Monday, April 26, 2004
I went to see 50 First Dates today with Hersha and Laku, and... I liked it. Firstly, I do kinda like Adam Sandler movies. I'm not a total fan -- stuff like Billy Madison and Little Nicky is TOO stupid for me -- but in general, I've been a fan since Happy Gilmore. One of my favourite Sandler movies though was The Wedding Singer, where he toned his routine down a bit (which I reckon made it more effective). 50 First Dates copies that formula, right down to using Drew Barrymore as the romantic interest, but ups it a bit by toning Adam Sandler down even more and adding a lot of sweetness to the story. And it actually works, partially because Drew Barrymore is very good and the romance in it is quite inventive. And even though it starts with some typical retarded Adam Sandler jokes, it gets a lot better once it hits the story. Basically, it's about a commitment-shy guy who meets the girl of his dreams... only to discover the next day that she suffers from short-term memory loss due to a car accident a year ago and thus can't remember him or anything she did yesterday -- in fact, to her, "yesterday" is the day before her accident. And so rather than have her wake up to discover the horrific truth EVERY DAY, her family and friends construct a clever charade to keep her happily believing that every day is the day after her accident. And though it gets formulaic and predictable at times, it works because of their creativity in playing with her memory problems and his dogged determination to woo her for the "first time" every single day, and break her out of her cycle of repeating the same day forever. It also works because the normally INCREDIBLY ANNOYING Rob Schneider picks up the slack as the comic relief. Seriously, I hate him, but he's hilarious here.
Some crazy football happenings today too... Chelsea managed to totally blow a game they were dominating when Newcastle scored at the perfect times to win 2-1 and thus increase pressure on us for the last Champions League spot. They need to start flopping and SOON if we're to have an easy ride to that position. Anyway, Chelsea's loss meant Arsenal could claim the Premier League title with a draw at Tottenham, despite being 2-0 up early they stupidly conceded a super-late penalty to take a 2-2 draw and the title. The big Spanish game was totally wild. Real Madrid desperately needed a win and played Barcelona off the park but young keeper Victor Valdes stopped EVERYTHING that flew his way. And when Real did make the breakthrough via Solari, it really wasn't a surprise to see a rare Barcelona attack tie the game up again at 1-1. Real just couldn't break Barcelona down, and with three minutes to go Ronaldinho audaciously lobbed a pass right over the static Real defence for Xavi to poke home and seemingly kill Real's title hopes. Seemingly, because two hours later co-leaders Valencia could only manage a surprise draw away, putting them only one point clear of Real. Still all to play for in Spain!
Posted at 6:17 AM
