I’ve watched plenty of series finales in my life. Many of whom from tv series I’ve loved. But none I can remember ever meeting my expectations. A cursory inspection of the internet’s best series finales is lacking as well (though it sounds like “Six Feet Under” might be something I should put on my list of things to watch… Lost has the potential to be a good one to wrap things up and bring closure and resolve. Only time will tell.

Baby Mama – better than expected, esp the second time around
Duplicity – the ending left me wanting
Sunshine Cleaning – an excellent and well made indie film
District 9 – didn’t meet up with the hype (though fundamentally a classic storyline)
I Love You, Man – slow and lackluster, esp for the quality of the cast
X-Men Origins: Wolverine – eh, as expected, I suppose

From a while ago:
Last Holiday (the original) – worth watching
3:10 to Yuma – I saw this with Max at the Lake; not bad, but didn’t love it
The Hangover – didn’t meet up to the hype
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – didn’t meet my high expectations
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra – met (average) expectations

I guess I’m only lacking “Terminator Salvation” from my list a while ago.

On Saturday, I multitasked while getting a car wash, scarfing down lunch and hoping my antenna didn’t get torn off or bent. I headed downtown, ignoring the signs that said “avoid 75/85 downtown”. They weren’t lying, and I sat in traffic for a good 30 minutes. I left rather early, so I had time to waste. I did fill this time, though, with some traffic engineering. I made it to this theater (UA Tara), mid-afternoon. It was quite old, only had like 4 screens, and didn’t even have stadium seating, which quite surprised me. It looked like it had a bunch of indie films, and strangely the vast majority of folks watching were older (i.e. retired). Not quite the demographic I’m used to seeing at the theater.

First up was The Hurt Locker. I wasn’t too impressed (aka I didn’t really get it). I’m not really one for this particular genre of war movies.

I had a bit to kill until the next movie, so I ate at The Varsity Jr.. I can now say that I’ve eaten at The Varsity (even if it wasn’t the one on 75/85 :) ). It wasn’t too bad (though I wasn’t terribly hungry to begin with — given me eating only a few hours prior, and I’m not especially one for hot dogs).

Then at the same theater, it was on to Away We Go, with its stellar cast. It’s a Focus film, so you know it’s good. :) It was probably my favorite of the three.

The film let out a little after 9pm, leaving little time to find the next theater to see (500) Days of Summer. It was close by (10 minutes), but I’d never been there before. Along the way I re-found Taco C. I thought I blogged about it being in a shady part of town (but I couldn’t find a post in a cursory search). But, having lived here longer, it still is in a possibly shady part of town, but not in a necessarily unsafe part of town. I’ll probably have to frequent there more often when the urge hits me. I finally found the shopping center containing the theater, but had issues actually finding it. Asking someone for help, I managed to find it, get my tickets, and sit down just as it was starting. The house was packed, but I found a decent seat. Yay for things working out! I will probably leave my full review for another post, but I will say that while I immensely enjoyed the dialog/comedy, thought it was a really good movie, and think people should see it, I really didn’t like it. Like I said, the full review (including spoilers) will have to wait for another rant, er I mean post. :)

After driving back to to the suburbs, I had an Oreo blast from Sonic at midnight, to top off the night. Good times.

To see today:

The Hurt Locker + Away We Go + (500) Days of Summer

While utterly ignoring my dire need to do laundry, buy plane tickets back to Canyon, get my oil changed, and clean my bathroom.

Update: The Hangover was awesome by the way. Worth sitting through the Dove and car commercials.

• X-Men Origins: Wolverine
• Terminator Salvation
• The Hangover
• Away We Go
• Year One
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

It wasn’t as good as I was expecting, but it wasn’t bad either. For what it was (a action movie anyone would enjoy), it hit the mark and was watchable. I expected more depth out of the characters and out of the movie in general. The overall style was nice, but there were way too many lens flares (or whatever that effect was) which I found distracting at times. I didn’t really see any nod to Shatner’s portrayal of Kirk, so I was disappointed that didn’t happen.

I think what I like so much about the series is that it doesn’t take itself seriously. I might sound like a broken record on this, but I remain resolute that this is one of the significant indicators of a good movie. As a movie maker, you’re asking everyone to suspend their belief for a while, so I think it’s good when they give a cosmic nod to that fact.