So when N and I were in San Antonio we had the opportunity to take in not one but TWO movies.  This is what we do on vacation – pay many dollars to sit for a few hours in poorly padded gum-covered seats.  Works for me!

Also, it was really hot outside, and we were trying to keep cool.  That’s really the only excuse I have for the fact that we saw Hellboy II:  The Golden Army on Friday night.  As I linked that, I discovered that it earned 7.9 out of 10 stars.  I have to admit that surprises me somewhat.  It wasn’t bad, really, but wasn’t great either.  It is probably best described as “pointless, yet visually stunning”.  The special effects were good, but far too numerous.  There were too many different creatures to keep up with.  Also, the young Hellboy at the very beginning was lame and stupid-looking and his audio didn’t match up with his mouth movements.  There were some pretty cool fight scenes, though, which helped to keep my attention.  Final verdict:  not a total waste of time, but not something I ever need to see again.  Much like the original.

Then Saturday morning we saw The Dark Knight on IMAX.  Truly excellent.  It is currently residing in the top spot on IMDb’s Top 250 list, and it certainly belongs.  The special effects were awesome without being overwhelming and the story was well-written.  Heath Ledger was positively phenomenal, and deserves every bit of Oscar buzz that I’m hearing.  His Joker was far more demented and sinister than previous portrayals and it worked.  The voice, the facial expressions – even his posture was menacing.  The violence was handled superbly as well.  There was just enough shown to let you know what happened but it was not overly gory.  Very intense and effective.  I’ll definitely see it again, as I know I missed some of the dialogue (my husband says the projectionist had the sound out of balance – the music was overpowering in a few places).  An outstanding movie.  I only have one little complaint, and that is Batman’s voice.  I realize it was Christian Bale’s effort at differentiating between Bruce Wayne and his alter ego, but it was too forced.  Batman just kind of sounded like he was recovering from a severe bout of laryngitis, and somehow I doubt that was the intended effect.  But other than that, I have no issues with this awesome flick.  Two thumbs up.  Run to the theater if you haven’t seen it already.

*****

Unrelated linkety fun:

• Have you seen the stories on the Montauk Monster?  Weird, and also EW.  I don’t know what it is but I certainly don’t need to look at it anymore.
• I hate the abuse of apostrophes, which I believe I mentioned before in one of my particularly cranky posts.  However, I love laughing at particularly egregious instances of their misuse, which can be found here and also here.  And this is something similar.  Hee!
• My husband called this site to my attention yesterday.  I’m amused yet horrified that people PAID for every single one of these cakes!  WHY GOD WHY?  If you have the time, you really owe it to yourself to look through the entire site.  Be sure you’re somewhere you can laugh freely – I was having a hard time containing my giggles.  I’m pretty sure my cube neighbor thought I was crying.  Hysterically.