Harry Potter and the 142 Minutes of My Life I'll Never Get Back

I just snored my way through the third Harry Potter film. Oh the pain. At least it was shorter than the last two films. I swear Warner Bros. isn't going to get another $8.50 out of me for future instalments.

Fortunately my faith in Hollywood was saved by 20th Century Fox, as I also saw a fantastic movie this morning -- The Day After Tomorrow. I'd previously seen the film while I was in Australia, but for some reason the crowd on this side of the Pacific got a lot more laughs out of the whole illegally-crossing-into-Mexico idea. If you like a good disaster movie with lots of digital effects (or you just want to see downtown L.A. torn apart <g>) then this is for you.

The sad thing is that despite having plans to see the film with a good friend, sometimes things don't work out the way you want them to and I ended up seeing the movie alone. Kind of ironic really, since the film is about the things that people do for those they care about in a time of adversity :-(

Troy is another great movie out at the moment, although it has little to do with The Iliad other than the fact that it has Greeks, Trojans, a misplaced queen and a wooden horse. All the major plot points have been changed to make a modern action movie out of a classic tragic poem. The film has some impressive sets, some pretty brutal battle sequences, and shows about as much of Brad Pitt as you're ever likely to see unless you happen to be Jennifer Aniston. Well worth the price of admission.

Question for the day: Why do we use the term "Trojan Horse" when it was actually built by the Greeks? "Odysseus' Horse" might be a better term.

Another great movie I saw whilst in Australia was Wondrous Oblivion -- check it out if you have it in your local area. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a US release date yet; you may have to wait for it on video / DVD if you live here :-(