at the time it came out, paganism in general, and sexy singing naked chicks in particular, were pretty darn scary

Point taken.

I saw 30 Days of Night yesterday. While I appreciate the more animalistic, predatory take on vampires, I was thrown out of the movie when it occurred to me that people with the light coats and clothing we saw would have frozen to death in their attic by day 3 without electric heat or the ability to safely have a fire burning. And by an airport closing down for a month because it got dark, as if the planes were solar powered. And by people choosing to stay through the long night with senile parents and small children .

The Departed twisted more than its source material did, and I don't think the extra back and forth added anything.

Yeah, that scene with Marty -- really all the scenes with Marty-- rang true even though it shouldn't.

In defense work like this there's generally something shady, so I'm surprised that Clayton had to be told, particularly given his job. But the fact that Marty was pretty sanguine about it, even though he is a good guy, rang true to his character.

I couldn't sleep last night-- stupid coffee ice cream, never again-- so I thought a lot about the movie and whether a job like Clayton's could exist, even though it really doesn't in a typical firm. And I realized that it is a leap of faith to buy into his job, but it's not a bad idea. He does what big firms do-- take care of smaller problems for firm clients-- only centralized in one person. If you hired someone with his contacts, it wouldn't be a bad idea to employ him in that role. I thought throughout that someone with his special skills wouldn't be quite as debased as he made himself out to be-- and Marty points that out later, which pleased me. (Though, with his background, he could be billing at least a million five a year, so it doesn't quite ring true that Marty considers litigators a dime a dozen.)

Jilli, did you see LOTR: The Return of the King? I have a friend who shares your phobia, but he said RotK was sufficiently non-realistic that it didn't bother him.

I did see it, somehow managed to keep my eyes open the whole time, and was completely freaked out by it. I have NEVER seen the spider scene in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and I don't think I ever will.

Pete is probably going to go see The Mist, which means he can report back on where it will fall on the Freak Jilli Out scale.

Pete is probably going to go see The Mist, which means he can report back on where it will fall on the Freak Jilli Out scale.

See, I figure you can just tell yourself, "They're from another dimension, so they're not really what they look like."

But then that might be naive of me....

See, I figure you can just tell yourself, "They're from another dimension, so they're not really what they look like."

Won't help, trust me. Part of it is the movement. I mean, photos of spiders wig me out, but it's the movement that sends me into panicked flailing.

Mooooom, Jilli's creeping me out!

Mooooom, Jilli's creeping me out!

Sorry, sorry!

So! ... um, has anyone seen the new Elizabeth movie yet? Is it as cheesetastic as I hope?

I did Jilli!

Yes! Cheesetastic! Agreeable enough though. After, L and I counted the three or four things that were historically accurate and decided we'd make a movie with the same basic formula.

George Washington: The Revolution

The only things we'll get right are that the US won, we were fighting Britan, George III was king and that's it. Everything else will be pure embelishment.