Archive for "Movies"
Shoot ‘Em Up
Posted on September 16, 2007 by Ching under Family, Flickr, Movies.
Please don’t be misled by the categorization of this blog entry. Shoot ‘Em Up
I enjoy a good action flick just like the next guy, but the movie has to be at least somewhat believable. Look at The Italian Job, the Bourne series.. These are good action films. Heck, even Grindhouse is good compared to Shoot ‘Em Up. Brian disagrees. He thought Grindhouse was really campy. I argue that it is supposed to be campy so it actually succeeds at achieving it’s objective. In Shoot ‘Em Up, I have no idea what their objective is.. It’s like an action movie that is comedic, but unintentionally so. Some of the scenes are so stupid and unbelievable that it’s funny. However, that’s not actually the goal of the movie so it fails its purpose. I think the critics were overly generous for giving it a C+ mark. Anyway, here are some pictures of last night’s outing.. (more…)
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Warren Theaters Pisses me off AGAIN!
Posted on June 27, 2007 by Brian under Family, Life, Movies, News.
Warren Theaters has a knack of pissing me off. Below is an e-mail I sent to there coperate office. I think the e-mail explains everything.
Just for the record this will be the third time that the event that I will lay out to you has happened and the 2nd time that I have filed a complaint about it.Â
I am very disappointed in the way that your theater is currently conducting business. As I stated before this is the third time that I have had this problem. I’ll start by telling you that I am an avid movie watcher and probably visit your theater about 5 to 6 times a month, and most of that is balcony seating. Each time I call and ask your customer service when the tickets will be on sale. Lately I call several times a week because each time I call I get a different answer. The first time I called it was about the last “Pirates of the Caribbeanâ€. I stopped by after work on Wednesday the week before the movie was to start and was told that the tickets would be on sale the following Tuesday. I show up on Tuesday and find out that Tickets had been on sale since the previous Thursday, the day AFTER I came up and inquired about when the tickets would be sold. Needless to say I was very upset and almost did not get any seats. The second time was with the second “Fantastic 4â€. Again, I called on Wednesday and asked when the tickets will be sold. They advised me on the phone that it would be on Tuesday. This time I stop by the next day and see if the tickets are on sale (Just in case they are sold in advance again). And I was told Tuesday again by the man at the counter. So I figure that Tuesday is good and show up after work on Tuesday and ask for tickets. This time I’m told that tickets would not be sold until Wednesday or Thursday. Again, I was frustrated at the misinformation that I was told. My wife was frustrated enough that she filed a complaint on this web site and provided my number for the contact. I was called by a very rude supervisor that told me that they have never sold tickets on a Tuesday (Which is incorrect because I have been coming to this theater for years and have purchased tickets on ranging from the week before to the Tuesday of) and that I was mistaken in the information that I heard. Not that I was misinformed but that I heard the information incorrectly. This infuriated me that this supervisor would treat me in this manor. Now the current issue, I had called On Thursday again and asked when the tickets would be on Sale for the 4th of July. They stated on the phone that it would be Wednesday. So I call today before I get off work and was told by a lady that the tickets for “Transformers†were on sale. I specifically asked if they were on sale for the 4th of July and was told yes. I looked at your website and saw that the show times were available for the 3rd, 4th and 5th of July for “Transformersâ€. So I go to the 13th ave Warren (this is where all this happens if I didn’t mention it before) and go to the counter and ask for tickets. This time I am told that the tickets are not on sale until Friday, maybe Thursday “If I’m Luckyâ€. At this point I think maybe he was not aware of the web site displaying the tickets being on sale and pointed that out. He said that it didn’t matter what the web site said, he could only sell tickets for the 2nd (a special showing). I immediately asked for a Supervisor. About 10 minutes later a Supervisor showed up and I explained that I had called today 15 min before I drove up there and asked if they were selling tickets specifically for the 4th of July and was told yes and that when I got here I was told no. She tried to tell me that it’s not in the system and they didn’t have any Showtime’s available. I explained to her that the web site showed all times for the 3rd 4th and 5th. She had to take a min and go downstairs and check the computer for herself. She then came back up with a series of printouts and could not explain why the Showtime’s were there and not available in the system. She just told me that they didn’t know what they were going to drop yet and that this was the proposed times for the movie. She took my name and number and stated that she would call me when the tickets became available for sale (I’m not holding my breath for a return call).
Needless to say I found that this is a form of false advertising. You are claiming that you have something for sale that is truly not for sale. I will purchase tickets for “Transformersâ€, to be exact I will be purchasing 8 balcony tickets (this is pretty standard, I have several family and friends that go to the movies with me). However, this will be the last time I purchase tickets from your theater. The turnaround time from theater to DVD is fast enough now that I can patiently wait for it to come out on DVD and enjoy it in my home with out the hassle and frustration that I am currently going through. If you want to call me about this then I would be happy to discuss it with a member of your corporate office. If you are going to have one of your supervisors from the 13th ave Warren call me then save it. I have already talked to them and it has yet to be a pleasant experience.
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Curse of the Golden Flower
Posted on June 16, 2007 by Ching under Movies, Reviews.
