Literature report

It was a morning chock full of driving idiots. Traffic backed up through intersections, horn honking galore and the soothing stomped cardboard box sound of smacking bumpers. Yep, some lady drove straight into the back of the car ahead of her, 'cause watching where you are going is apparently for losers. Days like this make Calgary Transit seem positively idyllic.

After comments from Wayne, I went out and bought myself a copy of the collected "Wanted" and finished it this morning over breakfast. It was a strange experience, in that the universe is so completely different between the graphic novel and the movie, but some of the scenes are almost identical. Of course, if they'd made the novel verbatim into the movie, they would have skipped NC-17 and headed straight for XXX. I kinda felt that the last line in the movie was a bit soft, but there's no way they could have gone for the original last line!

Overall, I have to say I liked them both. In a sense, they are so different, that unless you had your heart set on a straight adaptation, I think even a fan of the graphic novel would like the movie. There's no radioactive condom, but hey, you can't have everything!

The Mummy 3

I knew when I was typing up my weekend post that I was forgetting something! I'd actually tried to block in from my memory and I was pretty successful for a while, but it's come back. In all good conscious, I must share at least a bit to potentially save you.

On Saturday, Stuart and I beat the heat by hitting the theaters for another flick that's been on our "to see" list: The Mummy 3. We all know that sequels aren't famous for their quality, but I actually didn't mind the second Mummy movie, so I had hopes. Boy, were they resoundingly squashed. The Mummy 3 was awful.

The acting was appalling. I like Brendon Fraser, I think he can do serious material and he excels at comedy, but the whole movie seemed like it had been pieced together from film taken of the blocking rehearsals. There was no life, no spark, none of the actors seemed the least interested in being there! I blame it on whoever that was they had playing Evey, she was awful - where the hell was Rachel Weiss?

Then you take Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li, two exceptionally good actors who've built reputations on kicking ass with style and put them in a movie with the lamest fight choreography that I've seen in ages. I hope they got paid very well for participating in that travesty.

And then there were the special effects. Let me step back to the Mummy 2 and those amazing little head hunting guys in the forest. I loved them; the care and detail put into their movements and facial expressions was outstanding. In the Mummy 3, we have people turning into terracotta, yetis, a three headed dragon and an army of zombies and all of it was so obviously special effects. I'm not educated enough to put my finger on why, but none of them meshed particularly well with the rest of the action. I was happy that the yetis had expressive, more human style faces (as opposed to dog/bear muzzles) but they sure didn't make the most of them.

What a freakin' mess.

WANTED

I spent most of today cleaning. We've been away so many weekends, it was starting to feel like we were only at home to pull the clothes out of the bags, clean them and pack them back in the bags. As a result, the apartment was starting to look like the aftermath of an explosion. So while Stuart went out for his run, I did laundry, dishes, cleaned the bathroom, dusted, etc. When he got back, Stuart cleaned up and put away the camping gear and vacuumed. We still have way too much stuff packed in here to ever look neat, but at least I can see a bit more of the floor and I'm not so worried about contracting tetanus from touching something.

It's pretty hot here today (29 or 30 C), so we decided to treat ourselves. We took the recycling to the depot, cleaned the bugs off the car and headed off to see Wanted. This has been on our "to see" list for a while, but, hey - who's had time?

I should start by saying that I loved, adored and was put in a state of giddiness by "Nightwatch". This was pretty much the same. If you're willing to let go of some selective laws of physics and roll with the general "movie time" compression of training, then this movie rocks! Telling off the fat bitch was nice, but the ergonomic keyboard was golden. And I could watch Angelina Jolie scoop him up into the Viper (?) over and over and over. I don't know what the rest of the audience thought, but Stuart and I were laughing, clapping our hands and exclaming over scenes through the whole thing. We were pretty rambunctious on the drive home and I'm still vibrating.

I don't know why it seemed to perfect, but coming up on the apartment, we were behind a convertible GT with the licence plate: SHROCKS. All I could think is "that's too bad, I hope it's not terminal." If you don't think that's funny - try watching Wanted and then read it again.

Crewing Payment

I no longer seem able to sleep in, which is sad - both in itself and because I'm still not sleeping great. However, hopefully that will improve. I expect the homeopathic remedies to take a couple of days to kick in, but in the meantime, my voice is starting to crack and squeak and occassionally fade out. I feel like a teenage boy.

Stu and I have spent a lovely, restful day, managing to accomplish almost nothing useful. I did pick up some fabric today (to make teddy bears for Kay and Dave's new daughter! and Shilpa's about to be born little one) but it's still in the bag in the car. We met Mike at the theater to see Hellboy II: The Golden Army. It was great fun, although the plot was sadly predictable. Most of them are these days, but since it's Guillermo del Toro (sp?) and the visuals are fantastic, I'll forgive it. As extra excitement, the projector died about 15 minutes in and we had a concession stand break - personally, I think that the 15 minutes of ads and previews had worn it out.

Then Mike headed home and Stuart and I went to try yet another sushi place. I think we have a contender for my favorite sushi restaurant in Calgary. Most of them have been disappointing/average, but this place had yummy, fresh sushi and tasty agedashi. Not quite up to Sankyu standards, but definitely acceptable. All of this was my payment for spending last weekend putting up with Stuart's taper nuttiness, runner's brain and mid-run grouchies. I'd say it was worth it! :)