MOHENJO DARO, NR ( 2 hr & 35 min ) + SAUSAGE PARTY, R ( 1 hr & 29 min ) + PETE'S DRAGON, PG ( 1 hr & 43 min )

As much as I like Hrithik Roshan, I prefer this movie poster.   ;-)

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where:  CENTURY 16 HILLTOP in Richmond, CA
when:  Friday, August 12th, 2016
show:  11:30 a.m. First Show Matinee ( $1.00--Off Discount )
costs:  $7.50 Ticket + $4.85 meduim Powerade Zero Strawberry + $0.00 small Buttered Popcorn ( free offer on my movie-watcher e-mail reward coupon ) = $12.35
auditorium:  10
seat:  3rd row from the front, 8ht column from the left

SARMAN CAN!

( 'get it? )

synopsis/overview:  A young farmer, Sarman ( Hrithik Roshan ), yields to his irresistible urge to travel to Mohenjo Daro. He falls in love with the high priest's daughter, Chaani ( Pooja Hegde ). And soon learns of secrets hidden from him his whole life.

noteworthy scenes:  1.) Crocodile; 2.) Dream; 3.) Traders; 4.) New Order; 5.) Banishment; 6.) Festival; 8.) Copper seal; 9.) Runaway horses; 10.) Temple shrine; 11.) Criminals; 12.) Deja Vu; 13.) Tax protest; 14.) "She is smiling"; 15.) Moon Bath Ritual; 16.) Prophecy; 17.) Fight; 18.) Sentence; 19.) New dam proposal; 20.) Fight arena; 21.) Foiled assasination attempt; 22.) The truth; 23.) Rebellion; 24.) Flood; 25.) "This is my priviledge"; and 26.) Ganga.

audience reaction:  The audience of about a dozen or so liked it.

recommendation:  I liked it enough. But I was somewhat disappointed by the fact that this is more of a love story than it is an action movie. Go see this movie if you like love stories.

spoiler alert!  A full beard would have been in fashion back then. That trident would never have been able to go through the reptile's body like that. The iron trident looked out of place since the Iron Age started about a 1,000 years after the period setting for this movie. I don't think that farmers back then had the luxury of living in a baked-brick house. Wheeled carts were already in use back then but ... farmers living in areas that were subjected to monsoon rains would have been better off using sled carts instead of wheeled carts. How was Sarman able to know the songs and dances of Mohenjo Daro? Fine colored fabrics may not have been in common use back then. Why was there a pineapple shown in a feast scene? In a life-or-death fight, take away your enemy's ability to fight as soon as possible; Sarman missed many opportunities to deal crippling blows to his enemies.

fyi:  I liked how this movie started off with the caption, "2016 B.C."

And I liked the Water Clock.

So, a New World Order is not exactly new, after all, according to this movie.

I was interested in seeing this movie primarily because I took a college semester course in Archaeology and my textbook made scant mention of Moenjodaro ( Mohenjo Daro ) in particular and of the Indus Valley Civilization in general.

But I had to suppress my laughter when I saw that pineapple on the food table. In Archaeology, one of the things you are taught is where common foods originally came from. Pineapples originated in South America before Columbus was even born---Heck, even before Columbus' European ancestors were even born! Ha, ha, ha. ( So, yeah, instead of consulting with the Archaeologist mentioned in this movie's Ending Credits, they should have consulted with me first! Bollywood, keep that in mind for when you need the services of someone who knows a thing or two about Archaeology. )

On a more grave note ...

One of the investment e-mail newsletters that I subscribe to says that World War III won't be started by China, North Korea or the Middle East but by India. Why? Because India dammed the Ganges River so that some of its neighbors are denied equal/ready access to such a precious resource. If nothing is changed, World War III is very likely to start in that region of the world, and the use of thermonuclear weapons is a worrisome possibility.

word of advice:  An all-consuming greed can be just that: All-Consuming.

tidbits:  I was gonna go to the Bank of America branch at the Hilltop Mall, just a half mile away from this theatre before the start of the movie, to make a deposit into my savings account. But I got up late because I stayed up late last night to catch the last advanced screening for the movie, SAUSAGE PARTY.

