Really? A chic-flick Vampire Movie?

Quick Disclaimer: if you are one of my readers that would be appalled at a Harry Potter movie - you may not care for this post. For everyone else, there are no plot spoilers…

Is nothing sacred any more???  I saw a preview for Twilight (2008) and thought to myself, “Cool - A new vampire movie is coming out!”  I NEVER would have imaged it to be a CHICK FLICK!  Some of you may not know that I enjoy this particular type of movie, but vampire movies are at the top of my list of “types of movies I enjoy despite my being religious”.  Most recently, I enjoyed I Am Legend (2007) - the book was vampire, the movie, not so much - Underworld (2003) and Underworld: Evolution (2006); I’ve seen all three of the Blade movies (1998, 2002, 2004) with Wesley Snipes although they weren’t very good; My all time favorite is The Lost Boys (1987) - they just don’t make classics like that anymore.  I even sat through Vampire’s Kiss (1989) with Nicolas Cage which was one of the worse movies ever.  Interview with a Vampire,  Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel (TV Series), I could go on an on, but back to Twilight…

You can image how I would be excited about a new vampire movie.  So, I went to see it.  I was a bit suprised to see so many girls in the theater - I mean, this is a vampire movie, right?  What I didn’t know was that the movie is based on a young adult novel by Stephenie Meyers (Twilight).  The entire movie was filled with awkward teenage “saved by the bell” moments, which wouldn’t have bothered me if it weren’t for the constant giggling all around me.  I felt like I was crashing a slumber party with a bunch of school girls (I’m a dad, there is nothing exciting about that idea for me).

As with every vampire movie, the were several twists to the traditional vampire legend - no garlic, I don’t remember seeing a single fang, and sunlight didn’t have quite the same affect as expected.  They did elude to the tension with werewolves - which is traditionally the Hatfields verses the McCoys for vampires stories, but there were no actual werewolves in the film.  I did have a favorite line in the movie:

Chick: I want answers

Dude: Yes… No… To get to the other side… 1.77245…

Chick: I don’t want to know the square root of PI!

Dude: You knew that was the square root of pi???

The movie itself, 2 1/2 out of 4 stars, the overall experince, 1 out of 4 stars…

Tags: CHICK FLICK, edward cullin, stephenie meyers, Twilight, Vampire, young adult

If you enjoyed it - DIGG it:    

A Great Adventure

Stephanie and I have been married for nine years, yesterday.  I took several days off work to celebrate the occasion, even though we had not made any formal plans.  Back when Stephanie and I got married, we used to take day trips on a regular basis, even some weekend driving trips on a whim - trips to near by cities a few hours away, trips to the beach or to Washington DC over 8 hours away, and even longer trips to see family in Maine or Charlotte NC weren’t uncommon.  But as we got more busy, added children to the mix, and moved across the country, those driving mini-vacations all but vanished.

We both miss them despite all the ups and downs of being in a car for several hours at a time, so when I suggested we hit the road and head to San Francisco - Stephanie said yes with enthusiasm!  Wednesday night we headed out and got as far as Blithe, CA.  We stayed in a cheap (in every sense of the word) hotel.  The next morning, we hit the road with a San Francisco or bust mentality.  Zander and Lexi have been been great for being trapped in a car most of the day, but we did stop to let Zander climb a tree or two at rest areas and we took a few pictures along the way.  We got into San Francisco last night at about 9pm.

After paying $4 to cross the bridge from Oakland to San Francisco, calling several area hotels, attempting to drive around to look for a descent place to stay that wasn’t $200 bucks a night, and climbing the scariest hill of my life in a stick shift four cylinder, please never do that again to me car - we left San Francisco and headed back to Oakland for the night.  Let me pause here to say, if you ever drive to San Francisco and get there after dark and you are in a Hyundai Elantra - don’t climb the hills!  It was difficult enough just driving up them, but when we got the red light, and my wife started yelling for me to run it, then panicing that I stopped, then screaming when I rev’ed the engine to over 5 thousand RPM with the emergency break on, dropped the break, came off the clutch, in first gear, only to still travel backwards, I must say I was beginning to doubt turning up a street that looked like it went straight to up to heaven.  It was only after I rev’ed it to 7 thousand RPM and quite possibly damaged the transmision that we started to move forward at a pace of about 1 mile per day.  The entire time, my son was saying, “Its OK Mommie, I’m not afraid.” and my wife was trying to remember the number for 911.  We are on a great Adventure!

Tags: Car, Family, ID, irs, Lexi, Pictures, Remember, Stephanie, USA, Vacation, Work, Zander

If you enjoyed it - DIGG it:    

A Night at the Movies: The Dark Night

Ok - I know it was likely irresponsible of me, but I went to the midnight showing of The Dark Knight.  I really enjoyed Batman Begins and knew this was also Heath Ledger’s last movie - I really wanted to see it.  I text messaged a friend at 10:30pm and asked if he wanted to see it with me and within the hour we were on our way… to a sold out theater … without tickets.  Minor oversight, one quick call on my cell and we had tickets to another theater across town.

I’ll start with what I didn’t like - they changed Rachael!  In Batman Begins, Rachael was played by Katie Holmes - very cute… but this version was played by Maggie Gyllenhaal - Not as cute.  The movie wasn’t quite as dark as Batman Begins either.  What I really loved about Batman Begins is how it really removed the cartoonish nature of some of the Batman villians as well as Batman’s charactor.  I’m not saying the The Dark Night is comical at all, just not as dark as Batman Begins.  My only other negative thoughts are the length.  Some movies are three hours long and at the end you say - wow, that was fast - I wish it were longer… this isn’t one of those movies.  It had about three endings - kinda like a preacher promising to close the sermon down at noon on a Sunday morning, then preaching to almost one.  Sometimes you don’t mind if the preacher just kept on going, other times you think - “I wonder how long the wait is at the restaurant…”

Ok - on to the positive: Heath Ledger.  He was amazing.  Did you see Johnny Depp play Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl?  Do you know how he brought something special to that charactor?  Well, Heath Ledger did that something special for the Joker.  Don’t get me wrong, Jack Nicholson played a great Joker - but Heath Ledger was truly amazing!  He really took the charactor over the top in the best way.  If I were rating the movie based soley on his performance, it would easily be two thumbs up, 5 stars, a must see.  But, I’m not rating the Joker only…

In all, I give it 3 stars out of 5.  They traded out the eye candy, they missed several shots at a big ending, but the Joker was amazing, the special affects were good, and a few other points I will keep out of the review so I don’t ruin the movie for you.  For now, I have less than three hours before I have to go to work - so g’nite!

Tags: Car, ID, Movies, Rant, Work

If you enjoyed it - DIGG it: