Ultraviolence Friday

Angie and I don't usually watch stupid, shoot-em-up movies, but this weekend we watched two. Our Blockbuster queue has been backing up a little bit and we had a couple of movies sitting on top of the TV, so we decided to grab one and throw it in.

I let her choose. I usually let her choose just so I don't have to take responsibility for a movie if it sucks. In fact, it usually works out that when she picks a movie, it blows, and I let her know that her choice did, as well. When I pick a movie, we usually like it. There are two things about that arrangement of which you need to be aware. 1) It's a losing proposition for her, since I only let her choose when both movies to pick from are going to blow. 2) Conversely, I will choose the movie when I have a guaranteed winner. The only exception to this was "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", very easily the worst movie I have ever seen half of.

So, she plugged her choice into the DVD player and I asked what she put it...she said, "it's a surprise" and away we went.

She selected, "Shoot 'Em Up" with Clive Owen. Basically, a former champion marksmen, turned military dude intervenes when a bunch of thugs try to kill a pregnant woman. She ends up giving birth, then getting shot between the eyes. Owen, the unwitting hero takes the baby and protects it while more thugs try to kill it (and him). The movie has a ton of shooting and is way over the top. It has a very awesome skydiving shootout, and several other really cool scenes, but we couldn't get past how ridiculous the movie was. That, and the fact that we were really enjoying it. It certainly wasn't a movie that I expected Angie to like, but when the final credits rolled, we looked at each other and said - "at least it was really entertaining." What more can you ask from any film.

By now it was getting late, but the adrenalin surge from the movie had woken us up, so we weren't tired. I decided to throw the other movie in. Kevin Bacon and Kelly Preston in "Death Sentence". The description mentioned something about Dirty Harry, so we didn't have very high expectations.

Again, the movie was really violent, very stupid, and not nearly as entertaining as the previous flick. Although, for two 40-year-olds, staying awake till 1am means that the movie was at least OK. We watched the whole, unbelievable story as Kevin Bacon preceded to hunt down and kill the bad ass gang of thugs that killed his son. In doing so, he loses his own life and that of his wife.

The moral? I have no clue, other than if you too want to be a bad ass, shave your head.

SL