An Evening in the Twin Cities: 12/18/2011

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

See it in the theater.

Maryanne really enjoyed this one, I thought it deviated slightly form the feel and theme of the first movie, but it was still plenty enjoyable and it had my attention all the way through.

This is only the first week of the movie run, so I don't want to give anything away, but you can count on the now customary Holmes-like twists and long running thought processes that we saw in the first movie, things like how they have Holmes anticipating things to come and thinking a few moves ahead. Not just over the next few minutes mind you, but even one day to the next (and in one case, starting from the beginning of the movie to the near-end of it). Many characters from the first movie make appearances (though most are very brief), and couple of them are even killed off this time around. It makes for an odd way to tie two movies together, but if you assume there will be future movies in the franchise, then a regular method of removing and replacing characters from one movie to the next keeps things fresh and new I guess.

There was plenty of action, the near-trademark Holmes slo-mo thought process makes an appearance a couple times, and there is plenty of wit, intelligence and cunning sprinkled throughout. It was as I said, an enjoyable film.

I hope they make a third film in this line. I also thought they could've done more with marketing this movie.

I'm glad we caught it on the big screen, and was pleasently surprised to find that the theater we choose to see it at (Marcus Theater in Rosemount this time around) wasn't very busy at all for a Saturday evening during new movie releases.

We arrived at the theater with minutes to spare, and still had time for consessions and seats before the previews started. We were a bit annoyed at the consession stand however. Who in their right mind takes 30 minutes to cook a hotdog? What theater doesn't have all of their consession food prepared and ready to sell on the opening weekend of a big movie during prime-time hours?? Apparently, this one. We kept asking after different food items (besides popcorn, drinks and nachos) and were told repeatedly that it would be 10 minutes for this, or 15 for that, or 30 for a hotdog, that kind of thing.

That's a bit ridiculous don't you think?

Background information on your reviewers:

Maryanne was in the restaurant industry for 14 years, including one year as a manager for Chili's Grill and Bar. She has experience in fast food, family chain restaurants (with and without alcohol) and fine dining. She has a Hospitality and Tourism Management degree which gives her an understanding of the service industry including travel, hotel, gaming, food and beverage, and entertainment. She is also an actress with some years experience doing short and feature films, online episodic shows, student films, film projects and contests which include both paid and voluntary roles.

William has none of that experience, but instead has experience eating with and entertaining groups of different sizes in a variety of venues in different areas of the Country. That and a knowledge of how things 'should' work in the entertainment and service worlds. He forms his own opinions from that mix of knowledge using a good dose of common sense and a perception of what he feels people expect from dining out at various venues, seeing movies and such.

Our rating system is just a guide, and no rating system is 100% perfect. We are just married couples, friends and relatives that enjoy movies, eating out and other entertainment in the Twin Cities area, and generally we find that people agree with our assessments of different venues, so we offer this bit of common-man insight to everyone. We feel that we're all pretty average people, and we expect what we think any average person would when we spend money to go places and do things, and we have the same reactions when things go right or wrong as most anyone else would. We offer this blog and our experiences to people so they can know or formulate a better opinion as to whether they might want to spend their money or not at these same places or for the same things.

We know that lots of people don't follow reviews and critics and such because they are paid to do what they do, and they generally spend a lot of time qualifying what they say so that you could make the review mean more than it really does. We are all straight-forward and upfront people, and we're not paid, reimbursed or in some other way compensated for these reviews. Maybe it's just us, but we think that lends us more credibility since we're just doing it because we can and we like to, not because we get paid for doing it.

That said, you have to keep in mind that we aren't pro's or anything, so you'll get a no-nonsense perspective from us. We may seem harsh at times, but you need to remember that in some cases we'd spend a lot of money just to come away with a poor review. It hurts having to spend money on something and have nothing good to show for it, and we feel that other people would have the same reaction we would in cases like that, and our reviews reflect that fact. Along that same line, we like spending a little money and getting more value from it. Our reviews and descriptions should also show that, and that's what we're trying to get across to other people as well.

Again, we aren't compensated for this in any fashion, we just do it because we can, we want to, and to maybe help some other people out in the process.

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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Background information on your reviewers: