Loramir Of Gondor's Journal

Just back from seeing New Moon and I must say I'm pleasantly surprised. I went in with abysmally low expectations and it wasn't nearly as bad as Twilight or as the assorted reviews I'd read led me to expect.


So anyway, it's certainly not the best movie ever, but it is infinitely better than Twilight. It's not Oscar material, but its a lot more polished and coherant than Twilight, and simply much more enjoyable all around. I don't think I cringed at all! I actually laughed several times and was absorbed in the plot rather than being annoyed by the terrible awkwardness and abruptness and big changes that Twilight had. With the books, I always feel upon reflection that they really are terribly silly and that the relationship between Edward and Bella is dreadfully unhealthy--but when I'm actually reading them, I get absorbed and enjoy them anyway, because they have heart and soul and humor. The movie of Twilight had none of that heart and soul, but New Moon brings it back.

Also, most of the previews seemed kind of blah, but I must remember I want to see Remember Me and Letters to Juliet.

Yet another night on the couch with a movie. And I have to get up in about 6 hours to go to work.

But I loveThe American President.  It is a mark of how good that movie is that I don't like the two lead actors very much and I really disagree with the politics--and yet I still love the movie and end up liking and rooting for these characters.  As I said, I'm not crazy about Michael Douglas in general--he never fails to remind me of some species of rodent--or Annette Bening, but the supporting cast is outstanding, especially Michael J Fox and Martin Sheen, and the dialogue is amazing.  There are so many great lines and moments in this movie.  If it were just about the President and Sydney, it would be much less interesting, but the relationship between Andrew Shepherd and his staff is awesome, especially with AJ, Martin Sheen's character, who is his best friend and also his chief of staff.  Some of the exchanges between them are really funny ("She didn't say anything about me?"  "No, sir, but I could pass her a note before study hall"), and sometimes very meaningful, as AJ has to balance being the President's friend with being his advisor ("You were the best man at my wedding, for crying out loud. Call me Andy." "Whatever you say, Mr. President").

The movie has a very real feeling - though of course I have no idea what it's like being the President, this film seems like it could be pretty accurate.  The question it poses - what if the President was a widower, and met someone he liked? - is intriguing.  The villain, in the form of Richard Dreyfuss playing a very Dick Cheney-like senator, is both evil ("I don't even know what we call her. Is she the First Mistress?") and amusing (how far would Obama have gotten if his great campaign slogan had been "My name is Barack Obama and I'm running for President!"?).  And the conclusion, with Shepherd's big speech, is also great (up until he starts in on his crime bill, anyway), and has a some great (and very true) thoughts about America.

Anyway, it's not one of my obsessive favorite movies, but it's one I always enjoy.  It has an interesting premise, a lot of wit and humor, engaging characters, and a nice romance to boot.  Even if I do disagree with President Shepherd's politics.

Nope, I still don't get it.  I mean, Jerry Maguire is pretty good, it's entertaining, I'm not bored to death watching it - but I don't see what all the fuss is about.  You'd think, being me, I'd at least enjoy the classic romantic moments, but I just don't seem to find it very satisfying.  I never really feel Jerry and Dorothy as a couple.  You don't really see them falling in love gradually, building a relationship - she's pretty much in love with him from the start, and he just kind of goes along with it.  At the end, after they separate, they're apart - how long?  It didn't seem like very long - and he suddenly realizes he loves her?  Just being apart for a while somehow overcame all his issues?  And I was not completely convinced he didn't just want her back because of his phobia of being alone.  Meh.  Doesn't do it for me.

Oh, well.  It's a good movie, it's funny at times, and definitely entertaining... but not the greatest movie ever, as a lot of people seem to feel.

Although it did make me want to go download "Freefallin'."

I'm bored to death at present, and I just saw a trailer for it, so I've decided to give Jerry Maguire another chance.  It's one of those movies that lots of people rave about and I just really didn't get what was so great.

