The Evil Eyebrow

Category: Fiction

  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

    We saw Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe last Saturday. Quick review: Good. Go see it. Excellent scenery and CGI graphics. It didn’t depart very much from the book, which we appreciated (although there were a few supporting characters that were entirely new). Good flick.

    However, this post concerns accents and possible subtext.

    The actors were all English, or at least did a credible english accent, with one glaring exception. The Wolf who was the Queen of Narnia’s secret police enforcer had an American accent.

    Coincidence? Possibly. Subliminal subtext? You make the call!

  • Aeon Flux

    Another week, another movie. This time it was Aeon Flux, starring Charlize Theron and other people I’ve never heard of.

    What to say… If you want to see Charlize Theron strutting around in a tight body suit, two thumbs up. If you want to see nifty neato futuristic stuff, one thumb plus a digit. If you want story and acting, I’d go for about three-quarter thumb. If you are a nit-picker who loves looking for holes in a movie plot, three thumbs up! If you’re a biologist, dont’ go, it will only piss you off.

    But, the tight body suit part of it makes up for a lot of discrepancies

  • Pride & Prejudice

    We went to see Pride and Prejudice last Saturday. Unfortunately it was at the local theater that makes my legs hurt! I wish the theater with the good seats would start getting the movies I want to see. Harry Potter, Star Wars, they’ve all been at the other theater. Argh. I need to write a letter.

    But, that’s not what the blog is about. Here is wholly detailed commentary regarding the film, but let me add a few wrinkles:

    • Keira Knightley’s smile is way to weird to have been in Edwardian England. She would have been burned as a witch or something
    • The woman who played Jane is the same woman who played the blond double-agent in Die Another Day, and the closeups on her DARK brown eyebrows with the blond hair were very distracting
    • There is a beautiful marble bust featured in the film (when Elizabeth is visting Darcy’s manor) which is a carving of a woman with a veil. It was difficult to tell if the veil was part of the carving or if it was actually a silk veil. Very neat
    • Make sure you bring tissues to give to the woman next to you during this film. “Are you crying? There’s no crying in Jane Austen!”

  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The Movie

    SPOILERS

    We saw Goblet of Fire last Friday night. My rating is B+. I thought that the first half of the movie was spectacular, and the last half of the movie was good.

    I found this movie somewhat different from the previous Harry Potter movies because I knew going into the theater that they were going to have to cut a huge amount of material and make other adjustments to splice the story line together. A 730 page book does not fold into one feature length film without some serious pruing. With that attitude, I was not too worried when Krum turned out to be a muscle-bound pretty-boy and Fleur Delacour was a french-accented nothing.

    I was exceptionally disappointed with the portrayal of Dumbledore, however. Dumbledore is supposed to be a highly skilled unflappable wizard who thinks deep thoughts and acts accordingly. Only once or twice in the entire book series do his emotions come to the fore. In this movie, Dumbledore is an excitable, emotional boob who shows little sign of refinment or unflappability. Alas, it was disappointing.

    Don’t let that get you down though. The movie was a good one and I plan to see it again. I’m happy to report that the Gross Irregularity that was spotted in a publicity still was not present in the movie. I did confirm that the date of Voldemort’s father’s death was 1943, which I don’t believe quite jives with the book timeline, but I’m not prepared to swear to that and besides, it’s close.

    For non Harry Potter book readers, I think they’ll find some scenes in the movie almost incomprehensible. There was little explanation of the pensieve and none concerning the actions of Harry’s and Voldemort’s wands in the duel. Personally, I believe that with the amount of pruning they did, they should have gone a bit further and eliminated the pensieve and Barty Crouch Sr. The story line only served to complicate the film and given the demise of Barty Crouch Sr. by the end of the story, it would be a non-item concerning the effects on later movies. The fact of Mad-Eye turning out to be a Voldemort infiltrator could have stood on its own without any of the backstory that got pruned so heavily anyway.

    As I said, we’ll see it again, and maybe I’ll have more observations then.

    For teen girl watchers, you’ll be happy to know that Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint had obviously been working out between Azkaban and Goblet.

  • Gross Irregularity in Harry Potter Film II

    SPOILER WARNING

    Well, I must confess that I made a slight error in my post Gross Irregularity in Harry Potter Film. I believe that the names on the tombstone (in the Book) are Tom Riddle, a.k.a. Voldemort’s father, and Tom Riddle’s elderly parents. This does not materially change my complaints posted earlier concerning the movie, but it does alter things a bit.

    However, as I mentioned in the post, I will be reserving judgement until I see the movie tomorrow. This was emphasized today when I read a NY Times review of Goblet of Fire and saw this image in the story.
    Harrry Potter in the Cemetery; presumably preparing to duel.
    Compare that image with this one from the internet movie database and my concerns may have been alleviated. As you can see, the name Tom Marvolo Riddle has been replaced by Tom Riddle, which would fit into the scheme of the book. I’m still confused about the dates, though.

