HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3-D, PG ( 1 hr & 35 min )

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where: AMC BAY STREET in Emeryville, CA
when: Sunday, September 30th, 2012
show: 10:20 p.m.
costs: $15.50 Ticket + $4.75 20.0 oz VitaminWater Essential Orange + $1.50 Parking Fee + $5.00 Carquinez Bridge Toll = $26.75
auditorium: 4
seat: 5th row, 11th column

synopsis/overview: Count Dracula is a single parent of a beautiful baby girl--and an overly protective one at that! And for good reason: Humans Hate Monsters. One day, he decides to build a hotel for monsters only. And the monsters love it. They can be themselves far from the cares of the mortal world and its hateful humans. But, over a hundred years later, a young human discovers the hotel by accident. To make matters worse, the Count's daughter and the human become infatuated with each other.

noteworthy scenes: 1.) Hotel; 2.) Zombie construction workers; 3.) One hundred eighteen years old; 4.) Paradise; 5.) "Dad was right"; 6.) Tourist; 7.) Costume; 8.) "Classic human paranoia"; 9.) Hotel for Monsters; 10.) "You didn't have clothes on when you were a bat--or were they bat-sized"; 11.) "Boy, that kid smelled"; 12.) Secret passages; 13.) "That's kind of racist"; 14.) Bingo; 15.) Charades; 16.) Kick scooter; 17.) Scream cheese; 18.) Swimming pool; 19.) Hypnosis; 20.) Sunrise; 21.) Sauna; 22.) Time-out; 23.) Flying tables; 24.) "That was fun"; 25.) "Why did that hurt me"; 26.) Kitchen; 27.) The Legend; 28.) Werewolf family in bed; 29.) Little touches; 30.) "Doesn't exist"; 31.) The translation; 32.) "Behold, the human"; 33.) "Don't hurt me"; 34.) "Will you erase my mind"; 35.) "Zing"; 36.) Angry guests; 37.) Shirt; 38.) Sheep in the middle of the road; 39.) Monster Festival; 40.) "This is how I'm represented? Unbelievable"; 41.) Personal message; 42.) Sunburned; 43.) "It comes with an accessory"; 44.) Kiss; 45.) Party; and 46.) Bonus images during the Ending Credits.

favorite scenes: I liked the Zombie Construction Workers scene.

I liked The Legend scene.

I liked the Werewolf Family In Bed scene.

I liked the Sheep In The Middle Of The Road scene.

audience reaction: The audience liked it. But it didn't get a "Hands Clapper" ending.

recommendation: I liked it. Go take your little brats to go see this movie.

spoiler alert! None of the monsters noticed that they were hugging a human whose body was considerably warmer than any of theirs. And the bat should not have been able to catch-up with the plane.

fyi: Count Dracula doesn't say, "Blah, blah, blah."

It is The Great Dingbat, the vampire dog on Saturday Morning Cartoon Shows on TV back in the '80s, who says it in his famous oft-repeated line: "I am The Great Dingbat. And I love chocolate. Blah, blah, blah."

This movie gives new meaning to the expression: "She's my old lady." Ha, ha, ha.

word of advice: Love them, nurture them, raise them well, and hope for the best.

tidbits: I went to Berkeley, CA, today because they have a parade on the last Sunday of September every year. I arrived in Downtown Berkeley at 10:45 a.m. by way of BART Train ( I left my Hyundai Accent in the parking garage at the El Cerrito Del Norte BART Station ).

At 11:00 a.m., I went to the MacDonald's Restaurant on the corner of University and Shattuck to wait for the parade. I ordered a Powerade Mountain Berry Blast drink, one medium fries ( free ) and a pumpkin pie, all for $1.63. I also did my Zhunti Mantra while I waited for the time.

Twelve o'clock came, and no parade. Twelve-thirty came and went, and still no parade! And there I was ready and waiting with my digital camera to take pictures of the crazy people, funny floats and NAKED PEOPLE!!! But no parade .... What a let-down! Don't tell me that Berkeley decided to clean-up its image and banned the Last Sunday of September Parade F-O-R-E-V-E-R!!!!!!! Aargh .... Talk about "raining on one's parade."

Well, it did rain last year so I didn't go.

