Sorry to out you on the whole Rock thing, dood, but your wife wanted to know.  I think it’s time for an intervention.

Donjuanica’s Screensaver:

Okay, so the Rock is not actually featured in this post. Sorry, Donjuanica, I know how you love him so (you should see his screensaver…yikes).

I just watched the newly released trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, due out around Thanksgiving, and I have to say that I’m really excited about it. It looks to be maturing and darkening and creepen…ing…just like the books did at this same stage in the overall story. I’m a huge fan of the books, but I’ve been lukewarm on most of the movie adaptations so far, which have for the most part suffered by comparison to their source material, though I will say that they’ve improved with each edition, culminating with Order of the Phoenix. In fact, here’s my overall assessment to date:

1. Sorcerer’s Stone: Great casting, great visuals, terrible acting, especially by the kids. It really needed the directing of Andrew Adamson, who worked magic with those kids in Narnia, making them really believable.
2. Chamber of Secrets: Perfect casting (especially Gilderoy Lockhart), great visuals, still some bad acting.
3. Prisoner of Azkaban: I liked it a lot on first viewing, very visually interesting, now I can’t stand it. Every time I see a little of it on TV, I want to strangle Alfonso Cuaron and the morons who selected him to direct it because of all the stupid little things he did and did not do with the project. And oh how I miss Richard Harris, who was absolutely perfect as Dumbledore.
4. Goblet of Fire: This is where things started to really improve. I didn’t love it at first, mostly because I thought there were issues with the portrayal of some characters, but on second viewing, I enjoyed it much more. Again, the casting was brilliant, especially Mad-Eye Moody, and Voldemort was very creepy looking.
5. Order of the Phoenix: This was the first one that I really loved, and I loved it even more the second time around. The casting was amazing (see Dolores Umbridge), the treatment of the book’s material was spot-on, and I finally liked the way Michael Gambon portrayed Dumbledore. Voldemort was better acted in this one than in Goblet too, not so over the top.

So I couldn’t be more pleased that they’ve brought director David Yates back after doing such an amazing job on Phoenix, and he’s also on for Deathly Hallows. But here’s the twist: they’re breaking Deathly Hallows up into two films (see article), to be filmed concurrently and released six months apart. If they’re really doing it to preserve the whole content of the book as they claim, then it could be a great decision. Time will tell.

The same holds true about another of my all time favorites that’s undergoing similar treatment. I’m very excited that they’re finally moving forward on production of The Hobbit, but they are also making two movies out of it, or rather The Hobbit and an unexpected sequel. The sequel is not going to be based on Tolkien’s actual written material, but rather on the lore that would fill the void of time between the end of The Hobbit and the beginning of LOTR. The director they’ve got on board, Guillermo Del Toro, is known for his visual style, which should lend itself to a tale like the Hobbit, so it all sounds promising so far. As much as I loved LOTR, I’m glad that Peter Jackson is producing but isn’t directing. I think Del Toro will bring a fresh take to Middle Earth.

So humongous and hearty kudos to the people behind the Harry Potter movies for finally getting the right man at the helm and keeping him there through the finish line. Here’s hoping that movies 6 and 7 (and 8, I guess) are as well done as 5 was, or even better. Based on the trailer, I’m very encouraged.

The cat’s out of the bag: the villain of the next Batman film is none other than…

PUMPKINHEAD!!

Ok, so here’s the story:

After dying a horrible, fiery death in this summer’s smash hit, The Dark Knight, Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) returns as the horribly disfigured Pumpkinhead to exact her revenge on the caped crusader who failed to save her from her explosive demise.

Ok, ok, so here’s the real story:

This guy I work with liked the movie except for Maggie Gyllenhaal, who he argued is the ugliest girl ever, and who looks like a “rotten old pumpkin.”  Determined to validate his assessment, he got online and found a picture of an old pumpkin and then set about finding a photo of Ms. Gyllenhaal that matched.  Sadly for her, it actually didn’t take more than about a minute.

Behold the results.