HUGO 3-D, PG ( 2 hr & 6 min )

where:  EDWARDS FAIRFIELD STADIUM 16 & I-MAX in Fairfield, CA
when:  Thursday, November 24th, 2011
show:  4:35 p.m.
costs:  $12.00 Ticket + $5.75 Blue Raspberry Icee + $14.20 Thanksgiving Dinner @ Tin-Tin Chinese Buffet ( + $2.25 Tip ) =  $34.20
auditorium:  8
seat:  4th row, 5th column


synopsis/overview:  A clockmaker's ( Jude Law ) orphaned son, Hugo ( Asa Butterfield ),  lives in the walls of a train station in 1930s Paris to tend to its clocks.  In his possession is a broken automaton, his last cherished connection to his late father, that he is determined to fix.  With the help of a toy merchant's ( Ben Kingsley ) goddaughter ( Chloe Grace Moretz ), he starts to solve the mystery of the automaton piece-by-piece.


noteworthy scenes:  1.)  Thief; 2.) Train; 3.) "A reprobate"; 4.) "All a trick"; 5.) Steadfast; 6.) Deal; 7.) Trespassing; 8.) Movie; 9.) "Simple-minded"; 10.) Key; 11.) Message; 12.) "I need to know what this means"; 13.) Drawings; 14.) "Your best smile"; 15.) Film Academy Library; 16.) "Passion of mine"; 17.) "Enchanted castle"; 18.) Wrench; 19.) "If you lose your purpose, it's like you're broken"; 20.) "Here for some reason"; 21.) Dead body; 22.) Visitor; 23.) "You tried to forget the past for so long and it brought you nothing but unhappiness";  24.) "Magic tricks and illusions"; 25.) "Tastes change"; 26.) "Happy endings happen only in the movies"; 27.) Dogs; 28.) Train track; 29.) "You should understand"; 30.) "Eighty films"; 31.) "The kindest magic trick that ever I've seen"; and 32.)  Diary.


audience reaction:  I didn't hear much of  a reaction from the audience.

recommendation:  But I liked this movie.  And I would recommend it as a must-see family movie.

spoiler alert!  If somebody damaged my musical instrument like that, I'd be in a fit of rage!  All that pushing and shoving at the train station and not a word of complaint or objection from any one in the crowd.  The train station police officer ( Sasha Baron Cohen ) said that the person was dead for a number of months before his body was discovered.  Nope, not likely.  The body would have already been badly, if not completely, decomposed and/or scavenged by then.

fyi:  Whoever did the movie projection for this auditorium didn't do a good job of it!  The projection light was too dim.  A 3-D movie doesn't show well if the movie projector light is set on dim!  I hope that the theatre manager reads this blog and butt-spanks the idiot responsible for this oversight or negligence!

Or is the theatre staff simply skimping on quality just to save money on their electric bills?

How did I know that the projection light was too dim?  A scene for the TIN TIN movie preview where a ship was sailing in a sea of sand was not properly lit--I've seen this movie preview enough times to know how that particular scene is supposed to look like!

Today is Thanksgiving Day.  A holiday that I think the Native Americans are not too keen on observing--and who can blame them!

An American Wild Turkey can grow to a length of about four feet long, measured from tip of beak to tip of tail.

You could say that I'm in this portrait.  Yup, I'm outside the window looking in!  Hey, folks. Save me some left-over turkey and fixings, won't you please?  Ha, ha, ha.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

word of advice:  Talent is a terrible thing to waste.

tidbits:  There was a Thanksgiving potluck at work today.  They asked me yesterday if I would like to cook something for the potluck.  I told them that I couldn't because I had to work 'til midnight and come back the next day at 10:00 a.m.  But I told them that I'd be sure to bring my big appetite with me, instead.

And I wanted to go to the Selecta Pilipino Buffet here in Vallejo, CA, on Springs Road right after work for some Thanksgiving turkey dinner.  But I ate too much at the potluck.  So, I just went home to sit around and digest my meal before heading on to Fairfield, CA, to watch this movie.

After the movie, I went to HomeTown Buffet in Fairfield to have a Thanksgiving dinner.  But I arrived there too late because their doors were already locked.  I guess they sensed that I was coming over then went ahead to bolt their doors shut before I could get there!

Next, I swung by China Moon Buffet to see if they were open for business.  Nope, all the lights were off.  I think that they turned-off their lights and hid under the tables after they saw me coming over from HomeTown Buffet.

I was left with one other choice of buffets in the local area, the Tin-Tin Buffet in Vacaville, CA.  I ate there the last two Thanksgiving holidays.  So, I assumed that they would be open for business tonight.  I was right!  They were open.  And, thankfully, this time around, the Chinese cooks at this buffet finally understood the concept of a Thanksgiving Dinner--because they didn't, the last two times that I was there for Thanksgiving--it was nice to know that they took my suggestions to heart last year.