This movie should have been rated NC-17.

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I saw this movie at the CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA, for its 10:30 p.m. Advanced Screening in auditorium 10, 4th row from the front, 9th column from the right. The price of admission was $11.50. And I bought a $0.00 small Buttered Popcorn ( free offer on my movie-watche e-mail reward coupon ) and a $4.85 medium Powerade Mountain Berry Blast at the concessions counter.

Quickie Review: Food items at a grocery store only have one wish: Get picked by the "gods" who will take care of them forever, unaware that they should be more careful of what they wish for.

The audience liked this movie, especially the reference to, "Crackers."

I didn't like SAUSAGE PARTY, if you must know. But that is just my prudish opinion.

Here are some things wrong about this movie:  It shows a decapitated human head, a food fight ( literally ) and an "anything goes" food sex orgy ( if you can imagine that ). And whoever made this movie does not really know what goes on inside of a big grocery store after it closes for the evening.

Anyway ... back to MOHENJO DARO.

I parked my car far away from the theatre so that I could jog to the box office. After the movie, I jogged it back to my car. ( I also parked my car far enough away from the theatre last night so that I could jog back to it after the movie ended. )

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After watching MOHENJO DARO, I went to Yome Garden Chinese Buffet Restaurant to have a mid-afternoon lunch. I paid $13.13 for the lunch buffet, plus $2.00 tip. I liked their Mongolian Beef---Most Chinese buffet restaurants nowadays substitute Pork for this particular dish.

But try eating your buffet lunch with this thing staring you in the face:

This guy must be a plumber. I just made him famous the world over and he doesn't even know it.  Ha, ha, ha.

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You'd have to be a well-seasoned buffet eater to be able to eat through this! Luckily for me, I'm such an expert buffet eater! It takes more than this to make me wanna "toss my salad."

I went back to the theatre to see ...

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I went to see the 4:30 p.m. show in auditorium 6, 4th row from the front, 10th column from the right. The price of admission was $8.00. And I bought a 33.8 oz ( 1 litre ) bottle of Dasani Water for $4.70 at the concessions counter. I paid $5.00 for bridge toll at the Carquinez Bridge Toll Booth on my way home to Vallejo.

Quickie Review: Pete ( Oakes Fegley ), a lost, orphaned boy, is raised by a dragon.

The audience liked this movie and gave it a "Hands Clapper" ending. They especially liked the scene wherein Elliot, the dragon, sneezed at the bad guy and the scene wherein an ambulance patient fell off the gurney.

I liked this movie, too. Go see this movie with your brats.

( And I like Bryce Dallas Howard---And let me not forget about Pooja Hegde! )

But there are some things that didn't make sense to me at all:  Since hair grows at a rate of 6 inches per year, Pete's hair should have been anywhere from 30 to 36 inches in length. When Elliot did a mid-air barrel roll, that would have been enough to make Pete lose his grip and fall. It is illegal to have tranquilizer darts in one's possession if said person is neither a veterenarian nor a personnel whose job calls for the use of such  a controlled drug---So what the bad guys did was against the law and the cops should have thrown them all in jail. The flame's intensity and proximity to the truck would have made the truck catch on fire. The ending would have made better sense had the grandfather been in it.

This movie was filmed in New Zealand which must be why two boys stuck their tongues out at each other in greeting (?).

I was too full to jog either way in the parking lot.


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As of yesterday,  August 11th, I have been doing the Shamanic meditation twice a day for a whole month.  I haven't noticed anything supernatural yet. I'll give it two more months to produce the expected result. If it doesn't work by then, I will have to try another form of brainwave entrainment CD sound meditation.


'You know what is strange? My movie blogsite didn't get any hits from Russia this past week. How strange is that? Is something going on that I don't know about?



