Since the local pub often closed before 7pm, the nights in the countryside this summer often lent themselves to film viewing rather than carousing.

I do not know what Peter Jackson was thinking with the new Hobbit film. In The Lord of the Rings he stayed very faithfully to the original text and made incredible films. The original Hobbit is exciting enough, why invent new crap and story lines to throw in? Heart of the mountain? White orc? Brown wizard? Just to stretch the movie to 3 hours and an excuse to make another blockbuster and finish it? The grand, soaring classical music was also annoying. What a disappointment. The original 1977 animated film including John Huston as the voice of Gandalf was brilliant. I think Burl Ives does the music. I still have the film on lp in the States somewhere.

Brian Scoffield recommended the animated feature Up! last summer, and I finally got my hands on a copy. A wonderful film with a good message.

Four Lions - a very good film recommended by Lydia I think, about bumbling British Muslim terrorists.

Julie and Julia - made me remember all those afternoons watching Julia Child on TV as a kid. I found the pieces about her personal life and her husband's appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee most interesting. I have never been a big fan of Meryl Streep, but I think she did a fine job capturing Julia Child's mannerisms and vigor in this film.

Batman: Dark Knight Rises - the Hungarian subtitles ran out after the first part of the film, so will have to see how the end turns out.

Milk - an excellent film about San Francisco councilman and gay rights activist Harvey Milk. Again, I have never been a big fan of Sean Penn, but he did an excellent job here, as did the rest of the cast.

Sex and the City - it is what it says.

Kisvakond in the City, and Kisvakond's Trousers - Thanks to my boss Zsolt, we were able to borrow these classic Czech children's films to show the granddaughter. No language is necessary to understand the sweet cartoon adventures of the Little Mole.

Vizipok Csodapok - thanks again to Zsolt for the loan of this classic Hungarian animated film about the wondrous water spider and his friends.

Binjip - A very good (Korean?) film that got quite weird at the end. A young man breaks into the apartments of people on holiday, stays there for awhile, cleans the place better than it has ever been, and then moves on. Then it gets weird. Worth watching.