And, to think, I took today off and last year's last Sunday of September off, too, both for nothing!

But I do have pictures of naked people at a Berkeley parade from a few years back. I'll have to post those on my blog someday, if only to prove to you, my readers, that I am not making it up about such a parade.

Anyway ....

While I was at the MacDonald's Restaurant, a young, fat dark-haired white teen came in and sat with an old white man across the aisle from my booth. The teen was waiting for someone. After about 30 minutes, a little old white lady pushing a walker came in and sat at the booth directly in front of mine. The teen went over to join her. And the old man followed.

"Good morning or good afternoon since it's almost noon," said the old man.

The old lady said to the old man, "I want to sit with him alone!"

The old man, obviously embarrassed and humiliated,  got up and went to occupy a window seat.

And the old lady said to the teen, "You can sit with him if you want. I don't want to be crowded. Besides, he's boring." She made this comment well within hearing distance of the hapless old man. ( Geez, what a bitch this little old lady was getting to be! I say this because I think that she was too old to be having a PMS episode. )

In the course of her conversation with the teen, she mentioned her cellphone number to him so he could get a hold of her easier because she was having a hard time hearing her home 'phone ring whenever someone would call her up.

At around noontime, the little old lady had an argument with the teen, to the point where she said, "I don't want you f-cking with me." The teen got up and left the restaurant without saying anything.

At 12:12 p.m., the little old lady started to walk up to the counter to order some "Mini Meal." And, as she did, she looked at the old man seated by the window and ordered him, "You stay away from me!" ( Geez, what a bitch, twice! )

At 12:16 p.m., I could hear the little old bitch at the order counter ask the employees if they found her glasses that she left on the counter yesterday. An employee checked the Lost and Found Box but turned-up nothing.

As the little old bitch hobbled back to her booth, she said loudly, "G-ddam lazy!" ( Geez, what a bitch, thrice! )

The old man said out loud, "They looked! I know. Because I lost some stuff yesterday, too." ( What is it with old people misplacing stuff in the first place ...? )

The grumpy little old bitch said nothing.

By the way, the grumpy little old bitch's cellphone number is: 1 ( 510 ) 841 - 505* ( the last number is between 7 and 9 ). Go ahead, be my guest and bug her anonymously on the 'phone. She deserves it! Maybe, you can even call her Collect. And, if you'd like to, you can Cross-Reference her number in an on-line Reverse Directory to get her name and address so you can "TP" her dwelling place, too. Ha, ha, ha. That should teach her to be nicer to people next time.

All the while that I was at MacDonald's, a young homeless white couple with an infant was outside the door begging for money or food. I felt bad for them, especially since they had a baby with them. I was gonna buy them some combo meal when I got done waiting for the time but some patrons beat me to it. So, as I exited the restaurant, I just gave the man a dollar bill, instead.

When I got back to the El Cerrito Del Norte BART Station to fetch my car, I decided to shop at the Dollar Tree Store across the street from the train station and at the new Safeway Supermarket next door to the station.

Then, I went to Hector's place in Oakland, CA, to make use of his son Isma's Wi-Fi. And, despite the culinary disaster of last week, I decided to make the same dish again, Jambalaya with Sausage. And it came out good this time.

The service was slow at the movie theatre's concession counter because they only had one employee there to help the patrons.

And the image quality of the movie wasn't good either: It was slightly out of focus.

A little girl in the audience laughed at the Zombie Construction Workers scene because she totally understood it!

*

LOOPER. R ( 1 hr & 59 min )

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Quickie Review:  Time-travel is a reality in the future but is outlawed. The mob has access to the technology through the black market. And they use it to send people that they want assassinated back in time to where an assassin, a "looper", waits to finish the job. Joe ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt ) has an easy life as a looper until the day the mob sends back his future self ( Bruce Willis ) for him to assassinate.


I went to see this after work today, Saturday, September 29th, 2012, here in Vallejo, CA, at the Century 14 Vallejo, for the 4:30 p.m. show in auditorium 8, 6th row, 10th column.

The audience liked this movie. But it didn't get a "Hands Clapper" ending.

I liked it. But I wasn't totally impressed by it. It's a good Action/Sci-Fi movie for fans of such a genre.