I was watching Postcards From the Edge as part of my recent Shirley MacLaine binge.  I watched Terms of Endearment the other day, then that made me want to watch Steel Magnolias because it's so much better!  And then I watched The Apartment on YouTube.

I love The Apartment.  It's such a weird dark comedy, and Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon are both awesome in it.  It's unusually edgy for 1960 - some rather dirty jokes and a lot of references to sex and a surprising three curse words.  Not bad curse words, but surprisingly casual usage of them for such an old movie - usually you only hear "hell" in old movies when someone's saying something profound like "War is hell" or actually referring to hell as a place, but in The Apartment Baxter tells Fran "You've got to get the hell out of here!" which surprised me because it was so casual and unnecessary - I wonder how they got away with it.  I guess this was after the Hays Code and such (Hm, just looked it up and it wasn't - the Hays Code lasted till 68), but still...  I also like the technology you can see in The Apartment.  I haven't figured out what half the machines Baxter uses at work are, but his TV tuner fascinates me.  It's not exactly a remote control but a box connected to the TV by a cord (I think?) which has knobs that he uses to turn it on and off and change channels from across the room.  I'd never seen anything like it.  I didn't know they had that sort of thing in 1960.  Anyway, watching Steel Magnolias and The Apartment back to back and then trying to connect crotchety old Ouiser with adorable waifish Fran is amusing.  Shirley MacLaine definitely changed over the years, but is awesome at any age!

Anyway, so today I watched Postcards, which threatened to derail my Shirley binge into a Meryl binge - she's so pretty and awesome in that movie, especially singing "Checkin' Out" at the end! But then it had a trailer for Jerry Maguire so I randomly decided to give that another shot.  As Good As It Gets was the other trailer, which was also a film everyone but me loved - I just never could get to like Jack Nicholson's character at all in it.

But anyway.  I am so bored tonight.  Seems like all I do is watch movies lately.  I haven't been getting as many hours at work and when I'm home I'm bored, especially when my roommate's away (which is almost every weekend).

I would simply like to record that I have triumphed!  Terms of Endearment did not make me cry.  I bought it eons ago from the $5 bin at Walmart because $5 is almost always a good deal on a Shirley MacLaine movie, and never got around to watching it.  Partly because I'm seldom in the mood for a tearjerker and I'd always heard it was extremely tragic and everyone always cries their eyes out over it.

But I thought it was kind of blah.  I really liked Shirley's character, and her relationship with Jack Nicholson's character, but I didn't find it that sad.  The only thing that almost got to me was Emma's youngest son Teddy because he was so adorable and sweet and sad.  But then, this is me, who considers Steel Magnolias to be hilarious, while my mom and aunt have to leave the room because they're sobbing.

Anyway, Ebert seemed to like Endearment better than Steel Magnolias, but I definitely prefer Steel Magnolias.

And randomly, Debra Winger reminded me at times of Kristen Stewart (other than the fact that she could actually act, and speak in complete sentences without stammering like an idiot).  I guess it was the dark hair and the husky voice.

So, three movies in four days.  I've been doing nothing lately.  Just laying around or either working.  Monday night I watched North & South, the BBC miniseries of Elizabeth Gaskell's novel.  That got me in a costume drama mood, and people are always comparing Mr. Thornton and Mr. Darcy, so I went on to P&P, the BBC version.  I think they're about equally good, just very different.  N&S has a lot more depth and substance, while P&P has a lot more charm and wit and humor.  And while I adore Colin Firth, Richard Armitage is stiff competition...that voice!  Mmm....

Anyway, off to bed!

Argh, I was all set to watch The Sound of Music, which I've been looking forward to all day because I've been wanting to watch it for a while... when my darling cat came running in from the screened porch carrying a fairly large roach!

Here's a hint for you - don't bother with Black Flag brand roach spray!  It's cheaper than Raid for a reason.  This one still wasn't totally dead when I vacuumed it up after about 15 minutes of spraying it.  Kills on contact indeed.  I think it was finally incapacitated from drowning in the stuff rather than from being poisoned.  It would not die.

