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Lots to blog about

I see it's been since mid-November since I updated this blog and even longer for some of my others. That's what happens when you have family birthdays, Christmas, and move across county to a new apartment all within the space of two months. Things are finally settling down now and I can finally blog about all those movies I've seen lately. Now if I could just remember what all of them are. Hmmm...well, let's just jump right in, shall we?

Topping the list is Rent, which I saw with a couple of friends from work. Now, this was two months ago that I saw it, so some of the details have gone fuzzy, but I did think it was really good. For some reason I had it in my mind that everyone dies in the end rather than just one person, so it didn't end like I thought it would. Ah well, as I said, fuzzy details. This one I'm looking forward to coming out on DVD and hope it has good special features.

The next one I saw was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. My husband and I have seen this one about five times now and it gets better every time we see it. The acting was so much better and there were some great lighthearted scenes. My favorite scene has to be when they are discussing getting dates for the Yule Ball during the study hall session. I laugh so hard everytime I watch that scene. Toward the beginning there are, of course, the obligatory cheesy lines, which seem to appear in every Potter film. At least they are gotten out of the way early in the film and I can sit back and enjoy the rest of the movie. A couple of down sides to the movie, though. First is that the opening Quidditch World Cup scenes are too short. I realize that time is of the essence when making a movie, but it would have been nice to have a few more minutes with the World Cup. I also thought there should be more Death Eaters apparating in during the graveyard scene at the end. For some reason I always pictured more people in that scene than they put in the movie. On the whole though, this one is a definite two thumbs up and my husband and I can't wait unti March 7th when it's released on DVD.

December brought around The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which I went to see with my dad. He read that book to me when I was little, so it was special to go see the movie with him. Like a lot of people, I thought the beginning of the movie was a bit slow. Once the children got to the Professor's house, though, the movie picked up. The whole production team did a great job of bringing Narnia to life. The kids were good in their roles and I especially thought James McAvoy did a great job as Mr. Tumnus. He was one of my favorite characters from the book, so I admit to being a bit partial to the way McAvoy portrayed him. It seemed like they tried a bit too hard in the battle scenes at the end to make it a grand epic movie on the scale of Lord of the Rings. Some of the camera shots seemed a bit cliche and it didn't really draw me in the way some battle scenes do. Overall, though, I really liked the movie and will probably buy it when the DVD hits the store.

Just this past Sunday my husband and I caught Cassanova starring Heath Ledger. Now, I am not well read on the stories/legends of Cassanova, nor on the life in and culture of Italy in the 1700s. So, I don't know how historically/literaturely accurate this movie is and I'm not sure I care in this case. I do know Heath Ledger pulled off another terrific acting job and the movie made me laugh. That made it worth the cost of a full price ticket to me. Two thumbs up and another DVD to add to my list.

This brings me to today. A couple hours ago I got home from finally getting to watch Peter Jackson's King Kong and I have to say, oh my gosh, what a phenomenal movie. If you read my blog from about a year ago, you'll remember I didn't think much of the original King Kong. Horrible acting and all that. This version blew me away. I swear it did not seem like three hours had gone by. Jackson had some great camera shots and between him and Andy Serkis, they really gave Kong lots of emotion and really made you feel for him. Brilliant acting as well, especially Jack Black and Naomi Watts. What with all the other movies out there that I'm hoping to see, I'm not sure I'll make back to see this one on the big screen again, but, you guessed it, I'm going to buy the DVD.

That's about it for this update. It was a much better holiday movie season than the summer movie season was. Here's hoping next summer will be better. My husband is traveling at the moment, so I don't know that I'll be posting an update relating to any current movies. However, I did get a number of movies for Christmas, so perhaps I can finally get around to watching some of those and I'll have another update soon.

Until then, happy movieing!

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