AMC Crossroads Mall 16 (A Rant: Just a Warning)

I understand this post will not win my blog any new fans and may lose it the few it does have but I felt it needed to be said. Here goes. What on earth makes people think that it’s okay to bring their ENTIRE family, including the baby, to a movie and allow two of their obviously under 10 years old daughters to sit apart from them? Even better…what makes them think it’s okay that said daughters run up and down the stairs to ask them questions and change seats then ask more questions and change seats again? Even better…what makes them think that it’s okay that the baby keeps crying during the film? The answer? It’s not that they think it’s okay. They obviously just don’t care. These people paid money for the entire family (7 members if you include the baby) to see a movie and two of them weren’t even watching it. Maybe they figured it was cheaper than hiring a sitter?

As mentioned in several other posts, I don’t have children so I can’t possibly know what these people may be going through. I’m judging solely by how I was raised and how I’ve seen other couples/single parents raise their children. Had my sister and I been this disruptive we would have been told to stop. Had we persisted, I’m willing to bet one of two things would have happened. We would have been taken outside and given a thorough talking to OR we would have been removed from this special outing altogether. That would have been the worst possible punishment for me. I’ve always loved going to the movies. I could “escape” for a couple of hours in to an entirely different world. Become the characters and join them on their crusades. I use the word escape lightly as I had nothing to escape from but I hope you understand what I mean. It’s always interesting to see how other people live even if it happens to be in outer space or the Dark Forest. And, by the way, I don’t believe my parents ever let us sit apart from them. I’m also pretty sure that we, or I anyway, wouldn’t have wanted to. Strangers have always made me nervous.

Some of you may have already guessed that these girls were sitting right down the row from me. I did consider moving but I noticed that they were bothering everyone else in the theater too so it was a moot point. I got their attention at one point and shook my head (threatening, I know) to get them to quit talking. The older of the two looked back at me, smiled and went back to talking. Finally the giggling and the shoe dropping began. I knew at this point that no matter how good was the movie I was watching, I would never become immersed. I had paid to listen to two little girls NOT watch a movie while their parents did nothing.

So. I did what I absolutely hate to do. I went to talk to a manager. I wish I had paid attention to the guy’s name but I ended up talking to a member of the “Management Team”. I asked for a manager and he asked what the problem was. I bit my tongue to keep from saying something along the lines of, “The problem is I would like to speak to a manager,” but apparently the irritated look on my face had him responding, “I’m a member of the management team.” Oh well. As long as you’re on the team. I did tell him that I would say nice things about him on my blog so here goes. He did go in and chat with the family. At least he said he did. I didn’t follow him in. He said that the girls moved down with their parents and that if they caused any further disruption I could let him know and the entire family would be removed. Great! Except for a couple of things. I went to see this movie at the AMC Crossroads. What’s the big deal about that? Despite my constant defense of it not being a dangerous area in which to see a movie late at night, it’s not exactly in the best part of town. Why do I keep going there? Because it’s less than 2 miles from my house and I’ve never SEEN anything bad happen there. Knock on wood. Second, in my experience with families like this I’ve found that a lot of parents who allow their children to act this way will become outraged if someone dares to call them on it. Their sweet, precious babies couldn’t possibly be bothering anyone else if they weren’t bothering them. As I was the only person who exited the theater before a member of the Management Team came and chatted with this little group it was going to be quite obvious who sent him in the first place.

Let me give you a little tip, Management Team. You should probably let the person go back in to the theater for a while before you go in and not allow them to follow in your wake. Otherwise you might as well be carrying a neon sign saying, “This person just tattled on you!!!” The chances of these girls calming down in the five or ten minutes he could have waited were slim to none as they had not quieted down at all in the first hour. Because I wasn’t quite in the mood for feeling the wrath of these “poor, misunderstood” parents, I asked for a pass to a later show. He said he’d get that for me. He took my ticket up to the booth and asked the ticket person to exchange it. She took my credit card to refund my $6.50 and swiped it again to charge me $8.50 because of the time of the other show. The member of the Management Team just stood back and was going to let her do it. I think I said something along the lines of, “Ummm…” because he finally stepped forward and had her only charge me the $6.50. At this point I gave him a card showing my blog information and let him know I’d be mentioning my experience. This is also when I informed him that I’d be saying nice things about him and how he took care of everything. I apologize to him since, in my ire, I’ve gone off on several tangents instead of just leaving it at, “he got them to calm down and got me a new ticket.”

