I've got spirit, yes I do, I got spirit, how about you?

Mac and I went to the theater to see Spirit on Sunday. Since Saturday's movie sucked so badly we thought we'd try again. All Mac kept saying to me when we left watching Earth was that "we shoulda saw Spirit, mom" so I took him up on that suggestion.

And guess what? It sucked. It sucked so badly that 20 minutes into it Mac asked if we could leave. I told him to see if we could get our money back and if not, we were staying. We stayed. It was so bad it was like a car accident and I couldn't look away. It was bad, so bad I can't come up with an analogy it was so bad.

The idea was great- based on the comic book "The Spirit" and there were lots of big names: Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes. It was directed by Frank Miller who did awesome previous films like 300 and Sin City. But this just sucked. The dialogue was horrible. One great "comment" after another like "just shut up and bleed" or "Give me a tie and make sure it's a red one." OMG- it was really bad. And I swear Jackson plays the same character in every film: angry black man. The acting was terrible, too. The script was poorly written. It didn't flow; it was choppy and seemed forced. One bright spot: Johansson was a hoot, the straight man, if you will, to Jackson's Octopus character so I did enjoy her. If this was trying to be serious, it fell way way way short. If it was going for 'camp', then it succeed. But I don't think "camp" was the intention.

I did love how Jackson was totally and completely decked out in badass pimpdaddy fashions. I also thought the costumes for the women were glamorous. But the mask on Spirit was L-A-M-E. And he wore a totally stylin' suit, a sexy fedora and then a pair of Chuck Ts- making me ask WTF? Maybe I need to read the comic to see what the hell that was all about. And maybe it was a big deal to me since I'm all about the shoes, but really- Chuck Ts with a suit? I think not- not even for the comics. As I mentioned, Johansson was redeeming. The graphics were awesome and reminiscent of the black & white with touches of red or sporadic color of Sin City, which was great. I love the color and the comic book feel of it, and all the texture of the images. The BEST part were the sidekicks to Octopus. They were all the same dude- a la the oompa loompas in the Depp version of Willie Wonka, and he wore jeans and t-shirts. The only thing that changes as they kept getting killed & coming back to life, was the name on the front of the t-shirt, done in white letters on black. He was Pathos, Ethos, Logos, Nervos, Huevos, Dildos, etc-- each time he came back, he had a different "os" name. I howled with laughter at this sight gag. But even that was not enough to redeem this disaster.

Keeping vigilance on sucky movies is just another public service I provide! I want to see Bedtime Stories but now I'm afraid to go to the theater!

In search of a good movie,
Maggie