Quite good.  Very beautiful fantasy.  I can see why so many people were raving about it.  I liked it’s use of conventional, fantasy story-telling elements but also how director Guillermo del Toro played with those ideas too.  I liked the color very much too.  Most of the movie is very dark, and dull, but some things, like blood for example, are very vivid.  Throughout the movie I wasn’t sure who I could trust, so I was surprised at the ending a bit.  Quite good, I would recommend it to you, my friends.

I think the actress who plays Ofelia in the movie, Ivana Baquero, would be the perfect choice for Alfonso Cuaron‘s adaptation of the Nicole Krauss novel, The History of Love.  A lot of people seem to think Emma Watson from the Harry Potter movies would be a good choice.  Maybe.  But I don’t think she’d be quite the same as Ivana.  Just a thought.

The girl from Y Tu Mama Tambien was in it too.

In case anyone else of you all readers of my blog signed his release petition, BBC News Correspondent Alan Johnston was released a few days ago.  Amazing.

Like I mentioned, I talked to my Mom last week about what I should do to try to treat my ear infection.  I did use the Muscinex and Collodial Silver and they worked okay.  Not as quickly as I would’ve liked (as it’s been over a  week and I still have a faint hum, a slight high-pass filter, and slightly too much gain in my right ear ’cause some distortion during loud passages (that description is for you M. Good.)  But considering how it felt like my ear was completely full of water over a week ago, I’m doing significantly better.  I’m hoping to be cured completely by Tuesday, so during my flight to Colorado to see Caitlin I can listen to music and that it will not sound funny.

Anyway.  I bought some Nike Shox on Ebay and received them in the mail on Thursday.  I bought them for athletic purposes, particularly for the physical, aerobic exercise of running.  I will try them out soon, it would’ve been today, but I had band practice right after working overtime and didn’t have enough time to run before showering and leaving for practice.  Oh well.  Maybe tomorrow, but I doubt it.

Since I last updated, I have watch several films, and a movie.  Longest ago I saw Transformers.  For what it is, an action-genre, “superhero,” childhood throwback movie, it’ very good.  I like Shia LeBeouf as a general rule, and he delivers. The movie was surprisingly not-cheesy.  The dialog (save a few of Optimus’ lines) was pretty good, and the storyline was believable within it’s paradigm.  The special effects were good too.  And, the most important element of these kinds of “movies” is, I was entertained.

After that I finally sat down and watched Y tu mamá también.  It was quite good.  A coming of age story of two best friends.  I seemed to have rented the “unrated” version from blockbuster online (I don’t know if I had the opportunity to rent the regular or not) and, whew, there was a ton of sex and nudity in this movie.  Most of the dialog is in relation to sex too.  Just quite a bit of sex in this movie.  Anyway.  Rachel, your favorite, Gael García Bernal is in this movie.  He’s pretty good, as always, although he was the “sidekick” best friend, and not the hero, if you will.  Still good, and I can’t say the movie is any worse for him not being the lead, but still…

Tonight I saw Training Day, and I can say I think Denzel did a very good job in it.  I’d need to see the other movies that had a Best Actor nomination for that year before I could say whether or not I think he deserved as Oscar for the role, but nonetheless, he’s good, and the movie is good.  Interesting fact from IMDB: “ The word ‘f***’ is used 211 times.“  Whew, and I can say I didn’t notice it’s extensive use.  That’s multiple F words per minute.

I was browsing Explosions in the Sky‘s website recently, and I click on the albums page and I noticed an album I had not yet heard of before listed there.  An album called “The Rescue.”  It’s an 8 track album written and recorded in 8 days, a song a day as an experiment to see if Explosions could write and record quickly (as their writing process can sometimes take months for one song.)  It’s interesting,  The last three songs of the album in particular are good, but I’m glad they don’t do this on a regular basis.

Tuesday one of my current favorite bands is releasing a new album.  The band is Engineer, the album is the Dregs.  I’m pretty excited about it.  They have two song up on their myspace and they’re good.  I mean, if you like metalcore.

A second watch changed my mind.  The Fountain is very good.  9/10

“Krauss’s novel is emotionally wrenching yet intellectually rigorous, idea-driven but with indelible characters and true suspense. It draws a career arc that may very soon surpass her husband’s, in book clubs (it’s a Today Show pick) as well as Hollywood. (Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated comes out this fall, and Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón—of Y Tu Mamá También [And Children of Men]—is already laboring on The History of Love.)”

I’m stoked.  Alfonso Cuaron is one of three new Spanish directors who I like very much.  The other two are Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel) and Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth.)  I don’t know about Guillermo yet though.  I hear PL is good, and it one a bunch of Oscars.  But this guy also did Hellboy…