UP

Viewed: Theater

My friends asked me if I was going to see Transformers 2, and I said, “No, Hollywood has struck out with me.”

Hollywood had what should have been three easy slam dunks for me this year: Wolverine, Terminator: Salvation, and Star Trek. But they completely failed to entertain me; they bored me. Me, a member of their core geek demographic. So I decided to not bother with anymore Hollywood in the theater this year.

But then later in our conversation, I mentioned that my family was going to see UP this weekend. “I thought you weren’t going to anymore movies?” They said.

PIXAR is not Hollywood. PIXAR has never made a bad movie. I’d go see a PIXAR movie even if they made a movie about talking cars or the life of a bug. PIXAR is exempt from my theater boycott.

So, all the Grits went to see UP Sunday afternoon. This was Calfgrit4’s first movie theater experience, and Calfgrit8’s first in at least two years (he didn’t like it when he was younger). I’m happy to announce that all Grits seemed to thoroughly enjoy this show.

It’s a real tear-jerker in places, completely silly in other places, and totally entertaining throughout. Frankly, I’m kind of surprised I liked it as much as I did. It’s a ridiculous romp, but it was up front and self-admittedly a ridiculous romp. It didn’t wrap itself in a cloak of realism or believability. There was nothing serious about this movie other than some of the emotions it pulled out of the audience.

In the beginning of the movie, there’s a series of scenes with no dialog at all, and Calfgrit4 asked, “Is this a commercial? Is the movie going to start soon?” These scenes laid the emotional groundwork for the old man character, and made me want to hold Cowgrit’s hand.

Later in the movie, both Calvesgrit were laughing out loud. The theater was filled to near capacity with whole families, and all the kids (and many adults) were laughing fully out loud through much of the show.

After the movie, during our walk through the parking lot back to our van, our boys were repeating lines and scenes from the movie, and laughing all over again. It does a parent’s heart good to see their kids so filled with humor and joy.

Bullgrit