Douglas Howe: April 2008 Archives

I got out to see "Baby Mama" with my wife, daughters and son this weekend, and came away with these impressions:

1. This is most definitely a chick flick! The girls were giggling and occasionally laughing as if on a laugh track, while we boys struggled to enjoy girly gags and were thankful that Steve Martin brought some guy-style comic relief to the show.

2. This is most definitely a nice coming out party for SNL actresses Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. "Baby Mama" is pretty predicable through most of the first half of it, but a few nice plot turns give them both the chance to play characters and not just caricatures.

3. This is most definitely one of biggest wastes of an opportunity to deal with spiritual issues in a film obviously designed for adolescent girls and young women!

Rarely does a theme have a chance to get more to the spiritual core than the creation of life and the God-given instincts of moms, moms-to-be, and potential-moms-who-wanna-be-moms.

I still don't get the NFL draft as a TV event. But apparently I'm in the minority!

"According to the NFL, more people will be watching the draft than the NBA playoffs when the two events are being aired at the same time," said an L.A. Times story this past weekend. Imagine that: if we used to think men were lazy for just sitting around watching sports, where does that leave us when we're sitting around just listening to teams choosing who might be playing on their team sometime in the future, and listening to sportscasters talking about it for 9.5 out of every ten minutes in between picks!

In case you missed it, the National Football League held its official player selections on Saturday and Sunday, when professional teams take turns choosing from the college players who want to become pros. There were no plays, no scores, no referees. There was no offense, no defense, and no special teams. There was actually zero athletic action, and yet even this qualifies as television entertainment these days.

2008, more than any other year in a long time, will be remembered as the year of the movie sequel. I think it's possible, though, that it should more accurately be described as the year of—are you ready for this?—The Endurance of the Soap Opera! Let me explain.

Indiana Jones ("Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is due May 22. "Rambo" was out earlier this year and the original ("First Blood") has a special engagement May 17 in a digitally re-mastered form and will be on DVD shortly thereafter. Batman ("The Dark Night") re-introduces us to the caped crusader along with a new Joker on July 17. Mulder and Scully also come to the screen in July in "X-files 2." The Mummy ("Tomb of the Dragon Emperor") is up August 1. James Bond ("Quantum of Solace") will show up in November, as will Harry Potter ("Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"). "Star Trek XI" has been moved from a December release to May, 2009.

And of course there are a whole host of others, including "Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay," "The Incredible Hulk," "Madagascar II," "Saw II" and other lesser-known series.

With air travel and gas prices going north while housing values and income margins going south, perhaps this is a great summer for going to the local theatre. Sure, you may want to eat at home before plopping down the big dough for snacks, but great movies are there for the seeing and its never been easier to actually plan for their openings as big events.

USA Today has my favorite calendar, which is
introduced in today's editions. Premiere has a great "Coming Soon" page with plenty of trailers and nice viewing. Yahoo's site isn't bad, either. Do you have a favorite site to direct your friends at Beliefnet to? If so, post it below.

We live in a time when so much media is available anytime we want it. As much as I love it and as convenient as it is, it may be time to re-create a time when watching a great movie was a Big Event, whether it be on opening night in the theatres or at an assigned time with family or friends gathered around the home screen. Sure, we can TiVo, record, download, buy, and subscribe in order to watch movies whenever we want. But perhaps we're missing out on the fun of the event and the value of sharing it with a friend. In fact, most of us would say that we still remember who it was that we saw a particular great movie with. We even remember who we endureda bad movie with or with whom we shared a disappointing premiere or sequel.