The Fall of The Cheeseburger

Christmas vacation always provides at least one day in which the kiddos and I can see a movie. Thankfully, the trusty dollar cinema finally changed it's movie lineup and provided us with Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. On a side note, I finally solved the mystery of fluctuation in ticket prices. It seems Tuesdays are the "dollar" days and every other time is the $1.50 price. Our wise neighbor clearly knew this and it's why we often gather the kids together to see a movie at this time when they're all home from school for a while. Also, our trusty dollar cinema has provided more incentive to entice our patronage.
Did you catch it? The "Large" popcorn is only $6.00! Not the typical $10.! And that's not all, it comes with a re-fill! Wait, there's more, there's a little kiosk with flavors like 'ranch', 'cheddar', 'white cheddar', and 'caramel' that you can add to the popcorn if you like living on the edge. I was able to convince #1 Son that mixing 'ranch' and 'caramel' was probably a bad idea. I hope he doesn't resent me for it.

Imagine my surprise when upon entering the theater, the movie had already started. This is something I was unused to. We all know that if a movie starts at 2pm then it actually starts at 2:20pm because of the obligatory 20 minutes of previews and *shudder* commericals! Oh well, live and learn. I now know that my trusty dollar cinema not only has $6. popcorn but it starts it's movies when it says it will. Vehnkman, your opinion?

This was another movie from which I expected little. I knew it was probably going to be better than Space Chimps but I was willing to cut it some slack. Since I don't know how it starts I'll just start my own wandering ramble about the film. Flint Lockwood is our hero, he's an inventor that lives on an island who's only source of food is sardines and Flint is sick of that so he decides to invent a machine that turns water into any kind of food you choose. His father is growing quite tired of Flint's inventions and is ready for him to hang it up and come work with him in the family bait shop. By the way, they did a great job depicting the bait shop. It looks like almost every one I've ever been in. Even the one in Galveston Texas where a friend of mine and I were kicked out of for playing around on their two-wheel hand cart back in 1980-something. Good times...

Well the Mayor of the island decides to cash in on it's sardine image and pump up the tourist trade but Flint just happened to pick that time to test his new food making machine but it goes crazy and end up flying up into a cloud. About this time a weather reporter, Sam Sparks, from the national weather network runs into Flint and the machine gets going, but good! I don't know if it was just me but this was the point wherein I was reminded of a Steven Spielberg technique that I call the "people looking" take. There's probably an actual cinematic name for it but I don't know what it is. The CWACOM version can be seen in the trailer starting at 1:06. Steve uses it a lot as can be seen in this trailer for Jurassic Park, at about :53 seconds in. And in the Lost World Trailer at :41 and :50. Spielberg loves him some people, staring... with their mouths open.

Things on the island couldn't be better after that. People are loving all the food and it seems too good to be true! And since it seems too good to be true then we know where it's heading. Sam starts to see the trouble, several people do actually but the snowball effect has already started. The movie culminates in a scene reminiscent of the discovery of what Vger is in Star Trek the Motion Picture and kind of like the Dr. Who series in the '80s about the "Sever Teen" You'll understand if you've seen either one of those movie/shows.

It is really a very entertaining movie and I think I liked it as much as the kids. It's one of those movies that other adults annoy you with how many jokes are "really written for the grown-ups" when they feel embarrassed about seeing a kids movie. I, on the other hand have no problems with watching kids movies and I'll be the first to tell you about it. As a matter of fact, I just did.

Mr. T was great as the police officer. I've always liked him. Especially his Snickers commercials.

A-

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs trailer

Space Chimps trailer

Jurassic Park trailer

The Lost World trailer

Star Trek the Motion Picture trailer