“Who told you this movie is good?” That was Brian’s first reaction upon watching Curse of the Golden Flower. I guess he didn’t like it. I liked it, though. If you think your family is dysfunctional, you ought to watch this movie. It will make you feel better. LOL.
Hey, at least this movie is dubbed in English so Brian didn’t have to endure reading subtitles. Unlike Pan’s Labyrinth. Brian’s main complaint on that one was that it should have been dubbed in English. I’m sure they’ll release an English-dubbed version eventually.
Despite having to read subtitles, Brian paid enough attention to the movie to recognize the religious references. He commented about Ofelia’s true father, the king, being a God-like figure; her mother being a metaphor for Mary; and her infant brother being a representation of the baby Jesus. While his observation is on a more literal or physical level, I observed something similar. Taking it a step further the story line itself reminds of biblical, religious stories about the origin of man I was often told as a child. Only this time, you add fantasy and special effects and turn it into a fairy tale.
Princess Moanna, the daughter of the king of the underworld, ventures to the human world above to experience what it is like to be mortal. While living on the surface, she forgets about her previous life. She grows old and dies as a mortal, but the king believes that her spirit will return someday. Her spirit returns in the form of Ofelia. Ofelia has to pass several test in order to prove that her “essence is intact” before she can return to live with her father in the underwold.
Basically, Ofelia represents the children of God–mortals like you and I living in this world. We came from the heavenly kingdom but now we are here. Before we can return to heaven (for those folks who believe there is such a thing), we must prove ourselves. We face trials and tribulations each day of our lives. These are like the tasks or tests that Ofelia had to complete. Our choices demonstrate what we are made of, whether we have moral fortitude–whether our “essence is intact” so to speak. In the end, how we have lived our lives determines if we are worthy of returning to our Father in the heavenly kingdom.
Anyway, I was telling this to Brian and his reaction was “Have you been smoking dope and why aren’t you sharing?” Of course, I haven’t. The parallels just seemed glaringly obvious to me. Watch the movie and you’ll see what I’m talking about. It makes perfect sense.
Beyond the surface of the movie (a fairy tale loving child with a wild imagination cannot cope with the environment that she has been cast into and has gone completely insane) there is a definite religious tone. I think the closing throne scene with the mother, father, and baby–how the scene was costumed and presented–hammers this idea home. Like, if you don’t get the moral of the story we’re going to hammer it into you real obvious-like.
I don’t know. You watch the movie and tell me what you think.
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El Laberinto del Fauno
Posted on June 10, 2007 by Ching under Movies, Reviews.
After watching Pan’s Labyrinth
The film has elements reminiscent of me of Legend
Anyway, I highly recommend this movie. It is well worth enduring the subtitles.
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A Wonderful Afternoon of Procrastination
Posted on March 10, 2007 by Ching under Flickr, Food and Drink, Movies, Reviews.
Brian drug me to see 300 today. Prior to actually watching the movie, I really had no idea what it was all about. Brian, being the comic book freak that is, had already read the graphic novel. He’d been eagerly awaiting the movie’s release and could hardly contain himself. Although, it was I who had to be shushed in the middle of the movie for vocalizing my awe and excitement.
I highly recommend seeing this movie. It is rated R because of the graphic battle scenes and occasional nudity. The gore is not gross, though. It is very beautifully done. In fact, the entire movie is beautifully done. Every scene is picture-perfect. Nay, painting-perfect. It is the best movie I have seen thus far in 2007. Granted, I have been too busy to do much movie watching, but I expect that it is the best movie that I’ll see this year.
Since Brian drug me to do his thing, I drug him to do my thing. So we went to Cocoa Dolce after our movie. Cocoa Dolce is this new (they’ve only been around for 15 months) gourmet chocolate shop on 37th and Rock. Master chocolatier and proprietor Beth Tully likes to call her shop a chocolate lounge because it’s like a cozy little coffee shop offering chocolate beverages and gelattos besides the vast offering of delectable chocolate confections.
We’d driven by the store many times going to Dillon’s and QuikTrip and other places in the area but we’d never really considered going in until after we saw Ms. Tully speak at WSU on Thursday. She is a very articulate, impressive, amazing woman. I suspect she could sell a refrigerator to an eskimo. Our curiosity was piqued and so we went.
At $52 per pound, she was quite accurate when she described her demographic. In decribing her niche target market, she described her product as a luxury item. Most of us don’t really think of chocolates in that way but she is absolutely right. Gourmet chocolates such as these probably wouldn’t appeal to the average person who is satisfied by your run of the mill grocery store candy. Although, for those with enough discretionary income to indulge, the delicious morsels are an indulgence worth every penny.
Brian and I don’t see ourselves going back every week, after all we are pretty pragmatic and frugal these days. However, we agreed that we could afford to splurge just this once. Or maybe a few more times in the coming weeks. We have already talked about returning to try some of the gelatto. One patron described it as putting even Coldstone Creamery (our favorite ice cream shop) ice cream to shame.
Oh, their sugar free chocolate selections are also worth mentioning because they don’t taste sugar free at all. You can buy some of their stuff through the Cocoa Dolce online store. I promise that you will not be disappointed. Brian and I give Cocoa Dolce our seal of approval.
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