Loramir Of Gondor's Journal

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!

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.

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!

...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 :)

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.

I have just indulged my rather varying taste in movies by watching two extremely different ones back to back: Empire Records and Sense & Sensibility (1995).

The first is an old favorite from my high school days, which I still love due its general insanity and the considerable hotness of Anthony LaPaglia. I was looking for a mood theme for my journal and found where someone had made an Empire Records one, which made me realize I hadn't seen it in years.

I decided to watch S&S after watching the new and less satisfying one last night. This has definitely confirmed my preference for the 1995 version over the 2008 one. Also, I watched it with the audio commentary by Emma Thompson and Lindsay Moran, the producer, which has only served to massively increase my admiration for Emma Thompson. She really is hilarious! Her behind-the-scenes stories about the day Alan Rickman's horse had gas and fainting sheep were wonderful, as were her more serious thoughts about the film and discussion of the process of writing and filming it.

One thing she mentioned quite a lot was how much she wanted to make sure it was funny and ironic, which is what I really like about that film. The humor really gives it more depth and appeal - without it, the newer one seems so blah. It also reinforced my opinion that Alan Rickman is the infinitely better of the two Cols. Brandon. With him you could really see the love and longing and pain and all that, which I just never could with David Morrissey.

Incidentally, after hearing Emma talk about them in the commentary, I went to watch the deleted scenes from S&S. I was highly amused to realize the DVD menu for the deleted scenes from S&S contains two scenes - "True Love's Kiss," and "Mrs. Dashwood Converts Elinor." The first is Elinor & Edward's kiss, which was cut because it didn't fit either the characters or the point in the film where it would have gone. It was rather awkward and I think the film is better off without it. The other one, however, contains Mrs. Dashwood and Elinor talking in the garden after hearing that Edward is married. As it turns out, Mrs. D is not converting Elinor, but comforting her. I keep imagining the misunderstanding that resulted in that typo! You'd think someone would have caught it before they released the DVD!

Last night I watched the new(ish) version of Sense & Sensibility. My ultimate verdict: meh. Parts of it I liked and parts of it I didn't. Overall I don't think it can compare to the 1995 Ang Lee version with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. Perhaps one shouldn't try to compare, but when both films tell the same story, it's almost impossible not to.

( Review )

So, again, my final verdict is: meh. It was not bad. It just wasn't particularly good. If the 1995 version didn't exist, this one might have been good, but compared to that version, it just falls flat.

Also, I thought for the DVD they could have taken out the credits and the "Next time" preview bits and just done it as if it were a movie, like they did with the 1995 P&P. I found that a bit annoying, especially the preview bits.

There has got to be something wrong with Nicholas Sparks. Does he just spend his days thinking of ways for people to die??

Honestly. The Notebook I can just about enjoy, because at least Noah & Allie got to spend a whole lifetime together and grow old before they died (mysteriously at the same time, apparently due to the transcendent power of love or something). But the rest of his books/movies I just don't like.

I just watched Nights In Rodanthe, which was reasonably good but very predictable. Personally, I just can't really get into the story when I *know* someone's going to die. This is why I only watch the first half of Titanic. And while I had not read Nights In Rodanthe, since I knew it was by Nicholas Sparks, obviously somebody was going to die. I was amazed when they survived the storm in Rodanthe, so after that I just sat there wondering, "Well, they survived that, now how is one or both of them going to die?" Was his plane going to crash? Would she get in a car accident? Would they get together only to realize one of them had a terminal illness? Maybe he caught a fatal South American disease while visiting his son in Ecuador!

But seriously, there has got to be something pathologically wrong with someone who writes some of the most romantic, moving love stories and then every time, kills one or both of the characters. Even more bizarre to me is that people voluntarily read his books knowing how it will inevitably end. I mean, having a good cry every now and then is one thing, I suppose, but reading his books just seems masochistic.

I am a major proponent of the Romantic Nonsense genre of literature. I don't want murder mysteries, deep symbolism, apocalyptic disasters, dysfunctional families, terminal illnesses, car accidents, tragic secrets, etc (though there are a few exceptions to this). If I wanted those things, I'd read the newspaper. If I'm going to spend my time reading a book (or watching a movie), I want an escape from real life and, darn it, I want a happy ending!

Possibly this is why I did not enjoy being an English major. All these books with "literary merit" almost all happen to also be incredibly depressing. So do all the movies that get nominated for Best Picture. This is why I was watching Mamma Mia and Enchanted while everyone else was raving about No Country for Old Men and Atonement.

Me and my mom went to see Mamma Mia! while my brothers saw Dark Knight this morning. I loved it :)

( Ramblings with lots of italics and probably some spoilers )

I could never be a movie critic. I'm so easy to please. I very rarely see movies I don't like. I'm not that picky. A good romance is really all it takes, and I will heartily endorse total crap. Not that Mamma Mia! was--it definitely wasn't--but I was just noticing that every movie I've ever reviewed on my LJ has a good review. I guess that's partly because I don't bother posting enthusiastic ramblings about movies I don't like, but still--there aren't many. I'm picky about what I watch--I like happy endings and fluffy escapist romances, none of your shoot-em-ups or tales of deeply scarred psychopaths. Sometimes I like a little action; Ocean's 11, Captain Blood, Pirates of the Caribbean, John Wayne westerns...but nearly all of those have romance of some sort. I am a total sap.