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NINE LIVES, PG ( 1 hr & 27 min )

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I went to see this on Sunday, August 7th, 2016, here in Vallejo, CA, at the CENTURY 14 VALLEJO, for the 7:50 p.m. show in auditorium 4, 3rd row from the front, 8ht column from the right. The price of admission was $8.00. ( Yeah, I know. My ticket stub says, "Senior Citizen Discount Price." But I prefer to think of it as, "Favorite/Frequent Movie Watcher Special Price." ) I bought a $6.80 Lite Bites at the concessions counter to accompany the 1.0 oz Jack Link's Hot Squatch that I bought earlier at a Dollar Tree Store and smuggled-in in my knee-high sock!

Quickie Review: A billionaire property developer in New York magically switches places with a tomcat to find out the quality times that he has been missing-out on at home.

The audience liked this movie--the brats, especially--and gave it a "Hands Clapper" ending. I liked this movie, too. ( I honestly didn't think that I would. ) Go see this movie if you like cats and are in search of "kid-friendly" movies to take your brats to.

You will recognize some of the featured cats as YouTube favorites.

There was a trio of mustachioed black-and-white cats that looked exactly the same to each other, identical triplets, if you will! I don't know if my mind just played tricks on me or if there wasn't enough time for me to distinguish one from the other two.

This movie is anti-Bush, i.e. former President George Bush, Jr.


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I wore my white Polo shirt and Khaki pants work uniform for the first time today. I just hope that the Century Cinema staff, all dressed in black, will still give me special discounts/deals at the movies even though I no longer dress like them. If not, I will have to go back to dressing-up in all-black!

I found out that somebody broke into my locker at work. Nothing was stolen or touched. My little padlock just got hammered-off. Well, I needed a sturdier padlock anyway.

After work, I went to the Benicia, CA, Dollar Tree Store to buy a padlock and some snacks. They didn't have the kind of padlock that I wanted, the kind that comes with a key, not the kind that is a combination lock ( I'm getting too old to be remembering number combinations ). So, I went to the Vallejo Dollar Tree Store on Admiral Callaghan Lane. They had the kind that I needed. I bought it, of course.

Well, it's official! Best Buy's Insignia Personal CD Player passed the test! It will now serve as my back-up CD player. I'm gonna have to buy a bunch more of this CD while they still have it in stock.

But I will have to look into MP3 players, too. And see if it truly meets with my brain entrainment CD meditation needs.


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SUICIDE SQUAD, PG-13 ( 2 hr & 3 min )

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where:  CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when:  Friday, August 5th, 2016
show:  9:45 p.m. 3-D
costs:  $15.00 Ticket + $6.80 Lite Bites = $21.80
auditorium:  1
seat:  4th row from the front, 7th column from the right

2nd time

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where:  CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when:  Saturday, August 6th, 2016
show:  5:55 p.m. 2-D
costs:  $8.00 Ticket + $7.05 meduim Buttered Popcorn + $0.65 upgrade on a Free small Powerade Mountain Berry Blast ( free small fountain drink offer on my movie-watcher e-mail reward coupon ) = $15.70
auditorium:  8
seat:  4th row from the front, 7th column from the right

synopsis/overview:  In a post-Superman world, the world has become paranoid of meta-humans. A bunch of incarcerated bad guys with special talents and/or super powers are then recruited by a covert agency to do "black ops" in exchange for lighter sentences.

noteworthy scenes:  1.) Bad guy backgrounds; 2.) "Please don't touch me"; 3.) "Welcome, Mam"; 4.) "Clear my browser history"; 5.) "You 'white-people' that thing"; 6.) Subway attack; 7.) Gift basket; 8.) "She bolted"; 9.) Pep talk; 10.) "Behold the voice of god"; 11.) Mind games; 12.) Hostiles; 13.) "That's how I cut and run"; 14.) Cigarette lighter; 15.) "I'm touching you"; 16.) Question; 17.) "That is just a mean lady"; 18.) "The bird's been jacked"; 19.) "I missed"; 20.) "She's down"; 21.) The heart; 22.) "Tell everybody ... everything"; 23.) Bar; 24.) "I know what you want, exactly what you want"; 25.) Bomb; 26.) "I'm not a hugger"; 27.) Crushed heart; 28.) "How are you ot dead"; 29.) Hypothenuse; 30.) Prison break-in; and 31.) Bonus Scene during the Ending Credits.

audience reaction: The audience liked this movie but didn't give it a "Hands Clapper" ending.

