*wonders why his spoiler box looks different from some other people's*

Roman Holiday always makes me feel sort of empty at the end, and I still think they "fall in love too easily" (or, rather, quickly), to quote a Jule Styne song. But otherwise, it's a good movie - Audrey Hepburn is adorable and her Edith Head costumes are too. I must say that I prefer It Happened One Night, which is also a highborn-lady-falls-for-reporter story, but has a very different ending.

It's been a long time since I've seen either version of Emma - or read the book, for that matter - but as far as I recall they both had their strengths and weaknesses in reiterating the various themes, subplots, and characters of the book. Of course, I think I liked them both better than the book as well. KB has always been my favorite, though. You're right that her version certainly does best with the Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax plot lines, and while I like Ewan MacGregor and Polly Walker, Olivia Williams and Raymond Coulthard definitely triumph there. As for Mr. Knightley, I honestly think it's the GP version that changes his character. He's not that nice in the book, as I recall. And I find Beckinsale more sympathetic than Paltrow, but both are great. Of course, GP has some fabulous actors of its own as well - Greta Scaachi, Alan Cumming, Sophie Thompson, Phyllida Law, etc. The choice between Thompson and KB's Prunella Scales is too much for me: both are hilarious as Miss Bates! One of my favorite scenes from the KB Emma is, I must admit, the bit where Mrs. Elton confesses that gathering strawberries makes her feel like a shepherdess, and Miss Bates exclaims, "Oh, do you like sheep, Mrs. Elton?"

My family watched The Dark Crystal awhile back. It had its enjoyable moments, to be sure, but in the end, it didn't feel worth it. (I'd also seen Krull fairly recently at that point, and the plots are similar enough that I'd choose Krull over The Dark Crystal.)

I rather liked Krull. I think the movie came up a couple of months ago in the old forums, but it bears mentioning again. Freddy Jones, Francesca Annis, and Liam Neeson (when he was very young) all have roles in it. I loved the fire stallions when I was a kid, and the protaganist's 5 bladed flying ninja-star/Tron disc/remote controlled frisbee thing was the bomb-diggity (in the parlance of the newer generation) back in the day. I might have to rent that out again.

I preferred The Dark Crystal to Krull. I remember watching it when I was young. I loved it. It's amazing that it was all done with puppetry. The movie is pretty creepy and dark for a kid's movie and yes, there are New Age themes but I just enjoyed the creatures. I love the character design and imagination of it all but the Gelflings were a bit bland. The Skeksis were especially spooky characters but Fizzwig was very cute.

I think brought up Krull a while back.... Anyway, I never got around to buying it. Something else (can't remember what) caught my attention more.

It's definitely a film on my "to buy" list along with:

King Kong (3-disc Extended Edition)

Batman Begins (2 disc edition)

Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah (yes, I like Godzilla)

Jurassic Park (widescreen. I've had to deal with a pan-and-scan version all my life. )

My Fair Lady

The Quiet Man

several Ray Harryhausen films

and many more. Kind of an eclectic list, eh?

Oh, another movie I saw recently was The Curious Case of Benjamen Button.

We watched about half of that and then I gave up. It was going nowhere, the plot (or lack thereof) was not working for me, and I really didn't care about the characters. I thought it was tremendously overhyped.

I saw that one in theaters and I absolutely loved it! I've heard many people on the internet say the same as you though. To me, every moment of it almost was excellent. There were like two things I would have done without but on the whole I loved it. Tilda Swinton's were my absolute favorites, (not because she was in Narnia though).

King Kong (3-disc Extended Edition)

Which version is this? I enjoyed the original far more than the newer Peter Jackson remake, although I don't suppose either is really my cup of tea. I highly approve your choice of My Fair Lady, though! Actually, you know, I don't have any musicals on DVD, which is kind of shocking, y'know. My family does have The Sound of Music, West Side Story, and The King and I on VHS, but that's about it. And of course they're all pan-and-scan.

I watched the 2002 version of The Importance of Being Earnest last night. Considering that I wasn't overwhelmingly taken with the play when I read it recently, it seems silly to carp on adaptation changes, but it did miff me when some of my favorite lines—or, more often than not, parts of my favorite lines—were cut. And the restructuring seemed over-the-top and often unnecessary at first, although things got better once Algy made it to Jack's country house. I'm still not sure how I feel about the butt tattoo or the dancing-girl flashback....

