Saturday, October 25, 2008

movies & DVDs

Nim's Island is something I've wanted to get Ditz for a while. [pause for predictable eye~rolling]. I've read plenty of reviews trashing the plot, the logic [or lack thereof], the lack of tension/adventure/suspense & the acting. I find it interesting that something like Shrek [& hey, I enjoyed Shrek but I don't think it's a children's movie] get's rave reviews despite questionable language, more questionable humour & more pop culture than I want to think about. Nim's Island is different.

Nim's Island is unabashedly a children's movie, a little quirky, gentle fantasy that poses no great dramas or conflicts & yes, is pretty predictable plotwise. So what? Not everything in real life is a major drama either. And joy of joys, Nim is a homeschooler! Lovely to see a movie where homeschool is accepted in a normal matter of fact way without all the nonsense Hollywood so often makes of it.

To my surprise both my girls enjoyed it. We adored Jodie Foster. And we found the irony hilarious. I don't know how much of it was intentional but we laughed ourselves silly anyway.

Liddy also got me the 3rd season of Jonathan Creek for my birthday, which hasn't arrived yet. I got my pressie early so we all had something to watch. We have been eeking these out, one a day, to make them last & these are questionable. Ditz just thinks they are downright strange. Liddy thinks they are strange...& funny...& they have grown on her till she is as addicted to them as I am despite the fact they give her occasional nightmares. I am now wiser than I was. I never knew before that you could freeze mercury. There is a lot of science in these shows & a healthy dose of sceptical cynicism laced with the *how too's* of magic tricks, mystery, suspense ~ oh, & the sort of character conflict that has me rolling in the aisles! Besides I want that windmill. Seriously. I mean, how cool is that, living in a windmill? The Brits do this sort of thing better than anyone else & I believe there is a new season due at Christmas. Yay!

5 comments:

molytail said...

I want to see that! Heh, and yeah Shrek was funny (the first anyway) but there is indeed a lot of adult humour...

hey if you like a) kinda strange movies and b) Jodie Foster, you should check out a movie called "Nell" ..lemme see if I can find a link....k, here ya go ..it's quite interesting, or at least I thought so. :-)

(The summary on that site sucks though)

Ganeida said...

I loved *Nell* though it's been a while since I saw it.

molytail said...

I should have known you'd have already seen it LOL ;-)

MamaOlive said...

So I finally looked up Jonathan Creek. Reminds me of the US cable show Monk, that I enjoyed back when we had satellite. Wiki says Creek is doing a Christmas special this year.

The HoJo's said...

Very dry sense of humour in J Creek iirc? I do like a dry sense of humour :o)
our blogs are turning into film review sites lately, I haven't seen Nim's Island, maybe I'll pop it in a christmas stocking

xc