BEFORE: It occurs to me that a lot of people are going on vacation right about now, and my films this week have so far represented some very bad vacation choices - first I was hiding out in the California desert in "A Life Less Ordinary", and then the tsumani struck Thailand on Tuesday. In "The Island", the big, beautiful tropical island was merely theoretical, and "Shutter Island" wasn't the ideal summer getaway it sounded like, not at all. So I'm all set for a nice, relaxing trip to the beach tonight. We'll take a dip in the ocean, catch some rays - sounds great, what could possibly go wrong?
Leo carries over from "Shutter Island".
AFTER: We're back in Thailand tonight - because the trip there earlier this week in "The Impossible" went SO well...(Now I wish I'd put those two films back-to-back, instead of just playing off the word "island" in two titles...oh, well.) This is also from the same director as "A Life Less Ordinary", Danny Boyle.
Like "Shutter Island", this film suffers from a fair amount of rug-pulling, by that I mean it sets up a set of parameters in the first half, and then spends the 2nd half negating them. The island is impossible to find, yet people keep turning up there. It's an ideal place to be, until it isn't. We've got an agreement with the local marijuana farmers, until they change their minds about it. Our community is all about peace and free love, and jealousy doesn't exist. Umm, yeah, let me know how that goes. We've got everything here you could possibly want - wait, are you going on a supply run? I only need a few dozen items...
Consistency may be the "hobgoblin of little minds", but I still prefer to have some in a movie script. Otherwise the conflict seems forced - what if you found out halfway through "Ghostbusters" that the ghosts were really aliens? OK, bad example. What if Rocky trained half of the movie for a fight, and then suddenly decided to become a graphic designer? God, I'm terrible at this, but you get the idea.
This is, however, a great reminder that "Shark Week" is coming up - why they program that during a month where many people are trying to enjoy their vacations is beyond me. For that matter, I don't really get the appeal of going to the beach, maybe that's because I don't swim. So all I can really do there is get a sunburn, get covered in sand, and get sand in my food. I suppose I've been to some pretty nice beaches in the Caribbean, but to me they're just nice to look at. Last year we were on a cruise and the stop in the Bahamas had a nice beach - but all I did there was have a couple drinks and sit in a beach chair. (Seriously, what else is there to do?) At the other stops on the cruise (Aruba, Curacao, Cartagena, Panama Canal) we found much more interesting things to do.
Also starring Virginie Ledoyen, Guillaume Canet, Robert Carlyle (last seen in "The World Is Not Enough"), Tilda Swinton (last seen in "The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader")
RATING: 4 out of 10 boxes of tampons
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