Formerly Known as FKAJ

Superman Returns. Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth and Kevin Spacey were good as Clark, Lois and Lex but my favourites are Dean Cain, Erica Durance and Clancy Brown respectively. Sam Huntington was really annoying as Jimmy, I prefer Marc McClure. Frank Langella was good, especially the bit where he gives every section of the newspaper a Superman related assignment: "Fashion: Is that a new suit?" The highlights for me were rescuing the plane at the start, the paternity issue with Jason and the love triangle between Clark, Lois and Richard. What I didn't like was the idiocy shown by everyone who fails to notice that Clark and Superman disappeared and came back at the same time. And look identical.

Am now watching Terminator, to be followed by T2 tomorrow. This is in preparation for the Sarah Connor Chronicles tomorrow night.

On the weekend, I watched (all movies I've seen before): Jaws: Still kind of scary, however unconvincing the shark is. One of Spielberg's best Casino Royale: Third on my list of favourite Bond movies. Can't wait for Quantum of Solace. X-Men: One of the best Superhero movies ever.

I've watched the first half of Wimbledon and I'm watching the second half in the morning. Loved the bit where they're watching TV and they find out that the press and Lizzie's father are outside the house. I'm also in the middle of the Godfather Part II. Not all it's cracked up to be, I've tuned out three or four times so far. The first one was better.

Halloween H20, one of the best movies I've seen Jamie Lee Curtis: Unlike the first two, and the other 80s slashers I've been watching lately, the suspense really was killing me, especially just before Charlie got killed. Also, the death of Marion at the start made me wince as throat slashing always does. And the acting from the teens was better than usual. On the other hand, I thought Michael moved too fast at times, he wasn't the automaton he's supposed to be.

Open Water: pretty bleak at the end but better than at least two of the Jaws movies.

Duel, Steven Spielberg's debut. Pretty good but not one of Spielberg's best and I didn't like Dennis Weaver much.

The Screams are brilliant: Sydney is possibly the best "Final Girl" in any horror movie I've seen: better than Julie, from the Last Summers, better than Natalie from Urban Legend, better than Clear from Final Destination and better by a wide margin than Alice from Friday the Thirteenth. The only ones who come close are Laurie Strode from Halloween and Nancy Thompson from Nightmare on Elm Street. I watched the Simpsons Movie again last night, and it was terrific - the highlight was the rock-hard place bit - almost as good as Sideshow Bob and the rakes - and the funniest lines was "Ever try going mad without power? It's boring, no one listens to you." Does Russ Cargill really count as a villain before he goes mad with power? I mean, all he wants do to is stop the pollution from spreading, and it was really Schwartzenegger's fault for choosing the Dome without reading it first.

Just watched Friday the Thirteenth, so here's my assessment, as promised: Of the "Big Three" of 1970s-80s horror cinema - Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween and Friday the Thirteenth - Friday is the weakest in every way. Out of Laurie, Nancy and Alice, Alice is the worst Final Girl, especially when she fails to notice anything strange until 20 minutes from the end. Out of Craven, Carpenter and Cunningham, Cunningham's direction is poorest. Two things redeemed it: Mrs. Vorhees was bloody scary, between Mrs. Loomis in Scream 2, and Mrs. Bates in Psycho. And also, I can honestly say I flinched during most of the death scenes, especially Annie (throat slashing is the one form of death that I can never stand to watch, especially after Witness), Jack (the arrow through the throat) and Mrs. Vorhees (despite the impossibility of her hands reaching for where her head should be). Even Alice being pulled under at the end was kind of scary even though I knew it was coming. Overall, not as bad as I expected but not as good as most of the ones I've seen.

Funny story: a girl at my high school, a couple of years below me, when her class was about to watch that version, asked "Is that the one where Juliet dies at the end?" I'm not kidding. Although, there is one version where Juliet doesn't die at the end: West Side Story. I just finished Halloween II, and it wasn't as bad as some horror sequels, (like Urban Legends: Final Cut and "Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge) but it had some serious weaknesses compared to the first one: Jamie Lee Curtis was criminally underused (with the advantage that her screaming was hardly ever heard) Donald Pleasance was annoyingly melodramatic, they retconned the ending of the original so that Loomis doesn't see Michael from the balcony, and nothing was as good as the tracking shot from the start of the first one. However, it did continue the story and develop the recurring characters (Laurie, Loomis and Michael) pretty well. The highlight would have to be Karen's death in the hot tub. I'm watching Friday the Thirteenth sometime this week, so I'll have a review up soon enough.

I just finished watching Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge - and it was pretty much total garbage. Mark PattOn and Kim Myers aren't great actors, and I was constantly asking myself, "Why are these things happening when noone is actually sleeping?" The only bit that came close to being scary was when Grady was killed and even that was hard to take seriously because of the unintentional homoerotic undertones. The original was way better.

The Jackal, with Bruce Willis and Richard Gere. It wasn't great, except the bit where Jack Black was killed and you could see that coming several minutes earlier. Also, Sydney Poitier was wasted in his part.

Just saw Transformers: was not expecting Rachael Taylor - I actually thought she was Emilie DeRaven. I did recognize Amaury Nolasco and Anthony Anderson though.

If it counts, "And Now For Something Completely Different." The best bits were the Dead Parrot, naturally, and the Kilimanjaro expedition, especially where the double-vision guy reads out of a dictionary "Mountaineer: Two men skilled at climbing mountains. The last one I saw at a cinema was, I believe, The Simpsons Movie, and my favourite bit was the bit where Homer was on the wrecking ball.