let's all go to the lobby

What a great weekend for movies!

On Thursday, K and I headed to the local multiplex to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at the midnight-oh-one opening showing. It was well worth the tiredness I experienced on Friday. We had advance tickets but got there plenty early in order to get good seats. I thought we'd spend at least an hour sitting in the hallway waiting for them to open the theatre doors, but amazingly enough they began seating before we even got there! That way we got to find seats and get settled with plenty of time for multiple trips for refills and whatnot. We were anticipating a long wait with nothing interesting to keep us going (those movie trivia ad thingies definitely don't qualify) so we both brought our DSs and K picked up Mario Kart DS that afternoon. It was great! A number of people commented that it was a good idea - I felt happy that for once we were the ones who thought ahead. Mario Kart is definitely a lot of fun. But back to Harry Potter! The movie went by extremely quickly and I can't wait to see it many more times. What we'd heard in advance reviews was true - this is one of the only movie series that continues to improve with each installment. Of course they had to leave out tons from the book, but I thought they did a good job choosing what to show. The casting was great - I loved David Tennant as Barty Jr. - can't wait to see him as The Doctor soon. The movie went by so quickly that I feel like I need to see it at least once more before I can speak intelligently about it. I'm not sure how much of the book was actually there and how much I'm adding in my own mind.

On Friday night, we met up with a couple of great friends and had dinner and saw Walk the Line. As a big fan of Johnny Cash, I was very much looking forward to this. I also really like Joaquin Phoenix (if you haven't seen Clay Pigeons, do it now), and though I was afraid Reese Witherspoon was going to kill it, I was pleasantly surprised (my theory now is that she's a good actress with bad taste in scripts [with a few exceptions - I like Cruel Intentions and, I admit, Legally Blonde]). She totally nailed it, as did Phoenix. Not only was this a great biopic, it was a genuinely compelling story in its own right. I was quite impressed with their singing, too. Watching them perform together intensified the itch I've been feeling to get back to playing and singing, too. I've got to start hounding Dan about that.