10/31/2002 Entry:
"K-19: The Widowmaker - Kathryn Bigelow (2002)
Barbershop - Tim Story (2002)
The Powerpuff Girls Movie - Craig McCracken (2002)"

Vacation pickings were kind of slim. I love Vegas from the bottom of my heart, but its a cultural wasteland. I think the most obscure thing showing there was Spirited Away.

K-19: The Widowmaker was a plane viewing. While this is not the best way to view a film, I can't imagine that the theatrical setting would have improved it any. A submarine disaster movie whose only point of interest lies in the fact that it is based on a true story. I would be interested to see how much of this is real and how much is dramatized. My gut instinct is that at the very least a lot of the story was simplified to fit into a traditional good guy/bad guy structure. Life seems to rarely be that simple. I was kind of surprised that an actor of Harrison Ford's stature still couldn't manage to keep an accent throughout an entire film. I was kind of surprised they showed this on a plane, victims of massive radiation exposure are not the kind of thing an itchy flier needs to see.

Feeling burnt out from walking around all day and wanting to just chill for a couple hours, Bethany and I wandered to the nearest theatre planning on just jumping into whatever was playing soon. Thankfully this turned out to be Barbershop and not xXx. Car Wash seems to be the obvious inspiration for this drama (and quite a good film in its own right, recommended for those who haven't seen it), set in a barbershop on the South side of Chicago owned by Calvin (Ice Cube). When it stays in the shop, the film works quite well. The interction between all the characters as they chat and gab is convincing and entertaining, particularly the crotchety old man Eddie played by Cedric The Entertainer. His speeches are easily the high point of the film. I also quite enjoyed the performance of Troy Garity as Isaac, the white guy trying to fit in. Unfortunately Barbershop lags when it moves out of the shop and follows two characters who have stolen an ATM and go through various adventures trying to get it open. It seems Tim Story was trying to add some lighthearted comic relief to the proceedings, but the scenes in the shop are comic enough in their own right. The tying together of both threads in the end also rings false, and provides an easy solution to the problems of Calvin when it seems like something a little more thoughtful is called for. Still this was a good film that was worth seeing.

Late in the trip, Bethany got sick, and we got The Powerpuff Girls Movie in the room. I really like PPG, but they seem better suited to the format of 15 minutes per episode. 90 minutes was a bit much. They seemed to have to stretch to get that much too, various sections seemed pretty padded. However I did like the whole concept of Mojo Jojo being their "brother" and them unwittingly helping him take over everything. So this was kind of a tossup. I like Pokemon too though, so take it with a grain of salt.