Not sure whether this is unique to Australia (I somehow doubt it) but a good number of Jack’s classmates have seen films that about three age classifications too old for them. It troubles him, because we won’t let him watch grown up films and he’s jealous of his school friends who have. He’s nearly eight years old and there are quite a few films that are out-of-bounds.

That said I do wonder how some films come by their classifications. For instance, in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the first film (The Fellowship of the Ring) is a PG, but the second two (The Two Towers and Return of the King) are both PG-13. There’s certainly nothing in the second two films than is any worse than the first one. There’s pitched battles and limbs chopped off, orcs, and a huge man eating octopus just for starters.

So we decided to let the sprog watch all three films. I was given the extended film box set by my elder sister a couple of Xmas’s ago and I’ve never got round to watch all that extra footage myself. You get two DVDs per film or about 11 hours of film in all – it’s not the sort of trilogy you sit down and watch when you’ve got to be somewhere.

Anyway, the sprog was ill off school at the start of this week, so we began watching. He thoroughly enjoyed the pitched battles and was particularly taken by Legolas, the wood elf played by Orlando Bloom. So over the course of this week we’ve worked our way through them. By the time Frodo, Gandalf and Bilbo got on their Elvish boat and ‘diminished into the west’ we were well and truly over it.

Quite enjoyed the extra footage in the extended editions. The most important bit for me is Sarumon’s demise, which doesn’t get any screen time at all in the cinematic edition. Anyway glad I’ve seen it all now and glad that the sprog enjoyed it. He has told me he’d like a bow and arrow for his forthcoming birthday. For the time will soon come when hobbits will shape the fortunes of all…

I boldly went …
So. Star Trek. Not bad actually. Had fun spotting some of the knowing winks that the director made to Star Trek fans. I’d tell you what they are, but I wouldn’t want to get myself labelled as a geek or something. I mean, imagine!