2nd audience reaction:  The audience liked this movie and gave it a "Hands Clapper" ending.

recommendation:  I liked this movie. Go see this movie if you like superhero movies. Pay no attention to some bad reviews that it garnered on the Internet. One online reviewer, in particular, suggested that people take a blanket and a binky with them because they will just fall asleep halfway through the movie---That's a lot of bull!

spoiler alert!  When Deadshot ( Will Smith ) laid on the ground in the alley, he held his handgun "gangsta thug" style, which didn't make sense. Why didn't it make sense? If you aim your handgun at your target crosswise instead of lenghtwise, the recoil from the shot will make your aim less accurate. Why didn't the Enchantress ( Cara Delevingne ) snatch the heart and teleport herself away from there? It is simply impossible for any human, Deadshot included, to hit a target repeatedly with pin-point accuracy by using a fully automatic assault rifle because of the recoil effect. When the Enchantress escaped from Flagg ( Joel Kinnaman ), she left him with a bomb that only had one second left on the count-down timer. So, what happened to that bomb because there was no way in the world that Flagg could have deactivated it in time! That Helicopter Gunship more than likely was equipped with a machine gun that fired armor-piercing rounds; in other words, the entire Suicide Squad would have been shredded to pieces by the rounds no matter where they docked for cover on the roof of that building! Exactly how many guys did the Enchantress have to kiss to build her army? How did they get to the top floor before Harley Quinn ( Margot Robbie ) did--and why where none of them gasping for air? Harley Quinn's memory flashback involving the corrosive (?) liquid-filled vats didn't make sense to me.  Diablo ( Jay Hernandez ) used a sweeping motion to "flame-thrower" the enemy which would have made him an easy target of enemy fire! Instead, Diablo should have used a fan-out flame counter-attack on the enemy. Shouldn't the boomerang's built-in video be spinning around, too? Did the Enchantress really need to sway her hips from side to side just to create a super weapon? Or was her intention to erect ( ahem! ) a super weapon all along? When Diablo's flames were extenguished, you'd think that he would be totally butt-naked! Why did the 6-shooter still have a bullet left in it? A 6,000-plus years-old being knows what is meant by, "Balls," imagine that! I don't think that Harley's cell had a toilet, or a shower. Forget the toilet, a shower should have been installed! Ha, ha, ha.

fyi: True to his name, The Flash ( Ezra Miller ) was there for just a fraction of a time!

There's a John F. Ostrander Federal Building in this movie. You DC fans know what it's all about.

I have a strong feeling that there will be a Harley Quinn movie coming up.

This movie has a later scene involving the use of Geometry. I may have already mentioned this before but, the secret to really knowing/mastering Plane Geometry is by learning everything there is to know about the Right Angle. That's it! Once you've figured that out, you've got Plane Geometry in the bag. Heck, as soon as I made this discovery 30 years ago, I stopped studying for my Geometry tests and still passed them with relative ease.

word of advice: "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer." Michael Corleone, THE GODFATHER, II  ( 1974 )

tidbits:  An older lady ( older than I am by just a few years ), who's a comic book fan, gave me a business card of the local comic books store in Benicia, CA. Zeppelin Comics is on East H Street. I've never been there. I will have to check it out someday.

On my lunch break, a casual acquaintance and I started talking about the lottery, how someone in Benicia just recently won $100,000 on a scratch-off. I said that I've been playing the wrong games all along since I don't usually play scratch-offs. I told him that I have a thick stack of none-winning lottery tickets at home. He told me to save them for just in case I win the lottery big-time because I can use the tickets as lottery expenses when I file my income tax return. Now, why didn't I think of that? It's an excellent idea.

In the afternoon, a former co-worker just happened by. She was wearing a DC Comics t-shirt with assorted superheroes on it. I asked her if she was a DC Comics fan. She said that she was a COMICS fan. I stood corrected. Ha, ha, ha.

