Mall And Movies

It rained for two days in Miami and I had to do something, so I went to visit the ‘malls’. Hector and Billy had already showed me some of the malls they go to and I found even more on the way. I don’t really like malls too much. I way prefer the European way of shopping: on the street! That’s why I like Lincoln Road so much or Manhattan.

I went to the biggest mall in Fort Lauderdale, Sawgrass Mills. It’s an excursion that is listed in the ‘sightseeings’ of South Florida. Well, I’m sorry, but going to a mall is not a tourist attraction to me. It sucked. Sure, it’s big. But I wasn’t impressed at all. And it’s not only an outlet mall. It has normal stores too. I was in an outlet place in New York State last year, which was nicer. Malls are crazy though. I mean, some try to bring in some atmosphere by creating fountains or different sublevels or even fake waterfalls. There’s a lot of little stands in the middle of the ‘shopping lanes’ and every store seems to scream for your attention with huge ‘sale’ billboards. The sales are of course only in a small corner in the back. There’s a lot of ‘buy 2, get the 3^rd free’ actions. I didn’t really feel like shopping too much. I only bought a few things, of which my new cool Samsonite travel suitcase was the best purchase. I’m really happy with that one.

The nice thing with malls is that when you go to the food court, every eatery has someone standing outside to have you taste what they offer. I especially like the pretzel stands or Cinnabon, which have cinnamon pretzels. There’s panda express (there orange chicken is good) and all different kinds of pizza places, burger joints, sub makers… It’s all very fast food, but hey, that’s the US.

Every mall has a huge cinema complex too. The reason why I was visiting all these malls, was to get to see Apocalypto, the Mel Gibson movie about the Maya culture. I really looked forward to seeing hat movie as the reviews were good and it’s just a culture I want to get to know more of. The only problem was that they didn’t really show the movie in many theatres and the hours that were given in the newspaper were incorrect. Anyways. I went to the movies a few times and what I always do in the states is make it into a movie afternoon. I pay for one ticket and then after the feature film I just go from one theatre in the other to see parts of other movies. It sounds crazy, but I always did this when I lived in the states and I discovered some interesting movies like that. During two visits I saw three movies in their entire length and big parts of some 5 other movies.

Apocalypto is an amazing movie. I really loved it. xxx1/2. I just loved everything about it. I don’t think highly of Mel Gibson, but I thought it was incredible how he filmed those scenes in the jungle. Also the entire movie is one long journey that ends in a chase scene. It just keeps you focused all the time. I also absolutely loved the performers. Especially the evil guys. They were just the coolest meanest native Americans I’ve ever seen. When you see pictures of heavily tattooed El Salvadorian gangsters in prison: well they got inspired by their Mayan ancestors man! A lot of people didn’t like it because of its violence and its gore. But, I didn’t think it was bad at all. I prefer seeing this than horror flicks like Saw for instance. This was very well done.

I also saw Last King Of Schotland, which was a bit disappointing. Forest Whitaker isn’t that good. He’s ok, but I wasn’t that impressed. The movie was a channel four production, which basically means it’s a good television movie. I really didn’t think it was that extraordinary. I was more impressed by Will Smith in Pursuit of Happiness. That guy surprised me by acting so well. Anyways. Third movie: Dreamgirls. Again, disappointed. That Jennifer Hudson girl was amazing. But she’s the movie: I don’t understand why she got a nomination for best supporting actress. Beyonce was just not present at all, although I loved it when she sang ‘listen’. Still, her character and her performance were very weak. Eddie Murphy was okay, just like Jamie Foxx and Danny Glover, but they weren’t extraordinary.

And then the movies that I briefly saw: I saw parts of The Queen, which I missed in Europe, but want to see in its entirety. I saw parts of Freedom Writers, which is your typical Hollywood movie about a literature teacher trying to make ghetto kids appreciate to write and read. With Hilary Swank. Too standard. Then I saw a part of Norbit, the new Eddie Murphy comedy. I hate it. Really, I don’t understand anyone who can laugh with jokes like that.