24 HOURS/ 3 MOVIES

PG-13,  1 hr & 52 min

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I went to see this movie on Thursday, January 21st, 2016, here in Vallejo, CA, at the CENTURY 14 VALLEJO, for the 9:50 p.m. Advanced Screening in auditorium 10, 4th row ( counting from the front ), 9th column ( counting from the left ). The price of admission was $8.00. And I bought a Lite Bites for $6.80 at the concessions counter.

Quickie Review:  An unknown alien force, dubbed, the "others", has come to Earth to eradicate the human population prior to colonizing the entire planet. In the impending doom, a girl ( Chloe Grace Moretz ) goes in desperate search of her younger brother.

I don't recall how the audience reacted to this.

But I certainly didn't like it. You may want for this to come out as a DVD rental.

This movie leaves you hanging at the end. It is as if it was intentionally done so to make this movie "segue" into the much anticipated INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE, coming sometime this summer.

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R,  1 hr & 42 min

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I went to see this on Friday, January 22nd, 2016, here in Vallejo, CA, at the CENTURY 14 VALLEJO, for the 2:15 p.m. show in auditorium 11, 4th row ( counting from the front ), 8ht column ( counting from the left ). The price of admission was $8.50. And I bought a 1-litre bottle of Dasani Water for $4.70 at the concessions counter.

Quickie Review:  A junior partner at a law firm ( Zach Efron ), who's about to wed his boss's daughter in a week, is tricked into driving his "horny old goat" grandfather ( Robert De Niro ) down to Daytona, Florida, during Spring Break.

The audience seemed to like this.

But I didn't like it. The humor in this movie appeals to the crude and vulgar. I don't recommend that you go see this movie.

What are the things wrong in this movie?  Aside from the liberal use of drugs and alcohol, a naked old man is in a recliner chair, watching interracial porn on TV and masturbating to it. Another old man wants to sodomize a "lesbian-looking" young man. A drunken man, asleep on the beach, is violated by a dog. There's a pedophilia-suggesting scene. A drug dealer sells drugs to minors. There's a semen-encrusted pair of pants. A "Hugh Hefner"-like old man is horny for girls as young as his great granddaughter and even gets one pregnant. A young man wakes up to find a penis next to his face, et cetera, etc.

If I were a member of the Ratings Board, I would have given this movie an NC-17 rating!

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PG-13,  1 hr & 37 min

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I went to see this on Friday, January 22nd, 2016, here in Vallejo, CA, at the CENTURY 14 VALLEJO, for the 4:40 p.m. show in auditorium 11, 3rd row ( counting from the front ), 4th column ( counting from the left ). The price of admission was $8.50. And I bought a 1/2-litre bottle of Dasani Water for $3.95 at the concessions counter.

Quickie Review:  An American nanny ( Lauren Cohan ) accepts a job from an old couple whose son is a life-size doll. She is hired to follow a strict set of rules in caring for the couple's son. When she breaks the rules, she begins to feel that the doll is actually alive.

The audience liked this movie. And some even gave it a "Hands Clapper" ending.

I liked this movie. Go see this movie.

If you pay close attention to it, this movie actually drops hints here and there which all come together near the end of the movie. But the last scene was kinda dumb.

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On my way to seeing the advanced screening of THE 5TH WAVE, I noticed that my headlights were not shining as brightly as before. I checked the high-beam, it was okay. After the movie ended, I did a visual check on my headlights and found out that the right headlight bulb was burned-out.

And that left me with two choices on how to deal with the problem: 1.) Go online and order a pair of headlight assemblies from PartsGeek.com, or 2.) Have a repair shop replace the lightbulbs. I ordered the parts before from PartsGeek.com. They were cheap because they were not OEM parts. Now, I know why they were cheap! The original headlight lightbulbs lasted over 10 years; the cheap ones that I installed along with the new headlight assemblies lasted just three years! I decided on just having the lightbulbs, themselves, replaced this time around because the headlight assemblies still look brand new.

The next day, I took my car to OCM Auto Repair on Sonoma Boulevard, here in Vallejo, to have them work on the headlights. I went to the McDonald's Restaurant next door to have a breakfast of Oatmeal and Sweet Tea as I waited for the repair work to be done.

