Last night we went to the premiere of latest Pirates of the Caribbean move at the AMC Downtown Disney (in the big theater, on the big screen).
Part 3 of the series is more enjoyable than the second and the story is easier to follow (though a bit predicable). This version is definitely for fans with tons of cheesy one liners and references and even a few nonsensical ride references. This episode starts out very dark and the pace is pretty slow in the beginning which doesn’t help because it’s a long movie.

The return of the stereotypical pirate, Barbosa (Geoffry Rush) is great to have as he’s very enjoyable to watch. Unfortunately the calamari, Davey Jones returns in this one though not as prominently featured. Johnny Depp is his normal amusing self in the movie. Keira Knightly who appears very boyish in this episode is still boring to watch her act so dramatically as well as Orlando Bloom. Probably the most uncomfortable part/character of the movie is when you finally see Jack’s Father, Captain Teague (Keith Richards) interact with his son Jack. Richards is just an odd fellow and I don’t think they needed to dressed him up or applied makeup, he’s really creepy enough normally.

The special effects were super awesome. I don’t know, there is just something about water and decaying pirate ships. The latter part of the movie contains plenty of action leading up to the big battle. The sound was fine with cannon explosions and the occasional stuff happening in the surround back channels. Giving you a sea-worthy presence.

Overall, despite the movie being super full of itself and often too crowd pleasing it’s an enjoyable film and much better than the cliff-hanger episode 2. Pirates of the Caribbean: At the Worlds End still lacks the overall cool feeling and repeat watch ability that Curse of the Black Pearl has though it’s still worth seeing on a big screen.

2 Hours (minus commercial skipping) of a super-great episode, can’t wait to watch it again. One of the better season finales I’ve ever seen. It’s going to be hard to wait 8 months for the next season. Oh and I still like John Locke.
Yo Ho, Yo Ho off to see Pirates tonight, how exciting!

Hopefully by now you’ve watched it so I can say: thank goodness no more DriveShaft! If I had to hear “You All Everybody” one more time I would’ve gone crazy!

left;” hspace=”8”>Yesterday Lori and I were coming home from dinner. We approached the intersection of Los Coyotes and Woodruff it was there at a bus stop I noticed a person sitting at the bench in a full (head to toe) shiny new Scooby Doo costume. My brain was trying to process why he or she was sitting there like that. I pointed it out to Lori who also tried to figure out what was going on.
It was then as we entered the intersection I noticed a blue Volkswagen Bus (of the good late 60’s style) and a Teenage (17 - 18) guy with saggy pants standing in front of Scooby. He then dropped his pants directed towards Scooby and began to spank his butt and walk away. It was at this point I began to laugh very hard and almost drive into oncoming traffic.
Scooby’s only response/defense was to raise his paw and extend out one of his pads to make the No No No gesture. This was a very strange and funny event I continued to watch in my rear view mirror as we drove away. It looked like teen jumped into bus and took off. I imagine this left Scooby in a saddened state.

Doesn’t get any funnier than this: http://www.battleofthegods.tv/ watch the character interviews… priceless… larp away my friends!

Woo Hoo!

If you know me, you know I hate Home Depot and what they stand for. Shop at Lowes friendly people nicer environment.

This was kind of funny, but maybe you have to hear it out loud or have been there for it to be funny

Yesterday we ate lunch at the Seal Beach Pickup Stix. They have great fast food Chinese but the service at this location leaves something to be desired. The cooking crew although they are surrounded by a weeping wall of water don’t do the quickest job but I can live with that. What troubles me the most is the cashier lady who I swear is cracked out on something. She puts tons of pressure on you to order fast and confuses the heck out of you by talking a lot and to others while you’re ordering.

Paul ordered a lunch special which gives you a few options to choose from. It’s not super clear on the menu or the photo in front of the register what the options are to choose from but he asked what he could get. The answer was look at this photo in front of the register. He proceeded to order as she suggested the house chicken next she answered next question for him about type of rice. You see she has this amazing ability to answer questions you’ll ask two or three questions down the line, it’s part of her super crack abilities.

Finally it came down to the choice of Eggroll, Dumpling, or WonTon. Paul naturally asked, which one has the meat in it. Her reply?

“Pork” then a 4 second pause (which must’ve felt like 10 minutes in her sped up reality) and then she said WonTon. By this point I’m both scared and laughing inside so hard.

My ordering was much easier since I knew the questions and answers for her, still she manages to mangle up something. After about 5 or 6 minutes and Richard now eating his cardboard Z Pizza she comes out with our tray of food but stops at the table next to us and talks to the guy for about 2 minutes holding our food. Finally she delivers our food and we begin to eat.

During our meal she runs the trash to the trash bin and on her way back, stops next to us and undoes her hair like she’s in a shampoo commercial it was like she was performing for us in slow motion.

So if you’re in Seal Beach and you like Chinese fast food for the love of god stop at this Pickup Stix and let Cracky-mc-crazy take your order and answer your questions that may be 2 or 3 questions in the future…

If you watched Lost you know… how could they take my favorite character!

BOOOO!

I’ll still watch though, but I’ll protest!!

Went to the midnight showing of Spiderman 3. We had dinner at TGI Friday’s then made our way over to the theater where we found out our midnight showing had already allowed entrance and seating. So we went in, 1.5 hours early to save a group of seats, crazy. Here are my thoughts on the movie.
This one was filled with villains and I must say it was cool seeing Venom brought to life. They did a great job with his sarcastic dialog and it was cool seeing his animated mouth (and yes you do get to see the fangs). Topher Grace does a fine job as Venom and his sarcasm worked well though I didn’t prefer his voice as the venom character. The transitions from Venom back to Brock were cool where they reveal his face a bit. Emo Peter Parker was absolutely hilarious! Thomas Haden Church played the Sandman/Flint well, though I’m sure any actor could’ve played that character there really wasn’t much to communicate it was more about his look. The story was so so and the pace was strange with events either advancing too quick or too slowly or just repetitive from earlier films.

The effects were decent though some of the stuff looked rushed and too CGI/cartoony looking. The picture quality was good and the screen was clean so that’s a huge plus. The sound is hard to judge in this one. The first 15 - 20 minutes of the movie we had no surround and it took me 3 attempts to inform the crew about this to finally get the manager in there who stood at the back wall and said it ‘sounds fine to me’. I explained to him that it sounded like the Front Left, Right and Center were only on as the surrounds are dead and the explosions are very weak. He walked the theater and then 5 minutes later magically we had surrounds and a bit more boom in the room. Sound quality has been my biggest gripe with the Edwards 26 in the Towne Center. The last 3 films I’ve seen there have had problems and informing the manager did little to help each time.
Overall I had a fun evening with a fun group of folks and the movie was entertaining. Oh And there were two artards dressed like spiderman and venom! I’m looking forward to the next big film to be released, bring on the summer movies!

Ever wonder what it’s like to watch LIVE CHEESE AGING?

Pretty awesome eh?