The Golden Compass

It flew by really quickly and I felt very entertained, and it made me really want to read the book. No, really, when it ended I thought: when's the next one come out? I was seriously ready for about an hour more of movie. By which I mean, I guess, it felt like a lot was missing, but what was there was very good and made me want more. I just kind of wish this wasn't the finished movie, and I could go up to the filmmakers and say, "Yeah, that's a really good start. Keep going." I'm not sure if that's a bad thing or not.

I did feel like there was a pretty serious critique of authority kind of happening in the background... No, actually, I guess it was pretty explicit, it just wasn't actually very interested in it. I think that's why I want to read the books. I assume the book was actually interested in that aspect of it. If I read this book to my kids will they grow up to be good little anarchists? I hope so!

Stardust

I never would have watched this if Rachael hadn't wanted to go, and I'm glad she did. It was way better than any of the advertisements made it seem like it would be. It's weird when a film is so misrepresented by its advertisements... Could they really not figure out a way to market this film? It was just fun, sort of the way Shrek movies are fun, except way less annoying.

All that said, I don't remember a whole lot about the movie, which I can hardly believe I saw only a week ago. De Niro's portrayal of Captain Shakespeare was pretty funny, and I thought he played it far better than the role even needed him to.

I did have to wonder, though, why Michelle Pfeiffer's sisters were both played by young people with old person makeup on, since neither of them ever had to change into younger looking versions of themselves. It's hard enough for aging actresses to find work in the Hollywood world that it seems almost immoral to cast young actresses in the role of older characters for no reason.