Bad Movie, Good Movie

Amongst other things this weekend, I tried to watch The Mummy III. We actually walked out of it. It was the worst written piece of dreck I've seen in the movie theater in a long time (notice this excludes some of the excrement seen on TV or DVD, but at least there you're not paying much to watch it). It was really bad. I give it a 2 out of 5. I'd give it a one, but I did like Brendan Fraser and Michelle Yeoh. Jet Li wasn't seen enough to count. If you simply must watch this, please do yourself a favor and watch it on DVD so you can fast forward through the crappy parts -- which is a lot.

Fortunately, I just redeemed the weekend by finally watching Croupier, a DVD lent to me by my brother. He loves Clive Owen, so he's a wee bit biased, but all 'round this was a great film. It's a bit self aware -- the "hero" spends a lot of time making pithy remarks, but that's pretty standard, as he's a writer at heart. The characters are all quite realistic aside from the sharp divide between the self aware and the not aware at all. Maybe that is realistic after all. A strange, but compelling film that makes you think -- are you a croupier (dealer) or a "punter" (gambler)? Do you take risks or are you observing and controlling from the outside? I'll give it a 4 out of 5.