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the first step in recovering from an addiction is to admit i have a problem. apparently i'm addicted to really crappy movies. i'm just a sucker for science fiction that feature girls wearing skin-tight outfit. this ultraviolet trailer has been on television for a few weeks and from the moment i saw it, i knew i had to go see it opening day even though i had advance knowledge it wouldn't be a good movie from the reviews i've read online. i've never been much of a milla jovovich fan, and i always thought she seemed sort of fake, an actress trying to hard, but ever since the two resident evil movies, she's been one of my favorites.

so this morning i headed into the city and went to the boston common theatre. it was pretty empty (for some reason i thought there'd be more people, but what kind of people watch movies on friday mornings?) and i waited in line behind two men. i had a feeling they were going to the same movie as me, and sure enough, they got two tickets for ultraviolet as well. once i got into the screening room, i could see it was a sausage fest, with about 2 dozen fanboys dispersed amongst the rows of empty seats. it felt sort of weird in a gross way, like going to a porno theatre. there was one girl but she was with her boyfriend. i also saw guys who came together but sat with that one buffer seat between them so they don't appear to be a couple. once the movie started, a rather attractive girl came in by herself and sat in the row in front of me; she seemed like an art student, maybe she was addicted to the same kick-ass girl genre that i was.

the intro sequence of ultraviolet wasn't shy about immediately pandering to the fanboys with a montage of comic book covers that revealed the opening credits. what comic books have to do with ultraviolet i have no idea (this isn't a comic book-based movie), and comic books didn't really come in play during the story either. the movie starts off with violet (played by milla jovovich) arriving at the doors of some mega-conglomerate corporation building as a courier there to pick up a special delivery. they scan her thoroughly to make sure she's not a hemophage, which is their cool-sounding futuristic lingo for vampire. that's right: in the future, humans and vampires are sort of at war, but that's not made especially clear, and even though they're vampires and have superhuman strengths, they don't do anything vampirish, like drink blood (they do have fangs though). okay, did i mention the thorough scanning? a few minutes into the film, we get our money shot. i could feel the crowd squirming. it was just a full torso naked backside, which could very well be a body double, but i'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. not that what violet is wearing leaves much to the imagination: everything is skin-tight, and a lot of impressive midriff is exposed. long story short, violet escapes with the package, which turns out to be a child, and then spends the rest of the movie trying to protect this boy, even though he has proteins in his blood that will kill him in less than a day. did i mention violet is dying too? they never say why though, but it just makes everything more dramatic i guess. the bad guy, the head of the corporation, wants the boy back, and he's a bit of a germophobe, and he wears these nose plugs which don't look sinister at all and makes him seem like he's got something in his nose, which he does. oh yeah, william fichtner is in this movie too. he plays a vampire scientist who's doing secret research to find a cure to vampirism. he might be secretly in love with violet, but they only hint at this very late in the movie, which surprises violet as much as it does the audience, because - have you seen william fichtner? he is the creepiest looking actor out there, no girl could like him, nobody as hot and dangerous as violet (she, in response, decides to kill herself, i'm not kidding). i'm afraid all this talk about the movie might make you curious to see it, which isn't what i'm trying to do. if there's anything to take away here, it's that this is probably the worst movie i've seen in a theatre in a long time. it seems more befitting a straight-to-dvd endeavour rather than a theatrical release. the story is barely there and the whole film is shot in this soft-focused dreamy style with weird colors that make you want to adjust the movie screen. some of the special effects aren't very special either: the helicopter-motorcycle chase scene early on seems like old-school blue screen technology and things appear cutout instead of seemlessly integrated. how about the action? this is an action movie after all. if you've seen kurt kimmer previous work, equilibrium, there's nothing here that's especially new (equilibrium, in comparison, is a masterpiece, although there's no hot chick in that movie). all the fight scenes are always violet against impossible odds, and she always kills everyone in the end with the greatest of ease (at one point when she decides not to fight 800 men, i felt ripped off, because i know she could do it if she really wanted to). if there's anything good about the movie, it's that it makes me want to visit shanghai, which is where they filmed it - shanghai must be the most futuristic-looking city in the world.

as if watching that movie wasn't a treat enough, i went to chinatown to have lunch. there was a million places i wanted to go: noodle alcove for some beef noodles, suishiya for some grilled eel sushi, chinatown cafe for spicy spare ribs with rice, shabu-zen for some hot pot, or that vietnamese place for some authentic hue-style pho. in the end i decided to go to the taiwan cafe for some smelly tofu. the place was crowded but it felt like home and i didn't mind the few minutes of waiting to get a table for myself. i ordered a lunch special as well, the pork intestines, and at one point some ladies who thought about ordering it looked back to watch me eat. the clientele was mixed, half asians and half non-asians, although the non-asian groups usually had at least one token asian person, the "expert" who told everybody else what to order. i was just happy to be out of my house for a change, and soaked up the energy of being surrounded by people. afterwards i went to the china supermarket (the one in the alley, not in the one under the parking garage) to get some snacks before walking back to park street and taking the subway home.

despite my little adventure, i still managed to work in a half day's worth of work and the great thing was i didn't even have any e-mails from clients, so my absence didn't even register on their radars. not that i answer to clients anyway, i set my own schedule!

i almost took a nap after work. i was lying in bed watching spongebob and i started to doze off. i think naps are a waste of time. i feel like i sleep enough already, and anymore sleeping i do means that much less of life i'm living. not to say i won't take a nap if i'm tired, but if i can help it, i rather stay awake and be doing something. i got up to play a little katamari, then i took a hot bath (with the latest issue of entertainment weekly), and heated up a toaster oven pizza for dinner. i watched another new episode of battlestar galactica, can't wait for the season finale next week!