Sunday, August 29, 2010

TAKERS, PG-13 ( 1 hr & 47 min )


where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when: Sunday, August 29th, 2010
show: 7:30 p.m.
costs: $9.75 Ticket + $4.00 small Diet/Zero Coke = $13.75
auditorium: 13
seat: 5th row, 8ht column

synopsis: Jack Welles ( Matt Dillon ), a worked-obsessed cop and Eddie Hatcher ( Jay Hernandez ), his bills-laden partner, go on the hunt for a team of professional bank robbers.

noteworthy scenes: 1.) Botched bust; 2.) Bank robbery; 3.) Helicopter; 4.) The get-away; 5.) Free man; 6.) Proposal; 7.) Yacht harbor; 8.) Intruder; 9.) Unexpected guest; 10.) "We're takers; 11.) Disabled vehicle; 12.) C-4; 13.) Russians; 14.) Blood trail; 15.) Public works project; 16.) Pictures; 17.) "Peace out" gang sign; 18.) License number; 19.) "Sip from cup of instruction"; 20.) Interrogation; 21.) "Second time in two days"; 22.) Internal Affairs video; 23.) Officer on duty; 24.) Armored truck; 25.) Pershing Street; 26.) Foot chase; 27.) Kitchen; 28.) Roosevelt Hotel; 29.) Rival gang gun battle; 30.) Victim of execution; 31.) Gordon's apartment; 32.) Private jet; 33.) The stand-off; and 35.) "All signs point to it."

audience reaction: The audience seemed to be entertained by it.

recommendation: It's more or less your typical bank heist movie, but executed with style by male fashion model-wannabes who are being hunted down by a couple of good-looking cops, as well. If this is your "cup of tea", then go see it.

spoiler alert! Don't news reporters these days carry cellphones? Don't helicopters have tracking devices? Don't police helicopters patrol metropolitan areas? I wouldn't walk away casually if I were that close to an exploding helicopter! Couldn't he follow a simple blood trail without getting blind-sided? With all those bullets flying around during the intense shoot-out in a downtown metropolitan area, the director should have at least shown some fleeting images of buildings, or whatever, being hit because there would sure to be some collateral damage as a necessary result. In the foot chase, I found it hard to believe that Jesse ( Chris Brown ) could outrun the cop's sweeping gunshots. I don't know how Ghost ( Tip "T. I." Harris ) figured-out the combination to the secret safe ( or where to find it ) in such a short time.

fyi: My family had a cat, Coki, who died of cancer. I was trying to feed Coki some baby food when he passed away in my hands. I tried to close his eyes but couldn't. It sure isn't like in the movies where an actor's eyes can be closed easily after that actor's character "dies" on-screen.

word of advice: Never stray from your "tried and true" plan.

Even if you ride a bicycle, you are still not exempt from the rules of the road, i.e. don't go against the flow of traffic, don't ride on the sidewalk, don't run a red light, etc.

tidbits: Lucky triceps! At work today, a female co-worker walked-up to me and accidentally bumped her left breast against my right triceps. And at the concessions area beside the soda fountain, some girl accidentally bumped her right breast against my left triceps.

When Gordon's ( Idris Elba ) character got out of bed in his tight boxer shorts, some guy seated three chairs to my right made some sound of "admiration/appreciation" at the scene. No wonder his girlfriend ( ? ), seated two chairs to my right, accidentally bumped into me at the concessions area before the show--my triceps, alone, are manlier than her "boyfriend"! Yup ....

The guy seated immediately to my left noticed me taking notes in the dark. I usually sit close to the screen to avoid being noticed doing my movie note-taking. But I was just out of luck this time because many people, mostly teens and young adults, showed up for the movie.

At the end of the movie, the two guys to my left asked each other, "Who shot the cop?" I think that it was Ghost who did. But, to be honest, it all happened in "a blink of an eye" so I am inclined to ask the same question, too.

