Yes, the new Watson was very close to the stories. It's a shame they did such a good job of capturing Watson, but turned Holmes into a grubby cross between the Doctor and Jack Sparrow.

*dittos Kat on Irene Adler* You really should read A Scandal in Bohemia, Val. The Irene presented in that story is really Holmes' equal and his attitude towards her is almost reverence. In the film she comes across more as an annoying little sister. And I really disliked the fact that they turned her into a divorcee who apparently was sleeping her way across Europe.

So last night I watched the new, animated Christmas Carol. It certainly was amazing in 3D, and it was obviously made just for those effects, but I liked bits of it. I think I liked everything in it, except the end of the second ghost, and all of the third ghost. So many of the versions stray there, and make it unnecessarily horrory. (I know, it's not a word).
But I did like it, though not as much as I did in the theatres.
And tomorrow I'll go see VDT for the second time.

I just bought this movie:

and I LOVE it! it's so awesome!
plot summary:

UPSIDE
It's all how you look at it
From the looks of things, Solomon White has a well-mapped future. Finish his senior year of high school, select an elite university, continue his lacrosse career, and reap the rewards of success on whichever road life takes him.

But a devastating hit on the lacrosse field leaves his world literally turned upside down. Will he be able to gain the perspective needed to face his new reality?

UPSIDE provides a fresh look at life through the eyes of Soli (Randall Bentley, "Heroes"), a young athlete struggling to discover where he's headed, both figuratively and literally. Viewing the world upside down is a challenge few will ever face, but that hardly is the extent of Soli's pressing concerns.

He has trouble at home with his mom, he's trying to end his relationship with his girlfriend, and he has to come to grips with a teacher that thinks he can be much more than he wants to be. Suddenly, Soli's senior year looking nothing like he imagined it would be.

Add in Wren (Leah Sims), an unlikely love interest with a strong faith in God, and Soli must take a new look at everything he believes in.

Can Soli win the heart of Wren, who happens to be blind? Can he believe in something he can't see? Will he find a new direction for his life, even if his eyesight never returns to normal?

When you can't trust your eyes, you still have your voice. This unique story is an inspiring reminder that when life gets you down, there's always an UPSIDE.

it's an awesome movie! I love it!

I just watched Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain. It was a visual feast and the premise had great potential but I found the movie exceedingly dull and that it lacked focus. Some great acting from Hugh Jackman but that's about it. The almagamation of relgious imagery and themes never really gelled or felt genuine. I'm all for movies dealing with deep, controversial themes but the presentation seemed rather silly (and this is saying something since I can accept many fantastical things in movies/books etc). Also, I didn't feel that Jackman and Weisz had much chemistry. For a movie about love across the ages, it seemed to lack any real human warmth. Not recommended. Contains some language, adult themes (not sexual) and moderate violence.

Agreed W4J. What a beautiful but thoroughly strange film...Jackman was the only likeable character to me. Weisz came across as a little creepy to me, actually, with her hokum-enriched and spooky comments. My wife and I watched it and on more than one occasion looked at each other and said "Oooookay" whenever Weisz said something weird. She was much better in The Mummy.

My wife brought home The Last Airbender from the library last week and I gave it a go. I have had no previous exposure really to the stuff and know only that it's a cartoon, it's wildly popular, and there's a bald kid with an arrow on his head. I didn't dislike the movie...it was decent for what it was, but I was surprised at how clunky the dialogue was, especially given that it was a Shyamalan film and his millieu is character driven stories. At first I thought Georgie Henley had wandered into the movie...the lead actress is her doppleganger or something. Ms. Almost-Georgie's older brother in the film didn't seem to really serve a purpose other than to whack the occasional person on the head with his pointy boomerang and to have a thoroughly out of left field romance with Storm from the X-Men. All these various Benders can do these amazing things; tossing fireballs, creating windstorms, shooting water balloons, and all sorts of nifty things (after ridiculously long wind ups like they're doing karate-style pitches at the World Series or something), but no one ever gets hurt by them. The Fire Nation gets this big, bad reputation but at the end of the film the battle is raging and there are no dead or wounded in sight, just people endlessly swinging polearms, swords, and the occasional giant flaming bowling ball. I kept thinking, "this is the lamest group of 'warriors' ever to grace a battle...they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn and when they do manage to hit someone they stand back up 10 seconds later and resume their endless aerobic battle activities'". Despite this the CG was nice for the film and the effects were wonderful stuff. And the film had a few cameos from Falcor of The Neverending Story fame (or at least a puglike 4 legged relative of his). What's to dislike here?

