This weekend was a great weekend. I watched three movies of varying quality. Let's discuss!

Friday night I watched the Fantastic Four. Being the comic book junky that I am I was eager to see it when it was first announced by Marvel back in 2004. However, I didn't see the movie when it came out at the theaters. I have the best home theater of anyone I know- and I should, I've spent enough $$ on it. Since I have that, I really don't go to the actual cinema except for large "event" type movies, like Batman, King Kong, etc. Plus, my wife influences those decisions quite a bit. F4 was NOT an "event" picture to her.

Critics lashed the movie for various reasons, including my friend Scott, the entertainment editor for the Joplin Globe. He loathed it for reasons forgotten to time. Therefore my expectations were pretty low when I watched it by myself Friday night.

I liked it!

No, it wasn't great, even by comic book movie standards. However, the characterizations were spot on, despite the fact that Victor Von Doom in my mind always had an Eastern European accent. In this, he sounds like a spoiled Ivy-Leaguer.

The movie over all did not have that big "comic-book movie" standards, though the Human Torch looked pretty sweet. The Thing was only like 5'10".....that is pretty tiny. The Thing is supposed to be like 6'10" or so. Nope. He was a little bitty "Thing."

IN fact, the entire production felt pretty chintzy. So much so that they cut vital sequences- one minute, they're getting ready to launch into space, the next second the shuttle is gliding into spacedock. Couldn't quite find the FUNDS, people?

The only part of the movie that I REALLY liked was the final battle with Doom- it really showed the way the FF work together in the comics, each utilizing the powers of the other to defeat a foe much stronger than any of them.

I'd give it a low "B."

Saturday night, after watching the Chiefs play loathesome defense in a crushing 27-17 defeat that may have annihilated the Chiefs' playoff hopes, Natalie and I watched "Christmas With the Kranks," the film based on John Grisham's novel "Skipping Christmas." Starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis as Luther and Nora Krank, the movie tells the story of a couple saddened over their daughter's absence during the Holidays. To escape their grief, they decide to boycott their annual Christmas splurge, including their party, charitable donations, and ridiculous community Christmas celebrations that would make Clark Griswold blush.

This movie is kinda funny in parts, but overall, the book is better. I don't think I ever really laughed out loud, except for a couple of chuckles that I felt almost obligated to let go. The part with the two cops happening across a real crime while stalling WAS pretty funny, though.

I give it a C+.

Yesterday was my big Holiday movie treat. Ten of my friends and myself went to see King Kong. Simply put: Great. I really enjoyed it. I almost cried at the end, but the tears just didn't quite come. I was more angry than anything else. Seeing Kong's last stand on top of the Empire State Building was excruciating. I knew how it was going to end, I knew the final price Kong would pay to defend Ann, but still I hoped against hope that it just might turn out differently this time, that just maybe Joplin Missouri would get a special "Secret Director's Cut" print of the film that would have Kong leap onto the back of one of the planes and fly it down to safety, where he would board the USS VENTURE and set sail back to Skull Island, maybe stopping by the Cayman Islands or something for a little Carribbean vacation.

Here are the moments that really stuck out to me:

1. The V-Rex versus Kong fight was simply amazing. It lasted A LOT longer than I expected, and was breathtaking in its sheer savagery.

2. The little moment with Kong on the ice in Central Park. Kong is just a big lonely kid, having fun on the ice for the very first time...and then come the retarded military types hell bent on killing him.

There were others, but I just saw the film last night, and I haven't really had time to process it. However, I do have a couple gripes:

1. The entire "Jimmy" plotline- WHO CARES, especially when he played ZERO role in the end of the movie.

2. NO WAY IN THE WORLD does the military drive around NEW YORK CITY blasting the crap out of everything they see- I mean, come on, artillery inside the city limits? Give me a break. Seriously retarded.

3. Did Ann never get cold during her cross-city trek with Kong? He must have been putting off some SERIOUS BTU's to keep her warm.

4. The winds atop the Empire State Building would have blown Jack and Ann right off the top. Yet their hair wasn't even MOVING during the last scenes.

5. Jack Black's character was a grade A jerk. Actually, that isn't a gripe, because he seriously played the role pretty well. However, the character made me mad.

I won't be seeing this movie for a long time, not because I didn't like it. Quite the opposite, really. I loved it. However, the ending left me on such a down note that it will be months before I'm ready to see it again.

Scott got me the 1933 Original King Kong that I'm going to watch here after a while, I can't wait to see it.

Later, kidz!