Serenity

Been a while since I mentioned any movies. Possibly because we haven't seen much worth mentioning.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Don't Panic! It won't matter if you miss it. In fact, we didn't bother watching to the end.

There was something else too.... um...

Be Cool - y'know, the sequel to Get Shorty. Let me say this again... Don't PANIC! it won't matter if you miss it. In fact, if you've seen Get Shorty, you've seen most of it already, since the makers seemed determined to retread every situation, joke, and character again. With one exception...

Every now & then a movie throws up a genuine surprise, that 3rd billed actor who might be well known, but who turns in a scene stealing performance that seems hilariously at odds with their usual image. And so, I give you, in the guise of a gay stuntman & standin, wannabe star with only one risible facial expression... The Rock!

Yes, the best thing about Be Cool (and that includes the disappointing dance scene with Travolta & Thurman) is the Scorpion King. Almost worth watching just for him.

But all that's unimportant. Yesterday I was quite sick & took the day off (fine now more or less thanks), and after enduring for most of the day, the nagging of a needy visiting tradesman... I finally got rid of him & settled back on the couch in front of Serenity, fully expecting to fall asleep a few minutes in.

I can't be bothered (and neither do I have the time) to find links for this post), but I have never seen a single episode (nor the original movie) of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - but I know grown men & women who swear by it. And in its absence, they worship at the altar of a TV show called Firefly written & produced by the same guy as Buffy, Joss Whedon.

Bear with me... Firefly is a western in space, imagine the universe that Han Solo & Chewbacca inhabited before they met Luke & Leia.

Anyhow, Firefly was cancelled after one season.

But lo! As happens, such was the demand, that Joss Whedon cobbled together money & support to make a movie in the wake of Firefly. That movie is named for the ramshackle spaceship, Serenity.

Phew, we got there.

So, Serenity, I had been told that if I hadn't seen the preceding series, that I would find it hard to follow, but that wasn't the case. Maybe enough fanboys & girls had explained the back story to me.

Serenity is an action packed, funny, thoughtful piece of work. To call the protaganists antiheroes, is probably understating - when we meet them, they're planning a bank heist (of sorts), and there's a priceless moment when the captain is quietly listening to a sinister assassin (as they say in the Incredibles) "monologuing", when the assassin comes to the part:

"I'm not here to threaten you, I came unarmed..."

"Good" says the captain, drawing his gun & shooting him. (He's wearing armour though & survives to do some threatening later).

I can't remember the names of any of the characters, except that the captain is called Mal, and the psychic waif they're protecting (who turns out to be somewhat more than meets the eye) is called River.

River can kick butt BTW. Seriously.

Anyway, I daresay we'll never see its like again. Hardly Citizen Kane in space, but it is well worth a look.