WATCHMEN

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Watchmen was shown on MAX which doesn’t repeat movies as many times as HBO does. I caught Watchmen a few days ago...missed the beginning and most of the end. (Not a good idea.) I finally got to see it from beginning to end. Whew.

Watchmen is based on a graphic novel about “retired” superheroes that come out of retirement to find the person responsible for killing them one by one.

It’s in “cartoon” cinematography but not animated, except for the usual type of FX used to make a movie more “realistic.”

It’s a GOOD movie. I couldn’t get over how good it is. It’s about 3 hours long, so do what you have to do before you sit down to watch it. (I suggest watching it on a premium channel or a DVD rather than seeing it on a channel with commercial breaks.) It’s rated R, mostly for violence and sexuality.

One thing that makes the movie so good (surprise!) it’s dark but it’s FUNNY! There’s so much satire and parody. Many of the characters look like other actors and characters, i.e., Laurie Juniper looks like Xena and Rorschach sounds like a Clint Eastwood’s character. Another word- play: vicious dogs named Fred and Barney (remember The Flintstones?) The sets are another source of humor, i.e.: the restaurant across the street called Gunga Diner (remember Gunga Din the old old movie?)

I won’t point out anymore humor. No spoilers. But keep and eye and ear out. Take a good look at Jon (he’s the big blue guy.)

The movie is a bit gory. This movie is in a category by itself, but it’s worth seeing for the overall fun of it. It’s not for everyone, especially kids or sissies. Feel free to close your eyes if you can’t stand the sight of assorted mayhem.

One more thing. As you know I am watching my way though sweetie Matthew Goode’s movies. In this, he’s blond; in his fight scenes not one strand of hair gets mussed. I knew it was him from his voice and the fact he’s tall and thin. He has an unrecognizable accent, though. Maybe it was done as humor, but it sounded like an Englishman trying to mix American and German accents and coming up with Irish. (As a matter of fact he sounded, near the end, a bit like Declan his Irish character in Leap Year. And I daresay the Irish had a good laugh at his Irish accent.) It was gratifying to hear him get mean and angry. And actually cuss—he called someone a son-of-a-bitch. So Brits can be macho. Way to go!