November 2005 Archives

*/****
Dir: John Putch
2005 English Color 156 min.

This movie sucked so bad that it was a chore to sit through. Now I know you are all saying, "Oh that’s just because you like the original so much". Not true. I have been aching for an updated Poseidon Adventure for many years and back when all I wanted to do was make movies, I had hatched a plan to create an updated version (that and one for DW Griffith's Intolerance, but that is another post).

Before I dive into what really went wrong with this movie, I should point out that I have never read Paul Gallico's book so I do not know if it is closer to the original story than the original movie, but regardless, the problems are numerous:

1. There was no protagonist: Gene Hackman pushed the survivors to the limits to get them to the engine room. In the new version, it was sort of a committee decision and the bishop character (Rutger Hauer) was a total wimp

2. Terrible acting: I can't think of anyone in this movie that was believable or even remotely interesting. When a major character dies that brings me to tears in the original, I shrugged and thought thank god.

3. The whole rescue angle: Valuable screen time was wasted on the rescue angle. I want more upside down ship and people swimming for their lives. Not some bored actors pretending to be interested in what was going on.

4. Terrorists? Jeez do you have to update everything. I guess Tsunamis are too touchy a subject these days.

5. The second group: They leave way after the original group does and actually leave right as everyone gets swamped in the ballroom. Yet the original group has to dodge fire and swim underwater for 90 seconds, this group wanders a few corridors and runs into Rogo.

6. The original exit is blocked? Heck let's blow a hole in the other side. Wow. Lets blow a hole in a sinking unstable ship. That's a great idea.

7. The captain’s name was Paul Gallico. Not Captain Gallico, but Captain Paul Gallico – and Peter Weller made sure everyone knew this was a **wink-wink** nod to the author. Several times. Over the PA. Once would have been sufficient guys.

I could go on for days. Thank goodness I have the original to get the bad taste out of my mouth. Also, the Big Screen remake titled Poseidon looks awesome and has real actors! Check it out on May 12, 2006!

All in all it was a pretty nice day. Loads of relatives showed up at Casa Mama to partake, even my grandparents who unfortunately have to rely on the Red Van to get around. I of course was not exactly thrilled to have to suffer through a holiday with the beast on my eye. I think Thursday was its worst appearance yet - partially because I was tired from getting up before dawn to catch the plane to Phoenix. Luckily throughout the day it improved.

In my eye and sleep induced fervor, I forgot my camera so I never got to take any pictures. We did have a great meal with Turkey, ham and roast Beef plus all the usual sides. Gary even made three pies as well as a chocolate cake. After dinner as the numbers started to dwindle, we played "Scene-It" and Trivial Pursuit. Needless to say I was on the winning side on both. I particularly angered the opposing team for Scene-It since I missed out on a few rounds and really only participated in the final challenge which I nailed all three questions. TP finished closer that it really was since Mom and I dominated with help from Chantal and sometimes Kameron.

I usually get up for Black Friday, but the only thing that looked appealing was a Flash drive, but I didn't feel like braving the crowds. Daniel told me of his experience trying to get Leslie a laptop at Wal Mart. Sounds horrific, but hey at least she got one!

Friday was spent relaxing. The beast finally started to relinquish some fluids, and was markedly improved. I still didn't like the thought of traveling with it since I am sure the people on the plane were wondering what kind of freak I was. Today, the beast had shrunk a little more, and I've decided to take it easy around the house. I’m hoping to work on some anti-clutter projects around the house.

Ugh. I can think of no other way to express it. After the worrisome bacterial infection of the past summer, the sequel has reared its head, except this time it is around my left eye. It seems that I have some sort of stye/spider bite thingy that has swollen my eyelid. To boot, the bumps near my eye are particularly painful. Personally it feels like there is a huge piece of sleep trying to get out. So off to Urgent Care I went.

The doctor kind of gave me the "I can't believe you are here for this" look before prescribing an antibiotic and some creme. The worst part? I have to put this stuff that looks like Neosporin in my eye three times a day. It had better be worth it!

