A tiger, a chicken, and a dog go to Vegas...

The Setting: Don't worry: they were not harmed and they're doing just fine.

I gave a review of the movie The Hangover back in June. I thought it was a great movie and I recommend it. In case you were wondering, no animals were harmed during the filming of the movie. I found this site that explains the "featured animal action." You can read about how the animals were treated and how the scenes were filmed.

Also, check out the American Humane site. I had no idea this existed...

I Have an Idea: Shut up!

The Setting: I do not condone shooting a fellow patron in a movie theatre, but I'm thinking it might be OK to slap them around a little bit.

You should be able to tell by now that I like to go to the movies. A lot. Going to the movies for me is an experience. I get there early, get my medium popcorn and my large Icee, I sit almost all the way at the top of the stadium seating, on the aisle. I actually enjoy watching the previews, partly because they allow me to decide on the next batch of movies I'm going to see.

Inevitably, a couple comes in, usually as the previews are playing, sometimes after the movie has already started. They are talking when they walk in, they talk through the previews, then they continue to talk through the entire picture. Their conversation is usually about the movie, but the couple sitting behind me last week talked about everything but the movie. Actually, the girl was talking, the guy just grunted a few responses now and then. I was hoping one of those grunts would stand for, "shut the hell up."

The last time I went to the movies, The Couple came in and sat in the row I was in, about three seats over. They talked through the entire movie, speculating about what was happening in the movie. I do not like having a movie ruined by the people next to me saying, "I bet you the butler did it!" That's exactly what it's like. Maybe I want to figure out on my own that it was Col. Mustard, with a wrench, in the library.

So this is for you, Mr. and Mrs. Ruin the Movie For Everyone Around You. Maybe discussing the movie and figuring the mystery out is part of your experience. OK, fine. But could you sit in those seats in front of the stadium part so the rest of us don't have to hear it? And I'm not implying anything, but here's an article my friend posted about a guy who shot someone in a theatre who wouldn't stop talking. Again, I do not condone this behavior. I'm just sayin'...

"Do you consider yourself to be a good person?"

The Setting: Walking out of the movie theatre after watching Seven Pounds, all I heard was silence. And a few women (and maybe a few men) sniffing.

Seven Pounds is the second movie I've seen from my list of movies I want to see this Christmas season. One of the reasons I wanted to see it is because the previews and commercials really haven't given too much of the movie away. I really like being able to see a movie under those circumstances and watching it unfold, without knowing much about what's going to happen. Yes, that means I am not going to tell you the plot here.

I was disappointed that I managed to guess part of what was going on a little more than half-way through the movie, but there were some surprises at the end. However, I felt things could have been much more of a surprise if they had left a few things out earlier. Do not expect a Sixth Sense punch .

Certain parts reminded me of another Will Smith movie, I am Legend: Will Smith waking up from a nightmare about something that happened in the past; Will Smith in the shower, upset about something that happened in the past; flashbacks of bits and pieces of something (we just don't know what yet) that happened in the past. Of course, we get to see the whole situation in the end.

This movie is very much of a drama, so expect it to be slow moving in certain spots. Will Smith is good at dramas, but he is really subdued in this movie and I did get a little sick of his having the same look on his face in several scenes. The potential for this movie to be great was there but lack of believeability in parts allowed it to only be good.

Smith's relationship with Rosario Dawson is, as times, elegant. In smaller roles: Barry Pepper, Woody Harrelson, and Michael Ealy. I would give this movie a three and a half out of five Slurpees (that's my new rating system). Worth seeing, but I always recommend going to the matinee just because I never pay full price for a movie.

"The Process Has Begun"

The Setting: Cue dramatic music and zoom in on Keanu Reeve's emotionless face as he utters this line to the poor, helpless humans in The Day the Earth Stood Still.

This movie is on my list of movies I want to see this Christmas season. I'll start my review with two comments. As the closing credits were rolling a lady walking past said to me, "Not as good as the original." Then a couple went by and I heard the woman say, "It was kinda hokey." Both true statements.

I didn't expect to see Oscar-nomination-worthy performances; I just wanted to see stuff getting blown up. Surprisingly, this movie really doesn't have a lot of that. For example, you just know that in every disaster or alien-attack movie, NYC will be destroyed. In this movie, we see parts of it destroyed, but not how you would expect. This movie has way more drama and way less action than I expected.

Plus, there is a message that is overdone to the point of being preachy. And in the end, it was a little too, well... easy to get rid of the aliens.

Keanu Reeves was good at being robotic and unemotional as Klaatu. Seeing him in a suit for much of the movie was weird because I couldn't stop thinking about the bad guys in The Matrix. Jennifer Connelly is the sympathetic scientist who wants to help Klaatu. Jaden Smith seems too bratty and smart alecky most of the movie, even after we learn his situation. Kathy Bates is tough as nails as the US Secretary of Defense. In my opinion, the star of the show is the huge, indestructible, super robot that comes out of the spacecraft. He (It?) was named Gort in the original movie, although I don't remember them saying his name in this movie. Anyway, I would like to see Gort get his own starring role.

I would give the movie a two and a half out of five. My advice if you want to see this movie: either go to a matinee (absolutely do not pay full price) or wait until the DVD comes out. In better news, yes, I had my requisite Slurpee, plus I saw a preview for the upcoming Star Trek movie, which looks promising.

We're Mad as Hell!!

The Setting: I came across this clip of Peter Finch as Howard Beale in the movie Network. Some consider it to be one of the best movie speeches ever. It's from 1976, but it could really be from 2008. Watch the Mad as Hell clip on YouTube.

"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the streets, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it... I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!!"