Maybe We Should Take Up Role Playing Games

I'm not sure when it happened, but at some point I just stopped caring about most movies. I know when I stopped watching action movies - I worked at a video store, and after renting nearly every action movie made I realized that they were all the same and all nonsense. But when did I stop caring about all the other movies? I'm supposed to be an American, and thus enjoy mindless entertainment, but lately I just can't make myself do it.

Maybe I'm just getting pickier. I loved Juno. It was a movie that was so good it actually made me happy to have seen it. Previous to that, Little Miss Sunshine had a similar effect. But there was a long string of "meh"-worthy films in between. Micheal Clayton barely interested me. The last Pirates of the Carribean movie just sort of overwhelmed and confused me, and I didn't even have rum for that one (which in all fairness might have been the problem). I can't even make myself rent Transformers, and I *&$%ing loved those things as a kid.

Instead, I wander the video store aimlessly, looking at cover after cover, each one eliciting from me all of the excitement of George Micheal at a Hooters (or not - for all I know, he really digs hot wings). Eventually I turn to my only potential respite lately, which is the television shows on DVD. Maybe I just need a longer story line to hold my interest, or maybe the writers for television have gotten a lot better. Either way, it seems I'm more likely to enjoy a television series these days.

One major problem is that I don't look at older movies because the selection is overwhelming. If you can't tell from my reviews, I don't concern myself with reading the newest books or playing the latest games (it takes a lot longer to finish the games, but I'll review those too), but that's because those are arenas where I've acquired a certain expertise. I know which authors I like and which one's to avoid. Similarly, I know what I like in games, and which reviewers to trust.

The other major problem is that the genres of popcorn movies that I do enjoy, horror and science fiction, are plagued with awfulness. Not the kind of enjoyable, campy awfulness that one could hope for either (dammit Sam Raimi, come back to us). No, we're talking Jar Jar Binks awful - the kind where they were shooting for something really great and take themselves way too seriously. Ugh.

Despite all of this, this afternoon, when they release us early in the name of a product release (I hope), I will trek out the local video store and make another attempt to find something for me and my lovely wife to amuse ourselves with this evening. Hopefully, I'll have better luck than the last few trips. I may even go to the big store in the big town, as they have more television shows to choose from. It's either that, or I have to try and convince my lovely wife of the benefits of the zombie sub-genre, if for no other purpose than training and preparation.

Seriously people, you can't be too ready for the zombie apocalypse.