Cars 2 Review

My mom is off work this week to get their move done but it has gone so well that she had some spare time today, so we took the kids to see Cars 2. I recently read a review (where incidentally, I commented that I probably wouldn't see this movie in the theater) that said that this move was terrible. I will admit that I didn't care for the first movie but I wanted to like this movie. I've had bad luck with movies recently and I would hoping this would break that streak.

I'm glad we went because this was a pretty good movie. MF was excited to see it but WF didn't want to go, insisting that Cars 2 was only for 5 year olds. I showed him a few trailers and he decided that maybe it looked it ok. We got our popcorn and got situated in time to watch a few previews (on a side note, there were only 3 or 4 previews instead of nearly 30 minutes of them so that was happy). The Toy Story short at the beginning of the movie was good stuff. Ken and Barbie miss their Hawaiian vacation so the toys put one on for them.

Cars 2 starts with Lightening off racing and Mater doing his thing in Radiator Springs. Lightening comes back for the summer, but ends up going to the Worldwide Grand Prix with his Radiator Springs pit crew. Once they get to Japan, Lightening is annoyed and embarrassed by Mater's behavior and tells him to stop acting like himself. Mater manages to fall into the middle of an international spy mission and meets a pretty girl in the process. Through several gun battles, a few high speed chases and a few dangerous situations, Mater learns that being himself is just fine. Lightening learns that you take your friends as they come and you shouldn't try to change them and they both come home with a great story to tell.

I'm not a particular fan of spy movies or of car movies but this was bright, fun race around the world. I particularly liked the Tokyo scenes, with the neon and the bright colors. The Italian countryside shots were very pretty as well. I think I would be more inclined to watch actual racing if they were racing in scenes like in this movie. I've heard several people say that the spy plot was convolution and difficult to follow. Personally, I didn't find that to be the case and both kids were able to follow it pretty well. I was also glad to see that Lightening wasn't really the focus of the movie. Lightening has moments of being a decent person but overall he is kind of a jerk and remains as such in this movie. Mater was always a better person and it was fun to see him with his fancy spy gadgets.

I do agree with other reviewers who said that this was a violent movie. There were several large gun battles, explosions, on screen torture, implied character death (they called them on screen deaths but I felt most of them were implied as exposed to explicit, except for the scene were the bad guy said "kill him" and then there was an explosion), etc.

MF proclaimed it the best movie ever and said she wanted to get rid of her Barbie to make room for more Cars 2 stuff. WF said he thought it was pretty good and he really liked the explosions and the spy story line. I thought some of the stuff was over the heads of young children but it was great for my kids (9 and 6) and had enough humor for the adults to enjoy it to. Like all Pixar movies, it was filled with inside jokes and referrals to other movies.

I enjoyed this movie and so did the kids and my mom. This isn't a really movie for the preschool set, especially sheltered preschoolers. This movie was written for first generation Cars fans, who have grown up a little. Bottom line, if a kid wasn't old enough to see the original on the big screen, this movie might not be for them. For older kids and adults, I would rate it as 4 stars out of 5

Preview of things to come

We took TB (MT voted to stay home) to see UP today. It was barely "meh" The opening short (often as good or better than the movie) was ok. It was cute but nothing great (my fave has to be the rabbit and the magician at the beginning of Wall-E) and the movie didn't go far from there. Ellie was funny and my kind of character. Dug, the talking dog, was, as predicted, the best part of the movie. There were lots of REALLY slow, sad parts. He spent a lot of time thinking about Ellie and those parts were always sad. There was some action and a few LOL parts (RF didn't think so and was torn between shushing me and living) but over all, pretty boring waste of almost $20 (I didn't dislike it as much as Wall-E because there wasn't as much of a message and it didn't beat over the head with it's social conscience and it might have been more in 3-D but I'm just not understanding the raves that I've been hearing about it)

The part that irked me was the ever loving previews. I like previews as much as the next girl and those are often the best part of the movies. However, these went on FOREVER! Not only did they show previews for Imagine That, G-Force, Transformers, and Harry Potter (plus a few others), there were commercials too. We, mercifully, missed most of the commercials because it was a last minute decision to go to the theater but even one is too many. TB had Pokemon club at the library at 1:30 and I assumed that seeing an 89 minute movie (which includes the credits) at 11:30 would leave us plenty of time to get home and get his stuff and get him there on time. Unfortunately, I was wrong because there were 30 MINUTES of previews! Forever, I tell you!

