So it's been an interesting week. My car didn't start the other day. Turned out I needed a new starter motor. Money, money. Also had to take a bunch of days off work because they're upgrading the computer system. And my auntie and cousins are visiting. So it's been good.

'Up In The Air' (2009) directed by Jason Reitman

Cool film. It's clever, has interesting characters and while some bits are a little predictable, the overall arc of the film did not end up where I expected. A pleasant surprise, that. George Clooney is excellent in the main role, as is Anna Kendrick playing the main supporting role. Together they work well as a different take on the classic odd couple dynamic. So yeah, I thought it was sharply written and worked well, it's funny but also has a lot of depth. Jason Reitman is certainly shaping up to be an excellent director. Oh, the other thing that was cool was the presence of some excellent comic actors in small supporting roles, including Zach Galifianakis, Danny McBride and Jason Bateman.

'The Princess And The Frog' (2009) directed by Ron Clements and John Musker

I took some of my young cousins along to see this and it was pretty enjoyable overall. Perhaps it's the fact that I'm a bit older these days but it didn't quite seem to have the same charm or humour as some of Disney's earlier animated films. I'm thinking mainly of films like 'Aladdin', 'The Lion King' or 'The Emperor's New Groove'. This film feels a little smaller in scale than those films, less epic somehow, but it's still good fun. The hand drawn animation is in stark contrast to the now more prevalent 3D computer generated style, but it still looks great. The story in this film is perhaps a little bit weak, the bad guy's plan seemed pretty convoluted and silly to me and the essential underlying moral of the film seemed a little unclear at times. Basically though, this film isn't aimed towards me, it's aimed at a much younger audience and the kids I was with seemed to enjoy it.