On May 24th, “The Lazarus Effect” by director Lance Bangs and executive producer Spike Jonze premieres on HBO, YouTube, and Channel 4 (UK). By taking the ARV medicine – 2 life-saving pills that cost around 40 cents a day – in as few as 40 days, the medicine can help bring people back to life. Aids has killed more than 20 million people in Africa. In 2002 only 50,000 people had access to the medication due to its high cost. Today, thanks to reduced costs and increased access, more than 3 million people in Africa are now receiving treatment. Still, 3,800 people die every day in sub-Saharan Africa from AIDS. “The Lazarus Effect” film shows that this needn’t be the case. Source: http://www.joinred.com/
As the title of this post points out, Christina and I watched Twighlight last night. For the past few years I’ve heard all the craze about the movie and now I can finally talk somewhat intelligently about it. I really hate to say this but I actually liked it and so much so Tyler and I will probably go out and find New Moon somewhere later today so we can get completely caught up. I liked they didn’t go overboard with the werewolf and vampire aspects and you could tell the movie’s target demographic wasn’t a 32 year old, but it kept my attention which is saying something. The guy on the far right cracked me up every time I saw him after he was described as always looking like he is in pain (also looks like Edward Scissorhands). The movie is fairly original, it has a Romeo and Juliette undertone to it but it wasn’t overly annoying. I liked when Edward’s family teamed up to fight James the tracking vampire, maybe it is the X-Men fan in me. If you’ve seen it, what did you think of it and without giving anything away to others, was New Moon any better than Twighlight?
If you are ever visiting Portland, OR there is a nice log cabin restaurant called Stone Cliff Inn (movie related link and their website link here) on the top of a hill overseeing the Clackamas River. I love when restaurants and companies put lots of time and money behind advertising but their website is terrible (sorry but it is). Behind the restaurant is a very large wooded mountain where part of the film was shot. You can take a quick walk back in the woods where they have pictures showing scenes of where the movie was shot. That restaurant is only 5 minutes from where I used to live prior to moving to California. Twighlight had lots of Washington and Oregon scenes in it that I recognized which also made the movie fun.
Late-night television comedian Conan O’Brien appears in his first interview since having to give back his spot on the “Tonight Show” to Jay Leno. Steve Kroft reports.
I love documentaries and independent films. This particular documentary looks very interesting so I’m putting it on my Amazon wish list.
“King Corn tells the story of two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. As the film unfolds, IanCheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, moveto the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help offriendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-ubiquitous grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to followtheir pile of corn into the food system, what they questions about how we eat—and how we farm.”
Christina and I took Tyler to see How to Train Your Dragon this morning in IMAX 3D. The movie was great “but” here’s the deal, it was $60 for the three of us to just see the movie. I think $30 (half that) is a more fair price but they did get me to fork over the money this time so I could see it with Tyler. To make matters worse Christina was charged $4.50 for a cup of water for Tyler. To call it a cup is insane in itself, they are practically gallon sized which is a little much for a toddler. I told Christina to complain (if she wasn’t going to I was) and luckily a nice theater management person gave her the $4.50 back. Evidently “corporate” mandates they charge by the cup and it doesn’t matter what goes inside the cup due to auditing purposes.
Listen up movie industry and movie theatres, we’re in a recession and the digital age is upon us. At lunch yesterday I told my coworkers I was taking Tyler to see a movie and it cost $60 for three people and you want to know what they said? They said “you know you can buy the movie for $14 right?” The next person said “I just add it to my NetFlix queue”. “I can just get it for free on the Internet.” California’s minimum wage is $8.00 (source) which means to just get in the door and see the movie it would cost a family living on minimum wage seven and a half hours of work (not factoring in taxes).
The movie is great but it is rated PG and I learned we’ll be sticking to G rated movies for Tyler for a while because the “bad” dragons were a little scary for him still. After the movie we went to Barnes & Noble to look at books with Tyler which is yet another industry that won’t be around in a few years with the arrival of digital books. Barnes & Noble has a train set in it so Tyler was very happy to see that. He wasn’t however very happy to leave the train set when it was time to go.
Sorry for the soap box moments on this post but I’d argue we as a society don’t stand up for much these days. Those who know me know I quote this over and over but “you only have the rights you stand up for.” I didn’t take my own advice today and paid $60 for the movie but I’ve learned my lesson, I however don’t think the movie industry has yet learned what it needs to. Consumers in general speak with their wallets and I have a feeling $60 for three people to go to a movie won’t last very long. We need more open movies and shame on me for paying $60.
“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me” – Proverbs
