A "Sand" Movie

Last week, after multiple attempts, Christopher and I went out to see "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time." It was a bit odd. We'd been trying to find time to go to the movie for a while, and when we finally found ourselves able to go last Wednesday, the only place it was playing was the New Hope Cinema Grill.

So we showed up, chose our seats, and ordered a pitcher of beer and the "all you can eat" pepperoni pizza deal. The movie was already underway by the time the beer and pizza showed up, which might not have been a bad thing, since we really didn't have to see the drinks or food to enjoy them.

The movie, on the other hand, was definitely worth seeing on the big screen (as opposed to waiting until we could see it on the TV screen). Okay, yes, Jake Gyllenhaal's hair in the movie is pretty bad (but not actually as bad as you might expect from the trailers), and there are fairly few people in the movie who look Persian, but the movie is fun.

Basically, it's the story of a young prince who - through the mechanations of an evil royal advisor - ends up on the wrong side of a battle for the crown. Along for the ride are two more princes, a beautiful mystical princess, a magical dagger, and some ostriches. (Yes, ostriches.) And, well, there's a lot of sand.

There seems to be something about movies that have a lot of sand in them. Take "The Mummy," for instance (the Brendan Fraser version, if you please). It's completely fun and completely fluff. There's also "Sahara" which - although not a great version of the book - was a fun romp without a lot of substance. And, of course, there's "Tremors," the Kevin Bacon flick with the giant worms terrorizing a small, sand-surrounded, town.

So, as time has gone on, I've come to expect that most "sand" movies will be fluffy and without much dramatic merit. And, with that in mind, we were definitely not disappointed.

The action was active. The lovers were star-crossed. The magic was magical. The sand was sandy. The ostriches were ostrich-y. And the pizza and beer were quite nice, overall.

Overall rating: A-. If only Jake could have grown out his own hair while he was buffing up so they wouldn't have had to use whatever weave/wig thing he had going on, it would have been an A.