My Empty Cave Weekend
I hope everyone had a pleasant Empty Cave Day. I wish people celebrated it by going to caves and making sure they're empty. I think that'd be fun. (Although the "Zombie Jesus" idea has merit, as well.)
Originally, I expected pirate_rah85 to turn up for the weekend. She didn't turn up Thursday night, so I watched Highlander season 3. I finished it off Friday, I think. By Friday evening, I was getting the suspicion she wasn't coming at all, which she confirmed. So, I spent my Friday night being productive: laundry, sweeping, making dinner, making rice krispy treats, showering, working out... I felt like I'd managed to salvage a good night alone from my fallen plans.
As a result, I made Saturday plans with a new lj-less person. The new LJ-less person and I met at the Cleveland Circle Chipotle. Afterward, we were just going to drop leftovers at her place then go to the MIT Museum. As it happened, we didn't made it back out, and she had a 17:30 appointment.
Having now done it for, I believe, the first time in my life, I should note that making out with someone who strays into a double-digit-in-pounds weight is... very different. Not just in whether they're easy to move and such, but mostly in a tactile sense. The human body really does feel different, and respond different, when there's almost no fat content to it.
After taking my leave, I headed up the street to Circle Cinemas, and saw that Vantage Point was playing. I'd heard semi-interesting things about it (mostly that it dealt with multiple points of view and had some Rashomon elements), and one had just started a few minutes before (so I figured I was right on time to miss previews), so I went in.
Overall, I found Vantage Point a disappointing movie. The front half seemed to really enjoy the idea of viewing an assassination from multiple points of view... but it ended up feeling like a gimmick just to heighten tension, as each person's view would stop at a cliffhanger moment. Plus, it wasn't Rashomon like at all... each person's view was absolutely consistent with the others. (I've discovered, so far, that every movie compared to Rashomon has pretty much had multiple points of view that *don't* disagree, which I think makes the comparison silly).
The back half of the movie just sort of threw away the idea of multiple points of view because, from what I can tell, it wanted to be a straight action flick, and couldn't make that work from multiple perspectives. This also led the feel of the back half being completely different from the feel of the front half.
(A nitpick I have is that the lead into the back half of the movie was the same as the lead in to each perspective-piece before it, so you get the impression that you're entering another single-perspective section. And it starts out appearing that it's going to do that, but ends up doing nothing like that, which leads to a moment of confusion... "wait, wasn't I supposed to be seeing this event from the perspective of that lady over there?")
Overall, it felt like one of those situations where someone either had a fun gimmick, or a fun action movie, and someone else added in the second element think it'd be cool, and it just didn't work.
Metacritic hands it a 40/100... that seems fair. Still, it was almost enjoyable as a one-time matinee.
Sunday, I started in earnest on Battlestar Galactica's third season. (I'd done a few episodes Friday and Saturday.) Around 18:00, I called the local Acapulco's, figuring they'd be closing early on Easter. But the waiter said they were closing at 22:00, their normal time. So, around 20:00, I walked to the restaurant for dinner, only to learn that, no, the waiter was wrong, and they were already closed when I got there. This put a damper on my night, but I went home and ate my last two turkey burgers (I suppose it's time to grocery shop) and rice krispy treats for dinner, instead.
Originally, I expected pirate_rah85 to turn up for the weekend. She didn't turn up Thursday night, so I watched Highlander season 3. I finished it off Friday, I think. By Friday evening, I was getting the suspicion she wasn't coming at all, which she confirmed. So, I spent my Friday night being productive: laundry, sweeping, making dinner, making rice krispy treats, showering, working out... I felt like I'd managed to salvage a good night alone from my fallen plans.
As a result, I made Saturday plans with a new lj-less person. The new LJ-less person and I met at the Cleveland Circle Chipotle. Afterward, we were just going to drop leftovers at her place then go to the MIT Museum. As it happened, we didn't made it back out, and she had a 17:30 appointment.
Having now done it for, I believe, the first time in my life, I should note that making out with someone who strays into a double-digit-in-pounds weight is... very different. Not just in whether they're easy to move and such, but mostly in a tactile sense. The human body really does feel different, and respond different, when there's almost no fat content to it.
After taking my leave, I headed up the street to Circle Cinemas, and saw that Vantage Point was playing. I'd heard semi-interesting things about it (mostly that it dealt with multiple points of view and had some Rashomon elements), and one had just started a few minutes before (so I figured I was right on time to miss previews), so I went in.
Overall, I found Vantage Point a disappointing movie. The front half seemed to really enjoy the idea of viewing an assassination from multiple points of view... but it ended up feeling like a gimmick just to heighten tension, as each person's view would stop at a cliffhanger moment. Plus, it wasn't Rashomon like at all... each person's view was absolutely consistent with the others. (I've discovered, so far, that every movie compared to Rashomon has pretty much had multiple points of view that *don't* disagree, which I think makes the comparison silly).
The back half of the movie just sort of threw away the idea of multiple points of view because, from what I can tell, it wanted to be a straight action flick, and couldn't make that work from multiple perspectives. This also led the feel of the back half being completely different from the feel of the front half.
(A nitpick I have is that the lead into the back half of the movie was the same as the lead in to each perspective-piece before it, so you get the impression that you're entering another single-perspective section. And it starts out appearing that it's going to do that, but ends up doing nothing like that, which leads to a moment of confusion... "wait, wasn't I supposed to be seeing this event from the perspective of that lady over there?")
Overall, it felt like one of those situations where someone either had a fun gimmick, or a fun action movie, and someone else added in the second element think it'd be cool, and it just didn't work.
Metacritic hands it a 40/100... that seems fair. Still, it was almost enjoyable as a one-time matinee.
Sunday, I started in earnest on Battlestar Galactica's third season. (I'd done a few episodes Friday and Saturday.) Around 18:00, I called the local Acapulco's, figuring they'd be closing early on Easter. But the waiter said they were closing at 22:00, their normal time. So, around 20:00, I walked to the restaurant for dinner, only to learn that, no, the waiter was wrong, and they were already closed when I got there. This put a damper on my night, but I went home and ate my last two turkey burgers (I suppose it's time to grocery shop) and rice krispy treats for dinner, instead.