I went to the Chevron gas station on Redwood Street. I got there at around 9:44 p.m. and the lights were already off, and a clerk inside the building was already locking the front door. So, I was forced to do the unthinkable: I went to the Union 76 gas station down the next block for some gas. As I've said before, I only put Chevron gas in my cars. But I was running very low on gas--I didn't stop for gas before going to see this movie because I didn't want to be late for the show--and the next Chevron gas station is further down the road by at least two miles ( which is just two unnecessarily further miles away from my home route).

attention: It is getting closer and closer to the Annual Weblog Awards. Please select from all my posts for this year and take the time to nominate one of my blogs--whichever one happens to be your favorite--in the following categories: Best Entertainment Weblog, Most Humorous Weblog, Best-Kept Secret Weblog and/or Best New Weblog. Thank you.

Friday, August 27, 2010

THE LAST EXORCISM, PG-13 ( 1 hr & 28 min )





















where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when: Friday, August 27th, 2010
show: 12:15 p.m.
costs: $6.25 Ticket + $4.25 junior Popcorn w/ Butter + $4.00 small Diet/Zero ( w/ Barq's & Cherry flavors ) Coke + $6.49 McDonald's # 14 Angus Mushroom & Swiss Value Meal with Diet Coke ( w/ Dr. Pepper flavor ) = $20.99
auditorium: 7
seat: 5th row, 8ht column

synopsis: A preacher, Rev. Cotton Marcus ( Patrick Fabian ), has a guilty conscience about all the exorcism scams that he has pulled on unsuspecting folks for many years and has decided to come clean in a film-documented final exorcism.

noteworthy scenes: 1.) Child preacher; 2.) "It's never boring"; 3.) Card trick; 4.) Banana bread; 5.) Exorcism book; 6.) Postal mail box; 7.) Fraud; 8.) "Thank you, Doctor"; 9.) Victor Turoy; 10.) Exorcism scams; 11.) Letter; 12.) Linen; 13.) Breeding ground; 14.) Caleb Sweetzer ( Caleb Landry Jones ); 15.) Farmer Louis Sweetzer ( Louis Herthum ); 16.) Nell Sweetzer ( Ashley Bell ); 17.) Grave; 18.) Nickel allergy; 19.) Threat; 20.) Pan of water; 21.) Abalam; 22.) "We have no problems now"; 23.) Tricks of the trade; 24.) Money; 25.) Prophecy; 26.) Health insurance; 27.) Motel room; 28.) Hospital; 29.) Pastor Manley ( Tony Bentley ); 30.) Knife attack; 31.) Note; 32.) Chain; 33.) Sleep walking; 34.) Recording; 35.) 'Phone message; 36.) Video camera; 37.) Pictures; 38.) Conversation; 39.) Earthly matters; 40.) Banging noise; 41.) Crucified pose; 42.) Attack; 43.) Shotgun; 44.) "No control over what happens to me"; 45.) Second exorcism; 46.) Shame; 47.) Confession; 48.) Logan Winters ( Logan Craig Reid ); 49.) Satanic symbols; and 50.) The gathering.

audience reaction: Lukewarm, at best.

recommendation: Wait for this to come out as a rental.

spoiler alert! The ending of this movie didn't make sense at all, and was quite a let-down. First, what was Rev. Manley's secretary doing? Have you seen the size of the hands and forearms of that fat woman? Hasn't she ever heard of "coat-hanger"-style abortions? What Rev. Manley did did not make sense. I mean, if he did what he did as an exorcist, it didn't make any sense. If he did what he did as a satanist, it didn't make any sense, too. What Caleb did did not make sense, also. Why did the camera--with its incriminating evidence--not get destroyed right there and then? Why did the bonfire crowd disappear right away? Even with the clear prophetic images of their possible impending demise still fresh in their minds, why didn't the trio just make a run for it? The crucifix should not have been used for exorcisms by the preacher in this movie because it was used not as an instrument of faith but, rather, as a tool for mockery of the faith ( he did it for money ) and because it had a graven image on it which made it a symbol of Idolatry ( In other words, the evil spirits and the demons would have the proverbial "last laugh". ), New Testament of the Bible, Matthew 7: 22 & 23.

If this were a porno movie, it would be one that has a very extended foreplay but which only ends in a premature ejaculation! That's about how disappointing this movie is to me, analogically speaking.

