My husband and I are opposites in the kind of movies we like. I prefer action movies and he likes “chick flicks.” Go figure.
We have worked out a comfortable compromise; I go to movies by myself a lot. At home we may watch the blockbusters that we missed at the theater, but most likely it will be PBS or BBC.
Even though I like action, I do not like the blood, guts, gore and language. The MPAA rates most action films as PG-13, a category that grew out of complaints about the violence in films like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins. Remember those bugs and the bloody heart in Temple of Doom?
Our personal tastes in comedies are picky and downright fussy for animations, so I was delighted to see two blockbusters with my husband that we both enjoyed.
The animated Inside Out tells the story of the five emotions inside an eleven year-old girl’s mind – and deserves an Oscar nomination for its imaginative portrayal of her internal battles.
The bigger surprise was the action film Mission Impossible. I was going to see it alone, but since it was our anniversary, my husband humored me. This film defines action from the first scene where Tom Cruise is literally hanging outside of a plane as it takes off (no green screen or stunt man) to the dive in a tank, where Cruise had learned how to hold his breath for three minutes in order to capture the scene in one take.
It wasn’t a great movie, but it was entertaining – exploding cars, unbelievable chases, and fights – lots of fights. But Mission Impossible did the Impossible: no visible guts, no in-your-face gore, and not a single vulgar word.
Hollywood should do more like it, although it’s unlikely that my husband will ever like most action films.
