on the big screen

it's summer movie season again
and this year i've vowed to keep up with all the new good stuff
even as i ask myself why

take for instance two that i saw in the past week

iron man
at a pretty good stadium-seat theater
dead center

and

cloverfield
in a dark room
in front of my big goddamn tv

these are two different movies and this is wholly separate from the relative merits of either
but i do know that despite the fact that i'd occasionally open my lappy
to check on the sox
i forgot i was on my couch a lot more often
than i forgot i was in the theater

so whatever it is that keeps us going to the theaters
i don't think it's the technology anymore

as for the movies
i've seen lately

southland tales
crammed full of weird shit and exploding with ideas
feels like i do when i drink too much coffee
crashingly unsubtle and not what i can truthfully call
good
but extremely fascinating
i had to watch it twice

harold and kumar escape from guantanamo bay
needed more nph and the funniest scene might have been in the trailer
but that doesn't by any means mean it wasn't awesome

iron man
now the world knows that engineers can be superheroes too
not just journalists
and the idle rich
and what would happen if the dude went corporate

cloverfield
you can question the plausibility of the characters' actions and motivations all day
but it's a hell of a lot more fun not to
as a document of something that hasn't happened
it succeeds in every way