> Does anybody know what's up with the sudden surge of rather weird movies? In the last month or so, I've seen:
>
> "Mumford", one of the most oddly-paced comedies I've seen in some time and essentially about a ton of weird characters).
>
> "American Beauty", which starts with a dead guy narrarating.
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> "Three Kings", a war movie that tries everything it can to not be an average war movie (and does so rather well -- the infamous bullet wound as seen from the inside should prove this).
>
> "Fight Club" which has a plot twist more off-the-wall than The Usual Suspects or 6th Sense.
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> "Bringing Out the Dead" which had pretty much the entire cast acting as crazy as possible.
>


Ok, I've seen the first 3 of these, and I liked all of them. In fact, I really really liked both American Beauty and Three Kings. I'm not sure why you seem to think that weird is bad. Would you rather watch a movie that was predictable and un-original, or a movie that took some risks and made you think a little?

Last semester I took a theater history class (covered the period from just after Shakespeare to the present, roughly), and I came to class almost every day telling the prof how wierd the play we'd had to read was. I usually liked the play a lot, but "good" theater, especially in recent years, does tend to be weird (I'm just waiting for the barrage of dissagreement that is sure to come).

> Movies I'm looking forward to don't offer a lot of help:
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> "Princess Mononoke", I've seen it and yes, it is really out-there.
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> "Being John Malkovich", about John Cusack finding a portal into John Malkovich's mind.
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> "Dogma", a Kevin Smith movie (that should tip you off right there) that has Affleck/Damon as two fallen angels trying to re-enter heaven thanks to a loophole created by George Carlin.
>
> "Sleepy Hollow", which has Johnny Depp and is directed by Tim Burton.
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> The only normal movie I intend to see before roughly December is "The World is not Enough" (Bond 19). And I'm assuming it'll be normal, though with Bond it could go either way :P
>
> Anyone have any idea what's up? I realize that you tend to get the off-kilter movies right after summer, but this is nuts. I can't ever remember seeing so many in a row like this...
>
> Ste "Confused but happy" phen


I'm confused, too. It feels like you're complaining about the strangeness of movies, and yet you're happy? Maybe what I said earlier was off, then. . . please forgive me, I'm in a bad mood (too much theater in too short a time period with too many people who don't know anything.)

Luisa