Fish 'n' films

Kevin's already mentioned the shark attacks, but other memories of the London Aquarium... okay, picture the scene. It's a large tourist attraction, and it's school holidays so there are lots of kiddies. There are also, in a strange and bizarre twist, lots of fish around. I can't tell you the number of times we heard cries of "Where's Nemo? Is that Nemo?"

Quite apart from anything else, I feel these children hadn't paid close enough attention to the end of the film when you learn where Nemo ends up.

We stumbled out eventually, having spent rather too long admiring the cheap tat in the gift shop, and fell upon the nearest food substitute we could find, in the form of a meal from McDonald's. Since the place was housed in the same building as the Aquarium it was rather crowded and we decided to brave the weather and eat at the deserted tables outside (deserted since strangely, in the 0° conditions, we were the only ones to do so).

And yes, I imagine it was quite cold. I can't be sure because I was wearing my big, thick, heavy, oh-it's-really-really-winter-now coat. Given that I'm notorious for feeling the cold, and at any point during the winter I'm generally wearing two or three layers of clothing, you will appreciate the insulatory qualities of this coat when I mention that the only time during the freezing cold day when I had to do it up, even though we were outside a fair bit, was when it actually started snowing. And then I opened it again sixty seconds later when the snow stopped.

Yesterday - and be warned, in big flashing red letters if you can imagine them adequately, that there may be spoilers herein - I saw Return Of The King with Missiedith. Now, I know this is hugely unfair of me since it is actually a very, very good film, but I was slightly disappointed by it. Mostly because of all the hype it's had, and all the stunned and awed reviews it's had from people I know, but still.

Okay, I won't spoil too much (but yes, a little, so look away now if you've been strenuously avoiding all such things) but one of my main gripes is that I feel they totally trashed my favourite chapter in the whole thousand pages, just so they could pull a cheap "gotcha" moment entirely for the benefit of those who haven't read the book. Hmph. Exceptionally brief summary of the film? The battle scenes were amazing, there were too many flashbacks, and they could have cut at least an hour from the whole film by simply not using slow motion at all.