Monday, October 27, 2003

Yet more movies

In Manly we hired a second video - Chicago. This had won so many Oscars that we thought we'd give it a try. It was OK, but I reckon it was too much of a stage show still. It hardly seemed like it had been adapted for the screen. Most of the song and dance numbers took place with a black background and might as well have been on a stage. I suppose that's inevitable, since they were mostly due to the characters imagining they were on a stage. Didn't think much of the songs either. The cast were good though, and it was reasonably entertaining. Two and a half stars.

On Sunday we went to the flicks to see Intolerable Cruelty, the new Coen Brothers film. It was really good! It's the nearest the Coens have come to a mainstream film, but still had lots of Coen-quirks in it. Catherine Zeta-Jones was good as the gold-digging woman, but George Clooney was just excellent in every scene he was in. Four and a half stars!

On Sunday night we settled in front of the telly to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark (or, as Aussie TV called it, Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark - idiots). I don't really think this needs much of a review, as everyone knows it (five stars!) but I'll just say how sad I was to be watching it on a tiny screen with ads every 15 minutes when I know that everyone else in the world will be watching it on shiny new DVD with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Sob.