Saturday, March 13, 2010

Watch MYSTERY TEAM

Today's goal was a very simple goal:

Watch MYSTERY TEAM.

To achieve this objective, I headed over to Justin's place and then we set off for the magical land of Santa Monica. In this magical land was a theater called the Nuart, and in the Nuart was one of the few screens holding within its cinematic rectangle, THIS movie:




But before I get into watching this movie, I should probably clarify that the screening that we were going for was at 7:50 pm. We got to Santa Monica at roughly 3:00 pm. So time needed to be killed. With a vengeance. Also, we were going to meet up with Jeptha, Josh, and Danielle (Josh's GF). They are all friend of ours from LA. The entire drive up, Justin and I listened to Aziz Ansari's stand-up album. My favorite line is: "Cut that s**t out! It's COLD!"

The first step to killing time, was procuring food. The food went down at a place that I picked at random called Cafe 50's. I didn't know what to expect (except diner food), but I ended up being very pleased. The burgers were good, and the shake was delish. Justin got a Monte Cristo sandwich which he said was at least in his Top 3 Monte Cristos. Not bad for a place chosen at random.

Oh crap, that only killed an hour, thanks to the fact that I was parked in wretched meter parking. Grrr...

We moved my car to a nearby Vons parking lot and wandered around within eyesight of my car to make sure it didn't get towed. Since my digital camera was broken, and Justin forgot his camera, we bought a disposable camera at Vons. Just having a disposable camera again brought back a flood of memories of my 90's teen years, and when disposable cameras first arrived on the scene. They had been so cool, and now they were relegated to a backup plan for if both people forgot to bring their digital cameras.

We eventually found some parking that wasn't meter, and that we could stay till midnight or so without fear of tickets or towing. We headed over to a book store nearby and awaited the arrival of Jeptha, he of the big-eyed, Film Noir loving, deadpan delivery. Good man, that Jeptha. After he arrived, we headed to a movie rental place right next to the Nuart. I was planning to buy a movie, until Justin made it clear that the place was predominantly rental, with an incidental DVD selling section. But the selection for renting was almost infinite.

Finally, after a trip to Subway to help Jeptha weather the storm of hunger till after the movie, plus a stint of waiting outside the Nuart, Josh and Danielle arrived. We were in our seats for Mystery Team. And after an introduction by the Derrick Comedy folks themselves(!), the flick started in earnest.

Mystery Team is really funny. I mean, I was worried that all the best stuff was in the trailer, but that just wasn't the case. There is just one great scene after another, with some honest to gosh character development. Donald, DC, and Dominic made the Mystery Team funny and actually sweet at the same time. And that's hard with three so obviously two dimensional characters. And Mystery Team is insanely quotable:

*****SPOILER ALERT!********

"Oh god, there's something sharp inside something soft!"

"We should thank the Hobo before he puts a curse on us."

"Now you're starting to sound like dad!"

"Sometimes I really wish you didn't beat the cancer."

"He blew in my mouth."

"England."

********END OF SPOILERS***********

So joy was had, and memories will last a life time. Especially since the Derrick Comedy crew did a Q&A after the movie, and stuck around to talk to the audience. We even took a picture with each of the three leads, using our archaic disposable camera. We said goodbye to Josh and Danielle, and got dinner with Jeptha at... CAFE 50'S! Yep, we are sad men with limited imagination.

Topics of Conversation @ Cafe 50's: Herzog t-shirt, weak sauce handys, Russian names, impenetrable under garments, sharing beds with male friends, belt buckles with amusing pictures, just one look, girl scout cookies, discounts we forgot about, Will Battle: Comedic Genius or Living Puppet?, having your day made, self-financing, etc.

Jeptha headed back home, and Justin and I followed suit to our own respective origins. This was a Saturday well spent.

-Nate

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