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Sunday was a bit unusual for us in my household as my wife and I haven't been to the movies since our daughter was born nearly two years ago. Now, I am sure we could get a baby sitter so we could go out, however I am willing to bet that dear little Anna would scream her heart out for hours if Mama left her for any length of time. With that in mind, we decided to try tag-teaming (so to speak) going to the movies in town, with Sue going first while I kept our daughter entertained. Surprisingly, it worked. We both got to see the new Harry Potter film.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the latest film in the Harry Potter series to hit the screens. Like the previous films we see the return of all of the other regular cast members in their roles for the series. It has been interesting watching the kids grow up and develop into fine actors (and they were quite good to begin with).

This fifth film weighs in at about 2 hours and 20 minutes, which although longer than most typical films these days, seems a bit light compared to the weight of the book it is based on, which is an astonishing 870 pages. One is left wondering how they decided to trim details out of the novel and still make a good adaptation for the screen. Some of the finer details had to be clipped or glossed over; however, with a bit of artistic license, excellent production values and outstanding performances from the cast, they managed to pull it all off.

The one flaw I find with the film is that we never get an explanation of what brought on the Dementor attack on Harry, something that is made clear in the book by the end of the story. This particular point being missing is of distinct importance to the ongoing story and the conflict between Harry and others in the saga.

Dolores Umbridge, portrayed by Imelda Staunton, was delightfully evil and totalitarian. She makes it obvious from the moment she steps onto Hogwarts that she is up to something no good and hates Harry Potter, and most of the other students at Hogwarts.

A new character, Luna, is introduced on the side of Harry; Luna is a bit "odd," which may be an understatement, but is also very helpful to Harry and company. Her background is not as well fleshed out in the movie as it is in the book, but that goes back to the book having nearly 900 pages to flesh out the finer details.

Snape, portrayed by Alan Rickman, continues to be a nemesis of Harry's, while still trying to be at least somewhat helpful.

This fifth film continues the trend of the series to portray a world growing darker as evil takes on greater strength, and the powers involved show their hand in different ways.

One final thought: If you haven't already read the books, do so. They are all excellent and well worth reading. It also beats the heck out of having to wait two years for the next film, or four years for the final film in the series.

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Harry Potter

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Wallace and Gromit in Curse of the Were-Rabbit, the long awaited feature film chronicling their adventures has them running a new business: Anti-Pesto, humane pest control. The name has a nice ring to it.

Gromit has placed Wallace on a strict diet that, to Wallace's chagrin, does not include cheese. In an attempt to combat his cravings for his favorite food, Wallace builds a mind-altering device to change his thought patterns. However, before he tests it out, he is called by her Ladyship of the village to solve her rabbit problem before the giant vegetable competition, which is a few days off. Faced with literally hundreds of cotton-tails, he uses a device much like a vacuum to round up all of the pesky critters.

As the number of rabbits that they are keeping locked up in their basement increases, Wallace turns on his creative juices to find a more long-term solution to keeping all of the bunnies locked up. He decides to try his mind-altering device to convince a test bunny that vegetables are bad. And, of course, he decides to supercharge the effect with rays from a full moon.

The results are, of course, hilarious.

The story line is well thought out, the animation is superb, the dialogue and onscreen antics will have you laughing, and there is also a tribute to a classic film of the '80s that makes the whole film worth while.

Wallace and Gromit in Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a delightful Halloween treat, ad well worth the long wait since they appeared in A Close Shave.

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Serenity is the theatrical film follow-on to the brilliant, but short-lived, Firefly TV series of a few years ago. Back on the screen is the full cast from the series, reprising their roles.

After the initial plot set up, the film opens with the crew of Serenity executing thier latest "job", now reduced to robberies. They land on a backwater planet, and execute the heist. As all things are for mal and his crew, things go wrong when the Reavers, the boogeymen of deep space in the series, show up to raid the same town. They narrowly escape.

After their getaway, things begin to look a little better for the band of brigands, only to change for the worse.

The film itself is a well crafted piece of work. The special effects are as good as they come, the writing solid, with a little through-back to the TV series where the humor is concerned.

Serenity also provides details of the formation of Josh Whedon's backdrop universe for the Firefly series, explaining much that was left unanswered in the TV series. Note: it is helpful to have seen a fair amount of the Firefly series to understand some of what is going on, but it isn't neccessary.

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The Great Raid, starring Benjamin Bratt and James Franco is the gripping tale of the raid to liberate some 500 POWs held in a Japanese prison camp on the Bataan peninsula. These POWs were survivors of the Bataan Death March after the surrender of the Philippines at the beginning of World War II.

