And then...

... I realize that I still have many things to tell.

The story has not ended, we left when I had talked to some of my classmates (from the distant past when I was in college) and they told me the debt situation was a "normal" one (in the most ethimological sense); and that I have to find some other options to solve it and then live with it. Those other options have been reduced to one; stop paying the credit cards. The reason behind it is that in Mexico the law will protect the customer (not the bank); so the only consequence of doing that is that you will not be subject of credit for 5 to 10 years. Hopefully I will not need that.

Anyway; after I returned home (yes! I returned in October 23rd) Vicky moved out; or I should say, we threw her out? It was a combination of both; in any case things have calmed and everybody is doing better now; yes, we miss her a lot and she misses us a lot, but she is living 5 minutes walking from this house, so it is just OK.

Mediana still is in her ballet/jazz/flamenco dancing lessons and Pinka is in her basketball tournament (they are not doing so well, but they are improving each game) and Bonita is taking some lessons at a local college (like a certificate degree, I do not know how to call it).

I have been very busy (they are making me work!?!?!?) but it has been really satisfactory; I've never done it before! (you may think this is a joke... but maybe it isn't!). I have been staying at work for a couple of hours more than my usual time.

In other words, life is going on; the world has not stopped (as anybody can attest) and history is in the making (Obama is president of the USA!). Many things to talk about; but the one I want to share is the following:

I enjoy reading Gregg Easterbrook's column in ESPN every Tuesday; he writes about American football. But he also writes about common sense (in a very funny way). This week's column contains a couple of comments about two things: hidden calories restaurants give you without telling you; and how the financial bailout does not have any control over the companies about how they use the money American goverment is giving them. Both really amusing and with a lot of sense. By the way, do not get distracted by the picture that appears in the second link ;^).

It's getting late and I need my quality time with the family; see you around.

And to complete the full report...

Complaining was the last part of the vacation; actually I am wrong here, I am not taking into consideration some of the strange sights we were witness during the vacation; like the cross dressing guy we saw at the road between Santa Ana and Hermosillo; or when Pinka said that a kid was driving a motorcycle (with his mother on the back, or something like that); or the tropical storm in the middle of Baja that almost got us stuck in Ciudad Constitucion. So we had our share of adventures; actually I believe we should call all of the "annoying" things adventures (I know Bonita will disagree with that!).

1) The top carrier opened as soon as we came down "La Rumorosa" (very "curvy" road, the name refers to the noise the cars that falll downhill made): Bonita got three tequilas to overcome her desire to return to Tijuana immediately and I had to buy two straps to hold the thing together. We lost a child carrier, child shoes and the suit carrier that held my clothes got ripped apart (no damage to the clothes, fortunately).

2) We saw a "police scene" when driving out of Mexicali; two federal agents were shot by the "bad guys" (whoever those are).

3) We saw a guy walking on the road wearing a red dress and high heels while we were driving from Caborca to Hermosillo (I think that was the weirdest sight!)

4) We almost got stuck in Hermosillo while Bonita was talking with her cousins, the husband of the eldest cousin got drunk and I had to cook the "carne asada"; Bonita kept getting updated news (and a ton of memorabilia, pictures and the sort!) from the family before finally deciding to move to Ciudad Obregon.

5) The windshield got broken by a pebble very close to Los Mochis; this reduce our excitement of getting to Sinaloa.

6) We saw another "crime scene" after we passed Guasave; this time we did not investigate what happened!

7) We got to Mazatlan in the middle of "high season for Mexican tourists" and the hotel we wanted was full, so we decided to "see first" if the Aquamarina was OK and Bonita registered before I could tell her it was a bad idea. Of course everything was my fault, since it was the hotel my father use to take us when we were on vacation (25~30 years ago!).

8) In Guadalajara, we were hit with hail while returning to my aunt's home. My daughters had never seen hail. There is a video somewhere.


9) In San Juan de Los Lagos we saw this:


10) In Guanajuato we were approached by a kid that was a tourist guide; he took us to the Inquisicion Museum where we saw mummies, torture instruments and a chastity belt. Then the guide disappeared and we never saw him again (he migh be one mummy now!!)


11) In Dolores Hidalgo we mistaken the church where "El Cura Hidalgo" did not yell "Viva Mexico!!"


12) This was a common sight on the roads.