Some of you may be asking why I had him talk to the family if I was just going to leave. That wasn’t my initial plan but because of the afore-mentioned reason I didn’t feel I could stay. AND!!! Had I not seen other people turning their heads to look for the cause of the disturbance I might have let it go. Doubtful, but who knows? These girls were continuously clomping up and down the stairs past at least ten rows of people to get to and from their parents. This wasn’t one of my typical Crossroads experiences in that I was one of maybe 4 or 5 people in the theater. This showing had a good attendance. I hope, for everyone else’s sake, that the girls did finally calm down.

Now, having said all that, WHAT ON EARTH WERE THOSE GIRLS DOING AT THAT MOVIE IN THE FIRST PLACE?!!! I went to see Snow White and The Huntsman. Don’t even try to tell me that the parents thought it was going to be like the somewhat innocent cartoon that most of us saw as children. The movie is rated PG-13! Relatively soon after the Evil Queen becomes the Evil Queen we get to see her plucking the insides out of birds. And it’s a close-up of those insides. I’m assuming they were the birds’ hearts and I’m also assuming that she ate them. Why am I assuming? Because it was gross and I had to cover my eyes. Sad but true. There was other violence as well but that was the grossest thing I saw before I walked out. Did these girls really need to see that? I would say they probably missed it entirely but it was one of the very few moments during which they were quiet. Enjoy your kids’ nightmares folks. I hope they keep you up for at least a night or two. If they’re up and restless so should you be.

Well, it appears that I should just about be finished with this but since I’m already frustrated and a couple more things happened during this oh-so-lovely movie experience, I’m going to continue. Let’s begin with the ticket booth, shall we? If you decide to go to the AMC Crossroads Mall 16 and you’ve never been before I’ll let you in on a little secret. You need to get there early. If you are running late it’s going to get worse. It’s rare that I get another ticket person and on those rare occasions I breathe a sigh of relief. If you get the woman I usually do plan on standing in line for a while. If you happen to be at the front of the line, grit your teeth and muddle through. You see, this person hasn’t quite mastered the art of small talk. She is loud. She is crass. And she doesn’t care that you didn’t come there to see her. The last two times I’ve gotten her as my ticket person I got to hear all about what her daughter thought of the movie I was there to see. If I’m wearing one of my silly T-shirts, of which I have many, I get to hear all about that too. Lesson learned. Plain T-shirts only at the AMC Crossroads Mall 16. Because of her desire to chat I have to either be completely rude and just walk away in the middle of whatever she’s saying or do that thing in which you slowly step away and hope she gets the hint. Unfortunately, on several occasions, she’s held on to my tickets until she’s finished with what she’s saying. I get that she’s a talker and probably enjoys human interaction but, once again, I didn’t go there to chat.

Walk with me to the concession stand, will you? I will say that it’s not often that I have any kind of problem here but I picked just the right line this time. There was a man and, again I’m assuming, his son in front of me and in the middle of getting them their order the concessionaire went to do something else that was totally unrelated to helping them. Then it was my turn. I ordered my White Cherry Icee, because a movie isn’t a movie without a White Cherry Icee and he filled my order in a timely manner. He didn’t tell me how much it was but, of course, they have the little digital reading so I got out my money and my AMC Rewards card and held them out to him. This didn’t take long as I thought I already knew how much it would be. Yes, I like Icees THAT much! So, I’m standing there and not making eye contact (because, once again, he’s a stranger) and quickly noticed that he had left me hanging. I looked up and saw that his back was to me and he was chatting with his co-workers. When he finally turned around, he told me the amount and then saw the money and took it. He swiped my Rewards card and then laid it down in the gooey film that typically covers a concession counter. I took this moment to let him know that he was out of straws. His response was, “Again? I’ll put more in in a minute but you can go get one at another line.” Yes. Yes, I can. Thank you for pointing that out because otherwise I would have just stood in your line and waited for you to finish your conversation and refill the straw dispenser. That’s how invaluable my time is. I had gotten to the theater in plenty of time to see the trailers (I LOVE TRAILERS! Even if they do tend to give away too much of the movie) but by the time I had gained my seat I had missed some. No idea how many. Could’ve been just one.

