i went to go see dreamcatcher with my old high school friend kristin today. she called this morning to confirm, i hardly recognized her voice (she has a cold). "i didn't wake you did i?" she said. "no, i was just about to wake up," i said. i never say "yes." anyway, kristin had read the book, while i'm just a sucker for horror/science fiction movies. i got to the fresh pond cinema first and waited on the steps for her to arrive. i watched as seagulls chased away a poor kestrel, a repeat of yesterday's drama. when kristin got there (whom i haven't seen since the reunion back in november, although we've been trading e-mails), we bought our tickets, then waited in line to get popcorn. each of us also brought some form of contraband, i had a can of soda in my coat pocket, she had bags of girl scout cookies. while kristin went to the bathroom, i asked a guy who sat right in front of us if he could move down a seat or two, since his fat head would be blocking our view. the start of the movie featured the much hyped (at least in the nerd community) flight of the osiris, one of several short matrix-related animated shorts. there's hardly any story, the entire realistic cgi animation was more eye candy than anything else. the matrix training room swordsplay/foreplay was pretty hot though, i'll give them that. i heard it was done by the same team who did final fantasy, and it shows, because some of the "models" looked borrowed from that film.

dreamcatcher is yet another one of those movies adapted from a stephen king novel. the basic plot is four childhood friends hang out in the woods just when an alien invasion is taking place. the movie is too ambitious in what it's trying to do. it's about male bonding (childhood and as adults), psychic powers, gross alien invaders, the military, flatulence (no lie), and the film even touches on mental retardation. the first third of the movie is very good, and i would've just paid to watch that instead, about four friends who seemingly share some sort of childhood secret, brought back together for some male bonding in the woods of maine. when the aliens show up though, it quickly becomes a horror movie. a few comments: 1) when the alien possesses one of the main character, he talks with this british accent. why the director thought alien speak would sound british is kind of baffling, and i found it sort of funny whenever the alien was talking. 2) morgan freeman is in this movie, looking very much like a black version of r. lee ermey (full metal jacket), with a white military flattop and bushy eyebrows. how this three time academy award nominee got this movie i don't know, but he seems out of place, an actor of his caliber in a movie of this type. 3) donnie wahlberg is in this movie as a metally handicapped childhood friend. i think he's good in boomtown and band of brothers, but i don't consider it acting when you either gain a lot of weight for a part, or in this case, when you lose a lot of weight. i remember on a talkshow he was saying how he did this thing where he only lost the pounds on his face. could donnie be the reincarnation of lon chaney? perhaps. so is this movie worth seeing? hard to say. certainly the production value is there, and the actors are top-notch, but there's just too many things going on, much like many of stephen king's novels.

afterwards, i went with kristin to find a birthday present for her nephew at toys 'r' us, then she drove me back home, where i briefly showed her my place before she left.

my parents came by for dinner, but first i went with them to the sears at the galleria mall to buy a motorcycle jack (my father wants to do some chain work on the honda rebel). by a stroke of astonishing coincidence, i just happened to bump into manny and his soon-to-be father- and brother-in-law at the mr.tux. originally i was supposed to get measured today, but i left a message and manny never got back to me, so i figured it wasn't happening. well, the hands of fate wanted it to happen! the hands of fate also wanted me to be short about $200 in rental fees, something that came to me as a bit of a surprise, considering i don't have very much money. la vie est drôle!

after we got the jack, we drove to the star market to get some food and then came back to my place to eat, my sister arriving shortly afterwards as well.

the rest of the evening, watching more war coverage on television and messing around with sql queries. also, before i forget, new neighbors moved into the house opposite mine. i watched their movers carry in all their stuff this morning.