Movie Review: Going the Distance

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Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of summer. Long weekend. Hopefully a weekend to cap off the summer nicely. Wanting to laugh, I chose the romantic comedy with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long playing two lovers who were trying to make a bi-coastal relationship work. By the time the 109 minutes had passed, I felt like I was Going the Distance just to make it through the movie.

Garrett (Long) has just been dumped by his girlfriend. To get over the sorrow, his roommate Dan (Charlie Day) and friend Box (Jason Sudeikis of SNL fame) take him to a bar where he meets and immediately bonds with Erin (Barrymore) over a game of Centipede and bar trivia. Instant sparks between the two! Both come to the conclusion that they would like to continue to see each other but it comes with a caveat. She's leaving in six weeks to go back to San Francisco at the end of an internship at a New York city newspaper.

Predictably they get along famously and when her departure time arrives, they decide they want to try to make it work via a long distance relationship. E-mails, video chats, texting and phone calls are tools in the arsenal to keep and grow the connection between them. It's not like the old days where you'd have to wait for the post office to deliver a letter or run up huge long distance bills. With laptop cameras standard today, "seeing" each other is very simple process outside of dealing with time zones. They might not be able to go to the movies together, but they can watch the same YouTube video simultaneously via the web.

Eventually they are going to have to make a decision. Who is willing to compromise and make the move. Erin's living in a room in her sister's and brother in law's house. She's got it pretty comfy. Garret has his awesome job with a record label that allows him to live with Dan in an apartment constructed of paper thin walls which provides for a running joke throughout the movie. What to do, what to do?

Following the formula: boy finds girl, boy looses girl, boy regains girl, the first is covered adequately. This happens for about half the movie. The second and third parts of the movie are not as strong as they should be. The conflicts that you would expect to happen, don't really happen and for the ones that do, they seem to overcome them like a knife cutting through room temperature butter. It didn't come through like the obstacles they faced were particularly tough to defeat.

One aspect of the movie that detracted from the overall tone and plot was the language. I recently heard that a freelance writer makes three cents per word in their stories. If that's the case, writer Geoff LaTulippe made about $67.35 with the swear words in this movie. It was rated R for sexual content including dialogue, language throughout, some drug use and brief nudity. That didn't bother me, not trying to be a prude or anything. The drugs and the language were in there and they didn't add to the story. It was fluff filler and didn't give any more depth to the characters or move the story forward. I think they were using it to try to distract you from realizing the weak writing that permeated this film.

A few of the scenes were funny. Barrymore has shown that she can do an awesome job. Look at Whip It. Oh wait, she starred in and directed that one! Maybe she should have directed this one too. So much more could have come from this movie in both the comedy and romance. Grease Sing-A-Long, I'm hoping that you'll give me a good end to the summer movie season because Going the Distance didn't go the distance for me.

The Movie Monkey

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Movie Review: Takers

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Summer is almost over and all the block busters have run out. We start to slide into the slow season with the horror movies starting with Halloween not too far around the corner, but far enough from the Oscar nominations in January that "the good stuff" is held out until Thanksgiving thru December to be fresh in the mind of academy voters. The major selections this week were a bank heist or an exorcism. OH WAIT! We did have a re-release of Avatar in 3D IMAX only at least in the theater that I regularly attend. Been there, done that except for the extra eight minutes they added. At a cost of $17, that's over $2 per minute and I'd have to endure the other two hours and forty-three minutes, I think instead of giving my money to James Cameron, I'd rather let the bank heist be Takers!

One of the fun parts of watching a bank heist movie is watching the plan come together. The first time we see our "heroes" they are actually pulling off the job. They gather, they execute, they get away to commit more robbery on another day. They're so brazen as to not take out all of the video cameras and mug for the recording. At their final get away destination we are given a little glimpse into the criminals. One drives away in a SUV, another a two-seater vintage sports car and a third on a motor cycle.

The next time we see the gang it's almost like seeing GQ models on set. Champagne, cigars, investment talk. The leader Gordon (Idris Elba) is working with offshore investment bankers. The discussion is of ROI, financial news from Bloomberg and how to make sure the assets are safe. These men look at their thievery as their source of income and even talk about what amounts to a tithe of ten percent to be given to the usual charities anonymously of course! This is their chosen life endeavor as if they were investment bankers.

Chasing the bad guys is the cop who is obsessed with catching them. Jack (Matt Dillon) and his partner Eddie (Jay Hernandez) deal with the day to day events of tracking down every day bad guys, but when these big events hit and new clues become available Jack narrows focus to the detriment of his now ex-wife and daughter. Eddie on the other hand is just barely holding on with life exacerbated by a seriously ill family member.

