Random Movie Review - Cowboys & Idiots

“Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.” – John Lennon


I suppose that quote makes me feel better about wasting time watching movies. Because I can enjoy watching a decent well-made movie, and I can also enjoy mocking a really bad one. It’s a win-win.

Technology has certainly allowed me to be much more efficient with my time-wasting. With DVR, Netflix, and internet streaming…now I’m no longer programmed to watch Independence Day or Dumb & Dumber every time those damn things show up on TV. After all, there are a lot of crappy flicks out there…and so little time.

OK, they aren’t all bad. As long as a movie is well-made and at least moderately entertaining, I could care less what genre it is. Brainless humor, epic drama...whatever. Just make it good, and leave Sandra Bullock out of it if at all possible.

No real rhyme or reason to the 3 movies I’ve picked here, other than I happened to watch them recently. Here we go:



Grown Ups (Adam Sandler & the once-funny comedy crew)

Is it just me, or is Adam Sandler getting less and less funny over time? Seriously, what is the last decent flick he’s been in?

Needless to say, I wasn’t very impressed with this one…even by brainless humor standards. 4 guys lounging in the lawn ogling over a 20-something chick pretending to work on her car engine. First off, hot chicks don’t work on their own cars…that’s a rule. Second, no married man is allowed to check out a chick for that long while his wife is within an 8 mile radius. Another rule of reality busted by this ridiculous movie.

But the good news is that everybody learned valuable life-changing lessons over the course of one long weekend. Throw in some Bob Saget, and it would have been an episode of Full House. I’ll be generous and give this one the ole’ 2 out of 5 stars Netflix rating. Try again, Sandler.



Iron Man 2 (Rehab Downey, Jr.)

SPOILER ALERT – It sucked.

And I say this having been fairly impressed with the first Iron Man movie. Not that comic book flicks are ever very realistic, but I still found myself rolling my eyes through most of this sequel. Much of the story centers around Tony Stark’s depleting health, and the outlook is bleak. Then all of a sudden he magically figures out how to create a new chemical element. Whew, that was a close one!  Good thing the periodic table has that built in cut-and-paste feature.

Maybe they should have started the movie off with Scarlett Johansson in a cat-suit…though I’m not even sure that could have saved this piece of crap. I’ll give this one a generous 2 stars as well.

And what’s with Don Cheadle taking all the black acting jobs? Better watch your back, Will Smith.



True Grit (Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon’s mustache)

I had to get out of the recliner to go watch this one. But I figured it would be worth the effort, since there aren’t too many mainstream westerns made these days.

The Coen Brothers are very hit-and-miss with their projects, and a remake of a John Wayne western was certainly an interesting choice for them. Though I think they actually insisted it wasn’t a "remake", but a re-telling. Bullshit, if it's been done before...it is a remake.

I want to say they did some solid work in areas of this version, but ultimately missed the mark a bit. The acting was good, with the exception of some over-the-top accents and strange dialogue. I’m not sure if they were trying to stay true to the original movie or novel, but in places the screenplay sounded more like Shakespeare. For example...Josh Brolin, the villain Tom Chaney, sits down and says something like “I must sit here and think on my position.” What the hell?

But overall, it wasn’t too shabby. There were some funny moments, and the storyline was intriguing enough to keep your attention. And believe it or not, they actually used a 14-year old actress to play a 14-year old character. How rare is that?

Since I can’t give it 3.5 stars, I’ll just say it’s closer to 3 than 4.

About a week before watching this, I caught a bit of the original True Grit on TV. It made me laugh out loud, but only because of the shoddy acting. Then I found out that John Wayne won his only Oscar for his role in that movie. Are you kidding me?

That’s enough for now, off to waste more time.