sunday 9 november 2009

at the movies! – vue

the world has ended and a bunch of puppets jump out a window to save the world (sort of)

the princess and the bear finally actually went to the movies! after seeing batman begins in june 2006 the only other film we’ve seen at the movies together has been the dark knight a year and a half ago. two films in three and a half years – i can’t believe it. especially since we love watching movies so much.

but somehow it just hasn’t happened. we’ve been too tired in the weeks and we’re so busy on saturday nights… so we’ve just fallen out of the habit.

halloween was coming up and i thought it’d be nice for us to go and watch a horror film on hallween night. we tried to arrange it but in the end it fell through. as a backup charlotte was thinking we could perhaps go on the sunday afterward but i don’t usually like doing things on sundays so i wasn’t too keen on the idea.  then, when sunday came around, like a little girl hopping around charlotte asked if we could go and because she was so excited and because we hadn’t gone in such a long time i said okay.

well – charlotte loved it! and so did i. it was so nice going to the cinema together again. and we got lots of nice snacks - popcorn, coke, nachos.  it was a real treat!

and the film? it was quite fun. i didn’t know too much about it beforehand – i’d just seen the trailer and thought it looked cool. i liked animation and apocalyptic stuff too, so it was right up my street.

the animation, as you’d expect, was very good! and those little puppets look so cool.

i do think it was a bit too dark, though and the story could’ve done with some light relief. either some more humour or some happier elements, as the tone was a bit relentlessly dark. i suppose the other thing they could’ve done would’ve been to add another villain or setting. that would’ve given it just a bit more variety.

but overall it was quite good. and charlotte enjoyed it too, which was good.

cast:

the puppets

voices provided by:

24 may 2009

at home – tv

ben stiller works in museum which comes to life at night

we saw this the first time one night in jericho. then it came on again and we were just slobbing around so we decided why not watch it again.

it’s the kind of film you can watch twice ’cause it’s such fun. we enjoyed the monkey and the t-rex and attila (ot was it gengis?).

our favourite bit was the scene where owen wilson ties up ben stiller and is about to drive a train into his head:

Jedediah: Fire up the iron horse, boys.
Larry: Hey, blondie!
Jedediah: Names Jedadiah.
Larry: Jedadiah, stop the train, please!
Jedediah: No can do, crackerjack.
Larry: Whats going on here?
Jedediah: Somebodys got to pay.
Larry: Pay for what?
Jedediah: I don’t know, just pay!

that bit where owen wilson goes “i don’t know, just pay!” made us laugh so much. we kept on saying it over and over and giggling away like teenagers. i tried to find it on youtube but no-one seems to find it as funny as we do.

(haha! charlotte just read it and we did the whole “i don’t know, just pay!”  thing all over again. )

cast:

ben stiller

owen wilson

robbie williams

and some other pretty well-known people

23 may 2009

at home – tv, sky box office

this girl falls in love with a vampire

we really enjoyed this. i thought it was slick and well done. and the acting was pretty good too.

we like vampires.

i also thought the love story was very well done and it was very believable. you really got the sense that these two characters couldn’t live without one another and that drove the film on. also, having her fall in love with a vampire is a nice way of introducing the viewer to the vampire set-up in the film.

yeah, this was a nice new fresh angle to the genre.

cast:

the now very famous robert pattinson

the now very famous kristen stewart

(according to E!)

