Go see The Hulk

Yeah, I know I know I know. Lousy reviews and all.

I loved The Hulk. I went to see it one day when softball got rained out with Donee. Donee was disappointed.

First, a word about me and movies. It's gotta be really really bad. Or, y'know... some film with subtitles or something. Slightly altered images on celuloid projected in rapid succession to create the illusion of movement is usually enough for me to have a good time.

But I'm serious about the Hulk. It's a father/son movie. It's about a man who spends his whole life holding back and holding in, sensing that there's a person inside of him that is a stranger, a person who might take over if and when allowed to emerge, a person that is who he really is. And when that identity does emerge, what does he say to his girlfriend? "When I lose control like that, I kinda like it." Also, the traumatic event that sits at the center of the movie happened to Dr. Banner when he was three-and-a-half years old. Now, my mother died when I was three-and-a-half years old. I have very little memory of her or her death. This has always puzzled me. Shouldn't I? How much is a three-and-a-half year old able to remember? (Note: I'm not suggesting that my father murdered my mother.)

I thought Nick Nolte was fun to watch, too, as the elder Dr. Banner. And how about that demonic french poodle? (Freedom poodle? Liberty poodle?)

Anyone who has had the experience of coming to terms with an aspect of himself that he has spent an incredible amount of psychic energy trying to squelch will love Ang Lee's The Hulk.

I know I did.

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