The two movie posters that I chose to post above are, each in its own right, scarier than the movie, itself--and neither one is in the movie 'though one scene which is similar to the poster on the left was shown.

fyi: I remember in Art class back at the long-defunct Pacific High School in San Leandro, California, when a classmate brought a copy of the magazine, National Lampoon. He showed it to some of us when the teacher was not around. It had a "Popeye" comic strip which took his trademark line, "Well, blow me down," and turned it to, "Well, give me a blow-job, Olive." They laughed at this. But I leaned over a classmate's shoulder and, with a puzzled look in my face, asked him, What's a blow-job? Then, they all laughed at poor, innocent immigrant me. Word spread like wildfire on campus the next day as some of my classmates came up to me and asked me, "You don't know what a blow-job is?" And with all those pretty girls there, not one was kind and hospitable enough to explain it to me "orally", in a manner of speaking. Where was Regina Hoover when I needed her. Ha, ha, ha.

AND I STILL DON'T KNOW WHY IT IS CALLED, "BLOW-JOB!" I mean, after all, it's not done as an imitation of an Electric Fan but as an imitation of a Vacuum Cleaner, right ...? I just can't come ( pun intended ) to terms with this curious slang.

What so-called "christians" ( intentionally spelled with a lower case, "c" ) fail to realize is that Jesus Christ actually commanded evil spirits and demons. Likewise, so did His Apostles and Disciples. If you're a "christian" who is too scared to go see horror movies and/or who sleeps with the lights on, how do you think you'll react if and when an evil spirit or demon appears before you?

There is no Scriptural basis for the kind of exorcisms that Catholics and Protestants use. Think about it, did Jesus Christ, His Apostles and their disciples use the crucifix, holy water and a bible ( tools of the trade in the bag of tricks of present-day "exorcists" ) when they performed their exorcisms ( Again, Matthew 7: 22 & 23 )? Such tools are nothing but spiritual crutches! And you don't need them if you walk in the Faith. All you need to perform an exorcism are unshakable Faith and ceremonial cleanliness. Go back to the Old Testament's Leviticus to find out what I mean by ceremonial cleanliness as it pertains to the priesthood ( This, by the way, is the reason why Jesus Christ's Apostles could not cast out one particular demon. Matthew 17: 16 - 21 ).

This brings to mind a televised "faith revival" ministry shown on PBS back in the mid- to late- '80s. A woman walked up to the podium and told the huge crowd that she tried meditation. But sometime afterward, she had encounters with other-worldly entities, including evil ones, so she stopped meditating and became a "born-again christian", out of fear. When I watched that, I actually laughed for a moment. Then, I stopped because I felt pity for that fearful woman. Imagine what would have happened had a demon manifested itself before that whole assembly--pandemonium would have ensued! Even the pastors would have panicked and ran away! And all because they'd be ignorant of the fact that a True Christian deals with evil spirits and demons as part of his "job's" description.

I've actually had scarier encounters with other-worldly entities than what are shown in this movie, including a "bend-me-back" one.

word of advice: Since we are all born of Sin, evil spirits and demons know our every thought and our every defense. Don't be so stupid as to think that you got such enemies all figured out because each succeeding encounter just gets deadlier than the one before it. Trust me, I know.

If all else fails, invoke the name of Jesus Christ ( this is the fail-safe Defense ). This works so well that I save it for last. Why? Because I like getting a few licks in first since, to me, it's major payback time for all those years of torment that they inflicted upon me.

If evil spirits and demons are out to get you and are always trying to kill you, take it as a compliment. Why? In the world of Spirits, there are only two sides: The Good side and the Evil side. So, if evil entities attack you it is only because you are on the side of Good! If you keep this in mind, you will be able to preserve both your sanity and your life during such unwanted encounters. Again ... trust me, I know.