That little brat sure can act well!

Here are the things that didn't make sense in the movie: The people who control the time machine could teleport people to any place in the past ( as evidenced by the somewhere-in-China scene ) with pin-point precision. Since this was the case, the future mobsters didn't really have a need for loopers at all! They could just have teleported their weighted-down victims to manifest in the deepest part of the ocean--or in any shark-infested water--and let nature apply the finishing touches to their work. Also, no stray bullets ricocheted in some of the shoot-outs where they would be expected to ricochet in a real firefight. What was the point of using Blunderbusses when Shotguns would have easily done the job better? And that kid was less than 10 years old--more like 5 or younger ( even the child's toys suggested such an age range ).

After the movie, I overheard a woman behind me say to another, "It was a great movie. 'You didn't even watch it." That person must've fallen asleep throughout the movie.

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When I got home, I tried to sign-up for Juno's Turbo Dial-up Internet Service but my computer failed to connect with any of their numbers. Yup, that ransomware that corrupted my computer last month really messed-up my connection! At least, I can still connect to the Internet through a Wi-Fi service.

I think that I will just have to buy another computer since my laptop is seven or eight years old now, and obsolete by today's standards. But I will keep my old one and upgrade it myself someday.

*

HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET, PG-13 ( 1 hr & 41 min )

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Quickie Review: A mother and daughter move into a new place which is right next door to a house where a husband and wife were brutally murdered by their own daughter who then mysteriously disappeared into the woods. The lone survivor, a son, is a recluse that the new girl next door takes a liking to, much to the concern of her own mother.

I went to see this today, Wednesday, September 26th, 2012, here in Vallejo, CA, at the Century 14 Vallejo for the 11:35 a.m. first show matinee in auditorium 13, 5th row, 8th column.

The first show matinee is an "Early Bird Special" when patrons get to pay a dollar less for any 2-D movie. ( And I wouldn't pay more for this movie. )

There was only one other person in the audience with me. So, I couldn't gauge any audience reaction to this movie.

This movie was slow on the delivery and low on the suspense. It felt like a made-for-TV movie to me. There's an interesting twist to the movie, though, I must admit. You may want to wait for this to come out as a DVD rental.

I believe that it was the Jennifer Lawrence fans who put this movie in the Top 10 at the Box Office in its first weekend. It will probably start dropping down the list starting this week.

Right off the top, this movie felt amateurish for these five reasons: 1.) The cop's badge didn't show his town/city jurisdiction; 2.) Hypodermic needles are available only by prescription; 3.) Chloroform, sedatives and tranquilizers are hard to acquire if you're not in the medical profession; 4.) Those kids had school records. So, how did they explain the disappearance of one of them? ; and 5.) Again, if you shoot at a target in an enclosed area and you miss, the bullets will ricochet if they don't penetrate anything! I could say more, but I'll just end-up giving the subplot away.

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I went to my periodontist today, at 7:00 a.m. sharp, for a deep cleaning. And even though I was numbed first with some anesthetic, I could still feel some pain from the root planing and probing done on my left upper and lower jaws. I had to find a way to distract myself to lessen the pain's intensity. So, I decided to think of something pleasant. I thought of a beautiful, hot and sexy stripper with no facial, tongue or body piercings, no tattoos and no fake breasts--just an all-natural girl with a firm body doing a private and personal "interactive show"--ahem--with me. Hey, it worked! I barely felt the pain. Embarrassingly, though, it gave me an erection, too. I probably blushed. I had to cover-up myself "down there" to keep the hygienist from noticing and thinking that I'm just a kinky pervert who is "into pain". Ha, ha, ha. Well, at least my "plumbing" still works! LOL

Then, I went to the Dollar Tree Store two blocks away in the Target Shopping Center to do a little bit of shopping.

And I went to the nearby MacDonald's Restaurant to have a Mango/Pineapple Smoothie as I finished-up my blog on the movie, END OF WATCH. It was hard to concentrate on what I was writing because some workers were fixing the roof. But I managed somehow to finish my blog just in time to go see this movie.

After the movie, I went to the American Canyon Safeway to get $20.oo worth of gas just to take advantage of my 10 cents off a gallon gas reward.