I had an urged to use the men's room as I waited for the repair work. I went to the men's room and found out that someone was occupying the stall. I waited. I heard a plop ... and a flush.  Good, he's done, I said to myself. Then, I heard another plop ... and a flush.  WTF?!?!?! I was waiting for someone to get done, a someone who was in the habit of "plopping logs" then flushing them one-by-one! This idiot probably didn't realize that California is still in the middle of a drought, irregardless of the rain that we are now having!

I gave up and went to a table to preoccupy myself with some reading material while I waited for the idiot to get done with his "business".

After about twenty minutes, I went back to the men's room only to find out that there were no more toilet paper in the stall. I told a cashier about it. But I didn't see any employee doing something about it! If only I had my computer with me, I would have gone online and done a customer dissatisfaction survey.

I could see a mechanic working on my car from the comfort of the table that I occupied inside the McDonald's Restaurant. It didn't take long for the work to get done. I paid $92.63 for the whole thing ( parts, labor and tax ). And the lights are brighter than the original OEM or the aftermarket that I installed.

I went home to use the toilet--had to make room in me for the buffet lunch that was soon to follow.

Then, I went to Selecta Pilipino Buffet Restaurant on Springs Road here in Vallejo for lunch and to buy some lottery tickets. It would be super great if I win the Super Lotto, the Mega and the Powerball all in the same week. Why? Here's the reason why:

Last year's crop of Binibining Pilipinas contestants. Pia Wurtzbach is somewhere in the group. 

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The man in the middle is my brother-in-law. He's the Driving Force behind the favorable, oftentimes stunning, placements of Filipina beauties in International Beauty Pageants these last few years ( and the Chinese are crying, Foul! sore losers that they are ). If I win the lottery major-big-time, I can literally have my pick on whom to marry--with his help, of course. Heh, heh, heh. I guess you could say that I'd be willing to give up on my monastic celibacy vows for any one of them. Ha, ha, ha.

After I watched DIRTY GRANDPA, I refilled my water bottle at the drinking fountain. A man came up to me and said, "That's good. You have the right idea."

I'm just refilling my bottle, I said.

He said, "I can't afford to buy stuff here. I bring my own snacks." He showed me the big bulge in his pullover hoodie's pocket pouch. ( Or was he just happy to see me---Just kidding! Ha, ha, ha. )

I found this on the Internet.

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Yup, I can't blame him for it. I'm guilty of doing the same thing, myself, on occasion. Especially in the wintertime when I can wear a jacket with Big Pockets!

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13 HOURS: THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI, R ( 2 hr & 24 min )

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I went to see this on Thursday, January 14th, 2016, here in Vallejo, CA, at the CENTURY 14 VALLEJO, for the advanced screening at 7:10 p.m. in auditorium 5, 3rd row ( counting from the front ), 9th column ( counting from the right ). The price of admission was $11.25. And I bought a medium Buttered Popcorn ( $7.05 ), a Kernel Season's Ranch-flavored Popcorn Seasoning ( $1.50 ) and a medium upgrade ( $0.65 ) on a free small Powerade Mountain Berry Blast ( free on my movie-watcher e-mail reward coupon ).

Quickie Review:  An American Embassy and a secret CIA base in Libya are attacked by Islamic radicals. With orders to "Stand Down," six former Spec Ops soldiers decide to take matters into their own hands.

The audience liked it and gave it a "Hands Clapper" ending.

I liked it as an Action Movie, and for nothing else! Go see this if you're into Action Movies.

Here are some things wrong in this movie: The US Military invented the World Wide Web to better coordinate their troop movements on the battlefield. So, why couldn't they fix on the enemy's position from the airport to rescue the embattled embassy personnel and the other US citizens? The firefight was well within a distance of about 75 yards/meters between the two sides. And the Spec Ops guys were shooting at the enemy from fixed positions. All the enemy needed was an "average skills" sniper or even a wannabe sniper to aim slightly above a muzzle flash to pick-off each of the Spec Ops guys one-by-one ( none of whom had a helmet on )--and no rifle scope would have been needed! In a battle, you need to identify yourself as a "friendly" a.s.a.p. or risk getting yourself killed by "friendly fire" ( such a cheap use of suspense, the tense stand-off scene )! Because of these glaringly obvious mistakes, I really think that Hollywood over-embellished the true story on which this movie was based on.