The film opens with images of the fall of the Philippines, and a monologue filling in the background that lead up to the events of the actual raid, including the brutal murder of prisoners at another POW camp.

The story is based on actual events covering a five day period at the end of January, 1945. elements of the 6th Ranger Battalion performed this raid, and were supported by Philippine guerrillas.

These Army Rangers are in a race against time, with the Japanese controlling the time table, as they move through the Philippine jungles towards the prison camping, praying that they will be in time to save their fellow comrades in arms from sharing the same fate as the POWs at other prison camps.

The film revolves not only around the company of Rangers tasked with the rescue mission, but shows details of life in the prison camp in those final days, and of the Philippine underground.

If you thought Saving Private Ryan was a great film, then you should see The Great Raid.

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Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, is a stunning film of magnificent proportions, and the most satisfying Batman movie to date.

It begins simply enough with a boyhood experience, a dream sequence of a memory, from which Wayne wakes, finding himself in Communist Chinese prison camp, mixed in with the criminal population. There he meets Ducard, played by Liam Neeson, who informs Wayne that he'll be released the next day and advices that he seek out a rare flower and take it to a hill top where he might find the answers he seeks.

True enough, Wayne is released the next day, and follows Ducard's advice, finding the flower, and finally arriving at a remote mountain top, where he finds Ducard and a group of warriors, ninjas. Ducard trains Wayne to become one of them, so that Wayne may battle injustice, which all these ninjas, who belong to the League of Shadows, are sworn to do.

It is during this time frame that one of the truest lines in the film occurs, when Ducard says to Wayne: "Criminals thrive on the indulgences of society's understanding."

When Wayne completes his training, he learns the League's dark secret, and in a wave of violence, departs, returning to Gotham City, where he rebuilds his life, and gathers the tools he needs to battle the criminal underworld and the corruption of society that has taken place.

Equipped with proto-type equipment from his corporation, provided to him by a scientist named fox (Morgan Freeman) and assisted by his butler, Alfred (Michael Caine), Wayne takes on the persona of the Batman, and thus the Dark Night is born.

Wayne faces many challenges, reminiscent of the hero's journey as described by Campbell in his book The Hero of a Thousand Faces with the people in Wayne's life playing many roles as Wayne develops, learns and overcomes the obstacles set before him in his quest to save Gotham City.

A magnificent film, well written by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, and directed by Nolan, splendid performances are turned in by this well cast film, that also included Rutger Hauer and Gary Oldman.

All the elements of acting, directing, story telling combined to make this a suspenseful film that will keep you on the edge of your seat. It is a must see on the big screen, and I believe the bigger the better in this case.

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The movie version of The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy has finally hit the theaters after many years of waiting. I first heard about movie plans for the Guide over ten years ago, and it is good to see that they have finally delivered it to fans at long last. There are elements of the old mixed with the new. The cast is different and special effects technology has advanced such in the years between the original BBC broadcast and today, not to mention a much bigger budget, and results in a much different experience. If you are expecting the OLD HHG, you won't get it here.

The film opens just as the original, with Arthur Dent trying to prevent his home from being demolished, and Ford Prefect comes along and takes him down to the pub, when the Vogons arrive in their construction fleet.

Fast forward to their being ejected into the vacuum of space to be picked up by Zaphod Beeblebrox and Trillian, and we're off to a very different telling of the Hitch Hiker's saga.

With the Vogons in hot pursuit of the Big Z, Zaphod begins his quest for Magrathea to find the Ultimate Question to the Ultimate Answer and looses his head enroute. At least one of them, that is.

Overall, the film is less British and more American than the BBC production, probably so as to appeal to a wider audience, and it has been reported to be a test bed for how well the new Doctor Who series may do in the U.S.

Good things about the new HHG: most of the actors do a good job, the makeup and costuming, especially the Vogon's, who play a more significant role than in the BBC broadcast, is stupendous. Even the original Marvin puts in an appearance. Much of the new material and look worked well. The special effects were excellent. The ultimate weapon is a threat to all mankind (but, oddly enough, not womankind).

Not so good things: Allen Rickman as Marvin, the paranoid android, comes off being way too cheerful and happy. I kept thinking he sounded more like Marvin the Martian, than Marvin the Robot with real people personalities. And I like so much of Rickman's work, however, he just didn't seem to fit the role. Slartibartfast also seemed to be weak. My opinion. Feel free to disagree. Also, the film ends way too early in the story line, but the length is probably about right for movie theaters. a lot of emphasis on special effects at times detracted form the overall story.

