The Net Dog Blog

So much has gone on the past week or so. Last week, Blake and I attended the world premier of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the Royal Albert Hall. The film was this year's Royal Film Performance in aid of The Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund. Attending this black tie event were the stars of the film as well as other celebs like Annie Lennox and Prince Charles and Camilla. In fact, we sat above and to the right of the royals. They were, forgive the phrase, within spitting distance. Unfortunately, being commoners, we didn't walk down the blue carpet into the front door. No, we were herded through the back and to our seats to watch the A-listers' entrances on the big screen. The movie was a fairly faithful adaptation of the book and was a lot of fun to watch. The venue was gorgeous; however the tiny seats became torture devices for us tall people after being seated for 4 hours. Not that I'm one to complain.
Yesterday, we did something I've been looking forward to for a while. We saw Sir Ian McKellen as the Widow Twanky in Aladdin, a traditional English Christmas pantomime. I can honestly say that this was the most fun I've had since moving to London. What a hoot! Sir Ian was just a filthy old broad and there were as many double entendres flying about the stage as there were acrobatic chavs. (For those of you who aren't quite sure what a chav is, click here.) At one point Blake let out a loud guffaw at one of Twanky's blue lines and Sir Ian pointed at him and said "You are a dirty boy!" He's been over the moon ever since.

This morning we got up bright and early to see the Peter Jackson remake of King Kong. Wow! What a great movie! This movie was as good as Godzilla (the 1998 remake starring Matthew Broderick) was bad.

Now the first act, introducing the characters and travelling to Skull Island, was a bit slow, but from the moment they step upon that mysterious piece of real estate the film takes off at a breakneck pace. Ooooo, it made me so tense! You almost forget that this film is over 3 hours long.

Naomi Watts was the epitome of the glamorous 30's actress. I had to remind myself that I wasn't watching Ginger Rogers or Jean Harlow. Of course, the real star of the show was the big monkey. He'll make you laugh and he'll definitely make you cry. Kudos to Andy Serkis (of Gollum fame) for giving the beast a soul.

I think you're all caught up now. Christmas is coming up and then our trip back home to Louisville so hopefully I'll have lots of things to share with you.