The magic of the silver screen

Unusually, I am going to start this post with a movie review - of Avatar - which we went to see at the weekend.  My sister is visiting from Australia, and she and Chris were keen to see it.  Personally, I was a bit ho-hum at the prospect, but I am now a complete convert and will be buying the DVD as soon as it becomes available. 

So, Haiku first (composed by sis and self in the back of a taxi on the way to one of our (many) shopping expeditions over the last few days):

Epic tail of man's
short-sightedness.  Out of love,
balance is restored.

And no, that's not a spelling mistake in the first line.

So what did we love about this movie?  The list is long.  First off, it's really beautiful to look at.  Not the parts where the gunships set off on their mission of destruction (definite homage to Apocalypse Now, with shades of Robert Duvall launching an attack on the Viet Cong to the tune of Ride of the Valkyrie), but the scenes in the forest, the colours, the Navi people - especially the lovely Neytiri -  and of course, the special effects.  The story struck a chord too, and  the director managed to stay just on the right side of didactic, so it's a big thumbs up from us. 

Jingle those bells once more

Dear readers



I can say "readers" with confidence because I know that some nasty person in the blogosphere (or possibly some nasty automated machine) just posted a spam comment on my Jingle Bells blog. I have allowed free access to those who wish to comment (thank you, Steve) but the downside of choosing not to moderate comments is what just happened. The only way I could find to get rid of the comment was to get rid of the post, so here it is again for your seasonal delectation and delight.

The Christmas season has officially begun. We have just got back from seeing Aladdin at the Tanglin Club, and we are most definitely in the Christmas spirit. There's something about 100 children screaming "He's behind you" that somehow just gets you in the mood. We are spending Christmas in Singapore this year, a novelty for us, and we're off to Hong Kong for Hogmanay. Chris got back from the UK today, and is busily planning the festivities - he is clearly a man in need of a project.


While he was away I saw the new film version of A Christmas Carol, which I really loved. One of the best things was sitting in the dark in an (over) air conditioned cinema, so that it really was possible to feel that it was Christmas Eve in the northern hemisphere. I think I have seen and pretty much loved every film about Christmas ever made,and I could cheerfully fill the time between now and December 25th watching them all over again.


Although there were a fair number of littlies at the showing of A Christmas Carol that I went to, they were all incredibly quiet, unlike the teens that I shared the cinema with when I went to see New Moon, the second film of the Twilight series. As soon as the vamp and the werewolf got their kit off (in human form, of course) the screaming started. I could understand it for the werewolf (seriously hot, with abs you could bounce off), but not for Edward the vampire (what sort of name is that for a vampire, anyway?) who used to be Cedric Diggory in one of the Harry Potter movies and who looked like he had abs of custard, rather than steel. If I were writing a haiku review of this film I'd say:


Disappointing pap
Save your money to go and
See a real movie.