Last night's movies: one hit, one miss

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Home for the Holidays were our library rental picks last night. I first saw Priscilla at one of the Ritz theaters in Philly when it was first released. I don't remember if I saw it alone or with friends, but I know it was fun and fabulous, and it's lost nothing in the intervening years. The Professor enjoyed his first viewing as well.

Sadly, the second movie (necessitated by the one Excedrin I took at around 4 pm, which contained enough caffeine to keep me up all night if I'd wanted to be), was not so great. I should just say that is 100 minutes of my life I won't be getting back and leave it at that, but I won't. Australian drag queens are a tough act to follow, so perhaps it was merely the contrast, but I don't think so. Home for the Holidays was just basically unwatchable schlock, and it didn't have to be. Holly Hunter, Anne Bancroft for crying out loud. These are heavy hitters; it could have been a good movie. How Claire Danes' 3 minutes of screen time earn her mention on the DVD case, I do not know. Robert Downey, Jr. is both spastic and sloppy; one gets the sense not so much acting as just being an annoying jerk and getting paid for it, to which I say good for him, but I don't want to watch. Dylan McDermott is not so good looking that he can get by on that alone, but the movie sure tried to let him. The one redeeming moment is the movie is when you get to see that Charles Durning is probably a pretty good dancer. Overall, though, quite disappointing, and I would not recommend Home for the Holidays to anyone, not even as background noise.