cleaning up a computer…

[Post being migrated from LiveJournal]

A Happy New Year to all!

It’s hard to believe that one week has passed since Christmas… it feels so much longer than a mere 7 days…
Half way through my 2-week *enforced* annual leave.

I’m taking a lil break from reinstalling the 100s of apps on my computer… See, this morning, I decided it’s time to format my computer hard drive… My New Year purchases included a DVD burner with software.

The big Christmas pressie that I love the most is the Village Gold Card, given to me by my brother. Yah!!! Until the end of Jan, I can go to the movies and get free tickets for myself plus one other. Anytime except Saturday’s after 5pm. I’ve already used it twice… first for King Kong and then for the Narnia movie.

King Kong: rated 8/10
While the movie as a whole was quite enjoyable, I personally would have preferred the story pace to have been a little quicker at the start (up until Skull island) and the ending (back in NY) to have been drawn out a bit more.

The digital/CG effects were okay – except for some scenes where the use of blue screen was quite obvious.
The actors did a reasonable job; and I did feel for King Kong at the end… paying the ultimate price for love of Anne… aww…

Narnia: The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe: rated 8.5/10
I first read all the Narnia books by CS Lewis some 10 years ago… I also had seen film versions of the books on video, courtesy of my church video library… Yes – many people have described the movie as a cross between a LOTR and HP movie… I would agree with this view. The battle scenes, like LOTR ROTK, seem to have been extended – all part of making a movie storyline work I guess. The depiction of the stone table with its StoneHenge environment was a little unexpected… but then the pictures in my mind were influenced by the video depictions… I can’t remember – really should reread the books – but I felt that Lucy was older… or at least the actor looked a little young… Further the perceived ages of the four children seemed a little far apart… at least the height range indicated that Susan and Peter were 3-4 years older than Edmund and Lucy…

Also – I would have liked Aslan to have been a bit bigger… at certain times, he didn’t seem that big as a lion goes… (with the exception of the stone table sacrifice scene) My final comment was that I felt that some of the monsters on the side of the White Witch… were there thumb-thumbs amongst the mix? (From Spy Kids)

I’d better return to getting this computer back up and running! Ciao.

Nic =)