We went to the drive in again last night. It's the last such theater in our area, one of the only ones in Northern California, and I'm glad we live close enough to it to make a last minute decision possible. So, off we went to see Toy Story 3 on a warm Saturday night in the middle of a three-day weekend. We found a cozy spot at the back, far enough behind the countless minivans to actually allow us in our average-height sedan to see all of the screen. We rolled down the windows and opened the sunroof, popped the top on a can of soda and settled in for the evening. Adam played in the backseat, watching some kids bounce a ball back and forth behind our car, until finally settling down on his blanket and sleeping, well, like a baby. Ahh, suburbia. Nice.
TOY STORY 3
I assume you know the fundamentals of Toy Story by now: Andy has a bunch of beloved toys, led by cowboy Woody and astronaut Buzz Lightyear, and these toys love Andy. Alas, the toys have had it rough these past few years, dwindling in numbers and cooped up in a toy chest as the boy grew to be a young man. Now Andy is headed off to college and the toys begin to look for new play outlets. They eventually end up at a daycare center, where the environment shifts from dreamy to worst nightmare real fast. And so they attempt a daring escape in order to return to Andy's, where they figure waiting in the attic is better than being destroyed.
I've glossed over a lot of details, but you get the idea. Like all other Pixar films, Toy Story 3 is charming, entertaining, has humor for kids and adults alike, and feels as nice as a warm fire on a cold day. The story is solid from beginning to end, and the ending is perfect. I've yet to meet anyone who has not gotten teary eyed (go ahead, try not to be moved). Heartily recommended to all ages.
THE A-TEAM
Whereas Toy Story 3 made me teary eyed over its sweetness and sensitivity and lovability, the second feature of our night made me want to cry for completely different reasons. I should begin by saying I was never a viewer of the tv show The A-Team. I knew its cast, I vaguely understood it was a bunch of renegade problem solvers, and I knew they rode around in a black van or a helicopter piloted by a crazy guy. But I never had a desire to watch the show when it aired in the 80s or ever since. This should have been enough to convince me to choose something else as the follow up to our drive in experience. But no, I was swayed by reviews and comments that the movie was "a lot of fun," a summer/buddy/action movie. I don't often object to such a combo, and "fun" sounded, well, fun to me. After the fact, David said he didn't know why I had chosen it. Oh well. I'm not sure I should review this movie (can you tell I'm not a fan?), but I'll try to be fair.
A foursome of Army Rangers realize their combined talent for fixing sticky situations, and become a strategically used military team. They get drawn into a search for missing money-printing plates in Iraq, which they end up losing in a mission that goes out of control. They are court martialed, dishonorably discharged, and imprisoned. In order to clear their names, they decide to find these plates. But first, they have to break out of prison, locate the person suspected of having taken the plates, and then get them to someone who has enough clout to remove the charges against them.
This sounds like a much better movie than the one I saw. In reality, the film moved jerkily from one wacky situation to the next, with actors pantomiming original characters (especially Liam Neeson as the leader) and spouting ridiculous snippets of dialogue. The cast has potential (though Quinton Jackson as Baracus can't hold a candle to Mr T in that role), the basic plot is more complex than it needed to be (an entire, very fun, movie could have been spent on bringing the team together, and there are some cute/funny moments (Sharlto Copley as Murdock is by far the most entertaining of the bunch, no the only entertaining character, but still very good). Alas, much of this movie felt like a wasted opportunity.
My final analysis: the script is atrocious, the shifts from one scene to the next are inexcusably poor, much of the plot and related dialogue is offensively dumb, and the pacing makes me think a 10-year old boy was in charge. Which is precisely who I think this movie is targeted at, so maybe the film-makers achieved their goal. I was disappointed and disgruntled halfway through the movie, and couldn't turn the car on fast enough when it ended. Need I say...I do not recommend this movie, unless, of course, you are an anti-communicative, girls-are-yucky, explosions-are-cool, 10-year old boy (at heart).
July 04, 2010
July 02, 2010
Home is where the heart is
Maybe you've lost track of how many times we move or put offers on houses and whatnot (for the record, we have shared 8 residences, and had more than twice that many in our lifetimes otherwise). Maybe you heard we were in negotiations for a house up in Belmont this past March, then last month we put an offer on a house going through a probate sale. We like where we live at present, but it has always been seen as a California-starter home for us, one we were so pleased to share with Verl, but which we're now ready to move on from. Over the years of pseudo-househunting, we've harborbed no illusions about finding our "dream house", but we do hold out hopes of at least finding something we would be happy to settle down in (buying an adorable house in Southeast Texas didn't count as settling down, since we knew it was short term).
