Movies!

Okay, how much of a geek am I? I saw the new Star Wars movie yesterday, and it kicked ASS! It's so much better than Episode I: The Phantom Menace. I was disappointed, at first, to see that George Lucas had finally capitulated and begun doing Yoda as a CG character, as opposed to a puppet (it's the old purist in me), but then I saw the reason why and I had to give him props for a job well done. I can't give too much away, but let's just say that there are some physical demands on Yoda in this episode that require he be extremely mobile, so I have to give props to the techies who animated him... he looks good.

I also did a movie double-feature over the weekend: I saw Spider-Man again (I know, I'm a huge geek), and I saw About a Boy. Clearly since it was the second viewing of Spider-Man, I enjoyed it - I admire Tobey Maguire as an actor (hateful that someone so young should be so talented), and Sam Raimi has, I think, come a long way since The Evil Dead. Not that I didn't love The Evil Dead, mind you, I just think he's grown as a director.

The surprise for me was About a Boy. I expected to like it, but not to love it as much as I did. I find Hugh Grant endlessly charming in an "I want nothing to do with him sexually" sort of way, and as I told someone recently, Toni Colette could read the phone book and I'd pay to watch it. The performances all around were really quite good, and I have to give a lot of credit to the Weitz Brothers, who directed. I'm amazed that such a delightfully sweet but not cloyingly sentimental movie could come from the guys who gave us There's Something About Mary. They're clearly directors - as opposed to the schlockmeisters (albiet talented ones) for which I took them.

The show's continuing to go well, and I'm feeling better as we're getting in to our last week. This has gone by quickly - I find myself surprised that it's over so soon. That's what comes of a three week run, I guess. Now that I think about it, it may be the first time I've done a three-week run of a fully-produced play since I joined the union. I'm sure that's wrong, actually - there have to have been plays in there for smaller companies that only ran three weeks, but for some reason I'm feeling it on this one.