I am so over having these things in highly visible areas. How about something I can hide from plain sight so that people of work don't stare and hurriedly take their children in the opposite direction?

And of course the kicker is that Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I have to fly over to Phoenix. Great. Now I am going to be scaring children and I will get extra security scrutiny because I have an Evil Eye. I think Mom mentioned something about family photos to boot. Kind of like that photo of the 50th celebration with my last facial blemish. Is there no escaping it??

I have a large backlog of Movie Reviews coming down the pike. I have written most of them, but just need to go back and revisit some of them to fine tune.

Got a message from Jonathan. He is in Buenos Aires and was thinking that we should visit Argentina together sometime. I am all for it - especially if we can do either a Rio-BA-Santiago trip or BA-Antarctica cruise. Maybe 2007?

Alex called me last night to remind me about NBC's Hallmark Hall of Fame remake of the 1972 seminal classic - The Poseidon Adventure. At first, I thought it was a joke, but lo and behold it is the real deal - catch it NBC Sunday at 8/7C. In doing some research, I discovered that there is a big screen remake being done by Wolfgang Petersen entitled Poseidon. It reminds me of a similar situation in 1997 when there was a TV miniseries about Titanic that aired when the movie was supposed to come out before it was delayed 6 months.

Some other interesting nuggets:
In the TV remake, it is a terrorist bomb that capsizes the boat rather than a tidal wave (it becomes a rogue wave in the movie). Oh, those wacky 2000's!

The TV remake features some of the same characters whereas the movie doesn't. Here is hoping they can convince Pamela Sue Martin, Stella Stevens, Gene Hackman, Shelly Winters, and any other living stars of the original to be extras in the big New Year's bash.

And one last disaster programming note: I still have not watched part two of Category 7: The End of the World. Part One was so chock full of cheesy goodness that I can’t wait to see more!

One of my many tasks when I work at My Dad's is to go to Smart and Final to pick up supplies for the shop and his household. One of the regular items to pick up is dog food for the famous guard dog at work. The dog is uber picky about food so I make sure to get her the chopped beef rather than the chunky beef. Apparently the dog likes her food as unrecognizable as I do.

So I went up to grab two packages - no worries. Around the next two I noticed a peculiar smell and to boot I could see something moving. I shuddered at the realization that one of the cans of dog food had ruptured and had been sitting on the back shelf of the Smart and Final (that's the one in Huntington Park off of Alameda) for a few days/weeks and had rotted to the point that there were maggots crawling all over the spoiled food. I nearly lost my lunch (thank goodness I didn't have the usual morning prefab off the lunch truck!) I decided to skip dog food this time and continued about my shopping.

I couldn't shake that smell. It seemed to be on my hands and my clothes and inside my nose for good. Thankfully, when I got back to the shop the Sulfur Dioxide killed the odor in my nose and a thorough hand washing got the stank outta my hands. I think I will have to burn my shirt though.

I am experimenting with posting someone else's photos....

Man, why can't my photos of Mont Saint Michel look this good...

So I found this old photo of me on Flik's Flyers and I thought I would try and see if I can get it to post to Club Josh via Flickr. If this works - look out!

Man it is tough changing between Fliks and Flickr. Both look like typos.

Today I finally bit the bullet and started going through some of the eyesore boxes that still clutter up my house. I still have a goal to be clutter free by '06 and time is running out.

First up: The huge wardrobe box in the corner by my bathroom. This box has been unopened since March 2003 when I moved into my current apartment and had most of my posters and other wall hangings inside. After a thorough review, 90% went into the dumpster. It was tough saying goodbye to some of the posters which have graced my walls since high school, but I decided to just keep the nicer Disney Attraction Posters and a select few movie posters. I also kept some cartography and technical drawings that I made in high school and college. Unfortunately my map of New Zealand was not in such good shape and had to be tossed.

I always love it when I get a chance to pare down boxes. One of the big problems I have is that the apartment dumpsters are picked up Friday morning, so when I get a chance to clean on Thursdays, they are already full. I think I am going to take some extra days off in the middle of the week here and there to help speed up the process.

Wish me luck - and Happy Birthday Jerri!