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June 28, 2004

Life outside the diamond is a wrench

I saw two solid flicks this weekend. And it's a close call but, I'm giving Dodgeball the nod over Fahrenheit 9/11.

Partly, it has to do with crowds. 9/11 was showing at cramped, underlit Metreon with a riled up hoard of liberals who were very agitated about proper line etiquette. Also, seriously, thanks SF Lefties for taking the time to make neat anti-Bush fliers and dress up like Condi Rice, but you kinda get on my nerves after awhile. Especially when you refuse to pass out your own pamphlets.

"Take one and pass it down" does not a movement make.

Dodgeball on the other hand was at the spacious Coronet. (Incidentally, I called 411 to find out the theater's number and they gave me the movie times! Who knew.) And while it is solely a broad physical comedy with a Ski School-inspired plot, man, is it funny.

With respect to 9/11, I agree with Matt's comments about how there're some good Morrisean touches, especially the soundtrack. However, I was a little bothered by the amount of time spent on Carlyle Group stuff and the now-revised Bin Laden Airlift business. Also, there's no denying the relevance or power of the story of the mom who lost her son, but, gosh, he really left her up there to bleed for us.

It was only slightly harder to watch than the Senate footage of Al Gore certifying the 2000 election results. That's got to be the single most agonizing professional experience of all time.

3 comments:

goldman said...

Heh.

Yeah, during the destruction of Baghdad you can bop along to the refrain of "If it's not love then it's the bomb that will keep us together."

Matt said...

I agree that it's hard to watch the woman break down on camera, but it is important, cos that whole part of the flick is the response to the "why do you hate america/the soldiers?" Also, when I think of Roger and Me, I think my favorite parts are the rabbit woman, the "wouldn't it be nice" guy, and the sheriff. That is, I find his filming of regular people and their problems the most interesting thing he does, because he's not exactly the best thinker in the world. But it is painful to watch, and you wonder why they didn't just put down the camera and give her a hug. I mean, you can clearly see that there's more than one camera there. Couldn't the 1st ad have given her a kleenex?

goldman said...

Yeah, I was thinking primarily about kleenex type issues. The lady needed some comforting and I thought they let it go a bit long for the sake of getting the shot.