Katy's First Movie

Monday, the last day of 2007, I convinced my daughter that it would be OK for her to continue her vacation and hang out with me instead of going back to school for a day. Mom had some things to attend to, so I suggested to Katy that we go see a movie. She thought that sounded like a good idea so we went to the 12:00pm showing of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

This was a big deal because Katy had never been to the movies before. She has watched her TV shows and movies on DVD at home, but we didn't think she'd be able to sit still long enough to watch a whole movie. She surprised me.

When we arrived, the previews had already started, so I carried her to a good spot and helped her with her coat. Then, I let her sit in my lap. She was enthralled by even the previews, so I suspected that this was going to be a fun experience.

She wanted to sit on her own chair for awhile and was very cute in the over-sized chair. She sat there and snacked on her Froot Loops and Christmas sugar cookie and enjoyed being able to put her juice in a cup holder. When she was done eating, she wanted to sit on my lap again.

The movie was OK, but it was a great experience because of Katy. She was clearly so happy to be there; at several points I could tell she was happier beyond words because she would suddenly turn to me and give me a big hug and a kiss without saying anything.

Something funny was that she had made a picture before we went to the movies, folded it and asked me to put it in my pocket. When the movie was done, she asked for the picture and just wanted to hold it in the theater.

I carried her to the car and was asking her if she liked it. She didn't want to leave and wanted to go again. In the car while we were leaving, I asked her what her favorite part of the movie was, and she said that it was going to the movies with Daddy. I had first mentioned that my favorite part was going to the movies with Katy, but it still is a very sweet thing for her to say, and she did seem truly sincere.

We wanted to go see Enchanted the next day on the first of the year, but the timing didn't work out, so we waited until the weekend. We went to the one and only showing of "Enchanted" at11:10am on Saturday. Although Katy disagrees, I think it was a better movie than the Chipmunks, and it was fun to have Kendra get to see how excited and happy Katy was about seeing a movie. We popped some popcorn for Katy (since her allergies wouldn't allow for us to purchase any for her) and brought some more Froot Loops and juice. I brought coffee for me.

I think I am ready to make going to the movies a weekly occurrence. Kalamazoo 10 only charges $4 per ticket for a matinée or $6.50 per adult for a night showing, so it is cheap compared to other places.

Movie Explosion

I like movies. Lately, I have not watched many. This is due to a number of reasons, mostly cost and time. Although, cost is not the primary factor in this equation; I have had several movies on DVD for years without watching them at no cost at all. So, time seems to be the biggest factor. With Katy around, our movie choices are limited; after she goes to bed our time is short enough to make any disagreement about which movie is to be watched a show stopper. There are circumstances that lend themselves to the viewing of movies, however.

This previous Saturday was my pal Ryan's bachelor party. I had some things set for sure (like Whirlyball), but I wanted to leave a number of our events open since Ryan was to be driving in from out of state. One of the things I was considering was for all of us to go see the new "X-Men III" movie. I have "X-men II" on DVD, and had it for years, but had never seen it. Since I didn't want to see them out of order, I watched it on Thursday night (I liked it). Well, plans changed and Ryan didn't get into town until later on Saturday, so that nixed the movie idea. But, seeing "X-Men II" put me into a superhero-movie-viewing mode; after we all finished playing Texas Hold'em at Davey's, Davey and I stayed up and watched "Spiderman II" (which I also liked).

On Sunday, we after lunch, David, Dad, Jenny and I went to see "X-men III" (which I enjoyed, but have mixed feelings about). So, I drastically increased the number of movies I have seen this year in one weekend.

Kendra and I intended to watch some shows or movies on DVD tonight, but found that we were maybe a little too busy to do it. Maybe this weekend? I always forget how much I enjoy watching movies and how they give me a little feel-good lift-me-up.

Spider-Man

Grade: A

Movie Time: 8:00pm on Thursday, May 16, 2002

Location: AMC Forum 30

Viewed with: David and Jennifer Stampor

There have been a multitude of superhero movies; some are good, some are bad. With a majority of them, the story differs in varying degrees from the original comic. Often this can ruin part of the enjoyment of seeing a favorite hero on the screen. I can happily state that this was not the case with Spider-Man. Although some things have changed, I consider them to be improvements on the original and really aren't essential details of the story.

This was a good superhero action movie. The special effects were decent, even though there were a couple of scenes that did not look quite right (i.e. the inital rooftop scenes.) The story flowed and kept up with the times (i.e. Spider-Man's origin) while still remaining true to the original comic's tale.

Another positive was the darker, more mature theme of the movie, "with great power comes great responsibility." Instead of ruining the movie by making it showy and stupid for kids (like a few certain movies involving a caped crusader,) it focused on the dilemas that a person with such powers would likely face. Additionally, everything doesn't fall into place like one would expect of a sappy movie.

My Review: Grade A :Go see it in the theatre; definately worth the time.

Kendra and I watched Scary Movie 2 tonight. It was one of the worst movies we have seen in a long time. We were both really disappointed, since we like the original.

