'Summer' in the City

After losing out on the remaining two seats last weekend to a pachyderm those fat chicks who tried to plow me down in front of the box office in Union Square, Michael and I finally saw "(500) Days of Summer" over the weekend. To say I hated it -- or even disliked it -- would be a bit much. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is extremely likable and his performance was enough to keep me engaged for the most part. But overall, it was like the filmmakers pulled the best scene out of 10 other great movies and crammed them into one too-cute-for-its-own-good love story, one that at times seemed to go on for at least 200 of the 500 aforementioned days. If Gordon-Levitt is the film's highlight, Zooey Deschanel -- whom we're supposed to believe is so adorable that men fall for her around the country -- was pretty irritating. (A straight guy I know who saw the movie mentioned how "annoying" she was, so I'm guessing it's not just my gay blind spot.) The occasional narrator bit (I say either DO IT or DON'T with something like that) and painfully cliched precocious younger sister (GET IT? She's 12 but knows more about love and relationships than her brother who's twice her age???) rounded out the film's list of shortcomings. Grade: C plus. Favorite scene: A clip from "The Graduate."