Flying with Singapore Airlines from Zurich to Singapore in the new and comfortable A380, I was at first overwhelmed by the entertainment choice options (90 new movies were added in September alone). In the end I did spend way more time watching movies than sleeping ;). I saw:
Hail Cesar! (An entertaining comedy, but I expected a bit more)
Allegiant (an okay ending to the Divergent-Trillogy)
Now You See me (a wonderful smoke-and-mirrors drama about magicians in the modern age.)
April and the Wonderful World (A French Steampunk Anime, worth watching!)
Deadpool (Just amazing. The intro sets the tone and keeps the humor rolling till the end. I'm looking forward to the sequel).
After a longer pause my next diving vacation has finally arrived. But before it could start I had to travel for 22 hours in different planes.
The first stopover was in Paris, where I spent the night at an airport hotel. That worked out really well, the Terminal is connected by shuttle-metro with the place where all hotels are located, so it took only very little time to get from the Terminal to the Hotel and back again. I used the time there to find a Geocache :).
Sunday morning I boarded a plane to Los Angeles. During the twelve hours I watched the following movies:
Jurassic World, which was surprisingly cool! It wasn't just a rehash of the original Jurassic Park, but rather a continuation of the same story. And I loved the references to the original movie, which were sometimes extremely delicately placed.
Ant Man, which I enjoyed a lot as well. Very funny and entertaining.
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. Delivered what I expected. A far flung action flick.
In Los Angeles we had to go through immigration, which was a real pain. There were so many people queuing up! They tried to give us priority, because we had a very short connection, which led to us changing lanes three times until we finally could get processed. Fortunately, the baggage never left the plane, so we didn't have to take the bags and go through customs, but could rather go through back allies directly back to the Terminal. Where we arrived just in time to board (the same plane!).
The last leg to Papeete, Tahiti, took 8.5 hours and since it was getting late I also tried to sleep a bit. Nevertheless I watched two more movies:
Paper Towns: A moving road movie about a group of friends looking for Margot who disappeared.
Epic: An entertaining animation from the makers of Ice Age about the life of the forest.
At 11:30pm local time we finally arrived and were all very exhausted. We were greeted by a local band :)
Unfortunately, not all bags made it the whole way, and so we spent a lot of time waiting for the Lost and Found counter to open. Fortunately, my bag did arrive, so I could relax for a bit.
Flying from London Heathrow to Los Angeles took eleven hours. So I had enough time to catch up on movies I missed at the cinema ;). I saw:
The Lego Movie (brilliant!)
Winters Tale (not as detailed as the book, but still a very good adaption)
Her (very thought-provoking, with an unexpected ending)
The 100-year old who climbed out the window and disappeared (funny and entertaining)
Police Story 2013 (not as good as Jackie's earlier movies, but still entertaining)
What I didn't do was sleep a lot, so I was thoroughly tired once I reached the Hostel. Unfortunately, I was assigned a "party"-room, where everyone stayed up late but frequently came through the room to use the restroom, so the night wasn't as relaxing as it could have been.
Nevertheless, it was an interesting start into my vacation :)
7 years ago was the last time I celebrated one of my Birthdays with friends. At that time a good friend of mine came up with the idea of a Cinemathon, spending the whole day in the cinema watching different movies. We had a great time and watched the following movies:
An Inconvenient Truth (very interesting)
Pan's Labyrinth (fantastic!)
Smoking Aces (a huge let down, especially right after Pan's labyrinth)
Ghost Rider (interesting but not great)
Now that all my friends turned 30 and had a big party, I thought it time to do something as well. And so the idea of the second edition of the Birthday Cinemathon was born.
This time we watched the following movies:
Non-Stop A very good Action-Thriller that kept us on our seats wondering how it was going to end. Definite recommendation!
The Grand Budapest Hotel A fantastically funny movie about loyalty and friendship with a fantastic cast (Willem Dafoe is simply brilliant!) and wonderful pictures. A must see!
The Wolf of Wall Street Even though it ran for 3 hours, this was a very entertaining movie about the rise and fall of Jordan Belfort, a stock broker on Wall Street. Recommendation: We liked it, but it's not for everyone, since it shows some very questionable behavior.
