POTC3

Donna and I sat through the endurance event that is Pirates III. Clocks in at just under 3 hours - ouch. The first hour or so was pretty enjoyable, but the last two hours were full of boom-bang-explosion-assault on the senses interrupted by a few moments of Lucas-level (i.e. forgettable) dialogue and platitudes, none of which added to the story much. We stayed for the extra scene after the credits. I left with a bad headache, Donna with general aches from sitting for so long in the theater seats.

I'm thinking the DVD sales for this one could be disappointing, since I don't think anyone who saw it the first time will be interested in owning it. But it'll probably end up under a lot of Christmas trees, so the actual quality of the movie may not matter re: sales.

Of the previews, Ratatouille looked like the clear winner. Live Free or Die Hard looked OK, what you'd expect, ditto with Evan Almighty (I expect in the latter they have a way of getting around the promise God made to Noah after the flood not to repeat the event?). Golden Compass looks interesting, but I wonder if its too much of a ripoff of other recent movies to have anything new to offer?

UPDATE: Donna gives her impressions of POTC3.

I'm always the last to hear about these things

Heather Alexander is now Alec Adams after gender reassignment surgery. More info over at AlexanderFans.

In retrospect a pretty gutsy move, considering significant voice changes are often an effect of this procedure & that's a big part of how Alec has made his living. So while the news is surprising by all reports he's happy with the results, and that's what counts.