Movies: Hangover, Whiteout and A Perfect Getaway

The problem with whodunits is I can always (well about 95% of the time) guess who did it.  Agatha Christie was the master of whodunit, and after I figured out her formula every other whodunit is easy.  In movies and television it is particularly simple.  A rule of thumb is the “who” will be introduced early on and would be considered the least likely to do the crime.  So simply ask yourself:  who was there in the first few scenes of the movie and who would it seem the least probable to have anything to do with the crime?  Voila!  That’s who did it.

Whiteout and A Perfect Getaway went along with the predictable movie whodunit genre, which ends in the (un-) exciting chase scene.  A Perfect Getaway has a somewhat interesting twist, but failed when it came to giving us any kind of scare.  Filmed in Canada, but pretending to be Antarctica, Whiteout at least gives an unusual location for a crime.

Since whodunits are so difficult to do well, how about more of: what actually happened last night?!

Hangover is exactly that and nicely combines a mystery in with the comedic plot.  I was afraid Hangover was going to be one of those stupid guy movies with barf and fart jokes and half naked women running around with their tits hanging out.  There was some of that, but only one tit and some bikini clad women during the credits.  Mostly it was a great movie, one of the best we’ve seen in a long time.  My boyfriend loved it and said it was worth seeing again — and that means five stars.  Four stars goes to movies that are worth seeing again, five stars go to movies that you actually want to see again.

Another movie we both like is 50 First Dates.  They show it on television all the time, and when we’re flipping through we always catch it at the same spot:  where Drew Barrymore is painting and singing.  It may be a chick-flick but my boyfriend likes it too.  Then we have to watch the rest so we can see the end.  This movie has the best ending of any movie we’ve ever seen.  It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen it, at the end I tear up a little.  Then my boyfriend says something like:  How many times have you seen this movie?  Then he goes:  Ooooh, and gives me a hug — because he likes it too.

Movie: Midnight Express

Midnight Express is a classic and a reminder for Americans to be careful when they’re smuggling drugs out of foreign countries like, hmmm, let’s say Turkey.  Maybe Turkish justice has improved since the 70’s or perhaps this is just one example why that country is not being welcomed into the European Union.

I had actually seen this movie many years ago and forgot almost everything about it.  When you’ve totally forgotten a movie, you can see it again be surprised, shocked and horrified all over again.  The only thing I remembered about the film was when the girlfriend visits him in prison and showed her boobs.  Those boobs stuck with me all these years.  Instead of full, round breasts, hers were kind of cylinder and she had great big monstrous nipples — nightmarish tits.  When the scene came and she was exposing her tits, I said:  I remember this!  And then I made a disparaging remark about her breasts.

My boyfriend said, with his tongue hanging out:  Her boobs are fine.

Then I said something like:  Yeah, her boobs could look like a cow’s udder and you’d be fine with that.

Then he said:  That could be interesting.

And then we shut up and watched the rest of the movie.