Just saw Shadow Puppets with James Marsters. OMG, what a waste of time! Even for the "a bunch of people lose their memories and wake up in a strange place where something is trying to kill them" genre it was bad.

We have the usual stereotypical characters: computer nerd, scientist, scared girl, crazy girl, violent criminal and charming-turning-out-to-be-evil guy. We have them running around a mental ward/prison type setting, trying to find out who and where they are, and they are chased by shadows with blue eyes. See me shake with fear?

Not even having James Marsters running around in his underwear for most of the movie made this piece of crap worthwile. *sigh* He's such a good actor. Why doesn't he get better parts to play? Let's just hope he won't disappoint in Torchwood.

We went to see OOTP tonight, and it was nice. I thought I'd have a harder time with the fugly haircut, but it was okay, really. And I'm in love with Luna now. Evanna Lynch did such a good job! Unlike Emma Watson, how rushed through some of her lines so fast it made me dizzy.

Helena Bonham Carter was great as ever, still one of my favorite actors. And I never realized Trelawney is played by Emma Thompson! D'oh.

We saw a trailer for Stardust, yay! And a trailer for the movie they made of one of the Pullman books. I think I caught a glimpse of Derek Jacobi (who played the Master in a recent episode of Doctor Who), but they didn't credit him and IMDB doesn't list him either. Yet?

Anyway, I liked Pullman's Dark Materials, but wasn't enthusiastic about them. Too long-winded, too convoluted in the end. But the trailer looked interesting, so I'll probably go watch it.

The first Stardust movie trailer is up: Stardust on Yahoo.

The movie is based on a novel by Neil Gaiman, which I have yet to read. But I think I'll watch the movie first, seeing as I haven't even finished Fragile Things yet, and that's been sitting on my nightstand for weeks now.

Still catching up with the Oscar nominees, we watched The Departed yesterday. The first movie in quite a while where I wished it had subtitles. I'll definitely have to watch it again when it's out on DVD over here.

Great performances by Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio. And you know you're watching a great movie when you've heard the word cunt twice before they even show the movie title.

I watched Accepted today, a funny little movie about a guy who doesn't get accepted to college and starts his own fake college to get his parents off his back.

When I see the main character I go: "I've seen him before!" So I look him up on imdb.com and see Galaxy Quest. Yeah, right, he played the geeky Star Trek fan there, I remember him. But a small voice in the back of my head keeps nagging me throughout the movie that I should remember him from somewhere else.

So when the movie is over, I take a closer look at the imdb listing, and there it is: he's the "I'm a Mac" guy! D'oh.

TV series

• Bones Season 2
• Veronica Mars Season 3
• House, M.D. Season 3
• Gilmore Girls Season 7
• Heroes Season 1
• Battlestar Galactica Season 3

movies

• Saw I-III mit Meike im Cinemaxx
• Half Nelson
• Dreamgirls
• Accepted
• Rocky I-V bei Meike

• Rocky Balboa bei Meike
• Night At The Museum
• The Devil Wears Prada

We watched Oscar nominee number two tonight: The Pursuit of Happyness. Meh.

I hate, hate, hate it when it's perfectly clear where and when a story is set (city skyline, costumes, hairdos etc.), and they still feel the need to tell you explicitly by writing "San Franciso, 1981" on the screen. Hello, I'm not stupid, kthxbai.

Also, movies that are set in another time, when it's not relevant to the story? I don't like them. Although this one is based on a true story, and they did a great job of paying attention to details in clothing and gadgets and decor etc.

( minor spoiler ahead )

The Oscar nominations are up, and in an attempt to watch as many of the nominated movies as possible before the award ceremony, we went to our local DVD renting place.* The only movies we could find were "Monster House", "Cars", "United 93" and "Das Leben der Anderen."

So we started out with "Monster House," and boy, was that a disappointment! I have no idea how this movie got nominated. It features the most stereotypical characters: a scrawny boy and his chubby, dorky friend at the mercy of a teenage babysitter who doesn't give a shit about her job and has her no-good, I'm-so-cool-I'm-in-a-band boyfriend over for a visit. Oh, and of course there's a smart girl from the neighbourhood, who normally wouldn't be caught dead with the two boys, but under these special circumstances, she has no choice, and ends up kissing scrawny boy in the end.

Circumstances? Oh right, the evil old neighbour's house across the street is haunted, the kids have to find out what's going on and by fighting their way through great danger and solving the puzzle, end up as friends. *sigh*

Even the music was nothing out of the ordinary. The animation was okay, but again, nothing special. In the end, I'll take a traditional animated picture with great characters and an original plot (like the Miyazaki movies) over trite 3D-animation any time.

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*When I got my first DVD player about seven years ago, it was a video store, with just one shelf of DVDs to chose from. Back then, I watched almost every movie that came out on DVD, because they were few and far between, and most of them were good.

Over the years, the DVD section expanded slowly around the walls of that store, and now all that's left is one lonely shelf with VHS tapes. But I end up renting fewer movies, because there's so much crap out there, and I get tired of sifting through all that to find the good stuff.

We went to watch Déja Vù with Denzel Washington and Paula Patton today. If you don't want to be spoiled, you shouldn't look behind ( the cut. )