the groundhog day project

The Money Pit . I write about it yesterday, and my sister Brooke comments on Facebook that it's one of her and her husband's favorites. My friend Jeff comments that "it holds up as a solid comedy." And He adds, "Also, check the run time 1:31 minutes. It never overstays its welcome, does it... Judd Apatow." I don't quite get it. I mean, yeah, it is joke after joke after joke, and it doesn't give you much chance to think about any of it unless you're a nut like me (or, really, like Jeff, since he is also a movies-by-minutes podcaster). The movie both takes too long to get started and feels like it is trying to rush through the beginning to get to the house falling apart. Then, it's a series of visual gags with things breaking, and then a couple nice relationship moments and it's over. And, it still has time for the entirely useless opening and closing with Walter's father.           And, I really want to believe there...

There’s a formula John Hughes uses when it comes to making the despicable characters seem not so bad as the story goes—he provides somebody worse. In Dutch , for example, Dutch Dooley was a horrible guy, but at least he wasn’t as arbitrarily uncaring as Doyle’s father. Similarly, in Christmas Vacation , Clark’s (and the movie’s, really) reliance on money and capitalism in defining a good Christmas sits next to those yuppies next door. There’s nothing to like about Todd and Margo, right? The thing is, there’s nothing particularly horrible about them. The movie just assumes we won’t like them so all the bad things that happen to them because of Clark Griswold, deliberately or not, are justified. They’ve got money. They’re too good for Christmas trees. They’ve got fancy entertainment equipment (destroyed by the ice) and fancy workout clothes. And, worst of all, they like each other. No one should like these people. Clark, on the other hand, all around good guy, loving (and faithful) hu...