where: UA EMERY BAY STADIUM 10 in Emeryville, CA
when: Friday, September 3rd, 2010
show: 9:55 p.m.
costs: $10.75 Ticket + $0.00 small Popcorn w/ Butter ( free on my movie watcher reward card ) + $4.75 small Diet Coke + $5.00 Carquinez Bridge Toll = $20.50
auditorium: 5
seat: 5th row, 11th column
synopsis: The Man With The Butterfly Tattoo.
After a botched assassination attempt in Sweden, an American assassin, Jack ( George Clooney ), goes to hide in the Italian countryside. While in hiding, his contact contracts his construction of a custom-made and un-serial numbered sniper rifle for a mysterious client. But his relative safety in the quiet provincial town is compromised as some hit-men track him down.
noteworthy scenes: 1.) Assassination attempt in Sweden and the innocent victim; 2.) "Live in the present"; 3.) Mysterious contact, Mathilde ( Thekla Reuten ); 4.) "Custom-made assassination"; 5.) "Hands of a craftsman, not an artist"; 6.) Clara ( Violante Placido ); 7.) Suppressor; 8.) Brothel; 9.) The letter; 10.) Picnic with Mathilde; 11.) Time with Clara; 12.) Bullets; 13.) "Someplace new"; 14.) Newspaper article; 15.) Swedish assassin; 16.) Nightmare; 17.) "You've done much sinning"; 18.) Restaurant; 19.) Briefcase; 20.) Surveillance; 21.) "Two more days"; 22.) Picnic with Clara; 23.) Final job; 24.) "Candy for your trip"; 25.) Following the target; 26.) Back-fire; 27.) Quick-draw; and 28.) The secluded meeting place.
audience reaction: The audience didn't really like the ending of this movie.
recommendation: Ditto for me. Save your money and watch this as a rental.
spoiler alert! Geesh! Whatever did he do to get the Swedes to be really pissed-off at him for? It's not explained in the movie. Maybe he was just being the quintessential "Ugly American"--perhaps, they should have chosen this as the movie's title. Couldn't he have picked-up the hint that the woman was innocent? I wonder if forensics took a semen sample from the innocent victim to find out who she was with for the last time. When the book fell on the floor, he--right away--pointed his gun in a different direction. Why was one prostitute wearing pasties? It was not as if she was doing a burlesque dance since she was just laying in bed ( in other words, lose the pasties! ). How was he able to put the rifle grooves in the barrel? It's bad enough that he kissed the prostitute on the lips ( this is a "no-no" in the profession ) but he even went so far as to perform oral sex on her, too--talk about one kinky bastard! And after all that sweaty, wet and sloppy performance, he had the nerve to say, "You don't have to act. I'm not here to give pleasure; I'm here to get pleasure." ( This is the gist of what he said, not a verbatim quotation. But you get the point. ) Who murdered the prostitutes, and for what reason? If I were the Swedish assassin, I'd have my gun in my hand, then I'd slow down the car, turn the wheel quickly, and shoot at the distracted pursuer. The gun used to kill the landlady didn't have a silencer or suppressor attached to it. In other words, how come there was no loud gunshot noise for the neighbors and/or passersby to hear? If I know that people are out to try to kill me, I'd wear a bullet-proof vest, at the very least.
fyi: I have some personal designs for firearms. If only I were a gunsmith and a machinist, I'd be able to construct such weapons from scratch easily. I even gave them names: Overhead sniper, Pointer target pistol, Belted shooter and All-in-One combat survival weapon.
word of advice: If you must go into seclusion, get rid of the paper trail.
tidbits: I took my car to Wheel Works first thing in the morning to have them put manual transmission fluid in my Geo Metro because I suspected that it hadn't been changed in a long time. The service advisor told me that they only change the transmission fluid during the 30K, 60K and 90K scheduled maintenance intervals. Meaning, that the last time that it was changed was about 44K miles ago--probably longer! And he told me that putting new transmission fluid in it might make the hard shifting worse. So he told me that it would be best for me to have Discount Transmission, three buildings down the corner, check it out and see what they'll recommend.
Then, I went to Royal Jelly Doughnut Shop for a Blueberry Fritter, a Nut-crusted Chocolate Doughnut and Royal Kona Coffee breakfast before heading on home.
After writing-out payment checks for a couple of monthly bills, I went to CSAA to get a new tag for my Metro's license plate and a free California State map so I can see the route that I'll need to take for a planned near-future trip to Bakersfield. Then, I dropped-off the bills at the post office and did some grocery shopping before heading-off to Oakland, California.
I was at my friend, Hector's, place in Oakland for the better part of the day. He confirmed what the service advisor at Wheel Works said: That putting in new transmission fluid will more than likely make things worse since it will eat-up the old seals in my transmission.
His son, Ismael, showed me a taped program on TV about rival gangs in Oakland, CA, mostly centered on the Nortenos ( red gang color ), Surenos ( blue gang color ) and Border Brothers ( black gang color ). And they live deep in Norteno territory--and all this time I've been visiting them sporting a black baseball cap! I wonder if Barbie-pink or floral-print will look good on me ....
Later on in the day, I showed Hector, his wife and his son a website about weird/funny people who shop at Wal-Marts: www.peopleofwalmart.com. Then, I washed my car--only to have the stray cat that they've been feeding walk all over my Metro and leave paw prints all over it. So, I had to hose down my car and squeegee the windshield, mirrors and windows all over again. Later on, we sat down to some dinner that he and I cooked ( me = macaroni & cheese w/ vienna sausage; him = spaghetti and pan-fried steaks ). Then, we started watching a movie on movie2k.com: KING OF FIGHTERS. But I only watched half of it since it was getting late--and I didn't want to miss the last showing of THE AMERICAN. When I got in my car--guess what?--I noticed MORE paw prints all over my windshield, and on the hood and roof! Damn, I'm not buying cat food for that crazy stray anymore!
At the end of the movie, some guy in the audience said out loud, "Stupid-ass movie!" The rest of us laughed. Then, somebody clapped his/her hands.
attention: It is getting closer and closer to the Annual Weblog Awards. Please select from all my posts for this year then go to the awards website and take the time to nominate one of my blogs--whichever one happens to be your favorite--in the following categories: Best Entertainment Weblog, Most Humorous Weblog, Best-Kept Secret Weblog and/or Best New Weblog. Thank you very much.
