where: AMC BAY STREET 16 in Emeryville, CA
when: Wednesday ( Free Popcorn Day with a movie watcher card ), December 22nd, 2010
show: 10:30 p.m.
costs: $17.00 + $5.25 Garage Parking Fee + $5.00 Chevron gas + $5.00 Carquinez Bridge Toll = $32.25
auditorium: 8, with the I-Max screen
seat: 4th row, 9th column
synopsis/overview: Sam Flynn ( Garrett Hedlund ) learns of a mysterious page from his father's long-closed arcade house. As Sam investigates, he is pulled into a computer world of programs and gladiatorial fights. And he must try his best to survive if he is to find his long-lost father and return them both to the physical world.
noteworthy scenes: 1.) Grid; 2.) Codified Likeness Utility ( C.L.U. [ Jeff Bridges ] ); 3.) Digital frontier; 4.) Big door; 5.) Security camera; 6.) Computer room; 7.) Master file; 8.) Crane; 9.) Rough landing; 10.) "I was paged last night"; 11.) Arcade; 12.) Aperture clear; 13.) "This is happening"; 14.) "Another program"; 15.) "Hey! hey! it's got a zipper"; 16.) The games; 17.) User; 18.) Freaks; 19.) Fireworks; 20.) "Now, this, I can do"; 21.) "Made it"; 22.) "You're here"; 23.) "Do you know Jules Verne"; 24.) Dinner; 25.) The Isos; 26.) Genocide; 27.) "It closed on me"; 28.) Master Key; 29.) Sector; 30.) Traced point of origin; 31.) "We're going downtown"; 32.) Intruder; 33.) "You just did"; 34.) Fight; 35.) Disc; 36.) "You're messing with my Zen thing"; 37.) The last Iso; 38.) End of line; 39.) Army; 40.) "I'm a user, I'll improvise"; 41.) Aerial dogfight; 42.) "Unknowable perfection"; 43.) Transfer complete; 44.) "You paged me"; and 45.) "What's next, Sam?"
favorite scenes: The sirens.
The gladiatorial combats.
The light-bike race.
Quorra sitting on the couch.
audience reaction: The audience liked it.
recommendation: It was okay. Go see it strictly for the visual SFX.
spoiler alert! That arcade house was located in a now-bad part of town, it seems. So, why would Sam have music blaring-out loud, leave the door open, and last, but certainly not least, leave an expensive motorcycle parked outside where lowlifes probably have taken shelter for the evening in the surrounding abandoned buildings? Why would the camera's aperture be clear when everything else in that secret room was covered in a thick layer of dust? For a really fast vehicle, that light-car sure had a lot of free-play on the steering wheel! Kevin Flynn ( Jeff Bridges ), a widower, alone with Quorra ( Olivia Wilde ), a beautiful, hot, sexy, loyal, and very accommodating personal assistant like that for many, many years .... Wow! what is a man to do in that situation? Ahem, you know---Heck, yeah! I don't think three people can finish-off a whole roasted pig in just one sitting. How do they manage to get some sleep with that circular "thingy" on their backs? And speaking of the circular "thingy", if they don't want anybody snatching it away from them, why can't they just put a lock on it, like a Deadbolt or a Kryptonite kind or, better yet, The Club? ( The Club would be the most practical kind since you can use it to whack somebody in the head with if that somebody tries to steal your circular "thingy." ) When Sam was outfitted for gladiatorial combat by the four sirens, they all walked around in a robotic fashion. But, later on, one of the sirens, Gem ( Beau Garrett ), walked around in a normal fashion. Why the change ...? How did Quorra walk past Alan Bradley ( Bruce Boxleitner ) and out of the arcade house well-ahead of Sam when they traveled and, presumably, arrived together at the same time? Where did they come up with extra sets of clothes and how were they able to change into them so quickly after their transition? ( What ...? Did they delete the "Quorra-changing-clothes" Scene? Damn it! )
fyi: I never saw Part One. Hopefully, it will turn-up on movie2k.com, or as a rental, so that I can watch how it all began.
Well, as it turns out, tonight is a "Jeff Bridges double-bill." Imagine that.
word of advice: Equal but opposite Forces cancel each other out.
tidbits: In-between movies, I went to check on my cute white Geo Metro to see if it was alright because I was forced to park too close for comfort right next to a Lincoln Town Car. But my Metro was safe and sound. I didn't need to worry after all. But I had that Lincoln's license plate number jotted down for "just-in-case".
At the box office, there was only one pay window open, the one on the far right. And there, at that end of the counter, sat an Oriental girl texting on her cellphone. And her feet were just about a foot away from the pay window! I found that so very offensive and so very unprofessional that when I got up to the concessions counter, I looked for the manager and made a complaint.
The ticket taker gave me a pair of 3-D glasses that was in a box full of obviously used ones. I took my pair of 3-D glasses into the men's room and washed it thoroughly with warm water and soap. I was not gonna put that thing on my face without cleaning it first just in case someone before me who used it had the cold or the flu.
After the movie, I went to the CVS store in North Oakland at the Rockridge Shopping Center to see it there was anything good to buy. As I stepped out of my car, I heard an electronic game noise coming from a white car parked close to the store's main entrance. In front of the car was its owner and another man. The owner was playing a video game on the car's front bumper. He had rigged it so that instead of a license plate, a video game screen was in its place. That is one stupidly impractical place for a video game screen, if you ask me. Don't play and drive! L.O.L.
On the way home, I stopped at the Chevron gas station across the Pinole Valley Shopping Center to get $5.00 worth of gas. The clerk, a tiny Chinese-looking man with scraggly, sparse facial hair was busy texting on his cellphone ( Do I detect a pattern here? ) and didn't notice me at first as I politely knocked on the window. I put down a 10-spot in the cash chute and told him that I just needed $5.00 worth of gas. And he said, "Give me a thousand dollars." I asked, What .... "Give me a thousand dollars," he repeated, "I'm Santa." Then he laughed a diabolically maniacal-sounding laugh! That was weird .... And just as quickly and unexpectedly, he turned and walked back to his little corner to do more texting on his cellphone.
And as I stood there pumping gas into my Geo Metro, a white mini pick-up parked around the corner from the cash chute. And the driver, a young Oriental guy, walked up to the cash chute and told the clerk that he wanted to buy an Arizona Tea. And the clerk said, "It's on sale, five dollars!" And he let-out another round of his diabolically maniacal-sounding laugh.
I don't know if you've seen those old Kung-Fu movies where the bad guy would macho-strut around all-stiff and chest-out, and with a determinedly mean look on his face would quickly stare at the camera and do a diabolically maniacal-sounding laugh; and, just as quickly, would stop laughing and turn to walk away. Well, this Chevron clerk is probably a magna cum laude graduate of the same School of Bad Chinese Acting. Ha, ha, ha.
