Reality bites, so here's a rather long escape into fantasy

Well, it's October. I'm still working at the bank and dream internship passed on me. But that does NOT mean I won't keep dreaming, sheming, and reviewing stuff.

Lately, I've been catching a lot of movies on their opening weekends. Usually, I'm cheap and I wait for the Kerasotes $5 club card to kick in, but now that I have some disposable income (I know total denial) and an extreme desire to escape reality, the theater's my main source of entertainment. Since the good citizens of Rockford are understandably more outraged at the high price of tickets and concessions when their economy is crumbling around them, there haven't been too many other people at Showplace other than myself and my fellow escapees Sha'Donna and Mike. And that's great because it allows us to be participatory, which is sometimes just necessary, especially when you're watching Sam Jackson movies.

First up was Lakeview Terrace. This movie is so ridiculous that it's almost amazing. Samuel L. is a crazy racist neighbor who decides to make quiet, suburban LA a living hell for the cute new mixed-race couple on the block. This movie would absolutely not have worked without Jackson. His ability to contort his face into so many degrees of outrage is brilliant. His eyebrows should win an honorary Oscar. The plot is pretty much crap and the other actors do what they can with their roles, but it's all about Samuel L. As Mike said, the movie should have been titled, Samuel L. Jackson is a Dick to His Neighbors. I highly recommend this movie for one of those when you're completely exhausted and require some pure, silly entertainment. Or for a Samuel L. Jackson drinking game party. If you drank every time he raised an eyebrow, you'd be gone in the first 15 minutes of the movie.

Next was Eagle Eye, with Shia LeBeouf and an older woman (not old, just old enough that they made an unlikely pair). If you want an uncomplicated action flick, don't choose this movie. Eagle Eye attempts to be the thinking democratic-minded man's thriller, and therein lies its problem. Thrillers can be political, intellectual even. But they should present tighter, somewhat easy-to-follow (hopefully more plausible) story lines. And go after a few issues, not too many at once. Eagle Eye was like a live-action Wall-E in that it poked fun at society's over-reliance on technology and our ensuing complacency. But Wall-E was so much better. Not only is technology evil (but at the same time more moral than humans) in this dystopian adventure, but government is corrupt. The state of warfare, especially pre-emptive strikes, is also questioned. Plus, there's also a riff on terrorism thrown in there.

Then of course, our main characters have their psychological issues. Inferiority complexes, family drama, and deadbeat dads all make appearances. And though I won't say how the movie ends, it's really quite awkward. Maybe watch it at the dolla theatre.

Lastly, I just saw Blindness Friday. Be prepared, this is an intense movie. Quick breakdown (this is in the trailer, so I'm not giving anything away): pretty much everyone other than Julianne Moore ends up going blind due to some sort of contagion. In an attempt to stop the disease from spreading, people are sent to a prison-camp like quarantine quarters. There, left alone, the three wards are forced to create their own societal order. We see the movie mainly through Moore's eyes, as the only seeing person in the camp. Another dystopian allegorical movie, people start returning to animalistic roots, abandoning their morality, or at least reconfiguring it. This is a great, though incredibly twisted story. And it's made well, though I must warn that it is the most graphic, disturbing movie I have seen in a long time.

It's apparently based on a book, and I'm sure the book is much better, as they always are, but this is an actual thinking man's movie. If you're in the mood to watch complex performances and expand your mind a bit, go see this movie.