Skip to main content

The Hobbit and Kemosabbe

    Hey, everyone. Carley and I had a nice time today and tonight. We went to a movie and then out to eat. The crowds were out in force. One of the more crowded places was the theaters. Most of those crowds were there to see Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Wizard in a tale of Middle Earth entitled The Hobbit.
    Let's talk about the previews a bit. I have got to go see The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp starring as Tonto.  It looks really cool and let's face it, Johnny Depp is a great actor. You think some war paint and a few feathers are going to put him in the shadows of a movie? Not.
      Oblivion, a sci-fi flick starring Tom Cruise, looks to be very cool, as well. Also, Man of Steel looks like fun. But all these are in the future and tonight I had to see a movie I was not so stoked about. Due to the fact that I walked in the door at the perfect time, we saw The Hobbit, in 3D.  we were charged a ridiculous $23 for a pair of tickets and the glasses. High, right?
     For the first time ever, I was in a movie where the 3D really made a difference. Wow! Very cool. Before the show started there was a ball thrown on the screen and it came so close to me that I reached up to catch it. During the feature, I thought a butterfly was flying at me. Later, when Gandal set pine cones on fire and hurled them, sparks hit me in the face so that I jerked my head back in reaction. I'm not kidding. Quite a rush, as we used to say in the sixties.
      The story was okay. Bilbo, the home-body of all Hobbits, was talked into going on an adventure with a bunch of dwarves and Gandalf, of course. It seems that a fire-breathing dragon has stolen the dwarves ancestral home because he likes gold and the dwarves had piles of it. The dragon likes gold so well that he sleeps while covered in it. That would seem both cold and unsanitary, but who among us understands dragons?
    During their epic journey, they face some odd situations. Orcs that ride on ravenous wolves. Elves that are not hostile to them but are not helpful. Huge rock monsters that are big as mountains and come out to fight  during thunderstorms. I came very near to calling one of them 'Rocky'. Get it? They fight, they're made of rock... Whatever.
      The heroes spend much of their time underground in a city of the Orc King. This guy is huge and he has ... Man Boobs! Not too adorable a guy, I assure you. You'd think that he would just wear a shirt, but it may be hot in Orcville, the city that rocks, the city that never sleeps...oops, that is San Francisco. Ha, ha.
     Hey, maybe you want to see one of Gandalf's brother wizards drive a sleigh through a cursed forest, using magic rabbits to pull the sleigh for him. Yeah, it's in the show.
     When I was an early teenager, I read this book. I found Golem to be a creepy little guy and they certainly rendered him well in this flick. He looks like he has been boiled. He wants to make a bet with Bilbo, hoping to outwit the Hobbit and win the wager.To whit: Bilbo becomes his dinner if Golem wins. Little does the Golem know that Bilbo has found his ring, which makes the weird creature a split personality, a fiend of evil, Precious. That's what he calls himself, by the way. Precious.
      So, you want to see Gandalf ride a mighty eagle? Got you covered. Special effects and scenery your game? Oh, yeah. But lets talk about the other things.
     This is a long show. 3 hours, I think. The first half is fairly boring. They could have cut an hour without hurting the movie at all. If this type of movie, Fantasy/ Magic/ Sword and Sorcery, is your thing, this will be a 4.5 stars out of 5. If you are like me and prefer cop shows, spy shows or sci fi, this show will be about 3.5 stars out of 5. I'm glad I went, it was fun, and the pine cone throwing sparks right in my face made it exceptional fun. Make up you own mind, precious.
    P.S. I suspect that very small children could have a few nightmares from this show. Check it out if you wish.
     Thankful that I don't live in Middle Earth, this is CE Wills
P.P.S. I liked hearing Johnny Depp call the Lone Ranger Kemosabbe. It was cool.
P.P.S.S. Ian Mckellen is Gandalf and Martin Freeman does an excellent job as Bilbo. Richard Armitrage is the wandering King known as Thorin. (Bad to hold a grudge)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

It's So Easy

     Hey, everyone, out there in etherland. I've been playing some new songs this morning on my keyboard. You may remember a Buddy Holly tune called It's So Easy . I hadn't matched the title to the song before today so I was delighted when I saw that it was the one that goes like this: "It's so easy to fall in love, it's so easy to fall in love." It rocks pretty good. A later version of it, after amps and guitars had improved, really rocked. It seems like Joan Jett may have done a version. Anyway, I was playing this song and I thought about a fun thing I like to do. Sometimes I'll start to play a song and tell Carley, or the grandkids, whoever may be there, a silly story about it.      For instance, I would say that once upon a time Buddy Holly came to me and said, "CE, I need a hit, my man. The kids need shoes. I want to go on American bandstand, you know what I'm saying?"     "Yeah, Buddy, I hear you. But the thing is, I think ...

The Biscuit

    Hey, everyone. What a relief that Christmas is over, huh? I don't think it was meant to be the way it is.     I started thinking about the so-called good 'ole days today. My wife says that at her house, they would take a left-over biscuit and shine their shoes before church. I one-upped her by saying, "Oh, yeah? I ate the biscuit when everyone got finished with it. And I was grateful for it." Truly, though, you can and people did, shine their shoes with a biscuit. Hey, they were greasy little buggers.     Speaking of greasy little buggers, I remember when everyone had wells and were very conservative about water, particularly those of us who had to crank a handle up and down to get a bucket of water. There was no daily bath. (No showers in those days, mate.) About twice a week we took a bath and here's the recipe: The oldest kid took a bath first, then the next oldest etc. You can see why younger siblings hated the older. Bathing in the...

Movie Review: Limitless

    Hey, everyone. I ventured off the mountain today, down into the haunts of men. I'll tell you about a movie I saw, then later I'll tell you about some other stuff. The movie is Unlimited . This is a story that you would have to call science fiction, but in the not so distant future you may call it reality.      Bradley Cooper plays Edward Morra. If you looked up loser in the dictionary you would see this guy's picture. He has freeloaded off his girlfriend for years. He claims to be a writer but can't seem to put words on paper. His woman leaves him; he is a scroungy, dirty dude with no future, no drive and no money. He is about to be evicted from his scummy apartment.     Then he bumps into an old friend. The friend wants him to try a new drug which comes in the form of a small, clear pill. What Edward doesn't know is that the pill is pretty awesome. The drug is designed to unlock the true potential of the human brain. We only use a...