My thoughts…on stuff

How many movies have you seen this year? Less than a handful, huh? How many movies do you have on your hard drive? More than you can remember right? Can’t blame you. Hollywood rolled out another batch of mediocre movies this year, with a few noteworthy exceptions. Well, this Christmas season’s (sorry, holiday season. Got remember the “other” holidays) movie offerings just might convince you to get up off your couch and take a trip to the local cineplex.

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire: It’s year 4 at Hogwarts, and the Gryffindor gang is up to their usual adventures. But now they face a greater foe than Voldemort himself - raging teen hormones. Yes my friends, they have reached that magical stage of life where young men and women begin to take interest in each other. Watch as Harry, Ron and Hermoine struggle to win the attention of the opposite sex. Oh, and there’s that Tri-Wizard tournament…thing. Goblet of Fire has already over $200 million, and has been hailed as the best Potter film yet. And the way things are going, it may be the highest grossing too.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Chronicles of Narnia has been surrounded by a great deal of hype ever since word of it got out, and now that it has been released, it is one of the few movies that lives up to expectations. Released last week Friday, it grossed an impressive $67.1 million in its opening weekend. This surprise blockbuster is based on C.S Lewis’ beloved children’s classic, that I didn’t know about until just recently, and I know you didn’t either. Everyone knows that this generation doesn’t read.

It’s about four children that find a magical land inside a wardrobe, full of centaurs, phoenixes, talking animals and the like. Once there, they must save the land of Narnia from the evil white witch. The film has been called Harry Potter meets Lord of the Rings, but Disney has been comparing it to the Passion of the Christ. The reason behind this is that C.S Lewis was a Christian, and Narnia was probably written as a Biblical allegory. Hard to say whether Disney genuinely believes that there are religious elements in the movie or they just want to the Sunday folk to put some offering money in their pockets.

King Kong: When the first Lord of the Rings was made, Peter Jackson was hailed as having the potential to be the next Steven Spielberg. Now, he is the next Steven Spielberg (sorry Tarantino. You had your chance.) King Kong is yet another remake of the 1933 classic. Most people have seen of or at least heard of the King Kong movie. But if you have been living in a cave for most of your life, or if your age is a single digit number, here’s the gist of the story. It’s a typical “boy meets girl” story, except “boy” is a 24-foot gorilla. The movie’s hype is bigger than Kong himself, mainly because of the director and the main character. The profits should be just as big too.

These three movies will be the last blockbusters of 2005, and why not? Two were based on best-selling books, one was based on a cinematic legend, three great sources of inspiration, not some half-baked script that someone took 5 minutes to think up. Now the Jews will have something to look forward to when they go to the movies on Christmas Day.