Another weekend...gone! It seems like there's never enough hours to fully enjoy the weekends off before a new work week begins.

But the weekend didn't go to waste...as R and I started it early with the premiere of The Dark Knight at midnight on Friday. It is by far the best movie this summer! Iron Man had held that spot but after watching Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker...I can't wait to go watch it again. If you haven't seen The Dark Knight yet...what are you waiting for?

Saturday, we drove out to Hawaii Kai to see ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro perform at the Towne Center. I've been a fan of Jake's for a few years now and never had the opportunity to see him perform live. Jake is so at home with music of all genres. He covers jazz, classical, blues and rock, infact, he's so good at what he does that it is easy to forget you're listening to an instrument that's just about 13inches long, with only 4 strings. This was indeed a truly great experience and not only did he play two of my favorite songs; "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper & "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by George Harrison...I got his autograph and a photo taken with him...such a generous personality! (egads: Jake's so cute in person and that winning smile!!! *faints*)

Labels: concert, fun, movies, weekend

moi spoke out loud on 7/21/2008 11:11:00 PM

[0] told me everything loud and clear

What I would or wouldn't give to have him as my Made of Honor at my wedding *smiles*

Party mix = Potpourri! LOL!!! So yeah, it sure does take a real man to become a maid of honor

Labels: fun, movies

moi spoke out loud on 1/31/2008 04:54:00 PM

[3] told me everything loud and clear

I must say...going to the movies...ain't cheap nowadays, even the matinee movie ticket has gone up quite a bit! After shelling out $15++ for 2 matinee movie tickets and another $18++ for popcorn, mochi-crunch and 2 sodas, the "Chinese" in me started to grumble silently under my breath! I can just imagine how much the regular non-matinee movie tickets cost...grrrrr...

Last weekend, was the 1st of many more 3-day weekends to come, so R and I decided to go on a movie date. He let me choose...I'd wanted to see either 27 Dresses or The Bucket List, but the showing times were just a 'lil too late in the day, so I settled on Cloverfield. I was rather curious from the trailer I'd seen the last time we were at the movies and back then the movie didn't even have a title yet! An attack on New York City by something that kinda looked like a giant monster...now who could resist that? I've not seen the more recent trailers like R has...so he started to say...

R: You sure? We can watch something else...
Me: Yeah.
R: Don't grumble and say we're watching "my kind" of movie coz I am letting you pick...
Me: Yeah...YEAH!
R: Ohh, be prepared. You might get sick.
Me: Why? Will there be a lot of blood and gory things happenin? Won't it be somewhat like God-zilla?
R: Umm...it's shot like the movie, Blair Witch...
Me: BLUR LOOK. That wasn't so scary.
R: Not sick like horror scary but more like motion sickness and a possible headache.
Me: Still blur...

Overall, I really did (for real, I did!!) enjoy the movie minus the slight pain in my eyes from concentrating so hard on what was going on. After 15 minutes into the movie, I finally get R's point about getting sick 'coz the whole movie relies on the first person perspective to tell it's story and was shot with hand-held cameras! Okay, so I'm a tad bit slow to catch his point, but I'm not like that all the time, only SOMETIMES and only when it involves movies! Can't help it when your better half can correctly guess what's going to happen in a movie or a TV show before it does and sometimes spoil it for you. In addition, I think I do suffer some motion sickness as I can't for the life of me read in a moving car without feeling sick. Anywaes, I won't give out any spoilers but do expect heart racing moments of terror and excitement in good measure as well as smaller monsters to make it all the more complex, feeling the movie's terror from behind the lens. And no, it's not a giant lizard, but it might as well be! Ohhh, should something like this ever happen and I'm not with R for no particular reason, he betta come looking and rescue me! Go watch it, be cautious and maybe take a motion-sickness pill first and then let me know what your reactions to the movie. Okay, now I'll patiently wait for Cloverfield to be released on HD-DVD! Hah!

Happy Aloha Friday!

Labels: movies

moi spoke out loud on 1/25/2008 10:20:00 AM

[7] told me everything loud and clear

Boo!!

