This line is every bit as ugly as it appears:
Sorry about the blurriness, but this is seconds after a customer grew tired of honking in the drive thru, ditched their car, and dashed inside to scream at the employees behind the register. After the shell shocked staff filled their order, the almost customer walked out without paying — or their food.
Turnaround in minutes, from order to trays of hot sauce: 30.
Customers served during wait time: 5.
Occasionally, learning the origins of a word is an eye popping experience. One person uttered it, and another repeated it, and probably neither had the intention of growing Webster’s Dictionary. Those with English degrees call such considerations etymology. Me, I kick it vernacular. Where the hell did a word start?
Recently at a prevention conference, a DEA agent explained the meaning of the word tweaking in drug culture. Methamphetamine addicts cab focus on a single point of interest for upwards of 40 consecutive hours. If they are having sex when the high kicks in, then it’s a long night in the sack. If a television catches their attention, they might take the entire set apart, with no idea of how to reassemble it. They might piece together pages that a neighbor shredded and discarded. That’s tweaking, and its scary.
I’ll never pass a television again without thinking about a burned out meth addict chipping at it for 2 days straight, sitting on the floor, a screwdriver in their shaky hands.
Delivering an entertaining movie with a message is a tough proposition for a filmmaker. Time spent on the thematic content often comes at the expense of story, hobbles the narrative, and gives the film a preachy tone. Waver on the theme by focusing exclusively on action, and the movie rings hollow. And then there’s the minimum dosage of eye candy theatergoers such expect on a big screen. Light it up or blow it up, but I want fire and blood, damn it. So talented is a director who strikes a tight balance between story, theme and pyrotechnics.
Largely, V for Vendetta succeeds. The film is a compelling story about a corrupt government who wrongs a man and woman in such a way that the audience roots for them; the theme is easy to swallow: government answers to the people, not the reverse; lots of buildings explode. Diggety.
There are slow points. V, the hero, has a vocabulary and manner of speech that rivals an English professor cloistered in an Ivory tower. The chemistry between Natalie Portman and V is almost unsettling, because one never sees V’s eyes.
Overall, an enjoyable ride.
Verdict: Matinee or DVD purchase.
Some men test their physical limits, setting aside comfort and safety for their dreams. Others loiter
their way to fame.
Can’t wait to see the movie based a man trolling Wallymart aisles for 41 hours, avoiding eye contact and shunning conversation. How does it end? He leaves the store, like every other customer.
Much credit to Skyler Bartels. In resisting the urge to leave a store, he landed a literary agent. Not only that, the agent came to him.
Perhaps I could barricade myself in Target, hide behind window treatments, and subsist on carmel flavored marshmellows. I might even write a few paragraphs inside the changing room. Ah, but who would feed Oedipus?