where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when: Friday, March 12th, 2010
show: 11:30 a.m. Extra Dollar Off First Show Matinee
costs: $6.25 Ticket + $2.50 Dibs Bite-Sized Chocolate Ice Cream + $1.00 Nestle Goobers Chocolate-covered Peanuts ( bought at 99 Cent Only Store & smuggled-in ) + $3.75 small Diet/Zero ( w/ Barq's & Cherry flavors ) Coke + $4.47 salad lunch ( Side Salad w/ Ranch Dressing, Chili w/ shredded Cheese & chopped Onions and Lemonade ) at Wendy's after the show = $17.97
auditorium: 13
seat: 4th row, 6th column
synopsis: Take a Ba'ath in Iraq.
As US Army Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller ( Matt Damon ) and his men unsuccessfully search for stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction ( WMDs ) in Iraq, they learn of a cover-up involving unlikely collaborators.
noteworthy scenes: 1.) March 19th, 2003; 2.) Looters; 3.) Toilet factory; 4.) Our intel; 5.) Saddam International Airport; 6.) Military briefing; 7.) Traffic jam; 8.) Green Zone; 9.) Al Mansour; 10.) Freddy ( Khalid Abdalla ); 11.) Deck of cards; 12.) Helicopters; 13.) 1987; 14.) Poolside; 15.) Reporter Lawrie Dayne ( Amy Ryan ); 16.) Interrogation; 17.) Poundstone ( Greg Kinnear ); 18.) Don't be naive; 19.) Langley confirms; 20.) Battered prisoner; 21.) Where's Al Rawi? 22.) Room 1206; 23.) Meeting in Amman, Jordan; 24.) Safe-house; 25.) Message to Al Rawi ( ? ); 26.) The deal? 27.) Celebratory dinner at the palace; 28.) Blue force tracker; 29.) Kill, no catch arrest; 30.) Disbandment of Iraqi Armed Forces; 31.) Kidnap; 32.) Your government wanted to hear a lie; 33.) Chase; 34.) 'Not for you to decide what happens here; 35.) Intel report; 36.) I know what you did; 37.) Pandemonium at the conference; and 38.) See attached.
audience reaction: After the movie, one of the patrons talked to one of the employees about how much he liked the movie.
recommendation: I like this movie because it gives justification to my Conspiracy Theory standpoint. But ... this movie will strike a raw nerve through the cross-section of movie-goers worldwide, especially in the Middle East. And Bush supporters will take offense to this movie. Sadly, we don't really know what happened in Iraq and why they happened. All we have are the tragic aftermath of "bad intel": Resources wasted and precious lives lost. This movie is in a spate of anti-American movies being churned-out by Hollywood in recent years that further cement the rest of the world's perception of us as "The Ugly Americans." Go see this only for its entertainment value as an Action Movie, and for nothing else.
spoiler alert! It sure took the US soldiers long enough to realize that a machine gun could easily take-out the sniper in a known position! And don't they have grenade launchers and RPGs? The female reporter opened her hotel room too soon, as if she was in the habit of making personal 'phone calls in her doorway. When Miller walked towards the bus kiosk, you could see that his gun holster was empty, but in the next shot the gun was in place! Why was the prisoner untied? And why did the guard look away from the prisoner after the general ordered the guard to kill him? How in heck did "limp-along" Freddy know where to go and ... catch-up on the action?
fyi: Go to YouTube and watch, "Depleted Uranium ( My Public Service Announcement )."
According to one of my sources, George Sr. assured Saddam Hussein that the US won't interfere if he attacked Kuwait; after all, Iraq was our ally against Iran. But the US coveted Kuwait's oil reserves and stepped-in to aid Kuwait. During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Kuwait's Dinar devaluated to almost zero in its exchange rate with the US Dollar. Countries and private parties scooped-up Kuwaiti Dinars and waited for the war to be over so they could realize an immense profit on their monetary investment, which they did!
Fast forward to 2003 .... Because the US humiliated Saddam Hussein before the whole world and, more importantly, before his fellow Arab Muslims, "So-damn Insane" stopped using US Dollars as the standard petroleum currency. He switched to using Euros, instead. Because this move on Saddam's part would further devaluate the US Dollar, George Jr. declared war on Saddam, using Al Qaeda and WMDs as excuses.
And, now, we have President "I'm-a-nut-job" of Iran deciding to switch to Euros, too! What do you think will happen if the Iranians do away with the US Dollar as their standard petroleum currency even though the rest of the OPEC are on the Dollar standard?
Those who served as Iraqi translators for the coalition force and the Americans are being systematically hunted down and executed in their own country. Hundreds already have been killed. Efforts are underway to relocate the rest of them to the US and other countries.
When I vacationed in Michigan with my eldest sister and her family in the summer of 2006, we went to a resort town where the main street was lined with shops on either side. My sister and I went into one in particular. I browsed around and happened upon an Iraqi Deck of Cards. I don't know why it was there and why it was offered for sale. But, I didn't mind because I bought it as a souvenir. It's somewhere in my room. I don't want to touch it more than I have to because I want its value to be increased when I do decide to sell it someday.
word of advice: Human life is the most precious of all resources, use it wisely.
If you're an American, don't see this movie in a Muslim country.
tidbits: Today at work, while taking my break at around 6:35 p.m., my co-worker, Sean, told me about Jefferson Airplane's song, "White Rabbit," which is based on the story of Alice In Wonderland. I told him that I will watch it on YouTube when I get home. ( And I had it in mind to add to my previous blog on the movie, ALICE IN WONDERLAND. )
Wouldn't it be funny if a bunch of Iraqi investors buy-up the rights to G.M.'s HumVee division?
