V for ... 
I saw V for Vendetta this afternoon with a few friends. I knew only a little about the plot, and wasn't interested in the movie so much as I was eager to spend time with friends out of the house.
The acting was better than I would have expected. The effects in the film were quite good. The plot was only a little cliche, but the overall presentation was nothing if not heavy-handed. I can't tell whether that's a real shortcoming of the writing/directing, or whether it's a sad commentary on the bulk of the movie-going public today. I admit to being almost completely ignorant of the graphic novel from which the film was adapted. Movies from graphics novels seem to leave me scratching my head: I wasn't overly impressed by Sin City, despite its rave reviews.
I've been watching a lot of movies at home with Carina, and sometimes the twins, too. The other night I caught the tail end of Kill Bill 2, which Carina was watching. Having suffered through the first volume in the theater, I don't know why I sat through as much as I did of the second. I found nothing of interest in the tale.
A surprisingly enjoyable film was Pieces of April which we watched last night. It was a long 80 minutes, but it was a very good story, and the characters were well portrayed. Similarly, Kinsey was a good movie, carried well by Liam Neeson.
The twins watched and enjoyed Bend it like Beckham, The Iron Giant, Look Who's Talking (which Tyler loudly proclaimed should be rated R for all the bad words) and Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang. It's been a very long time since I'd seen the latter, and I'd forgotten everything except the titular car and Dick Van Dyke.
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April 10th, 2006 at 7:49pmV for Vendetta isn't so bad as far as comic book adaptations go, but yes, it seems like it was aimed more toward the mainstream moviegoer than someone interested in a good story. Why does Hollywood think that their $10/ticket audience is so vapid? Perhaps because we willingly pay to see their tripe? Hmm. I agree that Kill Bill was mostly void of good qualities, especially the second half. Uma Thurman doesn't impress me as an actress. All of the kids' movies (with the exception of Look Who's Talking -- Wha??) were good. Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang is much longer than I remember. My kids insist on watching bits and pieces of it, but never the whole thing in one sitting. I recommend some of the older Miyazaki films- Castle in the Sky is my favorite. Look out for the ones with weird tentacles. There are a couple of newer US releases available now, too, that I've been meaning to check out. -
April 11th, 2006 at 12:11amThe twins loved Spirited Away, and were eager to see Howl's Moving Castle, but for various reasons we never got around to it. It's been recently added to their Netflix queue. The kids watched Scary Movie 3 with us at the hotel some weeks back, and were delighted to learn that a friend owned a copy, which they promptly borrowed and watched a lot. It's not an entirely appropriate movie for their age, but then, how will they ever learn to differentiate what is and is not appropriate unless we expose them to both. Since they enjoyed one farce so much, we thought they'd enjoy the Naked Gun series. We were right: the physical comedy and dry retorts were extremely well recieved by the twins. I have no doubt that this is due to my careful conditioning of them over the years with my own brand of wry humor. I think they might be ready for Airplane! soon. I can't wait until they're ready for Monty Python. I forgot to mention in the list of adult movies I'd watched that I really enjoyed I Robot. It was vastly superior to what I had expected, and I'm really glad I watched it. 
April 13th, 2006- January 3rd, 2007