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Shrek movies used to be a lot like an ogrenion. On the outside, a pleasant, innocous kids movie, straight-forward anti-fairy-tale plot, and a happily ever after ending. For the adults, there were layers and layers of innuendo and allusion to popular culture, makinng the movies a treat for all ages.

Now, not so much. Less with the allusion, more with the illusion. The CGI in this film was stunning - the people were more realistic than ever, the scenery looked almost real.

Unfortunately, there was a compete lack of humour, on any level. I wouldn't take kids to see this: the dope-smoking high-schoolers are enough reason for that, as is the 'royally fucked' joke when Shrek learns to be a father.

It's not for the adults either: the Python homage barely makes it on screen, even with 2 Pythons in the cast. The LotR reference was barely a glimpse - literally a 1-second shot.The Charlies Angels sequence that was so clearly being set up never came.

There weren't adult jokes either, unless you count the aforementioned 'royally fucked', and maybe two more.

The movie doesn't even manage to maintain a coherent sense of place. Early on in the movie, the dead frog-king is given a burial at 'sea', floating in a Foot Locker shoebox in a fountain, while a choir of Warner-Brotheresque singing frogs belt out a James Bond theme. No, I don't understand why, either.

I'm very dissapointed. One baby dragon/ass out out of five.

I just went to the movies.

Let's use my twitters to recap the night:

* Just saw an ad at the cinema about dianetics - specifically targetting people with depression. Disgusting.

Yes, that's right. "Pills don't cure depression. Dianetics does. Get your free dianetics book today - ". Redacted by me, not by the cinema.

Got me rather riled up. Targeting people when they're at their lowest point.. despicable.

* Watching children sneak in to a documentary about paedophile priests is disturbing

There were a group of about 3 15ish year old girls sneaking in, giggling over how they'd been so naughty as to sneak into a movie.

I felt concerned; I didn't think they appreciated what they had gotten themselves into.

* Watching them flee in horror when they realize what they've done is priceless

But oh well; before I got a chance, the priest came on to talk about kid-touchin. They realized, exchanged looks of horror, got up and ran out as fast as they could.

* I don't understand how the catholic church can claim to be a christian church. Have they not read the bible?

My Christian upbringing was in an Open Brethren church. The church was decidedly sparse; there were pews, plain-coloured walls, a pulpit, a piano and an organ. Contrast this with the Catholic monuments shown in the movie: my first thought was "Oh the idolatry, that's wicked". There were pictures all over the walls, there was ornamentation everywhere. Yes, it creates a sense of awe - but I really don't see how it can be possible to get close to God in such an environment. then again, as Catholic priests in the documentary admitted, that's not the point - the point is to produce a crowd of people who are docile and submit to every commandment from the clergy.

I want to rant more about my theology (and current lack of faith)... but it's late now, so I'm going to bed.

Saw this Friday night.

Was better than I expected. Having low expectations is fantastic sometimes...

Not a particularly good movie though. There's a bit of whizz-bang action, but not quite enough. The movie raises some interesting questions (eg, it seems as though it's going to present Magneto and Xavier as both being equally grey, rather than black/white good/evil) - but then it manages to dodge all of them without actually answering anything.

Some of the so-called 'super powers' aren't very well thought out. When we meet The Juggernaut we're told that "if he gets any momentum up, he can't be stopped". Funnily enough, we've just seen him in a state with quite some momentum (in a moving truck), and he was stopped by Magneto without Magneto even being aware that he was there...

There were a few moments where the movie seemed to forget itself and launch into slapstick humour; fortunately, I've forgotten all of these painful interludes so I can't tell you about them. However, some of the casting choices produced much merriment - seeing Big Chris in a mainstream movie was fantastic. On the other hand, I spent half the movie thinking that Hank McCoy was very familiar and trying to figure out where I knew him from; once I realised that the big blue fluffy Beast was none other than Frasier, I giggled for minutes...

All in all, not terrible, but not good either. Nowhere near as good as the first two, and definitely not worth watching a second time.

Saw the movie last night.

Overall, not a bad treatment of a difficult book. Very, very very abbreviated, but that was necessary. If you liked the movie, you'll love the book.

There was one thing that amazed me though. I thought that the ending of the book was pretty bad - the ending of the movie was even worse. It takes real talent to take the only bad part of the book and amplify it to make it even worse.

[Update 23/02/2007] Sorry, comments have been closed on this post due to too much spam.

I know I'm late, but there's just one thing about Brokeback Mountain that I haven't seen anyone else say, which I think is fairly important.

I don't thank Jack and Ennis were gay. Well, Jack maybe, but certainly not Ennis.

True, he had sex with another man regularly. True, he fell in love with another man. Is that enough to make you gay?