*shudder*

Now I am trying to impress upon the cat that if she finds roaches on the porch, for heaven's sake leave them there!  Or better yet, kill them out there.  Although I think the ones around here are mostly too big for her to kill.  Ugh. 

I think it must have come up through the floorboards on the porch.   I suppose only 3 roaches in two and a half months in this apartment isn't too bad?  And I think one of them came in one of my roommate's boxes, so only 2 that were already here...

Now I'm all creepy-crawly and grossed out.

Hm.  LJ is lacking in suitable moods.  It doesn't have grossed out, horrified, or disgusted.  I suppose I'll use a custom mood.

OK, did I just say Twilight the movie wasn't so bad? I take it back. I'd forgotten. It's so bad.  It makes the book look like a masterpiece.

The beginning in particular is awful, but everything's just so...awkward. It's like everyone's very self-conscious. Bella's always stammering and stuttering (the scene in the hospital at the end is the worst - honestly, what does the script actually say there?  "Bella stammers incoherently"?) and always sounds very expressionless, and conversations sound like everyone's struggling to think of something to say, rather than working from an actual script. And the kids at Forks High are dreadful. Did Eric seriously say "Chillax," at one point? Although to be fair, they don't sound much worse than real high school students, I suppose.

The way Edward talks drives me crazy. He sounds so very...slow. It reminds me of someone very dumb, like Rocky or something. He also always looks and sounds like he's in pain. Possibly this is supposed to remind us that is difficult for him to be around Bella but it just looks dumb. Combined with how slow he sounds it makes it seem like it's painful for him to think, or something. So much for his beautiful musical voice.

There are some great touches - the graduation caps, the Cullens' house, the Cullens cooking. The baseball game is awesome - extremely well done, and everyone looks so cute in their old-fashioned uniforms. But on the whole everything's just so awkward it makes you flinch. They butchered so many scenes - the scene where Bella realizes what Edward is, in the woods, followed by him dragging her off to the meadow is among the worst.

And finally, my ultimate movie pet peeve - the montages. It's such a complete slacker way of establishing a relationship. The book is full of great romantic lines. They're right there, in the book. Why not put them in the movie? No, instead let's just show a nice montage of silent scenes of people laying around in meadows and gazing at each other.  That's so much more meaningful.

On the other hand, possibly this is a good thing, since Edward would just say all of the nice romantic lines like he was in great pain and also concentrating very hard, while Bella would just stammer and stutter. So maybe it's just as well.

The second half of the movie is much better than the first - after the meadow scene it gets a bit better, but still...so very bad.

I do hope New Moon is better. Maybe at least it will have a better budget. And it's a different director, so maybe that will help.  Although I don't image they'll be able to do anything about Robert Pattinson's awful delivery.

So, having finished 3 books in 3 days, I've finally caught up on the Twilight saga. Yes, I first read Twilight like 2 years ago. Yes, I specialize in being way behind on the current trend (also the reason why I've only recently discovered Friends). I reread Twilight about two weeks ago, dawdled for a while, then finally read New Moon Tuesday night, Eclipse Wednesday night, and Breaking Dawn yesterday.

I'd always liked the first book fairly well, though I was dubious about the insane hype of the rest of the series. I found that as a whole the series is neither as good as the crazy fangirls would have you believe nor as abysmally dreadful as the equally vocal detractors would claim. The writing is not the greatest, but the plot is engaging and kept me interested all the way through. My main complaint is that for all it is worshiped (Firefox spellcheck insists this has only one P, but it looks wrong...) as the ultimate epic romance--and yeah, there was lots of romance--I didn't find the romance terribly satisfying, for a number of reasons.

Bear in mind here that I am seriously the most diehard romantic you will ever find.

So, here are various thoughts. Books are henceforth referred to as T, NM, E, and BD because I'm tired of typing italics tags...

