Quick Reviews

Chex Mix Chocolate Chunk Bars - About as delicious a candy bar as I've ever had, with only 140 calories and whole wheat flour as a first ingredient (followed by a bunch of forms of sugar and unhealthy stuff, of course). They combine the salty crunch of pretzel and chex with gooey chocolate. Eating one of these was how I celebrated Halloween, candy-wise. (Note: they are not nearly as impossible to stop eating as All Bran cinnamony bars, but that may only be because I am not crazy for chocolate.)

Eragon - In the opening scenes, I was like, heh, look, it's the poor man's John Malkovich...wait! That's the real John Malkovich. Apparently he could not resist the opportunity to play Harkonnen from David Lynch's Dune, complete (Robert assures me) with the exact same dialogue spoken in the exact same way in at least one place. I thought that poor farm boy had way too nice a leather vest, which made Robert and me both think at the same moment of two different 1970's actors. Other scenes were lifted from Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings; we'll call this an homage to the classics. I liked one visually novel scene, but Robert said it looked like a village in one of his computer games. But, you know, dragons, ok? The fully-grown dragon in armor looked so bad-ass as to make the whole thing worth it. Best Halloween costume I saw yesterday. (Only Halloween costume I saw yesterday.)

Before Sunset - I didn't realize I'd seen the movie before until the scene with the rabbit hopping in the grass, which I rewound and watched like 3 times because I am bunny-crazy. Robert pointed out that it had to be a feral rabbit, not a wild rabbit, due to its coloring. Whatever. It was cute. It was interesting to watch the movie with two young people who did not at any point pull out a cell phone. They had to talk to each other. Also bizarre is actress Julie Delpy, who was very pretty and thin but had arms that were neither stick-like nor had any visible muscle tone. Ah, 1995.

Yes, Prime Minister - This is must-see TV for fans of droll British comedy who also are healthily cynical about politics.