13) Everything was quiet until we got to the ferry. The ferry had a problem on one of the electricity generators and the trip was delayed 13 hours, we spend 24 hours on the ferry and we were really tired and hungry by the time we left. That's where I noticed my kids and my wife are a little spoiled, they could not eat the food that was given to us on the ferry! They wanted gourmet food! (I've learned to eat whatever is available, you never know when you will eat again!).


14) We could not find the hotel in Cabo San Lucas, when we finally did it was great; but for a while Bonita was getting mad at me.


15) While driving through the central part of Baja, we ran into a tropical storm at Ciudad Constitucion; I could not take pictures but Bonita was scared. Of course Pinka decided she needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the storm; we got drenched in rain while looking for a toilette!!



16) We got to Santa Rosalia to find a creepy hotel; Bonita still thinks it was the original of "Psycho". It looked OK at daylight! And of course it was also my fault because I did not know there were only 4 (or maybe 3) hotels in Santa Rosalia!

17) We went through 7 army "retenes" during the last two days of travel; I asked for a certificate of being verified because I was getting tired of opening the top carrier every freaking time!! Could they not see we were in family travel!

Anyway; we made it back safe and sound. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously (even if the pictures show different evidence!) Thank you for your patience and your attention.

See you around

I was going to the movies…

OK, I went to see “Hellboy 2” last Friday (I took advantage of a loooong lunch break and also the fact nobody in my family wanted to see it with me) and last Sunday we went (the whole family) to see “Hancock”.

“Hancock”
Surprisingly enough, there were no “super” villains on this movie. Which makes it really interesting. In any superhero movie I’ve ever seen, there is someone with the skills or powers to counteract the superhero’s abilities. Not here. You can focus then, in what is going on with the person. Hancock is an alcoholic, irate, selfish person. With superpowers. Can fly, do not age, bullets cannot pierce his skin, etc; think of Superman. But then he is lonely. Until he saves a guy who wants to change the world and as a side project starts by trying to change Hancock. I will say no more of the story; but to me it was the best part of the movie.

The acting, direction, effects and everything else took a backseat to the story for me. I think Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman were good enough to carry their parts, and Will Smith was acceptable; he was believable, but something was missing.

Overall score: 7

“HB 2: The Golden Army”
This is a “love-it or hate-it” movie. I have to tell you that I love Guillermo del Toro as a director; I went to see “Cronos” in Guadalajara when he was starting his career and then followed him through “Mimic”, “Blade 2”, “El Espinazo del Diablo”, “HellBoy” and “El Laberinto del Fauno”. It had been one of my complains that he does not seem to work much directing (I know he has participated producing a lot more movies; but…).

Anyway; compared to HB 1, this movie lacks the fast pace and the “true” villain (Rasputin that time). However (as “Hancock” did) this allow you to pay more attention to the character and what he really thinks and the way he acts. Remember that HB is 60 years old, but mentally is like a teenager (as explained in the first movie). There are several sequences that show that, but the one that takes the price is when he and Abe Sapien get drunk while listening to Barry Manilow (!?!?!?!!!). Effects, makeup and the creativity to show that many characters (and the underground world that is hiding from us Humans) are the best. Reminded me a little of the Artemis Fowl’s universe.

I liked the movie a lot; the only “complaint” I have is that seems to me the ending was a little weak; I can only hope this was because there is a third movie on the works, but nothing has been “leaked” to the press, so I do not know.

Overall score: 8.5

And that’s the way it happened. By the way, since we are preparing for the road trip, I had been really busy lately and had not enough time to post more. I expect that to be corrected with the daily (hopefully) updates during the trip.

See you around.

Sex, lies and birthday cake.

Since Friday’s night we had been in a very busy schedule.

We had a party to attend, a kid’s party to attend, a party to host and (without knowing it) an expo to visit.

The party that we attended was for Luly, the only comadre we get along with (of the three we have) and it was in Chulavista, CA. We headed there Friday night with the plan to return early and do not drink too much. We only got one of them; instead of returning at 10:00 pm, we stayed until midnight (Cinderella clock finally got us). We had a good time, meeting some old friends and somebody brought a guitar and we sang and laugh an awful (and awfully sometimes) lot.

