Archive for "Movies"
Checkmate
Posted on December 26, 2006 by Ching under Flickr, Games, Movies.
Today was kind of a disappointment but we managed to make the best of it. Today was supposed to be the day Brian and I get to spend to ourselves and enjoy our couples massage together at Healing Waters. The last few days have been really hectic (Christmas eve at my parents’ house in Derby and then Christmas day at Brian’s parents’ house, always an all day event) so we were really looking forward to our relaxing hour and a half massages. I had scheduled it as a surprise for Brian almost a month ago, but I ended up telling him about it shortly after. In the spirit of pragmatism, we agreed that it would just be our Christmas present to each other.
We started our day by having lunch at Chili’s. Our friends the Dills work there so we thought we would pop in on them. Anyway, lunch was good. When Dill found out that we were watching a movie that evening, he gave us a couple of movie passes. In exchange we left him a really good tip (almost as much as our entire bill). I thought it was nice of him to give us the passes. One good deed deserves another, right?
After lunch we hit the nearby Super Target to get some fruits and veggies for the suggies. Then we came home to take care of some last minute stuff and leave dinner in the cage for the suggies because we anticipated being out for the rest of the afternoon and evening. When we arrived home I found a message on my phone. It was Healing Waters calling to reschedule our appointment because one of the massage therapists assigned to us had fallen ill and was sent home. They could not find anyone to fill in. Brian was really mad and threw a fit. I felt really bad because I had scheduled this way in advance and I knew he was really looking forward to it. We ended up rescheduling for Thursday afternoon, but Brian was already upset.
Add to that the fact that we noticed Bebot’s “maintenance required” light lit up and would not go away. Being the worry warts that we are, we figured we’d just go to Eddy’s and have them check it out. Brian called them ahead of time so they would expect us. When we arrived, one of the Eddy’s guys looks at the car and fixes the problem by simply pushing a button. Apparently, the light is set to come on every five thousand miles. They are supposed to reset it each time we come for an oil change but we went at three thousand miles and I think they forgot to reset it or something. Anyway, I’m glad that Bebot is fine.
With that out of the way Brian and I decided to cheer each other up by having a contest. We said we’d give each other a hundred dollars each to spend at the mall and who ever got the most items for their money would be declared the winner. The only rule we had was that we could not buy crap just for the saying of having the most items. It had to be something that we wanted or would use. Naturally, Old Navy was the perfect venue for our competition. Where else can you buy a ton of crap for cheap?
Brian and I ended up getting about the same amount of items but his totalled about $75 and mine came to $99 and change. We declared him Victor but truthfully I think he had an unfair advantage because they usually have more guys stuff on sale. Next time we we have a contest I think we will do it like supermarket sweeps. The winner would be whoever can come closest to the maximum limit without going over. Although, if we do it that way then I’d have an unfair advantage because I’m better at math. LOL. Of course, Brian could always use a calculator. There won’t be a rule against that.
After Old Navy we stopped by the Gap (Brian still had $25 more to spend and I wanted to see if we could get another pair of his-n-hers matching shirts–yes, I like to torture Brian–incidentally, our total came to more than what he had left but that’s ok because we got our matching shirts–LOL). Brian found some cargo pants he liked and I found us some green mens tees on sale for $5 a piece. I got one in XS and Brian got one in XL. He was really hoping I wouldn’t be able to find a shirt that came in the sizes we needed, but I’m pretty resourceful. Now we have four matching shirts! We have our Nerve shirts (I think these were our first), Blogger shirts, red shirts and now our green shirts. I made him promise to wear it to poker on Friday and he agreed. (more…)
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Recently Watched Movies
Posted on December 21, 2006 by Ching under Movies, Reviews.
Now that school is out Brian and I are catching up on some movie watching. We’ve watched almost a dozen movies in the last couple of weeks. Last Saturday Brian and I watched The Pursuit of Happyness. We went home and decided to play a couple of movies as we wrapped gifts. We watched The Break Up and Accepted. Needless to say, we were up until the wee hours of the morning.
