Ah my first Thanksgiving. What a pointless holiday.

On Wednesday I did as I planned and spent the whole day in the AMC Theatre on Van Ness, having lunch at Mel’s Drive-In first, of course (steak and eggs plus all you can eat toast…all for the bargain price of $7.95? Beat that Nobel Cafe!). I wasn’t nearly as tired at the end of it as I thought I’d be. Either way, here’s my brief movie reviews for each movie. For my UK readers, I’m not sure about release dates overseas (I don’t think the gap is as big as it used to be) but if these movies aren’t out yet over there then take my advice.

American Gangster was probably not the best movie to start with. It’s horribly gory in parts and pretty serious. I have a tendency to fall asleep during movies but this one kept me awake. It’s pretty good, good acting and lots of violence. Not really my favourite type of movie but enjoyable all the same if you like the Sopranos and that sort of thing. I missed the ending though in order to keep up with my movie schedule. A modest 7/10.

Beowulf on the other hand was the most boring, dismal display of absolute trousers that I’ve ever seen. Why such a movie was ever commissioned is beyond me. What saddens me most is that it was directed by Robert Zemeckis, who directed one of my favourite trilogies, namely Back to the Future. How he could direct something so crap warrants investigation. What’s even worse is that Angeline Jolie, my Angie, would sign up to do this movie as well. After her…mediocre…performance in Alexander I hoped she would give up on historical epics, but I guess there was a big paycheck for her. What’s probably worst about this movie is that it’s animated. I didn’t know that before I went to see it. Ok, to be fair, the animation is phenomenal and I actually didn’t notice it was animated for the first few minutes, but there really was no need for it and for animation this superb, a better script should have been chosen. So, I suppose technically Angelina Jolie never appeared in this movie…so that saves her reputation. Thin ice though, Angie. Thin ice. An extremely poor 2/10, based purely on the animation. Avoid at all costs.

Enchanted was great because I only made it through the previews then left to go see another movie. The previews were the usual Disney tripe, so that in itself was almost too much for me. I was assured by my friend that it was fantastic, and the best movie of the day. I’m a little harsh on Disney so I think I’ll leave this one unrated.

Into the Wild was my favourite movie of the day. I’ve been wanting to see it for a few weeks after reading stuff about the book it’s based on. The book is an account of the life of Chris McCandless, a college graduate who left home to travel solo across America on foot and ended up living in an abandoned bus in Alaska for several months, eating only wild berries and animals that he shot and cooked himself. It’s a really inspiring story, but definitely not uplifting as you’d expect it to be. It’s quite tragic really but the movie does a good job of staying faithful to Chris’ adventure and Emile Hirsch is excellent as the lead in a movie where he’s the only person for long periods of time. It’s certainly worth checking out but I don’t think this movie is for everyone. My friend only caught the last 30 minutes of it and hated it (too depressing apparently). In spite of that, it’s a well deserved 8/10.

Leaving my Barry Norman shoes behind, on to Thanksgiving. It was a pretty quiet affair; most people go home to see their families so there wasn’t that much to do in the city. I went to Berkeley with Arturo and Lisandro and we walked around the university campus for a while. There were no bars open in the city though so in the end we just came home and chilled out. Around 10pm, Michael (one of the French guys) had finished cooking Thanksgiving dinner so about 30 of us all sat down and had some awesome turkey and spuds. My Korean friend Sue also made some noodles and pork so I had some of that too. Not bad.

Tonight, I’m going to see Journey and KISS. Tribute bands, but still. I messed up, I thought it was last night so me and Valerie headed over to Slim’s only to find that it was tonight instead. And Valerie is going to Lake Tahoe this weekend so she can’t go. Her ticket’s on Craigslist if you’re interested.

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