Lots of Ass-Kicking!

** SPOILER ALERT **
Do not read any further if you plan to see this movie!
** SPOILER ALERT **

Apparently, there’s a big-ass space ship hovering over the entire city.

The space ship is empty, it’s former inhabitants now living in a tent city on the outskirts of Johannesburg. These aliens are called “S’crimps” because they look like tasty shellfish.

So Wikus is in love with this girl named Penelope Widmore, whose dad, Charles, is a giant asshole. Charles is always scheming and trying to find some island. I sure hope by “island,” he doesn’t mean “spaceship,” because that thing is floating above his head the whole time! Anyway, Charles doesn’t want his daughter, Penelope, to be with Wikus, so he plots to put Wikus in charge of “relocating” 1.8 million S’crimps.

Wikus sticks his face where it doesn’t belong, and eats a face-full of space dust, which slowly causes him to mutate into a S’crimp.

That’s when Wikus and one of the S’crimps named “Christopher” get all Lethal Weapon and shit, taking out humans left and right like any good “buddy flick” duo must. There’s also this totally cool Steven Segal part, where Wikus and Christoper open a can of whoop on some Nigerian drug ‘n gun traffickers.

Thanks to his mutated alien arm, Wikus can operate the organic alien weaponry. One of the guns makes people explode like a frog in a microwave. It’s so totally kick ass, they show it about 48 times.

Anyway, Wikus and Chris then go all Terminator 2 by breaking into Skynet to steal this technology that Skynet shouldn’t have. Chris needs it to “phone home.”

Then, more ass-kicking and frog-nuking.

Chris uses the Skynet technology to fire up the big-ass spaceship. Chris splits, leaving all his S’crimp buddies and Wikus, who eventually morphs entirely into a S’crimp.

The documentary ends by explaining that because Wikus was such a lame-ass, incompetent worker, Dunder-Mifflin gets some freelancers to do his job for him. These consultants successfully relocate all the shellfish to another area, called “District 10.”

Hey, I have an idea: They could totally make a sequel, and call it District 10. That would be rad.

I read The Lord of the Rings
as a child and re-read them as an adult.  When I worked in a group home for boys, I read it to them.  Several things stick out for me when I think back to seeing this movie on New Years in 2002.

One is how impressed I was with the character development and how much I could easily care about all of them, just as I had when I was reading the book.  Not just the “good guys” either ~ the movie actually made me appreciate characters that I had ignored or not focused as much on while reading their journey.

I know that some things were missed, some things were changed, but the overall story had passion for each character.

Another thing that impressed me was the how much of the story they were able to do. And with such skill.  It would have been so easy, and so Hollywood, to make this beautiful book into one movie.  But three movies!  So wonderful! To fully take us on the journey of “The Fellowship of the Ring”.

One more thing.  The love story.  It is not the most important part of the book ~ but it was important to me.  The three LOTR movies did it with a beautiful subtle romance.  It could have taken over the movie, it could have been taken out and replaced with more fighting scenes.  Instead, it was done with care.  I will also admit I am a fan of Liv Taylor.

If you have not seen them, or you were put off by the obsession that some have for this story, I recommend that you at least read the book.  The movies are beautiful and impressive (and very long) but the book is a classic work of art.

~I would say more about The Hobbit, but I hope to be able to write about THAT movie soon!

Book covers shown above:  The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy) done by J.R.R. Tolkien.  I did hear somewhere that Tolkien could not get The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy) published as one book, so he split them into three and was able to get them published that way.  He was way ahead of his time.  ~

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (film) 1990

My favorite movie of all times is
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1990) ~ the screenplay was done by Tom Stoppard, the same man who wrote the play by the same name (first staged in 1966). The movie stars Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Richard Dreyfuss and Joanna Roth. I actually still have a VHS copy of this movie and like to watch it at least once a year.

One year the actual play came to Kirkland, WA in February 2001 and I got to ~

Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead (2001)

It was very well done and fun to see the play vs. the movie. Live theater is such a treat and I don’t do it often enough. To truly love this play, or movie, you need to know the play Hamlet by Shakespeare ~ there is just no way around it. Rozencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is an inverse of Hamlet. So, if you know your Hamlet, you will love this story ~ if you don’t I still believe it is a must see if you like any of the actors in the movie. Gary Oldman and Tim Roth are so much fun to watch in this movie. So when I saw the play it was wonderful but really wanted Gary Oldman and Tim Roth to be the ones on stage.

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

Not everybody keeps movie tix, not every movie would be worth it anyway, but I used to keep my movie tix to keep in my photo albums. It is fun to look back at pictures to myself, my friends, where I used to live ~ and see the movies I was seeing at the time. You can almost go right back to the time when someone asks, “Did you see Top Gun (1986)?” or “Who did you see Usual Suspects (1994) with?” I can often answer that question ~ Movies have become crazy expensive, but I still make sure to see some movies in the theatre.
In 1996 I saw Long Kiss Good Night (for just $3.00), staring Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, Yvonne Zima. I personally really liked Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson and wouldn’t normally put them together in a movie, but in this movie, it worked. I have two favorite parts of this movie, one is when Geena’s character is starting to remember her past life through strange skills she has. She is in the kitchen, cutting veggies, and suddenly becomes VERY skilled with a knife. She does a great job being a sweet mommy and badass chick at the same time. The other part I like is when being chased by the bad guys, Geena and Samuel have to jump out a window of a building onto a frozen lake ~ which I believe she shoots as they jump so that the ice is broken when they land! The dialogue is great for this type of movie and if you haven’t already seen it, I recommend it for sure! ~

I lived in Portland, going to graduate school for Social Work, and always a political person ~ I got very excited to see Mr. Jackson speak at my school.

It was Jesse Jackson motivating people to vote in the 1996 election.  For me personally, Bill Clinton was the obvious choice over Bob Dole, but for Jesse Jackson it was about more than just voting. It was about participating, about being heard, about change and about Being Somebody.

That day in 1996 I was able to shake hands with Jesse Jackson and get a hug!  I have seen him speak since and I have never been disappointed!  I AM SOMEBODY!

Here is the original poem by Jesse Jackson.

Jesse Jackson in 1983 ~ from Wikipedia

I Am
Somebody
I Am
Somebody
I May Be Poor
But I Am
Somebody
I May Be Young
But I Am
Somebody
I May Be On Welfare

But I Am
Somebody
I May Be Small
But I Am
Somebody
I May Make A Mistake
But I Am
Somebody
My Clothes Are Different
My Face Is Different
My Hair Is Different
But I Am
Somebody
I Am Black
Brown
White
I Speak A Different Language
But I Must Be Respected
Protected
Never Rejected
I Am
God’s Child
I Am
Somebody

By Jesse Jackson

For me it is always a treat to go downtown to see a play.  This performance was especially good because it starred Cherry Jones , a theater favorite!

The Fisher Theatre is beautiful and it was a wonderful production ~ and impacted me deeply.  When I listen to the CD of the musical I can still remember being Row C, Seat 13 that night.  My Mom and I often get the songs stuck in our heads and can start singing them together without really even thinking about it.  Then we have to get the CD out and re-live the experience of Les Miserables.