Snap Judgment: Don't answer the phone, it's McCarthy!

Friday already? Need more excuses to stay home and spackle? Look no further.



When a Stranger Calls (horror, rated R, directed by Simon West, written by Jake Wade Wall)

I would totally see this if I could guarantee that I'd be in a theater with a bunch of clueless girls who had never seen a horror movie before. This would also be the only time when I would have no problem with others talking in the theater. Because there could be conversations like this:

Girl 1: Who do you think that guy who keeps calling her is?
Girl 2: I don't know. I get wrong numbers all the time. Like when I was waiting for a call from Stacy? And I kept picking up the phone and just hearing someone breathing?
Girl 1: Oh my god, ick. Like, breathe somewhere else, okay?
Girl 2: You know, why doesn't she just check the children? When you're babysitting you're totally supposed to do that.
Girl 1: Yeah. I totally always do that. Except the other night, when that little shit Spencer was crying and I had literally just done my nails, so not like I could have picked him up anyway.
Girl 2: I'm going to text Katie to see if she's seen this.
Girl 1: Ooh, maybe she can tell us who that guy is.


Something New (romantic comedy, rated PG-13, directed by Sanaa Hamri, written by Kriss Turner)

The press materials say this is a "romantic comedy about finding love where it's least expected." And apparently, a blind date qualifies as that "least expected" place. Having been on some almost-blind dates, I will grant you that it's not where you'd most expect to find love, but I think it's still pretty far ahead of other places, such as:

• the inside of a Pepto Bismol bottle
• between the fourth and fifth vertebrae of a walrus
• the little miniature plastic table-looking thing they put in the middle of Domino's pizzas
• the nucleus of a Deuteronium atom

Make me a movie about finding love in one of those, and then maybe I'll show up, if I'm not busy.

Good Night, and Good Luck. (news/biopic, rated PG, directed by George Clooney, written by Clooney & Grant Heslov)

Okay, full disclosure, I saw this months ago. And therefore I can tell you that although its marketing campaign and subject matter seem designed to scare off anyone under 90, it's actually really good. Funny thing that I didn't make up: they use actual footage of Joe McCarthy in the movie, but in test screenings people assumed it was an actor and complained that he was way over the top. Ahhh, McCarthy. If there had been an Oprah in his time, he would have made couch-jumping look passe.