Stormberg - Der Film Stromberg is a German TV Series based on the UK hit The Office. After five seasons a crowd funding project enabled the making of the first Stromberg movie. We had no idea what to expect from this movie, since we never saw the series before, but I chose it based on a recommendation from a co-worker and because it fit the schedule. We were pleasantly surprised. It was very funny and entertaining. Recommendation: If you are an office worker, go and see it.
After almost 10 hours in the cinemas the second event ended with a beer in a nearby pub. Compared to the first time, we were very happy with the film selection. All of them were worth seeing.
Thanks to everyone who joined me for this special day! I'm sure it won't be the last time :)
After a longer break I finally found some time to go to the movies.
On Sunday I saw the time traveler's wife, a romantic drama about the relationship between a time traveler and a normal woman. I'd listened to both the abridged and unabridged aiudiobook versionand thus was very familiar with the story. The movie was a really good adoption. It focused on the most important events without breaking the flow of the story. Highly recommended also for people who've read the book.
Monday we watched district 9, a very intriguing sci-fi movie which got me emotionally involved, I really hated the main character who was an idiot and a bit of an asshole. oh yes the aliens looked amazing!
World's Greatest Burgers and Monsters vs. Aliens in Imax 3D
Yesterday we indulged ourselves in a real American evening. First we went to Fuddruckers, a burger chain which claims to serve the "World's Greatest Burgers".
That was my dinner, a 1/2 pound burger with a Cookies & Cream Milkshake!
The evening was rounded off by a visit to see Monsters vs. Aliens in Imax 3D. The Imax 3D experience was great and made up for the sometimes lengthy storyline. The Imax we visited, part of Loews cinemas in Waterfront, was originally a regular movie theater and it shows. The screen is not as big as in newly built Imax theaters such as the one I visited in Boston.
SouthSide Works Cinema shows a Cult Movie once a month. Today it was Donnie Darko. I discovered this movie a couple of years back on DVD and was enthralled by it's mysterious and disturbing story and was overjoyed to get the chance to finally see it on the big screen. It was a terrific experience and intensified the fantastic visuals and oppressive soundtrack. If you have not yet seen this movie, do so immediately! ;)
It being a rainy day yesterday, gave a good excuse to pay a visit to Boston's closest Imax, which happened to be in Reading 70 minutes away from Downtown. Having to travel so far I decided to make the best of it and watch two movies!
A documentary about creatures living under the water shot in dazzling 3D, giving you the feeling as if you were in the middle of the ocean almost touching the fish and reefs. Being a seasoned scuba diver myself I recognized many of the fishes and was delighted to meet cuttlefish, lion fish and the epaulette shark again, and then there were also a couple of fishes I've never seen, such as the Leafy Dragonfish, which looks a little bit like a seahorse but so much more elegant and interesting. It definitely awakened the urge in me to go scuba diving again. In short: A must-see for every scuba-diver and everyone interested in underwater creatures.
Wow, what an experience! A fantastic story, elegantly told with flash-backs to fill in the background, stunning visuals and an apt and captivating soundtrack (like 99 Luftballons from Nena!). I wasn't familiar with the story before, having deliberately waited for the movie to read the graphic novel and so I was curious if it could live up to the high praise I've heard from all around. All I can say is, it surpassed my expectations! And seeing it on the huge IMAX screen made the story larger than life! If you have an Imax in the neighbourhood, even if it is 1 or more hours away, go and see Watchmen there, it is definitely worth the trip. But be sure to reserve your ticket if you're going on the weekend, I've heard that it is regularly sold out.
After realizing that the 3D version of Coraline was shown in cinemas close to Pittsburgh I quickly checked my schedule and freed up room to see this version of the film as well.
That's me in the cinema with the "cool" 3D glasses ;).
The 3D technology was very impressive, especially because it wasn't used for showy effects but rather subtly to give the movie more depth and emotion. I preferred the 3D version to the regular print and you should definitely check it out, if you have the opportunity.
