Saturday, October 02, 2004

Just watched 13 Going on 30. It’s cute. Jennifer Garner is good as a 13 year old in a 30 year old’s body and life. I love Mark Ruffalo and he was good as the former best friend. It was fun to actually see Andy Sirkis’ face; he’s not a bad actor when he plays a human. As others have said, it’s Big for chicks, but I think Big is better overall. And I have a few nits to pick, the primary being the timing of the whole thing.

Jenna is supposed to be 30 in 2004. That means she would have been 13 in 1987ish - they did that right when we saw the date on the yearbook page. But whoever was researching the music, TV, technology, and dress of 1987 could have gotten better information by watching VH-1’s I Love the 80s.

For example, Rick Springfield’s Jessie’s Girl was a hit in the early 80s. By 1987 he was almost a has been. Michael Jackson’s Thriller album was released in 1982 and I think the Thriller single and video was a hit in 1983-84. By 1987, MJ had moved on to his Bad era. And while the way the younger Jenna and her friends dressed was very 80s, it was more the way we dressed in 1984-85. I think we were done with that look by 1987.

Sadly, those types of things were a distraction for me while I was watching the movie. How hard would it have been to get those simple things right? It’s like the production team decided to just get close and it would be good enough.

It’s a mediocre movie that I would have been ticked at spending money and time at the theater to see. I didn’t hate it, but it only gets 2.5 stars out of 5.