IMMORTALS 3-D, R ( 1 hr & 50 min )

There are eight movie posters to choose from.  I like this the best.

where:  EDWARDS FAIRFIELD STADIUM 16 & I-MAX in Fairfield, CA
when:  Friday, November 11th, 2011
show:  11:05 a.m.
costs:  $12.00 Ticket + $0.00 small Popcorn ( free on movie watcher reward card ) + $4.75 small Cherry Coke = $16.75
auditorium:  4
seat:  4th row, 4th seat


synopsis/overview:  An evil king, Hyperion ( Mickey Rourke ), is in search of the long-lost bow of  Epirus which he'll need to free the titans to help him conquer the world.  But an oracle, Phaedra ( Frieda Pinto ), convinces a stonemason, Theseus ( Henry Cavill ), that he is the only one who can stop the power-mad king.


noteworthy scenes:  1.) The dream; 2.) The bow of Epirus; 3.) Quarrel; 4.) Disguise; 5.) Defector; 6.) Ball crusher; 7.) "Witness Hell"; 8.) Vision; 9.) Escape; 10.) "You can see the Future but you don't have the power to change it"; 11.) Tsunami; 12.) "She believed"; 13.) Burial chamber; 14.) Brazen Bull; 15.) Gods; 16.) "They're dying"; 17.) Bastard; 18.) Envoy; 19.) "The gods chose well"; 20.) "Stand your ground"; 21.) Titans; and 22.) War in heaven.

favorite scenes:  I liked Athena's ( Isabel Lucas ) first ( ahem ) scene.

I liked the Ball Crusher scene.  ( Man, I "felt" your pain; so did the rest in the audience with me. )

I liked Theseus and Phaedra's Alone Time Together scene.  ( Hey, she's from India and I'm a Yogi.  What else do you want me to say, huh? )

audience reaction:  The audience reacted mainly to the Ball Crusher scene.  Other than that, the audience was mute for the better part of the movie.

recommendation:  I liked the fight scenes, especially since they incorporated some wrestling moves.  And we know that  wrestling was pretty much invented by the Ancient Greeks.  If you're into Action movies, go see this for its fight scenes.

spoiler alert!  Wow, that oil slick sure washed off easily with just  plain ol' water.  Ah, shouldn't the body that Theseus was carrying be stiff due to Rigor Mortis?  The bowstring was not strung tightly enough because it had too much vibration in it after Theseus twanged it.  When the executioner lifted Theseus up by the hair with his left hand, he could have used the club in his right hand to crush Theseus' ribs with.  Theseus released the arrows one after the other but they all found their marks simultaneously.  You can't kill someone simply by gouging his eyes out!  You would think that that wall would have been built with contingency measures ( i.e. rocks, arrows, boiling oil, etc. ) factored in in case it was breached.  There were just a few Titans kept in prison but, upon their released, they seemed to have multiplied like a bunch of horny rabbits!  And where did all those other gods and titans come from anyway?  From what the Ancient Greek Poet, Hesiod, wrote about Mount Tartarus, where the titans are kept in prison, only the immortals can get to it because its distance from the gods' heavenly abode is twice  that to Earth's if measured from the time that an anvil falls from heaven and lands on earth nine days later ( in other words, 18 days of Free-Fall time distance )!  I don't even want to do the math on this because it would be pointless of me to do so.  Suffice it to say that it is farther than the two days' journey that the oracle, Phaedra,  claimed it to be--even on horseback.  The 3-D effect in this movie is not used to its full advantage; in other words, save your money and see this in 2-D, instead.

fyi:  The Brazen Bull was invented in the 6th Century BC, not in the 13th Century BC as the time setting for this movie suggests.

word of advice:  The gods don't help those who don't help themselves.

tidbits:  I took my Geo Metro to Quality Tune-Up Shop for an oil change, first thing in the morning.  And I had breakfast at the MacDonald's Restaurant next door to it while I waited for the service to get done.  Then, I was gonna go to BofA to get a cashier's check to pay-off a credit card debt.  But I completely forgot that today was Veterans' Day, i.e. banks were closed and there was no mail service because it's a Federal Holiday.  ( This put an inconvenient wrinkle on my "To-Do List" for today. )

I just parked my car in the shopping center parking lot in front of the local Chinese buffet restaurant while I read today's paper and checked out the movie listings, as well as the movie reviews.

