Two Times at the Cinemark

What exactly does Cinemark mean? That is the name of the theater chain where I see first run movies for an outrageous fortune. I just really like watching movies at the theater. The whole process of going, descending into a darkened theater, checking out previews and hearing the uninterrupted surround sound experience is a dashingly good time.

So, in the past week, I have actually been to two. The first was The Happening with Diane.

She and I, to the chagrin of some of our friends, enjoy most all of the M. Knight Shymalan movies. She didn't like Unbreakable, we both really enjoyed Lady in the Water and Signs and were a bit indifferent to The Village....me mostly because I figured it out a third of the way through. Not that I am usually that clever. I don't think I figured out The Sixth Sense until the third time I saw it.

So, we were eagerly awaiting The Happening. On Saturday, we extricated ourselves from our house and went over to the Park Place to catch it. Unfortunately, we found it somewhat disappointing.

Why? Well, first of all, it was full of graphic depictions of people killing themselves. Jumping off of buildings, ramming things into their bodies, cutting themselves, running themselves over with lawnmowers, crashing their cars, shooting themselves, slamming their heads into windows....that is all I can think of now. But who wants to see that? I get enough of that at work.

Secondly, it was missing the humor that was elemental in Signs and Lady in the Water, which we both enjoyed so much and were looking forward to in this movie. Their were a couple of laughs, interspersed with the suicides, but it wasn't the same.

Finally, it felt like a propaganda piece for be nice to the trees. I would think the trees would be one of the only things on earth that want more carbon emissions, as they thrive on carbon emissions. But, in this movie, they seem to kill because of them.

Yesterday, I went to see The Incredible Hulk with Agent Pipes.

It was: Much Better Than The Last Hulk Movie.

When I heard they were making this, I wondered why, since they just made one a couple of years ago. But, watching the last one probably makes you wonder why they didn't just remake it right away so everyone would forget the last one. Well, people probably already have.

It also had fun cameos by Lou Ferrigno (the body of the Hulk in the old TV series), Bill Bixby (Bruce Banner in the Old TV show. Ok, Bill is dead, but they showed a clip on a television with him in it) and another surprise cameo.