Transformers 2 Sucks!

7-22-09 day 50
start: Back Home Again Cafe/Hostel in Rutland, VT
end: Back Home Again Cafe/Hostel in Rutland, VT
daily mileage: 0
total mileage: 654.2

The Back Home Again Cafe is run by a Christian denomination known as the Twelve Tribes. Some have called them a cult -- they give up all their worldly possessions to live together in a commune -- but we thought they were mostly just nice folks who take their faith very, very seriously. The Twelve Tribes have these communities all over the world (about 60 of them) and share all their resources between them. This community runs a cafe to make some money, which is distributed between all the communities. Other communities, like the one in Brazil, grow food which is shared with (and sold by) the cafes. It's really pretty interesting. I generally liked them, though I do think they're depriving their kids of a broader education by home schooling them and not encouraging them to come to their own conclusions about stuff. We stayed in their adjoining hostel, and paid our way by helping sweep and mop the cafe up after the day was over last night, and by helping them dice vegetables and make their salsa tonight.

To make the most of our zero day, however, we went to Walmart (several times, actually), to a delicious Chinese Buffet, and to see two movies! The Chinese Buffet was our first All You Can Eat experience out here on the trail, and it was as good as we'd hoped for. The movies were surprisingly disappointing. We paid for a matinee showing of Public Enemies, which was OK, and then decided to sneak in to see Transformers 2. I think I need a new paragraph for this monstrosity.

It was atrocious. We both agreed. I don't even understand how a movie with so large a budget could have so many gaping plot holes! It's like all the writers were replaced with CG people. And the characters were awful! "The Twins" were two new autobots that were there only to annoy the audience, with their Larry-the-Cable-Guy humor and giant buck teeth. I was actually almost relieved when the movie got messed up in the theater and the sound cut out for 5 minutes, because the dialogue was so trite and predictable. I wish I was a movie critic, so I could invent a new grade below "F" for it. Even the explosions and Megan Fox's hotness can get such a movie so far. I wanted a refund, even though I didn't pay to see it.

We met a pretty weird guy at the hostel, who kept talking about how he ate dandelions. Weird.