Hypernostalgia

Movies seem to be all about nostalgia lately, whether it's for video games or music or sports of a previous era. I've never played any Mario Brothers, so I didn't want to see that movie. That didn't leave much choice among the remaining options. I used to watch the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon as a kid, but never played the game, so I wasn't interested in the movie, when it was clear that the characters had no relation to the TV show. I didn't feel like getting into another blockbuster franchise either. But reviews said it was fun and that Hugh Grant was the villain, so I tried it, at least to see Rege Jean Page as the Paladin. It was all right, but mostly the characters were meh, and the movie was so long. It seemed to drag, and the quest became meandering. Hugh Grant is a bad guy, but he's not the main villain; he's a secondary villain on the way to the Big Bad, like he was in the recent Operation Fortune.

The Paladin character was supercool, like a heroic knight who could do no wrong, but he was only there for part of the quest. I liked that the main characters were friends/co-parents, rather than love interests, and there was a cool cameo of the TV show characters in one scene. But otherwise, the plot was overshadowed by the jokey tone. Overall I didn't care for it.

So then I tried the movie Air, even though I don't care about sports or Nike. I find the whole "sneaker culture" strange and crazy to spend so much on shoes. Still, Air got good reviews and had Jason Bateman in a non-douchey role as a marketing exec. The drama was interesting, but the movie was stuffed full of 1980s songs. Like every two minutes another tune would start. I love the '80s but this was too much. Annoying and distracting in fact. It's okay to sometimes end the scene on silence, or even an instrumental score, instead of a pop tune. If you want to make a jukebox movie, make one. Don't stuff it into a different movie about sports and marketing. Viola Davis was good, as expected.

It just made me more excited for Chevalier when I saw a trailer for it. Hope that will be better than this lackluster fare.