where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when: Friday, December 14th, 2012
show: 9:50 p.m.
costs: $14.00 Ticket + $6.75 medium Popcorn w/ Butter + $4.50 medium 24.0 oz Powerade Mountain Berry Blast = $25.25
auditorium: 7
seat: 6th row, 9th column ( counting from the left )
2nd time:
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| Pinoy po ako ( translation: I'm a Pilipino ). Ha, ha, ha. |
when: Sunday, December 16th, 2012
show: 9:00 p.m.
costs: $15.00 Ticket + $6.00 small Popcorn + $0.00 small 32.0 oz Diet Coke ( free on Regal Movie Watcher Rewards Card ) = $21.00
auditorium: 4
seat: 4th row, 5th seat ( counting from the left )
synopsis/overview: A Hobbit goes on an unexpected journey in the company of a Wizard and a bunch of Dwarves who are on a quest to retake their distant homeland after they saw a good omen.
noteworthy scenes: 1.) Heart of the Mountain; 2.) "Sickness of the heart"; 3.) Dragon; 4.) "Good Morning"; 5.) Unexpected guests; 6.) "I'm going on an adventure"; 7.) Wagers; 8.) Battle with Orcs; 9.) Black magic; 10.) Trolls; 11.) Parasites; 12.) Troll cave; 13.) Necromancer; 14.) Hunted; 15.) "Letter opener"; 16.) "The same moon shines upon us tonight"; 17.) "Excessive consumption of mushrooms"; 18.) "They are leaving"; 19.) Stone giants; 20.) Goblins; 21.) Ring; 22.) Riddles; 23.) Invisibility; 24.) Pine cones; 25.) Birds; 26.) "I have never been so wrong in all my life"; 27.) "I do believe the worst is behind us"; and 28.) Treasure Chamber.
audience reaction: The audience liked this movie but nobody gave it a "Hands Clapper" ending.
recommendation: I didn't like it that much. Hopefully, part II and part III will be better. Of course, it goes without saying, if you're a Tolkien fan, definitely go see this movie.
spoiler alert! Tobacco and Tomato both originated in The Americas. Am I right to assume, then, that Middle Earth is somewhere near, or in, either of the American Continents? Since Hobbits are shorter than Humans, and dwarves are just slightly taller than Hobbits, just how big--or small--then, were those Onions and Tomatoes shown in the Hobbit's kitchen and pantry? That was way too much food for one ol' Hobbit to keep on hand, especially if you consider the size of the meal portion that he made for his own consumption before the unexpected guests arrived. If the events in Middle Earth occurred sometime in Earth's distant past, they probably happened back before forks and spoons were invented and used as dining utensils; yet, there they were! The Dragon went into the Treasure Chamber and wallowed in all of that Gold even though there were still heavily armed dwarves in the fortified castle. But the dwarves left the castle, instead of taking advantage of the situation in which the Dragon would have been easily surrounded while resting in the chamber. In the drawn-out sword battle with the Orcs, no one, it seemed, was gasping for breath. After he cut-off the Orc's left arm, he didn't take the time to finish it off when he could have. In the Stone Giants battle scene, how did either Hobbit or Dwarves keep from falling off the ledge? Why did none of the bridges have handrails? The falling platform looked so fake! Sure ... that little butterfly could fly so fast that it could summon help so quickly--yeah, right ....
fyi: To start off, let me just say that I didn't read any of Tolkien's books. In fact, I only heard of him when the first installment of LORD OF THE RINGS made its way to the Big Screen.
I like the Hobbit house--I would love to have a house like that! It's so quaint, cozy and charming. And, because it's naturally insulated, it's also very energy-efficient.
I don't know if any of you have noticed it, but Gollum looks like a skinny, old-fart Pilipino. I've seen a few men who look like that back in the Philippines!
By the way, I can do a pretty good voice impression of Gollum--'must be because I'm from the Philippines. But, nope, I don't look anything like him. I look like Fred Flintstone, remember ...? ( At least, that's what my eldest sister says! ) Ha, ha, ha.
word of advice: Life is an Adventure.
tidbits: The box office clerk gave me a Collector's Edition Real-D 3-D Glasses. I went back to my car to fetch my regular pair of Real-D 3-D glasses so that I could keep the "collector's item" pair of 3-D glasses.
I'm glad that this theatre now has Powerade Mountain Berry Blast added to their fountain drink selection. Because I'd rather drink this than VitaminWater for its Electrolytes content.
Please pray for the 27 victims killed in a shooting rampage at a Newtown, Connecticut, kindergarten and their grieving families. My heart goes out to them, such a senseless tragedy ....
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| Someone sent this to my Facebook page. I don't need to add to this because it says everything!!! |
2nd tidbits: Burger King Restaurants, for their 55th anniversary, have a 3-day 55-Cent Whopper promotion from Dec. 13 - 16. I went to the Burger King on Southampton Drive here in Benicia, CA, last night, Saturday, the 15th, after work, to get a 55-cent burger. But, as soon as I pulled into their lot, they turned-off their lights! So, I drove to the Columbus Parkway Burger King ( also here in Benicia ). But, as soon as I drove-up to their Drive-Through Menu Board, they turned-off their lights, too!! And some guy on the speaker told me that they close at midnight--there was still a minute left, to be honest! I guess they heard of my Chinese Buffet Pigging-Out Sessions and were worried that I'd eat into their profits!! My reputation precedes me, indeed!!!
I was still determined to have my 55-Cent Burger! And since today, Sunday, December 16th, was the last day of their special burger promotion, I went to the Southampton Drive Burger King promptly after work! I learned that it wasn't so special of a deal at all: I had to buy a regular Whopper on top of it; and I would have to pay an extra 50 cents if I wanted cheese on my 55-Cent burger!
I just ate the Wisconsin White Cheddar Whopper. I brought along a 16.0 oz bottle of GT's Kombucha Trilogy, that I bought earlier at the Benicia Safeway, to wash down the burger with.
I saved the 55-cent ( with no cheese ) burger for later. I thought of sneaking it into the theatre. But I decided to have some popcorn, instead.
On the drive to Fairfield for this movie, a car on the fast lane drove by with its taillights off. The driver was driving at night using just his/her daytime running lights--what a stupid, irresponsible idiot!!!
The box office clerk handed me a regular pair of 3-D glasses. And when I presented my movie ticket to the ticket taker, he gave me a Collector's Edition 3-D Glasses. Ahh ... the perqs of being Cine-Man, the world-famous movie blogger.
I went to see this a second time because I was curious about this new film technology, HFR ( High Frame Rate of 48 frames-per-second; standard speed is 24 fps ) 3-D. I wanted to know the differences among 3-D, I-Max 3-D and HFR 3-D. I know that I-Max 3-D makes for sharper images on-screen when compared to regular 3-D. And HFR 3-D supposedly makes for more realistic motions on-screen; but, for the life of me, I couldn't detect any difference in visual and/or motion quality when I compared it to the regular 3-D version that I saw two days ago. I haven't seen this movie yet in 2-D and in I-Max 3-D. So, for now, my findings are inconclusive.
I do know now that an HFR 3-D movie is priced $2.50 cheaper than an I-Max 3-D movie!
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