Anyway, the overall verdict was definitely good. My mom said it's the best thing she's seen in ages (although the last movie she saw in theaters was Hairspray, so...). I maybe wouldn't go that far, but I certainly enjoyed it and will probably buy it on DVD. My mom liked it so much she's going back to see it with my aunt, and I'll definitely be going along again.

Yay! No Reservations finally came out on DVD! I loved the original German version, Mostly Martha, so I was dying to see it, but I missed it in theaters. A lot of people didn't like the new version, but I actually loved it. I admit this was partly because it was more romantic, and that, quite simply, is what gets me. But I really don't think it was that bad by comparison, just different.

Here is my vaguely pretentious review, as if anyone cares, complete with food-related metaphors.

( My review )

Anyway, it is very late and my hand is crippled from writing nine sides of paper for my history mid-term. Also, I got The Holiday at Target. Another movie no one else really liked much (my favorite Audrey Hepburn film, for example, is Two For the Road, which I bet you haven't even heard of...). I always seem to like stuff no one else does. Actually, though while Holiday was lovely and romantic, I also loved Eli Wallach's character. Wallach really is a great legend of classic Hollywood and I loved all his classic movie references and his relationship with Iris.

So...happy Thanksgiving! Personally, my Thanksgiving dinner was a Slim Jim, some chips, and oatmeal cream pie on my way to work, but now I'm off till next weekend!

I've just been organizing and updating my Christmas music collection. I know a lot of people hate it, but I love Christmas music, and heck - you only get it once a year!

Also, we - me and my brothers - went to see Enchanted with my aunt Sheri and my cousins. Wow!

EDIT - I was hanging out at IMDB reading reviews and stuff and thought of more to say :)

( Review (or at least babbling) )

So, tomorrow's the bonfire for the beginning of the Price Family Thanksgiving Get-Together. Yay.

Inspired my film class, I'm going through some top film lists and marking which ones I've seen.  I'm doing AFI lists first, even though they aren't really fair since they only do American movies.

Last updated: 08 November 2007



















Well.  More later maybe.  This has revealed considerable gaps in my film watching.  For instance, I haven't seen:
E.T.
Any Star Wars (all the way through) or Indiana Jones (that I recall) or James Bond (except part of Thunderball)
Bridge on the River Kwai
On The Waterfront
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Graduate
Lawrence of Arabia
The original Dracula and Frankenstein
The Way We Were
Jaws
The Terminator
The Third Man
How Green Was My Valley
Dr. Strangelove
Chinatown
The Grapes of Wrath
Doctor Zhivago
The Philadelphia Story

I must remedy this.  And I must also go to work now.  Meh.

So...Brokeback Mountain. I finally broke down and watched it, mostly because all the hype had me curious.

It was...good. I can't really say I loved it, but it's good cinema. It's probably not going on my all-time favorites list and it won't be one of the movies I watch over and over again, but it had its merits.

The story is compelling and the characters surprisingly sympathetic. I really related to Jack, the romantic. He never gives up hope on some kind of happily-ever-after. He is the first to act on his feelings and the one to seek Ennis out four years later. He is willing to drive 14 hours to meet Ennis, who is never as willing to make sacrifices. Ennis, I think, is ultimately revealed to feel as strongly about Jack as Jack felt about him, but he resists their relationship with all his might, troubled by a childhood experience and guilt about his wife and family. There are times when he was with Jack and is really content, when he forgets to fight his feelings.

The supporting characters were pretty good, particularly Alma. I wasn't crazy about Lureen. She seemed very one dimensional and I've never been crazy about Anne Hathaway.

The things that I didn't like were the sex scenes, which seemed too gritty and harsh - not just the male ones, but with Lureen as well. I also didn't like the way Ennis talked. It seemed fake, like Marlon Brando in The Godfather.

But on the whole, it was a good movie. The characters in particular got me involved and made me care about these two guys and their relationship. It made me cry more than any movie has in a long time. Deep down it's a simple love story, unconventional though the couple may be. I thought the tagline was very good: Love is a force of nature. The movie seems to feel that love is inevitable and unavoidable - even if you try to fight it.

Just got back from seeing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It was great, of course. I prefer the first one, though. I think it would be hard to improve on that one. It was so good it made a lot of the humor in this one seem exaggerated and recycled.

Jack and Elizabeth were great, but Will seemed a bit dull in this one. Although compared to Jack he usually does. I liked Norrington much better as a pirate, though he turned out to be a rat in the end. The ending was a bit TOO wide open. I'm definitely intrigued to see At World's End of course, but I thought the ending was too sobering--as Billy Wilder said, a movie should catch you up and not let you down the whole time. Jack's death(?) let you down, and it never picked you back up before the end.

The whole cannibal scene was a bit unnecessary and corny. I loved the swordfights though. Both PotC movies have awesome swordfight scenes. Davy Jones and crew were just too gruesome. It was unpleasant to look at them! I guess that was intentional, but still... I'm sure the Jack/Elizabeth shippers had fun. Of course they always have some good chemistry, but I think Elizabeth still loves Will.

Involving the East India Trading Company was a surprisingly historically accurate touch. It kind of confused my brothers, who had no idea what it was. That Beckett was evil.

Basically it was okay, but not nearly as good as the first. This one seemed to be trying too hard and dragging things out to cram in one last joke. Still, Jack Sparrow is definitely the coolest pirate ever. And Johnny Depp. You'd never know he's my mom's age. Oh, and was that "cold dead hands" line a reference to Charlton Heston?