So, Ain't it Cool News has released some supposedly confirmed Hobbit casting.

Martin Freeman will make a brilliant Bilbo, but I'm not so sure about the lovely Richard Armitage as Thorin. Mind you, John Rhys Davies is huge, so it's sort of a tradition for Dwarves to be played by massively tall actors. Still, I'm having trouble seeing a skinny 6'5" bloke as a Dwarven lord.

Pet hate #24601:

People saying that a film is a remake of an earlier film, when in fact it is an adaptation of a book which happens to have been adapted before.

Have these people never heard of 'books'?

Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is not a frakking 'remake' of Willy Wonka.

We saw Coraline on tuesday night. Very pretty and pretty creepy.

I've been saying for a long time that Neil Gaiman and Tim Burton were the same person split in two. Or possibly alternate universe versions of each other. Or matter and anti-matter versions of each other. Whichever it is, if they meet the universe will implode because the two can't exist in the same space.

Dispite the fact that I've read the book, I still had to keep reminding myself that the film wasn't anything to do with Burton. At least the ever-present ugly black cat who saves the day marks Gaiman's brain apart from Burton's. Just about.

The fact that the film is by Henry Sellick makes it feel very Burtonesque, of course - it feels like a sequel to the Nightmare Before Christmas. There was even a cameo by Jack Skellington (which was so brief that I missed it).

The film was plenty enjoyable, but there wasn't as much 3D as we were hoping for, and we're annoyed with Cineworld. They've changed their policy so that Unlimited Card holders now have to pay a £1.50 premium to see 3D movies, but didn't bother to write to tell us. If we'd shown up without any money, just with our cinema cards, we'd have be refused entry to the film. That's not cricket, Cineworld.

I'll be updating this list throughout the year, only including films seen for the first time. I'm sure I've missed a few, but I'll add them when I think of them. What else have I seen this year, people?

1. Inkheart
2. The Bourne Identity
3. Watchmen
4. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
5. Ladies in Lavender
6. Defiance
7. Valkyrie
8. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
9. Slumdog Millionaire
10. The Curious case of Benjamin Button
11. Taken
12. Push
13. What a Girl Wants
14. Monsters Ball
15. Lesbian Vampire Killers
16. Get Over It
17. Wolverine
18. Monsters vs Aliens

Cripes. I just popped out of my office to grap a sandwich and passed a couple of coppers dressed up like cops. As in 'tooled up'; 'packing heat'. Pepper spray, tazers and nine mils, all strapped to kevlar.

We normally only see weaponry on the police down here at party conference time, and they're proper SO types with MP5s and dour expressions. I don't know what hese two were up to, but they looked like they were heading for my building.

Oddness.

In other news, we saw Watchmen on Sunday. Good stuff. I don't mind what they did to the end, because the film end sort of makes more sense than Moore's. Am I goint to be pilloried by the purists for that? I also prefer the end of the film version of V For Vendetta to Moore's ending. I am clearly going to comics hell for these opinions.

But good movie. Good casting, thought I still say that the guy playing Ozzy wasn't pretty enough (and he was also struggling with the US accent, bless him, and sounded decidedly English a few times).

It was all very pretty and I look forward to seeing the extended version (with the major excision hopefully shoved back in).

We saw Taken last night.

By rights, no man with a neanderthal brow and seriously broken nose should be considered handsome, but by God Liam Neeson is easy on the eye. And the ear - that very soft voice of his...

The film was violent and entertaining. Badguys did bad things; Liam Neeson got very angry; badguys got killed in all sorts of painful ways; the end.

Note to baddies: when you see an angry 6'4" man built like a bear and with a boxer's nose, don't pick a fight with him. He is very large and very strong and will hurt you. A lot.

I liked that there was some un-subtitled French. I may not have understood it all, but I got the gist and it credited the audience with some intelligence. And none of the Albanian was subbed.

Also, I was amused to learn that Neeson auditioned for the role of Fezzik, but Rob Reiner laughed in his face for being a 6'4" pipsqueak. Andre the Giant was 7'. Still, if things had gone differently, Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin and Liam Neeson would have made a rather dashing trio. But Neeson is merely large - Andre was a fecking giant. With hands that could crack a man's skull.

Seeing quotes all over the place thanks to that meme that's going around has made me want to sit down and watch The Princess Bride. It would mean changing the bulb, though (well, hooking up the VCR), because I only have it on video. I must get the dvd at some point.

Interesting.

It seems that Snyder has confessed by his actions that 'Watchmen' really is nigh on unfilmable.

