Also, we saw a preview for a goddamn Justin Bieber movie. Ack! All I could think of was how many Justin Biebers I could take in a fight. (23, for the record.)
Buffista Movies 7: Brides for 7 Samurai
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
This may be the only time I actually liked Will Ferrell.
Elf ? Stranger Than Fiction ?
HP7 below:
I found the tent dancing scene almost unbearably awkward to watch. Not quite at the level of "Ginny submissively ties Harry's shoe, but still pretty cringeworthy IMO. I got what they were trying to do, but man, I did not enjoy it at all.
What's wrong with that blond man, indeed! I know that scene plays out more or less the same way in the book, but rendered visually, you have to assume all of the Malfoys were repeatedly dropped on their heads as children not to say "You know, this guy looks like Harry Potter except he's a little puffy. Also, Ron and Hermione don't really have any other friends, so...let's take him to Voldemort just in case, yes?"
(Other really stupid plan that somehow worked out - the "let's all disguise ourselves as Harry" thing. WTF is the point of decoys if you're ALL FLYING TO THE SAME PLACE??? Again, not the movie's fault, but on the page it's less obvious what a thoroughly dumb plan this was. At least, to me.)
This may be the only time I actually liked Will Ferrell.
Elf ? Stranger Than Fiction ?
Much like my aversion to Jim Carrey, I avoid movies with Will Ferrell in them like they are the Black Death.
Stranger Than Fiction was good. I've been told Talladega Nights should be watched, but I have a hard time believing that. STF was sufficiently different from the rest of his ouevre that it wasn't a problem, though.
Jessica - I haven't reread recently, but I thought that the seven Potters were flying to different locations and then portkeying to a central location. But they changed that in the movie. Another change that comes off as not caring about the viewer. Though, if they had followed the book there they would have had to have the Tonks - more characters plus another set...
Talladega Nights should NOT be watched. terrible, terrible, terrible. i'm not a fan of Will Ferrell either, but Elf is totally a must watch.
Aha - I hadn't remembered the book in that much detail, but that makes much more sense than the way it worked out in the movie.
I'm re-reading from 'Order of the Phoenix' onwards. I want to work out what other little details they've mucked up in the films (apart from just leaving things out). I did want more of the Dursleys' conclusion, and I hope they revisit it. I also want Fred and George's broadcasts, and I'm not sure we're going to get either.
That said, I'm very forgiving, and really enjoyed this one. It seems to be quite a task, making decent movies from books that long. See also 'The Time Traveller's Wife', which irritated me a lot more than the Harry Potter films do.
Big tag fail edit.
imo, Talladega Nights is skippable but Blades of Glory is not.