Homer, Bean and Gus

Three movies I've watched lately: The Simpsons Movie, Mr. Bean's Holiday and The Benchwarmers.

The Simpsons Movie. True to its TV reputation, the movie has all the wit and humor that adults will find amusing and children funny. I've read from somewhere that it got the ire of some Catholics on the scene (oops! spoilers) where Homer was leafing through the pages of the bible hoping to find answers. I liked the movie's rendition of the Titanic scene where the barge sunk drowning the band, the ala-Brokeback Mountain scene, the Itchy/ Hillary '08 campaign slogan, President S and the Bambi and birds ensemble. There were some scenes, though funny, should be watched with parental guidance as it might provoke some false courage or misguided truths in our little ones especially on the issue of taking responsibility for your actions, responding to dares and resolving family matters.



Mr. Bean Holiday. Of course it's full of Mr. Bean antics! But I watched it with my relatives and we laughed our hearts out for the whole duration of the movie (they because they thought it funny while I was just happy to oblige). Rowan Atkinson always portrays his role with so much mastery that I sometimes wonder if he's able to see himself apart from his Bean character. (Maybe we should ask Teddy). I didn't like the plot as much as The Simpson's Movie, though. Maybe because I have a son and I could kill if that had happened to him. I wasn't able to follow much of the movie because of the French lines. I'm not sure if there's a translation when you watch it in the big screen but my copy didn't have any so we had to just assume we understood what the muttering in French was. The movie featured many different faces of Paris and Cannes that left me gaping in awe. Wish I could visit those places in this lifetime. The movie was palatable but I couldn't appreciate it more than it's first installment - Bean the movie with Peter MacNicol (Ally McBeal, Numbers). That one I laughed my heart out to the very end. I pretty much enjoyed seeing Willem Dafoe portray his character as an egocentric filmmaker. Some people are just so like that... Anyways, the movie was simple as it is...no hidden meanings, no intricate connections.


Benchwarmers. Just like any Happy Madison movie, Benchwarmers tackles the issue of outcasts who also deserve their chance to belong. Rob Schneider was unusually serious in this film. I didn't quite expect Rob to produce those realistic teary eyes in one of the scenes. I wonder if he'd ever star in a drama.... David Spade, on the other hand, donned his usual Joe Dirt image. The movie, by my standards, is half a notch higher than Mr. Bean's Holiday. I wouldn't recommend watching it with children though. Not with the overgrown man in skimpy bikini, the gay hunk cuddling a midget and a sunscreen-eating albino, add to that the booger-obsessed character portrayed in the film. One catchy phrase hit me on the film, when the bullies were discussing about what to do with the outcasts: "what will happen to us if there are no nerds like them?" also reminded me of the order given on The Simpsons Movie about assembling 100 tough men and 200 soft men so that the tough men will look tougher. So what happens to bullies when there's no one to bully anymore? Interesting eh?

All in all, I had fun watching all three. No mental exercise needed there, just sheer amusement.