An Instant Forget-er!

Continuing from last night, one of the other things filing hundreds of dvds in a night can do is remind you of movies you forgot ever having seen. For example, the other night I filed The Sentinel (the one with Kiefer Sutherland and Michael Douglas) and Stay with Ewan MacGregor, both of which I'd completely forgotten about.

They weren't bad movies, as I recall, but they obviously didn't leave much of a lasting impact on the Cap'n. It got me thinking of other movies that I know I saw but for the life of me can't keep in the "watched" category in the brainorium. A little digging around (mostly on Netflix) brought some other movies that most of you probably heard of and may have even seen but left no long term impression*.

The Day After Tomorrow - I know I saw it because I can remember small pieces, but I'll be damned if I could tell you what happens after everything freezes...

The Forgotten - how appropriate is that for this list? All I really remember is not liking it and that (I think) the aliens did kidnap Julianne Moore's... uh... daughter? son? Somebody help me out here.

Duck! The Carbine High Massacre - Wow. Did not remember this at all until I saw the title. It's a really bad shot-on-camcorder movie from the guys who would later make Misty Mundae softcore movies. I think it was supposed to be a comedy but I don't recall it being that funny. Or that good.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith - I can remember liking it at the time it came out on dvd and that it ended really quickly. Every now and then I see it at work and say "oh yeah... I watched that"

November - This movie has an almost identical premise to the aforementioned Stay: character is living their life and something weird happens which sets off a collapse of reality. In the end you find out the lead is dying and the whole movie was flashes of memory or some crap. The difference is that MacGregor was in one and Courtney Cox is in the other. Come to think of it, The Machinist has another variation on this idea but I like that movie a whole lot more.

The Baxter - Cranpire is going to hate me for this, but Michael Showalter's The Baxter just never sticks with me. There's nothing really wrong with the movie (which is about the guy in romantic comedies that always gets left when the girl meets her "true love", or as I like to call it, the "Bill Pullman" character) and I like Showalter and Michelle Williams just fine. It's just... well I don't know. I'm almost always going to choose Wet Hot American Summer over The Baxter.

Godzilla: Final Wars - It's not really a Godzilla movie. That's all I can really remember.

Four Brothers - Nothing wrong with the cast that I can see, but I'd fail any test made for this film.

The Final Cut - a thoroughly underwhelming movie starring Robin Williams set in the future. Yet I gave it 3 stars on Netflix, which means there was something I enjoyed. Hurm.

Find Me Guilty - Anybody remember this movie? The one where Vin Diesel plays a low-level mob guy who has to testify for his friends, but he's kind of dumb? It's based on a true story and was directed by the man who made Network? Yeah, me neither.

16 Blocks - Yep.

Edison Force - I'm not convinced I really watched this movie. Something is telling me that I did but I just don't believe it. It has something to do with Justin Timberlake and Morgan Freeman as reporters and LL Cool J being a crooked cop or something. And Kevin Spacey is in it.

Lonesome Jim - I try very hard to remember Lonesome Jim and Interview when I get excited about Steve Buscemi directing another movie. It usually doesn't work until after I watch with disappointment. This guy made Trees Lounge, for crying out loud! What happened?

Stardust - If you put Matthew Vaughn (the director of Layer Cake) together with a book by Neil Gaiman, I would expect something better than this. As Corpse Bride is to The Nightmare Before Christmas, so is Stardust to The Princess Bride. Both try very hard to capture what their predecessors do effortlessly, and in both instances it's painful. Well, with Corpse Bride anyway. I totally forgot about Stardust.

If I hadn't seen Righteous Kill (and believe me, I won't be forgetting that one), I'd be tempted to say that Stardust was the worst thing I'd seen Robert DeNiro in. There were a number of other "oh? what' that? ohhhhh" moments during my trip down memory lane, but I think you get the idea. It's quite likely you have similar "did I watch that?" moments.

* I'm leaving out stuff like The In Crowd, Loser, The Replacements, and other things watched during high school and early college. I think I covered all of that pretty well in an earlier post.