Movie Review: Battle Los Angeles

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Every week I battle in my head as to where to spend my $8.50 for a matinee show of the movie that I will review for the week. The preview for this week's cinematic presentation had me intrigued and had me hopeful. It's fun to watch a city taken out by a volcano, earthquake or Godzilla. Unfortunately, I lost the war in seeing Battle Los Angeles.

Let me point out right up front that I wasn't even sure of the title of the movie. I saw the title with the name Los Angeles spelled out and in the abbreviation of LA. I also saw it with and without the colon between Battle and the city name. Since my title already includes a colon, I decided not to have a double colon in there!

When I walked into the theater, I had some hope. Due to the tsunami that hit Hawaii earlier that morning, many people had the day off and the theater for a 2pm matinee show was at the point of getting uncomfortable. You know the place where there really aren't those extra seats between you and your neighbor to give you that zone of protection. There were only a few of those spacer seats left.

Once again Los Angeles and the world is in trouble. We're being invaded by aliens. If you've seen Independence Day, War of the Worlds, Battlefield Earth, Cloverfield or Skyline, you've pretty much seen this movie. Nothing new was covered here. Just offshore of major cities around the world "meteors" have crashed into the ocean and the hordes of technically advanced invaders come ashore.

To rescue civilians behind enemy line, Marines from Camp Pendelton including SSgt Michael Nantz (the square jawed Aaron Eckhart) are sent in. They battle the enemy not knowing anything about them. In the background we have snippets of news reports to help us fill in information gaps.

Camera shots are shakey. They are very shakey. It was harder to watch this movie than Cloverfield. Towards the end the camera shots did settle down a bit, but it was still tough to watch.

Like Skyline, there were some impressive computer generated images, but the detail are hidden between the quick shots, looking through view finders, or heat plumes. Lots of things go boom!

Even though Nantz was the main focus of the story, writer Christopher Bertolini had too many extra characters between civilians and marine. The 116 minutes wasn't enough to give meaning to the stories of the rescuers or rescued. While battling to get to a safety zone the question remained, can these invaders be taken out by a virus or bomb or something the enemy underestimated?

With the battles and dealing with marines, the movie was rated PG-13 for sustained and intense sequences of war violence and destruction, and for language. I would dare suggest that this will be a Razzie nomination in 2012 for worst picture. Let's just hope they don't plan on Battle Washington DC or Battle Rio de Janeiro.

The Movie Monkey

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DC2CERUMA - Day 14

Today was a relaxing day that had a couple of extra cool moments. It was a great way to wrap up my last full day of my Disney Coast to Coast-er Universally Magic Adventure by hitting the tenth park of the trip with an unexpected guest followed up with a a couple of activities that I had not planned on doing at all during the trip.

At my old job I had a hiring and firing responsibility. I hired Asa and about two months after I was let go, he was laid off too. He moved from Hawaii back to California and we've kept in touch. He took time out of his schedule to come over to my hotel and together we visited Universal Studios Hollywood. Along the way we stopped in Buena Park where I was able to get postcard stamps (note, I have to make sure I bring the stamps with me since I can't trust Disneyland or Magic Mountain or places where you BUY postcards to have postcard stamps!) and we did a quick drive by of Knott's Berry Farm.

I hadn't been to Universal in two years and for Asa it had been ten something so there was a lot new for him and for me it was the West Coast version of the Simpsons ride. I have to say, that the whole Simpsons attraction is one sharp witted and fun experience. Between the videos in the queue and the main attraction, they poke fun at so much! The little stints that Patty and Selma, Apu, Mole Man and grounds keeper Willie just before you get ready to board are wonderful how they bounce back and forth with banter. Yeah, a very good attraction!

The whole time was at a nice pace. The weather was warm, but not uncomfortable. The park had misters going all over the place to help keep it cool. There were no lines to speak of. The longest we waited was about 15 minutes for the Simpsons everything else was one or two vehicles. The Mummy was so light that when Asa asked to move from the second row to the first row, Amelia told him how to get back in line quicker. For the tram tour we lucked out; Wysteria lane was open. We had the chance to see the exterior sets used for the show Desperate Housewives. The last visit had the road closed. The one thing I didn't see as much as when I was over in Florida was characters. Only saw a few like Lucy, Groucho Marx, and Sponge Bob.

The end of the time in the park we were able to squeeze in Waterworld and Terminator 2: 3D. Recently I made comments about the relevance of Waterworld. After seeing the stunt show, having the movie tie is doesn't matter. It was a fun, action filled, VERY WET (at least for some of the lower seats) concise example to stuntman workmanship. The downed airplane landing in the theater...classic! When Waterworld got out we had to hustle over to catch the last show of the day with the folks of Cyberdyne.

