The week in motion (pictures)

More quickies to log:

"Shaolin Soccer" -- the predecessor to "Kung Fu Hustle", this one spoofs the kung-fu movie scene in the context of soccer. Duh. I watched the dub on my parents' "tiny" 32" screen (no surround-sound, either), and the beginning was really, really painful. I'm sure the dub was meant to be over-the-top bad, but it didn't make it any easier to sit through. However, once the zany soccer-playing action finally kicked in, it was quite amusing. It's not as all-out fun as "Kung Fu Hustle" turned out to be, but it's worth a quick watch.

"Mr. & Mrs. Smith" -- Married assassins (played by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) who don't know that each other is an assassin. For rival organizations. Obviously, hilarity ensues. Obviously it's a light bit of fun, grafting a typical comedy "relationship" movie on top of a spy movie parody. Fun action, the dialogue wasn't a total groaner, and, frankly, Brad & Angelina were waaayyy into it (go figure), and that enthusiasm was rather infectuous. Again, it was on the "small" screen w/o any surround-sound, subwoofery goodness, but it did alright for passing the time.

"War of the Worlds" -- finally, back at my "home theater", I decided to give this one a rent, even though I usually have a "wait for cable" attitude for any film with Tom Cruise in it. Honestly, the only reason I bothered was because Blockbuster didn't have any copies of "Serenity" handy; oh well, maybe next time.

That said, it wasn't half bad. The visuals and the atmosphere really pulled off a sense of scale of the invasion. Speilberg can really pile on the details when he wants to. But there were also a number of nagging inconsistencies that tended to pull me out of the story. Usually revolving around who had "power" and who didn't after the EMP pulses took everything out. The most notable being a bunch of dormant cars on a perfectly functional ferry. And then the very end; but I won't go into that here. Minor stuff, though.

It seemed to follow what details I know about the original story a bit better than the earlier Cold-War-era classic. But I only know the equivalent of the Cliff Notes version of it, so I can't vouch for it's authenticity in the matter. But it seemed to keep a few faithfully reproduced details.