“IT’S NOT A COMPLEX ROLE–IT’S JUST YOU IN A WIG!”: Movie reviews. In chronological order:

Zoolander: World’s dumbest male model is recruited for evil assassination plan. This is goofy fun, and I enjoyed it a lot. I don’t think I’d seen Ben Stiller in anything before; he has a terrific airhead-voice.

Cabaret: *sigh* You guys probably already know the basic deal of this movie: Cabaret singer and her crowd during the rise of Hitler, loosely based on Isherwood’s Berlin Stories, stars Liza Minnelli (…) and Michael York.

I admit that this worked for me while I was watching. It’s very cliched, and Minnelli is only really good when she’s singing, but basically, the movie kept my attention even as I was annoyed with myself for being affected by it. In the end, though, I just don’t think it’s very good. Sentimental, unsubtle, heartstring-tugging in the worst way.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company Presents the Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged): Does what it says on the tin.

This is a three-man comedy team doing “condensed” versions of everything Shakespeare ever wrote (except for Coriolanus) in 90 minutes flat. I laughed a lot, but in the end, I was kind of disappointed. I’d expected the humor to be more, I guess, insightful, more based on the substance of Shakespeare’s plays–more Rosencrantz & Guildenstern-type humor–when in fact it’s basically broad high-school humor done with absolutely brilliant comic timing. There’s one moment during the quickie Hamlet (the “What a piece of work is a man” speech) where I did think the humor was based on real insight, but for the most part, it was as much dumb fun as Zoolander. Which is fine, but not quite what I was hoping for.

And the white-guy rapping for Othello is… just embarrassing. ZOMG, stop.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: I’m not sure I’m competent to comment on this. I went in with a strange lack of expectations (having deeply disliked the fourth movie) and walked out with an equally strange lack of reaction. I’m fannish about Harry Potter–I have Opinions and Theories and so on, as that Goblet of Fire link will make abundantly clear–but this movie left me with a feeling of entirely unfannish neutrality.

Some quick, not-too-spoilery notes: Everyone’s motivations are cleaned up, as is usual with the movies; they’re much better than the books at making the good characters actually act rightly and making everyone act more or less sensibly. The Death Eaters and esp. Bellatrix are awesomely creepy, and the final confrontation is very cool once the explosions stop. Oddly, the movie felt more wedded to my hated concept of “good people” than the book, despite Sirius’s line about the world not being divided into good people and Death Eaters. Surprisingly, Dan Radcliffe is the best of the young actors, mostly though not entirely due to lack of competition. Kreacher is awesome. Luna is okay but too lispy and sugary. A friend who hadn’t read the book said she was still able to follow the movie just fine.

Anyway, still excited for Book 7, so hey.

eta: Much more, and somewhat different!, from Cacciaguida.