Crap-a-Thon

One of my vices - one of my many, many vices - is my tendency to judge films sight unseen based on cast, posters, trailers, and premise.

For the most part, I am vindicated by my presumptions. Sometimes, though, I am pleasantly surprised by a film that had the bad misfortune of a poor marketing campaign, and likewise, some films that I take for granted as being good are complete letdowns.

With this in mind, I decided to pick a few movies that I assumed I would dislike and watch them anyway.

Live Free or Die Hard

The fourth in the Die Hard franchise sees NYPD detective John McClane sent by the FBI to collect a computer hacker wanted for questioning in a massive scheme to undermine the U.S. cyber infrastructure. Assassins try to kill them, things heat up, they wind up in DC, and action ensues as they realize the plot is much more far-reaching and deadly than first realized. Again, though, as in the first, um, three movies, the villain is nothing but a common thief. To sum up, as Michael Scott put it in The Office: "Here's the thing about Die Hard 4: In Die Hard 1, the original, John McClane was just this normal guy, you know? He was just this New York City cop who gets his feet cut and gets beat up, but he's an everyday guy. In Die Hard 4, he is jumping a motorcycle into a helicopter, in the air." Ok, in all fairness, he jumps a car into a helicopter, but I think you get the idea.
Rating: Action ok. The plot died hard. Still better than Die Hard 2: Die Harder.

Intolerable Cruelty

The only Coen Bros. movie I haven't cared to see. In all fairness, though, only Joel is listed as the director, although in behind-the-scenes features, both brothers seem to be involved. Even Joel says that he thought the film was "too commercial" for them. It is. I will give it credit, though: not as bad as I thought it would be, and I could totally see it as a Carey Grant movie from the Sixties. Clooney plays a divorce lawyer, and Zeta-Jones plays a gold-digging temptress. Will there be a plot twist where she takes all his money, or will they fall in love and be together forever? Like I said earlier, too commercial.
Rating: Somewhat tolerable.

Anger Management

Adam Sandler is a passive-aggressive guy who is forced into an anger management course after he is wrongfully accused of assaulting a flight attendant. Jack Nicholson is the doctor who teaches the course. Nicholson keeps pushing and pushing the innocent man until he cracks and becomes a healthy, hostile New Yorker. Or did he? Is it all a plot by Sandler's girlfriend? The Game meets Newheart.
Rating: It made me angry.

In Good Company

This cinematic abortion features Topher Grace as the new young boss of Dennis Quaid after the former's company takes over that of the latter. Oh, and by the way, Topher hooks up, briefly, with Quaid's daughter. The previews imply more of a romantic comedy. It was neither.

Rating: The company wasn't good. Neither was this movie.

Bewitched

Did you grow up watching Bewitched on TV? Damn, you're old. Did you grow up watching the reruns? That's better. Well, Hollywood tried to make a movie out of the magical sit-com, but with a twist: the show is being remade (as a show), but the woman they find to play Samantha is, by pure coincidence, a real witch. Yep. That's pretty much it.
Rating: My nose wiggled. But just from the stink.