10 Reasons why I'm not a Disney Princess

We rented Enchanted this evening and I watched it for the second time. It is an enjoyable movie and I laughed a lot watching it, but it reminded me of all the ways I am not a Disney princess like Giselle and never will be. I think that is probably a good thing.

1. I can't sing

2. I'm not thin

3. I'm not 2-d

4. I can't get my animals to clean up for me

5. When I fall out of a tree (or off a building) there is never a handsome man there to catch me

6. I can't make my own clothes

7. I don't look perfect after running through the streets in the rain and then crashing on someones couch

8. No matter how hard I try to organise spontaneous dance routines with large numbers of people and/or animals they never work out

9. If I am on the floor scrubbing it clean, bubbles don't float around my head reflecting my image (then again, I am never on the floor scrubbing it clean)

10. I don't have a (wicked) stepmother

On a different note, the short list for the first round of the Aeon Award was published and I didn't make it. However, there is always the next round to aim for and it means I can send 'All The Dead Stars' out to another market, where it might prove more successful.

Watched the debut for season 4 of Dr Who on BBC1 tonight. It was good. Donna irritated me, I just can't distinguish Catherine Tate from her comedy show characters and it makes her seem really insincere and totally hammy to me. To anyone who has seen the episode (4:1 Partners in Crime) is it just me or did you think the Doctor should have left well enough alone? It was a win win situation before he and Donna bumbled along. The Adipose were cute little aliens and it was a good weight loss solution for London. Pity they messed it up.

Death in Dreams

I was watching a movie (1408 to be exact. Not bad; typical predictable Stephen King storyline, but very watchable thanks to John Cusack) and the old chestnut 'you can't die in your dreams' came up. As it happens, I had a dream recently where I killed myself. I was a professor in a university and something terrible was going to happen. I knew this because there had been a taster of it the week before but when it came back it was going to stay for good (the terrible event involved everyone in the whole world being turned into zombies). I couldn't stand the thought of this so myself and my husband decided to commit joint suicide. We lay down on our bed together and I shot him in the head and then shot myself and died. When I died, the dream merely changed to another dream. I didn't wake up or anything like that. So I guess you can die in a dream and live. Anyone else out there die in a dream, or am I just a very sick and twisted individual?

Movie Review: Clovefield

I went to see Cloverfield with Pinky and Valpot today. There has been so much hype for this film it has been impossible to miss it unless you've been living under a rock for the last six months. If you have chosen the rock abode, then you won't know that Cloverfield is a monster movie told from the prospective of a group of young, attractive and well to do New Yorkers and their magical video camera (I saw magical because it never ran out of battery or tape and survived being dropped and bashed about numerous times without any loss of quality). The actors were pleasant, the special effects were amazing (I can't help from wondering how amazing I Am Legend could have been if they had the same fx company) and the monster was suitably monstrous. Unfortunately, unlike almost every reviewer who thought this movie was scary, I found it distinctly lacking in chills and overwhelmed with inconsistencies that made it amusing. The sound of the monster was laugh out loud funny. The army mobilized into New York with astonishing speed. There was no development, growth or change in the characters from the beginning of the movie to the end. The jerky camera movements grew more and more distracting as the movie progressed - who remembers to frame their shots as they are running for their lives? And I also found that, despite the slightly original idea of the video cam, the story narrative was very linear and traditional. As I watched it I wanted to find out more about the monster and less about the people. My enjoyment was also hampered by my two companions having to leave because of feeling sick brought on by the jerky camera movements. Ultimately I enjoyed the movie but it was an empty feeling, like candyfloss, and sickened me before the end.

Hellyboy II - the Golden Army

Just saw the trailer for Hellboy 2, out next year, and it looks AWESOME! I really enjoyed the first movie, and while I thought it was a good action flick with a cool tough guy hero supplying plenty of expected one line quips, it was the deeper underlying themes of good and evil, choice and free will, destiny and love that won me over and kept it fresh for me when I rewatched it (several times). I hope that the second movie also has a deeper theme that goes beyond the action, but from the trailer at least, the action and cool effects certainly do not seem to lag. They have left in Doug Jones' real voice for this movie (he plays Abe Sapien, the aquatic guy, who was voiced in the first movie by Fraiser's own David Hyde Pierce). Now, I am in two minds about this. I think Doug performed Abe brilliantly, and I am all for actors keeping their own voices*, but Niles' dulcet tones suited the dancer like grace of Abe's character to a t. From what I have heard (and it is only one line in the trailer), Doug's voice lacks the refinement I would like to hear for Abe's character. However, a whole movie might swing me around.

I can't wait to see it!

*however, performing a creature character in full make up is not the same as also voicing that character. The history of movies is full of guys in suits who were voiced by different people, and usually this was a good thing. Imagine how different Star Wars would have been if Darth Vader had a west country accent.