You should get some new kids.[/quote]
It gets worse. They refuse to see LotR. They’ve already announced that they won’t see Treasure Planet. And we just rented Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Adam Sandler) and they loved it!
And, worst of all, they don’t want Metroid Prime™, which is the biggest videogame of all time! Are you sure you don’t have two of those creepy blonde kids from the Village of the Damned?
Heh. What they do want is a PS2 and Vice City. And Kingdom Hearts. The latter actually pushed them over the edge from wanting a Gamecube to wanting a PS2.
If we did get a Cube, Metroid wouldn’t be on their list. They’d want Mario Sunshine, Mario Party 4, etc. Maybe the following Christmas we’ll get a Cube. They’ll probably be $99 then.
What is happening with your kids Mark ? They seem to be opposed to everything you like ? Has your wife been interfering ?! :shock:
You should get some new kids.
Clearly they’re defective. Take 'em back and see if you can get a refund.
Clearly they’re defective. Take 'em back and see if you can get a refund.
I think kids only have like a 90-day warranty. He’s way too late to get the refund.
If he still has his receipt, though, I think he might be able to exchange them.
Mark,
Why can’t your kids be more like Dave Long’s kids?
-TomHa ha – if you like what Dad likes, it means you’re a nerd.
I am allowed to like some of the things they like. I can like Yu-Gi-Oh and play cards with them. Yu-Gi-Oh is not nerdy. It’s cool. Magic: the Gathering is nerdy, though. Harry Potter is cool. Lord of the Rings, something beloved by my generation, is for nerds.
But I get back at them. I torment them by saying things like, “Word up, my homeys” to them and cause them great pain as they can’t believe just how much I don’t get it. It makes me laugh.
Lord of the Rings, something beloved by my generation, is for nerds.
Oh, my. This pains me. With the movie just released, and being so successful, I thought maybe we’d cast that aside.
I hate being wrong about stuff like that.
I torment them by saying things like, “Word up, my homeys” to them and cause them great pain as they can’t believe just how much I don’t get it.
For maximum effect, be sure to do that to them when their friends are around!
-Tom
I saw the Potter movie this past weekend and liked it. Maybe it’s the timing, but I’ve always probably had lower expectations for Potter. In such close proximity to the other films’ release date, I tend to think of it as a light fantasy fix while I’m final-stretch-jonesing for the new LOTR.
I also didn’t think the film was too slow. I liked that now everything about the school doesn’t need to be explained because they covered it in the first book.
Saw HP&TCOS last night with my wife and daughter. Not as good as the first one to me, but my little girl liked it pretty well.
Spoiler…
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Most of the scary scenes (spiders, snake, etc.) didn’t bother her, but she nearly threw her popcorn on the people in front of us when that hand grabbed Harry’s arm in the Diagon Alley shop.
-DavidCPA
I took a couple of kids to this movie yesterday. I had ridiculously low expectations, having never read the book and really disliking the original flick – I liked it a lot more than I expected.
I was surprised how much darker it was (relative to the first one only) - with the abuse of Gobby, jurassic Park-style scenes, etc. and how well it tied into the original movie and developed its setting well. Kids could do much worse.
I’ve read only book 1 of the series and this is the only movie of the series I’ve seen. I thought the movie was fun and dramatic and Branagh’s performance was enough to warrant him a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Oddly enough however the movie is entirely forgettable.
While they’re still all on HBO, I’m watching the Harry Potter series of movies.
The original Harry Potter movie really kicked off my interest in the books. I loved the original movie. I’d never really seen or read anything with this style of wonder and magic since reading Enid Blyton books as a kid, so the first movie really hooked me. I immediately caught up on the book series (Book 4 had just come out around the same time as the first movie).
So by the time the second movie came out, I was well ahead in the story, and watching this in the theater was a real disappointment. I remember it being long and boring and having nothing interesting to add to the book in any way.
But you know, after watching it last night, I think I was a bit unfair to this movie back in the day.
Here’s a few things it did well.
- The music is really top notch. Not just the Harry Potter theme, but John Williams really flushes out the themes he came up with for the first movie in this one.
- The action sequences are pretty nicely. I’m very amused that the Quiddich match has sound effects you’d hear with fighter jets. During the sequence Harry and others are chased by a possessed bludger ball that has gone rogue. It’s really over the top, but there’s a lot of details in the chase that I didn’t appreciate the first time.
- The spiders are pretty damn creepy. And the final battle with the Basilisk is well done too, finally giving Harry Potter himself something exciting to do, rather than just be rescued by his friends.
However, the movie overall really is a let-down because of some really bizarre choices. The ending scene where Hagrid comes back from Azkaban, where Dumbledore for some reason starts a slow-clap. Harry suddenly gets up and starts clapping, looking so proud. There’s similar reaction shots from Ron and Hermoine and others, and it’s all so cringe-worthy. I feel embarrassed for all these actors. What a bizarre scene this is, and what a weird one to end the movie on. Similarly, even though I praised the Quiddich action scene earlier for its technical details and sounds, it has no real sense of excitement. Same with the action against the spiders.
Honestly, I’m really looking forward to seeing Prisoner of Azkaban next. I remember being gobsmacked at how good that was, and what an actual talented director can do with a Harry Potter book, by capturing its essence instead of being slavish to the source material.
EDIT: Laughing at the “16 years later”. Wow, I hadn’t realized it had been so long.
Freeform, a basci cable channel I think, shows all the Harry Potter movies back to back several times a year. Of course they have commercials and so go on forever.
i can still sit down and enjoy them, except for maybe the first one or two. The characters are just so freakin young. And yes, the scene you describe above is painful to watch.
My son and I have been watching them all as we finish reading each book together. We had a good convo about the changes they made from book to movie and why that has to happen.
I think the films really bog down after Goblet of Fire but we really liked Deathly Hallows.
I tire of tedious ever-so-veddy-british wizardry. That said if it gets kids to read, good on 'em.
It was the Harry Potter books that got my oldest daughter to reading by herself. It was The Hunger Games that got my youngest daughter reading.
Hey, someone fixed the terrible thread title. Thanks, whoever did that.