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May 31, 1999

The Thirteenth Floor

Gosh, don't I look serious watching tv? I placed the camera directly in front of the television, so you can see exactly how close I sit to it when I watch TV. You've got to know that it's got to be affecting my vision negatively. This afteroon, Mike asked me to take a walk with him down the length of Nutley. I live on one end of town (the southwest corner), where the red star indicates. From the southwest corner of Nutley to the northeast corner is a long "park". I can't call it a park exactly, because it is actually composed of different parks, but you can essentially walk from one of town to the other in the pleasant shade of park trees. I didn't think of taking my camera (which I should have on retrospect), because I didn't want to really be burdened by anything and just took my purse and eagerly started on the walk. I realized that at the other end of the walk (the northeast corner where the blue star is located) is the new Clifton Commons. Clifton Commons is a a collection of newly constructed buildings with stores such as Sports Authority and a still-in-construction Barnes and Noble. Also at Clifton Commons is a large new 16 theater movie house. A General Cinema center. So, I suggested to Mike that we would walk to Clifton Commons, watch a movie, and walk back. What movie? Don't know. Whatever was playing. The walk wasn't too bad. I expected to not be able to walk that far, despite the fact it is only around two miles. I never walk that much in one go. My walk from work to Port Authority is only around a mile, and even then I frequently stop to shop or look around. It's flat. Nutley is hilly and the walk is about two miles. Plus, walking with Mike is very difficult since he walks a lot faster than I do, and is in far better shape. What made it bad was that I decided to wear a skirt for my walk and I found that my inner thighs rub against each other in a very annoying way. Towards the end of the walk, I started to become bow-legged and my thighs burned like a carpet burn. Ugh. I was happy to get into the cold theater. We opted to watch The Thirteenth Floor. The first time I saw the trailer for it, at The Matrix showing in the Union Square 14 Theater, I recall turning to Christine and commenting that it looked like a fairly poor movie. You couldn't get a feel of exactly what kind of movie it was. It was either a bad science fiction film or a bad horror movie. It seemed to have the same concept as The Matrix with the entire "what is reality? what if we are the illusion?" In the end of the trailer you have one character asking another "What happened to the world?" The second character replies, "I turned it off." Screams, Matrix, doesn't it? Boy, was I wrong. Like The Mummy, this is a case of the trailer being not what you expect. The Thirteenth Floor has a slight flavor of science fiction (with the main character being a programmer that helps create a nearly-accurate world in a machine), but to call it a "science fiction film" is wrong. There isn't enough "horror" or "fear" or even "gore" (practically non-existent) to call it a horror flick, despite the ominous title. It was a whodunit. A "what's going on?" film. The movie is generally slow but consistent in its concepts. There were a couple of things that I didn't quite understand (why did the professor leave the message for the main character in the simulation? why does the conciousness of the simulation switch with the real person?). There were a number of things that bugged me that weren't explained earlier, like it's not until late in the movie that the main character reveals that he doesn't remember what he was doing at the time of the murder. Why wasn't that presented earlier in the movie? On the whole, I thought the movie was okay.. well, except for the wacky ending that felt tacked on to the end. Mike enjoyed it a lot more than The Matrix, but could see how I think the film was slow and not as grabbing as The Matrix for me. It's not a movie to write home about, but at the same time, I wouldn't say it was bad or negative in any way. My burning thighs forced me to call my mom to pick us up from the theater. I vowed to wear shorts next time so that we can make the round trip, possibly every Sunday if we could. It's a pleasant outing. One hour there, two hour movie, and an equally long walk back. A nice way to spend a lazy summer afternoon.

Image of The Thirteenth Floor from Internet Movie Database
© Copyright 1999, Eileene Coscolluela
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