Today I’ll discuss a few movies that I have seen in the last month or so. As I’m back on Netflix again, I have seen quite a few movies lately, so this isn’t an exhaustive list.
Mean Girls: I was surprised to find that this was actually a pretty intelligent movie, that was funny even to someone who was never a teenage girl. I found out later that it was written by Tina Fey, which explains why it’s funny (and why all those SNL people were in it). This movie just goes to prove my theory that girls in high school are stupid. Plus, if you don’t like the movie, there’s plenty of incentive to at least continue watching the movie. I’d give it a 4/5.
The Da Vinci Code: I had considered making an entire post about this movie but I decided I didn’t really have enough to say. This movie was decent--not great, but not as bad as the reviews would lead you to believe. I don’t fully understand the controversial nature of this film--I mean, the Daughters of the American Revolution didn’t protest National Treasure. A point is made a few times in the movie that this is a secret that could destroy the church, or the church’s validity, or something like that, by proving that Jesus wasn’t God. It’s true that proving such a thing would destroy the most fundamental aspect of Christianity--but saying that Jesus was married or even that he had a child does not in any way prove that he wasn’t God. Maybe I’d follow it better if I read the book. I actually tried to read the book once, but I stopped about ten pages in. Not because I was offended as a Christian, mind you, but because it was much too similar to Digital Fortress, another Dan Brown book which I didn’t like. Incidentally, I didn’t like it because it offended me--as a computer scientist--that hardly anything in the book was based on the way cryptography actually works. I mean, I know a fiction writer is free to bend some truths for the purpose of entertainment, but Digital Fortress went far beyond that. Kind of like at the end of Independence Day, when Jeff Goldblum uploads a virus to the aliens (naturally they use TCP/IP and Pentium processors), only much worse--more like the magic you’d expect to see computers perform on CSI. Miami. But getting back on topic, I’d give The Da Vinci Code (the movie) a 3.5/5.
The Aristocrats: A touching tale of a heartland family trying to make ends meet with their unique Vaudeville act. Be sure to bring a box of Kleenex and watch it with someone you love. I give it a 3.5/5.