And speaking of seats…if you like your seats to have cushioned armrests, stay away from the top row of this theater. I’m guessing former patrons have decided it would be fun to remove the cushions and just leave bare metal. Did this happen recently? Nope. It’s been like this for a couple years now. And not only in theater 8. It’s like that in several of them. Maybe the Management Team is thinking that since they never have a sold out movie then they don’t need to fix it as the patrons can move their patooties to other seats. True. True. But why should we have to? Take some pride and fix the problem!

Having said all this and having given my card to the member of the Management Team may have caused all this to not really matter anymore as they may not allow me back in to their theater. Considering their typical attendance though that may not be a good move on their part. I’m just sayin…

The Raven (R/110 Min.)

I got up this morning to go see Dark Shadows and when that was over I said to myself, “Self! Let’s go see another movie!” So I chose The Raven. I really really REALLY need to quit talking to myself. Or listening to myself. One or the other. Is it rude to say that a movie is tedious? Yes? Okay then. I won’t. But it wasn’t good. Apparently word has gotten out about how not good it is as I was the only person in the theater. So not cool.

The Raven is a fictional recounting of Edgar Allan Poe’s final days. It is said that just before he died Poe disappeared for five days. No one ever knew where he had gone and no one ever knew what caused his death. In this telling, three people have been murdered using methods described in Poe’s literary works. Soon after, Poe’s fiancée, Emily, is kidnapped from her birthday ball. She will be killed unless Poe publishes a story in the newspaper every day. While this is happening, other people are murdered and clues are left behind to lead the police and Poe to Emily.

One of the few things I liked about The Raven is that it romanticizes Poe’s death. It gives it meaning and we, as the audience, were allowed to see how he died. If fictionally anyway. This had the opportunity to be a really good movie. It was not. Had this been one of my pre-screenings I might have been compelled to walk out. Though if I didn’t walk out on Jack and Jill I probably won’t walk out on anything. I had paid for this so I decided to see it through. I wish I was able to tell you exactly what was wrong with it. It had all the components of a hit. There was action, mystery, murder, romance, John Cusack. So, why was it a miss?

I’m not quite sure how I thought this was going to play out but the murders did not go as I had imagined. You know what I mean. You know that someone is going to die and how they’re going to die and you might even hear them die but you only see it as a shadow on the wall or not at all. Not so here. Having said that and thinking back to the murders I realize that I only saw two as they happened. They must have been emblazoned in my memory never to be removed. Please be warned, this review is going to have several spoilers. I would worry about them more if I weren’t trying to encourage people not to see it.

The first murder I was “allowed” to watch involved The Pit and the Pendulum. I remember from reading that work long ago that I imagined it as a death by fractions of an inch. A very slow, painful, nay, agonizing death. It looked agonizing all right but, thankfully, it wasn’t as slow as I imagined. I think the pendulum had around 6 swings before it got stuck. Yuck. I actually sucked in my breath after the initial cut thinking, “Wow! That must’ve hurt!” Thank you, Princess Understatement. They were all about the blood spurting and the victim gurgling too. It was tres gross.

The other murder I got to see was not premeditated on the part of the serial killer. He cut someone’s throat open and the nice movie makers made sure to make that as yucky as possible.

