I don't know you, but you look like you're about to do something crazy. I'm in.

I caught the last 30-40 minutes of Bad Boys 2 the other day. At the end of that little stretch I actually asked the other people in the room if it would be possible to physically inject the DVD with more testosterone. It really was that much of a guy movie. It actually even brought a challenge to Terminator 3 for most collateral damage done in a movie (I still feel T3 owns this category.)

They also did a lot "cool" shots. All the time you have these stylistic shots of people standing there looking tough and grizzled with the camera swirling around them zooming in or out. They were kind of neat, and certainly well done, but there were way, way too many of them. Those kinds of shots need to be used sparingly to add impact to a scene. When used all the time it's like the boy who cried wolf.

I also caught some other movies while visiting friends.

The In-Laws was fun - silly but fun. Michael Douglas does a reasonable job as a spy, although he's hamstrung by having to do a silly and comedic spy. He does get the fast talking, no fear part of his character down though. And it's good to see Albert Brooks again, even if his character was a bit one dimensional. This is one I hadn't really planned on seeing, but was happy to watch it with my friends.

At another friends house I caught the middle of the Leathal Weapon marathon. They were doing all four in one day (I guess it's as good of a thing to do as any when the city shuts down for a snow storm.) I saw the end of two and all of three. I had to pull myself away from four before Jet Li showed up and sucked me in. (I've been a sucker for Jet Li ever since the Bijou theater in Eugene did a Hong Kong martial arts movie series featuring him back in '95.) It was odd for me watching some of the Lethal Weapons again because the plot points in all the movies just kind of blend together in my head. The movies are so similar I couldn't remember if this is the one with the nailgun, or the bathroom bomb, or if the bad guys were stealing drugs, guns, money, etc. In the end it doesn't really matter, the movies are just about watching pretty good action and the quips between Murtaugh and Riggs.

What was actually really fun about watching these was that I was with four girls who go to SPU (a Methodist univeristy in Seattle.) It was interesting watching them squirm uncormfortably during the sex scenes (except for Holly who has an unnatural obsession with Mel Gibson.) Squirming like that is something I got over a long time ago, even when watching movies with my parents. It just reminded me that we're from different cultures. It's a good reminder to everyone that cultural differences don't always have to be across racial or socio-economic boundaries - culture is much deeper then that.

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