Sunday at the Movies

I went to see Aliens vs. Predator Sunday afternoon solely because my brother asked me and it seemed like a fun a nerdy thing to do. I was extremely wary of the film since it looked just awful so my expectations were very very low. I was ready to walk out if it really sucked. But luckily it didn't totally suck. It was extremely mediocre but I was not bored, the action scenes were coherent except for the first few, and the film did not betray its own logic or anything ridiculous like that. I wouldn't recommend paying to see it but its worth watching on cable if you are busy folding laundry or doing dishes. (Now that’s a ringing endorsement!) The best part of the movie was seeing some long haired skinny nerd get thrown out before the film started because he had snuck back in from seeing an earlier of the same crappy movie. Now that is a sad sad little nerd man.

I saw Garden State with Headstart on Sunday night and it was fabulous. It was easily the best looking most pretty movie I have seen since All the Real Girls and it has a fantastic soundtrack as well (The Shins, Iron & Wine, etc). The story had a few weak spots but the style and performances of the film more than made up for those. The Graduate and Harold and Maude homages were there but did not dominate to film as I expected it too. I’m not very familiar with Zach Braff since I don’t watch Scrubs but he is a fantastic director and his acting is pretty good too. Natalie Portman stole show. She is just amazing in this movie, both enchanting and very real. Peter Sarsgaard is great as well. How does this guy convincingly play both a stoner loser in this film and snooty editor at the New Republic in Shattered Glass with out changing his hair? In addition to being very funny it's also very romantic and would make a great date movie. If you loved Lost in Translation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind then you should love this film as well.