FINALLY got to see the trailer for HP3:GoF.

t passes out

Saw Crash this afternoon. Wasn't blown away. The writing and performances are all good, but the characters were all very two-dimensional (everyone was 100% defined by their race/sex/job, and that was all you needed to know about them), and the plot was predictable in a way that made the last half-hour feel very long. You could see the checklist of coincidences being crossed off one by one as they happened.

I've seen it said elsewhere that this is Ryan Phillipe's best performance. I'll admit that I can't, offhand, think of anything better he's done, but mostly I'm just amazed anyone is keeping track.

Hee. I thought Ryan was brilliant in Igby Goes Down. Perhaps not much of an acting job t /snark but that character worked very well for me.

Hee Hee, very funny bit:

[link]

Saw Unleashed and Kung Fu Hustle last night. Enjoyed both of them. You have to be prepared in Unleashed, for a lot of simplisitc sentimental dialogue and an unbelievable plot, but if you give up your expectations, the cool fight sequences and Jet Li's performance will draw you in. Morgan Freeman is awesome, as always, even though he's pretty much a Magical Negro. Kung Fu Hustle is loads of fun--even more if you know a lot about kung fu movies and can recognize all the scenes and tropes being skewered.

Also saw the trailer for Lords of Dogtown, a fictional version of the events covered in Dogtown and Z Boys, a documentary which I loved.

Looked damn good and it was cool to see a movie about the late 60s-70s where kids and clothes and houses looked like I remember they did.

Just saw Kingdom of Heaven. I thought Orlando did a decent job of pained and restrained nobility in blossom. Were they playing to his strengths? Dunno. Definitely not a leader through charisma -- leading through honourable action instead.

Peter Jackson has ruined me. Dude. Boromir death scene, Minas Tirith, Helm's Deep, flowering of the White Tree, mondo battering ram ... of course there are a limited number of ways to show a siege, but still. There needs to be a moratorium on heroes taking a bunch of arrows and keeping fighting, for at least a couple more years.

Orlando's got a great if narrow niche -- blacksmiths who leave the forge to fight. I wouldn't have thought there were two movies with that hero at the core, but I say he should run with it.

Has he ever done a non-period movie?

Not that's gotten wide release in the US, no. IIRC, he has Calcium Kid, Haven, and Elizabethtown done. Still, to deflect Ned Kelly, Fellowship Of The Ring, The Two Towers, Return Of The King, Pirates Of The Caribbean 1-3 -- that'll take some doing. Seeing as people have seen some of those.

Oh, and if Liam Neeson trains Bruce Wayne and then dies, [KoH spoiler] that'd make at least three mentor/corpse thingies he's got going.

Has he ever done a non-period movie?