Looking at the previews instantly put me in mind of that wretched A Wizard of Earthsea miniseries on SciFi.

He started the book when he was 15, but it's mostly advertised as a book by a 17-year-old. I kept thinking I should read it, but the Amazon reviews made it clear that it's basically fanfic of all the big fantasy stories.

Also, when a positive review says something like "Not every story about dragons who telepathically bond with their riders is a copy of Anne McAffrey" I know I'm not like the fans of the work.

And then there was the review comparing him to the fantasy "greats" Robert Jordan, David Eddings, and Terry Brooks....

Our kiddos asked us out to watch "Eragon" which we did, but then they turned up late and couldn't get tickets (sold out) so we were laughing to be watching it ourselves. We thought pretty much the same thing as Narrator. Some bits were pretty, but otherwise, eh. Plus, we ended up in the front row, so almost all of the action scenes were lost on us.

We saw Eragon last night. The 15 y.o. mirrored my feelings when she said it was lame and the lead wasn't even that cute (she said if he'd been cuter/more buff with more shirtlessness, she would have liked it better). The director is overly attached to the flying, overhead shot with sweeping music and there were several times when Jeremy Irons used a phrase or tone that immediately made me only able to see Scar from the Lion King. The 10 y.o. liked it, but he loves going to the movies no matter what we see. My brother, who is visiting from England went with us, thanked us for saving him a 45 minute drive to the movie theater nearest his house because he probably would have seen it, and been disappointed that he drove all that way for a so-so movie.

ChiKat was just up here for the evening, and she suggested going out to see a movie. When I asked her which one, she mentioned Eragon, but I told her about the two reviews I'd read of it that called it one of the worst films of the year (as well as mentioned the complete ripoff of Star Wars and other fantasy films).

So, I looked up the listings for the bargain theater (which is much closer than the first-run theaters anyway) and we decided on A Good Year, the romantic comedy with Russell Crowe as the Type-A businessman who inherits the Province vineyard and rundown house and grounds of his Uncle Henry (something that happens much more often in the movies than it does in real life, I suspect). A fluffy film with no pretentions of grandeur, it does its job very well--delivers an entertaining romantic comedy with beautiful scenery, decent performances with good chemistry by most everyone involved, and has a fun French pop score that I wouldn't mind buying. Definitely worth the $2 ticket (and one I would have paid to see in the first-run theater, so worth more than just $2).

We just saw Blood Diamond.

It was an odd mixture of typical action movie running-unhurt-through-hails-of-bullets stuff, beautifully true little moments of reality, and earnest political speechifying which is almost Sorkinian in its preachiness. Hounsou and DiCaprio are both incredibly good. Hearing DiCaprio's Afrikaaner accent in the preview was laughable, but in the context of the film it worked. I forgot it was him after a few minutes and he disappeared completely into the character.

Hmm. I can get Hounsou and dragons, I can get Hounsou and earnestness.

So far dragons win--is there shirtlessness we can use to break the tie?

I saw INLAND EMPIRE yesterday, and it comes exactly as "advertised": 3 hours of Laura Dern wandering around in stream-of-unconsciousness David Lynch weirdness. Definitely the most out there thing he's done since ERASERHEAD (seriously - LOST HIGHWAY and MULLHOLAND DRIVE look positively coherent by comparison). Not quite sure what I think still, but it's an experience. Also, the end credit sequence is the single most joyous thing I've seen in a David Lynch movie (not that there's a lot of competition).

However, if Lynch has truly abandoned film for video, he really, REALLY needs to think about moving up to high-def.

Why isn't degree of shirtlessness part of the ratings system? How do those movie people expect us to make informed choices without that knowledge?

Oh, there is plenty of shirtlessness for both DiCaprio and Hounsou. Some of it involving glistening with sweat.