I was gonna have lunch at the Jack In The Box Restaurant next door to the Safeway gas station but there were a bunch of unruly high school kids hanging around in the parking lot.

So, I went and had lunch at the Golden City Chinese Buffet at the Rancho Square on the corner of Sonoma Boulevard and Mini Drive. But I think my body is starting to "complain" about my food binges at buffets because I'm starting to experience pain and discomfort now and can no longer eat as much as I used to. Oh, well, it's probably for the best anyway--IT IS FOR THE BEST!!!

*

END OF WATCH, R ( 1 hr & 49 min )

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Quickie Review:  Two police officers patrol the mean streets of South Central Los Angeles. By chance, they uncover a major drug smuggling operation which puts their lives in danger.


I went to see this today, Tuesday, September 25th, 2012, in Emeryville, CA, at the UA Emery Bay Stadium 10 for the 7:50 p.m. show in auditorium 5, 4th row, 10th column.

Today at UA Emery Bay Stadium 10 is "All-Day Five Dollar Tuesday" plus it is also a "$2.oo Small Popcorn w/ a Regal Rewards Card Day". Of course, the parking lot was full as Tuesday is the day to go to the movies at this theatre.

The audience really liked this movie.

I liked it, too. Go see this if you're into "Buddy Cops" movies.

The on-camera chemistry between the two lead actors, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena, is very good, lending credibility to their roles.

I particularly liked the scene wherein one of the cops got into a fight with a man inside of that man's house.

I guess that cops are exempt from the "Seatbelt Law".

There is a reason for the title chosen for this movie. And you're not gonna like it--I didn't.

Damn! that PARANORMAL ACTIVITY franchise sure got everybody using hand-held cameras, including the bad guys.

This movie doesn't come with an American Humane Association Disclaimer in the Ending Credits. So, more than likely, that poor cat in the opening chase scene actually got run-over! Poor cat .... Why did the cat cross the road? I guess because it wanted to play "chicken".

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I was at my friend Hector's house in Oakland, CA, earlier in the day. I used his son's Wi-Fi to work on my blog. All the while, Sylvester, the kitten, was on "attack mode"! See the evidence for yourself:

Here he is again:, wedged between my legs and clinging to my crotch while dangling at the edge of the couch.

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He's just waiting to pounce on either one of my thumbs in this shot.

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He spotted an inattentive thumb in this one.

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Hey! watch where you scratch or claw at, you stupid kitten.

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He's going for the camera strap in this shot.

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He's waiting for my thumbs here.

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Later on, Hector's son, Isma, showed me a nature documentary on YouTube about four ( 4 ) male lions attacking, killing and eating a rival male lion. I've never seen something like that before! I always thought that the Big Cats just simply kill their rivals over a territorial claim. I remember seeing a documentary years ago in which some lions killed a leopard and simply just walked away from their kill, as though to use it as a deterrent to other would-be interlopers.

Then, I started to cook some Jambalaya for dinner. But ... the glass lid of the pot that I used just popped and cracked all of a sudden, and pieces of glass fell into the pot! I ended-up just throwing away the food--what a waste.

That's Three ( 3 ) Bad Things that happened to me within a six ( 6 ) day period at Hector's place. Last Wednesday, I got a parking ticket for parking in front of Hector's house because nobody reminded me that it was Street Sweep Day for that side of the street. That was $66.oo out of my checking account, all wasted on the damn ticket. What really got me about it though was that Hector's other son, Tito, parked his old, non-operational Cadillac Deville in that Same Spot For About A Year AND NEVER GOT A TICKET!!! And last Friday, I decided to play it safe and parked my car on Hector's lawn only to get my left shin skinned by my Hyundai's driver's side door when it started to close by itself as I began to step out of my car!!! Ouch ....

Since three ( 3 ) means "Yes" in the Occult and Supernatural World, I think that my Yogi is "telling" me to lessen the frequency of my visits to Hector's place and get on with my Spiritual Cultivation. After all, I cannot expect to have a "different tomorrow" if I keep doing the same thing that I've been doing over and over again, i.e. avoiding responsibility for my own future and spiritual well-being ....

