familyI just spoke with my sister who lives up north in San Jose, CA. We chatted a while, and I told her how much I miss her since she moved. To be honest, I don't speak to my other siblings. Anyway, my sis gave me a quick rundown about how she and her family are adjusting living near the Silicon Valley. I'm real happy for her, but I can't stop thinking how much nicer it'd be all of us living within walking or riding distance from each other. And yet, moving was the best thing for her.
She now has a nicer job, and the neighborhood she now lives in is a sight better than her previous one. I hope to see her this summer, but I've been spending way too much money recently, and it doesn't help that I have an un-maxed credit card burning a hole in my pocket. I hope I can manage my money better until then. Horror of horrors, now I have to think about purchasing my round-trip ticket for the flight; I haven't flown since before 9-11! I'll say a small prayer and hope for the better.
I Am Legend (2007) was surprisingly good and, at moments, kind of frightening. Although I expected another film entirely. Most of the action and dialogue amount to Robert Neville (Will Smith) talking to himself to - I guess - avoid going completely insane since he is supposedly the last living human being left alive on Earth. A deadly virus wiped-out the rest of the population, or turned them into vampire-zombies that hyperventilate for whatever reason; I gave up trying to keep up with the logic of this story, since I imagine most people went to see it to see action, gore, and special-effects. I expected more of these things, but instead was treated to an interesting character piece. I'm sure you heard or read the reviews. Of course, I liked The Omega Man remake far better than this one (the original film - The Last Man On Earth - was released in 1964). Being from Los Angeles, I liked the opening of The Omega Man, where Neville (Heston) walks the deserted L.A. dowtown streets, hunting for the living dead (or whatever); for trivia fans, the movie Neville watches in an empty movie theater is Woodstock (1969). See the 2007 version and tell me what you think.
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Norbit wasn't as bad as I had initially thought. The film didn't last long in theaters, and I didn't lose any sleep.
I ordered this movie through my cable company and I wasn't expecting it to be so funny.
Eddie Murphy is better as Norbit than he is as Rasputia (the strange name of his hefty wife whom Norbit appears to be saddled with for the rest of his miserable life). Murphy also plays Mr. Wong, the Asian proprietor of the Wonton restaurant and orphanage who adopts Norbit the morning he is tossed out of his parents moving vehicle.
As Norbit, Murphy often tones down his playing of this sort-of Horatio Alger-like character. As Rasputia, the corpulent spouse from hell, Murphy is less intelligible when "she" goes on fast-talking rants and rages. If we (the audience) didn't know Rasputia's favorite conversation-closing exclamation is "How you doing!" then we wouldn't otherwise understand half of what her dialogue is. Luckily for us, Rasputia spews out streetwise and savvy terms and attitudes, so it's not a total loss.
I suspect that a body double was used in some of the shots where Rasputia's backside or below-the-neck tonnage is shown, because 'all of that' looks real. Or maybe special make-up effects man Rick Baker has improved far better than we may have given him credit for. Rasputia's special-effect face make-up is less convincing, but this can be due to the fact that Eddie Murphy is getting along in years and, being a man, can no longer play charcters like, say, the fifty-something mother on The Nutty Professor; at least in NP Murphy actually looked like a woman, and not, like in Norbit, where Murphy is a 45-year-old man playing a woman who is supposed to be four or five years younger.
All in all, Norbit is an occasionally uproarious fictional account of what can happen to you if you don't treat your speech impediment before you hit puberty (thereby getting slim-pickens at the "future-wife store"), or refuse to say "no, thank you" when the waiter at TGI-Fridays asks you if you'd like to have something for dessert.