Test the spirits. New Testament of the Bible, 1st JOHN 4: 1 - 4.

tidbits: I am glad that I didn't go to the midnight showing of this movie because it's not scary enough to warrant sacrificing a good night's sleep.

attention: It is getting close to the Annual Weblog Awards. Please select from all my posts for this year and take the time to nominate one of my blogs--whichever one is your favorite--in the following categories: Best Entertainment Weblog, Most Humorous Weblog, Best-Kept Secret Weblog, and/or Best New Weblog. Thank you.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

PIRANHA 3D, R ( 1 hr & 29 min )



where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when: Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
show: 3:15 p.m.
costs: $10.75 Ticket + $5.25 small Popcorn w/ Butter + $4.00 small Diet/Zero ( w/ Barq's & Cherry flavors ) Coke + $6.60 McDonald's # 3 Double Quarter Pounder w/ Cheese Meal ( w/ my Punch blend of Minute Maid Light Lemonade, Minute Maid Strawberry Passion and Hi-C Orange Lava Burst ) = $26.60
auditorium: 7, with the 3-D screen
seat: 5th row, 9th column

synopsis: It's spring break time at Lake Victoria where high school and college kids go for some serious sun and fun! But a prehistoric underwater menace has just been unleashed on the unsuspecting revelers.

noteworthy scenes: 1.) Whirlpool; 2.) Spring break; 3.) Sand rat, Jake ( Steven R. McQueen ); 4.) Jake's bedroom; 5.) Body; 6.) Cliff diver; 7.) "$20.00 deception surcharge"; 8.) Skinny dippers; 9.) Subterranean lake; 10.) Scuba divers; 11.) Eggs; 12.) Feeding frenzy; 13.) "Gratitude is the right attitude"; 14.) Tequila time; 15.) Fossil; 16.) Para-glider; 17.) "My mom's the sheriff"; 18.) Wet Tee-Shirt contest; 19.) Emergency; 20.) Snagged propeller; 21.) Butt; 22.) Snapped cable; 23.) Motor boat; 24.) Caught hair; 25.) The glass bottom; 26.) "They took my penis"; 27.) Saline breast implants and the penis; 28.) Assorted victims; 29.) The rope to safety; 30.) Explosion; 31.) The bad news; and 32.) Bonus scene after the Ending Credits.

audience reaction: The audience seemed to like this Horror Comedy movie.

recommendation: This is a good enough horror movie. But I don't think that it will be the main reason why guys will go see this 3-D movie. Heh, heh, heh ....

spoiler alert! Somebody who flunked in College Biology probably came up with the idea for this horror movie.

First of all, if the piranhas lived in a subterranean lake for millions of years then, in the complete absence of light, they would all be without pigmentation and would also be blind. And they would have to rely mainly on their senses of smell, touch and hearing. Second, they cannot live for long in such an environment because they would be out of food soon enough. In the case of cannibalism, the strong prey on the young, the old, the weak, the sick, the dying and the dead. Eventually, the adults would have nothing left to cannibalize other than their eggs. But the adult piranhas would not be able to lay eggs forever and would get old and die. Then, the last batches of eggs that they would lay would eventually spawn, but not at the same time. So, the baby piranhas would cannibalize the eggs that have not spawned yet. And since the baby piranhas would still be too young to reproduce, they would all die-out of starvation. End of story.

Piranhas, although successful predators and scavengers, are limited to a geographical area in tropical South America because they are extremely sensitive to changes in temperature. In this movie, their subterranean environment is supposedly 30 degrees colder than that of Lake Victoria, itself. So, exposure to this rapid temperature change alone would have easily killed them off. Add to this the fact that their rapid ascent from the confines of their subterranean prison would have exposed them to an extreme shift in water pressure ( to which they had no built-in adaptation ) and made them succumb to the effects of decompression, the "bends", so to speak.

