Bat ... who?

I've now started playing a new game with myself. Unlike previous games with myself, this one does not involve worrying about getting caught by my mother. I like to see which new movie can almost fill the house at the earliest matinee on the first day of its release. This indicates that the promotional material really worked, and that people are so excited about the movie they almost literally can't wait to see it. Today I actually waited in line to buy a ticket to an 11:45am showing of The Peacemaker.

As I stood in line, I wanted to cry out to everyone in it, "I certainly hope none of you are here to see Peacemaker if you haven't seen The Game yet! If that's the case ... please switch theaters immediately!" I thought The Game was a must-see. Not since Watergate have so many people talked to each other about what they knew and when they knew it.

Rumor had it that George Clooney was going to sneak in a plug for the movie during the previous night's live airing of ER. I didn't hear anything like that, but then again, just being there and showing his pretty face probably helped remind people to get out and see it. The local Atlanta paper gave it an "A." However, that same paper gave Drop Dead Fred a "C," so you really have to be careful about those steep movie-critic grading curves.

The movie, of course, is about George Clooney and Nicole Kidman racing to catch terrorists who have managed to snatch around 10 nuclear warheads. These aren't the kinds of things that show up at your local gun & knife show. These are the big guns. In a half-attempt not to be sexist, Kidman is cast as Clooney's commander, but you would never know that since our hero immediately envelopes her with machismo and pretty much leads her by the hand as to what they are and aren't going to do. You know, sort of like what Tom Cruise probably does at home.

The movie certainly has that bigness to it that you want in a movie theater: lots of action, plenty of chases and explosions, lots of beautiful and foreign locales, great cinematography, the large box of Starburst candy from the counter. In fact, the couple in front of me in the line argued that all the movies he liked had to be seen in a theater, whereas all the movies she liked could be watched on TV at home and be just as good. I don't know what that says about the sexes and the movies we like. Maybe this woman would like movies in the theater better if she could talk on the phone at the same time?

But as fine a movie as The Peacemaker is, I think the thing I came away with most is how pleased Clooney must be that this is a movie that can quickly help us forget he was in that last dreadful Batman movie. He really does make a great hero, and he is great in uniform, provided that uniform doesn't have a mask, utility belt, and plastic nipples.

mike@smug.com

in the junk drawer:

September 1997
August 1997
July 1997
June 1997
May 1997
April 1997
March 1997
February 1997
January 1997