Last Wednesday to Saturday Nellie was out of town. I'm a big boy and spent many a years as a single man, so I had no problems living the single life for a couple of days. Work pretty much kept me occupied most of the time. On Saturday around 2 p.m. I hit a dead moment. I had just left a birthday party and I couldn't go home because there was an open house going on and it's painfully awkward to sit there on the couch while people walk through your house trying to decide if they want to buy it. Nellie's flight was supposed to arrive in Long Beach in a couple of hours so it would be somewhat pointless to leave the area because I would just have to turn around and come right back. So I decided to kill the time by doing something I had never done before. I decided to go see a movie by myself.I realize that this isn't that big of a deal, but I had never done it. I realize that I am 29 and not in Jr. High and so going to a movie is about seeing the movie as opposed to being seen seeing the movie. I also realize that I'm married so if I'm alone at movie people wouldn't look at me and think I'm depressed and dateless as I have a life companion. I guess they would probably just think I was depressed and had marital issues.
Anyways, once I was able to overcome my Jr. High image insecurities, I decided that I would just head to the theater and that I would see the first available movie. Fittingly, I arrived at 2:50 and the next movie playing was at 3 p.m. and it was titled "Losers." It was a funny moment, but also a new low in life, walking up to the movie window at 3 p.m. on a sunny Saturday afternoon and saying, "One for Losers, please." Pretty much the opposite of an "I've made it in life" or "I'm accomplishing things and a productive human being" moment.
There were maybe 20 other people in the theater besides me. Which was actually more than I expected. I didn't actually meet any of the people in the theater, but from observing them I didn't get the impression that these people were "the bright spots" of our nations' future. Granted, half of the people in the theater won't be alive for our nations' near future, but still. I do also realize that I was in the theater with these people and thus one of them. Thus I am lumped in with them on any snarky remarks about them being world beaters.
Anyways, on to the movie thoughts:
A long time ago (probably about 2 years) in a movie studio far away (probably Burbank) I imagine there was a conversation that went something like this:
Movie Exec. 1: Hey, did you hear that movie studio B down the street is making an A-Team movie?
Exec 2: An A-Team movie?
E 1: Yes, you know, the A-Team. That group of renegade ex-soldiers that drive around in a cool van and shoot people and do other awesome stuff.
E 2: Oh right. The A-Team. Dang it. Why didn't we think of that? When does the A-Team movie come out?
E 1: Summer 2010.
E 2: Ok. Well, lets throw together a movie about a bunch of soldiers that are overseas carrying out a mission, but things go wrong and they lose their soldier status but they stick together and become a renegade bunch of guys that go out and exact revenge.
E 1: You mean, like the A-Team?
E 2: Exactly. Only we can't call it the A-Team of course.
E 1: What should we call it?
E 2: I don't know. How about "The Losers."
E 1: Um, sure. That doesn't really make any sense, but whatever. We'll get a script done this week.
E 2: Great. We'll release the movie in April 2010, just before the release of the A-Team. In the meantime, get working on the CHiPS movie as well.
Anyways, the movie isn't that bad, but it's so neutral (not bad or good) that there really isn't a need for a review. The main question I had with Losers when I left the theater was why they left it open for a sequel. I don't think I just spoiled it or anything since it seems like most movies nowadays leave themselves open for a sequel. But it seems a little ambitious, especially if your movie is titled Losers. I want to know how many movies have hinted that they would be doing a sequel, but then the movie bombed a sequel was never made. Granted, Losers hasn't exactly bombed, but it definitely hasn't performed well enough to deserve a sequel. Maybe a straight to DVD sequel. But if that's the case, do you really need to leave the first movie open for a sequel? A movie is better if everything is tied up at the end. You can hint that there are other issues that will come up in the next movie, but at least tie up the current issues you have been dealing with for the past 2 hours. Then again, you don't even have hint at something else. You can just "pull a Jaws" and make something up in the second movie that explains why there is a sequel. "Oh, the shark had a monster baby before you blew it up in the first movie and now the baby wants revenge, which is why we are here in the second movie." If Losers did turn out to be successful, they could have just done the same thing. "Oh, turns out the guy that you killed that you thought was the bad guy, wasn't the bad guy. The bad guy is the evil agent at the citizenship bureau that won't allow you guys to get your citizenship back. Looks like it's time for heads to roll and for us to make this sequel."
Anyways, like I said, Losers actually wasn't that bad. Wasn't phenomenal either. Granted, I think expectations always play a huge roll with movies and I didn't have high expectations for the movie. I was going alone to a movie on a sunny Saturday afternoon, I wasn't exactly in a position to have high expectations. I clearly didn't have much going on thus wasn't in a position to say that the movie was boring and wasting my time.