The badly mangled hand should not have been able to flex or extend because the ligaments and tendons would have been torn severely. There is nothing about a piranha's anatomy to suggest that it can rip a human eyeball clear out of its socket. The only way that the lone piranha could have homed-in on the little girl with a foot wound was through its sense of hearing, not its sense of smell because the water current didn't yet carry the blood scent to where it was. Also, the farther out that blood dissipates in water, the more dilute it gets. So, in a big body of water such as a lake, there is no way in the world that the piranha could have smelled the little girl's blood. An analogy to this would be this example: If you were standing at one end of a football field and downwind from another guy at the opposite end who let out a stinky fart, you would not be able to smell it at all! Why didn't the adult piranhas follow along with the little piranhas in the first place? The face of one girl whose hair was caught in the boat's propeller should not have been ripped off her head after the boat's engine started again. The wrong SFX was used for the underwater screams. Try and scream underwater to know what I mean. The girl whose body was pulled in half should have shown lots of blood and a torn torso before it happened. Derrick ( Jerry O'Connell ) should have died right away of extreme blood loss. Why did the saline breast implants remain intact? Why did a piranha regurgitate the penis; after all, "meat" is meat, right? And, to think, I thought Charlie Tuna was the only fish in the world with "good taste"! Why did all four of them dangle from the rope at the same time? I didn't know that walkie-talkies are waterproofed--or are they ...?

fyi: Steven R. McQueen is the grandson of Steve McQueen.

One of my friend's, Hector, son has a friend who put a piranha fish in the lake at Shadow Cliffs in Pleasanton, California, some years back. But, like I said, piranhas are extremely sensitive to changes in water temperature and that fish probably died of hypothermia eventually.

word of advice: You're in deep water if your feet cannot touch the bottom.

If you're standing in water up to your lips, don't fart! ( This is the Voice of Experience talking. )

tidbits: Before going to see this movie, I typed some complaint letters because a company in Illinois is billing me for something that I didn't order from them. I paid them for what I ordered from them. Then they sent me another package which I neither wanted nor ordered. When I e-mailed them about it ten months ago, they admitted to their error and promised to send me a return postage with a tracking number. But they never did. Instead, they kept sending me a monthly bill. The last straw was when they had a collection agency try to intimidate me into paying for something that I didn't order or risk damaging my excellent credit rating. So, I sent a letter to the company's credit department, its chairman, the collection agency, and the Better Business Bureau. The package remains untouched and unopened, and is just waiting for a return postage with a tracking number because I simply refuse to pay money for somebody else's mistake, irresponsibility and/or incompetence. Needless to say, after many years of doing business with said company, I told its chairman that I don't ever want to do business with them anymore! ( Maybe the chairman will offer me the conciliatory gesture of letting me be the co-chairman in charge of making coffee and getting the doughnuts--Hey! wait a minute .... That's a secretary's job. Damn! Oh, forget it. )

So, I went to Postal Annex to make copies of my complaint and to send out the letters via first class mail. When I returned to my car, which has no air conditioning, it was so hot inside the cab that I could not even hold the steering wheel for long. At one point, I had to turn left, and when the tires straightened out and caused the steering wheel to spin, the palm of my hands felt like they were being scalded by hot, boiling water! No wonder that in the old days people wore driving gloves! I decided not to go home right away. I went to the nearby theatre to see this movie so that I'd enjoy some cool comfort in an air-conditioned auditorium until the punishing heat of the sun lessened to a bearable point.

After the movie, it was still somewhat hot so I went to McDonald's for a bite to eat. Lucky for me, I found a parking spot under the shade of a nearby tree.

attention: It is getting close to the Annual Weblog Awards. Please take the time to nominate mine in the following categories: Best Entertainment, Most Humorous, Best-Kept Secret and Best New Weblogs. Just go through my entries for this year and pick out your favorite. Thank you.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

THE SWITCH, PG-13 ( 1 hr & 41 min )


where: AMC BAY STREET 16 in Emeryville, CA
when: Monday, August 23rd, 2010
show: 9:10 p.m.
costs: $11:00 Ticket + $6.00 Nachos w/ Cheese ( w/ a Dollar-off coupon ) + $4.25 small Zero Coke + $5.00 Carquinez Bridge Toll = $26.25
auditorium: 3
seat: 4th row, 7th column

synopsis: At an "insemination" party for Kassie ( Jennifer Aniston ), a drunken Wally ( Jason Bateman ) does the unthinkable while in the bathroom. After seven years, memory of that fateful event comes back to him piece by piece and he must decide whether or not to tell Kassie the truth.