Now, let’s talk about Emily a little bit. I liked her. She didn’t wait around for help but tried to get herself out of her predicament. I know you’re thinking, “Hoorah. Big whoop.” Well, it was a big whoop. All I could think when she was working her way out of where she was being held was that the bad guy could be standing right there waiting to do something even worse. But, what do you do? Sit there and hope someone will save you or take the chance to get your own tuckus out of trouble? And speaking of…when she managed to scrape away enough of a space to see out and she saw her captor’s mouth it was NOT the mouth of the guy who put her there. If any of you decide to see this despite my warnings let me know if I’m right or not. I’m pretty sure I am but I have been accused of being wrong before. The man whose mouth it more closely resembles is a good guy. And they even do a close-up of his mouth. I think this was one of those let’s-try-to-make-them-think-it’s-someone-else-first kind of deals. Like in Gone. What was highly frustrating is the person who dunnit isn’t seen enough to give you the impression that he had anything to do with it. Wow. You guys sure were sneaky with that one. No amount of intelligence would have enabled the audience to predict who the bad guy was. The angle on her view of the room was wrong too. She was laying down but it made it seem as if she was standing up. Who edited this?

Let’s talk a little bit about some other things I liked. The costumes were well done. Especially at the masked ball. I would love to have a mask such as the one Emily wore. Okay. That’s all I could think of that I liked. I’m going to take a second and hop over to read some other reviews. I’m back. And I’m relieved. Even the critics from some of the big papers found The Raven less than satisfying. So it isn’t just me. Yea!

I’m not going to bother with other character endorsements as I felt everything about this film pretty much fell flat including the acting. I just don’t get it. This should have been so much better. I would have loved to have seen this had Guy Ritchie been at the helm. He proved twice-over with the Sherlock Holmes movies that he is more than capable of directing a film not of this time. I like talking old-worldy and tend to do so after seeing movies like this. Can’t help it.

Since this movie is rated R and obviously not for children, I’m not going to break it down. People die, it’s gross, don’t take your kids to see this with you. Speaking of dying…I am apparently not as big a Poe fan as I had previously thought. In one of the scenes I saw the marker for an empty grave that they were supposed to find during the search for Emily. It had her name and a date written on it. The date? October 7, 1849. Wanna guess the relevance? That was the day Poe died. You knew I was leading up to that, didn’t you.

I cannot recommend this film to anyone. Not even Poe fans. Especially not Poe fans. I don’t think it would live up to their or anyone’s expectations. I am very disappointed for John Cusack. He deserved so much better than that.

To end on an even more disappointing note, what on earth were they thinking with the credits? It was very James Bond and took us to a completely different time. Don’t do that. It’s bewildering to say the least. The computer graphics were so definitely out of place here. Having suffered through all that I found that there was nothing after the credits. This was somewhat predictable as the ending of the film left it so that there couldn’t be a sequel unless Poe passed the torch on to someone else. Oh please say he didn’t.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (PG-13/124 Min.)

“Everything will be all right in the end. If it’s not all right then it’s not the end.”

What do you do if you live in England and you’ve run out of money and/or lost your spouse? You move to a run-down hotel in India. Of course!

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was a not-so-surprising treat. The actors were entertaining, as these usually are. The hotel, though run down, is still impressive and boasts a manager who is charmingly manipulative, strong-willed and romantic.

Seven different stories merge to form one heart-warming tale of loss and wandering out in a new direction. A judge has decided enough is enough and walks out on his job. A woman in need of hip replacement surgery and who is also incredibly racist seeks aid where it’s cheap and available right away. Another woman has recently lost her spend-thrift husband who left her with absolutely nothing. A husband and wife are being forced to find smaller housing due to a bad financial decision. A “gentleman” has been looking for love in all the wrong places and has decided to move his search to another country entirely. The 4th and final woman is looking for someone well-off with whom she can spend her remaining years in the manner to which she means to become accustomed. Finally, the hotel manager isn’t quite living up to his mother’s expectations but is determined to plow on despite the obstacles.

As good as each story is they wouldn’t do as well on their own. Together they form a very enjoyable two hour cinematic experience. Leanne and Diane (the Fig sisters) went with me and both really liked it too so I’m not just basing this on my opinion. Well, not completely anyway.