Too random for Twitter

Too many little things going on and none of them deserve there own blog post or status updates but lots of things going on so I'm going to post them all here.

First of all, I have the BEST friends. They are super generous and just generally awesome. Big thanks to them for passing along their clothes as they don't fit them anymore.

I finally bought a new bra today. This is something I hate doing because I hate spending money on something that is basically a societal approved torture device. However, I found some at Karen's Closet that were discontinued stock from Confidentially Yours so they are brand new but they were only $7.99. If I could have found more in my size, I probably would have bought a couple.

Weight loss is going well. I lost 4 pounds last week and I'm down a total of 13 over all. I'm 2 pounds from my 15 pound goal and 8 pounds from my 10%.

I've joined another workout challenge at the gym and part of this one is actually losing weight. In order to get the full points, I have to lose 8 pounds in the next 4 weeks. I can SO do this! I wish my starting weight would have been what I weighed last week, so I'd be half way there but that is the way the cookie crumbles.

We went to Six Flags last weekend. It was MT's first trip and TB's since he was big enough to remember it. MT LOVED it. She went on every roller coaster she was big enough to go on and was really ticked that she couldn't go on the bigger ones. TB wasn't interested in most of the rides, although he did love the water rides.

Of course, the prices were outrageous but it was to be expected.

We ended up having a great day. The weather was a little cool and it was threatening rain all day so a lot of people stayed home. About 3, the storm broke, closing the water park and a bunch of the rides. We waited it out while we ate lunch and by the time we were done, it had absolutely poured but was basically done. Tons of people left the park then so we were basically able to walk on to rides after that. The longest ride we stood in all day was 15 minutes to ride the Batman (my dad and TB spent 30 minutes in line for Scooby Doo but we weren't in that line)

MT got to meet Batman and Robin! She was just thrilled senseless. My dad saw Batman at the theater and ran up the hill and grabbed her and took off back down the hill. I took off after them so I could get pictures of the big event. I'm sure we looked like idiots racing down the hill like we were being chased but it was well worth it to get the pictures. I didn't get pictures of Robin because I was in line for food when she saw him with my dad.

I ate like a horse all weekend but got right back on the wagon once I got home. I gained one pound while I was gone but I've lost that and a bit more since then. Hopefully, I'll manage at least a one pound loss this week. That would make me quite happy :)

I'm thinking about taking TB to see Night at the Museum tonight. It looks really funny and he has been begging to go see it.

School is almost over for the year. I'm ready for 1st grade to be behind us. Besides the fact that I'm ready to be done with his teacher, I'm REALLY ready to be done with getting up at 6 am!

He seems to be reading much better recently. At least stuff that interests him. He can read his Pokemon cards and know what each attack does because it is interesting. He doesn't seem to be able to read the early reader books they send home because they are boring. Quigs asked if I thought he was not being challenged and is some kind of evil genius. I told her I agree with the evil part LOL

He has started meeting with the speech pathologist at school because he stutters a little bit. I've been asking his doctor since he was 2 about it and have been told repeatedly that he would simply outgrow it. At 2, 3, 4, and 5, that was fine but he is 7.5 and still hasn't outgrown it. I emailed the SP and asked her about it. She observed him and said she agreed he needed intervention.

The SP met with him and then met with me and told me that she just wasn't sure what to do with him at this point (shock, neither am I but totally different reasons). She said he is aware of his problem but knows how to stop himself and get it under control. She was going to do some timed test for stuttering this week and we have a meeting setup for Monday morning to discuss the results.

She said that he has an advanced vocabulary and used advanced sentence structure and that basically, she thinks his stuttering is because he is too smart for his own good. She feels that the facial muscles aren't developed enough to handle his advanced speech patterns and doesn't want to put him in the IEP system if that is the case.

I tried the asparagus raw and it was kind of gross. I'm going to attempt roasting some on the grill this afternoon when I make dinner but I'm not holding my breath that it will improve that much LOL RF said it was fine but both kids agreed with me.

TB came home from school today complaining of a stomach ache. I told him I thought he needed to eat more fiber and that is why his stomach hurt. I told him he had to start eating veggies and he asked me to pick him up some celery at the store. So I did and he sat down and ate a big stalk of it. Madness!

Going to the dogs

Seriously Reelz Channel needs to quit showing "behind the scenes" Twilight stuff because they are being shown inter-mingled with Bolt stuff and I know WAY TOO MUCH about that crazy dog and his friends now.

