Big Movie Weekend

You have most likely heard me complain that the nearest movie theatre to where I live is about two hours away. Whereas in America I would go to the theatre weekly, now I can only go monthly. And to make matters worse, since the movies don't come out on the same schedule as in America and since I have never figured out the Japanese web sites that have movie listings, when I go to the theatre I have only a vague idea of what is playing. Sometimes there are good movies showing, sometimes only garbage, and sometimes there is a good movie but it is only being shown dubbed in Japanese.

This weekend our plan was to take the train to Shimoda on Friday, watch Kingdom of Heaven, which we knew was coming out, and then return to Shimokita the same night. The plan changed though when we discovered that Kingdom of Heaven opened on Saturday, not friday (why would a company EVER open a movie on saturday?). So, we decided to make the most of the weekend and watch Blade 3 on Friday, spend the night near Hachinohe, and then watch Kingdom of Heaven on Saturday. The third movie of the weekend was Constantine. Quite randomly, a Mutsu community center was having 3 screenings on Sunday. Movies in Mutsu are rare events. It eludes me as to why they would choose Constantine for such a rare event, but for whatever reason, I went.

Chris's opinions:

Blade 3: Some pleasant one-liners, a remade Dracula (buff, buzz-cut, renamed "Drake," and ready to club), and an intense scene where Blade's ally weeps over the death of a friend and Blade tells her in a deep voice, "Use it. USE IT!" make this uninspiring action movie worth seeing just for the laughs.

Kingdom of Heaven: It's always difficult to know just how historical these historical epics are. Toss such notions aside and this was a good movie, though not quite as profound as it wanted to be. Compared to Scott's other historical epic, Gladiator, I would say Gladiator is the better of the two, in part because Crowe's Maximus was more interesting than Bloom's Balian.

Constantine: There were some interesting visuals in this one, such as when Constantine smites some demon and its face breaks apart, and as it dies the little pieces of the face lie on the floor and continue to talk and look around nervously. There are some entertaining moments, but dont come looking for plot, acting, or even action, because there isnt much.