Then, it was off to Fairfield for me, the place where I decided to go see this movie and the Adam Sandler one, too.

I was busy scribbling notes on my notepad in the dark while I was watching this movie and didn't realize  soon enough that my pen had already ran out of ink.  I lost about two  pages' worth of notes!  I had a spare pen with me--three, actually--but it was already too late.  Sorry ....


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PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF, PG ( 2 hr & 0 min )

where: UA EMERYVILLE STADIUM 10 in Emeryville, CA
when: Friday, February 12th, 2010
show: 10:20 p.m.
costs: $0.00 Ticket ( Regal $10.00 Movie Certificate ) + $6.00 small Popcorn w/ Butter ( and sprinkled w/ Kernel Seasonings Jalapeno flavor w/c I brought in w/ me ) + $4.50 small Diet Coke = $10.50
auditorium: 3
seat: 6th row, 12th column

synopsis: Zeus' ( Sean Bean ) lightning bolt is stolen. And it is up to Percy Jackson ( Logan Lerman ) to find it in time to avoid a battle between the gods that will, in all probability, destroy all of creation.

noteworthy scenes: 1.) Poseidon ( Kevin McKidd ); 2.) Zeus; 3.) Pool; 4.) New Greek and Roman Galleries; 5.) Fury; 6.) Minotaur; 7.) Camp Half-Blood; 8.) Satyr; 9.) Chiron, the Centaur ( Pierce Brosnan ); 10.) Welcome home; 11.) Training; 12.) Duel; 13.) Strong feelings; 14.) Hades ( Steve Coogan ); 15.) Quest; 16.) "Daddy issues"; 17.) Medusa; 18.) Motel; 19.) Parthenon in Nashville, TN; 20.) Lernaean hydra; 21.) Storm; 22.) Lotus Hotel and Casino; 23.) Lotus flower cookies; 24.) Maserati; 25.) Gateway to Underworld; 26.) Scrap heaps of human misery; 27.) Hell hounds; 28.) Persephone; 29.) "Mick Jagger thing"; 30.) Shield; 31.) Empire State Building; 32.) Chase; 33.) Trident; 34.) Olympus; 35.) Pantheon; 36.) Where you belong; 37.) Horny dude; 38.) Grace under pressure; 39.) First rule of battle; and 40.) Bonus scene during the ending credits.

audience reaction: There was one scene which made the audience laugh--wait! it was I who laughed ( Sorry .... ).

recommendation: This is just a so-so "fantasy role-play" type of movie. It lacks polish but it will be appealing to teens, its targeted audience.

spoiler alert! First of all, if they're gods, how come they can't figure it out amongst themselves who actually stole the lightning bolt? In actuality, a lightning bolt is extremely hot ( white-hot ) and super electrified so that even a demi-god--who is not even impervious to bladed weaponry strikes, as shown in this movie--who's stupid enough to hold it will have his hand burned-off at the very least and get himself electrocuted at the very most! If we mere mortals have use of security cameras, why don't the gods have something of a similar function? The sparring matches were not well-choreographed, for the most part. Why did Grover ( Brandon T. Jackson ) carry-on with his charade in places where no one knew who he was? When Medusa ( Uma Thurman ) confronted them, why did they just close their eyes and stayed-put? They could just have looked down at the ground as they made a hasty retreat! How did Luke ( Jake Abel ), a mere half-mortal, know Percy's exact shoe size when even the gods, themselves, seem to lack the power of omniscience? How come the sudden addition of a gigantic statue in the parthenon never made it on the news the following day ( only a storm brewing was shown on TV news)? How come there was no Lo-Jack or any other type of anti-theft device on the Maserati? When I bought my base model 1994 Geo Metro brand new, it came with two anti-theft devices already pre-installed by the dealership! Luke should have had plenty of time to make his "kill shot". Why didn't Olympus have any posted guards on duty? Did Gabe Ugliano ( ? ) really deserve to get what he got? Since they had a pair of dark sunglasses handy, why did they have it so that Medusa's eyes would still open and close? Why didn't Medusa's head change to a more believable post mortem color?