    I’ll let you all know tomorrow.

  • Gross Irregularity in Harry Potter Film

    Seven days until Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire hits the theaters. I was poking around in the internet movie database and discovered a shocking irregularity.

    Spoilers follow!

    In this studio still from the filming, you will see the names on the tombstone where Harry is used to bring Volemort back to his mortal body. This tomb is for Voldemort’s Father, his father’s wife, and his father’s son (I’m not calling them step-mother and half-brother because I don’t believe that applies in this case). They are, reading from the photo, Thomas Riddle (the father), …ry Riddle (which I assume to be the wife) and Tom Marvolo Riddle, who is Voldemort himself!

    What the Hell? Voldemort killed his father and his father’s family for vengeance sake. We know this. His father never had anything to do with him. We know this too, and not from reading further forward in the series, it’s in Goblet! What the hell are they doing messing with the story like that? If they change up the relationships of people now, it will have serious repercussions in the future movies. It will almost be an alternate Harry Potter reality.

    Grrr.

    Another thing that’s got me confused are the dates on the tombstone. They are difficult to read in the still, but it looks like Voldemort (Tom Marvolo Riddle) “died” in 1946 which doesn’t even come close to matching the timeline of the book series. I’ll reserve final judgement on the last part of this rant until I’ve seen the movie and read those dates better.

    [did you know that Harry Potter was in training to be a Jedi?]

  • Missed Pop-Cult Opportunity

    I realized today that I missed an opportunity to declare a Jumped the Shark moment. This depresses me because I don’t get to, with little thought, entwine myself deeper into the industrio-tv culture. Maybe next time.

    To that end, referencing previous Blog entries regarding how much Lost sucks now, and how much it should have done better , I’m forced to declare that when they ended this season’s second episode with the SAME CLIFFHANGER as the first episode, Lost had Jumped the Shark.

  • LOST is Crap, Tripe, Shit

    You will note from my earlier post about Lost of one week ago that I was not particularly happy with the second episode of this Lost season. J. J. Abrams has proved to me, like he did with Alias, that he can take a good thing and absolutely ruin it.

    The first season of Lost was an intricate mesh of plot lines and personalities, with just enough mystery to keep us hooked. The personal angle was what made the show great, especially how they all ended up interacting in their past lives, unknowingly.

    The first three episodes of the second season are merely shit, with no real dialogue or character inside. Mystery after conundrum after enigma has been presented without even the slightest bit of an attempt to resolve ANYTHING.

    J.J. Abrams has driven me away from the show (I have vowed never to watch it again) and thus has cost ABC a devoted Wednesday night viewer. Thank you, Mr. Abrams for freeing me from another evening of my enslavement to television. I’m sure my yard and my house will appreciate it.

    P.S. I gave up the end of a hockey game to watch that crap! The first NHL hockey game I’ve watched in 18 months! I will not forget.

  • LOST = Arrrrggh!

    Raise your hand with me if last night’s episode of LOST pissed you off beyond all comprehension!

    “Tune in tonigh to find out the fates of all the castaways,” was the byline (paraphrased) for last night’s episode. What we found out was “squat” to use the technical term. They didn’t even resolve the cliff hanger from the first episode, the damn bastards. What a crock!

  • Disappointment at the Fox

    Jenn and I went to see The Phantom of the Opera last night at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, GA. My overal rating was “eh.”

    The show itself was good, with good renditions and strong vocals. The sound quality was a bit muddy, but we were way over on the left side of the orchestra seating (EE 21 and 23) which didn’t help matters. The vocal interpretations were also good, and there were some changes to the lyrics to keep those of us who are familiar with the official soundtrack on our toes.

    Unfortunately, I will never never never never never go to the Fox Theater again for an off-Broadway show. This is the first theater I’ve been in where they allow you to bring drinks and food to your seat and munch munch munch your way through the second act! This was horribly distracting and in my opinion, unacceptable. This sort of activity would not be tolerated in the northeast and I find it disappointing that they allow it in the cultural center of the South.

    I was also privileged with the only obstructed-view seat in the house. The woman in front of me was six feet tall and had done her hair so that it stuck out from her head about 3 inches in all directions. I was tempted to get a glass of water and slick it down for her! Either that or light it on fire; I’m sure the hair products she used would have conflagrated nicely. Thankfully for me, she left during intermission.

    Before the show, Jenn and I ate at Eno on the corner of Peachtree Street and 5th Street in Midtown, Atlanta. The food was excellent and their homemade foccacia was splendiferous. Their wine selection is extensive and their recommendations for particular foods was right on in my case (fetuccini with sicilian sausage). We’ll go back.