Christopher Guest, Where Art Thou?

As I've mentioned, This is Spinal Tap was a seminal movie-going experience for me, as it was perhaps for many of you. I seem to attract Tap fans, or they me. (Out of all my friends, it is only Mick who does not love it, and she and I have diametrically opposite taste in movies. The Matrix? Seriously?)

I also had a very deep attachment to one of the first short Christopher Guest movies that I saw on SNL - the one about the male synchronized swimming. I remember seeing it for the first time - must have been high school? - and nearly falling off the couch laughing.

I was thrilled when I heard Waiting for Guffman was coming out, and loved it. I thought Best in Show was perhaps the lesser of the two movies, but still enjoyed myself immensely. Children have interfered dismally with my moviegoing, so I actually had to watch A Mighty Wind on DVD the first time.* This one, I thought the critics were a little hard on...I think that the consensus was that it was funny, but not along the lines of the first two. However, it might have been my folk-music upbringing (I've seen Peter, Paul, and Mary in concert! Several times!), but I absolutely adored it, and seriously watch it every time it is on.

So, I was of course very jazzed to hear that For Your Consideration was coming out. When Mick asked me to go to a movie, it was my very first pick, and believe me, there are like TEN movies out that I want to see right now. (Borat, Shut up and Sing, The Queen, Fast Food Nation, Tenacious D, Stranger than Fiction, Bobby, Babel, American Hardcore...and even though I do not think I have ever sat through a James Bond movie, I'm kind of curious about Casino Royale, but that's just probably because Daniel Craig intrigues me.)

As usual when I see movies with Mick - who usually lets me pick, since I don't get out much - about 15 minutes into the movie I look over at her and knew that she hated it. So I figured that meant I would love it, right?

Ehhh...?

That cast is always going to be great. Fred Willard and Jane Lynch will make me laugh just by standing there, as will Jennifer Coolidge. John Michael Higgins is awesome, so is Parker Posey and Catherine O'Hara...they're all perfect. But, to be honest, I didn't think it was as funny as it should have been. I almost felt as though they'd been to the well too many times; though this wasn't a "mockumentary," it might as well as been one.

I don't know. Maybe I need to see it again. Almost always, Christopher Guest's movies are funnier to me with repeated watchings. Anyone else see it?

*ed. note: The Man says we did see it at the theater af ter all. The mind; it goes. Starting at exactly age 37, as it turns out.