Last weeks movie night was already ill fated when the server kept going down. I should have taken it as an omen. All signs pointed to “Beware for something foul is afoot” and yet I did not head the call. Alas, this is what happened.

We started to leave to go see James Bond(which is what was winning when the server crashed because a hard drive melted). The movie night crew was unruly and unresponsive. We arrived at the move theater to see that our group was the only to make the transition between venues.

We were already late…

Some other would be movie night participants had already arrived and were watching Casino Royal. We figured since we were late we may as well see a movie that we all wanted to see that hadn’t already started.

Babel:
We laughed in the face of all warnings, ignored foreshadowing and bought tickets to Babel. Actually, this section should really start like this:

Babel: Biggest Waste of time Ever:
Babel tells four stories, the one they advertise is of a couple that gets stuck in a middle eastern country when a young boy accidentally shoots Brad Pitt’s wife in a contest with his brother to see who can shoot the farthest.

The second story is about the incest fantasizing, stupid boy that shoots the tourist (Brad Pitt’s wife) and his family. These two stories are connected, though they don’t really have much of a theme between them. They do, at least, belong in the same movie.

The third story is about Brad Pitt’s kids in America. They get lost in mexico.

The fourth story is about a sexually frustrated, deaf, Asian girl.

What do these stories have to do with each other? That’s what you ask yourself the whole movie. You expect some sort of mind blowing ending to tie all of these seemingly random stories together. As the end drew near I wondered how they were going to tie it all together and then…the credits started rolling. No resolution, no tie in, nothing. There is no common theme, there is no point.

Lots of people claiming to be artsy or intellectual talk about how great this movie is. I don’t know what they were thinking, maybe they picked something totally obscure to like so that they could be more elite or something. I love artsy movies, even far out, totally different movies. I love them! But I did not like Babel.

Do not go see this dreadful movie.

Movie night was another success despite the cosmic disruption that we call Valentines Day. Today being in my opinion the worst day of the year, I had a surprisingly good time. We started with a great Baked Pasta Shells recipe that Dan and I sort of just made up. Then after dinner everyone chatted and we even got a rendition of Tree Boy going on, I have to say that while it is fun, it is not quite as exciting if everyone isn’t willing to sing. Finally we left for the theater, on time for once I might add and everyone got tickets for the show, well almost everyone, I have been noticing a high attrition rate between the white house and Movies 8.

In South Boston, the state police force is waging war on Irish-American organized crime. Young undercover cop Billy Costigan is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate. Colin Sullivan, who has infiltrated the police department as an informer for the syndicate, is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit. When it becomes clear to both the mob and the police that there’s a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin are suddenly in danger of being caught.

This film is good but not great. The story line had major potential but instead of spending money on developing it they through it all into big name actors and flashy effects. Honestly the dialog was un thought provoking with the F-bomb alone being dropped 237 times. Then the story ends in the worst way possible. Trying for a “shocking” or “mind-blowing” ending they added another mole to the mix and in less then a min everyone dies. Now if that was how it ended I think the movie would have been much better but then they continue to drag it out and try and give you another “twist” by killing off the main character in a random act of premeditated violence. But after the shocking second mole this little twist left you wishing the movie had ended five min ago.

This weeks movie night: $23.27 Minus $4.03 from movie night donations…$19.25

Bang for our Buck: 3 Bangs