The Missing

[wolf]

I went to see this film yesterday (11/29/03) which turned out to be an adventure in itself.

I actually set out to see Matrix Revolutions at the King of Prussia IMAX theater, not that I wanted to see it in IMAX (which would be cool), but because the UA/KoP was the only theater that had an afternoon showing. everyplace else was a 7pm or 10pm show. Otherwise, I would not have gone within 5 MILES of the property of the second largest mall in the country on Thanksgiving weekend. (largest naturally occuring mall ... the Mall of America was built solely to BE a categorilla. King of Prussia Mall "just growed," so to speak.)

So anyway, for the sake of friends and their schedules, I brave the horror which is Mall Blvd. When I arrived at the theater complex my first thought was "whoo hoo, everybody is shopping. Cool beans." I was confronted with a nearly empty parking lot. I should have recognized the problem there ... that lot is NEVER empty during operating hours.

I park and hold onto my hat as I brave the winds to make it to the front door of the theater ... "CLOSED DUE TO POWER FAILURE."

Great. The people I'm meeting are of two categories. Technologically backward and paranoid (insert appropriate reason for not carrying a cell phone) so I can't get in touch with anyone. I moved the car to a much tastier space, and waited for the others to arrive. SEPTA ran late, so the final participant didn't appear on scene until after 4pm.

The theater did eventually reopen, but most shows prior to 7pm were cancelled, including the 4pm and 5:30 pm showings of Matrix Revolutions. The 7pm show was set to go, but remember, we planned for the 4pm show for a reason.

Since we couldn't see MR, we went for the next available showing, which happened to be The Missing ... directed by Ron Howard (featuring the inevitable cameo by his unemployable brother, Clint), starring Kate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones.

I'm not going to say a lot about the movie itself ... I'm holding the commercials in extremely high regard because they reveal NOTHING that spoils the enjoyment of the movie. It's a good movie, and a good Western, also gets the bits about the magick and shamanism right. Good acting, great action, and hopefully the DVD release will include enough information to fill in some of the gaps in information, giving more backstory than the film itself provides. You don't lose anything by not knowing these little details, but I'm just curious that way sometimes. Also, one thing that, for me, indicates just how GOOD a movie is, is whether or not I notice the passage of time while I'm watching a flick. Great movies I've not a clue as to how long i've been sitting there, bad movies, I have urges to check my watch often just to make sure time hasn't completely stopped to subject me to an excrutiatingly bad movie forever. The Missing was one of those no sense of time passing movies.