where: EDWARDS FAIRFIELD STADIUM 16 & I-MAX, Fairfield, CA
when: Thursday, December 17th, 2015
show: 11:00 p.m. 2-D advanced screening
costs: $11.75 Ticket + $1.00 upgrade on a Free Small Popcorn ( free on my Elite Movie Watcher Reward Card ) + $4.99 small Pink Lemonade = $17.74
auditorium: 2
seat: 3rd row ( counting from the front ), 8ht column ( counting from the left )
2nd time:
where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO, Vallejo, CA
when: Tuesday, December 22nd, 2015
show: 8:10 p.m. 3-D
costs: $9.75 Ticket + $6.05 small Buttered Popcorn + $4.20 small Powerade Mountain Berry Blast = $20.00
auditorium: 14
seat: 4th row ( counting from the front ), 3rd column ( counting from the left )
3rd time:
where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO, Vallejo, CA
when: Friday, December 25th, 2015
show: 10:40 p.m. 2-D
costs: $8.00 Ticket + $4.70 1-litre Dasani Water + $2.90 bulk Chocolate-covered Peanuts and M&Ms = $15.60
auditorium: 8
seat: 6th row ( counting from the front ), 9th column ( counting from the left )
4th time:
where: FAIRFIELD STADIUM 16 & I-MAX, Fairfield, CA
when: Sunday, December 27th, 2015
show: 11:20 p.m. I-Max 3-D
costs: $16.00 Ticket + $7.59 medium Popcorn + $4.99 small Pink Lemonade = $28.58
auditorium: 12, with the I-Max Screen
seat: 4th row ( counting from the front ), 6th seat ( counting from the left )
synopsis/overview:
"The Force Is Weak In This One!"
A new menace, the First Order, has risen from the ashes of Darth Vader's empire, with a new villain, Kylo Ren ( Adam Driver ), who will stop at nothing to hunt down and kill the last Jedi Knight, Luke Skywalker ( Mark Hamill ).
audience reaction: The audience gave this a "Hands Clapper" ending.
2nd audience reaction: The audience gave this a "Hands Clapper" ending.
3rd audience reaction: The audience--there were just about 2 dozen, all in all--did not give this a "Hands Clapper" ending.
4th audience reaction: The audience--there were just about 6 or 8 people in the audience with me--didn't give this a "Hands Clapper" ending.
recommendation: I wasn't impressed by it. This movie is strictly for die-hard Star Wars fans. Otherwise, wait for it to come out as a DVD rental.
noteworthy scenes: 1.) The invasion of Jakku; 2.) "I'm talking to myself"; 3.) Crash; 4.) "Him"; 5.) "This garbage will do"; 6.) Thumbs up; 7.) "Chewy, we're home"; 8.) Rathtars; 9.) Skywalker's Light Saber; 10.) Doomed planets; 11.) "Incoming"; 12.) "He was here"; 13.) "Keep it"; 14.) "You'll never be as strong as Darth Vader"; 15.) Jedi mind control; 16.) Temper tantrum; 17.) Starkiller Base; 18.) Greater than Light Speed; 19.) "Sanitation"; 20.) "Why are you doing this"; 21.) Father and son; 22.) Betrayed; 23.) Light Saber fight; 24.) "... (T)o complete his training"; 25.) Aunt and niece; 26.) Map; and 27.) Father and daughter.
