I am Legend

Today, Anisha and I went to the movies at Sky City cinemas. It also gave me the opportunity to check out the car parking in the area, and where my new job at ANZ National is going to be. Carole had bought Anisha and I a movie ticket voucher for Sky City Cinemas for Christmas.

We planned to use them today. However, I should have read the very restrictive conditions fully. The vouchers came with the following restrictions:

- Not valid Saturday night from 5pm or on films marked "no complimentaries"
- Not valid at IMAX Cinemas, Gold Class Cinema's or de Luxe Platinum
- Not valid at Film Festivals

Of course, the new film "I am Legend" is a no complimentaries movie. I made the executive decision to go anyway.

We now plan to use the vouchers to see "Bee Movie" which Anisha would like to see when it is no longer a "no complimentaries" movie.

Additional Information: The first dedicated "picture house" was built in New Orleans in 1896. However, theater-goers were going to have to wait a while for anything good to watch - Hollywood's first full-length film, The Squaw Man, wasn't released until 1913. Popcorn was first served in movie theaters in 1912, so it was actually in theaters before full-length films.

Resident Evil: Extinction

Anisha contacted me in the afternoon saying she wanted to go see a movie at the theatre. Her boss had given her some movie money for Sky City that day. The movie money was due to expire on the 30th, so we needed to use them as soon as possible.

I selected the movie Resident Evil:Extinction. We went to the cinema on Queen Street at the Force Entertainment Centre. I shouted Anisha some Burger King for dinner, and we spent a bit of time in Borders prior to watching the movie. Anisha bought herself a Jamie Oliver cookbook which appeared to be very well priced.

Being the third Resident Evil movie, I was expecting more of the usual crazed zombie attacks as the human race fights for its survival. I was not disappointed. Survivors of the Raccoon City catastrophe travel across the Nevada desert, hoping to make it to Alaska. Alice (Jovovich) joins the caravan and their fight against the evil Umbrella Corporation. The movie ends in an open fashion in order to facilitate a further sequel. The movie run time was a 95 minutes in length, short by modern standards.

Useless Information: In the five years since Las Vegas was evacuated the desert had overrun the city. Yet the courteous zombies still found time to water the palm trees so they don't die.

Om Shanti Om

In the late hours of Friday afternoon, I asked Anisha if she wanted to go see a movie tonight. Anisha has been wanting to see the Indian movie Om Shanti Om for some time now. We went to the 8:50 session at the Berkley cinema in Botany Downs. Fortunately, the whole movie had subtitles.

The movie was long, which I understand was typical of this type of Indian movie. I noted a large amount of over-acting by the actors which I understand is also the norm. Another interesting fact was that these movies tend to have a large amount of dancing and singing in them. I made the comment that they seem to jump into a song and dance at the drop of a hat.

I wont go too far into the details of the movie (okay, im just skimming the surface here), but basically this hot babe (I use the term from the subtitles) called Shanti (Deepika Padukone) get knocked-off by her husband, and a re-incarnated actor trys to facilitate the justice of her killer.

This movie contained significant portions of extreme humour, coated with passionate love, and hate. Highly Recommended.

Oh, and I better explain the photo as well. Anisha and I went to the Silvia Park shopping centre before going to the cinema. The photo was taken with my new Motorola V3x. Don't tell anyone, but I took a couple of the lollies in the basket to my right.

Useless Information: The word "moose" comes from the native Algonquian Indian word meaning "twig eater."

The Simpsons Movie

In the evening, Anisha and I went to see The Simpson's Movie. I found it to be a very funny movie. I did notice however, the reuse of some obviously successful components from the TV series we love.

Below is a brief description of some of the more major events that occurred in the movie.

The film begins with a concert performed by Green Day on Lake Springfield. After playing for a number of hours, they begin to speak about the environment. This immediately angers the crowd, who pelt the band with rubbish and bottles. The barge that Green Day are playing on eventually sinks, and they are presumed drowned.

The next day, the Simpson's family are attending church. During the service, Grampa Simpson is possessed by God and warns the city of a future disaster. He is whisked away quickly by the Simpson's family, after being wrapped up in the churches rug.

The story evolves around the pollution of a Lake Springfield. Lisa Simpson brings to the attention of the town the risk of contaminating the lake. The Mayor responds by banning dumping in the lake, and erecting various deterrent's to potential illegal dumpers.

At the time, Homer Simpson is in the possession of a new pet pig (Spider-Pig/Harry Plopper). Homer adopts this pig as it runs from Krusty the Clown after use in a Krusty commercial. The pig is destined to by destroyed after the commercial is complete. Now Homers new friend, This animal tends to cause a large amount of waste, which Homer has stored in an overflowing silo in his yard (Homer admits that some of the waste is his own). Homer also appears to be giving more attention to his new pet then his own son Bart.

After Marge Simpson's demands disposal of the pig poo, Homer is finally convinced to take it to a waste processing site for proper disposal. Unfortunately, he is distracted by a phone call from a friend (Lenny) who tells him that his favourite donut shop (Lard Lad Donuts) has been shut down and is giving out free donuts.

As there is quite a line at the disposal station, Homer becomes impatient and dumps his waste into Lake Springfield. This results in a number of ecological anomalies, such as a squirrel developing a dozen eyes after having immediate contact with the contaminated water.

