Busy Weekend

This weekend was very busy. Not just for me but all over the place. Friday was the start of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. I am glad they are finally here because I don’t know how much longer I would have been able to take those “Believe” commercials on CTV. Gaw, we get it. Then it was Valentine’s Day. Whatever. At the same time it was Chinese New Year. Yesterday was Family Day, I have nothing to say about that other than it is a day off so no one complains about it, President’s Day in the States and Carnival Monday. I was supposed to be down in T&T this year but of course I had no money. My cousin sent me an awesome Carnival video.

Palance - JW and Blaze from ForceFed Blog on Vimeo.

The video really gets me in the mood. I want to palance. But I am stuck here in the wretched cold instead of in the hot sun gettin’ on. Man, dis is rel stchupidness dread.

Sad face.

Anyways, since I am stuck here I have to make the best of it. And that isn’t a bad thing, I get to hang out with friends and watch movies. This weekend I kinda saw 2 movies, it is really like 1.75 movies.

I only saw about 75% of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief (longest title ever) because people suck. The theatre I went to had a problem with their copy of the movie. I was told there was a small glitch that lasted about 5 minutes before I paid to see the film. I was fine with that, I can handle 5 minutes. That 5 minutes happened about 20 minutes into the movie and I was fine with that because I was prepared for it. But then the 5 minutes turned into 10, then 20, then 30, and it just kept going. Finally I complained and I got a free pass (Huzzah) and went back to finish watch the film with my friend because it was surprisingly good. But then the manager came in a turned it off before it finished. I sat through a good hour of the audio being 10 seconds behind the video only to get kicked out before it finished. I was so annoyed. I mean at least if I finished the movie I would have put up with that annoyance for a reason but because it wasn’t concluded I just feel gypped.

From what I saw Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief is about Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman), a teenager who has trouble in school and at home with his step father. It is finally revealed to him that he is a demigod after he has been accused of stealing Zeus’ lightening. He is the son of Zeus’ brother Poseidon and also a nephew of Hades who wants Zeus’ lightening.  Believing that Percy has the lightening Hades kidnaps Percy’s mother, holding her ransom until he receives the coveted power. Percy goes on a quest with two of his friends to find out who stole the lightening and save his mother.

This movie isn’t as cheesy as the commercials make it. The movie is based on a book of the same title by Rick Riordan and is a pretty good modern take on Greek mythology. Yes there are some cheesy parts but that is only because the movie is made for a younger audience and not meant to be some deep intense film. It is very Clash of the Titans with a modern twist. Percy and his friends battle a fury, minotaur, hydra, and Medusa. They also encounter many other demigods, gods, and goddesses. Its mythology made fun.

There are also a lot of well known people in the movie. Sean Bean (Zeus), Steve Coogan (Hades), Rosario Dawson (Persephone), Uma Thurman (Medusa), Catherine Keener (Sally Jackson), Kevin McKidd (Poseidon), Peirce Brosnan (Chiron) and Joe Pantoliano (Gabe Ugliano). But all of them play relatively small secondary characters to then main characters Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson), Brandon T Jackson (Grover), and Alexandra Daddario (Annabeth). They are the 3 teens on the quest and they all do a good job. There are no Oscar contenders but they get the job done.

The story itself isn’t bad. It isn’t too basic that you get bored or too complicated that its intended audience gets lost. The dialogue itself is ok. If find that they kept it a little too basic at many points. There was nothing particularly witty or clever about anything said in the movie. The action sequences and special effects were pretty good. They weren’t flawless or excessive but were better than a lot of CG laden movies out there.

Overall, from what I saw, Percy Jackson… was an ok film. It was generally entertaining, quite a bit of fun, and I think it should be given a chance.

I also saw another star packed movie this weekend. I am sort of embarrassed to say I saw this movie but I didn’t pay for the ticket so I guess I shouldn’t feel so bad about it. I was treated to Valentine’s Day.

So much happens in this movie that I am not sure how to write a small synopsis but IMDB does a pretty good job with

Intertwining couples and singles in Los Angeles break-up and make-up based on the pressures and expectations of Valentine’s Day

There are like 20 well known faces (I am not writing them, look it up) in this movie but all of them have bit roles. The movie is just so packed with storylines converging then diverging that there isn’t room for anyone to be the lead. I think Ashton Kutcher got the most screen time simply because his character was where most of the connections in the film were made.

With all that star power you would think there would be something spectacular about the movie but no. It is a pretty straight forward rom-com with no real surprises. There is one surprise at the end of the movie that made the girl behind me go, “Oh my god! Serious!” but had me feeling victorious because I figured it out about halfway through. But I won’t spoil that for you.

The acting is passable. All the actors did their job, no more, no less, they simply did what was expected. The movie is a little choppy and this is again to do with all the people it is following. It jumps back and forth through the different characters abruptly and simply forgets about some until the very end.

I have to say I didn’t hate Valentine’s Day but I wasn’t impressed with it either. There is no need to see this on the big screen it is just people talking.

Tra