( Musings (& Spoilers) )

So yeah, I had some issues, but I still enjoyed the books. I will not be getting "And so the lion fell in love with the lamb" tattooed anywhere, or devoting my life to making mix CDs or music videos devoted to Edward and Bella*. But I'll probably read them again sometime when I want a nice romantic fairytale that is utterly escapist and completely absurd in terms of real life. Which is actually pretty often. I get enough real life in my actual life - I'll take nice silly fantasy in my literature, thanks. The Twilight saga will probably go in my 'guilty pleasures,' category, for books and movies and music that are so silly I really shouldn't like them, but I do :)  (10 Things I Hate About You, Dirty Dancing, Empire Records and songs like "Copacabana" and "Billy, Don't Be a Hero" are also in this category...)

*(although last night right after I finished BD, when I was still in a nice daze from reading, I played around 100 games of TriPeaks while listening to music, and had some silly fun attempting to relate songs to the series. I have a very wide mix of things like oldies and bluegrass and country and 40s jazz, so this was interesting. If this sounds extremely fangirly--in my defense, I had way too much caffeine at work last night and was rather giggly...

Incidentally, if you are not a thirteen year old girl and like some nice escapist romance that is much more mature and realistic and involves a much healthier relationship and no immortality at all, read Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, which are quite possibly my favorite books in the world. The Outlander series is also a very epic romance, with a fantasy angle, and to me, anyway, extremely satisfying for many of the reasons Twilight is not.

Also, if you like really good vampire books - which I don't actually, except for Twilight and this - definitely read Robin McKinley's Sunshine. For that matter, read anything by Robin McKinley, including her blog. Sunshine is her only vampire book, though. And it is very good. Just don't bug her about a sequel. This makes her very annoyed(see the aforementioned blog).

Ha. I've just noticed where she mentioned some books she recommends for "any squashy romantics I meet who don’t know them yet." Squashy romantics! That is totally me!

Off to watch the Twilight movie, just to complete my Twilight binge. Not a huge fan of Robert Pattinson, or at any rate the way he talks. He looks all right, I suppose. In the movie, anyway. Both he and Kristin Stewart seem to enjoy looking like homeless heroin addicts in real life. The movie is not as good as the books, but it's not bad.

My whole family, plus my mom's childhood friend who is visiting for the weekend, have just left to go to the beach for the day. I, meanwhile, am getting ready for work. Argh. My mom's friend, whom I like and would like to spend time with, is only here for the weekend and I am working every day. Fortunately only working evenings, but it still kind of ruins things. Especially since they're probably going out to eat at one of the really good restaurants at the beach.

Argh.

I am totally getting Zaxby's on the way to work. I am entitled to unhealthy fast food in return for having to work while they're all at the beach. Hmph.

OK, so I'm kind of meh on Dan Radcliffe as an actor, but how sweet is this?

So: HBP!

Just got back from the midnight showing. It was awesome! I didn't even know Sumter had that many HP fans diehard enough to go to a midnight showing!

Anyway. It was great! I'd forgotten how great HP movies are. I can't remember the first thing about OotP. I have lots of small nitpicky things and several big things that bothered me, but on the whole it was really good. Funny and still very dark, close enough to the book not to give me a heart attack, suspenseful, well-shot and good cinematography and special effects...

One problem of course is that I haven't read the book in ages, so exactly what is and isn't in the book are a bit hazy at times.

( Thoughts (spoilers!) )

Well, it's nearly 4:30 AM. So, conclusions: definitely very well done. I think it's tied with PoA for my favorite. It was just the right balance of humor and darkness. It would be very easy for it to be too dark and depressing, but it wasn't. It maybe wasn't dark enough, really. You didn't really see just how grim the Voldemort situation was and how much his power had grown, at least not as much as you did in the book. And if you didn't know what happened at the end, it maybe kind of came out of nowhere.