During this time, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) finds out about the contamination, and places a large impenetrable dome around the entirety of Springfield. Nobody can enter, and nobody can exit. The EPA in its infinite wisdom decides to wipe Springfield off the map. This includes taking it off the map, and advertising it as the next Grand Canyon (Thanks to Tom Hanks).

The town finds out that Homer is responsible and wishes to crucify him for his crime. The Simpson family escapes through a sink hole in their backyard which takes them outside the dome. The Simpson family home falls into the sink hole behind them and is destroyed. The Simpson's family escape to Alaska to make a new start.

The Simpson's are now poor, with very little money. Homer wins a truck by performing a full-circle on a motorbike within a globe (Ball of Death) at a carnival. He will perform this again in an even more spectacular function later in the movie.

In Alaska, Marge and Homer have a fallout as Marge wants to help Springfield and Homer does not. This eventuates in Marge leaving Homer to try and return to Springfield.

Homer becomes frantic and starts looking for Marge, but falls asleep in the middle of the snow. The next morning a polar bear tries to attack him but a mysterious person dressed in Native American clothing wards it off and drags Homer to her tent.

When he is revived the stranger, revealed to be a woman with enormously sized breasts, tells him that he must reach an epiphany or he is doomed to spend the remainder of his days alone. He soon has a mysterious vision where he is tortured by a forest of trees and reaches an epiphany. He thanks the lady, and sets off to find the family.

At around the same time, Marge, Lisa, Maggie, and Bart are caught by the EPA who have a warrant out for their arrest (A Tip off from the NSA). They are released in the centre of Springfield after a failed attempt by Homer to break them free.

The EPA decides as a final solution (With the assistance of President Schwarzenegger), that they will destroy Springfield with a small but powerful explosive device. The device is lowered into Springfield. The bomb has a timer on it.

Homer returns to Springfield by entering a small hole at the top of the dome which was used to place the bomb into the town.

Eventually, with the assistance of Bart, Homer performs an impossible acrobatic stunt and Bart throws the bomb out of the gap at the top of the dome. The bomb explodes, shattering the dome. No injury is afforded to anyone, except Doctor Nick who appears to be severely injured by a large piece of the dome landing on his midsection.

As a final desperate act, Russ Cargill (In charge of the EPA), threatens to shoot Homer and Bart. They are saved when Maggie pushes a rock on to him, causing him to be knocked-out.

The town praises Homer for his efforts, and rebuild Springfield. We witness the Simpson's house being rebuilt. All is well.

There are multiple more subplots including Lisa meeting a new boyfriend (an Irish boy named Colin), a dare between Homer and Bart that results in Bart skateboarding naked to Krusty Burger. There is a loss of belonging for Bart towards his father, and the bonding between Bart and his neighbour Mr Flanders.

Useless Information: During the Middle Ages, few people were able to read or write. The clergy were virtually the only ones that could.

Harry Potter and The Order at MacDonald's

Today, Anisha wanted to see the latest Harry Potter movie entitled Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Anisha had taken the bus to the Botany Downs Shopping Centre. I went and picked her up from The Warehouse Botany where she had been shopping. I bought a sausage in bread from the usual charity stand in front of The Warehouse. It was only $NZ1.00, but I question the hygiene standards in use by the two Howick College boys there.

I slotted a little vacuum cleaning and dusting in at home, with Anisha as my aid.

Next we went to Silvia Park. As always, it took us an age to get a car park at that time of the day. However, it didn't take too long and we persevered until we found a space.

We went to MacDonald's for lunch. We then watched the Harry Potter movie.

We bumped into Nigel at Countdown Botany Downs. It looked like he had been doing some painting earlier today. Later on, we had dinner with mum and dad.

We watched CSI on the projector (mum had ironed the sheet that we had used!). After that Anisha was totally engrossed with the new Harry Potter book she bought from The Warehouse. She bought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Useless Information: If a family had two servants or less in the US. in 1900, census takers recorded it as lower middle-class.

A cellphone and some coke

Today, Anisha wanted to go to the Teddy Bear Factory. It was down our way so we went there for a bit, Anisha did some shopping at the local Grocer.

I went to get some petrol and the Shell station was really busy. The petrol was cheap today! I also went through the car wash. Anisha and I watched as the guys in front had their aerial broken as they had failed to put it down.

After that we went to Silvia Park and saw Oceans 13. I must remember that Anisha wants to see Shrek 3 as well. I saw Vaughn from school at the Borders bookshop. He was out with Jeremy Fong. I tend to run into Jeremy at shopping centres.

At the movie theatre there were two people in our allocated seats. The people wouldn't move until asked by staff. I snapped a picture of them. Anisha wouldn't let me get a good one.

I was sending a few text messages just before the movie started, and this real anal lady to the right aggressively told me to turn it off. I told her I was going to send one message and that was it. Unfortunately, she went on and on about it. I responded with an equally tort choice of words.

At the end of the movie, it appears that I had 'accidentally' spilled my remaining coke all over her pants and shoes. I was not around to verify this, as we had abruptly left the theatre when the movie was over. The only way I knew that the woman was covered in coke, was when she pointed this out to me outside of the theatre. Priceless.

Useless Information: Pirates thought having an earring would improve their eyesight.