Friday movie roundup - Dec. 15, post-blackout edition
This has not been an easy week for reviewing movies.
On Monday, as I drove from my apartment to catch a screening of “We Are Marshall” (opening next week), a BMW smashed into me and totaled my car. Nobody was hurt, but I missed the movie.
Then last night, I arrived at the Lloyd Center Cinemas for a screening of “Eragon,” only to find that the theater was without electricity. A very windy and rainy storm had hit Portland and had knocked out their power. Unfortunately, “Eragon” requires electricity to be exhibited — it is not a gas-powered movie — and so the screening was off.
So I killed time elsewhere for a while before returning home to finish my other reviews and complete the print and podcast versions of “In the Dark.” I get home and discover the entire section of North Portland where I live is without power. About 2,600 customers, according to the automated message on Portland General Electric’s hotline. I couldn’t write the reviews (no computer, and not enough candlelight to write them longhand), couldn’t finish “In the Dark,” couldn’t watch TV, couldn’t do ANYTHING. I finally walked to a bar & grill down the street that still had power, where I ate a hamburger and read a book. They had wi-fi, but even if I’d used my laptop, it would have been to no avail, as everything I needed was on my desktop. I went to bed at about midnight, and the power came back on around 2, I think.
All of the above is why:
- The reviews of “The Pursuit of Happyness” and “Charlotte’s Web” were late in being posted.
- “In the Dark” was late in being e-mailed to you.
- There is no “Eragon” review. I plan to catch it this afternoon and post a review this weekend. (Also, just so you know, I haven’t heard a single good thing about it. Not that this will prevent me from seeing it with an open mind, only that if you MUST run out and watch it today, you might think twice about it.)
- There is no “In the Dark” podcast this week. I got up early this morning to finish everything, but there just isn’t time to do a podcast, as I have to leave shortly for a press screening and hopefully an “Eragon.”
It is funny to realize that even in 2006, we are still subject to the whims of nature, and to BMWs.
December 15th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Hey, I just had my car totalled by an SUV 2 weeks ago. I have to say that finding a “new” car is really depressing. Maybe people with lots of money don’t find this to be the case.
On your review, I feel like you probably should have mentioned that your “good Christmas movies” are not all necessarily family friendly. Bad Santa sure isn’t, although I enjoyed it. (Who can resist Lauren Graham?) I suspect Ice Harvest isn’t, mostly because it looked a lot like Bad Santa in the trailers. Love Actually? Well, if you exclude the two porn stars hooking up, and the office affair, it’s mostly good. (I saw the edited version, back when they still did that, and they completely removed the porn stars story. When you meet them at the end, you’re like, Who are they?)
December 15th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
When my car got totaled your brother Jeff told me that it was a blessing in disguise. Now I drive a nice blue Mazda so i guess it really was. Are you planning on doing a review of We Are Marshall by next week still?
December 15th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
At least your power came back on last night. We are still without power (it’s been 18 hours now) and they still don’t know the specific cause or when it will be fixed. How’s that for PGE keeping the public informed!
December 15th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
Don’t tell me what to do, Snider; I’m going to watch Eragon as scheduled.
Everyone should go; there are plenty of seats left.
December 15th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Not only did our power go out, but a 60 foot tree fell on our house! There are trees down all over the place here in Silverdale, WA. ‘Tis the season of filing insurance claims…
December 15th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
You could have called me/us…we would have felt sorry for you and maybe even let you come over. We never experienced any loss of power or even electricity.
December 16th, 2006 at 11:52 am
I haven’t seen the film Eragon yet, but I found the book appalling. If you’d care to read my Amazon review, here’s the link.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A2RSKSNPY6K9FW/
December 17th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Hey, the PGE web update (45 minutes ago) said that 48,000 of the people that lost power earlier in the week were *still* without power, down from a peak of 250,000. They must have forgotten a couple of zeros on their phone message. But hey, at least you didn’t lose power *again* tonight, although most of us out here on the west side of town. Stupid sub-station fire.
December 17th, 2006 at 9:52 am
Eragon was, without a doubt, one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.
Count the power outage as a blessing.
December 17th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
Going on three days without power at our house up here in Seattle country.
December 18th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
Oh wait, there it is.