The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe — This movie reminded me that the quality of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy was the exception rather than the rule with regard to the fantasy genre. Truly, Narnia sucks ass. Partly it is the ham-fisted directing and terrible adaptation, but I think it is also CS Lewis’ original story which is the problem, and the repulsive racist bollocks that permeates throughout is just painful to watch. And almost every solemn line uttered by Aslan et al should have had the phrase "for some reason" appended to it — "You will sit on the throne and rule this land (for some reason)" — "It is written that the deep magic must be appeased (for some reason)" — "I am with you to the death (for some reason)". Also, young Peter handled his sword as though it had a dog turd stuck on the end of it — "beware my poo-stick!" — and the CGI animals with all their superfluous swaying and wobbling about already look dated! Bleeeeeeeechhh! I’d love to see the look on Philip Pullman’s face if he ever tries to sit through this drivel, and can only hope that the movies based on his brilliant Dark Materials trilogy are handled better.

Harry Potter and the Wossname of Fire — I would have said some pretty negative things about this one too, if not for the icky LW&W, which puts things in perspective. Sure it was badly edited and the actors appeared to have little idea about their motivations, but at least the HP characters have some spine, and aren’t portrayed with this hideous nostalgic "innocence of children" stuff. And sure, Harry has a destiny that puts him above regular wizards (and muggles, obviously), but that doesn’t mean everyone wants to bow before him and pledge eternal allegiance (for some reason).

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang — I really liked this movie, but saw it a couple of weeks ago so now it is not so fresh in my mind. Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer were both perfect in their roles, and the whole flawed narrator thing worked very well for me, especially with the swearing ;)

Pride and Prejudice — Made me weepy when they finally get together at the end; I’m becoming a sucker for the period romance.

Little Fish — Speaking of weepy, this one totally clobbered me with its broken but believable characters. Noni Hazelhurst is effing brilliant, and so is almost everyone else in this gritty/sad/hopeful movie about broken people trying to get their lives together. The bit with the kids singing (which features in the preview) is a beautiful moment which almost had me blubbing as well.

Lost (Season 2 Episodes 4 - 9) — Great to catch up with this one (in one sitting!), and I quite appreciated the fast retelling of the story of the other survivors. Michelle Rodriguez’s messed up character makes Kate’s "issues" look trivial. Excellent!

Scrubs (Season 1, Episodes 1-13) — I’m working really hard to not watch all this in one go, since I’m really enjoying it. I kind of missed it when it first came out, and the few episodes I did catch annoyed me with the cartoony sound effects and double takes. This time around I don’t notice them so much (although on the commentary track the director Bill Lawrence says that in retrospect these gimmicks make him hate himself, which makes me warm to the show all the more).

Gilmore Girls (Season 1) — Again, a show I didn’t much like when I first encountered it a few years ago, but now I find I have developed an unquenchable thirst for it, going back to watch it from the beginning. Now when I hear the words: "Previously on Gilmore Girls…" I feel strangely content…

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 10th, 2005 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.