Movie Trailer Monday

I have to apologize to the north Texans out there. I may have jinxed us and could be responsible for the sudden cold snap and possible snow. You see, I made the mistake of reveling in the spring-like temperatures on Saturday. I went out for a walk, ran into a neighbor who was out walking his cat (seriously, with a harness, leash and all), and we gloated about how great our weather was when we knew people elsewhere who were getting snow. So, of course that means we get punished for our gloating with snow a couple of days later. On the up side, I don't have to go anywhere, and I tend to get a lot of work done on days like this, so I'm not really being punished.

I finished watching The Tudors, and while it's rather pretty to look at, any knowledge of actual history will make your head explode while watching it. It's best to consider it something like As the World Turns in costumes (and even the costumes aren't all that accurate). I still love Jeremy Northam, even if his character would want to burn me at the stake as a heretic for being Protestant.

I haven't been to a movie theater in ages, but I've caught a few trailers online or OnDemand that have me almost excited. First up, this weekend a movie called Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day opens, and it looks like a movie made just for me -- romantic comedy set in 1930s London and starring Amy Adams and Lee Pace (from Pushing Daisies). There's dancing and music (though it's not a musical). I've told myself that I get to see it when I finish the book. Unfortunately, it won't be playing at my neighborhood theater, so I'll either have to make a day of it and take the train downtown or else I'll have to get up early on Friday because the theater near me showing it only has matinee pricing before noon on weekends (including Fridays).

Then I saw the trailer for Prince Caspian, and I will take time out to catch that one at the theater opening week, even if it does fall in the middle of book tour time. These books are great for film adaptations because they're written more like transcribed oral storytelling, without a lot of detail. That means there's room to flesh it out on the screen, instead of what usually happens in book-to-movie adaptations, which is important things getting cut out. I actually hadn't noticed how simply written the books were until I re-read them after seeing the last movie. That's where my imagination and issues with description came into play. The movie was very much what I'd always imagined because I guess I'd fleshed the books out in my head as I read them, so I was surprised to re-read and find that most of the things I remembered weren't there in any great detail. Anyway, it's nice when the movie manages to be the "bonus features" version of a story, while still remaining true to the source material. Prince Caspian was one of my favorite books in the series, probably because of the big sword fight between Peter and the bad guy, and that was one of the reasons I crushed a bit on Peter in that book. The kid playing Peter is very much what I imagined, and the remnant of my eleven-year-old self thinks he's totally dreamy (he also makes pretty good imaginary dream casting for something I'm currently working on). Now I just hope that big sword fight lives up to my imagination.

And there was the trailer for Mamma Mia. While I love musicals on stage, I'm slightly iffy about the recent revival of the trend to make them all into movies. That generally seemed to work in the 50s and 60s because they were capable of being irony-free about it. They didn't blink at the idea of people randomly bursting into song to express their feelings. Now it seems like some of the filmmakers aren't quite comfortable with the concept of a musical, so they have to come up with reasons for the characters to burst into song, like making it all dream sequences or performance numbers. It's hard to tell what approach they'll take with this movie because the trailer doesn't really show any actual musical numbers, just using the music as background for non-musical scenes. But the casting is pretty mindblowing. Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth in the same film? Mamma mia! Plus Christine Baranski as the mother's often-divorced, catty friend? My my (how can I resist it?)! I know Meryl can sing. I don't know about the men, but they don't sing too much in the show. I think a girls' day out must be planned around this one. I'll have to round up my friends, or else go see it with Mom.

Finally, continuing my role as the TV listings source, if you're watching the Sarah Connor Chronicles, tonight is the season finale, and they're showing two episodes, so it starts an hour earlier. This series has already brought me one thing I never thought I'd see: a Terminator in ballet class. What else will it bring me? I can't wait to find out. I wouldn't mind more dancing. It's very motivating to make me want to get in shape.