*

DREDD 3-D, R ( 1 hr & 36 min )

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where:  UA EMERY BAY STADIUM 10 in Emeryville, CA
when:  Friday, September 21st, 2012
show:  9:40 p.m.
costs:  $14.50 Ticket + $5.75 Zap Pack ( w/ Diet Coke, no ice ) + $5.00 Carquinez Bridge Toll = $25.25
auditorium:  3
seat:  5th row, 11th column

synopsis/overview:  Judge Dredd ( Karl Urban ) and a rookie sidekick judge, Cassandra ( Olivia Thirlby ), are sent to investigate a triple homicide at the Peach Trees Housing Project, a 200-story ghetto tower run by Ma-Ma  ( Lena Headey ), an ex-prostitute drug lord, who puts the place on immediate lock-down and issues an order to have both judges killed after they take one of her lieutenants into custody.

noteworthy scenes:  1.) Mega City One; 2.) Road chase; 3.) "Hot Shot"; 4.) "The food court will be reopened in 30 minutes"; 5.) "She's a mutant"; 6.) Triple homicide; 7.) Ma-Ma Clan; 8.) "I think a bullet  would interfere with it more"; 9.) "Sir, it's him"; 10.) Control room; 11.) "He just changed his mind"; 12.) Blast shield; 13.) The message; 14.) Gas; 15.) "The sentence is death"; 16.) "There are no sides. You're already dead"; 17.) Woman's apartment; 18.) Sealed; 19.) "What are you thinking about now, huh"; 20.) Machine guns; 21.) Skateboard ramp; 22.) "'Coms are back on"; 23.) Mind read; 24.) "You're the psychic"; 25.) Stand-off; 26.) Captured; 27.) Patched terminal; 28.) "Judgment time"; 29.) Incendiary; 30.) "Call 9-1-1"; 30.) "You're prepared to testify to that"; 31.) "One million credits"; 32.) "Choke on that"; 33.) "That's funny. I was gonna ask you that"; 34.) Slo-Mo lab; 35.) "Lower your gun, rookie. I'm your back-up"; 36.) "Wait"; 37.) "I'm still entitled to dispense justice"; 38.) Rigged with explosives; 39.) "Defense noted"; and 40.) "Your assessment is now over."

favorite scenes: I liked the Hot Shot scene.

I liked the Mind Game scene.

audience reaction:  The audience really enjoyed this. But I didn't hear any "Hands Clapper" during the ending credits, what with the background music dinning in my ears!

recommendation:  I liked this movie, too. If you are an Action Movie fan, and you don't mind seeing blood splashed all over in slow motion, go see this movie.

spoiler alert!  In the car chase, no car go hit by bullets even though the bad guy was indiscriminately spraying bullets everywhere. Being that the blast shield was heavy, there should not have been that much blood flowing underneath it because its weight would have created a near-perfect seal at the bottom. The machine gun rounds didn't ricochet at all. The machine gun rounds should have produced bigger wounds on their victims. When Dredd threw a bad guy over the railing, none of the other bad guys took the time to shoot at him. With the blast shield in place, the fire would have produced a lot of smoke which would have triggered some smoke alarms--you would think! And what about the fire sprinklers? Why did he not kill those punk kids who used live rounds on him and his partner? A bad guy who was burned by an incendiary round in an earlier scene was still standing around, and in flames, during the slow-motion scene near the end of the movie! Why didn't anybody in the Makeup Department pop the zit on the left side of Olivia Thirlby's upper lip--it was too distracting for me to have to see it on the Big Screen!

fyi:  In Greek Mythology, Cassandra was a very beautiful divinely-gifted prophetess whose words eventually fell on deaf ears because her people didn't/couldn't believe anymore of what she said after she rejected the love of a god.

I remember once in my CLEP ( College Level English Preparatory ) Class during my senior year of high school how one of my female classmates told the whole class the origin and meaning of the name, Cassandra. And I quipped, I don't believe you! The teacher asked, "Why?" Nobody got the joke. Sigh ....

word of advice:  What goes around comes around.

tidbits:  After I clocked-out at work today in Benicia, CA, I drove all the way to my friend Hector's place in Oakland, CA, because his son, Isma, called me in the middle of the night last night to let me know that he found his old Netgear wireless router for me to use on my laptop to see if I can get on the Internet that way. I hope that it will work. Otherwise, I will have to switch ISPs--and be ( temporarily ) back on Dial-Up again ( Oh, Lord .... ).

