Dinner & A Movie!

Happy Birthday Kates!

... and let the vacation begin! After a weekend at the family farm, we were down at Wrigley yesterday (Cubs win!) and today spent a relaxing day at home while she had a union meeting (ouch!).

Ah, but the night would be better. After the gift giving (some flowers, a copy of the new Harry Potter book and a 'Friends' DVD) we went out to dinner at The Olive Garden.

...and THEN, a night at the Drive-in. Nothing like it. Tonight's showings were 'Charlie & the Chocolate Factory' and 'War of the Worlds.'

Now, 'War of the Worlds' I saw last week, and didn't mind seeing it again, for whatever it was worth. But 'Charlie' was something I couldn't wait for any longer. I haven't seen the original, nor do I really care to. Every clip I've ever seen of it kinda creeps me out, period. ... It was only paying attention to and reading all the buzz about the new 'Charlie' that I even began to learn about the plot and the fact there's a classic book behind it. Beyond that, it's a Tim Burton film and in the true spirit of Burton, I can't see why you wouldn't be at all attracted to the vibrancy and film magic this release pledges.

... and it delivered, for the most part. I'll admit it did drag at times, but I laughed hysterically at some parts (especially when the 'Welcome' show explodes in front of the candy winners and Willy Wonka) and the film had some groovy (seriously, I thought it was good stuff!) music to pull it along. And the acting -- even the kids -- wasn't bad. All in all, a worthy flick.

This means War?

“ … The movie's not-so-hidden subtext involves the way Ray blossoms into a real father in the face of incredible danger and a balky teenage son. I leave it to you to decide whether destruction of much of the Eastern Seaboard might be too high a price for civilization to pay for one man’s maturity.”

That read, I caught ‘War of the Worlds’ with a buddy tonight. Steven Spielberg throws a lot of punches, but doesn’t deliver a knockout. … The plot thickens (and takes your breath at times) as Tom Cruise’s character runs through a mess of people being sizzled to ashes and then leads his two children through mobs in a race to escape the alien creatures.

That’s pretty much where the movie ends. What follows is an odd farmhouse scene with Tim Robbins that falls flat and only stalls the climax, which is jammed together in an ending that never really explains itself.

It also leaves us all asking where the heck did Robbie come from?

The only true positives out of this movie are, of course, the special effects and gut-wrenching 9/11-like destruction and Dakota (Can you believe she’s only a kid!) Fanning’s mostly believable performance.

But this movie, while worth seeing for the decent summer blockbuster it will be, is no ‘Independence Day.’ Instead, Speilberg reuses too many of his old tricks from ‘Jurassic Park’ and runs this one into the ground faster than ‘AI.’
2 ½ out of 5 stars.

Here’s some reviews that wrote it better than I could have …
From the Rocky Mountain News, By Robert Denerttein
From the Associated Press, By David Germain
There's a whole page of reviews here!