The Chow Yun Fat quote--at least what I could find from looking around:

"I can't stand talking English every day or the lifestyle there ... not to mention the food," the Hong Kong-born film star was quoted as saying in Friday's editions of Chinese-language newspaper The Sun.

"I only go to America for work," he said. "When I finish work, I leave immediately. I won't stay one day longer."

This sounds like he defintely hates it here, but not that he hates Westerners. So, cranky but not racist. Still a curmudgeonly thing to say, but no worse than, for example, a friend who moved to London five years ago to direct, saying he couldn't stand living in New York or the politics of the theater scene.

I saw "A Series of Unfortunate Events." OK, I guess, but Jim Carrey was too much "Ace Ventura." Count Olaf has to be really menacing for the story to work. I thought Jim Carrey was too over-the-top in parts.

Also, the We Are Family Anvil was distracting.

Liked the kids, Sunny in particular. However, if they are putting everyone else in Victorian-era-type clothing, they should have done that with Klaus as well. Maybe they were afraid that the boys in the audience wouldn't have related to to him dressed that way, but sweater and slacks was just too out of place. He should have been wearing a vest at least.

Just finished The 25th Hour. I made the mistake of reading reviews of it, that promised some shocking ending (to spare those from my error). Never really happened. And I just despise the idea of an apparently god-fearing man espousing avoiding the responsibility of going to jail for a crime of which is son is patently guilty, and it's not even a crime you'd think Pops would argue wasn't actually one.

So I felt all judgy towards the end, and broke away from any emotion Spike had earned.

totally agree with you about the ending, ita. i really like the movie, but the ending made the whole movie seem kind of pointless to me.

Just watched Chronicles of Riddick.

Wow, that pretty much didn't make any sense at all, did it?

I couldn't even finish it, Consuela. so you're doing better than me.

Thanks for finding that, Robin. I agree that it doesn't necessarily mean he dislikes Americans or westeners. It just strikes me that he's proud of his heritage and country and prefers it to any where else, so good on him.

I still maintain "prefer" is one thing and "can't stand" is quite another.

I finally got around to taking the RotKEE dvd out of the player and putting in the other DVD set that I bought on Tuesday--Mary Poppins. Very fun, and definitely a worthwhile purchase, especially if you're as much of a fan of that movie as I am.

Some info I learned from the documentary and commentary:

The boy who played Michael Banks died when he was only 21, and his only films were the three he did for Disney with Karen Dotrice, who lost contact with him after they finished the films. Julie Andrews remembers him as "cheeky," Dick Van Dyke as "squirmy," Dotrice as "street-smart" and a bit of a hustler (he finagled a dime for every take he completed on the wires during the "We Love to Laugh" sequence, since he was scared of heights).

Dotrice (the daughter of British actor Roy Dotrice) still fondly remembers Walt Disney, to the point of tears when thinking about him for the documentary. Her mother was the reason that Elsa Lancaster was cast as Katie Nana--Dotrice's godfather was Charles Laughton, so the family was close to both Laughton and his wife Lancaster.

The children had no clue that Dick Van Dyke was playing the old director of the bank, and didn't find out until the film's premiere, when they saw his name on the final credits. They just thought he was a smelly old man who was going to die as soon as the day's shoot was over.

Julie Andrews was married to Tony Walton at the time (and pregnant with their daughter when she first met with Disney), and when Disney found out from her what her husband did (art and costume design), he was hired for the film.

And, startling me personally, was the fact that even though I was no longer watching the LotR documentaries, I still couldn't get away from one of the primary talking heads from the Appendices--Brian Sibley shows up as a "movie historian" on the documentary for Mary Poppins!

Chronicles of Riddick was all about the moments for me. I neglected to try and string them together coherently, and that's perhaps how I enjoyed it so much.

Just watched the RotK extended version. I am dizzy and sad.