TGITDNMAR (5/4/12)

It’s that time again for TGITDNMAR, which (obviously) stands for Thank God It’s The Day New Movies Are Released.

The Avengers
I’m not quite sure how prepared I am to eat crow, but I had better start shopping and cleansing (dirtying?) my palette in short order.

It’s not that I’ve been hoping that this would be bad or anything – I just had a really bad feeling about it.  From the posters to the trailers to, well, let’s put it this way – just about anything associated with the marketing of this surefire blockbuster has been mishandled in one way or another.  It all seemed like such the slam dunk – successful films (commercials?) leading up to it, established stars meshed with a young, new breed, a beloved geek behind the camera in Joss Whedon…and yet, it seemed like amateur hour, particularly as it applied to the art direction.  The six superheroes never, ever, seemed to be in the same place at the same time, with the sun bouncing off them in all kinds of directions.  And when you can’t nail the advertising for a film like this, that can’t help but be a reflection of the film itself, right?

Well, perhaps not.  While I’m still not under the impression (given what little I’ve allowed myself to read about it thus far) that it’s some home run of a hit, it’s not going to be a flop, critically or otherwise.   I suppose we have to face that there might not be another Marvel film that is capable of sneaking up on us and exciting us like Iron Man did.  At this point, all we’re looking for is NOT Iron Man 2 – anything else will be an unqualified success.

Dylan’s Chance of Viewing (in the theater): 100%

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
“Seriously, I know you heard that the Hyatt was excellent, but I’m telling you, there’s no way that it’s the best exotic marigold hotel.”

Whatever the fuck that means.

I feel like a broken record.  Just last week in this space, I devoted way too much attention to the naming of that British claymation pirate flick, and here I am again going on about the title of some other Brit flick with an awkward name (and name change).  This time out, they decided to go from the original The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful (which actually makes sense despite its clunkiness) to the streamlined title you see above.  Of course, to make matters even more ridiculous, the film is adapted from a 2004 novel by the name of These Foolish Things.  I suppose the optimist in me should be pleased that they went away from something as generic and vague as that (see: a million Kathy Heigl and/or Jen Aniston films) and settled upon the more specific and memorable Marigold.

Anyway, enough about that.  And really, enough about the film.  Directed by John Madden and starring Every Old British Person That’s Been in Every Film Over the Last 15 Years (+ the Slumdog kid) , there’s no doubt that this is a high quality, funny, cute, AARP-ready film.  But this is counter-programming at its best going up against The Avengers, and until I’m in my 50s (or 60s), I shall likely be ignoring such things in favor of the gooey, yummy, commercial fare I’m supposed to be watching (right?).

Dylan’s Chance of Viewing (in the theater): 5%