A word of warning for everyone using Google to look up show times, enter "Coraline 3D", otherwise only 2D screenings will be shown in the results list. That's why I originally thought the movie wasn't shown in 3D in Pittsburgh.
The hype around Coraline was quite big with a large web presence as well as commercials on tv (which I don't have so I have to take this as second hand information ;) ). But even without the hype it would have been clear that I had to see it because: 1. it is based on a Neil Gaiman story 2. it is directed by Henry Selick, the director of The Nightmare before Christmas 3. it was shot in stop-motion, same as The Nightmare before Christmas
The movie was everything I expected it to be, an astonishing ride with fantastic visuals, some scary scenes and a cool story, in addition it boasted an exceptionally creepy soundtrack. The only bummer was that the cinema we watched it at didn't support the Tru3d feature...
Nevertheless the movie gets 10 out of 10 points. (Who knows, in Tru3d it might have received more points ;) ).
After several failed attempts to meet Kachiu in Providence during the Fall semester, I finally managed to get to Providence prior to the start of Spring Semester. The first two days were spent sight-seeing in Providence, visiting Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design Museum and Downtown. I also managed to catch a screening of The Spirit in Providence Mall. The strangest thing was that the movie was 10 minutes delayed! The pre-program information screen got into an endless loop and it took us a while to realize the problem and report it to the staff. The movie was OK, but not as thrilling as the trailer led me to believe, even though I'll grant that it was a visually stunning movie.
Saturday evening brought a Snow storm to Providence and thus we delayed our plans for Sunday's day trip. But when we saw that it stopped snowing close to noon, we went ahead and drove all the way into Massachusetts to visit Old Sturbridge Village. Old Sturbridge Village is a village museum with complete houses from around 1830. Many of the houses were populated by staff in period costumes who did everyday things and were very eager to explain what they were doing and how they were living. We had very intriguing discussions with the Potter, the Blacksmith (both of which would have been part-time farmers as well), a farmer's family in the process of butchering a pig, the parson's wife and the merchants in the town's shop, which boasted an amazing array of things. We also got a try at sledding with period sleds. All in all a terrific experience, unfortunately the 3.5 hours we were there weren't enough to see all the exhibits. If your in the neighborhood I strongly recommend a visit, for which you should plan the whole day!
Thursday started under a bad omen. A slight miscalculation led me to believe I had to check in at 8am, upon reaching the airport I saw that check-in wouldn't start till 8.45am, so we basically were one hour early. Fortunately, my friend drove me to the airport and so we spent the time breakfasting and chatting.
On the plane my window-seat was already taken, but since I traveled alone I decided to be generous and take the middle aisle seat instead. The flight was longer than expected, which offered me enough time to eat, sleep, read and watch movies. I saw Death Race, an ok car action movie, and Ghost Town a cute little comedy about a dentist who started seeing ghosts.
The minute I stepped into the immigration area, I saw trouble ahead. There were thousands of people queuing and my next plane was supposed to leave within 1.5 hours. A small consolation was that I had my book out and could pass the time reading. After 1 hour and 45 minutes, in which I dropped my documents about five times trying to hold them together with my book in one hand and the board case in the other hand, I finally was officially readmitted to the US. Unfortunately, my plane was long gone by that time. I was lucky in so far that there was another scheduled flight to Pittsburgh at 10.15pm and I could take that, however, this meant killing 5 hours on Washington Airport, which I spent reading again.
The flight to Pittsburgh passed very swiftly and I slept throughout.
In Pittsburgh I had two chances to catch a bus to CMU. The first chance became possible because we landed 15 minutes early. However, waiting for my checked luggage almost took this time advantage away again. Finally, I managed to catch the earlier bus with two minutes to spare.
Back home I quickly repacked my bags for my upcoming weekend trip to Providence and finally fell asleep around 2am only to get up again at 4.25am. But more about that later...