I purposely parked my car far away from the theatre so that I could put in a little bit of jogging on my way back to my car after the movie ended. And I did just that. I'm gonna have to make this a regular habit.

2nd tidbits:  I parked my car far away from the theatre once again. But I couldn't jog it back to my car because I was busy doing catch-up on my mantras. 

I went to the 3289 Sonoma Boulevard MacDonald's Restaurant here in Vallejo to have a light dinner as I worked on this blog. As I waited to receive my meal, I happened to notice something on their nutrition facts poster. It listed a carcinogen: Acrylamide. Apparently, browned foods become laden with this carcinogen as a matter of course. By browned foods, it means French Fries, Toasts, Pie Crusts, etc. Yup, you've been duly warned!

I had a lovely dream this night. I dreamed that mid-way in October of this year, I was so happy to finally be moving out of my condo because I won the lottery. Gad, I hope that it's a prophetic dream!


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NERVE, PG-13 ( 1 hr & 36 min )

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I went to see this on Wednesday, August 3rd, 2016, here in Vallejo, CA, at the CENTURY 14 VALLEJO, for the 1:55 p.m. show in auditorium 5, 3rd row from the front, 8ht column from the left. The price of admission was $8.00. And I bought a $7.05 medium Buttered Popcorn and a $0.65 medium upgrade on a free small Powerade Mountain Berry Blast ( free drink offer on my movie-watcher e-mail reward coupon ) at the concessions counter.

Quickie Review: Vee ( Emma Roberts ) always watches life from the sidelines. Until she accepts a challenge to play an on-line live-or-die Dare game.

The audience liked this movie. Yeah, I liked it, too. Go see this if you like Suspense/Thriller type of movies.

My fear of great heights betrayed me in the Tall Building and Skyscraper Crane scenes as the camera pointed downward. I don't know about you but, when I look down from a great height, my legs go weak and I get a "tickly-weakly" feeling in my groin area ( I wanted to say, Testicles, but---Oops! busted ... ). And my fear didn't discriminate between real height and reel height. I'm just glad that this movie is not in 3-D or, worse, in I-Max 3-D or I would have had a panick attack. Ha, ha, ha. You know, come to think of it, I seriously think that my fear of heights IS the reason why I'm short!


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After watching the movie, I decided to check-out two department stores in the Gateway Plaza Shopping Center. I went to Ross and Marshall's, near the opposite end of the parking lot from the theatre, to see if they sell short-sleeve white Polo shirts with a chest pocket. They do sell such a shirt--but at such exorbitant prices since they're brand name shirts! I wouldn't buy such an expensive shirt just to wear to work. Fashion statement, my butt! They don't pay me to advertise their shirts, do they?

Wal-Mart sells short sleeve white Polo shirts with a chest pocket but they're currently sold-out since their shirt is only $7.99 each. Every week, I would swing by the American Canyon, CA, Wal-Mart Super Center to see if they had restocked their Polo shirts. But they still don't have any at all at this time.

I went to the Sonoma Boulevard MacDonald's Restaurant to have lunch. While there, I went on-line to see if Haband and Blair have white Polo shirts with a chest pocket. They do, but for $11.99 each ( Haband's short-sleeve ) and $24.99 each ( Blair's long-sleeve ), plus shipping and handling. Nope, still too expensive for just one shirt.

My only seeming option was Wal-Mart's $7.99 white Polo Shirt with a chest pocket once they have it back in stock. ( I find shirts with a chest pocket, or two, of more practical use for me. )

But that was before I drove across the street to check-out the shirts at ...

Factory 2-U is now under the ownership of Fallas Department Stores. I don't know when the change in ownership happened. This is a factory outlet-type of store for the budget conscious--and cheapskates such as myself. Ha, ha, ha.

