What surprised me is that Alvin and the Chipmunks is considered SciFi/Fantasy....

Dear dog, has it come to that?!?! Alas, my poor genre....

We finally watched V for Vendetta on New Year's Eve (fear the old married couple). I was fairly impressed. I loved the book, and I thought it was a pretty good adaptation. They left out a couple things, but nothing major, and the changes for the movie I had no quibble with.

I'd heard Portman's performance was great, but I was dubious...however, great job. Some of her scenes were tremendous. Weaving did a yeoman's work communicating through that costume (and never once made me want to say "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.").

The relationship between V and Evey, which had been problematic for me in the book, came across in the movie as very Beauty and the Beast, and thus worked for me a lot better.

I really loved V for Vendetta. It took a few days and a second viewing to come to that conclusion.

Yeah, I gotta say, I loved "V for Vendetta". I was concerned because I'm a big fan of the book and wondered if it would translate or if they'd make it too much of an "action film", but they remained true to the heart and pace of the story and the "updates" made a lot of sense.

Portman as Evey just rocked IMNSHO. And the "prison scene"...man. So glad they kept that true.

This is one movie I just don't understand Alan Moore getting all pissy and Alan Moore-ish about. Of all his properties that have been turned into films, I thought this was the most true to the source.

the prison scene

Killed me. The back story of the "girl in the next cell" made me cry and cry.

What surprised me is that Alvin and the Chipmunks is considered SciFi/Fantasy....

Run into many talking/rapping chipmunks in everyday life, do we?

This is one movie I just don't understand Alan Moore getting all pissy and Alan Moore-ish about. Of all his properties that have been turned into films, I thought this was the most true to the source.

I think it was a straw/camel's back thing. One of the producers said something along the lines that Moore liked the film when he (a) didn't want to be involved with it at all and (b) hadn't seen it (my memory on b might not be reliable, but I thought he said he hadn't and didn't want to see it). I also get the feeling he's pissy on the idea of adaptations of his work, period.

I was looking at the nominations for the Golden Globes--is Charlie Wilson's War really a comedy?

(Laughs)

Gloomcookie, I cried at that also.

Part of the problem with waterworks, at least in the UK, is they need power to run. A few months ago we saw flooding in certain parts of the UK, which took out power substations - that in turn took out the waterworks. So during a flood, there were loads of places without running water as a result.

I actually kicked about the idea of trying to write a pilot for World Without People Story Thing. I'm glad I didn't, because I suck, but it started with somebody getting out of bed, having a shower, getting in their car to go to work, driving along with the camera pointing back down the road, as a 747 comes down... And crashes into the motorway behind the car (there's no pilot), taking out all the cars, whilst all the cars in front also veer off and crash into each other (no drivers).

Her performance surprised me so much - not a false note in there. It would have been really easy to go over the top with that character, but she hit it just right.

I'm pretty much a big Garner fangirl, actually. I was impressed as hell at her in the first episode of Alias (I thought she totally sold the whole wrecked-by-her-fiance's-death scene) and I continue to be pleasantly surprised by her range. (And despite all my expectations I loved 13 going on 30. )

I too was very pleased with the adaptation of V for Vendetta. Portman's accent was wobbly, but her performance was cracking, and I was happy with the changes they'd made to her character. What was really weird, though, was watching that film in a comparatively high-risk bomb target setting (swanky cinema in the Cairo's biggest [indeed, pretty much only] caters-to-rich-bastards mall) a few days after a bomb attack in one of the most touristy areas. Sitting in a cinema surrounded by (well-to-do, Westernised) Muslims, all of us watching this film about terrorism...that was distinctly odd.

This is one movie I just don't understand Alan Moore getting all pissy and Alan Moore-ish about. Of all his properties that have been turned into films, I thought this was the most true to the source.

I wonder if, because when it came out it was sort of being touted as being anti-Bush, when, in fact, it's just pro-anarchy or at least anti-totalitarianism.