The worst part of being a movie junkie
Really, I blame it on graduate school. It was during the two
horribly stressful, miserable years I spent in Los Angeles while
attending the University of Southern California that I turned into
a TV/movie junkie. When my parents gave me a TiVo, a digital
recorder, things only got worse.
The worst part of being a movie junkie
Really, I blame it on graduate school. It was during the two horribly stressful, miserable years I spent in Los Angeles while attending the University of Southern California that I turned into a TV/movie junkie. When my parents gave me a TiVo, a digital recorder, things only got worse.
My great escape from the stress of school became taping lots and lots of television shows and movies to watch in between classes, work and school assiagnments. I’d watch anything to procrastinate from doing my homework, even really bad stuff.
Now I work full-time so I’d like to believe I waste less time in front of the TV, but after I thought about some of the movies I’ve watched in the last few weeks maybe that’s not so true. A recent switch to DirectTV from the local cable provider doubled the number of channels we have, meaning there are a lot of shows and movies to choose from. And TiVo just makes it really easy to find something and save it for later. And having a plasma TV certainly makes the viewing experience a lot better, not to mention that Blu-Ray player my sister bought.
So here is a sampling of some of the worst movies I’ve watched lately just because I was bored. Next week, I’ll get back to some better fare and maybe actually make it out the theater to see something new.
Double Happiness
I’ve seen this movie multiple times, and I think I might actually own it on video, but two weekends ago when I was waiting to watch a movie with my mom it happened to be on one of the 20 HBO channels we have so I started watching it. “Double Happiness” is about a Chinese Canadian girl who is torn between pleasing her parents and doing what she wants. Sandra Oh of “Grey’s Anatomy” fame plays the main character Jade, in one of her first film appearances.
Jade wants to be a movie star, but finds herself cast in stereotypical roles because she is Chinese even though she barely speaks the language. She briefly dates a white guy, but whenever she rebels the threat of being disowned by her parents draws her back in. After all, they’ve already disowned her older brother. At points, the characters speak straight to the camera in a way that reminded me of the “Real World” confidentials. It didn’t really add to the movie. On my recent viewing, it seems that the characters in the film are as stereotypical as the roles Jade wants to avoid.
Kickin It Old Skool
I really have no idea why I started watching this movie, but it was actually kind of funny. The movie starts in the 1980s when a group of junior high school break dancers go head to head with another dance group at a talent show. Justin falls off the stage, hits his head and goes into a coma.
Just when his parents are about to take him off life support 20 years later, an orderly walks by with a boom box playing old school dance music and Justin (Jamie Kennedy) wakes up. Though he is in his 30s now, he still dresses, talks and thinks like a pre-teen. Justin decides to get his old friends back together to compete on a reality TV dance off because he needs money to pay off his hospital bills for his parents. It’s really bad, but I laughed a few times.
Nancy Drew
I used to read the Nancy Drew books when I was a kid. My grandmother bought a thorough collection of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books for her many grandchildren, and for the longest time, the hardcover yellow and blue books sat in my house.
But the 2007 film really isn’t anything like the mystery novels with the girl detective. In the film Nancy (Emma Roberts, niece of Julia) leaves her quiet Midwestern town for Los Angeles when her father goes there on an extended business trip. She has promised not to do any sleuthing, but when they rent a house that used to belong to a Hollywood star who went missing 24 years ago, she can’t resist.
The weird thing about the movie is that Nancy dresses in retro ’60s clothes and drives an old-time car even though the movie is set in modern times. Her attire and attitude are supposed to create a conflict with the local hip Hollywood kids, but mostly it is just a distraction.
American Gangster
Okay, so I really didn’t watch this movie. This is one of the few times where I chose not to sit through a bad movie just because my family wanted to see it and instead read a “New Yorker” article on how math calculations might not be a natural instinct for humans. I saw maybe 10 minutes of the movie, but from what my family said I didn’t really miss much. All I know is that Russell Crowe’s character’s wife left him to move away with his kid because he was all focused on his job. And a fur coat blew the drug dealer’s (Denzel Washington’s) cover.