And this is what my Fortune Cookie fortune says:  "You will have a long and wealthy life"--But not if  I keep eating at Chinese Buffets all of the time.  Ha, ha, ha---Snort!

Special Announcement:  I would like to take this time to say, Thank You and Welcome, to my readers in ...

Laos

Thank you, once again.  Please keep on reading my weekly updates.  And don't forget to tell all of your friends, and everyone else who you know, about my movie review blogsite.

LITTLE FOCKERS, PG-13 ( 1 hr & 38 min )

where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when: Thursday, December 23rd, 2010
show: 1:05 p.m.
costs: $7.50 Ticket + $4.50 Pretzel Bites + $4.00 small Diet/Zero ( w/ Barq's & Cherry flavors ) Coke = $16.00
auditorium: 12
seat: 5th row, 4th seat

synopsis/overview: When Jack Byrnes' ( Robert De Niro ) first son-in-law turned out to be a big disappointment, the pressure of living-up to his strict monogamous standards falls on the shoulders of Gaylord ( Greg ) Focker ( Ben Stiller ) just as a beautiful, hot and sexy pharmaceutical sales rep, Andi Garcia ( Jessica Alba ), walks into their lives.

noteworthy scenes: 1.) Lizard friend; 2.) The sales rep; 3.) Your enema is my enema; 4.) Bad ass; 5.) Genealogy; 6.) Musical condom; 7.) "I never went soft on you"; 8.) "Harvard's cheaper"; 9.) Kevin's ( Owen Wilson ) yacht; 10.) The Godfocker; 11.) Lasagna dinner; 12.) Turkey dinner; 13.) Massage technique; 14.) "All good under the hood"; 15.) Early Human School; 16.) Dump truck; 17.) Roz Focker Show; 18.) "Andi gives daddy his boners"; 19.) Text message; 20.) Looking for milk; 21.) Role-playing; 22.) "Red-eye problem"; 23.) The Bobfather; 24.) The hard problem; 25.) The bathroom; 26.) "Could you and dad keep it down, please"; 27.) Wee-wee; 28.) Google MySpace; 29.) Tattoo; 30.) The interview; 31.) Course correction; 32.) Andi, in person; 33.) The seduction; 34.) Belly flop; 35.) Birthday party; 36.) "Flamenco's very sexual"; 37.) Fight; 38.) The cat and the lizard; 39.) "Your soul or your tongue"; 40.) The Heimlich Maneuver; 41.) "I get it"; 42.) "You're the Gredfocker"; 43.) Exchanging Christmas gifts; and 44.) Bonus Scene during the Ending Credits.

favorite scene: Andi Garcia's seduction scene, of course.

audience reaction: The audience enjoyed this Comedy.

recommendation: I liked it, too. Go see it, especially if you're a fan of the first two of this trilogy.

spoiler alert! You can't get Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from masturbating. Heck, if that were true, all guys of "raging-hormones" age would have it! If his blood can squirt out that quickly and that far, he must have a really high blood pressure. He's a nurse, so he should have swabbed the area with alcohol before using the needle. I took Cultural Anthropology in College and know enough that the Yanomamo tribe is indigenous to South America and, therefore, have never encountered the African Chimpanzee out in the wild. I can't believe that Kevin wasn't even mildly interested in the stunningly-hot Andi.

fyi: Boy, am I glad that Ben's dad is not in this movie!

Many years ago, I went to a clinic in San Francisco, California, to have my genetic make-up analyzed. The lab results indicated that I am Caucasian. Thinking that they made a mistake, I had them do it over again, twice. And the results were the same: I'm white! Yeah, white in disguise. Ha, ha, ha.

word of advice: Give someone the benefit of a doubt.

tidbits: The Ending Credits show a listing for, "Godfocker Trumpet," whatever that is.

After the movie, I went to the men's room to empty my bladder. The second stall to the right had a posted sign on it that read: "This stall is out of service. Sorry for the inconvenience." To which, somebody hand-wrote: "Will open 12/24 2:00 p.m." I couldn't resist, so I added: 1st come, first served. So, reserve your seat. ( Ha, ha, ha. )

Then, I went to Benicia to pick-up my check and to look at my schedule for next week. And I shopped a little bit at Safeway. Then, I drove back to Vallejo to make a deposit at Chase Bank. And I dropped a car insurance payment at CSAA. Then, I went to Springs Road here in Vallejo to shop at 99 Cents Only Store, Selecta and Island Pacific for the Pansit ( Filipino noodle dish ) that I plan on making for tomorrow's Potluck dinner at work. And, on the way home, I did a little bit more shopping at Lucky's.