Twilight review

I got to go see Twilight tonight. I liked it. I went into expecting to be disappointed because I liked the books SO MUCH. I have heard from various sources that it was either spot on (it wasn't) or it was completely different(it wasn't). It was sort of a mix. Some parts were line for line out of the book, others, quite different.

Most notably, the thing I felt was lacking was the complusion I felt over the Edward Bella love story in the book. In the book, I really felt for them and cheered for them. In the movie, I found myself rolling at eyes a bit at the whole thing. It just didn't translate well to the big screen, in that respect. I also hated the entire Port Angles scene because it was totally wrong. She never made it to the book store, she never fought with the guys, etc. Other than the fact that Edward saved her and drove her home (and that she ate something mushroom based, which I thought was an odd detail to include when other important things were left out), the scene was completely different. The scene I hated was the "look at me, I'm a bad ass sparkly vampire" scene. That wasn't how it went and the sparkly sucked. The first time they showed him in the sun, he looked damp not sparkly. The second time was much better, much truer to the book and had better makeup. The only other I didn't like was the actors tended to buy into the "go big or go home" school of acting. There were a few times when they completely overacted, sometimes to the detrement of the movie. For example, Bella's "intense" face, usually just made her look pissed. And I know the fight scene at the end is supposed to be all dramatic and tense but Edward's "I'm so mad, my left eye is all squinty" face made me want to roll around on the floor laughing like crazy. It was truly bad! Sometimes, the over acting was good, like when he first got the scent of her is class. He went big and paid off by making it a funny scene. The special effects were a bit cheesy (the running and tree climbing looked totally hacked together) but it was a fairly low budget movie and not a special effects movie. It was a love story after all. They left out a few scenes that I would have liked to have seen as well. I really wanted to see Bella try to flirt the information out of Jacob on the beach

Things I liked:
They kept a lot of the laugh out loud moments from the book and added some others. There were several times that I found myself laughing, although I didn't really expect to. The bio teacher cracked me up as did the antics of the other boys in school and the line "man, let a playa play". The other thing I liked was watching Ms Lemonade jump every time a vampire suddenly appeared on screen! She added quite a bit of humor to the movie for me so if you can get her to go with you, I highly recommend it :)

Although I could have done with another actor for Edward, I really liked the choices for Emmett and Alice. In looking at still pictures, I thought I wouldn't like the casting of Jacob but he pulled it off in the movie. So I revise my early position and say "good choice" Basically, I liked the parts that stayed true to the book.

Overall, I would say 3 and 3/4 stars because it was better than just average and I was entertained the whole. With a little polish and a slightly larger budget, I think the second film has the potential to be great. Unfortunately, we all know that the longer a book, the more chance they have of screwing it up. Also, the second book, with the break up and the internal struggle has the potential to not translate very well. Only time will tell.

Hm

Feeling too crummy to come up with an interesting title.

We had people over for dinner last night. This is seriously something we NEVER do but I did it. I spent ALL DAY cleaning the house. RF scrubbed the kitchen for me while the kids helped with the living room and dining room and I cleaned the bathroom. Seriously, every time I thought I was actually done, I found one more thing that had to be cleaned. At one point, I scrubbed the lid of the trash can because I thought it looked bad. I know the people that we had over are my friends and they wouldn't have ridiculed me too badly but I suffer from house jealousy. They have nice, newer construction homes. I live in a crummy basement of a house that was built in the 50s and remodelled to include a the basement by someone who knew nothing about house planning. It was some kind whose MIL got sick so he threw up some walls in the basement so she could have a place to stay in their house. So I over-compensated for the age of my house by cleaning like a mad woman. Then I cook all afternoon.

I was supposed to go to BN with S and J and their kids but I'm super glad I passed. I was under the mistaken impression that I could get everything done I needed done in a couple of hours. What a joke that was :)I'm sad we didn't get to go to the museum, but I'm glad dinner worked out.

I got a call today from the PTA president about bringing the PTA into the 21st century. I'm always pushing for more techy stuff and always getting rebuffed. If something isn't easy, people aren't going to do it. She decided that I was right and we are meeting today to discuss how to modernize our communication. Good stuff.

I have a cold. My head is all stopped up and I feel like crud. Blah.

