I just got back from seeing a sneak preview of The Last Samurai. Since I didn't know anything about it other than Tom Cruise stars in it and my friend was an extra in it, I didn't have any expectations for the movie. Let me just say THAT MOVIE WAS AWESOME. It combined most everything I could want in a movie, epic battles, japanese people, muskets, japanese, cannons, samurai, sword fighting, engrish, seppuku, kimonos; it had it all. It even had ninjas! It was kinda like The Patriot meets Seven Samurai (two of my fav movies), but 10 times cooler (as if that's possible). So overall the movie was totally awesome and I am definitely buying that dvd the day it comes out. One thing I found funny was how in one scene Tom Cruise walks into a japanese house with mud caked all over his shoes and tracks in all this mud. The audience gasped in horror at that sight (since wearing shoes in the house is taboo), which I found pretty cool.
Other highlights of the evening included the airport-style searches before entering the theater. They searched all bags and purses, and were checking peoples' cell phones to see if they can take pictures. Not to mention the metal detector wands. Before the movie started there was a long message about how bootlegging movies is pretty illegal and whatnot. Apparently the MPAA is a bit paranoid. :) I saw the Ain't It Cool News guy there. I see him at a lot of movies. Apparently I (or my evil twin) also work for him. Just check out the Contributors and the Business End lists. I saw several other familiar faces there. Had a good time. Make sure to see The Last Samurai when it comes out! It gets my seal of approval. I really should get some sleep now.
The irony of it all is that I have a bunch of japanese homework to do now. (-_-)...
I saw the sneak peak of Gothika, Monday night and had to go through the same vigorous privacy-invading, wand-waving before entering the theater. It was funny watching the rent-a-cops (hell, they might have even been theater ushers who got to "dress up" as rent-a-cops) take the job completely serious, all thinking they were some bad asses or something.
Yeah, the best part was when the wand guy asked if my phone can take pictures, and I just said no, but he never even looked at it. He didn't even look up at all the whole time. If they care that much about camera phones to where they have to ask about them, they should at least *check* for them. Besides, it's not like camera phones have the resolution to be taking decent pics of movies. Oh well, the movie was awesome anyway despite the pointless searches.