spoiler alert! The "introductory crawl" failed to enclose Luke's name in commas, making it unclear whether or not Princess Leia has a half-brother. Some fans are speculating/entertaining such a possibility. Will George Lucas then "milk" this franchise to the very last drop? The back-and-forth dialogue between Kylo Ren and Lor San Tekka ( Max von Sydow ) was laughable. After almost 40 years, scavengers are still looking to salvage parts from crashed Empire vehicles? The "vulture" looked really fake! Okay, if you're out in the deep vacuum of space, you don't leave your spaceship's loading door open! You would think that the ex-Storm Trooper ( John Boyega ) would be smart enough not to go walking around a desert with his mouth wide open! And I suppose that alien beings can just hop from one planet to another without first getting some kind of inoculation! When a pursuit ship shoots at a fleeing ship and misses but hits another object, that pursuit ship will receive some damage from the ensuing blast debris! The Rathtar beast spat out an empty laced boot? Okay, simple observation time: The Starkiller Base consumes every bit of a sun's energy before it can destroy planets. But the movie never showed the Starkiller Base in the vicinity of a Binary Star! Therefore, once it consumed the energy of a nearby star, it would have to move to another location far, far away to find another star to consume before it can resume its destruction of helpless planets---Duh! Every time a space ship leaves its base and flies off to a distant planet faster than the speed of light, it will return to its base where everyone will have considerably aged by then; do this a few times and everyone back at base will be dead by the time you return! You cannot hear a spaceship zoom along in the vacuum of space. The bad guy looks like a skateboarding, shoplifting punk-ass nerd. How long had it been since these characters took a shower and changed clothes or, at the very least, brushed their teeth and used armpit deodorant? What's the point in wearing a Storm Trooper suit if it's not armor plated? Kylo Ren could sense the presence of Han Solo ( Harrison Ford ) from a great distance but was oblivious to his presence just a few feet away! If your comrade was run through with a sword, and you had a loaded rifle in your hands, wouldn't you shoot the bad guy right away? But Chewbacca ( Peter Mayhew ) took approximately 30 seconds to fire his weapon---Yeah, he's 38 years older now and would be expected to have slower reflexes at his present age, but 30 seconds .... Come on! The light saber fight was stupid because the bad guy didn't use his telekinetic power to his advantage and because neither one of them used a headbutt, a bite to the face or a kick/knee to the groin when their hands were unavailable for offense. And when Rey ( Daisy Ridley ) had her eyes closed, why didn't Kylo Ren simply push her off the cliff? And we are to believe that an ex-Storm Trooper and a scavenger are both skilled in the use of a light saber ...? C-3PO ( Anthony Daniels ) inexplicably had a golden arm which once was red. The planet's inhabitants' victory celebration would be short-lived because the six destroyed planets would rain asteroids on their planet soon enough! Add to that the fact that their own sun was extinguished so that their planet would be plunged into total, cold darkness.
This movie is yet another multi-million dollar sci-fi movie which could have benefited well from Cine-Man's scientific/technical advice! And I am still waiting for Hollywood to hire my services to help them improve on their movies. When is Hollywood ever gonna learn ...?
fyi: The segment in the STAR WARS theme music which goes, "Ta, ta, ta, ta ... ta. Ta, ta, ta, ta ... ta. Ta, ta, ta, ta," is plagiarized from Woody Woodpecker's trademark laugh: "Ha, ha, ha, ha ... ha. Ha, ha, ha, ha ... ha. Ha, ha, ha, ha."
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| I found this on the Internet. |
I bet that Woody Woodpecker's creators/owners will be pissed-off when they finally find out about this! Hmm, I wonder if they'll cut me a "finder's fee" cheque after they win their infringement lawsuit.
I saw the movie, STAR WARS, THE PHANTOM MENACE: EPISODE ONE ( 1999 ), for the first time, at EDWARDS FAIRFIELD STADIUM 16 & I-MAX. And I wanted to see this movie at the same theatre, and in the same auditorium but in I-Max 3-D.
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| I found this on the Internet. |
But the 10:20 p.m. I-max 3-D advanced screening in auditorium 12 was sold-out by the time that I got there! I had to settle for the 11:00 p.m. 2-D show, instead. I still want to see this movie in I-Max 3-D, though.
By the way, I saw this 1999 Star Wars movie for the second time in Vallejo, CA, at the downtown AMC Theatre which isn't there anymore because of the much bigger CENTURY 14 VALLEJO which was built across town.
There was a time when I fantasized--more than once, ahem--about Carrie Fisher as Princess Orgasma!
This lead actress, Daisy Ridley, reminds me of Keira Knightly. Keira was in STAR WARS, THE PHANTOM MENACE: EPISODE ONE--as if you guys didn't know that, already!
word of advice: Learn the difference between Restrictive and Non-restrictive Appositives.
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| 'Something to seriously consider. I found this on the Internet. |
My command of written English isn't perfect but, still ....
tidbits: After I left work, I drove on over to the Burger King Restaurant on Holiday Lane in Fairfield, CA, to eat and wait for the movie to begin.