Asa had suggested staying in the area a bit afterward to avoid some of the rush hour traffic. My friend Jeff had mentioned Griffith Park so we ventured up to Griffith Observatory. I'm so glad that the two came together. It was exciting to see a LA landmark plus the fact that I'm a science and math guy this place got me excited. The interior of the building was gorgeous. The exterior was just as beautiful. The vistas even with the smog were incredible. Watching the sunset was just one of those moments you go WOW! On the lawn there were two telescopes set up. One was trained on Venus and the other Saturn. It was incredible to see the rings through that little eye piece. With that we departed to make our way back down to Anaheim.

For dinner Asa suggested a place called Lee's Sandwiches on Harbor Blvd. He was very enthusiastic on the place. They had 10" baguette sandwiches for under four bucks. Not a bad deal. He suggested getting the jalapeno peppers too! This is the first time that I can remember getting a fresh sliced jalapeno, not one that had been marinating in some jar for months. To wash it down, a lychee smoothie. It was very tasty, the bread was fresh and you know you have a good jalapeno when your nose starts to run! Asa also treated me to a chicken taco from Alberto's. It was very good as well. Nothing like I get in Hawaii!

Asa was great company. Thanks for showing me some of the food choices here in California. They were far better selections that the burger and pulled pork sandwich from Universal! I want to mention Phil from Florida and say a big mahalo to him as he provided me with the tickets for the park.

Back at the hotel I was busy working on my postcards and in comes Jeff. He attended DPN Westfest and stayed at the Grand Californian during the event but has since moved hotels before flying out to Honolulu to visit with me for a few days. We got talking about his adventure of the day. Turns out we were both at Griffith Observatory at the same time. We have the same sunset photos! Looks like I was one level lower than him while taking the shots. Too funny!

In one way I'm glad the trip is coming to an end. I am tired. I already told Jeff not to expect a whole lot out of me on Thursday as I need a little recoup time. By hitting Universal Studios Hollywood, that makes ten parks in 14 days. Tomorrow will just be a little time in Disneyland before getting the shuttle back to LAX and then Honolulu. It will be nice to put my head down in the Apartment in Paradise once more.

DC2CERUMA - Day 0.5

Today started the Disney Coast to Coast-er Universally Magic Adventure (DC2CerUMA). This trip will take me to Walt Disney World in Orlando and Universal Studios Florida. I'll then be heading over to Anaheim to visit Disneyland for the DPN Westfest event with a day for Universal Studios Hollywood and Magic Mountain.

I'm writing this earlier than I expected and hence the 0.5 day. I was hoping to be writing this after my first full day at Disney World. But I got hit with the bug a boo! Got Delta's flight to Los Angeles from Honolulu. In a weird plus to the event I ended up sitting across the aisle from the guy who invented LOL cats at the Icanhascheeseburger web site. How do I know that it's him? I used to work with Eric. We hadn't taken off when the crew came on and let us know that we were heading back to the terminal for a sick passenger to get off. OK, at least we weren't airborne!

We're sitting at the gate and I see the ramp moved to the plane, see a person leave the plane and then the ramp pulled away from the plane. Then we sat. I was already a bit worried for a tight connection since when I originally made the reservation I had like an hour for the connection. The week before departure I received a notice that flight had moved and had 40 minutes for the connection. So we're sitting for a little bit when the pilot comes on and says that they were receiving additional fuel and that they would be leaving in a few minutes. But we sat. When we finally moved it was almost an hour later. According to the official information on the Delta web site, departure was 1:59pm. Maybe the pilot can put the petal to the metal or put the muster in the thruster and get us to LA on time, 9:30pm LA time.

The airlines have their rules, when the plane pulls away that is departure time and when the wheels hit the ground is the arrival time. That arrival time doesn't include the time to taxi to the arrival city's gate. When we arrive in LA, we approach the gate and then stop. The pilot comes in and tells us that he's got to power down the plane and wait for the tractor to be towed into the gate. UGH! When I checked-in in Honolulu, I talked to the agent about the tight connection and she moved me to the second row in the cattle car section so I was closer to the front of the plane. When the door opened and people started to deplane, as I passed the flight attendants they were making announcements about connections and said the the flight to Orlando had already departed.

Long story short, they couldn't get me out that night. When told about the time of departure and arrival into Orlando for the next day, I told the agent, Azali that I'd be loosing a day at the Disney parks and that ticket was $131 (Single day park hopper). He offered me a $100 travel credit good for one year on Delta. Well, to the best that I can remember, this is only the second time EVER that I've flown Delta. He said I could give it to someone. Asked him why would I give money to someone for me loosing money and told him it wasn't good enough. He had no answer. They are putting me up at the Holiday Inn with a meal voucher for all of $6.00. Heck I can't even buy a combo meal at McDonald's for that amount. Ashley at the front desk of the Holiday Inn LAX said she didn't know what they had that would be covered by the voucher cost. While Azali and Ashley, oh, how funny, both their names begin with A, were pleasant, neither have gone above and beyond to get one of the AWESOME JOB cards that I plan on using during the trip.

I'm gonna cut it here. It's after midnight in LA and I'm going to need to be at the airport for 6am for a 7:55am United flight. When I check in tomorrow, I'll see what else they can do for me and let you know.

Aloha for now!