realthog: (shoe)
realthog ([personal profile] realthog) wrote2009-07-16 05:14 pm

spousal duties



Oh, gawd, I'm being dragged orft to see Harry Potter and the Half-Cut Prince tonight. Wish me strength, folks.

Last night we likewise went out on a date, and we discovered a magnificent beer: Troeg's Hopback Amber. Now, if I could smuggle a few bottles of that into the cinema tonight perhaps it'd help with the ol' fortitude . . .




[identity profile] thisplacehere.livejournal.com 2009-07-17 10:19 am (UTC)(link)
What did you think of the film, then?

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2009-07-17 02:13 pm (UTC)(link)

Like the rest of them, it was moderately okay: good special effects, a couple of good performances, somewhat tedious, derivative plotting -- ya know.

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2009-07-17 09:19 pm (UTC)(link)

Further to my last note, there's a pretty accurate review of the movie here: http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/movies/15harry.html?8mu&emc=mu. My only difference from the reviewer would be that I thought (Pam disagrees) Rickman wasn't up to his usual speed.

Oh, and the reviewer doesn't mention that some of the visuals were extraordinarily lovely.

[identity profile] thisplacehere.livejournal.com 2009-07-17 10:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Sounds like typical 'middle volume' fare -- characters hanging around waitin for the ending.

One of the things that's always annoyed me about the Harry Potter series is that it wants to be 'grown-up', contemporary, and have genuine danger; yet it's set in a quaint, old-fashioned, half-jokey public school world -- and the two just sit awkwardly together. This film sounds like more of the same.

And that's probably the most analytical thing I'll ever write about Harry Potter...

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2009-07-18 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)

"the two just sit awkwardly together"

I hadn't really been aware of this in the Potter movies (and anyway, as a general rule, I enjoy such dichotomies, as you know!) until this latest: there's some truly ghastly adolescent clowning (Ron swallows a love potion) smack up against some sterner stuff, and it really, really doesn't work.