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| This is the men's room at the Burger King Restaurant on Holiday Lane in Fairfield, CA. I took a picture of it because it is extra long at 16 ft. 4 inches x 6 ft. How do I know the size dimension of the floor? Simple, each floor tile is a square foot. Yup, that's a flushless urinal that you see to the left of the picture ( and I don't know how it self-cleans itself ). |
Some movie patrons griped about not being able to bring their Star Wars weapon props and masks to the advanced screening because such things were banned due to terrorist alerts. But some fan did show up in Storm Trooper pajamas--now, that's one way of getting around the ban! Ha, ha, ha.
Before the movie began, a joker behind me stood up and said, "Folks, I already saw this movie earlier! Here's how it ends---Just kidding." Was he just trying to impress his date because of his raging sex hormones? Hmm ....
At the advanced screening, the idiot seated directly in front of me actually tried to capture some of the scenes on his smartphone--yeah, an idiot with a smartphone! Imagine that. Luckily, a security guard came and gave him a good "talking-to". But I would have much preferred that the security guard booted him out along with the two bitches that he was with and whom he was probably trying to impress. SMH
When I saw the advanced screening of this movie, I actually fell asleep in the middle of it! I remembered some characters walked into the bar/tavern in which different beings mingled while crazy music was played. And the next scene I saw was the light saber fight in the forest. Because I got up early for work and waited for hours before the show began. And, by then, I was already sleepy.
On Christmas Eve, at work, a co-worker asked me why the Philippines always wins in international beauty pageants. I told him the truth: A brother-in-law of mine trains beauty contestants for such events! China whines about it because for as long as my brother-in-law trains the Philippine beauties, the Chinese don't stand a chance at always winning big in pageants. I guess the Chinese keep stealing our islands as a consolation.
But the South Koreans will have a hard time in winning international beauty pageants because they all look the same--'remember the scandal from a few years back?
Also, at work, another co-worker had a set of fake Christmas reindeer antlers stashed in his locker. I told him to put it on his head and stand behind me so that I could introduce him as, Rudolph, the brown-nosed reindeer!
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| Christmas reindeer antlers. This one looks way better than the one that my co-worker had. I found this on the Internet. |
I just found out from my sister at the family Christmas Eve gathering that we have another half-sibling in the Philippines on our father's side, and who discovered us on Facebook! And whose 1st name is also the same as my late father's, my brother's and my name. Oh, boy ....
And why did he contact us on Christmas Eve?
So, how was your Christmas?
By the way,
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| I found this on the Internet. Ha, ha, ha. 'Funny .... |
tidbits: The 3rd time that I watched this movie, I brought along a notepad and a pen. The damn pen would skip writing every now-and-then so that I was forced to "prime" it each and every time before I could write anything down on paper! And I had to check my scribbles in the dark just to make sure that my pen worked! You know what, I think I'd be better off using a mechanical pencil for note-taking from now on.
tidbits: Before I went to see this for the 4th time in I-Max 3-D, I went to the McDonald's Restaurant on East 2nd Street in Benicia, CA, to while the time away as I clocked out at work at 6:00 p.m. and had enough time to write a Facebook post in defense of Donald Trump who's accused of being a hypocrite. I used articles from international investments websites to show that Trump's hands are tied, as a businessman, because the US granted some nations ( China, in particular ) an "Unconditional Most Favored Nation" status as a trading partner of the US and because of NAFTA's stipulation to help boost Mexico's economy. Well, anyway, to make a long story short, I was so engrossed with the post that I was writing that I lost track of time; and when I had to reconnect to McDonald's Wi-Fi, my two hours' worth of written argument got deleted---Arrgh! Well, I learned my lesson the hard way. I started it once again, but using Google Drive this time around.
At 10 o'clock p.m., I swung by my workplace to while the time away until it was time for me to head on over to the theatre in Fairfield, CA. I perused a tabloid with a Jimmy Hoffa front page headline on it which claimed that his body was finally found!
I used one of two movie passes that my brother gave me as a Christmas present. But, since it was an I-Max 3-D show, I had to add $6.50 to the total since the pass was only worth $9.50.
Then, the box office clerk handed me a Star Wars collector's item, the card shown below which is numbered 423 of 500. I don't know what to do with it. Perhaps, I will use it as a bookmark.
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