation. Read my review. It was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. And of course, it was picked out by someone else, who I will not name but sometimes reads the VD. It was like Shepard's Pie at Valentine, or Mo Vaughn in a Mets uniform--simply terrible.

The one movie I watched this summer following a recommendation and actually liked was Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. I might have said otherwise in earlier posts, but this was my favorite movie of the summer. It was like the Golden State Warriors of 2007. I didn't expect much, but now I can't wait for the sequel. This movie was recommended by my older brother, thus supporting my earlier hypothesis.

Now, for the movies I picked out and loved. For these movies, I was the general manager. Like Omar, I knew how to build my lineup (of movies).

Spellbound. Read my review. It has so many incredible, hilarious story lines. I thought it'd be good, but not as great as it turned out to be.

Hoop Dreams. Read my review. Read Miller's review. The best documentary I've ever watched.

Ratatouille. Read my review. Read Miller's review. I've realized since watching it that I am like the common rat. I do not have any respect for fine cuisine.

Wild Hogs. I just watched this a couple days ago with my mom. I thought it would be kind of lame, with a cast of Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence, and William H. Macy. However, it was really enjoyable. It was the corny, feel good movie of the summer.

Superbad. Read my review. Not as funny as White Castle, but pretty freaking funny.

I suppose the act of writing a movie review goes against rule number one of this post--don't take movie recommendations from anyone other than you're older brother. Why write a review if no one should listen?

However, obviously, since I came up the theory, it doesn't apply to me. My recommendations are universal.

If you want to list your favorite movies of the summer, go ahead. But unless your my older brother by 18 months, I'm not going to take any movie advice from you.

Next up--my summer music review.