Overall, a darn good film, and a must see in the theaters.

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Michael Moore Hates America. That's the name of the new documentary by Minnesotan Michael Wilson.

Why does Michael Moore hate America. This is the question that Wilson asks in his film. Wilson opens with some background on himself, and the values that his father had instilled in him. That you can achieve anything you want, if you work at it. And, indeed, this ends up being the real theme that underscores the entire film.

Wilson traces the footsteps of Moore and his several "documentaries," interviewing many of the same people that Moore interviewed for his last two films. He even catches up to the main subject of his film during a lecture held at the University of Minnesota. He captures the exchange on film, where he is cursed at by Michael Moore, and shouted down. Wilson is not daunted. After leaving the auditorium where Moore was speaking, he interviewed several Moore fans, and although they were still supporters of Moore, they seemed to think that Wilson should indeed get his interview with the large M. and M.

The film and its maker also take us to Canada, the land that Moore claims everyone still leaves their doors unlocked. Wilson tried several doors, and, yes, he did find ONE door unlocked. The rest were secure.

He then visits the same bank that Michael Moore visited in the filming of Bowling for Columbine. You know the one. It's the bank that Moore staged his opening a bank account and walking out of there with a rifle. Now, of course, this has been discussed in the news from time to time, and debunked as a manipulation of what the bank in question was really doing, however, now it is in a documentary, with interviews of the bank staff Moore hoodwinked into co-operating with his film, on his terms. They are not happy with Moore.

It is revealed in this new film that the bank, although it was giving out the bank for opening an account with certain restrictions, the guns were not kept at the bank, but in a secure vault 300 miles away, and that the normal process was that the bank's customer would fill out the required federal background check forms, and the gun would be shipped to a licensed firearms dealer from whom the customer would pick up his chosen rifle. He also lied to them about what the topic of his film, and it was not until the release of Bowling for Columbine that they found out they had been hoodwinked.

Wilson also visits Flint, Michigan, Moore's self-proclaimed hometown. Funny how the residents don't really came him as a native son. Wilson interviews many people here, and none of them seem to think particularly well of him. He spends sometime interviewing a young man who has started his own coffee grinding business, and a woman who is from the distinctly poorer side of town, as well as other area residents. They all believe the same thing: If you work at it, you can make it. It may be difficult, but it can be done.

In Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore used footage of an American soldier returned from duty in the Middle East. Wilson also spends time with this same soldier, a man who lost both of his arms in the service of his (our) country (thank you for your service). It struck me that this soldier was a trifle ticked at how Moore used footage of his hospital stay in his film.

Wilson also covers his crusade to get an interview with Michael Moore, but never succeeds. Moore will not see him

The list of people appearing in interviews for Wilson's film is long, form Penn Jillette (spell) to Dinesh D'Souza and Mark Kennedy (Congressman from Minnesota).

Two catch phrases stand out in this film. One interviewee said, "Michael Moore is a culinary Pinocchio. When ever he lies, he gains a pound." Another came up with the line that if you take all the shrillness out of the political dialog, everyone would end up sounding like John Kerry. I think he has something there.

This film is not just for those who hate Michael Moore, but for those who want to be exposed to his true nature, thru the dismantling of his films and thru interviews with many people that were at events depicted in Moore's recent movies.

The film ends with Wilson asking several of his interview subjects the question of what they would ask Moore if they had a chance. Probably the most profound response came from the bank group: Moore identifies all these problems with our society: Why don't you do something to help those in need? Good question. Moore has made an exceptional amount of wealth; so why won't he use it to help these people in need instead of living in the lap of luxury as he does?

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The latest release from Pixar is The Incredibles is, well, incredible. It starts out simple enough; Super Hero, Mr. Incredible is on his way to his own wedding when a call for help comes up on his radio. Deciding he has enough time to help out, he changes into his super-persona and starts helping those in need, from the little old lady whose cat is stuck in a tree to the police on a high speed chase, Mr. Incredible lends a hand.

But he doesn't stop there, as more and more cries for help emanate within the city, and in the process he saves a man who is attempting to kill himself, and prevent a major train wreck.

He makes it to his wedding, gets married, and low and behold, gets sued by the man who was dead set on suicide. This causes a torrent of litigation against superheroes everywhere, and the government steps in, settling the suits, and implementing a "Super Hero Relocation" project, where all those with super powers attempt to live a normal life.

