My Current Interest

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Photo of Blu-ray cover taken by Kate Dorsey      As the name suggests, there is a lot of battling in this final film of The Hobbit trilogy. A LOT. Pretty much the entire film is one battle or another. The Extended Edition adds even more.         At the end of Desolation of Smaug , the dragon Smaug ( Benedict Cumberbatch ) is on his way to Laketown to wreak his revenge. The townspeople are running for their lives; including the Master of Lake-town (Stephen Fry), who is trying to run off with the town’s gold. Bard the Bowman ( Luke Evans ) is in prison, doing whatever he can to break free.      With the inadvertent help of the Master, Bard is able to free himself. He runs to a watchtower where he tries to kill Smaug with an arrow. Except, Smaug’s scales are too tough for the typical arrow. Bard soon runs out of arrows, except for one.      Bard’s son, Bain (John Bell), brin...

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Photo of Blu-ray cover taken by Kate Dorsey        Oh, my goodness.  The extended edition of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is incredibly long.  I started to wonder if it was every going to end.  All the additional parts lengthen this movie a lot.  There are full additional storylines; which definitely make this film something I have never seen before.      The beginning of The Desolation of Smaug has a completely new segment and story. There were always the scenes of the dwarves battling the orcs at the time when the dwarves lost everything. Only now, with the extended edition, we have Thorin Oakenshield II ( Richard Armitage ) watching longer as his grandfather, Thrór (Jeffrey Thomas), is beheaded by an orc.      We also get to meet Thorin’s father, Thrain (Antony Sher), who I don’t think is seen in any of the three movies before the extended editions. This time, we se...

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Photo of DVD cover taken by Kate Dorsey      There are some films and series that just stick with me. The Hobbit Trilogy is one of them.      In many ways, why I am stuck on The Hobbit doesn’t make sense. I’m not a big fantasy person. I tried to read both the book and the graphic novel, unable to finish either one. So how can I watch this trilogy over and over again? Well, a lot of good-looking men help. But I have a feeling it has more to do with the story.                   Bilbo Baggins ( Martin Freeman ) is perfectly happy living a quiet life in the Shire. It is what he wants to do for the rest of his life. Or so he thinks.      The wizard Gandalf the Grey ( Ian McKellen ) makes Bilbo question what he really wants. He shows up out of the blue, looking for his adventurous friend from years before. There is a mission Gan...

A Rose in Bloom /Artwork by Kate Dorsey      Disney’s Beauty and the Beast has always been my favorite animated film.  Maybe it’s the seeing the good under the unpleasant exterior I can relate to (I’ve always loved what many would consider “ugly” dogs).  Or maybe it’s because, like Belle, I love books (if I could have the library in Beast’s castle, I don’t think there would be strong enough words to describe how happy I would be).  There could be so many reasons why this animated film has been my favorite for so long.  But it is this love of it that made me hesitant about the live-action version at first.      When Disney’s live-action version of Beauty and the Beast came out on DVD, I was willing to give it a try.   It helped that Luke Evans was in the film, and I also like Emma Watson, so I knew there would be actors I like in it.   So, I watched it.   I thought it was pretty good, but didn’t expect to ever watch it ...

Behind the Door /Artwork by Kate Dorsey      There have been a lot of Harry Potter marathons on TV these past several months.  Sometimes I watch.  Sometimes I don’t.  Sometimes I’ll watch one particular film, while other times I’ll watch another.  It really depends on how I feel at the moment.  In any case, I end up watching a lot of Harry Potter .      Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is a boy who discovers he is a wizard on his 11 th birthday.   He lives with awful relatives, and finds it a great relief to go off to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.   It is here Harry meets his two best friends, Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley ( Rupert Grint ).   Together, through seven years of school and eight films, these three friends work together to survive school and take down the infamous villain, Lord Voldemort ( Ralph Fiennes ).      These three have to survive school in more th...

                Yes, I know everyone is talking about Star Wars .   It’s hard to turn anywhere without coming across an ad or article about it.   The world truly seems obsessed with Star Wars .                 While I would not put myself in the obsessed category, when I saw a new Star Wars film was coming out I was curious to see it.   I grew up with the original trilogy.   It is something I have seen definitely more than once, but I don’t know how good I would be at a deep, in-depth discussion about it.   Pretty much my interest laid with Yoda and Ewoks.   There was also a fascination with Jabba and his lair, but for the most part everything came down to Yoda and Ewoks.   Unfortunately, neither one of these (or Jabba, for that matter) were in Star Wars: The Force Awakens .   Despite this, I ...

               For the past several years some of the best new films have been animated.   On the surface these films appear to be only for children, but they certainly aren’t.   Most have clever lines that both adults and kids will find humorous.   They may have different meanings to the two age groups, but both will be laughing.   Then there are the storylines.   They are youthful enough for kids to enjoy but have plenty of serious aspects that keep adults entertained.   Add in music and everyone ends up happy, which is exactly how I felt when I watched Strange Magic .                 It’s pretty bad that even fairies have to worry about getting cheated on.   Marianne (Evan Rachel Wood), the fairy princess, is flying around on her wedding day, singing a love song, when she comes upon her fiancé, Roland...