Today we watched Eragon. It was a lot better than I expected. I was thoroughly entertained. The little dragon was really cute.
On the drive home Brian made the comment that we’ll probably discover in sequel that Arya is really Eragon’s sister, which made me realize that the story is a lot like Stars Wars. Eragon was left to live with his uncle much like Luke Skywalker. Arya was raised as a Princess like Princess Leia. There are a lot of parallels in the two stories. Eragon had to rescue Arya from Durza’s castle like Luke rescued Leia from the Death Star.
The Varden were like the Rebel Alliance, Brom was like Obi-Wan, Murtagh is the Han Solo character, King Galbatorix is Darth Vader, his army are like the Storm Troopers, and all we are missing is a wookie. Then again, there is a sequel! Let’s just hope they don’t bring Jar Jar Binx. LOL. This is just the beginning. There are a lot more similarities but I won’t ruin the movie for you because it really is a must see. The visuals are breathtaking.
Kidding aside, here are my thoughts on the other movies that we have seen lately..
The Pursuit of Happyness was good but I expected more out of it. The movie previews kind of built it up so much. It made me cry but it wasn’t the bawl-fest that I expected. Not that it’s a bad thing. It’s probably good that it didn’t make me cry as much as I Am Sam did. I don’t think there was a second in that movie that I wasn’t crying. Anyway, The Pursuit of Happyness is an inspiring movie. It shows that hard working people prevail against all odds. Believe in your dreams and persevere. Happiness will follow.
The Break Up was disappointing to say the least. It wasn’t funny and it wasn’t enlightening. I could relate to some of her concerns and his concerns but none of it was entertaining. Why would I want to watch something that I experience in my daily life? It was a waste of two hours. Thankfully, I was productive. I was wrapping presents as I watched the movie so at least my time wasn’t completely wasted.
Accepted was pretty funny but it’s not the kind of movie that I would really go out of my way to see. Obviously, this one came from Brian’s Netflix queue.
The movies that I borrowed that we (or I in some cases because Brian refuses to watch some of my films although I always watch his with him) watched recently include, Intimacy (a foreign film), Somersault (foreign also), and Girl with a Pearl Earring. I have a thing for foreign films.
Intimacy is a French film and had lots of nudity. I’m not sure I quite got it. I think I was distracted by all the sex scenes.
Somersault is an Australian film. I really only rented it for one reason. I wanted to see Abbie Cornish, the girl that Ryan Phillippe cheated on Reese Witherspoon with. I figured she has got to be something special. She’s okay. She is youthful and vibrant, but probably not someone worth throwing a marriage away for.. Somersault is a pretty good movie, as indie films go. What he did, though.. Cheating on his lovely wife, who I love and admire dearly… That was really stupid.
I watched Girl with a Pearl Earring because I love Scarlett Johansson. We’ve had it in our movie collection for a long time but I’ve not had a chance to watch it until now. It’s a good period piece and even better considering that the movie is about a woman in a Vermeer painting.
It’s amazing how many movies I’ve seen in such a short period of time. Even crazier is the fact that I have so many more to watch because we are completely behind in our movie watching.
If I don’t post another entry until after Christmas, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!
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Movies to Remake
Posted on November 8, 2006 by Brian under Life, Movies, Wishlist.
In this day and age it’s obvious that imagination has lost its spark. The muse that once was all around us has gone and we are left with remakes of films that at there conception, were considered to be fabulous! Here is a list of the top ten movies that I would love to see remade in my life time;
10. Planet of the Apes Saga
I know that they have already made one of the films but I think in the next few years they should remake the rest of them. The original was considered to be a great film with great effects and makeup that was outstanding for its time. It gave us a glimpse of what the world would be like if evolution took a twisted turn.
9. Death Race 2000
This was, even for its time, a rather cheesy film. It focused around a deadly car race that was considered to be the greatest sport in National History. It was a game that involved racing across specific zones, the more pedestrians you hit the more points you rack up. David Carradine was the bad guy with a grenade for a hand. But this could easily be redone with modern graphics and a perked up story line. Think “Fast and the Furious†meets “Commandoâ€.