Of course, it does feature a deluxe cast—Judi Dench, Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Frances O'Connor, Reese Witherspoon, Anna Massey, and Tom Wilkinson! I must admit, I was a little disappointed in Dench; she wasn't quite as funny as I imagined. And Firth was a little dull, although I suppose that is sort of Jack's way. Rupert Everett was hilarious and Reese Witherspoon cute and spunky, although perhaps not nearly so much as Anna Massey. What an adorable little old woman! Just the way she walked had me in titters.

The fire stallions were very cool. But my absolute favourite part of Krull is the swamp. It's beautiful! (I only figured out which character Liam Neeson played because of Sir Aslanite's avatar of Neeson in a more recent film. )

W4J, is it Fizzwig or Fizgig? The little furry thing? He was hilarious. One of the better parts.

Ly: For not having seen the films in a while, your comments on the Emma adaptations are very astute! I think you are correct in saying that the GP film softened the character of Knightly, though I thought that film did a good job at not just making Emma seem like the kid sister he fell in love with. I think that Sophie Thompson is certainly my favorite Miss Bates. Her yelling at her mother "Pork!" and "Angel! mother" were too funny. And my 7 year-old sister's well timed "No, we are the happy ones" in a conversation once has made that line an inside joke in my family.
And I recently watch about half of that adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest before I got bored. I'm not sure why, but it was so very similar to the way I'd seen it in my head while reading the play that I felt like I'd already seen it. I didn't particularly like Rupert Everett as Algy either.

PrinceCor: I actually prefered Batman Begins to the oh-so-popular The Dark Knight and I wouldn't mind owning it either! I found Bale to be much more accessible in that movie and it had more of a story and less action, which I appreciated. I like action of course, but it must be backing a story. I also really like Liam Neeson, so I was glad to see him in it.

@ Lys. I'm planning on getting the 3 disc edition of the Peter Jackson King Kong. I also prefer the original, but Peter's "Kong" is also enjoyable if for nothing less than eye candy with all the CGI and miniatures. My main reason to getting this particular set is that it contains 2 discs worth of "Making of" material. A great bonus for me.

@ Kate. Same here. I also felt Batman Begins did a better job of balancing the fantasy and realism that Christopher Nolan was going for better than TDK which was mostly dark, disturbing and a little too realistic. TDK is still a great film, just not my cup of tea for film viewing.

Back to the Future:
Not sure how anyone else feels about these movies.
I had never seen any of them, except for small parts of the original.

1. I loved it almost to the end, the final minutes preparing for the second were horrible to me. which made me knock one star off its rating since it nearly destroyed me enjoyment of the rest (overreaction but it couldn't be helped).

2. Worried, I decided to rent it and give it a go. However I didn't like it.
Not because I was already set to dislike it, otherwise I'd not even tried, but because it just didn't click with me. The futuristic look was great in it but the characters themselves I didn't like at all.

3. Though I wasn't going to see it because I disliked the second, I was told that it was an improvement that could be equaled to the first. Haven't yet rented it though, will be doing it this coming week.

Well, on Thursday I was finally able to see Alfred Hitchcocks The Birds for the first time. It was not the most frightening film that I've seen, but it was very creepy/eerie none-the-less. The fact that nothing is explained in the film only adds to the eerie factor.

There were some parts in the area of special effects that were cringe worthy, but most of the effects came off well.

Overall, a recommended film for those that like creepy films but despise the gore drenched films of the late 70's and all of the 80's.

4/5

I finally got around to watching Iron Man this week. I thought it was probably the best of the Marvel superhero movies, even better than the first two Spider-Man movies. It was a nice mix of action, character-development, and humor. And the scene at the end of the credits was neat. Nick Fury finally makes his appearance in a Marvel movie and they acknowledged the existence of other superheroes. It's aggravated me that they failed to do so in any of the other movies. Definitely looking forward to the sequel.

5 movies i need to watch

1. Sweeney Todd
2. 10,000 BC
3. The yes man
4. Valkyrie
5. The Changeling

We recently watched Roman Holiday for the first time. It was delightful, so much fun! I loved Audrey Hepburn in it.

Ah, Roman Holiday...I love that movie. It's so sweet and beautiful! Anything with Audrey Hepburn is fantastic, IMHO.

My top 5 favorite older movies are:

5. Sabrina
4. Roman Holiday
3. An Affair to Remember
2. Breakfast at Tiffany's
1. Gone with the Wind