where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when: Friday, January 29th, 2010
show: 4:45 p.m.
costs: $7.25 Ticket + $4.50 Glaceau Vitaminwater, Focus flavor in 20 oz. bottle = $11.75
auditorium: 7
seat: 5th row, 7th column
synopsis: A poker-chipped love affair. Or, when in Rome, do as the Americans do.
A workaholic New York hottie museum curator, Beth ( Kristen Bell ), who's disillusioned with romance, goes to her sister, Joan's ( Alexis Dziena ), wedding in Rome, only to get drunk and unwisely remove random coins from the fountain of love, setting-off a magical spell. Soon enough, she becomes the object of desire for a motley bunch of lovelorn men smitten by her. But how will she know which one of them is truly in love with her and is just not caught under some kind of love spell?
noteworthy scenes: 1.) Fontana de Amore; 2.) Party; 3.) Sister's news; 4.) Meeting; 5.) Nick's ( Josh Duhamel ) cell phone; 6.) Vase; 7.) Toast; 8.) Dance; 9.) Fountain; 10.) Card game; 11.) The painter ( Will Arnett ); 12.) The narcissistic model ( Dax Shepard ); 13.) The magician ( Jon Heder ); 14.) 'Phone call with the newly weds; 15.) Problem with the centerpiece; 16.) Sausage magnate ( Danny DeVito ); 17.) Breath spray; 18.) Underground service elevator; 19.) The "mummy"; 20.) Out on recon; 21.) Calling for a date; 22.) Black-out Restaurant; 23.) Night at the museum; 24.) Poker chips; 25.) Another spell-breaker; 26.) Unexpected guests; 27.) Vespa micro-mini car; 28.) Elevator; 29.) The Petrocelli; 30.) Returning the coins; 31.) Not under a crazy spell; 32.) Switched; 33.) Passion is in the risk; 34.) The priest; 35.) No idea; and 36.) Bonus scenes.
who: Is that Efren Ramirez ( of Napoleon Dynamite [ 2004 ] fame ) doing an uncredited cameo appearance as "camcorder guy" to Jon, Napoleon Dynamite, Heder's street magician character?
audience reaction: The females in the audience enjoyed this Rom-Com.
recommendation: This is definitely a "Chick Flick" that will appeal to those who are into such movies.
spoiler alert! The priest and the bridegroom both knew how to speak English but neither one volunteered to offer the right translation nor corrected the embarrassing mistranslation. It is mostly women and children who toss coins in a fountain to make a wish. If you look closely, most of the coins in the fountain are pennies, nickels, dimes and a few quarters--and this is suppose to be in Rome. How convenient that all the coins she picked-up at random once belonged to men who hail from her city, New York! Most male models are gay, supposedly, and the male model character in this movie is way over-compensating ( pay attention to the dialogue in the wedding scene near the end of the movie ). When Danny DeVito's character talked to Beth about "encased meat is my life's work", it seemed like he was insinuating that he practices safe sex all the time by always having condoms handy on his person! Beth's amorous stalkers had night vision goggles on, but not one of them saw her crawling away. The TV set turned on too quickly--instantly, in fact. The police officer in the patrol car didn't do anything about the crazy Italian-style driving. When the Vespa car swerved, Danny DeVito's character pounced on Beth as if to steal a kiss ( I wonder if he got lucky, the little horny old fart! ).
fyi: This movie was not shot in Rome because the ending credits show no such acknowledgement. I knew something was up when I noticed that most of the coins were American.
Speaking of American, the Italian cartographer, explorer and navigator, Amerigo Vespucci ( who latinized his name to Americus Vespucius ) is thought to be for whom the New World, America, is named after by the publisher, Martin Waldseemuller. But it could be navigator/explorer, John Cabot's ship's principal owner, Richard Ameryk, for whom it is so named. Cabot's exploration and Vespucci's supposed first voyage occurred in the same year of 1497 A.D. But Ameryk had already established a fishing business in Newfoundland 12 years before Columbus discovered the New World in 1492. And since the general rule of thumb for naming new countries is to name them using a person's surname ( unless the person is royalty, as in King Philip = Philippines ), then America is named after the Englishman, Ameryk, in all probability.
I have a friend, Bradley, whose father was a Roman Catholic Priest. He quit the priesthood because he couldn't handle the "vow of celibacy."
Roman Catholic priests are required to take a "vow of celibacy" to insure that their "vow of poverty" remains secure and free from claims of inheritance. Through the centuries, countless men bequeathed all their worldly possessions to the Roman Catholic Church when they entered the priesthood. The same can be said of women who became nuns. And all Roman Catholic nations surrendered their sovereignty, and pledged their allegiance, to Rome. Consequently, the tiny city-state of Rome owns/controls vast real estate holdings, lands, priceless gems and works of art, world currencies, a prodigious investment portfolio like no other, governments, international police and intelligence agencies, and a multi-national armed forces which is not to be taken lightly.
The way in which things are shaping-up, the near-future One World Government will be under the control of three city-states:
Rome = The religious arm.
London = The financial arm.
Washington, D.C. = The military arm.
By the way, Communism is on a fast decline as mainland Chinese are getting a sweet taste of Capitalism and Democracy to the point that over 62,000,000 of them ( almost 1/10th of their population )--and counting--have formally/officially declared their resignation from the Communist Party, according to The Epoch Times newspaper. And Democracy is marching slowly but ever so surely across all the Muslim States. Both of these are setting the stage for a One World Government!
You can read The Epoch Times newspaper on the Internet. Google it, then click on the China sub-head. A column of selected articles will be shown on the right-hand side. Scroll down until you see the articles "Quitting the Chinese Communist Party" and "China's Transition to Democracy" then click on them for an eye-opening read.
word of advice: Love will happen if it was meant to happen.
tidbits: On my blog for THE BOOK OF ELI, I added Further notice: to my FYI section for those of you who haven't read it yet or who would like to know a little more about war crimes committed in World War II.
On a lighter note:
Years ago, when there used to be a Smorgabob's All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Restaurant here in Vallejo and before Empire Chinese Buffet took away their business, I would frequent this place for dinner since I'm not the type to wait to be served food. One night, as I stood between the Salad counter and the Dessert counter, a beautiful Hispanic cook's assistant came over to replenish the selections at the aforementioned counters. She looked to be in her mid- to late- twenties. I was admiring her feminine figure, tracing her curves with my four eyes when, suddenly, the lights went out! It was completely dark in there and she couldn't have been further than 30 inches from me. OH, HOW I WANTED TO GRAB HER! But I had a salad plate in one hand and a soup mug in the other--and I didn't want to lose either one. Gee, I sure had my priorities straight!