And, that was about the most exciting part of the evening. At least Ryan got ice cream and beer.
:(

Kung Pow: Enter the Fist was hilarious! The previews made it look like it could go either way, but rest of the theater and I were dying. I highly recommend it. The way they did stuff made me think of the old Woody Allen movie, "What's up, Tigerlily?"

Not enough time to work on any new stuff tonight. I should have time this weekend to fool around with my site.

What the...?

I went to see the new Planet of the Apes movie this past weekend. The "surprise" ending was a little confusing, to say the least. Some would argue that it makes no sense. I would agree. However, I have put some thought into this and have concocted a theory about how the ending could come to be.

SPOILER ALERT
Don't keep reading unless you've seen the movie, or else the totally bizarre and very weird ending will be ruined for you. You've been warned.

Just to recap the ending, Marky-Marc travels back to present day earth, only to discover that there are a bunch of monkeys (er...apes) running Washington (I will allow you to make your own politician joke here. That was very clever; you are a freakin' genius. I am sure no one else thought of something that brilliant. Keep up the good work.) The Lincoln Memorial is actually a temple devoted to the memory of General Thade and how he saved the planet. Police monkeys draw their guns and the movie ends with Marky-Marc bustin' a move...err...or something. Actually, he just raises his hands and the movie is done.

"But wait," everyone in the entire audience says at once, "how would the past be affected by monkeys(err...apes) from the future?" If you haven't yet seen the movie, the strange, borg-like collective speech from the audience after the movie finishes alone makes it worth while. So we are all left scratching our heads like monkeys.

One thought is based on the rumor that the movie had several endings filmed with the hope that the real ending wouldn't be leaked. Perhaps the wrong ending was placed at the end?

Director: *whew* That was a job well done. I am glad we are finally finished. I am glad that we filmed the real ending first and spliced it before we did the rest of these extremely silly endings. These were a nice, fun way to relax, huh?
Director's Lackey:Uh...you mean the second ending, right?
D: What?! How could you have possibly confused the real ending with any of the strange fake endings?!
DL: Well, you are Tim Burton after all; all of the endings were pretty strange.

Or, maybe they were nearing the completion of the film, decided that they really didn't like the current ending and just wanted to put monkeys on earth, without regard for rhyme or reason.

Studio Executive:(after watching original ending) You know what? I think a better ending would be if Marky-Marc lands on earth and is surrounded by monkeys in modern day Washington D.C! What do you think? Am I brilliant or what?
Tim Burton:Uh...all of the monkeys exist only in the distant future...it doesn't make any sense that they would somehow be on present day earth...it would confuse (and possibly anger) the audience.
SE:Exactly! I knew we were thinking along the same wave length.

Or, assuming that it really was no mistake (apparently, there is a rumor that everything will be explained in the sequel,) I have come up with a theory to explain what the hell happened.

Andy's Theory

When Marky-Marc leaves the Planet of the Apes, he leaves it at the beginning of what would seem to be a peaceful coexistence between man and ape. Living together, man and ape forge a new society with brilliant technological advances. But, man betrays ape, or ape betrays man, or man's advances intimidate the ape, or the advances are destroying the planet (like the ozone or nuclear power or some environmental crap like that.) At any rate, with only the Funky Bunch left to resist him, General Thade mercilessly destroys the remainder of human life on the planet. Then, over the course of the next thousand years (or more...or less...it doesn't matter) the apes develop space travel (or they pull out the pod that Marc crashed in and reverse engineer the technology, similar to what happened in Escape from the Planet of the Apes) and decide to explore outer space. So, they build the biggest, baddest space ship of all time and climb aboard. As they lift off, they encounter the bizarre space-time anomaly that started the whole thing and are sent back into the past, around 1960AD. They then fly to earth, conquer the measly humans, deface the Lincoln Memorial and change it into a temple to Thade. Thus, when our spaceman hero reaches earth, it has already been altered by monkeys from the future.

But, if Marky goes into the past first, wouldn't he be able to stop the monkeys from even existing simply by stopping the Oberon (the space station) from trying to follow him into the anomaly? No. The anomaly seems to be a LIFO stack, or Last In, First Out. In the movie, the monkey Percales enters the anomaly first, then Marky, then the Oberon. But, we find that the order they come out is the Oberon first, then Marky, then Percales. Thus, if the same order is followed, Marky leaves the Planet of the Apes and enters the anomaly first, but since the monkeys enter after him, they arrive further back in the past, allowing them to change history before he arrives.

There you have it. For some additional discussion, take a look at this post or additional conversations about the movie here.

I saw A.I. this weekend. It was a good movie, yet strange. I felt that it went on a little too long at the end and became a bit silly. Anyways, the special effects were done well enough that you didn't doubt that the robots were robots. You know, the best special effects are the ones you don't notice and don't think about.

And just to ruin it for anyone who doesn't know the secret of "Planet of the Apes": IT'S MADE OF PEOPLE!!!...oh, wait...nevermind...

Oh, and thank you all for your valuable input on the poll. Looking at the results leads me to believe that I should never have given the silly options. But, what can I expect from a group I refer to as the Silly Monkeys? Live and learn, I suppose. :)