Having seen pretty much all the decent movies out right now, the Mrs. and I decided to go see \”Atonement\” on Friday night. This is a weird year, as I have now seen four of the five Best Picture Oscar nominees (Michael Clayton being the only one I haven\’t seen.)

So here\’s the official review: It was looooooooong. I fully expected my first Medicare check to be in the mail when I got home. The ending was decent, but it took forever to get there. Two hours of British costume drama is too much for me, although you can do a lot worse than Keira Knightley (pretty much the whole reason I agreed to go in the first place.)

Saturday night, I watched a movie called \”Rocket Science,\” and thought it was outstanding. There was an element of \”Rushmore\” (which happens to be my favorite movie) and other high school flicks, but it quickly came into its own. (It also steals Alec Baldwin as the narrator, which is stolen directly from Wes Anderson\’s \”The Royal Tenenbaums.\”) I thought it perfectly captured the feeling of changing who you are to attract a girlfriend in high school.

Here\’s the trailer:

I checked the reviews of \”Rocket Science\” at RottenTomatoes.com, and it gets an 85% favorability rating. But then I noticed how much money it had made – a pitiful $601,000 since it was released in August.

That is part of my frustration with movies like \”Meet the Spartans,\” which has now made $28 million in two weekends. A smart, well executed movie like \”Rocket Science\” can\’t draw any viewers, but bottom feeding dreck rolls in the cash. As the saying goes, no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.