Saturday I met Adam and Cathy in Leipzig for lunch, sightseeing and a little shopping. It was great seeing Adam again and I really enjoyed getting to know Cathy as well. I’m also amazed at her mastery of not one, but three languages. Seriously, I have a tenuous grasp of the english language at best, and can hardly butcher my way through german in spite of a childhood spent here and the past year to boot.

I did try to show off my (supposed) mastery of german numbers and promptly got the first set posed to me wrong… heh. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

And tomorrow I’m looking forward to meeting Christina and her husband Rainer for a quick lunch before they departed for Karlsbad (no, not the caverns < — only americans will get this reference).

In addition (kind of a two-for-one bonus) I’m throwing in a few movie reviews since I’ve had them sitting around (in various states of completion) for awhile now…

(favorite to least favorite)

HOT FUZZ- Not quite as sublimely perfect as its predecessor (Shawn Of The Dead), the new Wright/Pegg offering is still extremely praiseworthy. Hot Fuzz opens with London cop Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) finding himself transferred to a small town simply for being too good at what he does. Co-workers and superiors are sick of him showing them up. But after landing in the podunk little town of Sandford (enter SOTD partner Nick Frost) it quickly becomes apparent that something is very wrong. Ok, so that’s the premise… now bring on the jokes & gore galore! It’s actually not as bloody as SOTD, but it’s still up there. The best part though (as with their previous film) are the moments of sheer, out of the blue, laugh-out-loud humor. There’s an excellent scene toward the end of the film involving a car crash and the city center that’s just brilliant. Also, I dare you not to randomly shout “By the power of Greyskull!” at least once after watching this film. Loved it.

THE PRESTIGE- Really solid film with mystery, suspense, espionage and revenge. Even with the ending being a little far fetched, I still thoroughly enjoyed watching it. I actually didn’t know what to expect going in… hadn’t really heard much about it other than who the actors were… and maybe that’s part of the reason I walked away so happy. It was a pleasant surprise.

300- Right after its release I read a review saying 300 was “as violent as Apocalypto and twice as stupid”… I figured it couldn’t possibly be a winner. But after seeing it today I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. 300 takes ‘epic’ to the next level by doing what Troy and Alexander and others of its ilk didn’t do- it digitalizes the violence. Yes, the battles are gruesome (did anyone imagine hand-to-hand combat wouldn’t be?). Yes, the half-man, half-monster things are far fetched. But hey, they did it all really well…. the way the scenes were alternately slowed down & sped up… the way droplets of blood became mercury-like balls suspended on screen for fractions of seconds… the way the action rushed back in with an almost audible whoosh. Hell, half the time I found myself itching for a broadsword (were broadswords even what they used back then? I don’t know my 5th century weaponry all that well) so I could join the fray and carve up some Persians.

And you know, in films like this you just can’t go in expecting oscar-winning performances. Still, I thought for the most part the acting was solid. I mean, ok, the stoned-out-of-her-gourd gratuitously nude & writhing oracle was a little over the top, but hey, she had great nipples (must’ve been really cold in Greece that day). And maybe they could’ve done more with the role of the Queen, but ultimately it would’ve distracted from the battlefield- which is where the film really shone.

In the end there were two things that bothered me enough to mention:

1. Twice during the film it morphed into some bizarre death metal rock video. Seriously. It was, for me, extremely jarring and unnecessary. There’s a right & wrong way to emphasize a scene with a musical score. This could be a class in what not to do.
2. The ending would have been so much better if they’d closed it with the final shot of the king. Instead it felt a little… ok, a lot… like grandstanding. Zack Snyder is definitely not a ‘less is more’ kinda guy.

Having said all that, adjust your expectations and go see it. It’s well worth the 117 minute investment.

THE HOST- I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. Quite honestly I’m a little surprised at all the praise heaped on it by critics. I think the attempts at humor were often way, way overblown… and the evolution of the main characters seemed unrealistic. That said, the monster was kick-ass, and you can’t help being swept back to the godzilla films of yesteryear. Only this time the monster’s actually scary. But overall (as Randy Jackson likes to say) it just didn’t work for me, dawg.