Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Director: Michel Gondry

Cast: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo

Have I Seen it Before: Oh, sure. It felt like in the mid-aughts it was not obligatory to have seen it, but to have seen it ten or twelve times…

But then again, I’ll be the first one to admit that my mid-aughts were a little bit different than others.

Did I Like It: It was a fascinating watching the movie after having not seen it for many years. The flow of the plot had long since escaped my memory, but there were moments that have been living rent free in my head all this time.

Never has there been a movie where that strange, chiaroscuro quality to memory is more apropriate. The film is still funny, eccentric, and well acted and observed. But, back in those days when the film first came out, the question the film brings up is whether or not erasing pain erases the joy associated with, but as an older man I tend to think about it all in another way:

Can we ever really forget anything? I’ve met some people who would insist that they have and have put on a pretty good show of keeping up that claim, but I wonder. I guess I also wonder if, with a little time, the film’s conceit of those little moments that can vascilate wildly between being fond or painful memories have no hope of surviving. Joel (Carrey) and Clementine (Winslet) may not remember any of the particulars of why they grew to resent one another, but it’s not like removing those memories made them any less miserable. I too have probably lost more details of pain—to say nothing of getting completely wrong still more details—than I am probably aware of. There are still times I view as painful, and times I view fondly. They’ve even changed hands a few times back and forth.

Yes, indeed. Memory is a funny thing.

The Green Hornet (2011)

Director: Michel Gondry

Cast: Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Christoph Waltz, Cameron Diaz

Have I Seen it Before: I have a distinct memory of seeing the movie in theaters, but beyond noting that the only mildly interesting use of the 3D was during the end credits, I had next to no memory about the movie itself.

Did I Like It: That last thought ought to tell you something.

It’s odd, but at the same time intuitive in the way only film executives could come up with, that in the television landscape of the 1960s, Batman was played for laughs, while The Green Hornet was plated deathly serious. Fast forward 45 years are so and we are no deluged with deadly serious Bat-films, and so the makers of The Green Hornet decided to opt for counter-programming and re-introduce millionaire publisher Britt Reid to the populace by way of a Seth Rogen buddy comedy.

And that’s about all I—or from a quick Google search, most of the of the people associated with the making of the film—could say that’s interesting about it. Even if somehow Rogen and company worked under a studio that had any interest in making an R-rated comedy version of the film, but even then, Rogen would have been miscast. It feels almost as if the film were originally written for Rogen buddy James Franco to star as Reid, but he had enough sense to pass on anything more than a cameo.

Maybe a Hornet movie played for laughs was the wrong move to begin with. All I know is that I was maybe a third of the way through the film before I was wondering how I might find a way to watch the TV series. I’m pleased to report that they are all available on Youtube, in relatively okay quality bootleg versions. Go check them out. The first episode has the Hornet and Kato taking out a crook named Trump. It has real charm. A legitimate release of that would be something I’d be imminently interested in watching.