But anyway. I think it struck a good balance overall. The humor wasn't as forced as it has seemed in some of the movies, they did a good job of showing how the gang is growing up...

Anyway, I could probably go on for ages, but I must go to bed! Now I'm looking forward to reading the book - must finish GoF and get through OotP (aka "HP and the Teenage Angst!").

And it's Harry Potter Day once again!

I have to work from 5-10, plus an hour's drive home (can't wait till I move to Columbia), but then me and my brother are going to a midnight showing!

I really wanted to reread the book, because I've only read it once or twice, and once was in a huge rush to find out what happened when it first came out. I can't ever remember who all those Gaunt people are and all the details about Slughorn and and Fenrir Greyback and stuff.

But I got stuck on GoF, possibly my least favorite book, and lost momentum with my re-reading. According to IMDb, though, the Gaunts were dropped anyway. Although weren't they kind of important? But whatever. The reviews sound pretty good and now I'm all fangirly and excited.

I hope they don't ruin the ending. I also hope they can make me care enough about Dumbledore to even care about the ending, because thus far I have hated Michael Gambon as Dumbledore, especially in GoF when he yelled at Harry after his name came out of the Goblet of Fire.

(This reminds me - I ought to go back and reread the journal I was keeping as I read HBP for the first time. I stopped every few chapters to record my reactions. There are lots of capital letters and exclamation marks and question marks and some very large "NOOOOO"s toward the end.)

I wonder if Dan's acting has improved any. I've never been particularly thrilled with him. Rupert, when he gets to do something besides stupid-sidekick-comic-relief stuff, and Emma are pretty good, but Dan's always been rather wooden. I don't hate him, but he's just kind of blah. He seems to have two main emotions - stoic and angry. However, since he's playing Angsty Teenager Harry now, perhaps those will serve him pretty well.

I remember how obsessed I used to be with HP. It's kind of faded over the years, but new movies and things still make me all fangirly!

So we just heard Sparkle, my cat, crying from down the hall. She doesn't make much noise at all unless something's wrong, so I went looking for her. The cries were coming from my brother's room, which she never goes in, so I figured maybe she was stuck in his closet or something. We searched all over his room, and were wondering if she'd maybe crawled inside his box springs - my other brother's box springs has a hole in the bottom cover and she occasionally hides inside it.

But then she meowed some more and finally we found her -- down inside the covered air vent in the floor.

It turned out that the cover had somehow been pried off the vent in my bedroom, and apparently she'd crawled down in that one. But how??? I mean, it's flush with the floor, so it would take some prying to get loose and out of the floor. We have had company - my aunt and uncle, two young cousins, and my aunt's childhood friend and her husband from Washington state...but I really don't think any of them would randomly mess with an air vent. Even the kids - for one thing, the vent in my room is on a very dusty part of the floor behind my bed where even I seldom go. For another, my cousins are veteran cat owners, obsessed with kitties, and very good at cat-proofing things (they've just gotten an indoor kitten) - so I'm fairly sure they'd realize the danger of Sparkle going in an open vent.

I'm contemplating whether it's possible that Bella, the puppy, did it (she's a very big puppy, probably close to 35 or 40 pounds now). I'm not sure if she'd have been able to do it or not. I really don't want to be like my dad who blames everything on the cat, but Bella does get into everything and I am biased against her because she has ruined several pairs of shoes and various other possessions. I don't have much patience with her, cute or not. My main concern was, if it was her, it could happen again.

So. Completely baffled. As my brother says, we need the Hardy Boys.

Started screencapping The Sting, which I just watched last night, but I have suddenly become overwhelmingly sleepy. First day at my not-really-new job today - I've started back at my old job in Columbia. Not the greatest job on earth, but I did rather like and am glad to be back.

I have two other sets of caps uploading now, and might cap Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, which I have from Netflix because I'm a dork and I love that movie (left over from my pre-teenage horse obsession). Hopefully I'll get the ones uploading now up tomorrow, but I don't know. I'll try to get them all up the near future, anyway.