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I saw a bunch of white Polo shirts spread through-out the Men's department. But none of them had a chest pocket. I about resigned myself to settling for a Polo shirt without a chest pocket. Then, I rummaged through a circular shirt rack and--lo and behold! a bunch of size Large and Extra Large white Polo shirts with a chest pocket for $2.99 each---Sweet! I picked 4 size large shirts; but, upon closer examination, I noticed that all 4 of them had a tiny hole in each! Then, I checked the size Extra Large and looked at each one closely. None of them had any hole. I bought four---I hope that they'll eventually shrink to fit! ( Or I could just tell my co-workers that I lost more weight. Ha, ha, ha. )

Starting next week, I will switch my work uniform from all-black to white Polo shirt and Khaki pants. Because I feel that summertime is the perfect time to wear a white Polo shirt and a pair of Khaki pants. And I finally got tired of being mistaken for a theatre employee everytime I go to the theatre dressed in all-black! Ha, ha, ha.

*

JASON BOURNE, PG-13 ( 2 hr & 3 min )

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I went to see this on Thursday, July 28ht, 2016, here in Vallejo, CA, at the CENTURY 14 VALLEJO, for the 10:00 p.m. Advanced Screening in auditorium 8, 6th row from the front, 10th column from the right. The price of admission was $11.50. And I bought a $5.40 Nachos w/ Cheese and a $0.00 ( free on my movie-watcher e-mail reward coupon ) at the concessions counter.

2nd time: I went to see this again on Sunday, July 31st, 2016, here in Vallejo, CA, at the CENTURY 14 VALLEJO, for the 7:30 p.m. show in auditorium 7, 6th row from the front, 8ht column from the left. The price of admission was $8.00.  And I bought a $5.40 Nachos w/ Cheese and a $0.00 ( free on my movie-watcher e-mail reward coupon ) at the concessions counter.

The audience liked it. I liked it, somehow. I think that the first 3 movies in this franchise are better than this 4th installment. Go see this if you like the Jason Bourne movies.


Here are some things wrong in this movie: With such a sophisticated anti-hack defense, why is the US still getting hacked by the Chinese, the Russians and the Israelis? I don't think that she stayed around long enough to make sure that the hard drive was completely destroyed by the fire. If you're an ex government spy on the run, and you know that your secret service agency has facial recognition capability, wouldn't it only make sense on your part to alter your appearance by cutting/coloring your hair and altering your facial bone structure, or to change your nose profile and your jaw contour with the use of prosthetics, etc.? Why were the streets not ompletely clogged by protestors so that vehicles could not go through them in a high-speed chase? If Bourne was the sniper's intended target, why didn't he just wait for a few seconds--literally three seconds--to get a clear shot on Bourne? Why did the Dodge Challenger's ( ?) airbags not deploy? The slot machine's pull handle came off too easily. Jason had a few chances to gouge-out the bad guy's eyes but didn't take advantage of the occasion. When he pulled on the bad guy's legs to make him fall, he should have fallen back along with the bad guy, too. When the female agent locked her car using her remote control key fob, why didn't it activate the car's alarm so that Jason wouldn't be able to open its door without triggering it to go off? Why do they always have to play music in a minor key just to tip-off the audience that something bad is about to happen?


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So, as it turned out, the object in the sky last night, Wednesday, July 27th, was the CZ-7 R/B upper stage of the Chinese Long March Rocket burning-up during reentry.

I found this on the Internet.

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The funny thing was ... according to a co-worker, when his mom saw the burning space junk in the air, she panicked and screamed that the UFO aliens were coming!  Ha, ha, ha. ( He better not read this and go to his mom to snitch on me! )

Another co-worker of mine, who is studying computer programming, told me that new computers don't come with CD/DVD players anymore because audio and video are now just streamed through the web. But what about those of us who have DVDs and CDs in their collection who like having the convenience of such a player already built-in in their computers? And what about those of us who would rather not be charged extra for music/song streaming? Watch what happens ... they will reintroduce laptop computers with built-in CD/DVD R/W players sometime soon and charge us extra for a piece of nostalgia!

When I watched this movie the first time around, I fell asleep through some scenes. So, I had to rewatch it. I must be getting too old for this movie-blogging hobby.


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