Lord of the Rings (1978) distributed by United Artists Films

After watching Asylum’s A Woman’s Perspective on ‘Lord of the Rings’, I think it should have been titled “A Non-Fan who Happens to be a Woman Thinks The ‘LotR’ Movies are Stupid.”  It was a half-hearted attempt to make fun of the Peter Jackson series, but there’s a lot more to laugh about in this 55 year old book trilogy than the box art.  To celebrate the end of Tolkien Week, I have reviewed the much reviled 1978 version of The Lord of the Rings by Ralph Bakshi.  Just to make things clear, I am both a fan of the books and the Peter Jackson movies: I’ve read the books, including most of the appendices, and for women who are into romance novels rather than fantasy, the story of Aragorn and Arwen in Appendix A is really touching.  I’ve seen the extended versions of all three movies, all of the extras, and I treasure those gigantic box sets with foldout flow charts that navigate the 4 DVDs per box (yes, I have no life).

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Megan Fox in Jennifer's Body

Is Jennifer’s Body, the girl-centric horror film written by Diablo Cody and directed by Karen Kusama, a feminist movie? The issue has been tossed around on a variety of different feminist blogs: some say yes, some say no, with some good arguments from both sides. The film centers around two friends, Jennifer (Megan Fox) and Needy (Amanda Siegfried). Jennifer is as sexy and confident as Needy is nerdy and dull, but once Jennifer becomes a demon who devours men, their friendship is sent into a tailspin.

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