Movies

Jason and I watched “Hot Rod” over the weekend. It wasn’t very funny or very good. BUT, there was one scene that had me clutching my stomach with laughter, and I made Jason replay the scene a few times. Thanks to YouTube, you don’t have to rent the DVD and search to find it.

Cool Beans

I spent last weekend in San Diego, yes, as I usually do. On Friday night, Jason took me to the Chicken Pie Diner. I didn’t get a chicken pie, but I had a philly cheese steak, a side of mac ‘n cheese, and a root beer float. All right - I admit I didn’t enjoy the cheese steak much. Does it make sense to say they used cheese of a bit too-high quality? I think Philly cheese steaks are best with the cheese melted into a liquid, gooey consistency, which is best achieved with something cheap like Cheez Whiz (no idea how to spell that). I also thought there was too much bread. Anyway, I loved the mac’n cheese and I tasted some of Jason’s chicken pie, which was delicious. The root beer float came with an additional glass of root beer to add once there was enough room in the mug - a stroke of genius. I’d never had that before, and it made so much sense! At Cafe 50’s the other night, I had sloshed out about half of the root beer trying to squash the ice cream into the mug.

That night, Jason introduced me to the Wii. The technology was great: it’s wireless, and the graphics remind me a little of the Nintendo that I used to know, with the cuter, more bubbly graphics. But I confess that I am simply not into video games. I tried most of the games once, and I did have a lot of fun with the baseball one, but I was pretty much done after the initial trial. We played Excite Truck, and let me tell you: if we are ever in a high-speed car chase, if you value your life, you will knock me out and take the wheel. The next night, Kevan brought over a game called Rayman, and we all had a LOT of fun with that one, but I think it was more the company that I enjoyed than the game itself. Or basically, the way the company interacted with the game. I don’t think I would have liked playing the game by myself.

December Nights. I raved about it in the previous post, and it did not disappoint this year. Swedish meatballs with really good grape tomatoes (I usually hate raw tomatoes), empanadas from the House of Colombia (soooo good), paella from House of Spain (Johann said it wasn’t as good as Barcelona’s, but that it was still pretty damn good), and BAKLAVA TO DIE FOR from House of Turkey. They had two kinds: pistacchio and walnut. Both were amazing. I have never had baklava that good in my LIFE. Well, I had it last year, from the same stand.

Sorry for the lack of pics from December Nights, but I completely forgot to pull out the camera. Except for when we were drinking in the International House of Spirits. And yes, I know it looks like I’m sitting, but I’m actually standing as tall as I can. Jason is that much taller than me, and I was standing in some sort of depression in the grass as well.

I missed most of the game, because I was visiting a great aunt who had flown in from Utah to Chula Vista, but Cal came out on top over Stanford (hell yeah!) in the Big Game. I was very impressed and pleased to hear that UCLA beat USC. Which makes our loss to Arizona that much harder to bear. Oh well…

We saw “Casino Royale” on Sunday, and OHMYFUCKINGGODITWASGOOD. I can say that it is the best Bond film I have ever seen. I can’t say that Daniel Craig makes a better Bond than Sean Connery, because man, Sean Connery is the original 007, but what a close 2nd he is. Made Pierce Brosnan look like a joke.

Jason has a bunch of On Demand channels, and we caught “Dumb and Dumber.” It is one of my favorite movies, possibly in the top 10. I say possibly, because I think I’ve been calling a lot of movies my Top 10, and I have no idea if they all fit within 10. That movie is one of the rare gems that really captures Jim Carrey’s talent, not just his comedic, but his dramatic. That scene in the beginning where he turns from Petey the Parrot to say to Lloyd: “You know what I’m sick of? I’m sick of living in this apartment…” I can’t remember what he says, but man, the expression on his face and the desperation in his voice brought a tear to my eye. I was not at all surprised when he shone in “The Truman Show” and “Man on the Moon.” “The Truman Show” is another one of my so-called Top 10.

Dale and Johann recommended a place in Rancho Bernardo to get decent Japanese food, and I forgot the name already, but I believe it was something akin to V Food. We were so hungry that we ordered a meal for 4, and we almost finished it all. The food was tasty (loved the salad best) and very easy on the wallet.

So that was my weekend: food, the Wii, and movies. Now I’ve got to find a bunch of white elephant gifts for some upcoming Christmas parties.

Okay, okay, this is not going to be easy, but I must apologize to Jason, Kevan, and Rachel: after a lot of thinking, I decided that I take back what I said about Deep Blue Sea being ten times better than Jaws. My argument at the time was that DBS was more entertaining and delivered on the body count the poster implied. Jaws was all suspense, very little action. Looking back, Jaws had a lot more style in terms of directing (surprise, surprise: Steven Spielberg is a talented director). This movie was released in 1975, and no one knew what the hell “CG” stood for back then. I don’t even know if it existed back then. We were all blown away by the wonders of animatronics in those days (I wasn’t alive yet, but you know). Taking into account what little Spielberg had to work with in terms of making a shark movie with special effects, it made sense that he would focus on screwing with your expectations and keep pulling the: “Ah ha, thought he’d show up, dintcha? Well, he’s not there – oh wait! Look at those buoys move across the water! He must be HUGE!” And who could forget that music, those shots of the still-moving water…Roy Scheider’s furrowed brow… Jaws became a legend. He did get your adrenaline going, and you were always on edge.

But look: Renny Harlin REVOLUTIONIZED “monster movies.” First of all, who the hell expected Samuel L. Jackson to get hit in that scene? I’ve seen the movie an unbelievable number of times (I love Deep Blue Sea) and I still jump whenever it happens. I swear that Ju Yon shot about 6 inches into the air when we saw the movie at the theater. Her butt actually left the seat. Most importantly, Harlin made sure to show the sharks… a lot. It is really satisfying to watch a monster movie and see the monster appear more than 3 times. I watch monster movies solely to watch the monster attacks, and I hate it when the attack consists of blurred footage of water splashing and occasional shots of the victim’s horrified facial expression. With Deep Blue Sea, not only were you on edge, you’d actually have a reason to shriek and claw the sofa. You need to release that tension that’s built up through expectation. Come on, when the camera focuses on a door, you want something to come crashing through it at some point in the near future. Or if the camera is focused on the back of a guy’s head, you want to see him turn around, scream, and then you want to see whatever it is he’s seen.

Anyway, my point is: you can’t compare the two movies. I was judging Jaws using criteria that had nothing to do with the movie and nothing to do with what Spielberg was even trying to accomplish. So Jason, Kevan, and Rachel: I’m sorry, and I take it back. Most of it.