Past and Future

First off, thanks a lot, America, for keeping The Ugly Truth from premiering at the #1 spot last weekend. This makers of this love letter to misogyny and stupidity got to explain to their families how mega awesome their #3 premiere behind talking gerbils and broomstick riding teenagers was and how they really did better than they thought they would. Then maybe their moms will ask if a sequel is in the works and they will run screaming.

While we're on the subject of Harry Potter, why do people keep saying the kids who've been playing the Harry Potter trio are too old the Harry Potter trio? In a commercial for the upcoming Judd Apatow comedy Funny People, Jonah Hill is joking about it, saying something along the lines of Harry Potter being in his 40s. It's true that Daniel Radcliffe is not the right age to be playing 18 year old Harry Potter. He's 20 now and normally an 18 year old is played by someone 24 and older. This also disqualifies 19 year old Emma Watson and 21 year old Rupert Grint from continuing to play Hermione and Ron.

But enough of the past. Let's look far into future, a time so distant the only name we have for it is, "This coming Friday," which brings us back to the subject of Funny People. I've been trying to figure out if this was going to be any good or not. Initially, I don't think it was marketed very well but they've improved their strategy which mainly involves focusing on the movie's funniest moments and deemphasizing the serious side. It would be great if they could trick people into thinking this is one of those goofy Adam Sandler movies instead of a movie that happens to have Adam Sandler in it. I think I've discussed the difference between those two before. An Adam Sandler movie is something like Don't Mess With the Zohan in which Sandler plays a head case with an annoying accent and ends up doing things like throwing fish in the air and catching it in his ass (something that happened in Zohan to the apparent delight of the bikini models who were watching despite the fact that the fish were literally now shit stained). A movie with Adam Sandler is something like Spanglish, something that can still be quite funny but is more down to earth and deals with serious themes. Movies with Adam Sandler in them can be very pleasant experiences. Adam Sandler movies can make you consider burning down the theater. Let's hope Funny People is the first one.