Dame Judi Dench is Evelyn Greenslade, the widow whose husband has left her to sell her home to cover his debt and have enough money on which to live. I am a big fan of Dame Judi. She is lovely and seems to be full of spunk. She is also on my list of people I would like to go to dinner with at least once. Just imagine the evening’s entertainment! Her character, despite her losses, seems fully capable of taking matters in to her own hands. I am very happy with how things turned out for her. Leanne took a stab at who Evelyn would end up with. I completely disagreed with her. I was certain it was one of the other men. Leanne won, darn it.

Tom Wilkinson is Graham Dashwood, the Judge who has given up life in England to return to his birth place in India to seek out his lost love. Graham is a beloved character almost from the very beginning. Not so Muriel Donnelly, played by Maggie Smith. She needs the surgery but has to force herself to “deal with” people of a non-Anglo Saxon persuasion to get it. This does not make her happy. Maggie shines in this role. She must be ornery in real life as that’s how she most often seems to be cast.

Billy Nighy and Penelope Wilton (Douglas and Jean Ainslie) are painful to watch in that they did an excellent job as the unhappy wife and brow-beaten husband. Douglas is a wonderfully sweet man and Jean exudes nothing but negativity. Sadly, one of them reminded me a lot of…well…me. Did not appreciate that mirror in the least. And I don’t condone everything Douglas did but I understand why he did it. They can never be cast in another film as a romantic couple. I just wouldn’t believe it.

Madge Hardcastle and Norman Cousins (Celia Imrie and Ronald Pickup respectively) aren’t as prominently cast as everyone else mentioned so far. Their stories seemed like filler. I’m almost sorry to say that I was glad about that turn of events though they did well in their roles as the gold-digger and the pervert. Okay, that’s probably too strong a word but it’s close. Madge does turn out to be a bit of a sweetheart so I guess I can forgive her her money hunt.

Sonny Kapoor, played by Dev Patel, is, in my opinion, the hero of the movie. The bumbling hero...but hero nonetheless. He tries to save his hotel, please his mother and win the girl all at the same time. I can’t imagine anyone else in this role. You can’t help but hope everything works out for him. Unfortunately, this sweet man says one of several cuss words we heard in this film and it was the big one. Sonny! It’s not really very surprising that he said it though.

Despite its rating I still feel as if this might be too mature for young teenagers. As mentioned before there is cussing. We didn’t see any nudity other than Norman’s upper half during a shower scene and no sex scenes were included though it was discussed quite a bit. There is drinking but in moderate amounts in social situations and there was no violence. Then why wouldn’t I recommend this for young teens? I truly believe they wouldn’t enjoy it and the different situations are a bit more than they need to deal with at this age. Having said that, I don’t think most older teenagers would enjoy it either.

I saw The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel a couple of weeks ago and am just now getting around to talking about it. Sorry about that. What makes my judgment of the demographic even harder is that I’ve seen 6 Marvel movies since then. It skews who I think I should direct this towards. My cousins and I have very differing opinions on what movies we like and all three of us enjoyed this. It’s a feel-good movie – for the most part – but there’s no action. Not really. Unless you count the modes of transportation taken from the airport to the hotel. The characters might have felt as if it was. Because of the lack of action, the need to see it on the big screen isn’t as great but I want to encourage people to do so anyway just so it does well at the box office. It’s a nice little escape and now is the perfect time to see it as most people will be at The Avengers anyway so the theater should be nice and cozy. Probably not the build-up the director would want out of a review but there you go.

P.S. Nothing happens after the credits so please gather up your trash and dispose of it properly. It’s the right thing to do.

The Avengers (PG-13/142 Min.)

Thor, I’m sorry. I love you and still want to marry you and have little Thorlings with you but in one way and one way only have you been removed from my favor. The Avengers is officially the best Marvel movie. I know it hurts but hey! At least you still have me. And that’s a good thing. Right? Right? Is this thing on?

