where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when: Saturday, November 7th, 2009
show: 11:30 a.m. ( Extra Dollar Off First Show Matinee )
costs: $6.25 Ticket + $4.50 Nacho Chips w/ Cheese + $3.75 small Diet/Zero ( w/ Barq's & Cherry flavors ) = $14.50
auditorium: 2
seat: 4th row, 7 column
synopsis: A morality play showed on the Big Screen. Or, "Who wants to be a millionaire" in a desperate way?
Arthur ( James Marsden ) and Norma ( Cameron Diaz ) Lewis are a normal everyday couple living a suburban life, with the husband working as an engineer for NASA and the wife being a schoolteacher, sometime in 1976. Their fateful day arrives when a facially disfigured man, Arlington Steward ( Frank Langella ), comes a-knocking and bearing an unassuming "gift" in the form of a wooden box, with a red button at the top, and which comes attached with a 24-hour deadline moral dilemma: Push the button and a stranger somewhere in the world will die while you get a million dollars for your time and trouble. Bear in mind that people die every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of each and every year. For morally upright and/or financially well-off people, the answer will be easy to come by. But what if one's situation is compounded by financial problems, will that person be willing to trade a stranger's life for cold hard cash in one lump sum?
noteworthy scenes: 1.) The plain-wrapped box; 2.) The classroom; 3.) Mars Project; 4.) Principal's office; 5.) Mr. Steward's first visit; 6.) Working on prosthesis; 7.) Application rejection; 8.) Tinkering with the box; 9.) The choice; 10.) The police response; 11.) Mr. Steward's second visit; 12.) The police department; 13.) The present; 14.) Rehearsal dinner; 15.) Mr. Lewis' basement; 16.) The 'phone call; 17.) "No Exit"; 18.) Dropping-off Dana ( Gillian Jacobs ), the babysitter; 19.) Dana's room; 20.) The revelation; 21.) The man in the backyard; 22.) Friday, December 31st, 1971; 23.) The NSA; 24.) The grocery store; 25.) The library; 26.) The Three Gateways; 27.) "Felt love"; 28.) The water bed; 29.) Information on Arlington; 30.) Why a box; 31.) The pool gathering; 32.) Arthur Lewis accosted by Jeffrey Carnes ( Ryan Woodle ); 33.) The accident; 34.) Another couple faced with the same moral dilemma; 35.) Cops and covert ops men; and 36.) The Final Gateway.
audience reaction: On her way out, an old lady said to her female companion, "That's enough excitement for today." My guess is, this movie got the audience's attention.
recommendation: This movie is so-so. You might want to wait for this to come out as a rental.
spoiler alert! You cannot enunciate words correctly if you have a big gaping hole in your cheek area that clearly exposes the oral cavity--and how does one eat or drink? And to think, they should have figured this out already after Hollywood made the same boo-boo with the "Two-Face" character in the last Batman movie! ( Yet another reason why Hollywood should employ my services. ) When was the last time that you knew of the police responding to an emergency call so quickly? After all, they have to go through a doughnut drive-through first. ( Just kidding. ) I get nose bleeds all the time ( I just had one early this morning )--should I be worried? If if were left to me, yes, I would pee in that "water"! Why was Jeffrey Carnes driving around in his VERY CONSPICUOUS truck when the cops were on the look-out for it? And why did the Lewis' son, Walter ( Sam Oz Stone ), crawl on the bathroom floor when he was supposed the ONLY BE blind and deaf?
fyi: This movie reminded me of the morality argument we had to do in Psychology class in college which centered on a group of people living in a bomb shelter with a dwindling food and water supply. In order to survive for a few more weeks until help arrived, the group had to decide which it considered a "fifth wheel" and, therefore, expendable. The group consisted of people playing the following roles: A soldier, a politician, a pregnant woman, a priest, and a mentally-unfit teenage prostitute with HIV. I argued to get rid of the prostitute. Unbeknown to me at the time, one of my classmates was a lady who was once a teenage prostitute. Oh, boy, did I get the "Evil Eye" from her from that point on--imagine a psycho classmate in psychology class! And as if that was not enough, she was once again a classmate of mine the next semester in my Cultural Anthropology class and was seated immediately to my left--to make matters worse, I was the A+ student in that class. So, here's a lesson for you all: If you ever have to do the "Bomb Shelter" experiment/argument, make sure the role players are just that! If their profession or vocation is similar to any of the role choices, either don't have them participate in the argument or opt out of it--save yourself from unnecessary grief 'cause it ain't worth it. And complain to the principal and have this role-playing exercise excluded from the list of class activities.
Plain ordinary water is a big puzzle to scientists! It has been scientifically proven that an ordinary glass of water can be used to poison and kill someone. Fresh water and sea water are not inert. The Bible makes references to "Living Water" for good reasons. For more truly fascinating information on this subject, Memory In Water, go to http://www.viddler.com/explore/ConspiracyFact/videos/73/. For a very important investment of your time, please watch this 1:25:48 video presentation. After watching this video, you will come away with a more sacred regard for water.
word of advice: Any sequence always comes with a consequence.
tidbits: Back when I worked as a dental lab technician, one of my co-workers told me that if he ever had access to the "red button" that will set-off a Thermonuclear War he would push it without hesitation! Oooookaaaay ....
Cameron Diaz has nice gams.
