Heeding advice and smelling the flowers

So I heeded good advice and said "NO!" to this week's TT. There will be plenty more Fridays I can go taste the warm summer evening air (and all the bugs that come with it) on my TT bike. Why mess up my (slight) taper and as Ben said, have an excuse for why Sunday didn't go well?

I left work at 5:15 p.m. and walked to the downtown movie theater to watch The Forbidden Kingdom.



Now...some of you fair readers might ask "WHY?!?"

Well...one of my little dirty secrets is that I am kind of a geek that way. I grew up playing with the boys down the street (often we played ninjas, cowboys or G.I. Joe). I had an Atari and a NES, which I used to play Super Mario Bros. 1, 2 & (of course) 3, The Legend of Zelda, The Adventures of Link, Tetris, Klax (now how many people know THAT one? Not many...but such an AWESOME game), PacMan, and my very personal favorite, Metroid. NES tried to re-create the ninja game Shinobi from the arcade, but Sega did it better. Nevermind. I've gone on far too long on this subject. (I could talk video game nostalgia forever...)

So I was an only child for 10 years and these things kept my wound-up mind busy...

Anyway, as I got older, the whole martial arts thing kind of fascinated me. Mind you, not enough to make me want to actually DO it (though after tonight's movie...maybe when I'm sick of triathlon?). I was never quite into action films, but the Karate Kid, Chuck Norris, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and of course as I got older, Jackie Chan all seemed to impress me. Yes, I did say the TMNT. Dude, they like, totally rocked. (oh and yes, I played the arcade game. A lot.)

So I began to enjoy the Jackie Chan movies, though the more recent ones have rather sucked. He partners pretty well with Owen Wilson, though.

ANYWAY...

I was attempting to decide which movie to watch this evening, because I couldn't see Forgetting Sarah Marshall without Matt. So I had to pick something else.

I browsed Rotten Tomatoes.com, and you know what folks? There's not a lot out there right now.

Sure, Harold & Kumar are back, doing something crazy. Yeah, Tina Fey's got Baby Mama. As well as some others (but see, my car was at home and the independent movie theater is about another 1.5 miles from downtown - def walkable, but I was preferring to stick to downtown...)...but then...what's this...The Forbidden Kingdom...hmmm...haven't heard of it...

...Jackie Chan? Jet Li? SCORE!!!

So there you have it. The geekiness comes out and I am so STOKED to go see this 5:45 movie.

The reviews all kinda say "well...the movie itself...eh, okay. But worth seeing for the special effects and Chan & Li."

So that's what I expected.

And you know? Sure, it's not the most amazing plot ever, nor will it win any Oscars.

But is that REALLY the point in these movies? Okay, yes, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was OFF THE HOOK, hands-down INCREDIBLE.

Overall, however, these kung-fu movies are not made to win Oscars. They're to get you to start dodging, kicking, and bouncing around in your seat, silently making "hmph!" and "HUH!" sounds in your head. An occasional "OOOOOHHH, OUCH!" as well.

And that it did. And boy, was I satisfied. :)

I should also say that if any of you ever played Mortal Kombat (I know one reader who did, I'm sure there are others), there are some scenes in this movie that will totally bring out that MK nostalgia, too. (FINISH HIM!)

Then I proceeded to walk home in the final hour of daylight, smelling the blooming flowers, people-watching all of the folks outside, window-viewing the shops of downtown, enjoying the peace of a pleasant Friday evening, thoughts constantly drifting back to kung-fu ass-kicking.

It totally rocked.

I hope Sunday will, too. ;)