So anyway, though it is unheard of for me to go to bed this early, I believe I shall. Good night!

So my dad is currently stuck on the side of the road somewhere south of Fayetteville, NC, with 3 Berkshire pigs in somewhat makeshift trailer.

And his cell phone is dead. So this is wonderful.

Some of my uncle's employees, who are no doubt thrilled, are on their way to get him, but in the meantime we have no news. We also don't know precisely where he is, other than somewhere near a gas station at exit 41 on I-95, where he accidentally put gasoline in my uncle's diesel truck.

So he can't go find a phone, since he can't leave his pigs. IF he's on 95, maybe someone will observe a man in a truck with pigs has broken down and will call the police? We're not really worried (well, I am, because I worry about everything), but we do need to know where he is and he probably would like some food, seeing as he's been wherever he is since 7:40-ish.

My family always has the weirdest drama.

...and the Dirty Dancing obsession continues. I'm so weird about movies. There's tons of movies that I watch ones and like, even like well enough to buy, and then, out of the blue, there are several that I watch once and get completely obsessed with.

( Movie-related rambling )

Anyway, enough rambling. My DD obsession is still in effect, though now I've got the DVD it'll probably start to fade pretty soon. It's just such a fun, happy movie though, melodramatic abortion sub-plots notwithstanding. And it's a great romance, of course. I love what somebody over at Cinematical said about it: "I love the entire dynamic of the film -- two people who each believe, for utterly different reasons, that the other one is way out of their league, yet they fall in love anyway." *sigh*

And on that note, I'm off to watch the final "Time of My Life" scene one more time :)

My family has decided we should start calling flash drives "information goblets," which is what my dad called one today when he couldn't think of the name. He does this all the time - uses completely random, entirely unrelated words when he can't of the right one. He once called a watermelon a lawnmower, and a plate of sliced tomatoes, umbrellas. This causes much hilarity and many inside jokes.

Off to have dinner at my aunt and uncle's house. Maybe more later.

What exactly did that line mean and why is it so famous?

I finally watched Dirty Dancing, which I'd never seen before. Yes, I know it's a classic, especially of the cheesy fluffy chick flick category, which is my specialty, so it's positively tragic I hadn't seen it.

And of course, I loved it! I'd have maybe preferred if the 80s-ish music hadn't kept interfering with the 60s vibe, but I loved it anyway!

A nice fluffy romantic movie, exactly the kind I like! And with very hot Patrick Swayze! Man, I don't think I've ever seen a Patrick Swayze movie, come to think of it, but wow! The dancing was great and the whole movie was very sexy!

But that "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" line - I don't get it. Why is it famous? Having heard the line a million times with no context, I always imagined maybe somebody was threatening Baby, you know - had her cornered? But in context, it doesn't really seem to make sense. Presumably no one forced Baby to sit in the corner. I guess maybe he meant she shouldn't be ignored, hence the ensuing dance with her? I still don't really get the line, nor see why it's famous.

But other than my puzzlement about that line, it was awesome. The sort of movie that leaves you happy, which is the kind I like!

Which, incidentally, is part of why I didn't care for the apparently much-acclaimed Once. I was gypped! All the hype, including the Netflix envelope, went on about the romance - and then the ending was most disappointing. Not sad, but not happily ever after. Yes, I know I'm a baby, but real life is depressing enough. I'll take happy endings in my movies, please!

Once was just a bit too gritty, too slow, too indie, if that makes any sense. There wasn't enough dialog (montages again), too many long disjointed handheld camera bits, etc. The music was not my type, and the film was just too lowkey and blah. It was difficult to stay awake. It wasn't awful. I rather liked the characters, especially the fact that they weren't gorgeous actors, but actually looked like regular people (although I confess, given the choice I'll take super-hot Patrick Swayze over ordinary people any day).