So what did you dress up as today? I was planning too but because of work and errands to do during lunch and then after work, I decided not to dress up. To get into the mood of Halloween (since we weren't planning to go out), Ryan and I have been killing da DVD playa by watching one horror movie after another. To admit, I hated horror movies whilst growing up. In fact, after seeing Oliver Stone's The Hand, I refused to watch anything remotely horror based for the longest time. I had nightmares that "The Hand" was always nearby and I'm its next victim...SCARY!!! I think I outgrew my fear as I got older and my love for horror movies kicked in sometime during my high-school years. So do you have a favorite or top 10 horror/scary movie list? Here's mine:

10. Hellraiser (1987)
9. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
8. Audition (1999)
7. Silence of the Lambs (1991)
6. The Sixth Sense (1999)
5. Hostel (2005)
4. American Psycho (2000)
3. Poltergeist (1982)
2. The Exorcist (1973)
1. Saw (2004) ~ The best HORROR film ever. End of story!

Labels: et-cetera, lists, movies

moi spoke out loud on 10/31/2007 09:23:00 PM

[12] told me everything loud and clear

Waking up really early on a Sunday morning is not a normal thing that I do. But I did so because it was Ryan's birthday [Happy Birthday, boo *kisses*] and we did plan from the night before to go watch the first matinee screening of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End at the nearest theater. Checking Sunday's edition of Honolulu Advertiser as well as confirming it online, we drive out to our trusted theater ~ Dole Cannery as their the first show is at 9.45am!

From last year's second installment, "Dead Man's Chest", I wanted to know how does Capt. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) escape that giant sea monster that swallowed him? Will Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) and Will (Orlando Bloom) ever trust each other again? And whose side is Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush), Jack's formerly dead rival for the helm of the Black Pearl, really on this time? I was also so looking forward to seeing Captain Jack Sparrow, with braids dangling, nostrils flaring and being the loopy character he is that is made up of twitches-swagger-and-flounce the first two Pirates of the Caribbean. In fact, Captain Jack Sparrow did not make his first facially histrionic appearance until the 30-minute mark. A really long wait!

I won't get into specifics...the movie was all-right, I won't say it was a terrible movie, but that it was terribly misguided and highly disappointing. Much of the pleasure of the first two movies was their silliness; by contrast, "At World's End" takes itself more seriously than a movie based on a theme-park ride probably should. Refresh my memory: Wasn't the first Pirates movie a hit because it was fun? Sure, there's a few laughs along the way ~ Sparrow and and Barbossa bicker - fighting for command of The Black Pearl, comparing telescope sizes, and debating the proper pronunciation of the word "are" in the process - but it's nothing compared to the way Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush hammed it up in the first movie. The action front was a letdown as well - apart from some scattered skirmishes here and there, the only large-scale set-piece arrives at the end of the film when the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman do battle in the middle of a stormy sea. Go see it if you've seen the first two but be warned...it is the last, longest, and most tedious of the bunch!

Pssst: did you get up and leave as soon as the credits came onscreen or did you wait to the very end and...?[well, now you know!]

Labels: movies

moi spoke out loud on 5/29/2007 08:31:00 PM

[7] told me everything loud and clear

Returning to "Far, Far Away" is always a happy homecoming!

We woke up early this morning to catch the 1st screening of Shrek the Third at Dole Cannery. If you've enjoyed the clever and very funny Shrek adventures so far, Shrek the Third will not disappoint; it's on a par with the entertaining original, and even a bit better than Shrek 2. The first 15 minutes of this picture had me rolling in the aisles. It felt so good to laugh that hard. I won't give away any spoilers, except like the first two Shrek films, the movie is significantly based on fairy tale (specifically Grimm's Fairy Tales) themes. The plot is smart and involving (but not overly cluttered). The animation remains vivid, colorful and enticing. Overall, there are some nice lessons to be learned about confidence in oneself and not buying in to what others say about you that are good things for kids to hear.

Labels: movies

moi spoke out loud on 5/19/2007 06:55:00 PM

[9] told me everything loud and clear

With great power, comes great responsibility...

The very much anticipated 2007 summer movie "blockbusters" kicked off yesterday with the release of Spiderman 3 (the third and possibly last installment of the Spider-Man trilogy). R and I went to watch the first show screening early this morning at Dole Cannery and I must say I really liked it! I won't spoil it for those of you who have yet to watch it...however I will say that it's not the "best" installment of the saga, but does introduce some new villains with an exhilarating balance of action and romance! Enuf said...go watch...

Labels: movies

moi spoke out loud on 5/05/2007 09:12:00 PM

[8] told me everything loud and clear