Summer Movies

So far this summer I have seen The Avengers (twice), Men in Black 3, Battleship, Prometheus, Brave, The Dark Knight Returns, Total Recall, and Snow White and the Huntsman. I paid the premium and saw MIB3 and Prometheus in IMAX 3D.  Mostly I think 3D movies are still gimmicky in the sense that the 3D effect is just to make you flinch when a sharp object flies out of the screen at you.  (This seems to be the entire premise of the next Resident Evil movie.)  For me Prometheus did not fall into this category.  I felt that this was the first 3D movie I've seen where the 3D effects were part of the story in the sense that it put me in the movie (to some extent).  I really liked that and am looking forward to The Hobbit already because I am hoping for more of the same.

Friday night before seeing Total Recall I pulled out an anthology and re-read We Can Remember it for you Wholesale by Phillip K. Dick.  After reading the story again I remembered how little the Schwarzenegger movie had in common with the story beyond the memory implant idea and the Secret Agent bit. I try as much as possible to avoid spoilers before seeing movies since I like to form my own opinion. There was a part of me that was wondering if the remake would be more like the original movie or maybe reflect more of the story. After seeing it I can say it was definitely more like original movie (thankfully).  There were several scenes lifted directly, but I felt there were enough differences to make the new Total Recall interesting. I certainly wasn't expecting The Great American Movie or anything and I did expect to walk out of the theatre saying the original was better.  Now I am not so sure.  Maybe it was just because the effects were better.

Back to the Anthology...I anticipated wanting to read the Dick story before seeing Total Recall so I went digging for it a week or so back. I may have multiple volumes with the story in it but I knew the story was printed in Reel Future edited by Forrest J Ackerman and Jean Stine.  On the anthology's cover it reads The Stories that Inspired 16 Classic Science Fiction Movies.  Paging through the anthology I thought what a great idea it was to collect a set of short stories that inspired movies (and remakes).  A few of the stories included were those that inspired The Thing, Death Race 2000, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and others.  Speaking of movies based on stories, I also pulled out The Hobbit to read latter this fall in anticipation of the movie.  Drool.

Between movie watching and a baptism this weekend I didn't have much time for cooking.  Since it is tomato season I decided to make tomato and bread soup again.  It wasn't quite as good as last year's attempt. The tomatoes I bought lost their structural integrity so the soup was more liquidy than I was hoping for. It tasted fine and it was nothing that a little extra toasted bread in the bowl couldn't fix.  I also made a kale and green bean salad to go with it.  Summer vacation is rapidly closing so I hope to make good use of the next couple of weekends.

Alert! I spotted Hatch green chiles in the store this week.  I sense chile roasting in the not too distant future.