I watched about an hour of Sweeny Todd last night and I was bored to tears. I like musicals, but I don't like where nearly every line is sung. I prefer normal movies that randomly break out in song. I saw Les Mis a few years ago and hated it. Sweeny Todd is pretty similar. :( I had hoped it would be good but I was disappointed.

It must be magic

Are you a Harry Potter fan? Did you know that the next movie (Half-blood Prince) is being delayed until next summer? Did you know it was so the WB could make more money by filling a gap in the summer schedule created by the writers strike? Are you irritated?

I am a little irritate because I was looking forward to seeing it. On the other hand, I'm not feeling too bad because it will give me time to finish reading the book to The Boy at bedtime. As it was, we were going to be pushing it to finish the book before the movie came out.

However, I'm in a couple of Harry Potter communities on Livejournal and people over there are INSANE about this. They are have created petitions to demand that the movie be released as planned. They are circulating contact information for execs at the WB, they are talking about boycotting the film completely (yeah right, they were all rabid for something as small as a trailer, there is no way they are going to skip the movie) and talking about ways to see the movie, without giving money to the WB (buying a ticket for a non-WB movie and going to see HBP instead, that way, tickets sales look like the non-WB movie beats the pants off HBP). One girl was screaming about how "thanks to the WB, my birthday is now ruined. I had plans and because they are money grubbing bastards, they are completely ruined. It will be my worst birthday ever"

I just wanted to be like WTF! It is a freaking movie and OF COURSE the WB is money grubbing, they are a corporation, in the business of making money! Those people seriously need lives and help, asap. That they are that up in arms about a release date change is just nutty.

Odds and ends

Nothing major happening so a few lists.

For the cryptic mess recently, I thought Quigs was avoiding me for some unknown reason. When I asked about it, she told me to quite being stupid so I knew we were ok LOL

I think the "Sisterhood of the Traveling.."something (pants, diaper bag, porn star bra, etc) should go see the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie when it comes out August 6th

We have decided on Holiday World for vacation. Now, we just have to decide whether we go to the park for 2 half days and stay one night or stay two nights and go to the park one whole day.

I'm reading a new Mary Janice Davidson book. If all the books I read, read as fast as her's and Janet Evanonvich's do, I could easily clear 100 books in a year. I can read one book in about 8 hours of reading. I would kick Missy's butt for books in a year LOL

I'm doing a terrible job keeping up my book list. I'm at least 3 or 4 books behind. I need to get that taken care of.

We went to the fair tonight. My mom had some free passes os we took the kids, rode some rides, ate some fair food (some of the best food there is) and saw the rodeo. The Boy went in the fun house, despite my warnings that it was so not fun. He ended up completely terrified and they had to shut it down and the girl had to go in and get him. Ms Thang didn't like the bulls because they were mean for trying to get the cowboys off them. They both liked all the junk they were allowed to eat and the trash sucking cow.

I'm going to Curtis Orchard tomorrow with S, from big kid play group. Then in the afternoon, Quigs and I are going berry picking at Pontious Farm because I'm out of blueberries again. Hopefully the picking will be better than it was last weekend because I need way more than 3/4 of a pound of berries to sustain the berry machine that lives at my house. Plus, I'm going to make the kids home made fruit roll ups and I would like to try blueberries in them

Saturday, I MUST go to the farmer's market. I've been trying to get some zebra tomatoes for a month and the only time I managed to get over there, they didn't have any. I need some freaking good tomatoes!

Saturday, we also have Cruisin for kids with Cancer, The last 3 years, I have volunteered to do things while others ride. This year, it sort of snuck up on me and I haven't emailed about volunteering. I will still go (TB rides with my dad on the ride) and take pictures and things. And if they need any additional people at the end, then I'll offer to help but I'm not going to commit this late in the game.

Finally, some pages I did from last years event

C4KC pages

Wall-E Review

I planned to review Wall-E after we saw it but never got around to it. Fortunately, for me and YOU, Slate did get around to it and did it much better and more well researched than I could (or would) have.

