‘Juno’ an honest to blog mess

I’m only a year behind the times, but I just saw “Juno” on DVD this past weekend.

THIS is the “smart, sophisitcated” comedy everyone was hyped up about?

I can’t say it was bad, but it really wasn’t that good, either. The writing was definitely sophisticated, but the scribe knew he was smarter than everyone else and tried way too hard to prove that in his script. What was supposed to be cool talk from a hipper-than-thou teen just sounded like jibberish from a stuck-up princess.

The acting was superb, but do you mean to tell me that this Best Picture-nominated film was actually one of the top five movies of 2007? Methinks the Academy didn’t try too hard to find a better alternative.

Good writing doesn’t have to be over-the-top in its intelligence. “Almost Famous” was superbly written, but you never felt like you were being talked down to. That’s all “Juno” seemed to be doing.

Out with the old, in with the new

I saw screenings over the past week of “88 Minutes” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”

The dichotomy between Hollywood’s older and younger stars could not have been made more evident over those two nights.

Everything Al Pacino brought to the table had been seen before. Running around in a panic, manic monologues, “twists” that were about as predictable as the day ending in “y” – you get the idea.

Then you get “Marshall,” which brought a refreshing remake to the romantic comedy genre. There were uproarious laughs, unforeseen events and you weren’t QUITE SURE how it would end. The random lines tacked onto the end of scenes by themselves made this a new classic.

Pacino is a screen icon, and Jason Segal is basically nothing compared to him. Perhaps in a few decades, though, we’ll see “Marshall” as Segel’s “Godfather.”

Hopefully next time, though, he’ll keep it in his pants.

Coming Sunday

We have an exciting Sunday lfiestyle section coming April 20. Included are:

* A look at the Western New York Drive-In Movie Society, which looks to preserve the remaining nine drive-in theaters in the region. Two of those are in Niagara County. There’s nothing like a night at the drive-in, and it’s a shame so many of these theaters are shutting down.

* Mommy & Me examines why some outsiders feel a second boy isn’t as “good” as a girl coming for Baby No. 2 to accompany the first boy.

* Snapshots spent an afternoon at the North Tonawanda Public Library with Sandy, a dog trained for reading therapy and for comforting seniors.

All of that and more is in the Niagara Gazette, Lockport Union-Sun and Tonawanda News on Sunday. Check it out!

Hi everybody!

Hello and welcome to Life in the Slow Lane. I am your host for the evening, features editor Paul Lane. This blog will feature a little bit of everything in my world – music, television, movies, lifestyle technology, parenting and pretty much anything else going on.

For this introductory blog entry, we’ll discuss what’s coming up in April 17’s Night & Day (niagara-gazette.com/nightandday).

• A feature story on Record Store Day, profiling those few remaining Western New York independent record store owners. It’s too bad there are so few left. I recall many of my younger days being spent in record stores in Tonawanda, Amherst and Syracuse, and I can attribute a great deal of my musical maturity to such places allowing me to experiment.

• An interview with Robert Klein, the comedian/actor who will be in tow to perform a medley of Broadway hits. Despite not needing the coverage, Klein could not have been more pleasant to talk to. A class act all the way.

• The Harold Lloyd Film Festival, highlighting the silent actor’s career, comes to North Tonawanda this weekend. Many of film’s seminal moments came courtesy of this legend, and this fest offers a rare chance to see these films as they were meant to be seen.

Keep checking back for more from the Slow Lane. Goodbye for now.