Movie I Just Watched: Smart People

So, I'm trying to clear up the massive logjam of recorded movies that's been accumulating on my DVR and I thought I might try to write a little bit about some of them as I watched them. Today I watched Smart People. This movie stars Dennis Quaid as a middle aged literature professor, still kind of hung up on his dead wife, who's becoming more and more disillusioned and dissatisfied with his students, job, family and just life in general. Through a strange and somewhat unlikely set of circumstances his dead-beat, free wheeling adopted brother (Thomas Haden Church) comes to live with him. Through some of the same set of circumstances he ends up kind of falling for a doctor who used to be a student of his played by Sarah Jessica Parker. There's also his family life, consisting of an uber-achieving teenage daughter (Ellen Page) whose main concerns are acing her SATs and getting into the school, of her choice, and who acts more like his wife than his daughter, and his art major/poet son (Ashton Holmes) who is for the most part an ancillary character. I found this movie enjoyable for the most part. The actors were all very good, with the exception of Parker, who I thought was basically the same neurotic, slightly obsessive woman she seems to play in everything I've seen her in. The writing/dialogue also had its high points although as a whole the plot was pretty predictable: Free spirited, not so bright guy shows uptight academic types that there's more to life than school and books and whatnot. The only other problem I had with this movie was the soundtrack. It just didn't feel like it matched the tone of the film, it was just too poppy or young sounding in a mainly adult film. I'm not sure of the names of any of the artists or songs in the movie, and I probably would have enjoyed some of them on their own, but they just didn't seem like the worked in this movie. All in all when I first saw a trailer for this movie I thought it looked like something I'd like and it didn't completely dissapoint but it's nothing I'd be running out to see again.
I'd give it a B-.

WBC: The new March Madness?

Ok, so probably not quite, but I sure have been enjoying it. There are certainly number of criticisms you could level towards the World Baseball Classic, such as the fact that a lot of the big name stars opt not to play because of the time of year, a time when they're usually just trying to stretch out and get into playing shape and would prefer not to risk injury by trying to play at too high a level too early. And that the postseason atmosphere that is attempting to be created may be somewhat subverted by the strict pitch counts and mercy rules of the early rounds. Despite all of that, it really just feels good to be watching baseball again. Team USA is sailing right along and look good going into the second round despite their loss to a Venezuelan team that closely resembles the Detroit Tigers starting lineup. Also, like the event more commonly referred to as March Madness, the Classic has already given us a cinderella story. I mean, who'd have thought a Netherlands team with only four players that even have any major league experience could beat a Dominican squad loaded with not just major leaguers but bona fide stars (Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes, David Ortiz just to name a few), let alone do it twice? So, while the Classic is certainly not the greatest athletic competition ever devised and definitely has its flaws, I'll take anything that gives me real baseball a month earlier and will be watching for the next couple of weeks. Even if my favorite player has already been injured after going 0-7 with 5 streikeouts.