16 may 2009

at home – tv

this girl and this guy swap bodies

a few days before we were just staring at the tv and this came on. we started watching it without really watching it and then got into it! anyway, we could watch the end that day but we watched it again on this day.

we really liked this. it was very cute. and was quite romantic in the end.

cast:

this young guy

this young girl

16 may 2009

at home – sky box office

that saw guy is back from the dead. sort of

and that’s pretty much it. i think he set all this up before he died in the last one. i think. to be honest, they all merge together.

is there anything that stands out from this one? hmmm… let me look on imdb. hmmm not really.

although, is this the one with dexter’s girlfriend being mean? or was it the last one.

still, it was fun and it passed the time. and it made p happy.

cast:

that saw guy in flashbacks (i think)

a bunch of people that die

14 may 2009

at home – tv

tom hanks gets fired from his job because he has aids.

charlotte loves loves this film and has been wanting me to watch it for ages. i’ve been putting it off because i didn’t want to watch this sentimental death movie. not that i was against it – i know it’s meant to be very good and i like watching hom tanks, i was justy wary that it could be too sentimental.

so, it came on tv one night and charlotte told me “we’re watching it”.

and you know what? it wasn’t too sentimental. it was very good. and den-zel was very good. tom was good, of course. of course. and antonio was good too.

charlotte loved it again and was so pleased that we watched it.

cast:

hom tanks

den-zel

antonio

2 may 2009

at home – tv, film4

a monster pops out of a river in south korea and snatches this guy’s daughter

it was one of those nights where there just happened to be two good films after each other on the same channel. it was also one of those nights where charlotte fell asleep halfway through the film.

although, to be fair to p, the film did take a bit of an odd turn and she wasn’t that much into it anymore. it starts out like a cool monster film, then becomes a weird comedy for 20 minutes, then becomes a family drama for about 45 minutes and it ends with them wrapping it all up.

i think i would’ve liked it if they balanced out the family drama and the monster horror elements a bit better – there was too much focus on the family side of things. or, if they’d at least kept the tension going while they were showing the family things.

still, i think it was a very cool idea and the opening sequence is very well done. i also don’t mind the family stuff too much as the whole film was very original.

the main actor, kang-ho song, was very good.

cast:

kang-ho song

some other koreans

2 may 2009
at home – tv, film4

every day this old man goes to this place and reads a love story to this old woman

we wailed.

well, not wailed. but this was the weepiest film i’ve seen in a long time. and charlotte did wail.

it was very romantic. very. and the acting was good too. i really like that punky scorpio, what’s his name? ryan… goose… gosling! ryan gosling. and the girl was good too.  and james garner and gena rowlands were very good too.

the only thing i wish was that it wasn’t so sad. because it really is desperately sad. too sad.

cast:

ryan gosling

rachel mcadams

james garner

gena rowlands

5 february 2009

at home – dvd, lovefilm

brendan fraser fights jet li and a bunch of chinese guys without rachel weisz

we were really disappointed with this, so much so that charlotte asked me to put it off half-way through! we watched mamma mia instead and then finished it a few days later.

it’s such a pity because it looked so promising – i liked the concept and the special effects looked very good, and i thought jet li made a very interesting villain.

but, like with the fourth indiana jones, something was just missing and the whole film just felt a bit hollow. maybe confidence in the film was too low when weisz couldn’t be in it? it’s hard to tell with these things, but her non-participation certainly seems to have been the difference.

cast:

brendan fraser

no rachel weisz

jet li

31 jan 2009

at home – tv, sky box office

meryl streep and pierce brosnan sing badly but we don’t mind ’cause they’re in greece and everyone is happy

we watched this after charlotte was looking grumpier and grumpier during the mummy 3. this one was for charlotte – after having made her watch some or other science fiction film (maybe it was fantastic four?)

charlotte absolutely loved it! she was laughing and giggling and smiling all the way through it. she had her glass of wine as she watched it and was happy. so i was happy.

sometimes i can get into these films and sometimes i can’t. i guess it depends upon my mood. or it depends upon how it’s made. this one wasn’t for me. i don’t think it helped that so many people sung badly. it wasn’t funny.

i was also very tired and actually fell asleep while i was watching it, which is rare for me. eventually i went up to bed before the end.

i did like some bits, though. i liked the tone a lot and i also liked all the sun. those things were nice.

cast:

meryl streep

pierce brosnan

colin firth