Yesterday morning, we still had to buy the present for the birthday girl and also for Arqui (my brother in law) who was going to be in TJ for us to celebrate his upcoming birthday (that was the party we were to host). We did that and return on record time to TJ. Went to the new hotel in Otay, where, next to the swimming pool the party was prepared. Mediana and Pinka jumped into the pool and only returned when we told them we were leaving; Mediana wanted to stay overnight with Alex (the birthday girl) and Pinka wanted to stay with Naty (her best friend from school), but we were going to see Arqui, so no can do.

However, Pinka stayed for a while and went to another party with Naty and in return Naty stayed overnight with her at our home.

Arqui’s celebration was very quiet. He was sleeping around 7:30 pm, just before my brother (Nolo) and his family arrived. We eat Paella and cake and the special Jello my mother in law makes for celebration (it is soooo good; with strawberries and milk!). We did not think it was going to be that way. OK, I will stray away from the post here.

Bonita and her mother are most of times complaining about each other and the way the other approaches at things. In any case, Friday morning, my mother in law arrived at my house early and she was there when I was preparing breakfast. We started talking and then Bonita came down the stairs and started preaching her mom about being more independent and to do more things by herself, etc, etc. Finally, her mom slashed back and they were about to start fighting when I said to Bonita to let it go; which she did and decided not to make a big fuss out of it. On Saturday morning, my mother in law called to set up the party for Arqui; she then started assigning responsibilities for the party and my wife said; “we have a kid’s party to attend, we can not do anything except to allow the party to be at our home (because is the only place where all of us will fit)”. My mother in law immediate response: “I knew you would do something like this!” Bonita decided not to pick this fight and during the day I convinced not to call her mom about the party preparation; at the end, everything was OK and nobody hold any bad feelings about each other.

OK, back to the original post. Nolo and family arrived; and my sister in law then made a comment about passing close to the place where the Exxxpo Erotic@ was taking place and that she was curious about it. We jumped at the idea and told her to go with us; but finally they did not really want to go.

Bonita and myself were up to the task and we took off (at 9:30 pm) to see if we could get in and take a look. One time in my life, when attending a show in Vegas (Consumer Electronics Show) somebody in the group found out about this “side” show attached to the big one and it was related to the “Adult entertainment” part of consumer electronics. We visited to have a look and were not particularly surprised, neither shocked for what we saw. Nothing really to write home about (compared that to the infamous “Donkey show” that is supposed to take place in Tijuana), but nothing that cannot be told.

OK, we almost could not get into the parking lot. It was really packed! It took us 10 minutes to find a spot to park, another 15 to get the tickets (and they were expensive, 15 dollars each!) and once we got in, it was full of people.

I was glad to see many couples there, I was a little scared to find the usual suspects (single, nerdy or biker type of guys); but it was really OK. People very open, not judging anybody else in attendance and we even saw a group of “out and proud” with T-Shirts saying “Any other way”. They had an area showing some art (pictures, sculptures and even some models in body paint).

There were around 20 stands, half of them sponsored by the big stripping clubs in TJ, the other half sponsored by Adult stores and a big stage where performers from the clubs or some shows will do their acts (a little toned down from the standard) for the people in attendance. They even let people take pictures or video of what was going on. We watched a little of a competition looking for new male stripping talent (all of them were really bad, according to Bonita; but I think she said that to keep me calm) and some of the girls dancing in a couple of stands (Boler0 and Amnesi@) and then we got tired; after 45 minutes there we returned home.

The funniest/scariest part of all, was when we were walking and talking about not meeting anybody we knew there and then the camera appeared in front of us and a microphone to ask us our opinion of the show. But we mentioned we were not us; so if you see us on TV, it weren’t us!

See you around.

When in doubt, keep your mouth shut…

This is an excellent advice; however, one I usually do not follow.

OK, here come the reviews

Juno:
Ellen Page rocks! Figuratively and literally. I do not know if they would have found a better actress to play the part; I believe that the main reason for her making it work is that she is not that known (I know she appears in “X-Men 3” and I want to see “Smart People” but not because of her). The story rocks! I also think Jennifer Gardner made a hell of an impression on the “expecting mom” character; I started to hate her for being so annoying. Which is exactly why I think she nail the role down. I enjoyed the movie; and the dad/stepmom interactions with Juno were really good. Not that I want any of my daughters to go through what Juno went, but I would like to think of me as a cool dad (like Mac McGuff). Overall score: 8.

