Goodnight you princes of Blogger, you kings of Wordpress (and a mini-TGITDNMAR)

It's that time again for TGITDNMAR, which (obviously) stands for Thank God It's The Day New Movies Are Released.

Well, Mrs. Fletch and I head out for the lovely and hopefully not too humid East Coast tomorrow on a weeklong vacation. We're off first to Washington D.C. to do all of the normal touristy stuff (and see some friends), and then we'll drive to the Cape Cod area to see some more friends and make our way to Martha's Vineyard and/or Nantucket. It should make for an excellent getaway from the supposed-to-be 116 degree Phoenician heat this weekend - we're getting out at just the perfect time.

Hopefully (and almost assuredly), I'll find some time to check in while away, but even if I don't, I have a post scheduled for later this weekend, and just might schedule another if I find some time tomorrow morning. But otherwise, I won't be back full-time until next Saturday at the earliest. Have a great week, see lots of movies, and if you're looking to really kill some time, send me an email and ask me for our of the 4 invites I have to go for Flickchart.com, my latest addiction (thanks mostly to Tommy Salami from Pluck You, Too! and Rick "The Hat" Bman from Stop the Planet of the Apes...). It's a site where, instead of just applying stars or tomatoes or cucumbers to individual films, you are given two films at a time, and (assuming you've seen both) you must pick one. It's that simple, and if that doesn't sound great, trust that it is. The best part is you end up slowly but surely building your list of favorite movies, and the more you do it, the more accurate your list will be. If you'd like to read more, Rick wrote a longer post about it here.

And now for a little TGITDNMAR. By the way, know that any percentages given are with the caveat of "not for at least a week from now..."

Bruno
Sasha Baron Cohen and Larry David have made it really hard for us to not think of Borat when it comes to Bruno, but not only do they probably not care about that, they likely see it as big positive. At least that will get folks into the theater; I'm not sure it's gonna help afterwards when people are comparing the latter to the former.

I'm not too worried. It looks funny as hell despite the fact that Bruno was my 3rd favorite character (and everyone else's) after Ali G and Borat on Cohen's Da Ali G Show. I'm there.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing (in the theater): 98%


I Love You, Beth Cooper
Is director Chris Columbus in the witness protection plan or something? Let me get this straight - the guy has a major hit streak with Home Alone, Home Alone 2, Mrs. Doubtfire and (a modest hit in) Nine Months. Then the guy makes a pair of movies that either bombed or earned a collective "meh" from audiences in Stepmom and Bicentennial Man. THEN he somehow gets to helm the first Harry Potter flick, which turns out (no suprise) to be a huge hit. He does the second one as well, and the producers more or less wish he'd stick around and direct the whole series. He doesn't, which turns out great for the series, turning it into a director's showcase of sorts, and Alfonso Cuaron made my favorite with the next one in line, Prisoner of Azkaban (cue violently agnry comment from R2D2's Nick...now).

Still with me? Okay, so he doesn't do any more Potters. What does he do? Not a damn thing, really. He made some documentary no one has ever heard of in 2005, the same year he made the musical Rent, which I paid no attention to, so it must not have mattered culturally speaking. That's it! Since 2002! And here we are in 2009 and he's helming this teen comedy, which looks like fried, sauteed, and boiled crap on a stick. Oh, and it stars a fugly kid (sorry, fugly kid). Not just meh, but blah. On the bright side, they did a bit of inspired casting by getting Cameron Frye himself, Alan Ruck to play one of the parents, and commercial actor (formerly seen on the TV show Ed) Pat Finn, who I like and wish well. Aside from those two, though, this movie can go back to the hell from whence it came.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing: 1%