8. 2001 / 2010.
Now everyone is probably ready to jump through there computers and strangle me. But give me a chance. I do not want to change a thing on these films. They were what I considered to be Iconic films of there time and they were even better books. I just think that if we are going to move into an age of remakes, let’s remake something that was considered to be outstanding even it is day. Just imagine the imagery that we can create from redoing these movies with today’s computer graphics and make-up artist. (more…)
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Adam Sandler Movies Make Cry
Posted on November 3, 2006 by Ching under Movies.
As funny as Adam Sandler is, it seems I end up bawling like an incosolable child every time I watch one of his movies. Remember 50 First Dates
Brian asked why I was crying and I told him I was scared. I could see myself as Michael, Adam Sandler’s character. It makes me feel guilty that I am not around more. I don’t get to spend enough time with Brian and the limited time I have to spend with him wouldn’t actually be classified as quality time. I’m afraid I’m guilty of doing the “autopilot” thing, too.
Sometimes our values and priorities get so muddled that we end up valuing the wrong things. Family should always come first.
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The Departed
Posted on October 14, 2006 by Ching under Movies.
Please do not read any further if you don’t want me to ruin the movie for you…
Okay, you’ve been warned…
My father-in-law David, Brian and I went to watch The Departed after dinner tonight. We, and by we I mean, Uncle Kenny, Renee, Feifel, Grandma, Grandpa, their neighbor John, David, Donna, Brian and I, all went to Red Lobster for dinner to celebrate Grandpa’s 89th birthday and Grandma and Grandpa’s 65th wedding anniversary.
Dinner went great but back to the movie… The Departed is probably the best movie I have seen in a long time. Martin Scorsese knows his stuff. The movie is excellent. It captures you and entertains all the way through. I loved all the plot twists [incoming spoiler] and the unexpected way that DiCaprio’s character dies at the end.
Now, I’ve seen a lot of movies. In most movies the protagonist lives. So let’s say DiCaprio is our hero. You’d think he’d survive and then we have ourselves a happy ending, right? Well, that’s one of the things I loved about this movie. It’s not so predictable.
So let’s say Matt Damon is our hero. Well, guess what [another spoiler]… He dies, too. I love how everyone dies at the end. I know that’s morbid of me but it worked out great. The movie is more effective with everyone dead. I think the only top billed person who doesn’t die is Marky Mark. Go, Marky!
Anyway, the movie is great. I even told Brian that I wouldn’t mind watching it a second or third time. If you know me, that’s quite a compliment because I generally can’t stand to watch a movie that I have already seen. It is so good that I am willing to forgive a film flub.
Which film flub, you ask? If you recall the sex scene between the shrink and DiCaprio you’ll notice that her portrait is still hanging on the wall, she’s still packing stuff up and she’s still got most of her furniture at her place. Maybe you were too busy oogling the girl to notice, but I did and believe me when I say this is a flub. Recall that a couple of scenes before she had moved her stuff into Matt Damon’s apartment and the same childhood portrait of her was in that box. The movers rang the bell, remember? If that was the day she moved then why was her stuff still conveniently at her place when DiCaprio decides to pay her a visit?
Having watched a couple of episodes of Project Greenlight I’m pretty sure that Scorsese was well aware of this. I’m sure I’m not the only one who picked up on it. When you think about it, pacing is more important and if you have to make sacrifices to make the movie better then so be it. You gotta do what you gotta do. Ultimately I order that they went with in the movie works better as far the the pacing is concerned. If they would’ve gone with the correct chronological order then the pacing would have been off and the movie would have been less effective. That’s just my untrained opinion, though.
Regardless of the flub, it’s a great movie. Go see it already!
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P.S. The weird thing about going to the movies with David (but without Donna — she wasn’t feeling well) is that it felt oddly like Brian and I were on our first teenage date and his dad was acting as our chaperone. Brian did not misbehave during the movie. 😉
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