Date Night

Saw Date Night (約會喔麥尬) last night. Note: Chinese name translated back into English is "Date Oh My God!"

The most interesting part was that the ending surprised me. Not because there was a big plot twist or anything, but because it was kind of abrupt. Which was good because the story was beginning to surpass my tolerance for stupidity (as illustrated in the graph below).

















I guess I've become accustomed to watching overly long, drawn out stories in movies. Is this a recent trend? Do people feel like they're not getting their moneys worth if the film ends too early? Most new movies end with me only having one feeling at the end. . . a feeling of relief. Relief that the crappy movie is over, quickly followed by disbelief. . . disbelief that I paid money to see this crap.

Anyways, Date Night was not one of those movies. Overall a pretty decent movie I guess. I LOL'ed a few times. Yes, it's not very original and the story gets stupid sometimes but as long as you don't think too much, it's pretty enjoyable.

3 out of 5 stars.

Dances With Wolves. . . IN SPACE!

Saw Avatar in IMAX 3D over the weekend. Very cool experience. It had better be, I spent NT 400 ($13 USD) for the ticket. For a country where the average salary is half that of the US, that's something like the equivalent of $26 USD for a movie ticket. In Taipei, almost everything is dirt cheap but there are a few exceptions that immediately come to mind. . . movies tickets, mixed drinks, and mexican food. Don't ask my why, I have no idea. . . although I blame the Mexican food one directly on Taco Bell. There is not a single Taco Bell in all of Taiwan. Damn you Taco Bell! Why have you forsaken us? Taiwan is a real country, with real beef burrito needs!

I wanted to write a review about Avatar, but I'm too lazy for a real write up. . . so here it is in a recipe format.

Avatar:

• 5 cups of Dances with Wolves
• 3 tablespoons of The Matrix
• A pinch of Return of the Jedi

CGI the crap out of the ingredients, and serve piping hot in IMAX 3D. . . and you have a pretty good movie.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Pizza and Movies

This past Saturday, I went to friend's place for a pizza and movie night.

Side note: Pizza is not cheap in Taiwan! We got two large pizzas and two buckets of chicken. Ended up being $1500NT which is almost $50 USD. The large pizzas here are more like medium size in the US. We had four guys and a girl and we finished it pretty easily.

Side side note: It's weird, everyone sells fried chicken here. McDonald's has fried chicken, Pizza Hut and Dominoes also has fried chicken. I think KFC sells chicken also!

So we had to choose between the action movie War and that romance movie with Catherine Zeta Jones where she's a chef and she cooks stuff and ends up falling in love with some guy.

Like I said earlier, we had four guys and one girl so it's pretty obvious which movie we ended up choosing.

Oh what a horrible mistake that was. . .

The movie was a complete mess, all I remember was guns shooting and punches being thrown, explosions. . . then some naked chick (which my astute friend immediately noticed had one breast slightly larger than the other). . . then some slow parts involving gold horse statues, and then Jet Li killing Chinese gangsters, then that weird looking girl (devon aoki) ordering a chef salad from Japanese gangsters (I'm not making this up!) , then Jet Li on motorcycle killing both chinese and japanese gangsters, and then freakin' NINJAS!!!! And then Jet Li using the ninja's own sword to cut the ninja's head off. . . and more fighting, sushi restaurant, explosions with Ferraris and Spykers in the background. and then Jet Li fights the guy from the Transporter movie, but nobody dies. And then a scene where Devon Aoki opens a box with some old guy's severed head in it. THE END.

I'm sure I've seen movies worse than this but I can't think of any right now.

I voted to watch the Catherine Zeta Jones flick. Stupid friends didn't listen to me. See what happens when people don't listen to me? You get a movie where Devon Aoki randomly orders chef salads and opens boxes with severed heads in it.

5 day weekend almost over

5 day weekend almost over. :( I didn't really do much except sleep a lot and watch a movie and protest against the president.

On Friday I saw World Trade Center: The Movie. It was basically two guys stuck in a hole, talking to each other. For a movie about two guys stuck in a hole, it's really very good. . . but I prefer movies where the scenery changes more often.

I just came back from the "protesting", I'm not really against the president. . . I just didn't want to do my assignments for class and it was a nice day outside.

Here's a picture and blurb from the Associated Press:

Thousands of anti-corruption protesters shouting slogans march outside the Presidential Office on Taiwan's National Day, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2006, in Taipei, Taiwan. Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian spoke Tuesday, as tens of thousands of red-clad protesters gathered in the broad boulevard outside the Presidential Office building, demanding that he step down over a series of alleged corruption scandals.(AP Photo)

The atmosphere is more like a carnival than a protest. Everyone is all smiling and taking pictures of each other wearing all red and with their thumbs down. Some people bring their kids all dressed in red. . . i saw a few babies in red also. Even dogs were dressed in red. I guess even the dogs hate Chen Shui-bian.