Review of Stuff

I went to a Cirque du Soleil show on Saturday, and then I saw three movies on Sunday. I was actually going to see four, and I'd scheduled everything out. But the third movie (Underworld) kind of drained my enthusiasm for special effects movies so I didn't stick around for the 9:50 showing of Once Upon a Time in Mexico. I may see it on Monday.

The Cirque du Soleil show was Alegria, which was already my favorite show even though I'd never seen it. See, they've got a lot of dvds available, and they're usually pretty good versions of the shows. But they've also got a movie of Alegria, and it's an real movie, with characters and dialogue and everything. But there's a circus troupe in it, and it's kind of surrealistic (because it's a Cirque du Soleil movie) and it's really good. The soundtrack is the same songs as the show, and it's generally a really good movie. I've seen it a lot, so I came to the show looking forward to it.

And I enjoyed myself. Although, as usual, I came out wanting to quit my job and join the circus. I juggle okay, and I believe that if I put in a lot of practice, I could be good enough. There's no actual "juggling" in Alegria, but there's a lot of things that are like juggling; there's club-swinging and that sort of thing. So that was a lot of fun.

On Sunday, I had to go see Bubba Ho-tep.I mean, I had to. First of all, it's not that often that an limited-release film starts its run in Seattle. Second, it's a neat movie. A lot of people were there because it's a Bruce Campbell movie. Me, I'm more impressed that it's written by Joe Lansdale. I can tell I was the only one in the house who was a Lansdale fan, because when Bruce Campbell used the phrase "Mucho Mojo," I seemed to be the only one who recognized the line. Anyway, it stars Bruce Campbell as old Elvis, who switched places with an Elvis Impersonator who died in his place. Then there's Ossie Davis as a guy who thinks he's JFK. And they're both in a rest home that's being menaced by a mummy. It's a lot of fun. Did I mention that Seattle and Portland got the movie before New York and Los Angeles? Take that, cultural centers of the country!

After Bubba Ho-tep, I went down the block to a different theater to see American Splendor. And it was great. And also brilliant. You know in some movies based on real people -- let's use What's Love Got to Do With It as an example -- there's always the choice whether or not to recreate classic moments? If you show Angela Bassett singing, people might wonder what the big deal is. But if you show the real Tina Turner singing, people will notice that it's not Angela Bassett, which would ruin the illusion. American Splendor turns that problem into an asset: you've got the real Harvey Pekar narrating the movie, which stars Paul Giamatti as Harvey Pekar. And sometimes the real Harvey appears on screen. But it's not confusing because it's all up-front. In the comic book, Harvey was drawn different ways by different artists, and this is the same sort of thing. So it's not jarring when Giamatti is in the David Letterman green room, walks out of the room, and the real Harvey appears on the tv screen. If Giamatti doesn't get at least an Oscar nomination, it will be a tragedy. This is a great movie and should be seen by everyone.

So then I had an hour before my next movie, Underworld, which was at yet another theater a few blocks away. If you're going to try to pull this sort of day off, the first thing you need is a theater-rich environment. It also helps if you have the Internet to list what movies are playing where at what times. Underworld had a good idea, but I'd rather just watch the trailer. I didn't care about the plot or the characters, and even the action sequences weren't particularly exciting. For one thing, these characters were the worst marksmen in the world; they'd fire hundreds of rounds at each other from a range of ten feet and not hit anything. Also, there's this one character named Michael who's really important to the plot, but he hardly says anything and I have no idea if he's a good person or a bad person. It's just left vague.

After that, like I say, I was going to see Once Upon a Time in Mexico, but I wanted to go home. So I did.