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Okay, so first up for today’s grinding is Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer. What can I say? Now that computer generated graphics are making all sorts of new things realistic-enough-looking, comic books turned into movies are the latest craze. One by one they’ll get through them all, mostly reinventing them all the way. And Fantastic Four is no exception. Is the sequel any better than the original?

Hmm…

Not really.

It’s not that it’s bad. It’s a passable enough movie to mindlessly entertain for a couple of hours. And in high-def it looks quite stunning. Thanks HBO HD! But the ending basically sucked. It was forced. There’s just no kind way to put it. Two hours do not contain enough room for the Silver Surfer’s storyline. Sorry. It just shouldn’t have even been tried.

Not to mention the ending in general. I think Days Of Our Wives could have pretty much written that ending. It was the bastard love-child that could have been anyone’s baby.

And, of course, there wasn’t nearly enough of Jessica Alba nude. If there’s one thing any movie with her in it should have, it’s more of that. But then one can never really get enough naked Jessica Alba. Even if she is blond in these movies. She was so much hotter as a brunette.

Anywho…

So it’s an okay-ish movie. For a sequel it’s not half bad. Most sequels are by far worse than the original. This one isn’t by far worse. It’s only slightly worse. Almost as good. So hey, if you haven’t seen it, and you liked the original, I say give it a shot. The Stan Lee cameo was cute. I’d give it a Fantastic Four out of five.

Next up is a movie I swore I’d never watch: 23. It’s creepy-ish. But that isn’t why I swore I’d never see it. It has Jim Carrey as the lead role. Ugh. I just never found him funny. He’s just over-the-top goofy. And not in a good Robin Williams way. Jim Carrey feels too … forced. Like accidentally that became “his thing” and now he has to make himself do it waaaay too often, so that it’s not even funny. It’s just … annoying.

Strangely enough though, I could picture him being creepy. So I gave the movie a shot. (Thanks again HBO.) And honestly, he almost pulled it off. I think he’d make a much better job of creepy movies than of goofy comedies.

As for 23 (not to be confused with 24) the movie was actually worth the watch. Unfortunately it’s not one of those intellectual movies where they give you enough clues to figure it out for yourself with certainty until pretty much they hand it to you. But at the same time it’s not one of those movies where you see it coming a mile away. It keeps you guessing-ish. I mean I did have it figured out nearly from the beginning, but just as a guess, not as a certainty. And they threw in enough reasonable doubt along the way that I found myself wondering from time to time if I might actually be wrong and the storyline would in fact arc off in another direction. In the end, I was right, but at least it kept me enjoyably uncertain.

And more than that, as a pagan who is passingly familiar with concepts like numerology, I found it eminently entertaining to see it pushed to an obsession. I can sooooo see that happening with some people. And so, of that, 23 wasn’t a half-bad choice for a number.

As a psychological thriller itself, it kept you on your toes enough to be entertained. It certainly didn’t bore. And it even contained enough real depth of abnormal psychology to seem well researched.

All-in-all, it was as good of a movie as anyone can expect from Hollywood these days. Short of the occasional epic grandeur of something like The Lord of the Rings, you’re just not going to see much that will really impress. But 23 comes darn close. So for that, I give it an almost perfect 23 out of 24 nutcases.

Congrats Jim! Maybe you’ve found a new calling.