fyi: Annabeth ( Alexandria Daddario ) has a very interesting facial feature: Double Philtrum. I've never seen such a feature on anyone else's face before. It looks to be a more than one-in-a- million rare oddity. I'd marry her for just that one reason--of course, it helps that she's very beautiful, too!

Did you notice how Grover held the dollar bills in his hand? Actors hold it in that particular way in all the movies where a close-up of "play money" is needed. Dollar bills, as props, are made bigger in size than the real thing and will have this printed on them: "Not for legal tender." This was covered-up by Grover's index finger in the scene with the ferry man.

Shortly after we arrived here from the Philippines, our cousin took us to Reno, Nevada, during the Spring Break. We walked through the casinos. I'd never seen so many beautiful cocktail waitresses in high heels and in tiny mini skirts before in my whole young, impressionable-age life! I had a fun time ogling all of them, up and down, and almost got a whiplash in the process. But all good things must come to an end. A mustachioed plainclothes security personnel accosted us and informed us that no minors are allowed in the gambling areas ( but being that he was white, I think he meant to say, "Minorities." Ha, ha, ha. ).

I didn't get to see the midnight show on Thursday because I fell asleep on my couch as I waited for the showtime.

word of advice: "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

"The pen is mightier than the sword."

tidbits: Today, first thing in the morning at 8:30, I went to my periodontist for a full-mouth x-ray. The hygienist took 16 x-rays, all in all. My head is probably radioactive now. If somebody kisses me on Sunday, Valentine's Day, the kiss probably won't register on a "love meter" but on a Geiger Counter, instead! Ha, ha, ha. Why am I laughing ....

Later on, I went to Oakland, CA to hang-out with my friends and to show them the picture CDs of my eldest sister and her family's trip to the Northern Philippines for their vacation during the Holidays. There were two notable pictures in the bunch: a full-grown cat suckling on a bitch's ( female dog, you guys ) teat; and a house built juxtaposed to the road with no road shoulder or curbside to act as a safety barrier ( can you just imagine a drunk driver careening through such an area? )!

At the theatre box office, the ticket clerk at first didn't take my Regal $10.00 Movie Certificate as payment because the computer didn't recognize it at all. It was my last certificate which I had kept in my wallet all this time but always kept forgetting to use. I got it as a reward for earning enough points on my Chase/Regal MasterCard. But Chase stopped the co-sponsored movie incentive about two years ago. And even though such a certificate has no printed expiration date on it, I guess Regal Cinemas ( of which UA is part of the chain ) decided to delete the information on any and all outstanding certificates. The ticket clerk advised me to talk to the manager and I said that I will, but later, since I didn't have the time right then. So he changed his mind and issued me a free pass, instead. I told him that I'll leave him my certificate so that he won't get in trouble over this particular transaction. Later, as I bought my concession items, I realized that the price of an evening ticket was $10.75. So I asked the concessions clerk to give me four quarters for a dollar. I, then, went back to the booth to give the ticket clerk my 75 cents. At which point the manager came over. I explained to the manager what had happened and told him that I didn't want the ticket clerk to get in trouble with management over a measly $0.75 when his till won't balance-out at the end of his shift. But the manager told me that everything will be fine and thanked me for being so nice. Of course, I, Cine-Man, am always nice to people who are nice to me; conversely, I can be someone's worst enemy since bad things always happen to people who are not nice to me--trust me on this since it has always been this way for as far back as I can remember.