May The Stars Light Your Way
Buster the Dog came to live with us on Sunday, May 21, 2006. He is a 6-year old Daschund who suffered an unknown spinal trauma on Thursday, May 18, 2006 and became paralyzed from the neck down. His owners weren’t able to take care of him,…
We got up screaming this morning — we woke at 9:30am and needed to be at the theater by 10:00am to ‘strike’ the set of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. (Strike means to reset the space, removing our sets, props, costumes, and the rest to make…
Tonight was closing night of Wendy’s show, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, and the 17th season at Falcon Theater.
Wendy & I drove down to the theater together, though I had to go back out shortly after arriving — seems that the actor playing Audrey II couldn’t get his car started, so I rode while Mark drove to get Tony & his wife. On the ride over, I gobbled down my Mandarin Chicken Salad from Wendy’s. We got Tony & his wife back to the theater with minutes to spare before the show sold out to yet-another sold-out audience.
The show went really well, and almost nobody threw up during it!
We had a cast party at the theater — the first time we tried this — and most of us brought food. I brought some nice chipotle salsa, some peanut butter cookies, and some banana bread. Among the other items there was pizzas, a wonderfully decorated sheet-cake (made by our own Anna, the puppeteer), and loads of adult beverages. I was standing behind the bar and asked one of the young chorus girls what she wanted to drink. She said, “What are you serving?”, to which I replied, “I think I’m serving a minor!”.
We ended around 1:30am and headed home, tired but happy.
From: Drew Vogel drew@drewvogel.com Subject: Bell Training your dog With an early start and concentrated effort, it is possible to train your dog to ring a bell whenever they want to go outside to relieve themselves. Bell training is not difficult, but it requires a…
Year: 2006
Writer: Akiva Goldsman (screenplay), Dan Brown (novel)
Director: Ron Howard
Producer: Columbia Pictures
Length: 149
Category: Drama
Media: Film
Studio: Imagine Entertainment
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
Rating from MPAA: PG-13
Review from 67rocks.
Four words – wrong star, wrong director.
Hanks and Howards best work, both together or separately, have been when they embrace intrinsically American values in their films. All their most memorable movies have involved individuals overcoming hardship through an unshakable belief in love and courage, usually set against an outwardly US-centric interpretation of events. Think Apollo 13, Forrest Gump, Cinderella Man, Saving Private Ryan – all fine films, all centred on an American hero rising above their circumstance.
What is conspicuously absent from either man’s resume is a European-set, religious-themed mystery thriller. Having sat through their arduous, laborious adaptation of Dan Brown’s novel, I can now see why.
The plot is total bunkum – a hodgepodge of “what ifs” and “oh my god” moments spun on the ludicrous premise that Leonardo Da Vinci had some sort of insight into the life of Christ – but loopy story lines have not stopped many films from being enjoyable.
What makes The Da Vinci Code so deathly dull is the heavy-handed, oh-so-serious approach Howard applies to the material. Combining with his cinematographer to give the film a sleepy nocturnal feel (not so clever given the 150min running time), Howard’s film is just a constant flow of expository clues that fail to create any tension or engender his leads with any human qualities. Even for those that haven’t read the book, a couple of obligatory ‘big twists’ in the story are very obvious from early-on.
Hanks (looking more like Jim Belushi than ever) and McKellen blather on and on and on about knights and saints and symbols and God as if they were giving a lecture at some Ivy-league school for the supernatural; Audrey Tautou is lovely but has little to do in a role that is plot- not character-driven. Jean Reno ambles thru another of his token French cop parts (he was better in the Pink Panther); Paul Bettany’s evil albino Silas at least got some audience reaction, though giggles and guffaws were probably not what he was hoping for.
Whatever sense of fun and excitement the book provided is fully-drained from this adaptation. Come credit time, I had the realisation that all this hokey, airport-novel religious hooey and B-movie plotting would’ve made for a great X-files episode in that series heyday. As the end-product of a publishing phenomenon and carrying the tag “Years Most-Anticipated”, its a boring dud.
I flew by the house this evening after work to let the dogs outside then left again pretty quickly. Since Wendy had LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at Falcon Theater tonight, I’d decided to go see THE DA VINCI CODE at my local multiplex. I’d purchased tickets online for the 6:40 show, so time was tight.
I made it to the theater by 6:20 after passing some guy standing at the entrance with a sign denouncing THE DA VINCI CODE. I managed to get ‘rock star’ parking — a spot right in front of the door — and was feeling pretty good about that until I noticed that the parking lot was mostly empty, which surprised me.
Going into the multiplex, my first stop was the Customer Service desk to get my tickets applied to my Star-Pass. Star-Pass is the customer loyalty program for National Amusements theaters. Free to join, it’s an amazing deal since it seems like they give you a free popcorn, soda, or ticket every other purchase you make! Wendy & I don’t go to movies very often, but we’ve already racked up enough points to join the “Director’s Club”, which offers free refills (!) on popcorn and soda, and free candy with some purchases and some other perks. So it is very worthwhile to stop and make sure your purchases are credited.
I picked up some popcorn, Milk Duds, and a Sierra Mist and headed into the theater. Settling into my reserved seat, I got comfortable and waited for the movie to begin. I was a little surprised when the usherette made an announcement that they would be showing a preview for the upcoming WORLD TRADE CENTER movie and invited anyone who might be uncomfortable with watching it to step outside. I looked around, but no one left.
After a while, the movie started. And ran. And ran. And was slow as a snail. And kinda boring. And Tom Hanks looked like he was daydreaming his way through it. And finally, it ended.
The movie was, in a word, okay. In more words, I think DA VINCI CODE was a very good book, but did not translate well into a movie. I’d rate it a 6.75/10.
So, long-and-short… Go to the cinema for a dinner of popcorn and Milk Duds. Join Star-Pass. Don’t rush to see DA VINCI CODE.
I found this interesting optical illusion while surfing around on HappyScrappy… Stare at the plus sign in the middle. You’ll notice that the moving dot becomes green, and then the pink dots should disappear. Here’s an explanation, courtesy of some college professor on the author’s dad’s…