Weekend movies

Weird coincidence - all the movies I watched this weekend start with the letter R - Remember Me, The Runaways, and Ramona and Beezus. Funny. Of the three, I actually liked Ramona best. It was quite touching - both Matt and I cried (!) But it was too serious - EW said "where's the spunk?" (which captures it perfectly) - and I think Alana was kind of bored.

Remember Me was a very good movie, with good performances, but it was too depressing and too manipulative. SPOILER ALERT. I was really shocked when they killed off RP at the end, though of course this was the whole purpose of the movie. If you want to make the point that "real people" died on 9-11, did you have to pick such sad, damaged people to focus on? If you want to make the point that every life touches many others, did you have to kill off another member of a family that had already lost so much? Not a bad movie, but just too dark - not one I would watch again.

The Runaways was also decent, with terrific performances of course. But it was too episodic and impressionistic for my taste - when the movie was over, you didn't feel like you really knew these people or understood what they had done. Some good moments, but not great overall and not something I would watch again.

(True confession - it's not completely coincidental that I watched movies that were vehicles for the Twilight stars. Hmmm.)

Interesting side note - family movies have done well this summer, but Ramona and Beezus tanked! This is from Box Office Mojo:

The weekend's other new nationwide release, Ramona and Beezus, garnered little interest, making $7.8 million at 2,719 locations. That was in the same league as titles like Aquamarine and Nancy Drew.