To say I like The Avengers is the understatement of the year. I went to the Marvel marathon yesterday at Quail Springs AMC. No, it didn’t involve running, thank goodness, but it did involve Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America and, finally, da da-da duuuuuum…The Avengers! There were between 60 and 70 people in this particular theater and it was super nice not having to worry about the crowds. And these were my people. My co-nerdlets, if you will. We all received lanyards, special 3D glasses (mine were Captain America but only because all the Thors were gone by the time I got there) and a comic book. “They’re not comics…they’re anime!” Name that TV show. We were feeling all kinds of special. To make things even better, we were asked Marvel trivia questions in between each movie and the first person to give the correct answer got a prize. I didn’t win anything. I’m going to blame it on the fact that I couldn’t hear the questions as I was sitting in the very top row. That and my phone wasn’t as fast as everyone else’s who were Googling the answers. Cheaters!

For those of you who need a synopsis for this, here goes:
Loki, brother of Thor, teams up with a super nasty (The Other) to take over the world. Mwahahahahaha!!! Oh. Sorry. His evil machinations bring about the formation of The Avengers, comprised of Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, The Hulk, Hawkeye/Clint Barton and Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff.

If you don’t know who those last two are do NOT go see the Avengers without watching Thor and Iron Man 2. Although, thinking back, the Thor movie doesn’t really tell us much about Hawkeye. You just have to already know who he is, I guess. But we see a lot of Natasha, not like that!!!, in Iron Man 2.

I know I usually discuss the actors right about now but I’m pretty sure you already know who most of them are. All I have to say is, the casting director person team whatever should have been well-paid for choosing this group of actors. If they’ve been with the Marvel film franchise from the beginning. If this was their first Marvel film, then never mind. The only person they had to come up with was Mark Ruffalo for The Hulk. Okay, and maybe a few more but as far as the main characters go… I can’t imagine anyone else in any of these roles. I loved them all. Iron Man stole the show but we sort of expected that. He’s just got that kind of personality. I liked Mark better as The Hulk than I did Edward Norton. Sorry, Ed. You were good. You were just too skinny. Not who I picture as Bruce Banner. But, then again, what do I know?

Aside from a couple of slow spots – and these don’t last long – this film was constantly going going going. There was lots of action, of course, quite a bit of funny – the Hulk and Loki scene was my favorite – and even a little sad. What? Sad? How can this be sad? This is war people and war has casualties! You didn’t really think all the good guys in the movie survive, did you? And now you’re wondering who it is, huh? Sorry. Having told you what I did was probably edging over the line of telling too much. I will say that I appreciate that they pay proper respect to the fallen hero and don’t instantly make us forget him..or her. Did I cry? Maybe a little. Then it got all action-y again and I got pulled in to that.

The one and only character I didn’t care that much for was the super nasty. I felt about him as I did about the villain in The Green Lantern. He was kind of hokey. I’m so glad we didn’t see very much of him. And, as mentioned in The Green Lantern, despite the villain being hokey I still wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley…or in the light of day…or pretty much anywhere. It’s easy to say he’s silly from the safety of my computer chair. Yes, I do realize he’s not real. I’m just sayin’.

Let’s shake it to the break-down:

Sex/Nudity – There just wasn’t time.

Drugs/Drinking – No drugs. A bit of drinking. Tony Stark is one of the characters. There would have to be alcohol!

Cussing – Samuel L. Jackson is in this film. Enough said. Okay, in all fairness, he didn’t cuss at all (I don’t think) in the Star Wars movies so I guess I should cut him a little slack. I didn’t hear any of the big words and just a few little ones.

Violence – Seriously? And there is blood but no gore.

Intense scenes – the worst scene for me was when Loki appeared to be removing a man’s eye. Fortunately, you don’t actually see it happen as Loki is blocking the view but you get a pretty good idea. Yuck! The evil army guys are kind of creepy and the bigger evil army guys made me think of the last Transformers movie when that coily critter was tearing up buildings. These guys are more wormy than coily but still icky.

