uhoh

The people we buy our health insurance from kindly sent us a holiday gift today. It was a hefty box containing 12 cans of peanut brittle. That would be nearly 8 pounds of peanut brittle for a company that buys health insurance for 2 people from them.

Hmmm.

Well, we aren't buying any dental coverage as part of our plan, so maybe they figured it was OK.

oh that Legolas

I liked The Two Towers just fine. Mark Z. got me all worried for nothing. He is just some Tolkien fundamentalist. I have no real problem with the movies being their own thing, separate to the books; I mean there must be changes owing to running time if nothing else... but there are issues beyond that of course. My poor flabby brain can even think of a few but I am too lazy to try to elaborate on them here.

I think the 2 movies so far (which I sorta view as 2/3 of 1 really long movie) have delighted beyond reasonable expectations. I really agree with the reviewers who say Peter Jackson brings a sort of "horror movie" sensibility to the proceedings... brings to the fore the images out of nightmares, maybe even out of shared nightmare visions. Also the look of the production seems appropriately dense, like a team of archaeologists excavated the never-never land and recreated it for us. This helps with swallowing some of the portentous lines and medieval pageantry. Plus you've got gorgeous New Zealand there... altho with all of the digital hijinks that could be involved, who's to say what's real.

Going to see the movie near opening night was good, in that the theater was full of presumed enthusiasts. I feel that can enhance the ol' movie-watching experience. People applauded various character moments in the film, mainly stunts on the part of Legolas. He's such a heartthrob. There were a few moments that I found to be cheesy (one in particular which I'll not mention here), and even some sequences that put me in mind of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" for some reason (which I do not intend as a compliment). Some of the much lauded grand combat scenes just seemed a little confusing to me... and the introduction of so many new characters, the sense of movement into a larger world, that's quite a lot to handle in 3 hours. Oh and Gollum was very effective, even if I don't recall him ever saying "gollum".

I enjoyed myself and would say that anyone who liked the Fellowship movie should go see Two Towers right away. I'll probably see it again sometime myself, although sometimes I say I'll do things, and then never actually do them. So who knows.