where: AMC BAY STREET 16 in Emeryville, CA
when: Monday, January 7th, 2013
show: 8:50 p.m.
costs: $11.50 Ticket + $4.75 1-litre Dasani Water + $1.50 Parking Fee + $5.00 Carquinez Bridge Toll = $22.75
auditorium: 5
seat: 5th row ( from the front ), 10th column ( from the left )
synopsis/overview: The hunt is on for History's Most Wanted Criminal, Osama bin Laden. And a group of CIA agents do everything they can to find him. They reach their objective at "zero dark thirty" ( half an hour past midnight ).
noteworthy scenes: 1.) Voice recordings of 9-11 victims; 2.) First interrogation; 3.) "You can help yourself by being truthful"; 4.) Torture box; 5.) Saudi terror attack; 6.) "Our work will go on for a hundred years"; 7.) Interrogation tapes and CDs"; 8.) CIA black site; 9.) Monkeys; 10.) "Most trusted courier"; 11.) Burqa squad; 12.) "Kind of like Gandalf"; 13.) Hotel; 14.) "America doesn't torture"; 15.) Black cat; 16.) "He's dead"; 17.) "We're failing"; 18.) Telephone number; 19.) Lamborghini car dealership; 20.) Ultimatum; 21.) "White faces don't belong here"; 22.) White car; 23.) "You're on their list"; 24.) The hide-out; 25.) Twenty-one days; 26.) Fifty-two; 27.) Third male; 28.) Polio Vaccine; 29.) "How do you evaluate the risk of not doing something"; 30.) Area 51; 31.) One hundred twenty-nine; 32.) "One hundred percent"; 33.) "I've done nothing else"; 34.) "Her confidence"; 35.) "Tonight"; 36.) "We've lost power"; 37.) Neighbors; 38.) Osama bin Laden; 39.) Books, DVDs, CDs and Hard-drives; 40.) Pakistani Air Force; 41.) Body bag; 42.) Visual confirmation; and 43.) Cargo plane.
audience reaction: The auditorium was almost fully-packed. And the unanimous consensus was that everybody liked this movie. But, it didn't get a "Hands Clapper" ending.
recommendation: I liked this movie for its historical value. Go see this movie to get a general "feel" for what it was like to hunt down History's Most Wanted Criminal.
spoiler alert! "Third floor, northeast corner." What ... are CIA agents in the habit of giving such directions? I'd need a compass and a map to find my way around inside of a CIA building, just in case I need to visit one someday! That tortured man was kept in solitary confinement for a L-O-N-G time yet his beard stayed the same length!
fyi: Recently, a couple of female health workers in Pakistan were killed because they were giving-out the Polio Vaccine. I wonder if it was in retaliation for Osama bin Laden's execution.
I don't recall why the monkeys were killed.
>>>CIA Chief Pans Zero Dark Thirty
Morell complains about emphasis on interrogation By John Johnson, Newser Staff
Posted Dec 22, 2012 1:32 PM CST
STORY COMMENTS (19)
(Newser) – Add none other than acting CIA chief Michael Morell to the list of critics of Zero Dark Thirty. In a memo to employees, Morell says the movie about the capture of Osama bin Laden gives too much weight to the use of harsh interrogation, reports E! Online. "The film creates the strong impression that the enhanced interrogation techniques that were part of our former detention and interrogation program were the key to finding" bin Laden, he writes. "That impression is false."
Morell also complains that the movie suggests only a few people were responsible for the successful raid, when in fact it was the result of a 10-year effort by "hundreds of officers." The CIA's Office of Public Affairs "interacted" with Kathryn Bigelow's film crew to some extent, he says, but the agency had no control over the finished product. Earlier this week, Dianne Feinstein and John McCain were among those who publicly criticized the movie for its emphasis on interrogation.<<<
word of advice: You can't have a secure compound if you don't have posted guards and guard dogs on duty.
tidbits: I started the day with a Chiropractic appointment here in Vallejo. Then, I went to the Admiral Callaghan Lane Safeway to do some grocery shopping. I went home to rest-up for a while. And I went to Goin' Postal on the corner of Tuolumne and Redwood Streets to drop-off my bill payments.