If you are a Marvel fan I would definitely recommend The Avengers. If you aren’t a Marvel fan, become one and goes see The Avengers. PT is old enough to see movies like this and her PaPa will be taking her this weekend but because of her age now and knowing what she is able to process I have no idea whether or not this would be okay for younger children. I think the youngest person in our theater was either a tween or a little older. If your kids have seen all the other Marvel films then they probably would be okay with this one. Especially if they’ve seen The Hulk or Captain America. Those bad guys were equally yuck. I really hope this does well at the theater. According to reports they made over $18 million at the midnight showing. Yea!

P.S. I’m afraid I have to admit to judging someone by past works. I was happily surprised by a couple of religious quotes in the movie. Having seen some of Joss Whedon’s other projects – Buffy, the Vampire Slayer among others – I wouldn’t have guessed those would have been left in. Shame on me.
P.P.S. To all the people my age with children I would really like to know if your kiddos would actually catch some of the references from our generation. Included in these were “Point Break”, “Galaga”, “Acme Dynamite” and Tony Stark wore a Black Sabbath T-shirt during quite a few of his non-Iron Man scenes. Are they even still a band? Forgive me. I never was a fan.
P.P.P.S. One of the gentlemen in the theater had been toting a replica of Mjolnir (Thor’s hammer for those of you who escaped the nerd wagon) and apparently set it down somewhere outside of our theater. Before The Avengers started one of the AMC employees came in bearing the hammer and raised it up asking, “Does anyone know who this belongs to?” The overwhelming response? “THOR!” Well…duh.

Unsolicited Links Part Deux

It seems to be fixed. I apologize again for the inconvenience. The two people who voluntarily read my blog may now continue to do so. :-)

Unsolicited Links

Dear Readers,

It appears that someone is adding unsolicited links to my posts. Until I figure out how to stop it please please PLEASE do NOT click on anything within my review posts. I apologize for the inconvenience.

The Lucky One (PG-13)

I admit it. I’m a Zac Efron fan. And yes. I did see all the High School Musicals. I think I watched them with my niece though so that’s okay right? Right? Man, you’re a tough crowd! Tonight I went with a couple of my co-workers and a friend of theirs to see The Lucky One. We’d been planning this outing for at least a couple months. If the first night is any indication, it’s not going to do too poorly. I picture women telling their friends that they have to go see and then going with them when they do.

The story revolves around a young Marine (Logan Thibault) who, after three tours in Iraq, searches out the woman who has, unknowingly, become his good luck charm (Beth Green).

Wow! Who thought I’d ever be able to sum up anything that quickly? Yeah, I’ll tell you a little more but not much. As most of you already know, this is based on a book by Nicholas Sparks. If you’ve ever read more than one of Nicholas Sparks’ books, you know that someone, at some time, is gonna die. It’s a fact. One of the women I went to the movie with – we’ll call her Wally - had encouraged me to read the book first. I am about half-way through and was so glad I hadn’t finished it. So far, the movie kept only to the basic story. Most everything else was changed. And the changes were pointless. I liked the book version a LOT better. I’m definitely going to finish it now. Having read as much as I did, I was torn about who would be chosen to kick off. I finally broke down and asked Wally if one certain character was the one whose life force is terminated. It was not. Whew!

Now, let’s talk about some of those changes. In the book Beth’s son, Ben, doesn’t really care much for his dad. Not so in the movie. Logan’s German Shepherd, Zeus, is a big part of the book. The first half of it anyway. Once again…not so in the movie. I could go on and on but I won’t. You get the picture. The book is different than the movie. Big shocker, I know.

I think I’ve seen every Nicholas Sparks movie that’s come out and while this wasn’t the best, it wasn’t the worst either. Armat and I cried during The Notebook and tried to hide that fact from each other. It was quite amusing when we both caught on. I was angry about Message in a Bottle. I had read that book first and hoped beyond hope that the person who died in the book would somehow survive the movie. Didn’t happen. I didn’t read Nights in Rodanthe before I saw the movie and when I did see it, I bawled. So glad I didn't see that one at the theater. If you’ve kept up with my blog, you know how I felt about The Last Song. Wally told me that the screenplay for that was written with Miley Cyrus in mind to play the lead. Whyyyyyy? I didn’t have a very strong reaction to A Walk to Remember but that’s mainly due to the fact that I didn’t really like Mandy Moore. Most of her movies are an absolute cringe fest for me. Sorry, Mandy. Did I cry during The Lucky One? Nope. Not at all. Why? Not tellin’.

