It's not often today that you can get your money's worth for anything. Gas is over $3.10 a gallon, because we need to make sure oil company executives get massive bonuses for record profits; milk is almost half again as expensive, because, you know, we have to import and buy so much on the spot market. Darn those foreign cow coalitions... we pay too much for healthcare, auto insurance, home mortgages, pretty much everything.
So: Why is it that after paying $17.00 a ticket for the special Imax glasses to go with the Imax 3D movie, I feel happy? Well that's EASY! Blue stripey girls are ... wait sorry... DRAGONS are hot! (ha ha). More specifically, Blue/Black dragons that spit (Plasma balls? Lightning? Whatever..) are hot. I was more than satisfied with the Imax versions visual effect, and combined with a superbly told charming and funny story, the film is there firmly in my current Top Ten. The writing is excellent, and the actor voicing Hiccup delivers his lines with the perfect punch amd wry humor, and the right amount of frustrated teen when called for. Toothless the dragon always does a great job, though he was not given much dialogue to work with. Having Vikings with Scottish accents just goes to show how well travelled the Vikings really were, and Craig Ferguson and Gerard Butler are charmingly brash, overbearing and simplistic as required. The twin brother and sister keep their squabbles funny, every time they do it, and the kid who simply HAS to have been drawn to look like Jack Black acts like him as well.
The big surprise for me was Astrid; I was absolutely certain that Kirsten Dunst was doing the voice. That of course COULD be because Astrid looks exactly like Kirsten, and copies a number of her gestures, such as the lock of hair hanging over her right eye, the glare, and the smile. When I saw that it was America Ferrera who did the voice all I could think was "Well, that explains it, she is a great actress too!" I have to say, if you are going to see a 3D Imax film, this is the one. The flying scenes took me back to the opening night of "The Empire Strikes Back" with the little airborne speeders racing over the ice and snow. Yow! There is a good reason I think 3D is more than a fad; the visuals here are the primary one.
I also saw "Kick-Ass". Be warned; if potty mouthed 12 year old girls in pony tails are going to shock you, don't be eating or drinking when Hit Girl first shows up. The people in front of you will get really pissed. This movie was funny as hell, and about as politically correct and sensitive as a Beavis and Butthead meet South Park film would be. This film makes no excuses for the level of profanity, masturbation jokes, violence or cleavage shots; and while they don't all get used, I am reasonably certain that all the guns Neo and Trinity did not use were grabbed up by the armourer Damian Mitchell, and the props head. Rudolf Vrba did a great job on the fights; by the time Hit Girl starts, well, kicking ass, nothing she does ( a wall run and flip? ) looks remotely silly. Aside from the fact she is a homicidal maniac, she does a good job being second place in the cute department (for a 12 year old; back off folks (GR) ). As the love interest Lyndsey Fonseca (who is a respectable 24... pfftthhhbbb..) is extremely funny, and VERY pretty. Christopher Minz also has a good part, and actually ties back to "How to Train Your Dragon" as the voice of Fishlegs..
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