I have a big soft spot for The Naked Jungle, in which Eleanor Parker plays a mail order bride Charlton Heston brings to a... I think, a plantation of some sort in South America. Instead of a docile innocent he was hoping for, Parker turns out to be a sophisticated bombshell and Heston is so freakin' repressed, he does not know what to do with her, and they have incredible seething UST for the entirety of the movie. Well, then they get attacked by a swarm of killer ants, as you do. It's ridiculous and pulpy and awesome.

Finally watched Pacific Rim over the weekend. I enjoyed it a lot despite some of the rampant silliness. Not sure what purpose was served by the one kaiju being pregnant. The secondary brain could have just as easily been undamaged for the sake of the story. Plus it seemed like these things were grown and then sent through the rift, so I'm not sure how it got pregnant or why it had a functioning reproductive system to begin with.

Of course, in a movie full of scientific impossibilities, the one that bugged me most was how does a winged creature fly high enough to leave the atmosphere and cause re-entry burn?

Still, some great visuals and some enjoyable moments.

I was helpfully spared being bugged by that particular scene in the theater by someone in the audience loudly yelling "WHEEEEE!" when the kaiju first took flight with Gypsy Danger. I think hysterical laughter shuts down the physics-aware part of my brain.

Even the King of Bitchface is no match for Thorin Emoshield and his feels. And his hair. Which also has feels.

OMG, YOU WERE NOT KIDDING ABOUT THE HAIR FEELS.

There's a scene where it's going all Pantene and I almost burst out laughing, thinking of you.

I now need to see it in 3D. Because I *REALLY* want to see Smaug dripping gold everywhere in 3D. And by want, I mean need.

Of course, I also need to avoid the fucking spider scene if I see it in 3D, so maybe I'll just GO GET POPCORN DURING THAT OVERLY-LONG HORROR SHOW.

Matt, that's hilarious.

I was actually surprised by how emotionally invested I was in an over-the-top story about giant robots. For the most part. There were certainly parts, like those I mentioned above, where I was thinking "Well, that's just silly."

SMAUG.

That's all I got right now. Just, I was not disappointed.

SMAUG.

That said, I was really glad I calibrated my expectations low. Because that was a seriously bloated movie. And the deeply stupid romancey thing between Kili and Tauriel nearly had my niece gagging. And the ridiculous roller-coaster ride where they fought orcs from barrels in the river.

I came out of the movie and announced that it felt like PJ had heard an outline of the story once from a drunk guy in a bar, and wrote the screenplay based on that, just filling in bits with longass fight scenes as he went.

There were some good bits, I admit. Visually stunning for the most part. And I liked all the cast, except Lee Pace, who just didn't work for me. And poor Orlando Bloom looked pretty constipated for most of his scenes. But it was really pretty!

In summary, I'm really looking forward to the Fan Edit of this movie.

Has there been a "Phantom Edit" of the first Hobbit movie?

I sure hope so, Kalshane. Or maybe there will be a single 3-hour Phantom Edit of the whole trilogy.

The two teenage girls I saw the movie with were not especially impressed. They thought Smaug was the best character, and the romance was adorbs, and the rest was Dumb. They barely recognized Legolas. They failed to realize that the woman Kili was talking about in his delirium was indeed Tauriel; they thought he was talking about some other dwarf girl and "Talia"'s heart was broken. Granted they spent most of the movie huddled up next to each other giggling, so maybe they weren't paying very close attention.