Jumper:
As will mentions in his comment; there is a sense of unfulfillment. Too many questions without answers, I know this is based on a book by Steven Gould; and you can see for yourself what happen to good books when they are “converted” into movies. ‘Nuff said. Overall score: 6 (it is entertaining; and I got to know there is an interesting book around!)

Grace is Gone:
The parallels with my family are really interesting; both daughters’ characters mirror what I perceive Mediana and Pinka to behave at home. My wife loved it, but got asleep ¾ into it; I had to wake her up to finish the movie. In my case, I almost cried, but got over it and kept watching the film. Strong emotional story. I do not know if I would do the same in that case, but I had had to wonder, since my wife sometimes has an infatuation with the idea of dying. Overall score 8.5 (it is slow at the end; the scene between the dad and his brother really got to me).

Bonus review:
My Own Private Idaho!!!!
Finally I finished watching it; it was anticlimactic. After all the expectation and excitement I had going into it, I had to watch it at work (on my lunch time). The first hour (or so) was what I had seen before; the second part of it (what I missed the first time I set to watch it) was difficult to digest. I still will have a second look at it; this time I will watch it uninterrupted. Let’s see what happens; so far score: 8.

And this is all folks (for the moment!)

See you around.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Suddenly, out of the blue; we went to the movies yesterday night. After complaining about the price of the tickets (I know is cheaper than in the US, but tickets increased almost 40% price in the last year! Bandits!); we sat down to watch “Get Smart”.

At first I was not really sure I wanted to see the movie. I was expecting a lot of stupid humor; but I was really surprised by two things: in comedy (as in many other things, [what a cliché]) timing is everything, and here the fast pace of the jokes makes them really enjoyable, I laughed out loud more several times; the second one was that only two or three jokes were non enjoyable (one of them was REALLY gross!).

I am giving the credit to the “Special Consultants” they had for the movie. They are the original writers of the series: Buck Henry and Mel Brooks (*). I am not really sure if they really participated in any aspect of this movie, but the writers and director really did a great job avoiding the typical error in comedy that is to wait to much for the joke to develop. In one of the sequences, Agent 23 (“The Rock”) is complaining about another agent for jamming the copy machine. After Agent Larabee dismisses this complain; a frustrated Agent 23 takes the stapler and then staple a paper to Larabee’s forehead. I did not see it coming and that is exactly what made it enjoyable.

Most of the jokes will develop and then the unexpected will happen; when I watched “Kung Fu Panda” I was able to tell my daughters what was about to happen prior to happening. Not this time.

Of course a lot had to do with the director going for the straight face joke and the actors running away with it; so special mention to Anne Hathaway (love her), Steve Carell (who is so enjoyable in “The Office”), Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), Alan Arkin (at time I was not sure if he was really acting or just playing along) and the four guys that stayed in the office (two nerds and two agents that had to stay; really good interactions).

The only other joke I will mention is the answer to the question appearing as title of the post. Smart (Carell) and his boss (Arkin) are driving though a golf driving range, and then crash with a shack that has a swordfish in one of the walls. They stopped in front of a small airport and then Smart asks his boss: “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

(End reading if you do not want to curse me later; of course if you already watched the movie or do not have plans to watch it do not worry about this)

BIG SPOILER HERE

The boss answers: “I do not know, Were you thinking; ‘Holy shit, holy shit, a swordfish almost went though my head’? If so, then yes”.

END OF SPOILER

See you around.

(*) As comedy goes, I always liked Mel Brooks' movies. Particularly "History of the World, Part 1"; I do not why, just loved that movie.

Movies again!

Well, yesterday I took Mediana and Pinka to the movies; to see Kung Fu Panda. I’ve read a little about the screening at Cannes and the actors doing the voices of the movie (Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane in English; Omar Chaparro, Pedro Armendariz Jr., Bruno Pinasco, Erika Edwards and Cesar Evora in Spanish); but I did not expected the movie to be that good.

We watched the movie in Spanish, I have not seen the English version yet; but for all of you that do not know; Mexico has a really good dubbing industry (40-20 years ago it was even better), Telly Savalas was known to say that he really preferred his dubbed voice in the Mexican broadcast of Kojak (hear here as the Eagle’s voice); and the Flintstones and other cartoons (Count Duckula!) were really great; the Shrek movies were also really good and they made a really good work this time. Of course, saying “Pot-Belly Panda” in Spanish sounds really funny (is Panda Panzon, with the accent in the “zon” for the curious).

