More birthday stuff and a movie

I would like nothing better than to turn this blog into The chronicles of Annika's birthday gifts, but I probably will not do so. I do want to mention, though, that Heath and Jess rock! This morning I went to the post office and picked up a parcel containing 5 discs of Cowboy Bebop, including the movie. If this damn codex package ever finishes downloading, I will even be able to watch them! And, since the regular DVD player doesn't recognize the discs, this may (may) help to push me to reorganize the office the way I want it, which would make for a more comfortable viewing area.

Last night Will and I watched From Hell, based on the Alan Moore comic book (which neither of us has actually read). It was interesting, and mostly good, but far from great. For the majority of the movie I felt as though the filmmakers were simply trying too hard - it was overly stylistic without having the comic book-y stylistic feel. (Of course, like I said, I haven't read the comic book, so I could be wrong.) The performances were fairly good, but the dialogue was erratic at best. I ought to look into whether portions of the script were rewritten, which might explain it. Also, I don't pretend to be an expert of English accents, but I really couldn't tell where Johnny Depp's character was meant to be from. Heather Graham's accent was more consistant (to my ear), which can't be a good thing. The thing that irritated me most about the dialogue was that characters kept repeating other characters' names, as though perhaps the audience hadn't caught them, but then other characters were introduced and never named. It was confusing and, again, inconsistant. And people just don't talk like that. The sets were great, but again felt overdone, like they were trying too hard to recreate the feel of the time period. At least there was tons of gratuitous blood. And Hagrid! I mean...