Movie Night

This weekend I saw two movies, "Hot Tub Time Machine," and "Iron Man 2." Neither of these movies represents my general taste in cinema which leans towards romantic chic flicks and intense drama with the occasional foreign film thrown in. I've always been an avid follower of movie reviews (sometimes I like the reviews better than the movies) so I usually have an idea of what's playing that is actually good. When my children were small I would pass movie theaters and glance longingly at the marquee like a prison inmate dreaming of a chinese banquet. Movie night was restricted to the weekend evenings when and if we had a babysitter, and then there was the difficult choice of movie versus dinner out because the movie times never seemed to allow for both. The alternative, as the kids got older was movies appropriate for them which nine times out of ten turned out to be among the ten worst films ever made (who can forget "The Scooby Doo" movie or "The Pokemon" movie. I have tried, believe me.)

Well, after this weekend here is what I have concluded about being a parent of young children and movies: you don't have waste time feeling like you are missing something. There are so few really good movies being made, that it is barely worth the cost of a babysitter plus the movie tickets when staying home and watching "Love Actually" for the tenth time will feel like a more satisfying cinematic experience. Granted, there is one really good line in "Hot Tub Time Machine" about the way teenagers in the 80's actually connected (hint:not on Facebook) and John Cusack is so heartbreakingly sincere that you feel like he stepped into the wrong movie. But other than those two minor elements, the movie is a crude, less imaginative frat boy version of "Back to the Future."

As for "Iron Man 2" well, that's a movie whose action scenes brought back not so fond memories of my son's Power Rangers toys and if it wasn't so long and droll would capture the heart of every nine-year-old boy. Two of my friends fell asleep during the movie. Of course, there is Robert Downey, Jr. who is such a good actor that he is capable of making even a comic book hero into a psychologically complex, despicable yet irresistible character.

I see a lot more movies now that my kids are older and I live in the city, but I still don't see a lot of good movies. In that respect the suburbs and the city are the same.