The story is also good; I agree to many of the things mentioned there; specially the “there are no accidents” bit, since is part of the family philosophy. We also had great laughs, made us almost cry and ended up with a good feeling overall. I will now get the English version to compare.

See you around.

Catching up

While waiting to get to work I was thinking of three potential posts I want to write about; the first one was religion (I went to mass yesterday, after a while! No, I did not burst in flames), the second one is about beer and the third one was a music review.

I will skip religion; I vented in my Spanish post already, so the edge is gone. I need to review and recall the indignation I felt yesterday at the priest to make it worthwhile.

Beer…. (imagine Homer Simpson saying it…) OK, I will do it after I make my comment on Kaki King’s records…

I finally have a complete opinion of three of Kaki King’s records. I am missing one of them (“Legs To Makes Us Longer”) but it will do.

And we start with: “Everybody Loves You”

OK, I think this is the most representative CD of her style;
“Kewpie Station”, “Steamed Juiced Little Bun”, “Carmine St.”, “Close your eyes and you’ll burst into flames”, “Joi” and of course “Everybody loves you” are to showcase her talent.
However I liked better #4 “Night after Sidewalk” and #10 “Fortuna”; I am more in sync with them.
“The Exhibition” and “Happy as a Dead Pig in The Sunshine” are OK; a little too happy for me.

So, I liked 2 songs out of 10. Another 2 get an acceptable rating. 6 can be good for guitar-music lovers. It gets a pass.

“Until We felt Red”

You can hear the maturity (or the pressure from the manager to be more accessible to the public) here.
The disc opens with “Yellowcake”; a nice melody with a tamed guitar and a nice surprise; her voice. She has a nice voice; not a GREAT voice, but it meshes with the music very well.
“Until We Felt Red” which has no lyrics and a change of pace in the guitar, it’s OK.
The most complex of the songs in the disc “You Don’t Have to Be Afraid”. I love the first 4 minutes of it, then changes pace and theme and I am close to hate it, I don’t get it completely; it loses me at the middle.
“Goby” is OK; good enough follow up a little jazzy.
“Jessica” is more my kind of song; she sings again; I liked it.
“First Brain” is a good exercise on how to play the guitar “punteando” (I do not know how to explain it in English, but it means using your fingertips to pull a string at a time very quickly).
“I Never Said I Love You” is darker than anything I’ve heard from her. I think dark jazz, whatever that means.
“Ahuvati” is in the mood of “First Brain”, same style; but does not get me anywhere.
I liked “These are the Armies of the Tyrannized”. It has some of the darkness of “I Never Said I Love You” but with more hope and liked it better.
“Second Brain”. It is much better than the first; the metallic sounds are the difference.
“Soft Shoulder” another “liked” song. A little bit of discordance at the beginning, OK.

So; I liked it better than the first one. 13 songs, 6 or 7 that I liked, this is getting better.

“Dreaming Of Revenge”
Strong start with “Bone Chaos in the Castle”. Nice continuation with “Life Being What It Is”, “Sad American” is not so good, I liked “Pull Me Out Alive” (interesting music video too); “Montreal” is really good. “Open Mouth” is interesting; the melody seems to repeat in “So Much For So Little” but in a darker way. “Saving Days in a Frozen Head” and “Air and Kilometers” are feel good songs.

Overall, the best of the three.

So, here it is. I would recommend “Dreaming of Revenge” and selected songs of “Everybody Loves You” and “Until We Felt Red”. And if you get August Rush OST, look for “Bari Improv” and “Ritual Dance” too.

See you around.

On being a "rifle"... (what?)

In the school slang, when you are copying homework of an exam from one of your classmates you will be called "fusil" (rifle).

So, today's my day to be a "fusil". I have 5 (3 actually) movies to see (we went to Blockbuster yesterday) and I will be posting my reviews during the day. As a special threat for me (and maybe for some of you) I will use the "critical" eye during movie watching.

See you in a while.

(Back to yesterday night)

12:30 a.m. I just finished to watch Hitman. Here goes the review. (Yes I know, I started before the original post; I can cheat a bit, I think, after all I am a "rifle" today!!!)

Hitman (2007)

I am not a big fan of Timothy Olyphant, neither of Game-to-Film movies. Then, why did I rent this movie? Well, I just bough the hype, I think. OK, let's start with this.

