fine whine

So as I was driving back from my parents' place in Cuyahoga Falls, and keeping an eye on the young woman driving the Volvo in front of me at eighty miles per hour with her left foot out the window, and listening to some Dave Barry on tape and glancing sidelong to the teeming fog beside the road and the occasional firework above, whereupon my mind began to drift, to the movie we watched last night.

It was Welcome to Collinwood, starring a whole bunch of recognizable people including William H. Macy, Luis Guzman, Sam Rockwell and George Clooney in a cameo role. It took me much longer than it should've to register that this was a somewhat remake (i.e. they took the plot but not the title) of I soliti ignoti, or as the Criterion DVD calls it Big deal on Madonna street. I should've recognized it from the beginning's car theft but it took me a while to realize that this was an updating of the classic Italian heist farce. It's pretty good on its own merits, and shows the brothers Russo to be potential decent filmmakers.

It's not by far a perfect movie, and goes a little overboard here and there, but it was definitely enjoyable.

Whereas the car ride home today was pretty lame, save for the occasional firework or errant foot sticking out a window.

Oh yeah, happy birthday, freedom.