Corner of Whatever

I must say that it’s been a while since I last sat through and watched an awards program like the Oscars, but for some weird reason, I felt drawn to watching it this year. It’s not as if I really care about the nominees this year because they’re no one that really stands out and I only saw a few of the films that are mentioned. But it’s probably because there wasn’t anything else good on TV.

I must say that Jon Stewart is doing a pretty good job as a host. He’s done this at least once before, right? Well the opening monologue and jokes weren’t that bad, but over the course of the program, it seems that they’re doing a lot of fill-ins to occupy some time, but then again they are doing some montages of the past 80 years to recap folks to the best stuff of the Oscars. The speeches though are pretty stale for the less-known categories and they’re naming a bunch of movies that are foreign and independent so what the hell do I know about ‘em?

No Country for Old Men seems to be doing pretty well for their awards and the Borne Ultimatum has been doing well also but only for the lesser known categories. And to my shock, no one has thanked God yet at the Academy Awards. What’s that about? The jokes are pretty funny and what’s classic is when Halle Barry and Dame Judi Dench were supposed to present, but in their place, the crazy stars from Superbad and Knocked Up appeared. Okay, you gotta see this for yourself.

Anyways, the show is decently put together. Maybe I need to go see these movies now?

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Movies, Television Academy Awards, Jon Stewart, Movies, Oscars

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So I caught an advance screening of the Walt Disney upcoming release National Treasure: Book of Secrets and it’s an impressive plot. Does it hold mustard and will it be a successful sequel? I don’t know, but it was very inviting. Don’t worry about if you haven’t seen the first movie as I didn’t seem to have to think about anything that was mentioned in the movie that referred back to the first one. However, you do need to know that Abigail Chase and Ben Gates are a couple at the end of the first movie…oh, and they found the treasure of the Knights Templar, but that’s about it.

The entire cast is back for this second round of treasure hunting…Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, Justin Bartha, and Diane Kruger. They bring in some new faces associated with the chase like Ben Gate’s mom (Helen Mirren), the villain (Ed Harris), and the President of the United States (Bruce Greenwood). and the plot takes you to more places than you would have seen in the first movie - Washington, DC, Virginia, England, France, and South Dakota. The basis of the plot, based on what you see in the trailer, is that Benjamin Gates’ great grandfather was named as one of the co-conspirators of the plot to assassinate President Lincoln and the movie goes on to show Gates’ family trying to prove this theory isn’t true.

There are a few things that you find out at the end that didn’t really tie things up…the president asks Ben Gates to do something and to look at a specific page in the mysterious President’s Secret Book, but find out if you know what’s on that page. Is Ed Harris’s character a good guy or bad guy at the end? What was the real purpose for framing the Gates’ family for the plot to kill Lincoln? You’ll need to watch the movie to find out lest I decide to ruin it here, but I’m not about to.

Overall, the movie was pretty well done. The visuals and the location shots were pretty good. Why did they stick with the cliche spots of DC (Library of Congress, the White House, and Congress)? I don’t know, but it would be nice to see some other scenery of different places. John Turteltaub did a great job of directing and there were some funny parts to the movie. Will we see a sequel to the sequel? Who knows…

Anyways, go check out National Treasure: Book of Secrets out in theatres on Friday, December 21. Then after you’ve done that, try and break the code on TrailsToTreasure.com and seek out the treasure in Washington, DC.

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Movies Movies, National Treasure, Nicolas Cage, Trails to Treasure, Walt Disney, Washington DC

So the next installment of National Treasure: Book of Secrets is set to be released this Friday, December 21, in theatres nationwide, but since a good deal of the movie was filmed in Washington, DC, my office decided to give us some perks and allow an “advance screening” of the film on Wednesday. I guess I’m stoked about this…especially since the last time I had to see movies for free and in advance was when I worked at StarrTech/Starr Seigle and I guess bogarted the passes from our media buying dept….yeah, I was a mooch, I admit it.

But anyways, so look for a blog or something later on Wednesday after I get back with a review. It should be interesting and worth seeing in the theatres.

Anywho, but I digress…because what I wanted to plug is that my office launched a campaign to coincide with the movie (seeing that a lot of it was filmed in the city) so we launched TrailsToTreasure.com - a movie-themed inspired campaign that allows you to go on a self-guided tour of all the places where the movie was filmed, like Georgetown, the White House, the Library of Congress, National Mall, etc. Hotel packages are available if you’re interested for $109/night and there’s even a “Break the Clue” contest where you go around to at least 6 places and find clues and if you’re successful, enter it on the site, break the code, and enter to win a trip to DC for two.

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So I decided to head over to the theatre today to watch Beowulf on opening weekend. The commercials make it seem appealing and probably worth the $8 I paid. Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t quite remember the entire story about Beowulf when I read it in my sophomore year in high school. But what I do remember is that Beowulf went after this monster, Grendel,  and slaughtered it and then killed Grendel’s mother. That’s pretty much it…but apparently this movie added some twist to it. It’s an interesting movie and the graphics are very comparable to those films by Pixar and Disney. I thought that it took a little bit just to get into the story and forces you to wait for any action to occur. The characters are quite believable and are voiced over by several well-known actors - John Malkovich, Anthony Hopkins, and Angelina Jolie. Out of those characters, the one played by Angelina is very much based off of her…and when she DOES make her appearance in the movie…WOW! hahah…well I would say go see this movie if you have a chance. I wouldn’t recommend seeing it opening weekend, but seeing it eventually wouldn’t hurt. Or if you prefer, go rent the DVD when it comes out. Either way, it’s an entertaining flick.

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