The Truman Show

Watched this the night before last. Have watched it before. Jim Carrey is good in this, though I don't usually find his OTT style watchable. Ed Harris is superb. And you can't beat Peter Weir.

Happy Feet

V entertaining - great music and soundtrack, especially in 5.1 surround sound. Bearing in mind the film is about a penguin who can't sing but is a great tap dancer, the only bit I found unbelievable was that Mumbles would be able to convince mankind that it must be good and not destroy all in its path... I particularly liked that its pay-off line - and in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make - was a Beatles lyric.

Cagney and Lacey

We have also been watching loads of Cagney and Laceys. They are showing them every weekday on ITV3. Absolutely superb. They stand up after all these years for good stories, good characterisation, good supporting cast. My heart melts every time Cagney smiles at the camera - which she did a lot. Or when Lacey's eyes sparkle, which they do a lot. I even love Michael, who was a brilliantly natural actor, and a great foil to Harvey Jr, everybody's nightmare son. I was really surprised to see that Troy hasn't done more, but less so that Tony did no more on TV and is now an Elvis impersonator in Vegas (source, IMDb!).

The Shield

Over the past couple of weeks I have been watching The Shield, courtesy of the Hallmark channel - they showed the first season, episodes 1-13, one episode more or less every day - and I really enjoyed it. The combination of police work, characters and relationships, and corruption was brilliant. I got just the same buzz towards the end of each programme that I used to with Hill St Blues or NYPD Blue - which is perhaps not surprising because, watching the credits, I thought I remembered the name Scott Brazil, and I see from the IMDb that he produced loads of episodes of HSB.

Goodfellas

Started watching this the other night, but I have to confess that when my DVR froze with about an hour to go, after rebooting I just deleted the film without the slightest feelings of guilt. I found the first hour and three-quarters completely devoid of light and shade, interest, thought etc etc. De Niro hardly did anything. It was just people shouting at each other, hitting each other and being nasty. I suppose the scene where the guy fixing the drinks answers back and Joe Pesci shoots him was worth watching but during the rest of it I really felt my life slipping through my hands. And I can't get it back. I'd rather watch and learn from any of Godfather trilogy or Once Upon A Time In America.

Witness

Watched it last night - as excellent as ever. Hadn't noticed Viggo Mortensen before - but then I probably hadn't seen Lord Of The Rings the last time I saw Witness. I probably also watched it from TV before because I don't remember seeing Kelly McGillis's "dirty pillows" before. (I would have made that link straight to the quotes page but it keeps crashing my PC!) I still love the bit where John Book hits the guy with the ice cream...