The Karate Kid

Ed and Melinda are visiting this weekend. For our first main activity, we went to the aforementioned Premier Oaks movie theater this morning to see Will Smith and Jackie Chan's version of The Karate Kid. I went into this movie with fairly low expectations for a number of reasons. First, there are always qualms about remakes of cult classic movies, and Ralph Macchio's Karate Kid was goofy but certainly unforgettable. Indeed, Smith and Chan came under quite a lot of fire when the word got out that they were doing a remake.

A second qualm I went into the movie with was the unusual decision to rename the film from it's original production title, The Kung Fu Kid, back to the namesake of its predecessor. Truth be told, The Karate Kid is something of a misnomer - there is only a very brief scene where Japanese Karate is featured at all, and it's while Jaden Smith's character, Dre, is watching TV. What's the big deal, say you? For a martial arts enthusiast, it's a huge distinction. Especially for me - of coursed I'm biased towards Chinese kung fu!

But background bias aside, bottom line was I didn't think the movie would be that good. However, I now stand corrected.

The film is a lot longer than I expected, thanks largely to a very long first half that introduces us to Dre's life in China. The cinematography predictably blows away that of the original Karate Kid, displaying some truly spectacular scenery of Beijing and other locations in China. The Daoist mountain location of the Dragon Well I thought was particularly scenic. The story is of course predictable, but I thought the execution was very well done. In fact, from an acting standpoint, I thought it was one of Jackie Chan's finer attempts. He's only in one action scene, and it's not even that impressive (especially considering his resume), but his character pulls through. Jaden's acting was also pretty good and he pulls off some believable action scenes. From an action standpoint, the several kung fu students featured in the movie displayed some of the superb martial arts action talent in China today.

Of course, there were several nods to the original film, and again, I thought they were well executed for the most part. Fans of the old film will either appreciate these references or chide them for their modifications, but I thought they were pretty good myself!

Do yourself a favor and don't blow off this remake!

Ducks!

Ducks!

Value Hunting in Melbourne!

I was always raised to be, uh, how would I put it nicely, frugal with my spending. That's not to say I don't spend at all - I just want to make sure I get the right balance of value for money. Tradeoffs are made, and for the things I want to get, I try to bargain the best I can. But sometimes, just keeping your eyes open will lead you to some pretty good deals!
Take, for instance, this past weekend. Actually, these past two weekends. I was just driving home from work when I floated my eyes over to the Premier Oaks Movie Theater sign. Now, mind you, movies has been something I've skimped on mightily over the years, especially seeing how the average price of movie tickets has increased by more than 50% since I was in college. Even in Melbourne, where expenses are generally lower than other places in Florida, regularly priced movie tickets are about $7.50 each, compared to five bucks some ten years ago.
However, since Cherry has moved back, I started paying attention to the Premier Oaks theater. For one thing, it's a very nice theater - much nicer than the ones I grew up with. It's got stadium seating, digital picture, great surround sound, and you buy your snacks at the same time you buy your tickets! Although, generally I wouldn't recommend buying snacks and drinks - the last time I bought popcorn and a drink, my bill came out to like $19 bucks!!! However, the best thing about the theater is the deals that started coming out. For example, Premier Oaks gives you free popcorn on Wednesdays. And, the main deal we've been taking advantage of is their $4 tickets for movie times starting before noon! It's been a pretty good weekend activity for us.
But these past few weeks, we started getting some really good deals from the theater. I'm talking real bang for your buck here - or rather, bang for your lack of buck! For the past three weeks, Premier Oaks has been showing older animated movies such as Monsters vs. Aliens, Ice Age, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, but remade in 3D, for the fabulous price of Zero dollars! Of course, this comes with a tradeoff - these free 3D movies only play at 9:15 in the morning. Still, you can't beat the price!
A second great value I recently found in Melbourne is the $5 Haircuts place at Melbourne Square Mall. My coworker and OEM/MBA classmate Tarang alerted me of this great value. I hadn't seen $5 haircuts since Maria opened up her shop like three years ago. Unfortunately, not long after Maria opened her shop, her price jumped up to $9. Plus, she's not open on weekends. I can only assume that the place in the mall will not raise their price - otherwise, they'd have to change their name to "Variably Priced Haircuts"!
For me, $12 haircuts are super expensive. Growing up, my mom always cut our hair. In college, we regularly got haircuts at these dumpy places that only charged $5 bucks, not unlike the place in the mall. However, the place in the mall is a much nicer ambience than those places. In China, haircuts started at around 5 RMB - which works out to about 70 cents a pop! So, paying 12 bucks for a haircut never seemed right in my mind.
The $5 Haircuts place is a pretty good value, especially for guys who more or less just get clipper cuts like me.
Yup, good values are out there - you just have to keep your eyes and ears open!