Double feature Sunday!

I did something today I haven't done in a while--saw two movies at the theater.

First one I saw was the Melissa McCarthy flick The Boss. This was more for research than anything else--I'm working on something myself that's in a similar vein.

Overall, I'd say it was okay. I actually did laugh out loud a couple of times. I had my little notebook I take with me when I go to see movies and didn't write anything in it about this one. While that means I didn't love it, it also means I didn't hate it, either. Inspiration-wise, I figured out a couple of things about my own project from watching this one, things I need to do and one pretty key plot element I've been neglecting that i need to emphasize.

I'd give it a B-. If you like McCarthy's previous movies you'll like this one, too.

Second film was Disney's The Jungle Book, which I saw in 3D. This was a totally different kettle of fish.

I'm a fan of the old Disney cartoon, and Shere Khan is one of my favorite all-time movie bad guys, so my expectations for this were pretty high. I have to say that this film exceeded them. It was wonderful. Idris Elba's performance as the voice of Khan was spot-on and brilliant. Billy Murray was great as Baloo the bear. Scarlett Johansson as Kaa the snake was very good. Ben Kingsley as Bagheera the panther brought heart and wisdom to the character. The only thing I had a quibble with was the whole bit set in the temple of the monkeys. It just didn't work. King Louie (Christopher Walken) is menacing young Mowgli (Neel Sethi) and suddenly breaks out into this silly, light-hearted tune? I could understand it if the song had some menacing undertones but this was just a goofy little kids tune. It just sort of threw the vibe for the scene out of whack. I think the intention was to strike a note of silly but scary but it didn't quite get there. It wasn't enough to ruin the movie for me but it mars an otherwise outstanding effort.

The story itself is rich with symbolism and metaphor, as well as being an entertaining tale for its own sake. Director Jon Favreau and DP Bill Pope created a film that is visually stunning and worth watching just for the sheer beauty of the images on the screen.

I give this one an A. And a hearty recommendation that you see it.