noteworthy scenes: 1.) Weird man at the intersection; 2.) "What's wrong with my sperm"; 3.) Friend zone; 4.) Time-out; 5.) "This is how you burn fat"; 6.) Party invitation; 7.) Turkey baster; 8.) Prized hog, Roland ( Patrick Wilson ); 9.) Toast; 10.) Bathroom; 11.) Pregnant; 12.) Dinner date; 13.) 'Phone call; 14.) Restaurant; 15.) "Seed" guy; 16.) Cafe; 17.) Aquarium; 18.) Crazy people; 19.) Bus; 20.) Photo album; 21.) Viking's ingredients; 22.) Channel surfing; 23.) Precocious Sebastian's ( Thomas Robinson ) birthday party; 24.) Neebish Island, Upper Peninsula, Michigan; 25.) Curve ball; 26.) "Use my name as a verb"; 27.) Pictures; 28.) Kitchen; 29.) "Hi-jacked your pregnancy"; 30.) "Did the right thing"; 31.) "I've thought about it"; and 32.) Birthday party for a cause.

audience reaction: The audience, both men and women, enjoyed this movie.

recommendation: I liked this movie, too. This might make for a good "date" movie.

spoiler alert! What was that container of sperm doing in a place where any guy could just walk in and "contaminate" it? Was the container set on top of a potpourri/coffee mug warmer? If so, why ...? Wally should have been too much under the influence of drug and alcohol to be able to "perform".

fyi: Contrary to what a reviewer says, there are actually "insemination" parties going on. I first heard about it, many years ago, being done in San, Francisco, California, in the gay and lesbian communities: A lesbian couple would approach a gay guy friend and ask him to be the sperm donor--and, Yes! they use the "turkey baster" method. ( 'Sure makes for an interesting subject of conversation around the dinner table come Thanksgiving! ) I can just envision the "products" of such "couplings" walking around with a Tee-shirt that says, "My dad is a turkey baster." L. O. L.

Eating just plain rice with soy sauce, and nothing else, is done all the time in parts of Asia. I even know of this Chavacano ( Philippine Creole Spanish ) kid back in Davao City, Mindanao, Philippines, who would eat rice with soy sauce, but he'd add brown sugar to the mix, too.

Why do people here in the United States get so worked-up over head lice for? It is just a part of everyday life in tropical Asia. Heck, I had head lice when I was a kid--everyone I know did! But I took someone's advice and washed and shampooed my hair every day and that was the end of that.

In parts of the Philippines, you'd see women and children sitting on the staircase and combing lice eggs out of each other's hair and squashing lice with their thumbnails. Yuck! It is this particular type of scene which prompted the late US President Woodrow Wilson into making the comment that Filipinos were just a bunch of monkeys. He said this when he found out that his favorite niece was in love with an handsome Filipino actor ( 'don't know who--me, perhaps, in another life ).

The word, Cootie ( meaning, head and/or body louse ), comes from the Malay word, Kudu. In the Philippines, it is known as, Kuto.

I would have blogged about this movie two days ago, but blogspot.com was not working right. So, I couldn't do any blogging, 'much as I wanted to. Now, I'm back-logged!

word of advice: Play it safe and get it from someone you know and trust--No! I don't mean, Cooties; I mean, sperm. Ha, ha, ha.

tidbits: I was at my friend's, Hector, place in Oakland, California, earlier in the day to show him some conspiracy theory videos on YouTube. And he showed me a video of a Brazilian baby boy, in diapers, doing the Samba on top of a table--that baby can dance better than I can! L.O.L.

