Rut - Row

With half of the family sick -- again -- I've been catching up on my movie watching. In anticipation of seeing the new Tom Hanks comedy, I decided to go to my local library and borrow the original Ladykillers. The Ladykillers is a classic of British film. I have honestly never read a word about this film to indicate that it anything less than a comedic masterpiece. It has Alec Guinness. It has Peter Sellers. It was made by Ealing Studios, associated with comedy in the same way that Hammer is with horror. So with the giddy anticipation of a schoolgirl, I gathered the family around our entertainment center and popped in the cassette for 97 minutes of fun, fun, fun!

I hated it.

Comic genius? I wouldn't even classify it as mildly amusing. It was like a funny movie with all the funny bits left out. It's an amusing premise -- a group of crooks being outwitted by a little old lady -- and I kept waiting for it to catch fire. But it just kind of stood there and fizzled.

With the girls sick with the disease of the week, my son, N--, and I decided to get out of the house for awhile to give them a little peace and quiet. I took him to the movie theatre hoping to see Hellboy, but N-- talked/begged/pleaded with me to let him see Scooby Doo 2. How do you say no to a cute 7 year old? Even if you're going to waste the next 90 minutes of your life watching the latest turd from the Hollywood crap machine?

I loved it.

Yes, I loved it. Even with the gratuitous farting jokes, a "barricading the door" bit stolen from Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, and the sadness of seeing Alicia Silverstone demoted to costarring in a cartoon movie now that Reese Witherspoon gets all her movie parts. It made me remember why I actually liked this cartoon when I was seven. And the monsters, all from the cartoon and made up with today's special effects technology, just rocked. It wasn't a great movie, but it was a fun way to spend a lazy afternoon with my son.

Who'd 'eve thunk it? I hated the Ladykillers, but loved Scooby. It does have me speculating where it will all end though... Will I stop listening to NPR and pop in a Clay Aiken CD? Will I drop Frederick Buechner and start reading Left Behind? Will I -- gasp -- vote Republican?