Movie day...

Today was a day to watch movies. I was ensconced on maaseru's sofa from an early hour, watching movies with josanpq, maaboroshi and lunacy_gal.

We watched:

• Ice Blues, the fourth Donald Strachey movie, which I'd seen before;
  
  
• Big Eden, which I'd also seen before, but which I think I enjoyed more the second time round, knowing what to expect. I certainly enjoy watching Eric Schweig!
  
  
• Shakespeare Retold: The Taming of the Shew, with Rufus Sewell and Shirley Henderson. Rufus Sewell is one of those actors I adore and would watch in anything - and Petrucchio just might be his best role yet. Shirley Henderson was Ursula in the remarkable Doctor Who episode "Love and Monsters" and Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter. This adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew was magnificent, in my opinion: it is in so many ways one of Shakespeare's more problematic plays for our time, and yet, done right, is exceptionally clever and funny.
  
  Actually, the more remarkable thing about Henderson's performance here is that she reminded me of the first woman I ever fell in love with. I imagine that gave me an extra bit of identification with Petrucchio.
  
  
• Theatre of Blood, with Vincent Price and Diana Rigg, from 1973. A wildly lurid and somewhat silly story about an actor who, driven mad by critics' opinions of his play, become a serial killer enacting revenge upon the critics by killing them in the manner of murders in Shakepeare's plays. It was a real treat to see the young Diana Rigg again. In one scene, a man's beloved poodles are brutally murdered; I couldn't help thinking of Captain John Hart.

Then maaseru and I actually ventured out into the world to see The Dark Knight at a movie theatre. I had many thoughts on the movie. As always, I'm fussy about movies based on comics, especially comic and characters I love, and I certainly love Batman. The movie Batman is not the comic book Batman, and I generally prefer the one in the comic - with the caveat that there is no one comic book version of the character. None of the Batman movies capture what I most love about Batman¹, but I do like Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne. ( A few specific thoughts, and too bad I don't have time for more. )

(no subject)

As far as I'm concerned, the best bit of Torchwood news out of San Diego Comic Con, is that Russell T Davies plotted the story and is writing the first and last episodes.

This is what I was hoping for.

And James Moran, whose work I like (he's the one who wrote "Sleeper" and the BBCA Captain's Blog, with all the lovely Jack/Ianto bits) will be writing an episode.

I wonder who'll be writing the two other episodes. Dare I hope for another Catherine Tregenna script?