Posts Tagged ‘hanging with friends’

a double feature day

Jul 6, 2010 life, movies and tv

Met up with Clare for lunch and movies at Downtown Disney.  We saw two movies, both of which I give thumbs up.

The first was Knight and Day, starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.  I was a little hesitant to see this one because while I like Tom and Cam, their last pairing in Vanilla Sky was really bad. Like zero chemistry bad. Happy to say this action-rom-com was totally different.

In Knight and Day, Cruise plays a spy named Roy Miller who encounters Diaz’s June Miller in an airport. She accidentally gets roped into his latest case, which may be his last if he can’t figure out who is trying to kill him. The two travel all over the world and Roy is faced with not only trying to protect something called the Zephyr, but June as well.  And along the way, of course, the two fall for each other while fighting the attraction.  In the movie Cruise and Diaz play well off each other, with some witty dialogue thrown in for good measure. Some of the plot requires great leaps of faith from the audience, but thankfully the action stops just short of being cartoonish. I really liked Cruise and Diaz together in this movie. Overall, Knight and Day reminded me of Cruise’s Mission: Impossible mixed with Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I’d give it a 4 out of 5 rating.

The second movie we watched was the big-screen reboot of one of my fave TV shows from the 80s – The A-Team.

Now I have to admit that I was totally nervous about seeing this. I wasn’t sure this film version would have the ability to take everything I loved about the TV show – the character interaction, Murdock’s craziness, the campy dialogue – and update it to a big screen action movie. I was totally wrong to doubt anything about this remake.

The characters were just as outrageous. Extra big kudos to Bradley Cooper as “Face” and Sharlto Copely (District 9) as Murdock. The action was so over the top that it was glorious – I think the scene with the tank is one of the best action sequences I’ve ever seen in a film. And the film had a lot of humor. I laughed almost the whole film. Another big kudo to Brian Bloom, who not only plays one of the bad guys in the movie, but also co-wrote it.

I think this film captured a lot of the spirit of the series and as a result gets a 5 out of 5 from me. I may even have to buy it when it comes out on DVD.

After the movies, we met up with Rhon, who just got off work, and we had dinner at Steak and Shake. Nothing exciting there, though I will say they make damn fine malts.

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August is another word for too much to do

Sep 1, 2009 life, music

Wow! Where in the heck did August go?  I guess that’s what happens when you have too much to do, eh? I was determined to get caught up on my writing and though I have yet to tally the links, I think I did 30 or so published articles last month. I’ll post the links in a post later this week.

Besides writing, I haven’t done much other than go back to work at the bookstore part-time and also I had a slew of medical tests and such.  The neurologist is 98% he knows what I have, but I still have one more MRI and a third spinal tap to go through yet this month. I’ll find out the final prognosis the day after my birthday.  Whoo!  Go me!

This last weekend I actually went out and hung out with my friends. It felt good to be out and and about, even though I paid for it the next day with my whole body in pain.  We (Rhon and I) met up with the old PI/Margaritaville gang of Patti, Cris, Joan and Deb to see my friend Jeremy’s band Afterglow Radio.  They are so freakin’ great live!! You should check out their music on the Afterglow Radio MySpace page.  I don’t think I’ll make it to their video shoot this week, but I hope to be well enough to see them on Sept 19 at the Back Booth downtown.

After the show, Rhon and I went over to Steak & Shake with Rachel and Clare and yapped for a few hours. We didn’t get home until around 1am. I remember before I got sick, 1am would be my starting point but this weekend I felt like I got hit by a truck the next day – and I didn’t even drink any alcohol.

Since I haven’t been out and about, I don’t really have much else to talk about right now. I do appreciate everyone who continues to read my articles at Suite101, Why Go Las Vegas and Uptake. Every click helps me pay the bills, so I do appreciate the continued support!

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