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I dislike Tom Cruise as a person and in the past have not really enjoyed his movies, mainly because he virtually always portrays an arrogant womanizing hot shot and I don't much like men who act that way. This new movie is different, though. It's real science fiction - intense, less predictable than usual mainstream SF fare, and thought-provoking. I liked it.

I'd really like to say more, but I don't want to spoil the film for anyone. If you haven't seen it yet, go! It's good! You'll like it even if you usually don't like Tom Cruise movies.

And please go soon so I'll have someone to talk to!

I have to admit it would have to be very good indeed to overcome my dislike for Tom Cruise. I don't like men who act like arrogant little ...... either. However, I see it has Morgan Freeman in it too, and I don't think he's ever made a film I disliked. This is like the cat/buttered toast conundrum all over again.

Good to know. I was down in Nicaragua last weekend and was contemplating going to see a movie the night before I flew back home just for something to do, but Oblivion was the only one playing that I was somewhat interested in. Normally I stay downtown when I'm in Managua, just a couple blocks from the theatre, but in this instance I was at the airport hotel and wasn't sure Tom Cruise was worth the long trip into town =p Perhaps I'll have to check it out after all.

Nicaragua? What in heaven's name are you doing in Nicaragua? Isn't it kinda dangerous down there?

It's pretty cool that Oblivion is playing there, though. Will it be dubbed in Spanish, do you think, or in English with Spanish subtitles?

Nope, not dangerous at all ...within reason, of course, everywhere is dangerous if you're irresponsible. I've been there four times now, it's like a second home. The first two were related to my Master's thesis (...well, okay, the second time was to "get photos" for the thesis, which honestly I probably didn't absolutely need - and certainly didn't require 4 weeks, lol - but it was pretty much "go on vacation or thesis is not getting done" =p). The last two times were just vacation...sadly, each trip is getting shorter (first was 9 weeks, second was 4.5, last was 3, and this past one was just 2 - now that I work full-time, I have more money to spend on vacation but less free time to do so). Nica has pretty much everything Costa Rica has (with the exception of an army of resorts all over the place), but at a extremely small fraction of the price, and the people are just really friendly; the tourism is picking up and more and more tourist infrastructure is fitting into place, but it's still small scale in comparison. Less commercialized, which is how I prefer it.

As for the movies - the main theatre in the capital gets a fair bit of the new/hot films. Most are dubbed, but the bigger ones are often available in both dubbed and subbed. I've seen several films there, including The Dark Knight and Half-Blood Prince. In the case of Oblivion, it was available in both, so I would have been able to watch it in English.

Yeah, the "more money you make, the less time you have to spend it" issue is something I've dealt with my entire professional life. I quit private practice to try to solve the problem, but just ended up tilting the equation in the opposite direction. Sure, I have more free time now, but I'm also a state employee at an institution of higher learning. The state's education budget just got tanked, so now I'm in the "less money you make, the more time you have to spend it" camp, and pretty soon I may have all the time in the world because I'll be making no money at all. Lovely.

So... I guess nobody had the chance to go see the movie last weekend?

I haven't seen this movie, but this discussion is making me interested in it. We don't go to movies much as Jim, with his eye problem has to sit close to the screen and I get a neck ache from doing that, LOL.

The money vs. time problem is difficult. Now that both Jim and I are retired, we have to watch the budget, but it helped to have the house paid off before we retired! I like the reduced stress and try to take some stress off my still working daughter by taking the grandkids off her hands more.