What I Watched this Weekend

In Theaters:

Does exactly what anyone who is familiar with the movie's trailers or commercials expects from it. Woody Harrelson gives the people what they want: Woody Harrelson in a cowboy hat hamming it up while killing zombies. Less like the main other zombie comedy anybody cares about in that at no point does Zombieland attempt to make the viewer really worry about anything, its primary objective is to have fun. A little too voiceover heavy, though. 7 out of 10



Premise: Humanity always tells the truth until a guy starts lying. With anyone besides Ricky Gervais it would have been a complete waste. Gervais salvages it into only a semi-waste, since the guy can make anything funny. The movie feels more like something he might have written as part of his standup act, and then decided would work better as a wholly mediocre movie than as a brief series of jokes. Oh well, it's so relentlessly full of cameos it's almost worth recommending. 5 out of 10.


A Home:

Road House (1989)

Everyone's already seen this movie except for me, and there's a reason why: it's awesome. As a guy with basically no expectations and no strong feelings towards Swayze one way or the other (I thought Point Break and Red Dawn were both just ok), it was a very pleasant surprise to finally find out why so many people loved the guy. He's just so cool, you know? Also, watching a younger Sam Elliott destroy people with his hands is a rare treat. 8 out of 10.


Mad Max (1979)

Another one of those movies I feel like a lot of people my age's dad made them watch, but that I never got around to. Its car crashes and chases are awesome, and the fact that it was made for basically no money by a group of people who mostly didn't know what they were doing endears it to me, since usually movies like that are terrible. It's got pacing problems and dialogue problems, but expectations for such things in an Australian movie about people who chase each other around in crazy-awesome cars are low. 6 out of 10.

TRON (1982)

Dissing Tron is like committing nerd sacrilege, and thankfully I don't have to. While its computer-animated segments haven't aged well, they're still neat on a "wow, they did that in 1982" level. The rotoscoped scenes that take place inside the computer world, however, remain impressive, especially since backlit animation-type stuff doesn't happen that often, near as I can tell. The movie's plot isn't particularly compelling, but at least it's mercifully light on the computer/technology puns, despite there obviously being a dangerous potential. Even if it's not your thing, learning about its production is pretty interesting. 7 out of 10.