Serenity Mark 3 A+

You can watch the first nine minutes of the film here should you like - it's the entire pre-credits sequence. And there is news that it's out on DVD Dec. 20,2005, which is so awesome I can't actually find the words to describe. It's going to sell like gangbusters, obviously - it's an active consideration to buy multiple copies to give to friends for quite a while.

Here's what I figured out on the third viewing - it's a kind of remake of Big Trouble in Little China in that the ostensible hero, Mal, isn't actually the hero at all - he is barely the most important character. It's pretty much all about River. And she smokes when she is on screen. Summer Glau was an interesting casting coup way back when. She has a dancer's body but still has a very round face that makes her seem very innocent and makes you want to protect her.

Her work here is similar to her work in the last episode of the Firefly series "Objects in Space" which I think is superior to any other one hour television episode ever. And I include Twin Peaks, which is a _huge_ concession by me.

Long and short: the movie is utterly awesome. My favorite movie of the year by a fair margin. But in all fairness, I'm a fanboy.

Greatest Game Ever Played ** 1/2
It was really cute. It was an interesting story. It was neat to see how different golf was then as opposed to now, and I'm a permenant Shia LaBouf fan because of whatever that Nickelodean show that did a musical episode that one time that was pretty great. That said, yeah - kinda whatever.