Entries in "November, 2007"

Thanksgiving Getaway

So we snuck away for Thanksgiving. We ended up going to Big Bear Lake, Ca. It was a little cold but not too bad. The best parts were our hikes. It's fun to see my 4 year old tackle a 7 mile hike, that's rated "moderate to difficult", with ease. We've pretty much gone through all of the hikes up in Big Bear (that the kids can do) so we need to start hitting some of the harder trails in Malibu or some other place relatively close.

One thing that was a nice surprise was a little restaurant called Cowboy Express. I had the Tri-Tip steak and it was freakin' awesome! It's no Mortons or Ruth's Chris, but it was an excellent steak. Definitely on my must visit list when I go to Big Bear in the future.

You can see the photoset on my flickr account here.

Technorati Tags: big bear, family, mountains, thanksgiving

No Country For Old Men - Review

So last Saturday I went and saw the movie No Country For Old Men by the Cohen Brothers. It was in limited release and being in LA, it was obviously being shown here. Word was out on this movie and I didn't have an easy time getting tickets but I finally scored some for an 11pm showing. Movie was sold out but we got awesome seats, which means we stood in line for nearly an hour just to be seated. It was worth it.

The general premise is that a hunter stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong. Bodies (human and dog) everywhere, huge load of heroin in the back of a trunk and 2 million dollars in a brief case. The hunter, a fairly savvy Vietnam veteran, naturally took the money. He got off scott free when in the middle of the night, his conscious got the best of him. He decides to head back to the scene and it ends up being the worst decision of his life. It sets off a huge chase through out north west Texas and even Mexico.

The villain of the movie is a character named Anton Chigurh. This guy is a psychopathic killer who feels he needs to kill anyone who crosses him. Of course, he has no problem crossing people himself. Only when he crosses someone, he makes sure to kill them so they can't return for revenge. He's very cold, very smart and manages to stay a step ahead of the police while close on the heel of the hunter. I don't want to go too much into it because it's hard to do so without giving spoilers.

This movie was actually filmed in New Mexico, a place I called home for many years. I immediately spotted the locations in the city that were actually filmed in Albuquerque. It's funny, how well I actually know the city. Albuquerque is one of those "little but big" cities, but it's very easy to map the entire place in your head. Sorry, getting nostalgic. As much as I put down the city for being too slow or not enough to do, a part of me does miss it.

The ending of the movie did leave me with a lot of questions. I guess the story is wrapped up, but so much more is left for me to wonder about. Maybe this was on purpose because the next day I bought the book and I am reading it now hoping to find answers to my questions.

I definitely recommend the flick! A lot of violence, blood and coin flipping... Call it!

Technorati Tags: movies, new mexico, no country for old men, violence