Saturday Red Box Night

For the first time since the Boy arrived Corrie brought home two Red Box movies for us to watch on a Saturday night. It was a regular "date night."

We've been trying to get to the cinema house for a while as the summer finishes up, but haven't made it yet. Red Box is as close as we've come.

Anyway, the two movies were "Zootopia" and "Deadpool." Fully enjoyable pair, it turns out. Not that I expected anything different.

I had heard very good things about Disney's "Zootopia" but had kept my expectations low. I had heard rather extravagant things about Pixar's "Inside Out" which had perked my attention, but after finishing it and having a long conversation with Corrie about it, our disappointment solidified. That movie seemed to be for parents of teenagers who want colorful ways to relate to those kids. In any case, Joy isn't the first feeling infants have---they take months to learn to smile.

Back to "Zootopia": any animated film that teaches kids that they can be anything with perseverance is a) a good thing; and b) rather unoriginal. What was pretty original and novel was the lesson that there is immense power in lies and pandering to people's fear.

Teaching kids what "using fear in a political way to consolidate power" looks like is always a good thing. Plus the way they broke the four sectors of Zootopia up I found more exciting than the way "Inside Out" broke up the realms of the human brain/psyche. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the movie.

Then we watched "Deadpool".

I had had a post/comment-section conversation with Norm about the character Deadpool and his appeal and my not-understanding it.

I understand it now, of course.

The commercials made me want to see it---it looked cheeky in a way that had potential to be funny instead of annoying. Also, I like Ryan Reynolds.

Anyway, I wanted to go off on how much fun this movie was, how the action and storytelling and characters all hit the perfect notes, but I'm tired, and I kinda just said all I wanted too in far less words than I originally planned.

If you like R-rated comedies full of action and revenge and haven't seen "Deadpool", do yourself a favor and get to a Red Box this weekend.