Why Wall-e is Bad. My only additional comment was that I felt like the whole movie simply a vehicle to make a not-so-thinly-veiled social comment. I don't want social commentary, especially overt social commentary in my cartoons. I want fun and laughs (which there are some, I'll admit) and entertainment. The short at the beginning of the movie is the part of the whole thing

4th fun

The 4th was great yesterday. We haven't had such wonderful weather for a long time and it couldn't have come at a better. Generally, we all go to my grandma's for the 4th but this year I decided to buck tradition and host my own cookout. Before that, though, we went to the parade. The Boy was pretty upset that they weren't throwing candy (they haven't for awhile so I'm not sure what he was expecting. We were all pretty irritated with water guns on the floats. It is fine, if they are squirting people that want to be squirted but not everyone does and the boy scout leaders need to pay attention instead of playing with their own guns. I was about 1 drop of water from charging the float and confiscating the guns. Fortunately, they got past us so I didn't have to. Ms Thang sat on my mom's lap and fell asleep after complaining about the sirens and the guns. Then she (my mom) decided to start complaining about how she doesn't like parades and how it was too hot and how she was ready to leave. That caused TB to start in on it so we packed up our stuff and left.

Once we got home, we pretty much ran around like crazy, getting stuff ready for our cookout. At 5, some of our guests (my family) showed up, even though it wasn't scheduled to start until 6. I started cooking food and my friends (the people the cookout was actually for, the family was sort of a pity invite) showed up around 6. Libbygirl, Quigs, Looseyfur, and Missy and their families joined us for burgers and hot dogs plus all the watermelon we could eat, as well as tasty sides and decedant desserts. The kids ran all over the back yard, playing the water and sand, stomping in the splashing pool (not a swimming pool because MT was pretty upset that it wasn't big enough to swim in LOL), driving/pushing the car, swinging and sword fighting the night away.

At 9, we all migrated to our front sidewalk/wall to watch the fireworks. I made a big deal about how everybody should come to my house to watch the fireworks because then they wouldn't have to fight traffic, we could see it all, blah blah blah. Then the fireworks started and we couldn't see more than a few. I was super disappointed and a little irritated about it since last year had been so good. About 9:30, a little to right, a big bunch of fireworks went off and we figured out that we had been seeing a smattering of some other town's. Probably Fisher or Mahomet, based on position. I was thrilled that I didn't lie to people about how good the show was from my house. Most of the kids were enthralled. I was pretty amazed at how well they all did. PG LOVED the fireworks and just stared and stared at them. Ms Thang got bored and went in the house, The Boy crawled in RF's lap and fell asleep, Flynn laid in Missy's lap with her fingers in her ears and fell asleep. Bubba, X-Man and Lightening McColin got a little ansty and played for a bit in the yard between watching the fireworks.

I ended up carrying The Boy into the house and putting him to bed. He was running a little fever and I gave him some Tylenol, after insisting that he try to go to the bathroom. As he staggered to the bedroom, he moaned "I'm so tired" and flopped into bed, asleep already. I took Ms Thang and told her she had to go to bed as well. She was sitting in the chair, head back eyes closed, yawning, insisting "I'm not tired, I don't wanna go to bed" I put her in bed anyway and she was there for about 2 minutes before she fell asleep, in the middle of talking to herself LOL

This morning, TB woke up burning up and complaining of a sore throat. I took him CC and they said that they couldn't see anything wrong. His ears were clear and his rapid strep came back negative. The doctor put him on antibiotics until his non-rapid strep comes back on Monday or Tuesday. After we left, I wondered about a sinus infection, but they didn't check that so I'll give him the antibiotics and wait and see for the strep check. Either way, the antibiotics will help. I just hope that he didn't pass anything off to Evan and my cousin that he was playing with yesterday.

This afternoon, we went and saw Wall-E and I wasn't impressed. Ms Thang didn't like it and spent a lot of time saying "I'm tired of being here, this isn't fun" The Boy, whose fever had broken at that point (but has since come back in force), layed his head on the arm of his chair and giggled a few times but didn't seem too interested in it, aside from the slapstick. I'll blog my review of it later and why I didn't like it.

More update-y goodness

Last night, the kids stayed at my mom's house so I totally got to sleep. It was nice :) Today, we hung around and then went to breakfast at IHOP. When Ms Thang asked me if I wanted to go she asked if I wanted to go to eye patch LOL

We came home and played outside for a bit then I put MT down for her nap. It was early but she was super tired and went to sleep pretty fast. While she napped, I played Lego Indiana Jones on the Wii, which is awesome (just like Lego Star Wars), in a completely nerdy kind of way.

