Leatherheads

Tuesday night has somehow become date night round here. The choice of date was to use a free, one day membership to the YMCA, or, go see a movie. Why not combine that movie with dinner and yourself the full package. I hadn't been to the Commodore Theater since Phantom of the Opera, and Cindy was keen to go back again. The Commodore Theater is a restored 1945 Art Deco style motion picture theater says the web site. It also claims fine dining, but I do not think that I have ever had a meal there that could be categorized as "fine." Fried? Yes. Greasy? No Argument. But Fine? Not so much.

The only potential downside was that Leatherheads, the George Clooney, Renee Zellweger and John Krasinski, was playing. I saw warning flags when I visited the Leatherheads web site to check the trailer and the site has to explain that John Krasinski is from the hit comedy series "The Office." That's got to hurt, you are the star of a hit show, and no one knows your name. Oh yeah, the cute one from "The Office" who loves Pam.

Just a quick comment on the Commodore: it is a great theater, but sometimes the thought of going to the Commodore is more attractive than actually going to the Commodore. It sports THX Certification, and unfortunately, this film did not show off the quality sound system. In fact, the sound checks that are supposed to wow you were a tad too loud. The idea of combining dinner and a movie seems appealing, but I don't think I have ever had anything there that I like. I had the fish and chips and it was lousy. The movie started at 7:00, and I was told to have all my orders in by 7:15. We were late getting there and got seated about 6:50. It really made me feel rushed. By 7:20 they were distributing checks to get payments processed. Our meal, with gratuity added was $26.35 for fish and chips, a fish sandwich and pitcher of Pepsi. Regardless of party size, a gratuity is automatically added. This really irks me. It is the biggest "screw you" that a restaurant can say to the customer. It tells the customer that we can give you crappy service, lousy food and overcharge you at the same time and STILL collect a gratuity. The gratuity should be a reflection of the service rendered, and in the case tonight, the service was not very spectacular.

The projection was a little weird, too. The top of the picture was a little shorter in width than the bottom, resulting in a keystone shape. A noticeable amount of debris seemed to make its way to different parts of the picture. I was trying to determine if they needed to clean their equipment, or if the film was just had that much damage to it.

So, how was Leatherheads? Glad you asked. I wouldn't watch it again. The film was intentionally hammy and very indulgent of Clooney and Zellweger, but I think they were going for that golden era of movie dialogue. It tended to sound a little too snappy and too intentional. It felt forced. By the time the final football scene came around, I was ready for it to be over.

Was there anything good? Yes! Randy Newman's score was very fun. I really like Randy's movie scores ever since Monster's Inc. There is a scene near the end when Sully is telling Boo good bye, and then he closes the closet door. Boo opens the door yelling "Kitty," expecting to see Sully, but there is only an empty closet. The music that Randy wrote to accompany that good bye scene was so tender. He used the same motif in this movie, and Cindy and I picked it out almost simultaneously. Then, Randy made a brief appearance as the piano player in a speak easy.

Leatherheads ***

Commodore Experience *

Thought of Commodore Experience *****