(no subject)

I know it's non-ratings season, but even so I'm coming to the opinion that the commercial networks are actually trying to get us to turn off and go out into the summer evening.
( A slightly long rant about programming )

King! Kong!

We went and saw King Kong at the cinema yesterday. This was mostly because we got an engagement present of Gold Class tickets, which we suddenly realised were due to expire really soon. It was a choice between that or Harry Potter, which I'd already seen and which Dean had no interest in, so we went with Peter Jackson.

I have to say I enjoyed the film, despite the large numbers of lizards/creepy crawly things that could eat you that kept cropping up ad nauesum. Honestly, it's like PJ knew of my twin millipede/crocodile phobias and decided to make a movie just to freak me out. I have to say the overkill kind of.. well, killed it though. By about the 15th human-in-peril scenario I was starting to wonder why the hell they persisted. I'd have gone home ages ago.

Naomi Watts is fantastic, again. Adrien Brody was good, although I spent half the time he was onscreen thinking "oh yeah, Adrien Brody" and the other half thinking "God that's an odd nose on him." Jack Black is good. He should play corporate evil more often.

I've never seen the original or the remake, so I've no idea how faithful it is to the original. I did like the in joke near the start of the movie though - "How about Fay?" "No, she's doing a picture with RKO". Heh.

But yeah, it does require a few elements of suspension of disbelief and thought, particularly if you're of a practical mindset. How, exactly, does one get a 25ft gorilla back to New York on a tramp steamer[1]? And just how many crew does a tramp steamer normally carry? And I hope they cleared the traffic we can clearly see moving below the Empire State just before Kong falls off... OK, OK, I'm not thinking too hard about it.

The Art Deco feel to the titles is great as well, despite Dean pointing out that it was pretty much passe and into Art Nouveau at that stage. Too critical? Us?

One of the things that bemused us was the trailer for Memoirs of a Geisha. After watching it both of us turned to each other and went: was anyone in that actually Japanese? From the imdb entry, yes, there are a few Japanese in there somewhere, but the majority of the main cast are Chinese, with the odd Vietnamese name in there. Very odd. Surely they didn't think we wouldn't notice..?

Still. A good day out at the movies.

[1] Actually that took me back to watching Godzilla with AussieChris. Particularly the moment when the 9 storey monster hid in the 2 storey building and Chris turned to me and said - in a talking to very small child playing peekaboo voice - "Where did the monster go!" Now that? Was a great movie. OK, only because we were hanging shit on it the entire way through, but it kept us wildly entertained. Godzilla's an iguana? Seriously? And he swam to New York to get to the fish markets? Through the oceans full of... yeah, never mind.