Click on the link below to see pictures of our April trip to Sedona, AZ with Alicia.


https://plus.google.com/photos/104558674974334182523/albums/5735729553463464865

LOCKOUT

I was looking forward to this movie starring Guy Pearce; a mindless silly plotted but action packed sci-fi thriller and both of us were very disappointed. The President's daughter who was touring a futuristic prison in the sky was kidnapped by the inmates and Guy Pearce was sent in to rescue her. OK, simple enough but filled with too many incredulous parts for even a movie of this genre. The most unbelievable was the rescue landing from the floating jail which was gentle and smooth and ended on a totally deserted freeway. It was almost like watching a hot air balloon tour.

Pearce was supplied with witty and sarcastic one-liners and at first these were humorous and smart but that comprised his entire dialogue throughout out the film and after the first 15 minutes it became highly annoying. However, not as much as the patter and "relationship" between him and the daughter. Her acting was on a par with January Jones.

the only character i enjoyed from beginning to end was the crazed one-milky-eyed  brother of the leader of the inmate band.

CHANTILLY TEA ROOM - TUCSON, AZ

I had forgotten that one goes to this tea room for the atmosphere, for the beauty of the surroundings, for all the smells from the different teas, for the gardens and ponds and waterfalls and flowers and frill and ribbons and pastels and scalloped edges, for the Southern Belle gentility and quietness and the sedate whispers.    
 One does NOT go here for good food. Maybe its just as well that the servings are teeny-tiny dollhouse sized.

Chris and I split two breakfasts; each was $10. There was peaches and cream french toast which was beyond sweet and drenched in a lip-smacking carbo-high caramel sauce. That came with a fruit cup. Then there was a potato and mushroom casserole that was about as big as half of a Milky Way candy bar. This was bland. The 'casserole' came with a fruit cup and a chocolate hazelnut cream scone. the scone was a 2-biter and was accompanied by a soft mushy mound of apple-pecan-yoghurt butter.

Nothing in this place is just plain; everything is gussied up with sweet. They don't even have plain sourdough bread; the bread of the day was something like cashew-turtle-white chocolate. All the food is served on small plates and you eat with dessert forks and butter knifes.

After about 20 minutes here, i had the return of an urge i remember from when i ate here during Tucson #1. I get an impulse to expose myself, shout obscenities and start a food fight.

CHRONICLE

A short and enjoyable movie about 3 teens who discover a hole in the ground and during their explorations of the cave (because naturally they had to descend into the hole) they came into contact with a large swirling amalgam of light which they touched.

This led to extraordinary powers mainly involving making things and themselves levitate and fly and moving objects and people. The next part of the movie following their awareness of these powers was the most fun for me. They gradually tested the limits of their newfound abilities and played pranks on other people (like moving a lady's car to another parking spot in the lot  while she was shopping) and the segment which showed them all flying high above the clouds and playing football and almost getting clipped by a jet was very entertaining.

However, shortly after this the powers started to be used to get even and for revenge by Andrew, the shyest and most withdrawn teen who had a dying mom and an abusive dad. Andrew turned out to have a very dark side; swirling mounds of violence that had probably been repressed for years. And what sets him off is not having the money to pay for his mom's pain medicine. as an aside, the copay was over $700.

So the rest of the film was all mayhem as Andrew blew up buildings, overturned cop cars, killed hospital personnel; just went out of control. Andrew had already killed one of the group and the remaining member caused a spear from a statue to skewer Andrew.

The very ending became even stupider as the survivor went to Tibet which is where andrew (in happier days) wanted them all to fly to and  this friend filmed himself in front of very obviously Dollar Tree quality calendar pictures of mountain ranges and temples. He told Andrew he loved him and that he was going to do good with his life.

A lot of the movie especially in the beginning was shot in a Blair witch hurly-gurly shaky-man fashion which made me dizzy. But except for the last 1/4th of the movie i enjoyed it. It also helped that the admission price for Bill and I was only $4.