Everyone once in a while you stumble on something on the internets and you find it appealing and/or you get a giggle out of it. This clip reminds me of the film Hercules Returns that was done by some Aussie comedians a few years ago…

Oh holy crap.. just looked up Hercules Returns on IMDB and it was done in 1993 – which is definitely more than a few years ago! I’m getting old.

I went to see Juno with BigSal.   I love going to the movies with BigSal, she laughs herself silly and I often find myself laughing at her laughing… reminds me of the giggling fits we used to have as kids over the dinner table which used to annoy Dad who was trying to watch the six o’clock news.  I also forgot that BigSal is the singular worst driver of my general acquaintance and getting to and from the cinema I got freaked out more than once in the traffic.

Anyway,  Juno is probably the best movie I’ve seen in a long time.  The screenplay was excellently written about a normally sensitive topic of teen pregnancy and I hear it is up for nomination for best original screenplay at the Oscars.  The characters were engaging – witty, sarcastic, human, evocative and funny all at the same time.  Juno who was played by Ellen Page was fantastic… her performance really made the film, she was a smart arsed, mouthy little kid who, when faced with an unplanned pregnancy, displays a maturity beyond her years and decides to give up her baby for adoption.  I also love Jason Bateman (Michael from Arrested Development) and Alison Janney (CJ from West Wing) in just about anything so it was thumbs up all round.

The soundtrack was also pretty cool.  I found this version on Youtube of Tree Hugger by Antsy Pants.  I’m going to have to go out and buy it I think. 

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I went to see the Golden Compass today and thought it was okay… not great, but still not a bad way to spend a couple of hours.  I had read some rather mediocre reviews of the film and more than one news article about the Catholic church being less than impressed so expectations weren’t that high.  Actually I couldn’t give a toss what the church had to say about it.  I haven’t read the book, so had no idea what the storyline should have been.  I definitely felt that it was a bit choppy at the beginning which is probably due to the fact that any movie of this type of book finds it difficult to convey an alternate reality on film in a short period of time to ‘set the scene’.  There’s just too much to get the viewer to ‘buy into’ before they can get to the nuts and guts of the plot.

There was plenty of visual effects that probably would have been quite spectacular were it not for the fact that we’ve seen it all before… the LoTR, Narnia and even the Harry Potter films have paved the way already so we’re becoming increasingly hard to impress with the CGI battle scenes etc. 

The best bit of the movie for me was the fantastically combative armoured Ice Bears.  I totally want one!  I’d be fantastic to have one of those things following you around to smite people that pissed me off.  Can you imagine it?   Why last week alone, I’d have had my Ice Bear take out one Work Cover medical assessment officer, one smash repairer from Wooloongabba, one RACQ customer service representative, one queue-jumper at the Myer sales, one whiney bitch sitting beside me at the Sushi Station, one annoying so called ‘friend’ who only contacts me when they want something and one crazy chickie I know on Facebook who sends me about 30 invitations a week for ridiculous applications I’m not interested in.

Yeah.. having your own personal Ice Bear would rock.
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Mustered up the energy this morning to take Angel to the cinema and seeing that Alvin and the Chipmunks isn’t out yet and we’ve already seen the Bee Movie and Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (both of which turned out to be less than impressive btw) we decided to go see Enchanted.

The trailer looked pretty promising, I particularly liked the end tidbit when the bit where the gallant Prince gets knocked over by a gang of cyclists as he’s about to burst into song in what looks like a Monty Pythonesque moment. 🙂

I enjoyed the movie much more than I thought I would actually.  The concept was kinda fun, they set up the whole Disney ‘happily ever after’ animation thing in about five minutes flat at the beginning of the film in a nice neat little piss take at what’s basically been Disney’s bread and butter since Snow White.  The characters were mostly exaggerated stereotypes and it worked really well.  Amy Adams was about as insipid and sickly sweet as you get in a Disney princess, and Susan Sarandon was fantastic as the typical Disney villain… it must have been a lot of fun to play the part. 

As per usual they go a little bit overboard towards the end.. in this case a dragon ravaging New York, but since you’ve well and truly bought into the whole ‘over the top’ concept by now, it doesn’t bother you too much.  I think this definitely be buying this one when it comes out on DVD.  🙂
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The movie we took Mum to see today was Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. The trailer looked like a lot of fun… kinda like Willy Wonka took over Hamleys or something 🙂  But it was a bit off the mark somehow.

The movie had a great cast which promised to be good… love Dustin Hoffman ordinarily, and Justin Bateman we adore from his Arrested Development days and well then there’s Natalie  Portman, and well let’s face it… we’ve been totally loving Natalie since she before it was legal to do so after seeing her in Beautiful Girls.  But somewhere they went wrong.  Dustin Hoffman’s character has crazy annoying hair and an even more annoying lisp.  Justin Bateman plays the hard nosed, hard working accountant, affectionately named Mutant, who for no apparent reason and with minimal character development, suddenly becomes human and befriends this odd little kid, Eric who seems to have no purpose in the film other than to reinforce the concept that they’re all a mob of misfits.  And then there’s Natalie Portman’s character who they build up as a creatively blocked musician lacking in confidence and direction… and this seems to go no where!

 

The whole story is about Mr Magorium (Hoffman) handing the toy store over to Molly Maloney (Portman) and the magical toystore is kinda pissed about this and doesn’t settle down until Maloney remembers that she believes in the magic of the Emporium – and therefore herself and her ability to run it – end of plot… fade to black.

Cute thing – a rather sad sock monkey that Angel seemed quite taken with for some reason and couldn’t stop talking about on the way home.  Will have to see if I can find him one somewhere.

Uncute thing – that hideous frock they put the gorgeous Natalie in for the final scenes of the film. The whole way through she was looking young, cute and perky… then they chuck her in a frock that looks like it escaped from it’s previous life as a tablecloth.  Go figure.
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