So I liked the characters, but the "falling in love" that IMDb's plot description mentioned seemed more like "gradually growing somewhat fond of each other." There didn't seem to be much chemistry between them although I believe I heard they were together in real life? The music was all so blah (to me, bearing in mind that I have very weird taste in music and am an avid bluegrass fan) that I can't remember any of it at all. No real romance, no action, no suspense - it seemed like nothing happened. Overall: meh.

Anyway, got to get up earlyish to go look at apartments in Columbia with Rachelle. I am quite excited to be independent (ish) again! Next movie up should be Lost In Austen, from Netflix. Might be a while though, due to my YouTube Friends marathon. I'm almost done with season 7 (Monica & Chandler's wedding is coming up!), which is further than I've gotten in any TV show except As Time Goes By, which doesn't count because there's like 10 episodes per season. I'm madly obsessed with Friends, especially Chandler :) More on that later!

Just watched Last Chance Harvey with my mom. I'd been wanting to see it solely because of its stars, Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman, and the promise of a love story. It was worth the wait!

( review, if it can be called that, or mostly just rambling )

On the whole, I agree with Ebert, as usual (my one major point of contention with him is Anna and the King, which he gave zero stars). In particular, though, I would like to wholeheartedly agree with his condemnation of "that ancient standby, the Semi-Obligatory Lyrical Interlude." I hate when they fade of into a montage of the happy couple laughing and chatting or kissing or frolicking (? how do you spell that?) in fields of wildflowers or *ahem* laying in meadows staring at each other and sparkling. I didn't find too much fault with the use of it in Last Chance Harvey, though it did irk me slightly (so did Kate being taller than Harvey, which is completely ridiculous - my being annoyed, not her being taller). But it just about killed Twilight for me. All the lovely romance from the book was gone, reduced to...lying in a field. Staring at each other. And sparkling. In general it just seems like laziness. Can't be bothered to actually write dialog or shoot scenes to establish a relationship - nah, we'll just through in a cheesy montage. It's so overdone and so completely shallow. It doesn't develop the characters or their relationship at all and it clearly says (to me, anyway) that the filmmakers just can't be bothered. What? Actual dialog might make their film a bit longer? Well, if it's a good film, people wouldn't mind, if they actually put some effort into it and stopped trying to placate us with montages...sorry, it's one of my pet peeves and I was delighted to see Ebert address it in this review. I was pointing emphatically at my screen and hissing "Yes! Yes! Exactly!" (I'd've shouted instead of hissing, but it's 2 AM...).

So, yes, I really liked Last Chance Harvey. I seem to have a thing for middle-aged romances. I love As Time Goes By, for example. And in Mamma Mia!, Sophie and Sky completely annoy me, while I love Donna and Sam. Odd. But I guess I love about them what I love about Last Chance Harvey, that sense of hope, maybe.

Anyway, in closing, I would just like to reaffirm my adoration of Emma Thompson. She is seriously awesome. I believe she is my favorite modern actress. She's certainly the one I would most like to meet in person. She always seems to so down to earth and normal and friendly. And funny! Her commentary for Sense & Sensibility was hilarious at times, though also very insightful and interesting.

ANYWAY, this couch is really hot and I've been up late the last few nights, so I believe I will go to bed.

My LJ has been overhauled! I've gone through and retagged everything so the tagging more or less makes sense. I've fixed the icon posts, as the tables I'd originally used didn't work in the new layout. Screencap posts now have the gallery graphics from my site instead of tiny previews. I have a lovely new P&P mood theme - I must make an effort to use a bigger variety of moods instead of "cheerful" all the time.

So anyway, it should now be easier to find screencaps, as they are all tagged. I don't have enough icons to bother with classifying them much, so they're not tagged by specific movie or subject, really. The "squee" tag applies to rather fangirly posts, LOL, mostly to do with Walk the Line.

I've realized, reading back through my journal, that I should post more. Even if no one else reads it, I find it interesting to remember things I'd forgotten about from several years ago...