I wish when I was pulling into my driveway that a small caption would appear under my house (somewhere on my lawn I suppose) saying something like, "Southern Shadowlander Temple". One day . Not a terrible film, and it was quite obviously left open for a sequel. I thought that the kid who played Zuko (sp?), the exiled prince of the Fire Nation was the most interesting character...the rest are there just to fill in screen time. Despite my not so flattering description of the film I was intrigued enough to know more about this very weird universe the movie takes place in and wouldn't mind seeing the sequel if and when it's ever released.

Or better yet, watch the TV series!

IMO, The Last Airbender is a precis of a much deeper story. I never saw the cartoons, but how do you compress a full season of stories and episodes into a less than 90-minute film? It doesn't work. It is very fast paced which throws character development out the window. The best characters were Zuko, Aang, and Uncle Iroh. Katara was next best, but everyone else drops out VERY fast when it comes to characters. The effects were cool. And I liked good parts of the action. Overall, I saw the potential for an excellent film series but as a whole it fell short, mostly due to the running time. It was too fast. Give it another hour or hour and a half, and I think it would have been a pretty impressive movie. It may be worth seeing once, but you REALLY better like it if you are going to buy it. I strongly recommend renting it (at a library, Redbox, etc) first.

Shadowlander, it's interesting that you thought similar about The Fountain. I haven't seen The Last Airbender but I've seen the first season of the cartoon series and it was very good.

Yesterday I watched Snakes on a Plane. It was very silly. There was some gross out 'humor', some nudity, some strong language and graphic violence. I know it's meant to be a silly movie but some of the casting was quite strong - Samuel L. Jackson of course, several of the flight attendants and the young lady who parodied Paris Hilton/Legally Blonde and there were familiar faces from other movies/TV series (one of the pilots'). Also, there was an Aussie as the protagonist but his character was bland). I enjoyed aspects of the movie very much, for what it was. Strangely enough, I enjoyed the movie more before the snakes were released on the plane and after they sealed them off with the inflatable raft (there's a good B-grade movie there). The snake attacks were fun (never scary though - the CGI animation was very good but the textures and lighting were less than successful) the first few times but it became repetitive and there were some inappropriate moments. I've read that the movie was originally PG-13 and they shot some more scenes to make it R (why?) It's very obvious which parts made it rated R. I feel that the movie would not only have been more moral (I know, a silly notion when it comes to this kind of movie but I've never watched them before) but it would be a better movie overall. View it as a comedy/thriller/action movie and you might enjoy it. Strictly for adults and even then be discerning. 6/10

Today I watched Sherlock Holmes. It was good but far from great. I'm okay with reimagining a classic character, otherwise it becomes old hat. I don't think having Sherlock fight is going against his book character (there's more action in the books than many of the TV series/movies would have you believe). I liked the fact that Sherlock Holmes was still eccentric and became restless when not on the job. I just don't like Robert Downey Jr.'s take on Sherlock. The story was old hat and dull, there was too much action and not enough suspense and mystery. The attention to detail was admirable but most of the cast ruined the authenticity with their dodgy accents or lack of a British accent. The movie felt very American much of the time, despite all the costumes, sets etc. and some parts felt decidely modern. I enjoyed Rachel McAdam's portrayl of Irene Adlar but her acting wasn't anything special (she is lovable though). Jude Law was great as Dr Watson. There was some good action in there. In short, Steven Moffat's recent take on Sherlock Holmes is far superior. This is a decent movie but nothing special. 6.5/10

I just watched a movie called Funny Face, with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire - I am just about the hugest fan of Audrey, so for that reason I enjoyed it - but otherwise it was pretty weird. The dances that just jumped in seemed especially useless and annoying, and I got bored several times.
But it was kinda funny.
And tonight I might watch Inception.