I found this on the Internet.

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The US Ambassador was actually captured alive, raped and tortured for several hours before he was burned to death! Liberal Hollywood twisted the facts just to appease a certain someone.

I found this on the Internet, too.

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Hillary can just kiss her presidential campaign goodbye,  for all I care!

Quick, what do Libya, Syria and Iran have in common? None of them owed money to the IMF, according to what someone posted on the Internet! But things are changing. And not necessarily for the betterment of these countries, I'm afraid to say.


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THE FOREST, PG-13 ( 1 hr & 35 min )

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I went to see this last week, on Thursday, January 7th, 2016, here in Vallejo, CA, at the CENTURY 14 VALLEJO, for the evening show.   ( I'm sorry that I cannot fill-in the rest of the information as I "lost" my ticket stub and also because I didn't take notes during the show. )


Quickie Review:  A young woman goes to Japan in search of her twin sister who went missing in a "suicide forest".

I don't recall how many other people were in the audience with me or how they reacted to this movie which is based on events that happened in the "suicide forest" in Japan, the Aokigahara Forest.

To me, this movie is more sad and depressing than it is scary. I don't like the idea of me--or anyone else, for that matter--having some "cheap thrills" at the expense of other people's tragic lives. You may want to wait for this to come out as a DVD rental.

What are the things wrong in this movie? To start off, some Japanese actresses in this movie either don't know how to act or don't know how to convey the right emotions. The scene in the "forest visitor center", where they have a basement ... was not properly acted or directed or scripted or conceived, or any combination of said aspects. The hanged man should have already been stiff from the effects of Rigor Mortis. And this is my cinematic "pet peeve": I don't like the bad guys getting away with anything; after all, movies are a form of escape from the harsh reality of daily life. If I want to know that bad guys get away with doing stuff or for being irresponsible, all I have to do is read or watch the news! Last but not least, this movie's forest doesn't look like the forest pictured on the Internet.

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I went online to do some research on Aokigahara Forest. I learned that up to 100 people commit suicide in that forest every year. But that figure pales in comparison to the number of people who kill themselves in Japan each day. This is a tragedy! It saddens me to know of such morbid statistics.

I originally didn't want to write something about this movie. But I would be spiritually remiss if I don't  try to dissuade someone from ending his/her life.

Now, I do not presume to know the underlying cause of each suicide case as they all must be treated on a case-by-case basis.  But a lot of these needless tragedies could've been prevented if more people only knew the true power of Today. You see, everything that you did Your Whole Life led to your present circumstance/situation Today. Today is also known as the present. Because it is a gift. What you do with your gift, i.e. present, determines what your Tomorrow will be. The people who ended their lives used their gift, i.e. Today, to end their Tomorrow forever.

But, If You Truly Hate Your Present Circumstance/Situation, just do The Next Drastic Change: Put an end to your daily habits/routines and replace them with some other habits/routines. Remember what I said earlier: Everything that you did your whole life led to your present circumstance/situation Today.

Do you know of someone who did the same habits/routines each day because he/she felt that any change would bring about bad luck? And, when said person inadvertently failed to stick to his/her daily habits/routines, something bad actually happened. This may seem just like a silly bit of superstition to you.  But notice two critical things in this cause-and-effect reaction: A change was made; and the Expected Result took place! Yes, a change was made in the Today, the present time, which caused an undesired result to manifest itself in the immediate future ( the Tomorrow ).

But, had the person willed himself/herself to experience Good Luck as a result of changing his/her daily habits/routines, said person would have had something Good happen to him/her in the immediate future, instead! This is the Secret Key to having a different life, a life for the better. You simply change your habits/routines Today for some other habits/routines as you Will yourself to have a better Tomorrow, and then RELEASE your desire into the Universe--this is a form of prayer, by the way. Of course, change may take some time if you willed yourself to get bad luck your whole life. Therefore, starting Today, get yourself into the habit of willing yourself to get Good Luck as a direct consequence of the changes that you make to your daily habits/routines!

