Better Than a Poke in the Eye

That was my reply when the wife asked me how I felt about Mamma Mia!, which I agreed to see with her at our local second-run theater last night. Which means it went better than expected, as the idea of spending two hours watching a musical based on ABBA songs ranked somewhere between root canal and colonoscopy when I first considered how painful seeing this was going to be for me.

And on further reflection, I don't think I could say anything about this movie better than Roger Ebert. That's really true about any movie, but in this case it saves me the trouble of trying to quantify why I didn't feel more bile at having to see what is a pretty marginal movie.

More troubling was the local theater charging $8 for a ticket, up from $6 the last time we went (which was, admittedly, at least one credit crisis ago). We also only got two previews, so I'm assuming they're trying to cut down on the electric bills as well. One was for The Duchess, where Keira Knightley plays a great-great-great-great aunt of Princess Di, whose choice in husbands suggests that Spencer women may do better remaining single. I expect the wife will drag me to this, too, though the promise of nudity in the preview is at least something.

The other preview was for Ghost Town, starring Ricky Gervais as a dentist with no interpersonal skills whose temporary death during a colonoscopy has left him with the ability to see ghosts, all of whom want him to do them a favor. He winds up spending most of his time with one played by Greg Kinnear, whose widow is about to marry the wrong guy. Kinnear cuts a deal with Gervais, wherein if Gervais stops the wedding, he won't see any ghosts again. And it turns out the wife (played by Tea Leoni) lives in the same building as Gervais! I assume hijinx ensue.