I learned yesterday that the 'Black Frigate' meta-comic is wholly absent from his film, but he's made an anime version of it which he'll release on DVD five days after the film's cinema release. Apparently he plans to cut it into a later collector's/director's cut type version of the movie on dvd.

Part of me thinks the film might be great - Snyder certainly has an eye for an interesting comic aesthetic, because 300 was beautiful - but part is sure that it will completely fail to represent Moore's book. Mind you, I re-watched V for Vendetta last night and enjoyed it (and blubbed). I'd been wanting to re-watch it since reading the book last year, and last night discovered that I own the dvd - I think I must have acquired it second hand and forgotten about it. In some ways I actually prefer the film to Moore's book - I think the film has a much stronger and more affecting denouement.

Oh dear.

Who's going to tell Legolas that he's just lost the title?

He is no longer the prettiest.

Or, at least, no longer the hottest Elf around. He's not even the hottest Elven prince around.

Yeah, so Prince Nuada is a bit genocidal (and used to be in Bros), but dear Eru that is one tasty Elf.

Yes, we saw a preview screening of Hellboy II: The Golden Army last night. So very very good. My word, but this might be turning into the best year ever for comic book movies. Ironman, The Incredible Hulk, The Dark Night and now this. All very good films indeed.

Is it wrong that every time there was something particularly pretty and terrifying (Del Toro excels at making things simultaneously beautiful and terrifying) all I could think was "Oh my God, The Hobbit is going to be so very good"? Seriousy. If the Mirkwood Elves are anything like the Bathmoora Elves (pretty but wonderfully scary, just like Tolkien's earlier Elves) and the Mirkwood spiders like the 'Tooth Fairies'... and as for Smaug... I can only dream of what Del Toro's wonderfully warped mind will do with the dragon.

Also, I thought several times during the movie that Del Toro really needs to direct something for Gaiman. I know the two are buddies (Neil posted photos from his visit to the Hellboy II set on his blog), so why oh why are they not working on something together? Or maybe they are and just aren't telling us about it yet. I've always said the Gaiman and Burton are practically the same person and the world might implode if they ever worked together, but I think a Gaiman/Del Toro collaboration might be even more glorious. Can you imagine Del Toro directing a Sandman adaptation? With the Corinthian? His idea of the Corinthian would be a wonder to behold. And Lucifer. Both played by Doug Jones, of course.

I can has Abe Sapien? And Nuada. Abe would be for companionship and cuteness. The Elf would be for other, less savoury things.

Also, I hadn't realised that Del Toro directed Blade II, though in hindsight that makes sense, what with the presence of Ron Perlman and Luke Goss.

*suddenly has a terrifying image of Perlman as one of the dwarves in The Hobbit*

No. I love the big oaf, but just no.

Also also, the real Captain Jack keeps popping up everywhere in the last week. TDK, Hellboy and an episode of Bonekickers.

We failed to see The Dark Knight again last night. That's twice now that we've gone to find both screen's sold out. Last week we decided to see WALL-E when we couldn't see our first choice - and I'm glad we did, because it's a lovely film. Even MB very nearly cried (needless to say, I of course did blub).

Last night we would have had to wait around for an hour to see something else, so we decided to rearrange ourselves and go to Sainsbury's a couple of days early, leaving thursday night open for attempt three at TDK.

I can see why it's smashing all the box office records - I've never seen the cinema so packed on a tuesday night. The queues!

I want to see this bloody film. Please!

We saw Prince Caspian last night, and I expect I'll post properly about it later, but imdb just amused me.

One of my first comments after the film was "And the prize for best Inigo Montoya impression goes to..."

Spanish accent, check.
Floppy hair, check.
Storming the castle, check.
Holding a rapier to the baddie's throat and accusing him of killing your father, check.

I just looked at Ben Barnes' imdb profile. Apart from realising why he was slightly familliar (he was young Dunstan in Stardust - he got to grow up to be the lovely Nathaniel Parker), I was rather amused by the following piece of trivia:

Said that he based his Prince Caspian accent on that of Inigo Montoya from 'The Princess Bride' because the night before auditions, he was sorting through his DVD collection trying to find something to help him.

This might go some way to explaining why he reminded me of everyone's favourite Spanish swordsman. Also, knowing that he owns a copy of Princess Bride makes me approve of him even more. Very very tasty and with good taste in postmodern fairytale movies. And not actually jailbait, because he's only a year my junior.

I can has Caspian?