Fifteen years go by, and our hero is stuck in a dead-end job that he hates, while trying to balance out his desire to help people in need. He yearns for the glory days. After accidentally throwing his boss thru several walls, and hospitalizing him in the process, Bob Parr is fired.

As fate would have it, though, he receives a strange message from a beautiful woman with an offer of employment for one Mr. Incredible, working to bring a berserk robot under control. He accepts the offer, and lies to his wife, Elastigirl, and travels to save the day for his undisclosed benefactor on some remote island. He's back at what he loves. Even though Mr. Incredible has reached "middle-age" with all its physical fun, he manages to defeat the robot without destroying it utterly.

Returning home, still unemployed, but with ample money to keep the family going, he begins training again, getting back into shape, looking forward to the day when he can once again don his uniform and do good.

The film has many underlying themes, most significant of which is a pro-family/marriage stand, where wife Elastigirl is a stay-at-home mom taking care of their three children, and managing to keep the home front going. She is as strong and smart as she is tender and loving. The kids are typical kids their age, even though they have super powers of their own.

When Elastigirl discovers her husband has been lying to her, she takes off after him, leaving the kids behind, only to discover that they tagged along, leaving baby Jack-Jack with a sitter.

The movie is full of surprises, good humor, and solid family values. Give it a view. You'll find it Incredible!

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There is an aricle on The Alien Online about the perpetually planned Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy movie. It looks like Disney has picked up the rights and may run with it.

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Sean Connery stars as Allan Quatermain in this Action/Adventure film. The film, set in 1899, opens with a tank rolling through London, loaded with storm troopers armed with automatic weapons. The premise of the film, based on a graphic novel by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill, the story takes a group of fictional heroes, led by Quatermain, to stop the villainous Fantom. The group includes: the Invisible Man, Dorian Gray, Dr. Jekyl, Captain Nemo, Mina Harker (a vampire). Oh, and some American named Tom Sawyer, who was added in to the film.

The League is assembled to stop the Fantom, who is set on starting a global war in order to promote and test his new line of armaments, and will stop at nothing to develop new weapons technologies, and push for the conflagration that will make him rich by selling extremely powerful (for 1899) weapons to the highest bidders.

This is a fun, comic book style, adventure, with some good scenes with Connery’s Quatermain and Agent Sawyer. The band of heroes has there own secrets to guard, and to make matters worse, find they must deal with a traitor in their midst.

This film is full of special effects, not the least of which is the Nautilus, which is a magnificent piece of work, although making it solar powered didn’t work for me (should have been nuclear powered). Strong acting from a great cast who worked well together, making this film worth seeing on the big screen.

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Tonight I saw Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. I made it to the theater at 6:15, just in time for the 6:30 showing and still find a good seat after plucking down my $6.50 (yes, that's right, $6.50, and that isn't even the matinee rate). Okay, this theater is not the Egyptian in Hollywood where I saw Empire for the first time, not by a long shot, and not even the theater in San Diego where I saw Star Wars what must have been at least seven times before its initial run ended. However, it's the best came around if you don't want to drive 50 miles and stand in line for hours, as most people have done.

Having settled in for the film, I waited as the theater continued to fill until about three-quarters capacity, and then the lights dimmed for the coming attractions, Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, which looks like it should be a great film, and then The Fantastic Four.

Silence fall over the theater as the main attraction started with the familiar theme and opening title that we have come to expect ever since Star Wars splashed across the screens back in 1977.

In brief, not since The Empire Strikes Back have we been treated to a SW film this intense, and this good. It is a must see, and not for the special effects, although the effects are an integral part of the film and are of the highest caliber.

This film is immense, and sets the stage for the original trilogy, now numbered episodes IV, V, and VI. The end of the clone wars, the rise of empire, and how the Jedi fell into the Lord of the Sith's master plans resulting in their own demise. But we all knew that was coming ever since the first film came out so long ago.

And I have found myself thinking back to when I first saw the original set of films, and how much I enjoyed them, especially the very first.

Revenge of the Sith matches those films in quality and scope, and this film is intense, with plots and sub-plots within the Republic and the Jedi Council, building up to the unveiling of the Dark Lord of the Sith. At least for the Jedi perspective, and the "birth" of Darth Vader.

The fight scenes are well choreographed, the acting is excellent and this film is superior in every way to much of the schlock coming out of Hollywood these days.

See it on the big screen; it is well worth the price of admission. And yes, this one I plan to see again (unlike the last two).

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