While I was at Hector's place, I accessed his son's Wi-Fi to do some work on my laptop computer. All the while their new kitten, Sylvester, would occasionally pounce on my thumbs as he wedged himself between my legs. It was a funny sight to behold, a plump and hairy little pussy clinging to my crotch on the edge of the couch! Ha, ha, ha. Lucky for him, he didn't scratch my balls or else ....

On my way to the theatre, as I waited for the green light at the Fruitvale 580 on-ramp, some idiot made a left turn on Montana Street, a one-way street. I thought it looked odd, then I realized that he did go the wrong way on that one-way street. Either he was drunk or he was just an idiot! And we could do with fewer of either kind loose on the streets.

After the ending credits, the screen showed a green start button at the lower left corner, making a man in the audience ask, "Was that a Windows XP?" ( Yeah, I wondered why some scenes looked grainy even though the movie was in 3-D. Could it be that we watched a bootlegged copy that was first uploaded to movie2k.to? LOL )

As we all filed out of the auditorium, I overheard a lady behind me say that she "... liked the one-liners."

When I got home, I tried the Netgear wireless router. It didn't work. So, I closed my Internet service because I didn't want to take a chance with my password and other personal information.

I will have to find a different Internet Service Provider, for security and privacy concerns.

*

RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION in 3-D, ( 1 hr & 35 min )

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Quickie Review:  Alice ( Mila Jovovich ) awakens deep in Umbrella Corporation's secret headquarters and testing grounds. And as she tries and makes her way out with the aid of some friends, she uncovers certain things about her past.

I went to see this here in Vallejo, CA, after work, at the Century 14 Vallejo, on Monday, September 17th, 2012, for the 10:15 p.m. show in auditorium 14, 5th row, 7th column. 

There were about a dozen people in the auditorium with me for this particular late night show. But I don't think they liked the movie that much.

I didn't liked this movie that much, too. For the most part, it seemed like a "rehash" of bits and pieces from the other four installments in the RESIDENT EVIL franchise. You might want to wait for this to come out on DVD. It's not even worth the I-Max 3-D ticket price.

Here are some things that I found wrong/amusing in this movie:  What was up with those two "hand towels" strategically-strapped ( with clear tape, of all things ) around Alice's mid-section? After all, she was naked in some previous installments. And it was not as if the people who ran Umbrella Corp. hadn't seen her--or her clones--butt-naked before! Those zombie Russian soldiers couldn't hit their targets who were standing in front of them. And, with all of those bullets flying around, why were there no ricochets? The man with a deep slash wound on his left cheek shouldn't have been able to talk in a normal way. The ending scene which showed the White House under attack gave me the impression that it was a massive horde of disgruntled 2012 voters who voted the wrong man into office and wanted him impeached. Ha, ha, ha.

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A co-worker told me to get a trial copy of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Software to scan my computer with. So, I did. And Malwarebytes uncovered five ( 5 ) malwares hidden in my computer on a two-hour "quick scan" and two ( 2 ) more malwares on a five-hour "full scan".  I don't know how and why my McAfee Internet Security missed detecting these!!! And one of them was the Trojan, Reveton Ransomware, that infected my computer last month. I deleted all of them, of course.

But it was already too late as I still cannot access the Internet on my DSL. I have to use Wi-Fi if I want to go on-line. And I don't know when my ISP will be able to fix the problem. In the meantime, I'm considering either getting a wireless router or switching to another ISP altogether--or just buying another laptop. We shall see ....

*

BARFI, NR ( 2 hr & 30 min )

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Quickie Review:  This is a tale of a happy-go-lucky deaf-mute, Barfi ( Ranbir Kapoor ), whose life takes on an added dimension when he is infatuated by two girls who are polar opposites of each other. But which girl is the right one for him?

I went to see this on Saturday, September 15th, 2012, in Emeryville, CA, at the UA Emery Bay Stadium 10, for the 9:40 p.m. show in auditorium 8, 5th row, 10th column.

