Boy, I couldn't disagree more about Brad Bird having any Ayn Randiness to him. Ayn Rand's point was that the truly talented would naturally all be selfish, money-grubbing capitalists who could create a better society without that meddlesome government mucking up their pure vision. Bird's point seems to be closer to Vonnegut's in "Harrison Bergeron," (sp?) which is that society should not restrict the talents of the exceptional. There seems to me to be a world of difference between Rand's "we are your natural free-market overlords" approach and Bird's "don't discriminate against my talent" thing.

Bird's "don't discriminate against my talent" thing.

I haven't seen Ratatouille yet, but the impression I got from The Incredibles is that Bird is really pissed at Warner for interfering with his movie and firing him.

I finally got around to watching my Netflix dvd of Children of Men this morning. Quite excellently done, especially by the director and cinematographer, as well so many of the actors. Clive Owen was fantastic as Theo (his falling apart in the woods was perfectly done), and the girl who played Kee was great.

I didn't even recognize Chiwetel Ejiofor as Luke until I saw some of the extras after watching the movie.

I might have to buy this film.

I didn't even recognize Chiwetel Ejiofor as Luke until I saw some of the extras after watching the movie.

Almost the EXACT same thing happened to me (except it was when the end credits ran). The embarassing part is I had seen him mentioned in reviews and completely forgotten. I kept playing "who is that guy?" all movie.

I LOVED that film. Clive Owen being the motherfucking man. The amamzing cimemtography. Michael Caine--actually ACTING again.

I was also not crazy about Ratatouille, although for me it mostly came down to "Why were there hardly any women, and why was the one woman who had a prominent & interesting role reduced to Boring Love Interest halfway through?"

I hate edited-for-tv movies. Why do they do that to films?

We just got back from Stardust.

If I wasn't familiar with the source material, I probably would have really liked it. The movie Stardust had barely any of the charm, whimsy, or eccentricity that I love so much about the written version.

And Captain Shakespeare made my eyes roll straight back into my head. Okay, I thought the line about "We always knew you were a big whoopsie" was funny, but the movie got rid of so many interesting side characters and stories for a scenery-chewing gay, cross-dressing pirate? Hmmmph.

I am now going to go have a bath and console myself by re-reading the novel.

Kevin McKidd (of Rome and Journeyman) is rumored to be the guy in line to play Thor in the movie of the same name.

Days of Heaven is being given the Criterion Treatment. A blog post about a new transfer of the film: [link]