where: CINEARTS @ PLEASANT HILL in Pleasant Hill, CA
when: Friday, April 9th, 2010
show: 9:50 p.m.
costs: $10.00 Ticket + $3.75 small Diet Coke + $14.74 dinner at Buffet City ( + $2.26 Tip ) + $4.00 Bridge Toll = $34.75
auditorium: 1, The Cinedome
seat: 8ht row, 10th seat
synopsis: A suburbanite couple, Phil and Claire Foster ( Steve Carell and Tina Fey ), wanting to spice-up their marriage, gets more than what they want when they take another couple's reservation at a trendy restaurant.
noteworthy scenes: 1.) Time for breakfast; 2.) House for sale; 3.) Steak house; 4.) Mouth guard; 5.) Book club; 6.) The Claw Restaurant; 7.) Boat; 8.) We gotta do more cardio; 9.) Police department; 10.) Computer "sticky thing"; 11.) Back at The Claw; 12.) Rainbow wheel; 13.) Holbrooke Grant's ( Mark Wahlberg ) residence; 14.) Audi R8 4.2 sports car; 15.) The Feltons' apartment; 16.) Car chase; 17.) Back at Holbrooke's place; 18.) The Peppermint Hippo; 19.) Pole dance; 20.) Count to "3"; 21.) I'd do it again; 22.) Out-takes; and 23.) Bonus scene after the ending credits.
audience reaction: The audience enjoyed this action comedy.
recommendation: I liked this movie enough to give it a "Go See" recommendation.
spoiler alert! It's not a "mouth guard", it's a "bite guard". Trust me, I know; I have to put one on before bedtime for, like, forever per my periodontist's order. Nobody noticed them walk out of a crowded, expensive restaurant without paying for their meals. Why did the two bad guys put their kidnap victims IN the back seat of the car? If bad guys put me in the back seat without tying me up first, I'd scratch their eyes out from behind before they can take me to a remote location to cap me! You don't need any fancy-schmancy hi-tech spy gizmo stuff just to find out the name of the person and/or his/her address--if you have a person's 'phone number, all you need is your computer's White Pages Directory to find out the person's name and address; and for a small one-time fee, you can "dig-up" some "dirt" on the person that you're checking out. The fancy Audi R8 4.2 sports car was missing its rear-view mirror--and judging from the camera angles that they used, they didn't even have to remove the mirror at all! When Phil drove-off once again, after talking with Claire at the curb, he didn't check for traffic! How come the taxi's airbag didn't deploy? What was up with the stupid broom in the strip club? It didn't make any sense for it to be there in the first place. There's no way that an helicopter could sneak-up on anyone because it could be heard from a mile away--literally!
fyi: I'm allergic to freshly-mowed grass: If I lie down on it, I'd get hives all over my exposed skin. I inherited this allergy from my mom.
Claire didn't have to worry about getting "whacked-off " by the bad guys because "whacking" her and her husband off would not be on their minds at all. "Whacked-off " is American slang for, Masturbated!
A friend of mine and I went to a strip club twice. He refused to have his picture taken with any one of the hot and sexy strippers because he reasoned that someday, if and when he becomes rich and famous, such incriminating evidence could surface and cause him trouble.
Unlike my friend, though, I didn't have any qualms about posing with one of the strippers because there's no way in the world that I'd ever get rich and famous: Movie blogging will probably be my only claim to ( dubious ) fame--and it's just a non-paying hobby of mine. But, just in case, maybe I should go looking for those damn pictures and dispose of them.
word of advice: Never have your indiscretions photographed.
tidbits: Just before I got off work at 8:00 p.m. tonight, a new employee unintentionally triggered the alarm when she opened the emergency exit door in the warehouse--Duh! because a supervisor told her to open the loading door and the side door for the truck driver to make his delivery. I guess she thought the side door meant the emergency door. Oh, boy! I couldn't do anything about it since only those in management have the alarm key and I couldn't fetch a supervisor or I would be on overtime. I suppose I could have stayed a few minutes to take over for a supervisor so he could go and turn off the alarm. But I just wanted to get out of there because the ear-splitting alarm sound was hurting my eardrums.
After this incident, I decided to unwind by going to see a movie. So I went to the Chevron gas station nearby to get gas, and to buy a newspaper to find out the schedule of movies that came out today, Friday. I decided to see this movie at CineArts in Pleasant Hill because, after the show, I needed to swing by an area in Walnut Creek to know its location prior to my scheduled appointment for the following Monday.
But dinner was first on my late-night "To-Do" list. And off to Buffet City in Concord I went.
They had beef spare ribs at the buffet, so I had two and asked the waitress for a doggie bag so I could save the bones for my friend's big dog. I set the bones on a napkin along with my fork and spoon before I went back to the buffet tables for seconds. When I came back, the bones were already in a bag and my fork and spoon were resting on the bare surface of the table--how unsanitary was that! I lost my appetite at the sight of it. So, after I went for thirds, I sat impatiently drumming my nails on the table as I waited for the waitress to bring me my check. I had to draw the waiter's attention to get him to fetch me the waitress. I can tell you this, my alter ego, Pig-out Man, was not pleased at all by the quality of service here tonight; and, worse, they didn't even have any hot-looking waitresses at all!
As I stepped out of the restaurant, I held the door open for a Chinese employee who was walking in with five big boxes of pizza! Pizza ... at a Chinese Buffet ... what was going on ...? They must be tired of eating Chinese food all the time! And that guy didn't even thank me for holding the door open for him! He must have felt too embarrassed to act with courtesy. I have in mind to sneak back in here late one night, after all the dining patrons have left, and take incriminating photographs of all the Chinese employees gorging-out on take-out pizza and sell the photos to National Enquirer! Hah! that will teach them.
The "Pole Dance" is stupidly funny, and it is probably the highlight of this movie. Two professions employ the use of a pole: The stripping and the firefighting professions. A burly and hairy firefighter on a pole--ahh! I can't erase the image out of my mind. And I see these guys at work every single day. O Lord ....
After the movie, as planned, I took a quick trip to Walnut Creek. The part of town where I was at made me feel that my blue 2001 Hyundai Accent car was out of place: Too many expensive, fancy cars around mine--I guess they were cruising and trolling for young and fresh "tuna". Hey, it's a Friday late-night, what did you expect? And one of the guys driving around probably paid more for his car than what I paid for my condo! How depreciatingly depressing is that? I need to win the California lottery--and right quick!
Here's a tip: If I win the lottery, I'll take a much-needed LONG vacation from movie blogging! I'd probably go on a three-month or six-month world-wide cruise. And I won't be taking any incriminating photos or making incriminating videos of myself for posterity's sake! Ha, ha, ha.
