Recent selections from the Netfix queue:
"Sweeney Todd" - I adore Johnny Depp, honestly I do, but I just could not get into this movie. Bloody yes, it was like "Hamlet," where pretty much everyone dies and I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that. Really, though, I don't dig musicals at all. Which is strange, I know, coming from someone who dances every day of her life but music, like Marge Simpson says, is none of my business. And speaking of The Simpsons...I don't like it when that show does musicals either. So although I admire Depp and Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman, this movie only got 2 stars from me.
"Semi-Pro" - B-ball in the 70s sounds like such a great premise, especially with Will Ferrell at the helm, but this was just not that funny. Again, HH liked this more than I did although we both agreed the romance between Woody Harrelson and Maura Tierney was completely lame and unnecessary. We fast-forwarded through some of it, to be perfectly honest. And who was the guy living with her? Her boyfriend? Brother? Either way, it was just plain weird. Another 2-stars from me.
"Balls of Fury" - Now here is what you do with a silly movie: expect nothing. And when you do, it's much much funnier! Dan Fogler is not Jack Black but he was very good in this. In fact, the scenes before he gets to the ping-pong tournament at Chris Walken's Central American estate are better than any of the others that follow. Great supporting cast: James Hong, Maggie Q, Patton Oswalt, George Lopez (who should have been given more funny things to do). Some LOL moments but again, expect nothing and you'll enjoy it.
"The Golden Compass" - We loved this movie. Again, we were expecting nothing. I had read the Philip Pullman novel and felt, eh, I don't get it. There was so much set-up in the first book and not a lot of payoff and I didn't get to the next book. Most of the time I kept wondering what Asriel was up to in the Arctic tundra and we never went back to him. The movie distilled everything down for those of us who are denser than the 10 year olds who read the book. Of course, the cast was fantastic: I love love love Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman and the little girl, Dakota Blue Richards, was amazing! I cannot believe they are not going to make a sequel to this movie! I had heard that it was not as popular as they thought, didn't make as much money as they had expected, and that the CG was way too expensive to do a second one. I hope they change their minds because I would love to see what happens next.
And when in doubt...watch BBC's The Office.