After the nap, we went to the pool. We got there about 2 and played for awhile. At 2:50, they blew the whistle telling us to get out of the pool. Strange since "safety check" is on the hour. The guard told us there has been an accident in the kiddie pool and since it is a combined system, the big pool had to be cleared too. Then they announced that the pool was closing for the day. WTF? We got dressed and when we left, we found out that the accident had been of the runny variety and there was no way to ensure that it was cleaned out without dumping a ton of chemicals in it and waiting 8 hours for the system circulate it all through

Then, we went to the Urbana Park District's Strawberry Jam. We also watered the CARE garden while we were there (it still needs weeded and the door needs to be fixed for real but we did what we could). We had a little cup of ice cream and strawberries, the kids got some US Cellular swag and played for awhile then we rode the hayrack and came home.

I cooked dinner while the kids played outside then I put them to bed and now I'm watching The Game Plan. Cute and predictable but not taxing to my brain in any way :)

Free movie start this weekend

http://www.gqti.com/freematinee.aspx

I saw the flyer today at McDonald's and they started this weekend. We are going to see Shrek tomorrow, despite having seen it once in the theaters and having the DVD. :) C wants to see several of them and Lizzie is really interested in seeing "The Water Force" (because, despite repeatedly telling her, she won't believe that it is "Water HORSE" lol) and "Bee Movie"

American Graffiti

I've been listening to this soundtrack for 20 years, maybe longer. I found an old tape of my Dad's when I was a kid and listened to it until the tape fell apart. A few years later, my parents got me the CDs for my birthday, which was promptly put into heavy rotation in my CD collection. I haven't listened to it for awhile (I haven't listened to many of my CDs in the past 10 years) but recently, I was looking through my CDs and ended up ripping most of them to my MP3 player. Since I've been walking, I've been listening to the AG soundtrack again and I realized that I have never seen the movie. So I got it from the library and I'm terribly sad to say that I now know why I haven't seen it :(

I'm watching it now and I've watched half of it and aside from the soundtrack (which, obviously, I was well aware was stellar), it doesn't have too many redeeming qualities. They way too old guy (every group has one, who else is going to buy the beer) with the way too young girl is kind of funny. The nerd jumping the gun at the light got a giggle and that is about it. The Ron Howard/Richard Dreyfuss story line is dead BORING.

The other thing I'm really surprised about is the rating. Personally, I don't care but I'm really surprised that it only got a PG rating with language like "bullshit" and "god damn", not to mention all the raunchy sex talk.


I've invested this much time in it so I will probably finish watching it but it movie won't rank anywhere near the soundtrack (unlike Grease, which movie and soundtrack both rank highly).

Harry Potter

First of all, yay, I'm not a spammer anymore. Blogspot suspended my account because it had "characteristics of a spam blog" I had to go through a verification process to prove that I was human not just a spam bot. I also emailed them and asked what triggered it and how I can avoid it in the future.

Second, We went to see OoTP tonight. I thought it was great! The special effects where superb. I read the book a while ago so I can't really compare it to the movie, although dh says that the Sirius Black scene at the end is quite a bit different. We took C and he did ok. It was a little slow and there were several scenes that required reading (lots of spinning newspapers and Umbridge decrees) so I was having to tell him what they said all the time. He got a bit antsy but during the last 30-45 minutes, things really heated up and the action was intense. He was absolutely riveted to the screen during the battle at the ministry. Personally, I got a little ansty at about the hour mark but overall it was a good movie. For as dark as I remember the book, there were several moments that were actually LOL funny. And for once, I wasn't the only person in the theater that was laughing (generally other people don't seem to get the jokes). HP is turning into quite a hottie! Ron isn't bad looking either, although I think he has doubled in size since the last film! He was really freaking tall. Hermione doesn't seem to have changed much since the last film. Actually I went looking for pictures of her from the first film and can't find any good ones. From the little bit I could see on the cover, it doesn't look like she has changed all that much from the first film. Gotten taller and thinned out a bit, but nothing major like the 2 boys.

I'm sad there were no Quidditch scenes at all. There weren't even many flight scenes (the one at the beginning is brilliant though so I guess that makes up for it), which are some of my favorite scenes in the other movies. The Department of Mysteries scene is fantastic and the actors do a really good job of it (and all the other scenes), considering it is all green screen. I thought Emma Watson did a great job. She seemed to really be able to convay (which I'm sure isn't spelled write, but I'm too lazy to look it up) a lot with a glance or facial expression. The scene where she introduces Luna to the others is a great example of this.

Harry Potter

I'm going to see Harry Potter in 3.5 hours. You can be jealous now. Or not, if you are like me and the new book in 3 days (and some odd hours, dh has it on his computer as a widget LOL) holds way more interest than the movie.