waider | movies

I've had a membership card for Xtravison for several months now, yet 51st State was the first movie I've rented with it for some reason. Watching the trailers at the start of the disc, I started making a list of movies I'd like to see that either didn't make it to the cinema here or that I missed because I'm so damned lazy sometimes. My intention is to add to this list if I see a trailer for a movie I think I'd like, or get a good recommendation, or miss yet another cinema release (I suspect I won't see 8 Mile on the big screen at the rate I'm going). So on Friday night I rented out Made and Bad Company. I thought I might like the former since the trailer made references to Swingers, which I loved (and own), and it also stars the two leads from that movie. Alas, I was disappointed; Vince Vaughan's character is irritating from the get-go. Great portrayal of an irritating character, but I didn't find him funny-irritating, I just found him plain-godwaful irritating. Which, by the way, is the same problem I had with John Goodman's character in The Big Lebowski. Imagine your reacting to Jon Favreau phoning the girl for the fifth time in Swingers ("drop the phone! you MORON! shut up!") and stretch that out to the length of the movie. Add to that the fact that there was, in fact, no in-movie connection to Swingers (no, obscure trivia does not count), I was doubly disappointed.

Just as well I enjoyed Bad Company. Much the same vein as The Transporter; discard brane before watching. This is, I think, the only Chris Rock movie I've seen to date where I didn't wish that Chris Rock would shut up. In fact, he gets one decent rant towards the end of the movie, and it rules - he's bitching a guy out, and if they were in a wallpapered room, the paper'd be coming off the wall in strips, he's so caustic.