James and the Giant Peach (1996)

[Movie 206 / Day 219]


Based on Roald Dahl's classic childrens novel, James and the Giant Peach follows the story of a little boy whose parents are killed by a runaway rhinocerous. Packed off to live with his mean aunties, they force him to do chores around the house while giving him the bare minimum he needs to live. One day, while saving the life of a spider, a mysterious man appears and gives the boy a bag of magical worm things, telling him they will change his life. Unfortunately, he drops them and loses all but one.

The others get into the dead peach tree at the bottom of the garden and an enormous peach grows on it. To cut a long story short, he ends up hitching a ride to New York in said peach, along with some enormous insects.

It's OK; but the book was better.

My rating: 5.6 / 10
IMDB rating: 6.7 / 10
Running time: 79 mins
IMDB link

Enchanted (2007)

[Movie 42 / Day 25]


Disney movie about a fairytale princess that gets banished to the real world by an evil witch. It was OK, lots of references to classic Disney cartoons. The only two bits that I found good were the CGI chipmunk acting out the evil henchman's evil plot and the evil henchman himself, Timothy Spall, who is in top form.

Otherwise, nothing special.

My rating: 6.3 / 10
IMDB rating: 7.6 / 10
Running time: 107 mins
IMDB link

In the Valley of Elah (2007)

[Movie 8 / Day 6]


Tommy Lee Jones seems to only get better with age. He's brilliant in this fairly depressing movie (based on a true story) of a father trying to trace his son who is AWOL from the US Army. He's also backed up by a solid supporting cast, including Charlize Theron, Jason Patric (who makes up for the abysmal Speed 2 here), Josh Brolin (who, for me at least, can do no wrong at the moment)... Even Susan Sarandon seems perfectly cast as the depressed wife - and that's saying a lot, as she usually irritates the shit out of me.

It's a bit too long and the ending is a bit meh, but overall it's enjoyable. Depressing, though.

My rating: 6.9 / 10
IMDB rating: 7.5 / 10
Running time: 121 mins
IMDB link