Later on, we watched the CENTURION on movie2k.com. It will show in movie theatres as a limited release this Friday, August 27th. We used the stream2k upload to watch it, and it didn't buffer even once. It's a good "slice and dice" movie with lots of blood-red, graphic slicing and dicing going on. I will have to watch it again because I wasn't really paying much attention to it and because I didn't have a notepad with me at the time. ( Ah ... the life of an internet movie reviewer. )

attention: It's getting close to the Annual Weblog Awards. Please take the time to nominate my blog in the following categories: Best Entertainment, Most Humorous, Best-Kept Secret and Best New Weblogs. Thank you.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

STEP UP 3-D, PG-13 ( 1 hr & 37 min )


where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when: Thursday, August 19th, 2010
show: 4:55 p.m.
costs: $10.75 Ticket + $5.25 small Popcorn + $4.00 small Diet/Zero ( w/ Barq's & Cherry flavors ) Coke + $6.49 McDonald's value meal # 13 Angus Third Pounder w/ Bacon & Cheese with a small fountain drink of Punch ( my own blend of Lemonade, Orange and Strawberry ) = $26.49
auditorium: 8, with the 3-D screen
seat: 6th row, 10th column

synopsis:
Luke ( Rick Malambri ) is struggling to keep his parents' dance legacy alive and trying to make ends meet as he prepares for the hip-hop world finals. But his problems are compounded by someone who is leaking his team's secret dance moves to their rivals and by a new girl who may or may not have his best interests at heart.

noteworthy scenes:
1.) On-camera interviews with some dancers; 2.) Nike shoes; 3.) Street dance competition; 4.) House; 5.) Natalie ( Sharni Vinson ); 6.) Unfinished business; 7.) Nomad; 8.) Speaker room; 9.) Rehearsal; 10.) Neo-Flies; 11.) Footage; 12.) Best friends; 13.) Red Hook; 14.) Parents' legacy; 15.) Olsen twins; 16.) Culture vultures; 17.) Icee; 18.) GWAI; 19.) Leaked footage; 20.) Brother and sister; 21.) Choice; 22.) Born from a boom box; 23.) Public auction; 24.) Birthday bash; 25.) Surprise news; 26.) Missed date; 27.) Property seizure; 28.) Post card; 29.) "I won't dance"; 30.) Diner; 31.) New recruits; 32.) "I don't have a accent"; 33.) Traitor; 34.) World Jam Finals; 35.) "Go and live your dreams;" 36.) Double major; 37.) Train station; and 38.) Bonus scenes during the Ending Credits.

audience reaction:
None, saved for mine. I was the only one in the audience.

recommendation: I liked this movie. If you're into the aggressive, acrobatic and provocative free-styling moves of Hip-Hop and/or Break-Dancing, this movie is definitely a "must-see" for you.

spoiler alert! How can they get any sleep with all that loud "rehearsal" music playing? As they stood on an air vent where the fan was blowing strong, a brown paper bag at their feet didn't get blown around or off into the air. How was Julien ( Joe Slaughter ) able to keep his "dance world" a secret from a close family member?

fyi:
I wanted to see this last night at the AMC in Emeryville, CA. But I realized that it would cost me more to see it there. This is the reason why I went to see VAMPIRES SUCK last night, instead.

In the "I won't dance" scene, Moose ( Adam G. Sevani ), used someone's hat, and it is exactly like one of the hats that I own.

I loved the "Neo-Fly" studded costumes and the laser lights. And I also loved the scene with the cute little brats doing their flashy dance moves.

I was in Los Angeles, CA, years ago with some of my classmates in acting class. We went there in the hope of being "discovered" at a party attended by some casting agents and talent scouts. Anyway, one of my classmates had a passing facial resemblance to Morgan Fairchild. I danced with her in front of the agents' and scouts' tables. Then, she whispered to me that I should do my Break-Dance. I did a bit of it and got down on the floor to do a legs tucked-in spin as she clapped her hands and voiced her approval, all in an effort to attract attention to us. But I really didn't have any room to extend my legs so that I could spin around more impressively because all the other " hopefuls" were dancing close to the agents' and scouts' tables, too! In short, I failed to impress anyone and got nothing for my trouble other than a serious case of pure embarrassment.

I can't do any of those basic Break-Dance moves anymore because of my joint injuries and because I'm just too heavy now. But looking at all the slim and athletic dancers in this movie may have just inspired me into going back to my once-skinny self since skinny people do look better at dancing.

word of advice: Follow your dream.

tidbits:
After the movie, and after eating at McDonald's Restaurant, I went to CVS Drugstore to buy a Futuro Adjustable Wrist Brace for $7.58 because I strained my right wrist at work two days ago.