Like Warrior and Fencer, I'd encourage you not to judge the animated source material (Avatar: The Last Airbender) by the live-action film of similar name. The original story has a lot more material (20 half-hour episodes), character development, and even humor (which was lacking in the movie). The movie was too short, resulting in the pacing issues fans raged about. By necessity, it omitted or overlooked much of the richness of the story setting.

The movie did have a few things going for it - some nice cinematography, pretty sets of the North Pole and the Great Divide, some nice martial arts and special bending effects - but was such a disappointment next to the series. I recommend viewing the original...though if your only exposure to Aang is from The Last Airbender movie, be advised that he starts out the series as a pretty goofy kid, at least until the seriousness of his mission begins to unfold.

Watched four movies in four school nights Anyways, I saw How to Train Your Dragon, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Last Airbender, and Flipped

I liked How to Train Your Dragon. When it first came out, lots of my friends were saying it was really good, but I just thought it was going to be some cheezy kid's dragon movie... Turned out really good. It reminds me of Toy Story3 in the sense that it's technically a kid's movie, but lots of teens like it.

Scott Pilgrim was pretty funny. I liked the effects in it too. Though some were a bit overdone, it reminded me that it was a comic book first. The only thing I didn't like about this movie was Knives. The one major thing that bugged most me about her was that she looked way to old to be 17, of course actors are generally older than their characters, but this time it seemed to be too far off. Michael Cera has been playing teen roles for a long time, and I was glad that he's finally playing characters closer to his age, but Knives was too big of a stretch for me. Other than that, their racist stuff just got to me ("kung pao chicken?" "are you even allowed to date outside your race?" seriously??? ). Other than those two things, I liked the movie.
EDIT: I just remembered, did anyone understand those scenes where Cera is in the desert with the cactus? that part went right over my head...

With The Last Airbender, I never saw the tv show, so it wasn't as heartbreaking to see such a poor adaptation, but I still thought it could use a lot of work... If you don't know about the geography it's really confusing even with the little subtitiles, there's not much character development, Sokka seems like he's just there to tag along, and the dialogue is kinda lame. On the other hand the effects were cool, and the locations were pretty... I guess I'd rent the next film if they made it...

I loved Flipped. At first I thought it wasn't going to be as good because they changed the time period, but it was good. There was a little too much narration (though that's the same as the book), but they really got the characters and their arcs. When it ended, I wanted to get a hold somehow of the people who make movies that were books and tell them that this is a good example of a faithful adaption.

I liked How to Train Your Dragon. When it first came out, lots of my friends were saying it was really good, but I just thought it was going to be some cheezy kid's dragon movie... Turned out really good. It reminds me of Toy Story3 in the sense that it's technically a kid's movie, but lots of teens like it.

Wow! I just watched that tonight I watched it in the theatres, and really really loved it, so that it became on of my fave animated movies. I liked it loads this time too - but not as much. And I didn't cry, which is always a disappointment.
But I really like it - Toothless is so so so adorable, and he makes the movie.

Elanor, yeah I loved toothless too... I watched it a second time last night and it's still funny (especially when I caught the "grendle's mother" insult right after I read beowulf for school ) and they really did a good job on finding people to voice the movie too

Is it just me or does it seem like there were a lot of good animated movies this year? Toy Story 3, Tangled, How to Train Your Dragon....

Oh yes, Outlier! There seems to have been a load of good animated movies lately - I love those three you mentioned, and there's Mega Mind, and Despicable me too. I've been spending a LOT of money on movie tickets during the last year.