Last weekend, Daniel and I saw two movies, both of which inspired unexpected reactions from me.
The first was “In Good Company,” the new Dennis Quaid / Topher Grace / Scarlett Johansson flick about a man in his 50s who is replaced an unexperienced lad half his age. From all the publicity associated with the movie (which I tend to inherently distrust), I expected it to be cute but entirely predictable and generally unremarkable. Instead, I was amazed at the cleverness of the writing and the unexpected twists along the way. The film didn’t really try to sew up everything at the end or give a falsely contrived happy ending for everyone. I really, really liked it.
By contrast, “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” which I had heard and expected to be outstanding, disappointed me greatly. It was pretty slow (especially at the beginning), not exactly outstanding acting, and not the dry humor flick I was expecting. I’m not saying it was utterly worthless, but I doubt I’d see it again and wasn’t really all that impressed. It was very “Royal Tennenbaums” / “I Heart Huckabees,” except without enough humor. I did laugh, don’t get me wrong, but it was only in very isolated moments. Unfortunate, really — it had such potential.
Speaking of movies, though, has anyone heard what the Coen brothers are up to?