I could not understand the basic premise of having a "secret" organization when all the members are running around with the bar codes tattoed in the back of their heads; I would say they are pretty obvious. And, what purpose the bar code had? I never saw anybody scanning them or using them for any reason. I would like to know if they use the barcode to identify them or to charge for services (like, "OK you want #47, it will cost you $10 Mill; but in the Clearance section there is #13, he is a bit of bad luck but... you can have it for only $999,999!!").

Anyhoo; good cinematics, nice-looking leading lady (Olga Kurylenko -> Nina; I have not seen Paris, jet'aime, so I did not know her) but she can not act; the interaction between #47 and Nina is akward, but very believable (in the sense that #47 is like a killer-monk and does not know how to interact with women and she appears nekked [this is not for kids movie]). Special effects, nothing major to report. Music, nothing major to report.

So, bonus point for Nina --> 5 (out of 10, I will follow school-type grading).

Next!!!
10:00 a.m.

You Kill Me (2007)

I have something for Téa Leoni, ever since I watched her for the first time in "The Naked Truth" (old TV show in 1995) and I have always liked Ben Kingsley, specially in "House of Sand and Fog" and a little in "Lucky Number Slevin". So, it looks promising. Add Bill Pullman, Dennis Farina, Luke Wilson, Philip Baker Hall, etc. Very strong cast, of course is a comedy (dark), and those are difficult to pull.

In any case, they did it for me. Kingsley plays the role of a hitman (is there a theme here?) that is also an alcoholic; thus his addition is not letting him do his job properly. After he fails to kill an Irish mob boss (Farina) he is exiled by his uncle boss (Baker Hall, playing a Polish mob boss based on Buffalo) to San Francisco, until he recovers.

He starts going to AA meetings and working at a funerary (as a make-up artist (?) and general help). He meets Laurel (Leoni) in the first funeral he works and fancies her. Wilson is his sponsor at the AA and Pullman is his landlord/nanny. He starts applying the AA principles in his life (including the honesty part; he talks about his line of work at the meetings, that I did not buy completely, but, what the hell, is a comedy! and I like the actors!! [do you see to double standard here?]).

I do not want to spoil it, because I think people with the right sense of humor might like it. My wife really liked it and I know she does not like comedies to start with, but, she also likes Téa (and loved "Fun with Dick and Jane", strange). The final part is a bit cliché, but it is a Hollywood movie! Deal with it (I am talking to myself here).

Score: 8 out of 10 (bonuses points because my wife liked it and Téa Leoni).

Next!!!

12:45

I Am Legend (2007)

We are rolling here! However, I have to recognize I do not want to start watching "My Own Private Idaho". Maybe to do with big expectations; in any case, after this movie we will watch "There Will Be Blood" and My-House Premiere of MOPI will start in Primetime!

OK, Will Smith is bald, Ben Kingsley is bald, Tim Olyphant played a bald charachter in "Hitman", maybe the theme is baldness!! Not hitmen!! After I finish all 5 movies will let you know.

Acting -> Great!! "Sam" the dog, played a major role in the movie; she seems to be really intelligent, and because she is speech impaired I give her the Oscar (wait, this already happened!! *). Special thanks to "Fred, the mannequin" in the special appearance he made. The same for the kid almost at the end. Very similar acting skills.

In a serious note, Will Smith rocks. I was close to hate the story on "I, Robot", but simply because I know from heart all of Asimov's robot stories and novels; but he performed really good (and I like Bridget Moynahan). "MIB" (the first one) was good, "Bad Boys" (the first one, with Téa Leoni!!) was good, "Wild, Wild West" not so much (I blame it on Kevin Kline), then we got to see what he can do in "Pursuit of Happiness" and in a "castawaian" setup he did not embarrassed himself now. I need to read the book right now to confirm they kept the story close to the original, but at this moment I liked the movie. Great sound edition (knowing how to keep the silences is important, remember "2001"). And if you liked Anna (Alice Braga) you have to see "Solo Dios Sabe".

Overall score 8.5 out of 10 (I am strict, but since there were no bonuses here, this is a great score for a movie!)

Next!!!

5:30

There Will Be Blood (2007)

I knew it was based on a book; but I was not aware it was that loooooong! It made me sleepy for a while, so unless I change my rules it will not be OK.

