Beowulf ain't bad, but as for the other movie... I hope you MIST it.

I'm visiting my pastor friend down in Southern California. He's also my movie buddy, and we try to see movies that our wives wouldn't dare see with us. Tonight's choices were Beowulf and The Mist.

The good news: Beowulf was pretty good, however, if you go to see it, make sure you find it in 3D, so much of the film seemed intended for the 3D effects, it's hard to imagine seeing it in standard cinema. The computer generated characters are a bit... lifeless at times, but ultimately the story kept our interest. There's some nudity, the computer generated Angelina Jolie is nearly fully nude, however she's truly minus the naughty bits. Also in regards to nudity, there's some unintentional silliness where Beowulf fights Grendel in the buff... the filmmakers placed some strategic objects blocking out his equipment ala Austin Powers. They mention Christianity in the film, negatively, also later in the film it seems the unlikeable 'priests' convert to Christian symbolism. Ultimately the film's story is a bit lacking in moral depth, but it's a pretty good tale.

The very bad news: Steven King's: The Mist is an awful travesty of a film. Perhaps I've forgotten much of the story, since I read it over 20 years ago, but I don't remember the ending being quite so horrendous. There's a 'Christian' character in the film, however, she's a stark raving lunatic charismatic-fundamentalist-freak with delusions of prophetic gifts. The more they played up her insanity (and the resultant following she amassed) the more uncomfortable we became simply sitting in the theater. I don't recall her character in the book, but something tells me that it was probably just like that. The effects are good, the horror and shock wasn't too bad, but ultimately the movie was depressing both in content and in the fact that we felt like we'd wasted $20. Suffice it to say, if you liked the kind of characters, story and ending of Scorsese films (NOT saying this is Scorsese quality, even though I HATE Scorsesi's work) you'll like the blunt ending of this film. I hated it, period.

Fortunately my pal enjoys puns and humor... we spent the rest of the evening making up "mist" jokes. So forgive me if you mist the blog title's joke. Perhaps something was amist in the translation... of course we felt the director's good sense was misting in action. Paying to see that move was a mistake. ;)

Let me know what recent films you might suggest.