And changing things up a bit is also a way of getting yourself out of a rut, or to will yourself out of procrastination. "Just do it!" as the Nike ad says.  Because you truly have the power in you Today to change your Tomorrow.

I found this on the Internet.

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Don't compare yourself to others because that would be unfair to your own self. Each one of us is gifted with a set of skills and talents. So, don't covet, just like one of the Ten Commandments orders you not to do. Fame, Fortune and Power are not "the be-all and the end-all." If this were true, Hollywood celebrities wouldn't go to the extent of ruining their careers and/or killing themselves. Two of the Greatest Men in human history didn't have any money to their name: Buddha and Jesus Christ; yet they continue to influence people by the millions to this very day!

Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe didn't seek fame, fortune and power but I consider him THE Unsung Hero of The United States! And there are countless people out there who live unremarkable lives, save for the fact that they are unsung heroes!

My yogi once told me that "Everything is Karma. And Karma is Energy." There are only two kinds of energy: Good ( positive ) and Bad ( negative ). You absorb both kinds of energy everyday. If you want to change your Tomorrow, you need to absorb less and less of the bad energy starting with Today. So, avoid Bad Karma. Observe the people and places around you. Are they radiating good or bad energy? Are you in a Toxic Relationship/Friendship/Association? Remember, "Misery loves company." Cut your losses short and move on since you are solely responsible for your own well-being.

I  give you this example .... My best friend's family life situation is going from bad to worse. Whenever I visited him and his family, I provided a "good spark" to his life. But it came with a price. I was absorbing his bad karma: My Geo Metro had a tire blow-out on the freeway on my way to visit him, my Metro got hit by a hit-and-run driver in front of his house, my Metro got vandalized and totaled a day before I planned to visit him, my Hyundai Accent got ticketed in front of his house and, recently, my Accent got rear-ended on the freeway on my way to visit him--these are warning signs from my Fate! Now, I find it best to avoid him for the time-being as I get on with my life. I ignore his calls and I don't answer his son's text message. My actions may seem rude and drastic but, as I mentioned earlier, I Am Responsible For My Own Well-Being; and I need to get on with my life and better myself or I will find myself in the same "boat" as he is in and live a miserable/depressing life like he does!

So, please, if you're having suicidal thoughts, think of what I just said: You have the power in you Today to change your Tomorrow for the better. I sincerely hope to have made a difference in someone's life Today.

May God bless you and watch over you.

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NEW YEARS EVE/NEW YEAR'S DAY 2016

R,  2 hr & 10 min

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I went to see this yesterday, Thursday, New Year's Eve, here in Vallejo, CA, at the CENTURY 14 VALLEJO, for the 10:25 p.m. show in auditorium 10, 4th row ( counting from the front ), 9th column ( counting from the right ). The price of admission was $10.75. I bought a $1.00 medium upgrade on a free small Buttered Popcorn ( free on my movie watcher e-mail reward coupon ) and a $4.80 medium Powerade Mountain Berry Blast at the concessions counter.

Quickie Review: This movie dramatizes the events leading up to the home mortgage crash of 2008.

I had the whole auditorium to myself. I liked this movie. Go see this movie it you want to know the "how and why" of the home mortgage crash of 2008.

This movie really fascinated me because I am currently studying the investments market to learn everything that I need to learn to make educated investments as I approach my retirement years.

At just before 10:00 p.m., and before I went to see this movie, somebody tried to shoplift a lot of expensive items at the Benicia, CA, Safeway Supermarket. Luckily, a customer saw the shoplifter walk out of the store and promptly called 911. The Benicia Police caught him before he could even drive away from the parking lot. I guess the idiot shoplifter was not aware of the fact that the Benicia Police Department is just two blocks away! Ha, ha, ha. The suspect, according to the Benicia Police Department Facebook page, is Theodore Horton of Emeryville, CA, who's also wanted in Alameda County on Burglary and Drug charges. Since he has prior convictions, I hope that he is put him in jail permanently this time around! He sure did something really idiotic to cap-off 2015. The total retail value of the items that he stole from two Safeway Supermarkets ( the other one being the American Canyon, CA, store ) was over $2,960.oo! Most of the items are shown in the photo below.

