Pathos of worst kind

It has been a very bad movie-watching phase for me in the last few days. I have watched a few movies more than I normally do, but unfortunately they all have been trash-kinds.

The first one was ‘Dan in Real Life’ which I watched during my flight from Munich to Chicago. A Steve Carell movie, the first of his that I probably watched, it was another a-lonely-man’s romantic life perspective. There has been a surfeit of these kinds of movies in Hollywood, but still if put in a refreshing way, ala Sleepless in Seattle, can be really worth watching. ‘Dan in Real Life’ was painfully slow, its only saving grace being the suaveness of Steve Carell.


The next week, I watched ‘The Strangers’ in a theater. Touted as a very chilling horror movie by my accompanying friend, it was another let-down of massive kind. It did have its striking moments, drawing gasps and screams from the viewers including me. But in the end, you felt unconnected to the whole set-up. Three psychos lurking around a house and brutally killing a couple: the story deserved more than this. Where have the genuine unobtrusive scary movies gone?


To continue on the scary genre, I watched ‘The Happening’ of M Night Shyamalan fame the next day. Being a reputed director of Indian origin, he is naturally held in high regards by all of us. He started off very well, with his ‘The Sixth Sense’ undoubtedly moving in the pantheon of unforgettable cinema. But he has tapered off since then, and with ‘The Happening’, it seems, he has hit the nadir. The story revolving around trees emitting toxic gases leading humans to kill themselves, had ample novel scope to make the movie a classic. But I don’t know what he made of it. Sometimes, the movie felt like a comedy. And I am not alone; just go around the movie-forums for the proof.


How much things can go bad? Not worse. To challenge it, I watched a low-profile movie, the 13th Alley, which was simply a non-descript even on the list of movies being shown in the theater. We two along with another idiot, i.e. three in total, watched the movie, and needless to say, it broke all the records for squalor. I don’t want to talk more about it.


So, that is the story till now. After taking a break, I will start afresh and watch the classics only now, at least for a few days. They have forgotten to make movies now-a-days. Anybody listening?