The casting directors did a pretty decent job with their selections. As mentioned before, I like Zac Efron. So true. I DO know that he’s at least five years my junior, thanks for pointing that out. I can deal with that fact. I can also deal with the fact that High School Musical Zac is all grown up now. Zac plays the part of Logan. I like him in this role but one thing sort of bothered me. He was a tad too pretty. What I mean is he didn’t look like a three-tour veteran. At least not what I pictured one would look like. Especially considering what all he was supposed to have survived. He still looked relatively innocent though a couple scenes in the movie proved THAT theory wrong. I also expected “Disney” acting and it appears he’s outgrown that. I especially like him in the scenes with Ben. He seems to be comfortable around kids. You might notice that not all actors are. I also liked him in one certain scene with Beth. Sigh.

Taylor Schilling played the part of Beth. I had never heard of her before this movie. While she’s no Julia Roberts, she certainly held her own. My favorite scene in which she’s involved is when Ben is playing the violin. She did proud well.

Blythe Danner plays the part of Beth’s grandma, Ellie. I love Blythe. I really do. She’s a real spitfire. She is obviously protective of her babies in the movie but she doesn’t put up with any guff either. She has a very big heart. I never did figure out why half the furniture in her house was covered with sheets. I thought we’d be drawn in to some sad story of loss regarding certain rooms. Never happened. I guess they just didn’t use that furniture much.

Riley Thomas Stewart plays the part of Ben. Let me tell you right now that he is most definitely not book Ben. If I had my druthers, and I do, I would have chosen an actor from another Nicholas Sparks movie. I think Bobby Coleman from The Last Song would have been a great Ben. Especially if the powers that be had stuck to the book. Riley is not a bad little actor at all but he really wasn’t right for this.

Now that we’re past the people part let’s break it down.

Sex/Nudity – Yes. Yes, there was sex. And more than one scene. I’m guessing that if Zac wanted more grown up roles, he succeeded. If you want to ensure a “cuddle fest” at the end of a date then this is definitely the movie for you. It got a little warm in the theater. Zac in his unders was a sight to behold. Hey! It’s just the facts, man. Although we know that the characters were naked, the important parts were kept off camera. That sounds like they were physically removed from their persons. You know what I meant, though. At least I hope you do.

Drinking/Drugs – Several of the characters drink beer but it’s not a major part of the movie. No drugs.

Cussing – Yes. At least one GD but the word of choice was $#!+.

Violence – Beth is treated somewhat roughly by her ex and in one scene a gun is pulled and aimed at another character. That’s it.

Intense scenes – The gun scene and the climactic scene. The only blood we saw came from Ben’s nose after he got hit during a softball game.

I would definitely recommend this as a date movie. If you’re not seeing anyone then this is a straight-up chick flick. I’m pretty sure my mom and sister would like it but based on her response to Breaking Dawn: Part 1, I don’t think Armat would want PT to watch this just yet. I’m willing to bet that the sex scenes pushed this movie perilously close to an R-rating. Having said that. I enjoyed The Lucky One and will be purchasing it when it comes out on DVD. Okay, when the DVD goes on sale. I try not to pay full price for movies. It’s how I roll.

P.S. Since I was with other people and one of them was my ride, I didn’t sit through the credits. Had I known my companions would be utilizing the facilities I would have stayed behind.

P.P.S. According to IMDB…”A Marine travels to North Carolina after serving three tours in Iraq and searches for the unknown woman he believes was his good luck charm during the war.” Ummm…no. In the book he went to North Carolina. In the movie he went to Louisiana. Obviously someone paid more attention to the book