where: UA EMERY BAY STADIUM 10 in Emeryville, CA
when: Monday, November 29th, 2010
show: 7:30 p.m.
costs: $13.75 Ticket + $4.75 small Diet Coke + $1.00 3.40 oz Chocolate M&M's ( Dollar Candy on Monday special with a movie watcher rewards card ) + $0.00 small Popcorn ( Free Popcorn on my movie watcher rewards card ) + $5.00 Carquinez Bridge Toll + $10.05 dinner at Baldo's Restaurant = $34.55
auditorium: 5, with the 3-D screen
seat: 7th row, 11th column
synopsis/overview: On a Christmas evening, Mary's ( Elle Fanning ) new toy, a nutcracker, comes alive. The nutcracker, who calls himself, NC ( Charlie Rowe ), takes Mary on a fantastic journey to his kingdom. A kingdom that is now ruled by the Evil Rat King ( John Turturro ). When NC is abducted by the rat king, Mary bands her other new-found friends together to save NC and to help restore order to the kingdom.
noteworthy scenes: 1.) Rats; 2.) Doll house; 3.) Bedroom; 4.) Napoleon; 5.) Christmas tree; 6.) Dancing snowflakes; 7.) Broken spell; 8.) Batrats; 9.) Invasion; 10.) Dark cloud; 11.) Walnut; 12.) Mother rat; 13.) Welcome to paradise; 14.) Dograts; 15.) "Reality is mainly an illusion"; 16.) Pebble; 17.) Trap; 18.) Breaking point; 19.) "Anything for a boy who breaks toys"; 20.) Mirror; 21.) Piled-up toys; 22.) "No one should break another kid's toys"; 23.) Distraction; 24.) "It has to be you"; 25.) "I'm hoping you're saving the last dance for me"; 26.) "I can fly anything"; 27.) Helicopter; 28.) "Don't blame me for breaking this one, it's not my fault"; 29.) Celebration; 30.) Dream; 31.) "My new neighbor"; and 32.) Ice skating.
favorite scene: The Christmas Tree ornaments at the beginning of the movie.
audience reaction: None. Nobody else was in the auditorium with me.
recommendation: Go see the ballet version, instead!
spoiler alert! Who wrote the movie script, who produced this and who made it into a "movie" ...? They all should be replaced by Cine-Man! How on Earth did this classic turn into a Nazi-themed abomination? And why are Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein thrown in the mix for? Despite its holiday accoutrements, this does not make for a Christmas movie! In that kingdom, the toys would have been in limited supply so that the furnaces would have been without fuel soon enough. I though that the nutcracker was missing a leg. Where did Mary find the other leg and, more importantly, how was she able to reattach it? And wouldn't that leg have been mangled quite badly, knowing what we know about a dograt's ability to chew through wood?
fyi: For the better part of anti-Semitic history, the Jews were derogatorily referred to as rats. And this movie's portrayal of the "Nazis" as rats is in no way amusing nor does it serve to ameliorate the historical fact. The metaphorical depiction of Jews as throw-away dolls dehumanizes and devalues the victims of the Holocaust.
I can't believe that I forced myself to drive all the way to Emeryville ( the closest place that's showing this movie ) just to see this. What a waste of time and money.
word of advice: "It's all relative."
tidbits: On my commute home, traffic slowed down at 9:58 p.m. by the Highway 4 exit because the right lane was closed by Cal-Trans for some road work.
I stopped-off at Baldo's Restaurant on Redwood for some dinner. For such a small restaurant, it sure was winter-cold in there. I ordered the # 7, Tw0 Burrito Dinner, and a small cup of Pineapple flavored drink. I ate at the place. I could only eat one burrito and had to take home the other one.
And for some strange reason, the hot sauce was really Hot this time around. I asked the clerk if the hot sauce was Jalapeno or Habanero. He said that it was something else. I don't know which kind of pepper it was, but it was just too hot for me. Oh, boy. I'm going feel it coming out of me tomorrow when I use the bathroom--and I'm not looking forward to it!
