Cable Movie Roundup #2

Time for another series of quick takes on movies I enjoyed (or wanted to enjoy) this summer while enjoying free premium cable...

The Incredible Hulk: I sound like a wise-ass when I say I didn't expect much from this and it delivered, but I wasn't disappointed, exactly. This version of the Hulk moved faster than Ang Lee's version, but it lacked the ambition. And oh, yeah, I thought the idea was to get more Hulk and get to him faster, but it STILL seemed to take forever to actually get Edward Norton to go green.

Bottom line for me: This was just kind of there, with some entertaining scenes, a pleasant enough diversion on the tube, but it wasn't nearly special enough to justify yet another Hulk movie in the near future. If you want to put him in an Avengers blockbuster, that would be the best way to go.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall: Everyone wanted to think of this as a Judd Apatow movie, but he didn't write or direct it. Yet like many Apatow-branded flicks, it is too long, not nearly as funny as you want it to be, and straining to inject "heart" into an often-tasteless story.

I'm a big fan of Jason Segel's work as Marshall on "How I Met Your Mother," so I hoped this film, which he wrote as well as starred in, would be a bit sharper. Instead, it set up its premise--his girlfriend breaks up with him, then they both wind up at the same resort in Hawaii--and then goes nowhere with it. Well, actually, it does go somewhere eventually, but it's the same place all those other generic romantic comedies go, and it takes too long with too little payoff (though many might enjoy Segel's character's puppet show extravaganza at the end).

The most interesting thing about "Sarah Marshall" was the casting of the title character. Kristen Bell is a glamorous TV star, but co-star Mila Kunis, the "sweet girl" in this scenario, is actually much sexier. Bell is attractive, but not the kind of knockout that would warrant obsession from Segel, especially considering how unappealing her character's personality is. So Kunis is the hot, super nice woman who appreciates Segel for who he is. What's the conflict here?

Hancock: An interesting movie with some unique ideas. Interesting movie--not a great one. It seemed like there were too many themes competing for attention, with the result being a movie that starts out as a fairly loose comedy--Will Smith as a drunken, loutish "superhero"--and suddenly becomes something quite different, but not necessarily to its overall benefit. I think fans of superhero movies should see this because it presents a different take on the genre, but don't expect too much.

By the way, there's a significant twist that occurs in this, one which was withheld from the marketing but which plays out relatively early and changes the whole tone of the film. I watched "Hancock" with my wife, and, though I forget how the subject came up, she quickly got the info out of me. So neither one of us experienced it "cold," but maybe that enhances your enjoyment of the story.