Ah, so I don't think I've mentioned it on here, but in the last couple weeks I've gone out with everyone to see "Casino Royale" (last Friday) and "The Fountain" (this Friday.)

Just to show how plebeian my movie tastes are, I'll admit that I had more fun watching "Casino Royale." It was shockingly non-stupid for a Bond flick, and poker-playing is always a good plot device. Plus, much of it was set in Miami (always good) and the movie reflected a surprising amount of moral ambiguity about, well, killing people.

The ending went on a bit too long in the lull between twists, and there was the worst kind of endless action scene with everyone doing impossible acrobatics at the beginning, but apart from that this was the best Bond movie they've done in a long, long time.

My feelings were a bit more mixed about "The Fountain." Cool imagery & speculative conceit, fun scenes, gorgeous cinematography, but there was something sort of unsatisfying about the plot that I can't quite put my finger on. Like, by the time it made sense, it was just sort of over. For reasons I'm not quite sure of looking back on it, I was expecting that it would go on for at least another half hour or forty-five minutes, and I was kind of non-plussed that it ended when it did. It's not like there was anything that should have been wrapped up that wasn't, emotionally or in terms of back-story revelation, but somehow I had a gestalt feeling that it should have gone on a little longer. I suspect that (as my brother commented), I'll probably enjoy it more the second time I see it.

(I think I did mention seeing "Stranger than Fiction," which was fun and competent but much more skippable than either of the other two movies just mentioned.)

I also finally saw a preview for "Pan's Labyrinth" which looks very cool.

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On a less funny note, I suspect that I have an ex-computer.

Last night, after it was working just fine, the light on the screen suddenly turned off. The computer itself works fine, and still turns on and off normally, but I can only make out (a portion of) the screen if I turn off all the lights, close up the shutters and shine a flashlight into it. Not good.

Meaning that since pretty much everything I do (school work, fiction writing, IM, e-mail, etc., etc., etc.) is unavailable to me right now except at the library (where I am now), until such time as I can get the computer fixed or replaced.

I'm told I looked like I was going through de-tox symptoms last night after I figured all of this out.