That said, a few notes

[yendi]

shadesong and I saw Wedding Crashers yesterday, which was very cute for a formula movie. Some truly hilarious moments, and I finally get why people obsess over Rachel McAdams.

We also, alas, sat through previews for some of the worst looking movies I've ever heard of, including Domino, which has apparently been re-packages as an action-comedy (and not a good one), and might have been the movie to sink Keira Knightly's career back to obscurity if it weren't for the two upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean flicks.

Other dreadful previews included The Man, which proves that you can easily take two funny people like Eugene Levy and Samuel L. Jackson, and make a preview without a single funny moment in it; and Just Like Heaven, which looks to be the third worst Reese Witherspoon movie of the last few years, which doesn't sound bad until you remember that she made Legally Blonde 2 and Sweet Home Alabama, and that there are porn stars that don't suck as much as Sweet Home Alabama.

Later, we had a nice chat with Elayna, who will be home in a week! She's gone from being phone-shy to spending nearly an hour talking to us. Her parents got her a Gameboy Advance, which I've got mixed feelings about. On the one hand, it does have a brighter screen (the reason they got it for her) than her Gameboy Color, and it will play her existing GBC games. On the other, plopping down $80 for a "just because" gift doesn't exactly do wonders to teach her to value money. On the third hand, Fire Emblem and Advance Wars 2 (and maybe FFT -- anyone know if the GBA version is different enough from the PS version to justify it?)! Um, not that I'd spend hours playing my daughter's game. Really.

She also speculated about the identity of the Half-Blood Prince (she was wrong, but with 100 pages to go, I wasn't willing to confirm or deny anything), and chatted about the next Lemony Snicket novel, current cartoons, and summer camp, where she won her cabin's "top camper" award!

She also told me, "you're going to want to kill grandma."

Me: Why?

Elayna: Because she bought me Heelys.

No, no interest in killing the grandma. Hell, I'd never heard of these until Elayna mentioned them. I'm just surprised that Elayna really wanted them.

Oh, and finally, I watched this week's Six Feet Under this morning. And yeah, that was an ending I wasn't quite expecting.

Comments

[stevietee.livejournal.com]

Who did she guess was the Half-Blood Prince? Or is it still not proper to speak of Harry Potter 6 in public?

[yendi]

I can't remember the character's name, but it was whoever Hermione found out about while researching, some random woman with the last name Prince. I don't consider it a spoiler since it's an obious red herring, and anyone over the age of 12 won't fall for it.

[dougals.livejournal.com]

Eileen Prince. Maybe a red herring, but connected...

[stevietee.livejournal.com]

"sort-of" red herring, more like

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Skates with brakes! Where were they when I was a kid, and everyone else had roller skates *plus* the senses of self-preservation and steering...

[ydnic.livejournal.com]

Some kid went rolling by us wearing a pair of those shoes while we were out doing touristy-type things this weekend. I resisted the impulse to shake a fist at him. ;-)

[jmfunnyface.livejournal.com]

I've seen kids in Philadelphia with Heelys, although I didn't know that's what they're called.

[terracinque.livejournal.com]

Yeah, who did she think was the Half-Blood Prince?

[yendi]

As I said above, it was whatever obvious red herring Hermione found while doing research.

[zeyr.livejournal.com]

FFT for the GBA: Yes, there are large differences. And if you wait until you are up here, you can ask my son if you can borrow his copy. ;)

I haven't played it myself (no time, no time!), but he likes it almost as much as the original...although he has not had the patience to finish either of them. :)

[yendi]

Cool -- glad to know they're different. I'll probably get the other games first, then see if I have the patience to wait to borrow your son's copy. :-)

[ardaniel]

They're different, but I found FFTA to be weaker plotwise; FFTA also has a bunch of fiddly inventory management that eventually just piles up on you. It's the only game that's ever really had me trying to create spreadsheets to track items and what abilities they give you; the FFT job system is a lot slicker.

On the upside, FFTA has never saddled me with a small merchant fleet of chocobos, unlike FFT.

[crystalsage.livejournal.com]

6FU threw me for a loop too. Neoclue thinks that to end the series they're going to kill off every member of the regular cast, one by one...would be a fitting end for a series about death.

[yendi]

Actually, I'd heard that the last episode would essentially consist of flash-forwards to all of their deaths. I'll just have to wait and see. :-)

[bassfingers.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It will have a white death screen for each of them. I'm not 100% certain of the format, but I think it will be Claire as the last surviving Fisher in her 80's, remembering the deaths of all the others. Or at least that will be a part of it. Don't know how much will be forward projecting or flashing back.

Sucking previews

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

I've nothing but contempt for the movie industry right now, as 90% of what is out, or will be out, is total crap.

It amazes me that the industry keep mewling about how ticket sales are down, when movies cost 10 bucks, and most of them are retreaded crap.

Make something good and people will go see it! Stupid wankers

Re: Sucking previews

[yendi]

I'm truly amazed, however, that they couldn't even make a good preview. Even a bad comedy (Taxi, etc) should have enough jokes for a 60-second trailer.

[bassfingers.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we didn't catch it Sunday night, planning instead to watch the Monday rerun. The TV-Guide shows up in Monday's mail, and we're flipping through and the first thing my wife sees is "Peter Krause's Fond Farewell ... Six Feet Under fans were stunned when the show's main character, funeral director Nate Fisher (Peter Krause), suddenly succumbed to a brain disease at the end of the July 31 episode. But Krause wasn't surprised at getting killed off..."

Spoilers for the July 31st episode in a magazine delivered August 1st. (Yeah, I know it's printed for 2 weeks out, but still...)