After having finished early with our task and packing I had half a day to spare. The natural thing was of course to go the the movies ;). After mainly frequenting South Side Works the last couple of times, I decided to go to Waterfront instead because they offered a bigger selection for cheaper prices (US$ 5.00 / movie) and so I saw: - Transporter 3: A cool action movie with a couple of unbelievable stunts and very cool fight scenes. - Madagascar 2: As with the first part the penguins were the secret stars and my favorite element in the movie, however, they couldn't carry the whole movie on their own, also because they didn't get that much screen time. And so I was rather disappointed with the movie and will not watch it again anytime soon. - Bolt: Bolt on the other hand was a hit! Cute, witty and incredibly funny. Even though it is not a Pixar movie it is well worth your time!
Since I didn't come around to blog about last Saturday's Game Club Meeting, I thought I'd catch up now.
Last Saturday we played: - Ticket to Ride - USA 1910: The US edition of Ticket to Ride with an extra expansion set was far more challenging than the European Game, because many people ended up building the same routes. Nevertheless, it was quite interesting. - Kingsburg: Still a fun and luck-based game. I managed to win by a big margin :)
Afterwards, we went to the Southside Works cinema to catch a screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This was the first time I saw this movie on the big screen and it still is brilliant and lots of fun. My cheekbones started aching after the first five minutes ;).
This Saturday I returned to the Game Club, where the Dominion fever has started to grow and so we ended up with three copies of the game (two of which were played concurrently). So as you could guess, I played: - Dominion: Nothing to add, still a fantastic game. - Kingsburg: This time I was not quite as lucky as last time, but I still managed to tie for first place :)
Then I went on to an English Country Dance Meet, which was held close to the University. Even though I was the youngest by about 20 years, it was a lot of fun. We danced countless dances, almost all of which were new to me. But the great thing about English Country Dancing is that they are very easy to pick up. To my great delight we also danced Picking Up Sticks, one of the two English Country Dances I previously learned in Switzerland. After two hours of dancing I was really tired, but very glad that I went there and I'm sure to go back in the new year.
After discovering that "Zack and Miri Make a Porno", the new Kevin Smith movie opened Halloween weekend, it was clear I had to see it! After all Dogma is still one of my favorite movies of all times!
Zack and Miri have been good friends (and nothing more) since high-school, sharing the same apartment without major problems until their utilities get disconnected. Now they need to get money quick or end up on the street in the deepest winter. A porno seems to be an easy way to achieve that and so they start looking for actors, producers and a location. But their problems are just about to start...
Overall an entertaining movie, which doesn't quite reach the brilliance of some of Kevin Smith's other projects. What made this movie more relevant to me was the fact that it played in Pittsburgh and it's suburb Monroeville. So it was quite funny to see local "landmarks" such as Pittsburgh Steelers and Pengiuns fans, Downtown and the amount of snow I can expect in winter ;). If you see the movie, stay seated during the end credits because there's a cool "infomercial" placed in the middle.
After working for most of the day, I decided to take the evening off and watch a new movie. Burn After Reading, the new Coen Brothers movie, was on my watch list for a while, after seeing the trailer several times, like every time I was in the cinema in August ;), and so it was a quick decision to check it out.
The movie is brilliant, showcasing hilarious performances by Brad Pitt, as clueless fitness instructor, George Clooney, as paranoid womanizer, John Malkovic, as fired CIA analyst, Frances McDormand, as desperate single, and J.K. Simmons as cynical CIA Superior. It took a while for the movie to take up speed but the longer the movie lasted the better and more twisted it got. And the final debriefing with the CIA Superior is plain brilliant! A definite must see! :)
After exiting the cinema after seeing Tropic Thunder last Friday, we were handed an invitation for a pre-screening of The Great Buck Howard. Since I've never been part of such an event in Switzerland I definitely had to check it out.
So Guido and I returned to the Loew Waterfront cinema yesterday to see what would happen. When we arrived there was already a queue of about 40 people, but we saw that the cinema was big enough to seat even more people. The first thing we had to do was disclose our age, so that they could get an overview about the demographics of the audience. Next people were being let into the cinema and assigned seats. Just when we were about to enter the line was stopped to allow the others find their seats. When the facilitator returned he asked us if we would mind assisting him for a couple of minutes, in exchange he promised us prime seats. We were very intrigued and of course agreed immediately.
