August 31st, 2007
Tonight Husband and I went to see the new Kevin Bacon movie, Death Sentence. We’re big fans of the revenge movie genre and can’t stop ourselves from tittering with glee when there’s so much as a hint of revenge action in anything we watch, so we were pretty excited to see this movie. A man wronged? Out for justice? A vigilante? Sign me up!
When we got out afterwards, we had very different perspectives on the movie. I thought it was okay – I enjoyed it overall but parts were so bad it interfered with my ability to enjoy – and I have low standards. (I also love zombie movies, which should tell you something about my standards.) The maudlin music stands out as a particularly stinky element, as well as the cop character who was totally unbelievable, and the first ten minutes, which are necessary as back story but so poorly executed I rolled my eyes the entire time.
Husband, on the other hand, loved it – and here’s why: he figured out, during those stinky first ten minutes, that this is not a movie meant to be taken literally. It’s more allegory than narrative. He thought of it as a Greek tragedy and loved every second. The crappy cop? A chorus. Overblown characters? Totally appropriate to that genre. Tragic, nobody wins message? Well you get the idea.
So go into this movie looking for archetypes and grand messages, not plausibility and detail. It’s not quite as removed from reality as The Warriors but if you’re in that kind of mindset, you’ll probably enjoy the movie much more than I did. I actually plan to see this one again, though probably not in theatres, to give it another chance.
p.s. – if you go to TinselTown, at the spooky empty mall in east Vancovuer, DO NOT put salt on your popcorn. The salt shaker is about four inches in diameter across the top and has more volume dedicated to dispensing holes than lid. I shook it for about .3 seconds over my bag of popcorn and at least four pounds of salt gushed out, making the top layer of my popcorn all white and sparkly. I hate to waste food, so I ate it – but this then necessitated a large pop from the concession stand, which runs you about five bucks, so if you don’t have five bucks to spare you really should just go saltless.
What is WITH that mall? Seriously. Has anybody EVER bought furiture from there? What else is there to buy?
Hadn’t heard about that movie, but I do go to Tinseltown every now and then for a movie. I’ll take your advice about the salt!