The audience really enjoyed this movie. And some people in the audience gave it a "Hands Clapper" ending.

I liked this movie, too. Go see this quirky Rom-Com with someone you love for it makes for a good "date movie".

I don't know how it will be played in your local area theatre, but this theatre didn't show this movie with an intermission at all. ( It was the same for the last Hindi movie that I saw here, too, the movie, JOKER. ) I was squirming in my seat, with a full bladder, because of it!

If you've noticed, the grass, hedges and trees are all gone.

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Here's a closer telephoto shot. 'Sorry for the poor quality of the photos. I truly suck at taking night-time photos!

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I'm sorry for the "quickie review" format. I am currently without Internet access. The Reveton Ransomware that infected my computer last month ( see my HIT & RUN blog ) wasn't completely removed by my friend: It stayed hidden, waiting to disrupt my Internet connection. I have been without direct Internet access for over a week because of it. I'm still trying to fix the damage done--my ISP Tech Support is not much of a help, either. In the meantime, I am blogging via free Wi-Fi at local area MacDonald's Restaurants.

And I may have to try Starbucks' free Wi-Fi someday, too, because I'm getting tired of eating burger and fries every time I use Wi-Fi!

*

JOKER, NR ( 1 hr & 42 min )

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Quickie Review:  When the map of India and Pakistan was being drawn during the partition in 1947, the small border village of Paglapur was omitted when its asylum inmates broke loose and drove the townspeople away. The inmates established their own independent "republic" which remained largely unknown to the rest of the world for the last 60+ years, without electricity and other such conveniences taken for granted by everyone else in the modern world.

Agastya ( Akshay Kumar ), a scientist of Indian origin, working on an extra-terrestrial communication device, goes back to Paglapur with his wife, Diva ( Sonakshi Sinha ), when he receives word that his father is dying. Agastya soon finds out that his father isn't dying, that it was just a ruse to get him back to help the villagers get help from the outside world.

But no one wants to help out the isolated villagers until Agastya devices a "UFO-themed" plan to put Paglapur on the World Map once and for all.

I went to see this yesterday, Monday, September 3rd, 2012, at the UA Emery Bay Stadium 10 in Emeryville, CA, for the 9:50 p.m. show in auditorium 4, 6th row, 12th column.

The "Joker" in this movie refers to the isolated asylum village, in a similar way that a non-colored Joker in a deck of cards doesn't belong to any color. In other words, the village is not claimed by any neighboring color, i.e. flag/country.

In the audience of less than a dozen people, some people seemed to enjoy this movie.

I didn't like it that much. It was silly and preposterous. You might want to wait for this to come out as a DVD rental.

Here are some things that didn't make sense in this movie: How could people in that asylum village learn to do a well-choreographed Song-and-Dance number? Why was it that only one person could tell that the aliens were a fake? How come those soldiers and agents couldn't hit their targets at all? And the real alien in this movie was shown butt-naked! ( Why, oh why, oh why, oh why ...? Sigh .... )

You might be interested in watching this documentary on YouTube, instead: Crop Circles: Mysteries of the Fields.

Here are three very intricate crop circle formations that I found on the Internet:

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If any hoaxers out there can make any one of the above-shown designs in the course of just four hours in the middle of the night, then I'll believe that Crop Circles/Formations are ALL FAKE, i.e. not alien but of human origin.

"Bolly, bolly wood. Good, good!" ( gibberish )

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LAWLESS ( 2012 ), R ( 1 hr & 55 min )

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Quickie Review:  In the 1930s, during the Prohibition Era, three brothers, the Bondurants, of Franklin County, VA, run a successful bootlegging operation on the side. But all that is about to change as an abusive Chicago lawman comes to town to shut down the illegal moonshine business. Based on a True Story.

I went to see this movie today, Sunday, September 2nd, 2012, at the Century 14 Vallejo here in Vallejo, CA, for the 10:05 p.m. show in auditorium 11, 4th row, 9th column.

The audience really liked this movie. But it didn't get a "Hands Clapper" ending.

I liked this movie, too. I couldn't help but root for the bootlegger brothers. Go see this movie.

P.S. I forgot to bring my notepad with me when I went to see this movie, which is the reason why it's in "quickie" form!

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