I mean, I don't think I really got any more out of seeing the movie itself than what I knew from the trailers.

P-C said this about Children of Men, but I saw Babel over the weekend and left saying exactly the same thing. (Should have listened to Jessica's warning!) And wow, was that a ponderous movie. There were things I liked about it (mostly the settings of the different stories; I like movies that take place in lots of different locations all over the world) but I was altogether underwhelmed by the whole thing. Also, it was one of those movies where nearly every scene was fraught with horrible tension; I kept thinking, shit, the deaf Japanese girl is going to be raped! Shit, the police are going to beat that guy to death! Shit, those kids are gonna die! Shit, she's gonna jump off the balcony! Almost the whole second half of the movie was really difficult for me to watch, because there was almost no relief from that tension.

I just watched The Wicker Man (the Christopher Lee original) on New Year's Eve and have been wanting to talk about it, but I don't even know where to begin, save that it's silly they got a body double for Britt Eklund.

Sorry, flea, it's a rave review for RZ as Beatrix Potter.

As UnSquinty as Renee Zellwegger can get.

I have to say that the promos I've seen for the movie aren't bad.

In that picture, RZ looks a little like the woman who plays Calamity Jane on Deadwood.

I watched the Potter preview and thought, Huh, it's the crossgender version of Finding Neverland.

It looks almost exactly the same to me!

I liked Neverland and am thinking that Potter without Freddy Hugeeyes is just going to be a pale facsimile.

As UnSquinty as Renee Zellweger can get

Is still kinda squinty.

I just watched The Wicker Man

Please, talk away!

I saw a promo for Children of Men that called it, "Blade Runner for our times."

Dude. Blade Runner tanked. It took twenty years for more than 500 devoted cultists to even see it. You're dooming your own movie at the box office.

Bev, I'm sure that in many people's uncertain memories, Bladerunner was a huge hit, even if most first saw it on TV or whatever. Because it's become iconic. The same way that the 1939 Wizard of Oz was actually a box-office disappointment, or "In The Still of The Nite" (by the Five Satins) was hardly a top forty song in its first release.