I want a movie where the twist is in the first ten minutes, from which all trailers are made, giving the audience an entirely false impression as to what the movie is actually about.

That's Psycho, pretty much -- none of the trailers or promo materials made it known that Janet Leigh gets killed half an hour in.

And since Dakota Fanning creeps me out even when she's not evil and doesn't have Emily the Strange's hairstyle, I MUST see her as evil!precocious-girl.

SPOILER: The trailer makes it look like she's evil, and it seems like she might be for about half the movie, but she's not. She is being victimized and manipulated, and reacting to such in fairly reasonable ways, and it's REALLY not fun to watch once you find that out.

Plus, they kill a kitty.

That's Psycho, pretty much -- none of the trailers or promo materials made it known that Janet Leigh gets killed half an hour in.

Good point! Now that's what I'm talking about.

Saw Phantom. Doesn't this show usually have people who can sing in it?

Yes. But people who can sing aren't necessarily (A) very young and (B) very pretty. Joel Schumacher cared more about A and B than about singing.

Minnie Driver was dubbed for the operatic parts; she did her own singing only in the big pop ballad over the credits.

And, yes, the lipsynching was unbelievably bad.

That's Psycho, pretty much -- none of the trailers or promo materials made it known that Janet Leigh gets killed half an hour in.

And Hitchcock used his pull as a financially successful producer to require theater owners to prevent anyone from coming late to the show. Before this, the traditional way to see a movie was just to drop by the theater whenever you wanted and go in, even if the film was halfway through, then you just stayed in the next showing until you saw where you came in, then you'd leave. Hitch used his ban on late entry as a promotional gimmick since he didn't want to put too much detail into the trailers, etc.

The Phantom of the Opera is not supposed to be played by someone whose looks people swoon over!

I had no problem with that. But then, the power of the swoon had taken me.

Just came back from seeing The House of Flying Daggers. Pretty, pretty scenery, pretty, pretty people, kick-ass martial arts sequences, especially the scene set in the bamboo forest--whoa. The only thing is, I found most of the dialog deeply silly. I don't know--maybe they weren't meant to be heroic, larger-than-life characters, or maybe the translator did a poor job. But still. Beautiful, mysterious blind warrior goddesses shouldn't be saying stuff like, "Are you for real?" What is she, a valley girl?

Minnie Driver was dubbed for the operatic parts; she did her own singing only in the big pop ballad over the credits.

Ah, that makes sense. How silly, though.

And, yes, the lipsynching was unbelievably bad.

Good to know it wasn't just my theatre. Usually AMC has pretty reliable projectionists.

The Phantom of the Opera is not supposed to be played by someone whose looks people swoon over!

Well...he is, but it's supposed to be because of the voice, making it extra creepy when he turns out to be old/disfigured/psychotic/still kind of hot because of the voice. Which just makes casting a young pretty nonsinger wrong on many levels instead of just the one.

I just watched the DVD of Ray. Excellent, one of the better music biopics I've seen. One thing that made me rank it above What's Love Got to Do with It? is that it doesn't go for the traditional "Big Concert" ending, which is what I thought it would from seeing the trailer. I liked that the storyline ended with Ray finally confronting his failure to save his brother, even though it did go into the various awards he received in later years .

Out of all the various smaller roles in the ensemble, the one that really stuck with me was Warrick Davis, mostly because I had never seen him get that much facetime on screen before (caveat: I've never seen Willow). He really is a good actor, and one who should be getting more significant roles that don't cover his face with a full-body costume.

The Phantom of the Opera is not supposed to be played by someone whose looks people swoon over!

Well, just think of it as Beauty and the Beauty.