Winchester

[CBStew]

This is a public service announcement.  Do not see "Winchester".  (Unless you want to lose about 15 IQ points.)  About the only thing to see in the City of San Jose, California, is the Winchester House.  The widow of the founder of the Winchester Rifle Company was quite looney.  She believed that she would never die as long as she was in the process of building her house.  At least that is the story that you get when you plunk down the price of admission to walk through the place.  The house is interesting, for about 15 minutes, which is 15 minutes longer than the interest generated by this movie.  It is among the worst movies that I have ever seen.  It stars the great Helen Mirren.  How bad can a movie with Helen Mirren be?   Very bad.  Atrocious.  It isn't even good history.  About the only thing that they got right is the date of the EARTHQUAKE.  You know the one.  It brought down hundreds of buildings in San Francisco, but we San Franciscans prefer to refer to the catastrophe as The Fire.  The house is hilarious, but in this movie it is simply boring.  They show a stairway that climbs up to the ceiling, and stops.  It goes nowhere, you have to turn around and come back down.  Unfortunately, that is the only oddity about the house that they show. So they show it over and over.  It was made by two guys in Australia who apparently have never seen the Winchester House, only heard about it from someone who was in a hurry and didn't spend more than ten minutes there. 
Mrs. Winchester got her money's worth.  She lived a very long time.  I didn't get my money's worth.  Save your money for when you are stuck in San Jose with an extra hour or two on your hands and visit the real thing.