I do not understand how a movie that can not keep the audience (me) interested will have so many Oscar nominations. I saw "Michael Clayton" and "No Country for Old Men" (and loved them **), I have not seen "Atonement" (my wife did and loved it, but in a comment, the commenter said there is a big difference between the movie and the book) so I do not know what to make of it. But for this movie to have those many nominations... I mean 3 out of 4 were based in books, I have not read any of those books, but a little time spent looking information for them showed me what I suspected: Oil! is the longest of them, Atonement is the second and a rather far third is No Country for Old Men.

OK enough ranting, I can not bend my rules here
Score: 5 out of 10 (bonus point because at the end I got interested again, the cinematography and Paul Dano, who makes it interesting beyond his inconsistent acting and Daniel Day-Lewis giving a very good performance).

So... "two little movies to be seen under the sun; one just burned and there is one"
Next!!!

0:30 a.m(Next day)
My Own Private Idaho (1991)

Disaster!!!! I wait for my wife to finish watching "Capadocia" so we start watching MOPI at 9:30 p.m.

It is what I remember (I watched more that half the movie the first time) and I am liking it but I am so tired that I sleep at the 25 minutes mark.

Dear readers; I have to apologize for this let down. I will continue watching the movie tomorrow (today) and post the report at night.

Yes, I know, I should not have procrastinated since the beginning and we would be better of, but... this is life. 4 out of 5 is not so bad and it will get its own review!!

See you around.

(*) in a side note, my Mexican-ness does not allow me to say something like "got the Oscar because speech impared" or like that without apologizing to all the speech impaired people who is reading this (that includes me, I usually grunt and point so people understand me).

(**) I actually more than like anything from the Coen brothers; since "Blood Simple" up to now, passing "Barton Fink", "The Big Lebowski", "Fargo", "The Hudsucker Proxy", even "Intolerable Cruelty"; pretty much all of them.

Iron man review # 12345600000003

Hello all, we made it back safe and sound! Got back to Tijuana yesterday around 8:00 p.m. but I felt so tired that I only unloaded the van an went to sleep. This morning I checked on the blogs and saw a couple of new comments (nice to meet you (s)wine) and a question from Will. Did I like "Iron man" the same I liked "Definitively maybe"? I decided to answer with my review of the movie. but first I asked my family about it: my daughters and my wife liked it,my brother and mother in law (which went on their own to watch it) loved it.

A little background here: I lived in Guadalajara (central Mexico, Mexico's second city) for eight and a half years; I attended college there and stayed working as a college teacher for almost five years. When studying I had to attend a couple of courses unrelated to Engineering (I have a BSEE) and one of them was "Cinema appreciation" (in 1987) and several years later (1993) I found myself alone in the city and to fill my Saturday mornings decided to attend an "advance" course of the same (I learned to appreciate my time on Saturday mornings more and to love Peter Greenaway movies!!). So, every time I go to the movies I could use the critical eye I "developed" during those lessons or (as usually happens) just sit down and drop my expectations to the point where if I do not get sleepy with the movie then it's considered to be OK. I had almost left a movie once in my life ("Salo, 100 days of Sodoma and Gomorra" by Pier Paolo Pasolini, not for the faint of heart) and actually left a theater twice (one with some friends in Guadalajara, when they became offended by the homosexual theme of "My own private Idaho" and one in TJ with my wife when they call her from her work because of an emergency). Then my opinion of a movie could be very optimistic.

"Iron man" got me entertained for the duration. Then gets the "it's OK" treatment. But, I would have to complain (and if you have not seen it read lightly because I might spoil it for you) that if you see the trailer you almost saw the movie. Because you "know" what will happen (if you are a comics' follower) and therefore there are not much surprises.

Now applying the critical eye: Robert Downey Jr. gives a very good performance; you can not say the same of Gwyneth Paltrow or Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges is so-so (he is a believable villain). But I think that, considering the small amount of effects the movie has, acting should have been more important. There is no "click" between Paltrow and Downey Jr.; and the friendhip between Howard and Downey Jr. is close to nothing. The script is just enough, the music gave me nothing (I saw "August Rush" a month ago and I got to know Kaki King from there!) and the camera work was adecuate.

The one thing I liked was to have all these actors in the movie. With Edward Norton as Hulk (coming soon!!) and the teaser scene at the end of the "Iron man" you can expect at least some buzz regarding comic-to-film transformations. Let's hope is going to be more than OK.

See you around.