I took this photo at just before 10:00 p.m. The date/time stamp is wrong because I didn't check it after I replaced the batteries last month.

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It was a nice feeling to be in a theatre auditorium all by my lonesome self--no distractions! And I felt safe in there since I was in an area of town where idiots don't fire their guns into the air to ring in the New Year! The area where I live has some idiots who do fire their guns into the air to accompany the fireworks display at the amusement park right across the lake from my condominium. So, I made it my New Year's Eve tradition to be safe in the relative confines of a theatre's auditorium when the clock strikes at midnight.


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PG-13,  2 hr & 4 min

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I went to see this today, Friday, January 1st, 2016, here in Vallejo, CA, at the CENTURY 14 VALLEJO, for the 4:00 p.m. show in auditorium 11, 4th row ( counting from the front ), 6th column ( counting from the left ). The price of admission was $10.75. And I bought a small Powerade Mountain Berry Blast ( $4.20 ) at the concessions counter to go with the 1 5/8ht oz bag of Sabritas Salt & Lime flavored Peanuts ( $0.50 ) that I smuggled-in.

Quickie Review: This movie is based on the life of Joy Mangano ( Jennifer Lawrence ), a young, divorced mother who made, and continues to make, a name for herself in Infomercials.

The audience liked this movie. But no one gave it a "Hands Clapper" ending.

I liked this movie. Go see this movie which is based on a true rags-to-riches story.

What got my attention in this movie is the winter funeral scene. If you recall, I went to Grand Rapids,
Michigan, in March of last year to attend my brother-in-law's funeral. They had to put his body in storage because the ground was still frozen solid. And they waited until the Spring thaw to bury him. So, I really don't know how true the funeral scene in this movie was.

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I would like to come up with some neat invention someday to pitch to Ms. Joy Mangano. As I do have some invention ideas that I would like to see marketed.

I greeted the newest day of the New Year by doing a trail hike/jog.

I took this as I started my trail hike. The date/time stamp is also wrong on this one. I took this and the next photo at around 10:30 a.m. today, New Year's 1st Day, 2016.

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My knee still bothers me as I jog. So, I just did a 400 yard jog and an 80 feet staircase jog.

Fallen leaves carpet the trail in this photo which I took before I started my 400 yard jog.

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I think that it's high time that I get on my unused exercise bike. I bought it, geez ..., about 12 years ago. And I never really used it at all.

The only exercise machine which I used regularly was my NordicTrack Pro Ski Exercise Machine. When my mom died in 1996, I put it in storage where it just got rusted as it gathered dust and cobwebs. I cleaned it up then I gave it away to my friend, Hector, so that he and his fat son could use it to lose some weight. His fat son did something to it and lost a piece of the machinery and just ended up throwing it away. Had I known ....

I had the same exact model. But mine didn't come with a water bottle & holder. I found this on the Internet.

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Anyway, I would like to own another NordicTrack Pro skier because it gave me such a good workout. And ... it's $200 less now than when I bought my first one back in 1985! The original American NordicTrack company went out of business in the late '90s. The new NordicTrack is just a brand name and whose skiers are made in f**king China! The quality is just not there in the new ones. Get an original refurbished one, instead.

After my trail hike/jog, I had a protein powder shake and then I rested for a few hours while I went online to my Facebook page and, later on, watched a couple of YouTube videos.

And I went to the Selecta Pilipino Buffet Restaurant on Springs Road, here in Vallejo, to have a buffet lunch and to buy some lottery tickets.

Something that I ate didn't agree with me and I ended up with an upset stomach. I had to do a "toilet trip" before and after the movie. What a way for me to start the new year.     :-/

By the way ...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

P.S. I originally posted this blog last night, January 2nd, 2016. But my smartphone somehow became unsynchronized from my computer so that when I checked my smartphone's tab on my blogsite this entry became deleted since it was still in Draft Mode on my smartphone! Well, at least, I learned something new to start the New Year with.

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