We (Guido, I and 10 other people) were then led to a saloon room on the second floor where we could give feedback on six different possibilities for the movie poster. This session was very interesting and it was amazing to see the different concepts. At the end we were almost unanimous about which poster we liked best.
Then we could take our seats in the front row of the dais. The Great Buck Howard is the story of the Great Buck Howard, a mentalist/magician who has been on the road for decades but has recently lost the link to the new generation, and Troy Gabel, a would be writer who gave up law-school and now works as Buck's road manager to earn his keep. The opening of the movie is very cool, with different texts appearing next to people on screen, but did remind me of the Bedazzled remake with Liz Hurley. After the funny start movie slows down a bit to introduce the main characters and Buck's show. On the road Troy soon discovers that Buck has a better image of himself than anyone around him and so he plays half empty theaters in the middle of nowhere as if they were packed houses in a big city. But then they get to Cincinnati and everything changes.
The Great Buck Howard is a very entertaining movie. Even though it is labeled as a Comedy, the human drama and interaction is more important and laugh-out loud moments are rare. The ending is a bit abrupt, because even the story of Buck Howard is well rounded, many questions are left unanswered regarding the fate of Troy Gabel. This and the fact that the movie dragged a bit in places lead to me rating this movie 4/5.
We didn't get to see the end credits, because as soon as the movie was over the light came on and we were handed a feedback form, which wanted our detailed impression on the movie. After completing the form most people could leave the cinema. We were asked to remain behind for a more in-depth feedback round. During the next 20 minutes we discussed the movie and its implications. At the end of the session we were again presented with the six posters we already saw at the beginning. Interestingly, the poster we initially selected was no longer our favorite, instead we picked another one which we thought more fitting to the movie.
All in all it was a very interesting evening and I was glad I took the chance to see this movie (and this pre-screening process) :)
On Friday we had a day off so we decided to finally catch a Campus Tour to see more of the buildings and get some additional background info. The tour was very informative and we discovered a couple of fun facts.
For example: The Fence which stands in the middle of the University used to belong to a bridge and was originally a famous meeting point for boys and girls, who were back then in separate areas of the campus. Later the ravine was filled and The Fence became the public bulletin board. However, messages can only be posted between midnight and 4am and in the process the whole Fence has to be painted by hand with paintbrushes. If The Fence isn't guarded it becomes available for anyone to paint a new message once midnight comes. Apparently students regularly camp out to keep their message up :)
To make shopping easier for students CMU offered a shuttle bus service to Waterfront all day on Friday. Even though we had already purchased the most things we took advantage of this shuttle to catch a Movie at AMC Loews Waterfront. The movie we picked was Tropic Thunder a comedy about the making of a war movie. It being the opening weekend it was shown in one of the biggest screens of this cinema featuring 568 seats and a very big screen ^^. The movie opens with fake trailers and advertisements featuring the stars of the war movie and so we see Ben Stiller as an action hero, Jack Black in a version of Nutty Professor and Robert Downey Jr. as gay monk in the middle ages. These trailers alone were worth the admittance and it got better after that. I don't want to spoil too much so I'll just say that this movie is a must-see for everyone who likes a good laugh and can stomach large amounts of blood (it is a war-movie-parody after all) :)
Today we spent the (most of) the day at Waterfront, a shopping / movie complex in the south-east of Pittsburgh.
With 22 screens it boasts the biggest movie theater I've ever been in, and with movies for 5$ throughout the week, it offers the best deal I've ever seen.
First we went to see Wanted, an extremely cool action movie featuring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. With 100 seats we were in one of the "smallest" screens, but the size of the screen itself was decent and bigger than many screens in Swiss cinemas. By the way, the layout of the screen was the same as at SouthSide Works. Slowly I begin to wonder if there is only one patented layout for big movie theatre screens...
After shopping for three hours we returned to the movies to catch Wall-E, the newest animated film from Pixar, a very cute and entertaining comedy. Which is preceded by a hilarious short-film!
