Summer On The Couch

First run movies, dvds, tv shows, oh my. It’s the vacation that keeps on giving.

Joan Rivers Comedy Roast. I don’t think I’ve watched any of these roasts on Comedy Central. I was actually looking forward to this one, being a fan of Joan Rivers. The weird thing is, if you didn’t know anything about Joan Rivers before the show, all you would know after the show is that she has had a lot of plastic surgery and that she has a dried out pussy. Honestly, it was 90 wall-to-wall minutes of plastic surgery and dried out pussy jokes. Were they funny jokes? Yes, but after 90 minutes, you want a little something more.

Funny People. Judd Apatow’s movie career has been a bit hit or miss for my likes. But I got to say I thought this movie was awesome. Funny, melancholy, crass, and dare I say it, mature. Adam Sandler plays the lonely famous guy with a life full of regrets and Seth Rogen is the up-and-coming sidekick filled with wonder and awe of the world opening up around him. Both are fantastic and Rogen, whose face and shtick I’m getting sick of, took his game up a notch and started to show some range.

G Force. Ok, let’s be frank. This wasn’t great. BUT, as far as kids movies go, it wasn’t a great action movie, as opposed to not being a great comedy. In other words, its transgressions were of a slightly different variety from the usual kid fare, which made it more tolerable than if it were a mediocre comedy. Does that make any sense? And I will say it was nice to take my son to a g-rated action movie. He dug the explosions and pyrotechnics. So that was cool.

Into Thin Air. Like I mentioned in my last post, I really dug this movie. Alexander Supertramp comes across much more sympathetic than in the book, his motivations firmly spurred on by his dysfunctional family. The film is beautifully shot and really captures Supertramp’s love of nature. Sean Penn gets big points for how well the film is adapted and structured. There are lots of stories in the book and Penn does a great job weaving them all together to make a cohesive, impactful film. It’s a great companion piece to the book.