Whoa. Good Netflix.

Thanks to my always excellent Heddy-friend, I have a free month of Netflix. I ought to have abused it and signed up for the 3-DVDs-at-a-time service (I still might, so long as it's free). I got my first disc, and I went out to return it at 1:30 am across the street to be sure it would make it out on the next pick up.

What did I rent? The miniseries for Battlestar Gallactica. And yes, it was that good. ( My brain has been rocked well and truly. Mind the spoilers! )

The Corpse Bride was so much fine. I forgot how much I really do enjoy the stop-motion animation in film. I don't think it measures up to Nightmare Before Christmas, though. The premise of Nightmare allowed for the herky-jerky animation style to work for it, whereas with Bride there were plenty of times in action scenes where the animation gaps were jarring. I liked the story well enough, though I think it was predictable almost from the beginning, another reason why I preference Nightmare to Bride. I liked the undead bride better than the living one, but enjoyed the latter's spunk.

The laughs, generated by both sight-gag and thwarted expectations, were enough to keep me from dwelling (much) on the darker tone of Bride. Taken at face value, the premise is horriffic, and frankly, I wouldn't take kids under say 10 to see it if not for the injected moments of levity and the effort not to show the more gruesome stages of physical disintegration after death. Indeed, when deaths do occur in the film, they aren't given focus, sometimes played for humor to mediate their impact. Nevertheless, there is a genuine creep along the spine generated by the words "New arrival" at a key moment. Fun, short but feeling slightly too long for what its story does end up being, The Corpse Bride was a good trip out, and glad we got to do it with so many people.

And then there was the Goblet of Fire trailer, the new one I hadn't seen. Michelle and Carrie squealed at separate moments over Daniel Radcliffe, but I was too busy trying to absorb it all to pay them much notice beyond a grin. I didn't see Sirius, though. He is in it, isn't he?

Well, I was approved...

...now I just have to see about getting into the show. There's a lot of people in this city. For those of you not comprehending, I am talking about Serenity's press screening. Per Universal's wishes, I am enlightening the (very) few of you who have no idea what Serenity is about. This is kinda fun, actually, being bossed around on a weekend. I should go to press screenings more often!

Ahem, as it was:

Joss Whedon, the Oscar® - and Emmy -nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE, ANGEL and FIREFLY, now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial debut, Serenity. The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family –squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.

Also, for your entertainment: Serenity's official website is actually a lot of fun to play around with (but yes, I was also asked to pass that along. Seeing as most of my friends list has already peeked at it more than once, shouldn't be too hard to convince you to go back. Let me know (and deepredbelle I'm looking at you) if there are any shiny new pictures, won't you?

Of course, there's still a matter of getting in. I might request a little time off early from my boss, use the pretense of a doctor's appointment (crafty ruse!) which ought to play in nicely with the surprise twist come next Monday and Tuesday.

In other news, I'm cold, I'm bored, and I'm leaving to go get a library book and go to Barnes and Noble to purchase Finding Serenity since I can't rent it out of the library and I've had good experiences of late with show-specific musing books (the one my sister loaned me in San Fran about Farscape was great even though I only understood half of the things they say, having never finished the series). See you people in the world.