Friday, December 21, 2007

Saw Some "Treasure"

Phil and I woke up early this morning to run to Wal-Mart and buy a bunch of stuff we still needed for the Christmas Party. When we finished that, we headed to the NEW AMC Castleton Theatre (which will NEVER replace Castleton Arts) to see what the new theatre was like, and to catch "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" in DIGITAL!!!

I was over playing poker WAY TOO LATE at Troy's last night, and had no chance of catching a screening last night, but this film was HIGH on my priority list this year, and probably #1 at Christmas.

First, the theatre LOOKS beautful! Nice high lobby ceiling, some nice comfortable couches and chairs in one part of the lobby. Down the hallways they have some nice murals of various directors - showing the director on a set, giving his name and the name of the movie. Scorsese, Spieldberg, and Lee are the three I remember off the top of my head. The concession stand has BEAUTIFUL digital marquees - but, they aren't new, Landmark has had the exact same ones since they opened. But, it still looks better than regular concession marquees. I was disappointed that they don't offer pizzas - like Greenwood - since I hadn't had lunch, and was looking for something to eat at the theatre that would fill me up.

The presentation was very good. Nice LARGE screen. PERFECT picture. The digital sure does look amazing. The only problem with the presentation was the SEVEN trailers before the film (including "Speed Racer", which doesn't look as good as I thought it would, but I do still want to see it...), followed by a 7 or 8 minute short CARTOON starring Goofy!!! Before THIS FILM!?!?!? Seriously? Put that in front of another animated movie, or a true kids film. But, as an adult, don't ruin "National Treasure" for me with a long cartoon. It was a good and funny cartoon, I laughed a lot, but I would have preferred to watch it at home, when I was watching other animated shorts with Goofy in them! Anyways, the start time was 12:00pm, it was 12:25pm before The Disney Logo actually hit the screen to signify the start of the film.

The chairs SUCK. That's really the only true complaint I have about the theatre. It was SO UNCOMFORTABLE!!! It felt like I was sitting on a board the entire time, I constantly found myself shifting and trying to get comfortable. It never happened. I hope after this busy holiday season, and lots of people coming in, that they might lose some of their stiffness and become a little more enjoyable to sit in. Granted, I'll probably only go there and pay their fee for movies that I really want to see in Digital. Why pay for it, when I can still see it other places for free? But, there will be some things that I have to see in Digital. Just like there are some movies that I have to own on HD-DVD.

When we went to the theatre, I told Phil this: "I just don't want it to suck. I can handle it not being as good as the original, I just don't want the film to be complete crap."

It's not as good as the original.
But, it's NOT crap either.
So, I was pleasantly surprised with the film.
I laughed a lot. I still enjoy Riley and his side-kick comments.
The story is a little weak, but not really bad. It's just not as big and built up as the original one was. There's not as many clues and mysteries to solve. And there's not as much of a sense of danger as in the original. I LOVE Ed Harris and the character he plays. He fits in well, but at times did just remind me of playing a Sean Bean clone. While his intentions and motivations are different, he pursues Nic Cage and follows him very much the same. There's really no big plot twist in this one, not that there really was one in the first film, but when they get to the bottom of the pit and convince Sean Bean and his men that they need to go to Boston, that was kind of a good "pull the wool over their eyes" moment. Not one of those this time. It's much more simple, and much more "straight-lined" in their pursuit of things.

Bruce Greenwood plays the President! (You STILL haven't watched "Nowhere Man", have you??? SHAME ON YOU!!! What is your problem???) I wish he was in more of the film, but I enjoyed what he did. It's funny, I've loved this dude since 1994, and it seems like every couple of months I am mentioning his name in something new (and, then mentioning "Nowhere Man" which IS AVAILABLE ON DVD!!!). I'm very, very glad to see him getting this much work. He deserves it.

They left it open for a sequel. I recently read where Nic Cage wants to take the next film (if they make one), but I don't know if the "opening" they left in the film would actually take him to where he said he wanted to go. Either way, IF/WHEN the make the third one, I'll be interested to watch it too.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

TSO This Year

Amazing.
Probably more amazing than last year.
It's obviously fresher in my mind, but I do think they made some serious improvements.

The first hour and a half was the same as last year - music-wise. They went through the story from "Christmas Eve and Other Stories", which the entire album is a story about an Angel coming down to earth on Christmas Eve and visiting different places, and observing people and how they spend their holiday. The black gentleman who was the narrator (I don't know if it was the same one as last year) was AMAZING. The guy from last year was too, and they might be the same person.

I liked the set up of the lights better this year. It's hard to explain, in a way the vertical pillars had lights attached to them that came down diagonally and sort of resembled Tree branches. The over head light contraption was very similar to last year's in that it was (I think) 10 separate square light fixtures that moved basically 270-degrees in every direction.

The pyrotechnics were VERY increased from last year. Including much more fireworks during the regular show, and some pretty huge burst of flames that I could feel the heat from in me seat. And in addition to the rising stage in the middle of the audience, they also had a rising platform that had three "torches" on it, that they used. This year, the rising platform for the performers was directly in front of our seats (we were three rows up off the floor, directly in front of the stage) so we got to see the guitarist and violinist up close - following their rising stage performance, they continued playing their instruments as they walked up and down the aisles at Conseco - it was AWESOME. They would stop here and there to put on an extra display. The rising stage was also used by the lead singer in "Queen of the Winter Night" - which it is AMAZING what she can make her voice do.

This year they had dueling guitarists. Which was pretty cool. And luckily, they still did the dueling pianos, at one point including "Greensleeves" (which I don't know if Vince Guaraldi wrote or not, but I do know he has played the song on a Peanuts album) and the room (once again) ERUPTED (myself more than anyone) when they broke out with "Linus and Lucy" and used it as a segue into their Finale Medley. Amazing, amazing.

There were lasers.

There was snow.

It was amazing. It's a show that I am sad only happens once a year, here in town. I would go much more often, if I could. It AMAZES me what these people do with their hands, and the music that is made on their instruments. The way these guys play their guitars, and the way they blend guitars, strings, pianos, etc... all together to make these amazing sounds, just blows my mind. And then you couple that with their AMAZING visual light shows at the concert - it's just phenomenal.

I was able to track down a couple of videos on YouTube. This first one is cool because it begins with "Linus and Lucy" and then allows you to hear the different songs they strung together for their finale. it ROCKED!!! ENJOY:



This video is REALLY GOOD to show you the overhead lights, and how they moved:



This video gives you a good look at the "snow" coming down, as well as the video curtains that were on each side of the stage and going across the top:



Finally, this video just gives you a good overall feeling for how the stage looked, and all of the different lights that were used.



The best place to learn more about TSO is THEIR PAGE ON WIKIPEDIA.