What The Hell Was That? - 'Sucker Punch' at IMAX

Joe the Plumber had been saying for weeks that he wanted to see 'Sucker Punch'. Out of the loop as ever, I had no clue what it was about, but agreed to go anyway.

So, last night, we saw 'Sucker Punch', on the six-story tall screen at the IMAX. With a zillion speakers hammering us on all sides.

I still haven't much of a clue what it was all about, but I do note that sexy but vulnerable women possessing superhuman-like powers while sporting heavy armaments and exercising maximum violence in a fantasy wargamelike dreamscape is a pretty good formula for Hollywood success.

A little incoherent on the story - how do beautiful model-like women get trapped in an insane asylum anyway? Can't they get trapped somewhere else, like an engineering firm? - but who is paying that much attention to the story anyway?

This trend of people narrowly-surviving maximum violence started with 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' in 1980, and it's been downhill ever since. Quentin Tarantino, and movies like 'Sin City' (which is the stylistic model for 'Sucker Punch') have severely aggravated the trend.

For example, I really liked the way these women could leap from an flying aircraft onto a moving train right into a three-point crouch. Very pretty! Very agile! If I did the same, however, the result, while interesting, would not be pretty (more like a 'Jackass' video gone horribly awry, or an advanced training video for paramedics). At the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviets dropped lots of skydivers into snowy fields behind Nazi lines, hoping to break the Nazi siege, but lo-and-behold, they couldn't afford parachutes, so the planes flew ultra-low and slow and they hoped for the best with the cushioning effect of snow. That wasn't very pretty (particularly in those fields windswept of snow). Impressed the hell out of the Nazis, though.

Joe The Plumber liked particular quotes:

Don't ever write a check with your mouth you can't cash with your ass.

Or:

For those who fight for it, life has a flavor the sheltered will never know.

Or the trenchant philosophy:

Who honors those we love for the very life we live? Who sends monsters to kill us. And at the same time, things that will never die. Who teaches us whats real, and how to laugh at lies. Who decides why we live, and what we'll die to defend. Who trains us, and who holds the key to set us free. It's you. You have all the weapons you need. Now fight!

But I was reminded more of this article at The Onion, which Buffee mentioned on Facebook:

"My whole life I've made a concerted effort to give people a fair shake and understand different points of view because I felt that everyone had something valuable to offer, but it turns out most of what they had to offer was complete bullshit."

Joe the Plumber thought it was the best movie, ever! I'm still trying to figure out what the hell happened.