Super 8

Watched the JJ Abrams helmed Super 8 last night. Felt like I was a kid watching Close Encounters all over again. Quite amazing how he captured all the magic of a Spielberg flick from the 70s yet managed to avoid the hyperbolic sentimentality usually found in the Spielberg films. Though the two dads banding together was a bit much. I mean, who didn't see that coming. The kids were all great, very impressed with the quality of the cast. This brings my total number of films so far this year to 10. It seems there supposed to be movies new to me, and since I've seen the LOTR trilogy so many times, I'll just count them all as 1 for the purposes of Fifty Fifty. Which is where the weird math comes from. Just in case you were pondering.

So far so good

Managed to knock off 2 films yesterday as we started our annual viewing of The Lord of the Rings. Every year on New Year's Day we watch, or attempt to watch, all three extended versions of the films. Yesterday we only made it through the first two, but we plan to watch the third tonight. One year we tried a Star Wars Marathon, but you know what? Those, sadly, don't hold together so well to make one cohesive story. It's as if the first three were done after the last three or some such nonsense ;-) Also, Episodes 1-3 are pretty bad. Yes, some epic battles, but plot, script, acting...meh. So we scrapped that idea and returned to the viewing of LOTR. It's the only time of the year we watch the films, so it's always a treat. Cannot WAIT for The Hobbit.

Also finished the first book of the year Clans of the Alphane Moon by Philip K. Dick. He's just brilliant, and crazy enough to really push the boundaries. Can't believe this one hasn't been adapted into a film yet, it would be great.

So far so good on my Fifty/Fifty pledge.