where: UA EMERY BAY STADIUM 10 in Emeryville, CA
when: Saturday, December 11th, 2010
show: 8:00 p.m.
costs: $10.75 Ticket + $7.00 medium Popcorn w/ Butter + $0.00 small Diet Coke ( Free Reward on my Movie Watcher Card ) + $5.00 Carquinez Bridge Toll = $22.75
auditorium: 7
seat: 4th row, 6th column
synopsis/overview: An American tourist, Frank Tupelo ( Johnny Depp ), in Italy meets a mysterious beautiful woman, Elise Clifton-Ward ( Angelina Jolie )--and not by accident.
noteworthy scenes: 1.) The letter; 2.) Train; 3.) Exact match; 4.) Mole; 5.) "Gracias"; 6.) "Ravenous"; 7.) Roman god, Janus; 8.) "Did he not like my choice"; 9.) Invitation; 10.) Rooftop; 11.) "Probably American"; 12.) "De nada"; 13.) "Wait here for a moment"; 14.) Boat chase; 15.) 2.3 billion; 16.) Custom-tailored jacket; 17.) "Because I kissed you"; 18.) The bag; 19.) I. D. clearance; 20.) "I wish I could understand your choice in men"; 21.) Cigarette; 22.) The dance; 23.) "Por favor"; 24.) 744 million; 25.) "We're live"; 26.) "She went dark"; 27.) Medallion; 28.) "He does look a little like you"; 29.) "Let me handle this"; 30.) "Permission granted"; 31.) Texts; 32.) The cheque; and 33.) The 20 million dollar question.
audience reaction: The audience enjoyed this "playful romp" of a "cat and mouse" Thriller movie and gave it a "Hands Clapper" ending.
recommendation: I liked it, too.
spoiler alert! It's all about glitz and glamor for Angelina Jolie's character, as the movie painstakingly puts in the effort to highlight these. And in-between action sequences, there is a lot of "goo-goo eyes" filler; too much of it for a Thriller, if I may say so myself. I don't think that it's that easy to guesstimate the height and built of someone who's seated at a table. The bad guy had already started to slice the rope; so when the other boat tugged on it, it should have snapped. The bad guy should have sensed what was about to happen and would then have been able to keep himself from being strangled to death--that strangle-hold was an easy one to get out of. Of course, there were other bad guys in the room, too, who would have been ordered to shoot at him should he manage to break free of the hold. I guess, either way, he was "dead-meat"! Had they dug deeper into his records, they would have come up empty-handed and finally gotten their man.
fyi: My sister in Michigan received a package from me three days ago. In it, I included Angelina Jolie's novelty driver's license card. So, next time my sister gets pulled over by a cop for over-speeding, she can have an easier time of it by convincing the officer that she is actually Angelina in disguise. Ha, ha, ha.
word of advice: When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
tidbits: As I crossed the bridge at just before 7:30 p.m. on my way to Emeryville, an ambulance was at a toll booth lane in the opposite direction. Maybe a driver lost control and hit a barrier or something ....
I snuck one-and-a-half pizza sticks into the theatre with me, my left-over lunch at work. And I had in mind to only buy a drink at the concession counter. But, I hadn't had dinner yet. And since I got the drink for free, I figured that I might as well buy some popcorn to satisfy my hunger. But I should just have gotten a small bag of popcorn since eating it kept me from taking better notes of the scenes.
After the movie, I swung by my former place of employment in North Oakland just to say, "Hi!" to everybody. And when I got back to Vallejo, I went to a 24-hour store first to do a bit of shopping.