Just after the big heist a former member of the gang, Ghost (TI "Tip" Harris), is released from jail. He approaches the gang to their surprise with a big pay day of $25-$30 million for a job but it will happen quickly, not like their normal turn around time. All the gang Jesse, Jake, AJ and John (Chris Brown, Michael Ealy, Hayden Christensen and Paul Walker respectively) agree to take Ghost's plan with Gordon's command. You already know by then, deviating from their norm that plans will not go the way they expect.

As the movie progresses, we realize that we've seen this before. Nothing ground breaking or earth shattering. Is a bad guy really a good guy or a good guy really a bad guy. I found myself not really caring. The character development wasn't in place that I should care for them. To start with most of the main characters are criminals. If they get caught, they're bad guys and not Robin Hood bad guys who are trying to take back what was rightfully theirs. The one person I cared for was Rachel played by Zoe Saldana. She's got some action acting chops and is hawt and yet she only got a few minutes on screen. The movie could have done with more Zoe screen time!

The action was nothing spectacular. There was lots of intense shooting, not a huge amount of blood given the amount of lead that went flying from the different guns. That taken with some language and sexual situations/partial nudity earned the movie a PG-13 rating. Was my one hour and forty-seven minutes wasted? It wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. For an end of the summer movie it was just average and probably better than the eight extra minutes in Avatar and in the long run saved myself an hour between the two movies run times.

The Movie Monkey

To subscribe to the audio podcast of the reviews via iTunes click here. Audio versions are released the following Wednesday.

Disney's Aulani Resort and Spa Transportation Information

The question was asked how to get between Honolulu International Airport (HNL) and Disney's Aulani Resort and Spa at Ko olina. It's about 21 miles between HNL and Aulani. Here is the information that I have as of today, August 21, 2010.

I was talking to the folks at the Disney Vacation Club sales kiosk at Ala Moana shopping center. As of now, there is no plan for a Disney Magical Express option for guests. Will there be one in the future? They don't know at this point.

Taking the public bus called The Bus is not an option as they don't go into the Ko Olina resort area. First, you'd have to walk quite a bit to get to a stop on Nimitz Highway for a single bus ride or you'll have to do transfers. At Ko Olina, they stop on Farrington Highway near the Waimanalo Gulch landfill entrance and then you have to cross a busy highway and walk in 1/2 a mile to the resort. Part of the walk in has no walk way. Plus they don't allow big luggage on the bus. I have not heard any plans at this time for The Bus to create or change a route to go into Ko Olina and Aulani. Please don't even attempt this option. The inconvenience and safety are not worth the hassle and risk.

If you take a shuttle service like Reliable Shuttle (808)-924-9292 locally or 888-924-9292 toll free, it would be $31 per person with one bag one way between the two points.

If you take a cab like The Cab (808-422-2222) or Charley's Taxi (808-233-3333) then it is about $75 and $60 or more dollars respectively one way and if there is traffic, well you know how that works!

If you really want to visit other spots on the island, you will need a rent-a-car (RAC). I was told that they will have a RAC counter on property, but no one has been named yet. I'm thinking Alamo as 1) they are the offical RAC for other properties and 2) the name sort of looks Hawaiian.

Driving from HNL to Aulani is very easy as the airport connects to the H1 freeway west or as we say the H1 Ewa bound. The airport RAC locations just follow the signs to H1 West. If you use the off site RAC locations, take Nimitz Highway west and follow the signs to the H1 West. Take H1 West where you'll take the exit marked Ko Olina after about 19-17 miles depending if you got on at the airport or had to take Nimity Hwy. The exit goes up and over the H1 and brings you to a security check point on Aliinui Dr. Once past that, you will go over the Hawaii Railway railroad tracks, past the entrance to Paradise Cove Luau, the Campbell Estate office and then to the intersection with Olani Street a little over a quarter of a mile from the security check point. The speed limit is 25 MPH and they have a radar sign to let you know your speed. Just after Olani from the artist renderings that I've seen will be the porte-cochere entrance to Aulani. With NO traffic on the H1 figure about 30-45 minutes, with traffic, especially rush hour, it may take an hour or more.

Getting out may be a little more difficult as you'll have to get around a median in front on the resort. I haven't seen where they will have the exit for the resort. If they exit you on Kamoana Place, then turn left at the intersection of Kamoana Pl and Aliinui Dr. If you are put onto Allinui Dr you'll need to go to the break in the median at Kamoana Pl and make a U-turn. But, once on Allinui Dr heading back to the security check point, it's a breeze to get back on the H1 going west or east (Diamond Head) bound.

Hope that gives you some more information. Please note all this information is not from Disney and is subject to change.

Information on this blog copyright 2010 Frikitiki Productions