I think there was some confusion about my recent post where I said I was needing to start up a promotional site. I meant another one. (“lestah.com” is available, actually.) I’m not shutting down solonor.com for a good long time. So, in spite of that loud silence here lately, you can be certain to always get your fix of peeping into the window of my life, ya perverts!
Speaking of peepers, we fixed ours on Kingdom of Heaven last night. Man, I love dollar movie theaters!! Even if the movie is not one for which I’d pay full ransom, it ain’t so bad to see things like Miss Congeniality 2 for a buck. Although, I think I saw George Washington cry when we handed his picture over for The Pacifier. (Vin Diesel compelled me with the power of his mind.)
Anyway, Kingdom of Heaven was pretty good. Not great. Not bad. I thought that the story kind of wandered a bit. And the battle scenes were, if anything, too realistic. So many arms flailing and so much blood spurting that you can’t really keep track of who is hitting whom. And in one overhead shot, where the walls of Jerusalem have been breached, it basically looks like a mob of subway passengers struggling to get past each other to no end.
Considering it’s a movie about the crusades in these post-9/11 days, I thought it handled the subject of Christians vs. Muslims pretty well. Historically… well, it is a movie. However, it’s at least mostly based in fact. The made-up bits, as usual, involve our hunky male lead (Orlando Bloom) and the beautiful princess (Eva Green). That’s Hollywood. If you want the real story (and spoilers), see the Wikipedia article on the movie.
Sadly, Monty Python has forever scarred me from seeing an historical epic on the crusades. When the Knights Templar showed up, I expected them to start singing and dancing. And when Balian (Orlando Bloom) is shown his father’s estate of Ibelin, I swear I heard someone say, “It’s only a model.”
