Keira Knightley movies

I just finished watching the director's cut of King Arthur and The Hole, both of which features Keira Knightley.

King Arthur claims to be "the untold true story that inspired the legend"--a claim which I doubt any well-educated person would have believed in the first place. Historical accuracies aside, they have very little evidence to make the definitive claim that the King Arthur of legends was a Roman centurion.

In the director's cut, they show the young Lancelot arrive to meet the young Arthur, with the both of them looking to be pre-teens, and then we skip to 15 years later, where we see Arthur as a... 40-year-old man...? Meanwhile, Lancelot is in his early 30's. They should have just made the thing 20 years later, instead of 15, if they were going to use actors who are so much older. I guess that might be why the scene didn't make theatrical cut... though I doubt it.

Overall, the movie itself was not too bad. The early battle scenes didn't need to be as long as they were, I thought; it was also shorter in the theatrical cut, but not for the reason of pacing.

I thought The Hole was a much better film than King Arthur... although I guess it's a bit unfair to compare two completely different types of film.

View From the Top

I had wanted to watch View From the Top in theaters when it was first released, but never got around to it. It flopped in the theaters, but I caught most of it on cable last night.

I thought it was pretty funny, with a good, if somewhat predictable, storyline. I mean, how many people didn't think about what would happen when instructor Witney (Mike Myers' character) asked for the tests to be passed to the front?

That didn't detract me too much, though, as the movie overall was still fun to watch, and Gwyneth Paltrow looked good, as always.

The Legend of Earthsea

I had missed this mini-series on SciFi, and saw it available for download on some torrent sites, so I downloade them and watched them over the weekend.

I must admit that my main reason of watching was for Kristin Kreuk (of Smallville fame). But of course I was also hoping to see a good story. Unfortunately, I was first distracted by the bad acting, and then by the bland story.

After I finished watching it, I found out that it was based on a series of novels. And apparently (as one would expect based on how bad the film version is) quite different from the source material. I think I might pick up these books to read the real story.

Awaiting Your Return

Helplessness, is ten thousand times reluctance to wait
Helplessness, is to be deeply in love with you but be apart
Though the road be long, you should also know
In my heart, I'm awaiting your return
Expectancy, like looking off into the wide seas

Due to separation, now the endurance of love is known
Due to separation, sadness was inevitable
Perhaps not used to having storms
But there are always chance meetings in life
With you, understand that love will not change for life

Accompany you to search for the courage to be alone
Accompany you to take on the pain and sorrow of being apart
The world inside of our hearts
Is a true love that will never be forsaken
Hope tomorrow we can lean on one another closely again

Due to separation, the love in the heart has deepened
Due to separation, begins the realization of how spectacular love is
Wish that we both will love each other forever
Being true to our hearts, we shall reach the future
With you, understand that love will not change for life


等你回來

無奈是萬分不得意的等待
無奈是共你深愛卻分開
路縱遠你也應知道
我心中在等你回來
期待如望向飄飄那滄海

原來離別方可知愛的忍耐
原來離別了不免有悲哀
或許不慣有風風雨
卻知生命總有際遇
和你明白愛一生也不改

陪你來尋覓孤單的勇氣
陪你來承受分開的痛悲
在心中你我的天地
是永遠摯愛不拋棄
期待明日再緊緊靠一起

原來離別了加深愛於心內
原來離別了始覺愛精采
願彼此永遠的相愛
靠真心定可到未來
和你明白愛一生也不改

New DVDs

Picked up I, Robot, Collateral, and the Collector's Gift Set of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King on Tuesday at Target. DigitalEyes was supposed to ship me the LOTR gift set last week, but somehow the credit card didn't go through, even though I just sent them another payment. Which is too bad, since they're selling it for $59.95, while Target has it for $69.95. But I guess it evened out, since they're selling I, Robot and Collateral for $21.99 and $22.95, respectively, while Target has them for $15.99 each.

So I watched I, Robot on Tuesday night, and just finished watching Collateral. Both were good, in my opinion. I didnt think I, Robot was a bad as some of the reviews I've heard led me to believe, but I guess the more negative reviews were mostly based on the fact that the story had little, if nothing, to do with any of Isaac Asimov's stories from the book of the same title, with the exception of the famous "three rules," and Dr. Calvin. But obviously no one expected to walk into the theater to watch a series of short stories.

It doesn't look like the extended version of The Return of the King has any of the scenes I'm looking forward to, but I may be surprised yet. The whole extended scene of how Smeagol became Gollum was kind of useless, though. If you're gonna extend the movie, you should be extending on the stuff you didn't include from the novel, not from a short blurb mentioned in an earlier book... that's my opinion.