I got off to a productive start today, the kick-off of my Thanksgiving week shopping/organizing/cooking/cleaning/no-sleep marathon, but lost a little momentum when I stumbled across the movie Sea of Love on cable. I hadnt watched it in years, so I figured theres no time like the present. I like the movie well enough, its entertainingly suspenseful in a cheesy kind of way, and I was left with the same three thoughts as I always am after watching it: 1. John Goodman improves any movie simply by showing up-- he is one seriously overlooked and underrated actor. 2. Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin are a couple of world-class scenery chewers; either one of them has enough physical/facial/verbal tics and affectations to be a distraction, so its both lucky and surprising how good they are together. Or maybe its not such a lucky thing, because while they do hold your attention, a little distraction might have been good because... 3. If my attention to detail were a little scrambled I might have been able to overlook the flashing lights and neon arrows directing my attention to Michael Rooker in the role of Barkins ex; since were introduced to him early on, it leaves plenty of time to reflect on the unlikelihood of anyone casting Rooker if the character was in fact the big, dumb, harmlessly obsessed lug he appears at first to be. So its pretty easy to figure him for the bad guy-- hes Michael Rooker after all, so we already know hes one variety or another of deranged, murdering psycho, and that means that the only way hes not the bad guy is if the movie throws us a second potential serial killer at the last minute, and Im pretty sure that would be an unsatisfying, less than convincing ending. Oh well, time to get on with my preparations.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 18:33:58 +0000