As I get ready to watch No Country for Old Men this Saturday, I can't help but temper my enthusiasm. That's because every time I get excited about seeing a movie, I end up being disappointed. The most recent example of this was American Gangster, a movie I was dying to see. While the movie certainly wasn't terrible, I was expecting a lot more. I thought they could have spent more time telling me how Denzel Washington got to that point in his life but they chose to go in a different direction that I thought was kind of boring at times.
That brings me to my main point, it's not the acting that's been absent in movies lately, it's the writing. The best example of this is Ray. I thought Jamie Foxx was amazing but the writing was awful. In a 3+ hour movie, how many times are they going to show me Ray Charles shoot heroin? We get it, he was a drug addict. But I'm assuming this guy was a pretty interesting individual. Why not make the storyline more diverse? Instead, the writers spend three hours telling me he did drugs and cheated on his wife. Great. I seriously could have shot that movie in 15 minutes.
The last two really good movies I've seen are The Departed and Cinderella Man. I actually was a little disappointed in The Departed when I first saw it (Probably because it was so hyped up) but after watching it 20 more times, I've grown to really like it. Cinderella Man is one of the better movies I've seen regardless of genre. Tremendous writing and acting all around in that movie.
So, is it just me? Are you guys watching a bunch of great movies that I don't know about it? I would love to hear some feedback on this. And if you mention No Country for Old Men, please don't give away the plot. My entire weekend revolves around watching that movie. It's funny. I used to spend my weekends banging hot young blonds. Now it centers around watching a movie with my wife and mowing the lawn. Hurry up and get married everyone. It's a real blast.