More summer movies

Just before my wife arrived, I went out and caught up on all the movies I wanted to see.

I went into Land of the Lost knowing that it would be farce, in the same vein as 1987's Dragnet and 2004's Starsky and Hutch. With that in mind, it was funny enough to be worth the military discount price. And it got me out of the house.

By the way, I don't know about you, but the TV show scared the hell out of me when I was 4. Sure, it looks totally hokey now, but the way that dinosaur turned toward the camera and roared at the end of the opening... yikes. Check it out for yourself.


Sandra Bullock's return to romantic comedies in The Proposal was cute. I'm growing to appreciate Ryan Reynolds' acting skills more; not too many guys can do action (Blade III, X-Men Origins), romantic comedy (Just Friends), and lowbrow (Van Wilder, Waiting). And those are just the movies I've seen.

Transformers 2 met my minimum standards for being awesome. I do have one complaint, though -- the Autobots need to improve their teamwork. I mean, the movie's all about Optimus Prime. He takes out the big Decepticon in the opening scene; he tackles the triple-team midway through; he's the only one who can take down the bad guy. Where were the rest of the guys?

It reminds me of that one game where Michael Jordan scored his career high 69 points. I mean, yeah, that's awesome, but the Bulls had to win in overtime because the rest of the team didn't step up.


Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince caught a lot of flak for being too teenage-angst-focused, but I liked it just fine. In fact, it was a good thing, because that's really what dominates teenage life anyway. Besides, you can't have the second-to-last episode end on a good note -- that's the way drama works. Money happily spent.

(As a side note, check out how similar these two posters look. Forget Ray Park, man, I bet that's Daniel Radcliffe underneath...)
G.I. Joe was fun. Stuff got blown up real good, so I can't complain too much, but there were a few parts where they lost me. First, I wonder how Duke got negatively promoted from major to captain in four years (military types pick up on that stuff).

The second and bigger issue is how you can blow up the polar ice cap and make the ice sink. I understand there's some hi-tech stuff in the movie, but getting ice to sink is too diabolical for my comprehension. I guess I think too much.