Gates of Heaven - Take 2

What was I thinking, the first time I watched this film? I watched it again a few days ago and I really enjoyed it this time. It is a very funny, well-done film. Yeah, yeah, there are no car chases, no bombs going off, no love scenes, no crude jokes, however if you take the time to watch the film, I think you will really enjoy it.

The movie reminds me of "Best in Show", except these are real people, talking very seriously about real stories. Also, there is a guy who reminds me of the Greg Kinnear character in "Little Miss Sunshine". This guy has distilled his success philosophy down to a simple formula. What is great about this success formula is that it can be applied to any situation in your life. He is using this formula to propel himself to greater heights. As the movie was filmed, his job was mowing pet cemetary lawns for his father. Hunh? Ok, Ok, maybe the formula needs a little refinement. Anyway, this leaves the viewer in kind of a strange position. You want to laugh at the people and yet at the same time, you feel a little guilty about laughing at these sincere, passionate characters.

In my last post on this movie, I mentioned that Roger Ebert had seen this movie perhaps 30 times and he is still getting something new out of it. I got alot out of my second viewing of it, but I can not imagine that I will still be getting much out of it after 30 viewings. Having said that, Ben still wants to see the movie, so I may watch it a third time. I don't know how much new I will get out of it, however I am starting to smile just thinking about seeing it again.