where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when: Friday, December 4th, 2009
show: 10:30 p.m.
costs: $10.00 Ticket + $3.75 small Diet/Zero ( w/ Barq's & Cherry flavors ) Coke + $4.25 junior Popcorn w/ Butter + $0.00 Pizza Stick ( leftover from my lunch at work ) = $18.00
auditorium: 7
seat: 4th row, 8th column
synopsis: An emotionally-scarred Marine captain, Sam Cahill ( Tobey Maguire ) returns home a changed man. His paranoia puts a strain on his relationship with his wife, Grace ( Natalie Portman ), and with his brother, Tommy ( Jake Gyllenhaal ).
noteworthy scenes: 1.) Family dinner; 2.) Out on patrol; 3.) The bad news; 4.) The funeral service; 5.) Messing with the bartender; 6.) Pancakes; 7.) Prison hole; 8.) The execution; 9.) The paint; 10.) Forced confessions; 11.) Surprise birthday gift; 12.) The bank teller; 13.) The kiss; 14.) Kill or be killed; 15.) Rescue; 16.) 'Phone call; 17.) Home again; 18.) The question; 19.) Pvt. Joe Willis' widow and son; 20.) Obsessive-compulsive behavior; 21.) Requesting a 5th tour of duty; 22.) The humorless dad; 23.) Military cemetery; 24.) Isabella's outburst; 25.) The rage; 26.) The letter; and 27.) The confession.
audience reaction: The audience liked this one.
recommendation: Go see this one.
spoiler alert! The kiss was ill-contrived to be believable and it went on passionately and for far too long when it should just have been an awkward one of short duration. Remember, both of them were neither drunk enough nor high enough to justify the scene. ( Of course, if I were playing the part of Tommy, I would probably--in all likelihood--step out of character, too! ) If everything was "lovey-dovey" at home, why would Capt. Cahill keep requesting another tour of duty ( he was captured on his 4th tour of duty), forsaking his roles/responsibilities as husband, father and breadwinner? It makes me wonder.
fyi: Did you know that our troops in Afghanistan are seeing a different face of our enemies? Bearded and turbaned Afghan men with make-up, eyeshadow, eyeliner and lipstick sexually solicit our soldiers, according to one of my reliable sources. Yuck! That Osama bin Ladin is one sick f-ck hiding-out in such a place and making us wanna gag and puke like that as we go looking for him! The nerve of him. I bet this is the reason why Osama's harem "women" wear burqas.
I was just wondering ... I guess the reason why Captain Cahill wants to go to Afghanistan for a 5th tour is because he has a kinky side to him that he doesn't want anyone back home finding about--he REALLY needs psychiatric help on the double!
Based on hard-earned experience, the Russians know that battle tanks and tracked armored vehicles are worthless in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan. An early scene in the movie shows the rusted hulks of such vehicles littering a road. So the Russians know why we are building-up our troop strength with soldiers, battle tanks and tracked armored vehicles on the western side of Afghanistan: It is across the eastern border of Iran! And Iran is mostly flat-lands, perfect for battle tanks and other tracked armored vehicles! This is a hot topic on Russian websites--see for yourself! I guess P-NAC ( Project for a New American Century ) is slowly but surely unfolding! P-NAC is a genuine article, I held the document in my hand shortly after we invaded Iraq ( it's an official White House publication close to 100 pages long ). You can read about P-NAC on the internet.
Although to the uninformed this movie is about a form of adultery, it was not to the ancient Hebrews. Back then, it was a younger brother's duty to insure that there was a male heir to his late older brother's property. If the late brother's widow was ugly, it only behooved the younger brother to impregnate her a.s.a.p. and hope that it will produce a male heir right away. But if the widow was hot and sexy, the younger brother would be stupid to get her pregnant right away and would then, by all means, turn sexual intercourse from a procreative act to that of an activity done strictly for base pleasures. The Biblical Onan refused to carry-out his duty to impregnate his sister-in-law, Tamar, by always "spilling his seed" on the ground instead of "planting it in a fertile soil." Hence, the reason why Onan was killed by God ( Genesis 38: 8-10 ). Onanism became interchangeably used for the term, "spilling one's seed." From there, it became equated with masturbation, a crime punishable by death! Whoa, Nelly ....
But when the Israelites left Egypt in the Exodus, anybody who masturbated was only considered ceremonially unclean if he was right-handed since the left hand was reserved for such unclean "activities." Give Moses credit for realizing this when he spent a long time alone on that mountain top--twice! Unfortunately, through the centuries, we ended up having on one hand a group of tight-fisted prudes crying out for the death penalty while on the other hand we have the enlightened group with a more relaxed grip on the matter who would first think twice about imposing a very stiff penalty on any offender. Why can't prudes just come to grips with the harmlessness of the "problem" and express their passionate feelings in a more constructively gratifying way? Enough of this foolishness, let's shake hands and get over it fast. Cigarette, anyone?
I remember years ago reading a newspaper account of a Mormon teenager who was so overcome by the guilt he felt about committing the "sin" of masturbation that he hanged himself to death. This caused such an uproar that the church's elders were forced to revise their "divine" opinion on the matter.
The Zen Buddhism Koan, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" is actually about masturbation. But you answer by slapping the person in the face and saying, "That's the sound of one hand clapping!" And that's your Zen for today!
word of advice: Be careful what you do or say around your little brats.
Read the Bible for yourself.
tidbits: I could have gone to see this in the morning but I read my schedule wrong and ended up going to work too early.
The Christmas Tree lighting event in Benicia, down on 1st street, was today at 6:30 p.m. So I couldn't even leave the parking lot to go deposit some money into my checking account because management forgot to hire extra security to patrol the lot to keep the people who don't have a life from parking there and inconveniencing our regular customers. And I was not about to give up my space to anyone of the "without a life" strangers! Oh, well ... I guess I'll just have to tell people I owe money to that the checks are in the mail; they'll believe me, I'm sure of it. Ha!
I was driving down a street one day and passed by a bus stop. At the bus stop were five children of varying ages waiting with their mother. The mother was really fat and Fugly! I said to myself, you know, someone was actually crazy, desperate and/or stupid enough to get that woman pregnant five times--and women like that don't get pregnant right away! After all, it runs smack against Darwinism.