I was on my way to Oakland, CA, after all of that, to visit my friend, Hector, and his family--and his two kittens:
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| Sylvester and Snow White. |
As it turns out, Sylvester is female and Snow White is male! Boy, oh, boy ... these two kitties are gonna grow up confused about their sexual orientation! Ha, ha, ha.
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| Harry Potter, the kitten formerly known as Snow White. |
I renamed Snow White. He is now officially, Harry Potter. Why? Because, just like his namesake, he is white and has a "lightning streak" mark on his forehead. The mark is in the area that I encircled in the above photo. You can see it better if you magnify the picture.
As Hector, his wife and I gathered at the dining table for some afternoon snack, I told everybody that I haven't drank coffee and softdrinks in over a week. I've been drinking water since December 28th of last year--an early start on my New Year's Resolution. And I don't miss either coffee or softdrinks, and I am not suffering any kind of "withdrawal symptoms" at all.
For dinner, I planned on cooking some Au Gratin Potatoes and some Buffalo-style Chicken Breasts. I had also brought with me a Spiral Glazed Ham and some Sausages, both of which I decided to just save for later. And Hector was gonna cook Teriyaki Chicken and Rice. But, he was out of some ingredients. So, he and I had to go to a grocery store.
Hector and I went to the Fruitvale District Lucky's Supermarket to buy the groceries. This union Lucky's store is being converted to a non-union Food Maxx store. Both stores are owned by the same company. But I guess that the long, drawn-out contract negotiation between Lucky's and UFCW ( United Food and Commercial Workers Union ) had a drastic impact on the store chain's bottom-line and they decided to cut their losses by converting their under-performing stores into non-union stores. I felt sorry for the employees at this store because they either must choose to get themselves shipped-out to other stores or elect to stay and become non-union workers with lower pay and fewer health benefits!
The store had 1.5 pound bags of Roasted Salted Peanuts and Roasted Unsalted Peanuts at the close-out price of just $1.00! Hector bought a bag of Roasted Salted Peanuts. And I bought a bag of Roasted Salted Peanuts and two bags of Roasted Unsalted Peanuts. I haven't had roasted peanuts of either kind in a long time, and I couldn't wait to tear into the bags!
After dinner, we had some of Hector's Lemon Meringue Pie and some of the Safeway Select Mint Chocolate Ice Cream that I brought with me. All in all, it was a good, hearty dinner--but nothing like what I usually have at an all-you-can-eat buffet, of course! How I maintain my svelte ( ahem! ) figure, Lord knows ....
On Movie2K.to, a Jackie Chan movie, CHINESE ZODIAC, was featured. But I didn't have enough time to stay and watch it.
As I stood in the main lobby of the theatre, a man walked by and mentioned to his friend that he was thinking of having a charcoal portrait done. I wanted to say that I was a Charcoal Portrait Artist ( on a 25-year hiatus, mind you ). But I kept quiet. I don't want to make this talent of mine become "commercialized" for two reasons: Lack of artistic freedom; and doing such artwork is really bad on my eyes--I'm very near-sighted because of my many years spent in portraiture. ( Note: I would spend three weeks doing each portrait to make sure it measured-up to my exacting standards, the consummate perfectionist that I am. )
But, as I mentioned in my previous blog, I want to get back into charcoal portraiture. But I will be very selective about my subjects. I will only do portraits of my relatives ( unless Bill Gates offers me a gazillion dollars to do a portrait of him and his wife ). And not just any relative, mind you; I'll only do portraits of my good-looking relatives! LOL
In the auditorium, a man seated two seats to my right was trying to impress his date by calling-out some of the visual cues in the movie, visual cues that were pretty obvious to just about everybody ( I bet that the man was just over-compensating for the fact that he doesn't have his own movie blogsite. Ha, ha, ha. ). I guess it made him feel like he was smart. But not so smart as to impress me, Cine-Man, who sits quietly and attentively watches a movie with a pen and notepad at the ready! Yup, I've got "movie smarts", alright!
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