Twilight **½

If a vampire movie comes out, I do my best to see it. In the case of "Twilight" (Catherine Hardwicke; Summit Entertainment), a friend saw a sneak and highly recommended it, and I looked forward to my own screening. It was something of a disappointment--it reminded me of a fashion shoot, complete with moody models, masquerading as a film. And the film gets some obvious vampire legend stuff just plain wrong. To wit (minor spoilers):

--vampires don't glow in sunlight. They spontaneously ignite. DUH. Geez.
--vampires don't produce their own reflections in mirrors.

I'm sure the Stephanie Meyer book series is far superior. My brother helpfully suggested the film's target audience was 15-year-old girls, and that I wouldn't care for it as a result. He may be right. His favorite vampire film is "30 Days of Night," which is on my list. Mine is "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (Brian de Palma, 1992).

Dress up for shopping?

After my derailed blood donation this morning, I shot up the Edens Expressway to Court* to see a breakfast showing of "Twilight" ($6) and meet an old friend for coffee. I thought, "I'm going to Court, so I'd better dress up." Court seems to me to be an upper-echelon shopping centre where one should not dress like a slouch. Jeans, fine. Crappy old sweatshirt, better not. So I wore a turtleneck and sweater, with apologies to the '80's. My sister-in-law thinks the idea of a dress code for Court is hilarious. In past eras, people would dress up just to go downtown. Am I an anachronism?


*My nickname for Northbrook Court, from a tv ad campaign years back. "Come to Court. Northbrook Court."