So maybe you'll be interested to read that we seem to have finally been successful in buying a house we could live in for a long while. This morning we heard that our bid--on a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1840 square foot, turnkey house in Sunnyvale--was the winning and final one. Now we just need to go through the escrow period, finalize some fixes, and move in. Voila! Twenty years of being together and it looks like we're finally going to settle down.
David looks forward to being moved in, not moving again for a long time, and getting rid of a lot of our "crap". Those all sound good to me, but I also look forward to having a dedicated space for Adam to play in, a kitchen we can unpack all of our dishes and appliances into, and a space in which to once more allow easy access to our (greatly reduced) personal library. We'll live with the downsides--the freeway is on the other side of a creek behind the property, the laundry is in the garage, and the kitchen is fairly small and closed in). On the plus side, the family room and living room are large, rooms are well laid out, there is a 20'x20' enclosed patio room, baths and kitchen are all updated, and there's ample parking (parties are definitely in our future).
I will miss the swimming pool and vast lawns at our Los Gatos Village complex, and the assorted places we've grown to enjoy in this area (although being 11 miles north on highway 85, it's not like we're moving to another planet, and it's not as if we've not spent lots of time in and around Sunnyvale these past 20 years). I do feel a wee bit odd about moving back to Sunnyvale, after now spending more than half my life out of it; there is a part of me that feels I ought to have grown out of my hometown. But there's a bigger part of me that is deeply content with the idea of reconnecting with all that the place I grew up in has to offer and having Adam grow up in it too, albeit in his own way.
Cross your fingers that all goes well between now and the end of escrow (we don't foresee any problems, but of course your good thoughts are welcome). We hope you will come visit us when you're in the area. And if you are willing to help, such as with a bit of painting (Adam's room needs to be personalized, don't you agree?) or packing/unpacking, we would love your assistance. We hope to begin the moving process as soon as July 17. I'll send a more formal change of address and all that after the whole thing is final.
PS One lesson I learned from our dealings with a probate sale: If you haven't done so yet/recently, go right now and write/update your will. Seriously.
So maybe you'll be interested to read that we seem to have finally been successful in buying a house we could live in for a long while. This morning we heard that our bid--on a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1840 square foot, turnkey house in Sunnyvale--was the winning and final one. Now we just need to go through the escrow period, finalize some fixes, and move in. Voila! Twenty years of being together and it looks like we're finally going to settle down.
David looks forward to being moved in, not moving again for a long time, and getting rid of a lot of our "crap". Those all sound good to me, but I also look forward to having a dedicated space for Adam to play in, a kitchen we can unpack all of our dishes and appliances into, and a space in which to once more allow easy access to our (greatly reduced) personal library. We'll live with the downsides--the freeway is on the other side of a creek behind the property, the laundry is in the garage, and the kitchen is fairly small and closed in). On the plus side, the family room and living room are large, rooms are well laid out, there is a 20'x20' enclosed patio room, baths and kitchen are all updated, and there's ample parking (parties are definitely in our future).
I will miss the swimming pool and vast lawns at our Los Gatos Village complex, and the assorted places we've grown to enjoy in this area (although being 11 miles north on highway 85, it's not like we're moving to another planet, and it's not as if we've not spent lots of time in and around Sunnyvale these past 20 years). I do feel a wee bit odd about moving back to Sunnyvale, after now spending more than half my life out of it; there is a part of me that feels I ought to have grown out of my hometown. But there's a bigger part of me that is deeply content with the idea of reconnecting with all that the place I grew up in has to offer and having Adam grow up in it too, albeit in his own way.
Cross your fingers that all goes well between now and the end of escrow (we don't foresee any problems, but of course your good thoughts are welcome). We hope you will come visit us when you're in the area. And if you are willing to help, such as with a bit of painting (Adam's room needs to be personalized, don't you agree?) or packing/unpacking, we would love your assistance. We hope to begin the moving process as soon as July 17. I'll send a more formal change of address and all that after the whole thing is final.
PS One lesson I learned from our dealings with a probate sale: If you haven't done so yet/recently, go right now and write/update your will. Seriously.
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