Now a movie review

Two posts in two days? Can you contain yourself?

I'm actually so exhausted with work, that I thought I'd sit here at the end of the day and write my take of recent movie I've seen. As if you care.

First, The 40 Year-Old Virgin. Hmm. While this does fall into the crude humor genre, it has a surprising amount of heart. It's a strange mix of body/sex humor and moments of sincerity. Is this a good thing? I'm not sure. When I was watching it, this didn't really occur to me. I was actually pretty put off by the language and the stereotypical characters & situations. But the next day, I found myself thinking about it. That's always a good sign. Steve Carell really played the character brilliantly. He toes the line of making himself a cartoon of a sex-less, socially stunted, nerd - he collects action figures, tucks his pants into his sock when riding his bike, cooks elaborate breakfasts for no one but himself, and watches "Survivor" with his elderly neighbors. He's the polar opposite of Vince Vaughn in Swingers. But Carell keeps the character on this side of the line by making him a very sincere guy. His friends are the stock characters - guys who think they know the answers about sex and women and actually have it all wrong. I felt some of the minor characters completely gratuitous and two of them probably filled the quota for allowable utterances of the f-word. It was an assault on the ears. The supporting characters are actually pretty boring with the exception of Catherine Keener ("What's she doing in this?!" was my reaction to seeing her name on the credits) and the character actress who plays his boss at the electronics store. The ad-libbing she does is great. Watch the extra scenes to see it.

So while the 40 Year-Old Virgin is not the best movie ever made, it does have some surprises and really good laughs. Who wouldn't laugh at the chest waxing scene?

The second movie I watched recently is Walk the Line. Another hmmm. I liked the movie and didn't find it as slow as some of my friends thought it was. The acting by everyone in the cast was great, as was the production value. But the whole story felt a little empty to me. Like something was missing. I can't quite put my finger on what it was. Enjoyable and filled with great music.

The Da Vinci Code Update.
I finished the book last night. I predicted most of the outcome correctly. But I did think the Newton poem was clever. The last fifty pages or so was the best part of the book. I figured out where the Holy Grail was, but I'm a little surprised the author made it an actual place. I thought he'd make up some fictional place. It was easy to picture Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, and Jean Reno as the characters. I'm glad I read the book but I might have ruined the movie by knowing the ending.

To keep in the art mystery vein, I started The Lost Painting. I'm only on chapter seven and I'm hooked.

Let me know what you're reading and watching.