Twilight

So, I went to see Twilight on Sunday. I really enjoyed it :)! I thought Bella's character in the movie was much more bearable than she was in the book. In fact, at the end of the movie, I felt that this story was much better suited to film than it was to its home medium, which is rare. Usually the book is better.

My favorite part of the movie though, was not a part of the movie itself, but the atmosphere in which I watched the film. There were the group of teenager girls sitting behind me, who would clap and hoot and sigh over EVERY SINGLE character as they were introduced on the big screen. With the guys, they'd say things like "OhmiGOD...he's sooo cute...I love him [giggle noise]." With the female characters, they say things like "ooohh...she's so pretty...I want to be her..."

The one scene where I expected to hear an "ohmigod" was the steamy kiss between Bella and Edward. The girly teenagers however, remained [uncomfortably(?)] silent throughout. Were they paying homage to the romance brewing between the two main characters? Or were they struggling with their teenager hormones, unsure of how to handle themselves? I guess I'll never know. But, I suspect it was the latter ;).

Go see Twilight! It was entertaining to say the least :)!

Across the Universe

I just finished watching Across the Universe. It's awesome. I loved it. I think everyone should watch it. It's a musical--utilizing only songs from the Beatles--about two people who fall in love during the 1960s Peace Movement, and how the events and aesthetics of that time mold and shape their relationship (but also the relationships of those around them). I figured it would be fantastic though because it stars Evan Rachel Wood, who I think is a spectacular actress. I can't think of a movie that I've seen her in that I didn't enjoy. Also, it's from director Julie Taymor, whom I also find very talented. She directed the 1999 film version of Shakespeare's play "Titus Andronicus"--probably one of his more twisted pieces--entitled Titus, which I also loved. So, everyone should go watch that too!

I thought Across the Universe not only did a wonderful job utilizing the Beatles' songs as a narrative device, but I felt that it also strongly captured the essence of their music. I think the only thing that irritated me while watching this film ***SPOILER ALERT*** was the fact that Direct TV summarized it as a story about two "star-crossed" lovers. This led me to believe that the ending would be one of those sad and pitiful ones where one, or both, of the main characters die. So, it kind of sucked when the two lovers had hit their low point, and then the direction of the film seemed to be getting more and more uplifting. I kept waiting for something terrible to happen, but it never did. This film had a perfectly happy ending and I kind of felt as if my anticipating their doom hindered the full effect the film could have had on me.

***BORING ANALYSIS*** One of the things I thought special though, was the cinematography of the film. I love artsy fartsy camera, sound, and lighting work because it makes you think. Example: I thought the ending of Across the Universe was at once both consistent AND contradictory with the narrative and cinematography of the film. Just as the Peace Movement frames the narrative, so does the cinematography; It plays around with the structure and shape of the narrative through movement and color. What I thought was most interesting about this though, was that the 1960's Peace Movement was all about freedom of expression and peace, which Taylor shows effectively through her fun use of camera work and narrative, but at the same time fails to express through these very modes. One: She is limited to the film medium, which is made all that more obvious with her manipulation of said medium. Two: The narrative is classic Hollywood. As I mentioned above, the film has the typically happy Hollywood ending, which to me says "conformity." It seems almost tongue in cheek. Perhaps it was, given the time in which the film was made ;).

Anyhow! It's a fun movie to watch :), but also moving. I cried a few times...

Hellboy 2

So, I really enjoyed Hellboy 2. I recommend that all those who haven't seen it yet, go see it. It was pretty predictable, but then I don't go to Ron Perlman movies to think. I go see them to be entertained, and entertained I was. I especially loved all of the fantastical beings that they threw in there. I kept thinking back to my childhood days and The Neverending Story or The Labyrinth. The difference however, is that the special effects are much better. Guillermo del Toro is far better at rendering the fantastical believable.

GO SEE IT!!! Or wait for it to come out on DVD...whichever :). It'll still be loads of fun.

Worst Remake Ever

I just watched the original 1988 "Hairspray" again last night, after about five years since my last viewing... and it struck me forcibly just how godawful the remake is. John Travolta might be a touch more attractive in drag, but he just doesn't even hold a candle to Divine, who I spent years trying to decide - "he or a really ugly she?" Every single one of the new characters, with the only possible exception of Michelle Pfeiffer, utterly lacks the sparkle and soul of the original cast, and the musical numbers really pretty much blow. What was the point in turning a movie about music into a musical, which loses most of the fantastic original soundtrack? Or taking a character like Edna Turnblad and turning her into a sniveling, chin-quivering, hyper-sensitive waste of flesh? Seeing the musical remake just made me appreciate the original version more.

Movie Meme - jeannie

This was fun. Unfortunately, I don't have one of those jobs where I get to play on the computer all day so I may be a little slow in checking answers (not to mention the three hour time difference!) so bear with me :-)


1. "I don't belong here! I want to go home! I want my mother!"
"I had your mother, she wasn't that great!"
Shawshank Redemption guessed by Livvy

2. "Don't go looking for Mr. Right. Look for Mr. Right Now."
The Sweetest Thing guessed by Anna

3. "Hey, psycho - we're not gonna discuss this, OK, it's over. Please get out of my Van Halen t-shirt before you jinx the band and they break up."
The Wedding Singer guessed by Celeste

4. "What, you don't like rice? Tell me Michael, how could a billion Chinese people be wrong?"
The Lost Boys guessed by Anna

5. "Just look inside yourself and you'll see me waving up at you naked wearing only a cock ring."
Pump up the Volume guessed by Celeste

6. "I do wish we could chat longer, but... I'm having an old friend for dinner. Bye"
Silence of the Lambs guessed by Celeste

7. "All right so he got shot in the foot, what is it a big fuckin' deal?"
Goodfellas guessed by Anna

8. "Don't ever do that again! Carnivores, ugh!"
The Lion King guessed by Roy

9. "Anti-wrinkle cream there may be, but anti-fat-bastard cream there is not."
The Full Monty guessed by Anna

10. "You know, taking us for ice creams in a blizzard... makes you wonder who the real whack jobs are."
Girl Interrupted guessed by Lissa

11. Oh... guys? Don't stay in here all day. I had to take the batteries out of the carbon monoxide detector; it was beeping all night."
Garden State guessed by Livvy


12. "Oh, great. Now you're robbing him. You gonna rob me, too?"
" How do you think we fund this organization? We're not exactly the March of Dimes."
Blade guessed by Anna

13. "That was some of the best flying I've seen to date - right up to the part where you got killed."
Top Gun guessed by Livvy

14. "Your body's dying. Pay no attention, It happens to us all."
Interview With a Vampire guessed by Celeste

15. "I had the perfect relationship which was ruined by marriage."
Just Married guessed by Celeste

Well hell... I say it's Movie Game time!!

Only rule - no damn googling or using IMDB.

I'll start with someone easy: Adam Sandler

Movie Meme - Celeste rides again!

1. "I came here to study the great American art of muff diving. To smack clam, munch rug, dine at just one American pink taco stand! You know, I wanted to, how is it, park the porpoise. You know? I want to take it through the car wash, baby. And get it waxed. I want to wax it. Wax it! You know, and air dry. Air dry that shit, yeah!"
Van Wilder - guessed by Anna

2. "There was a moment last night, when she was sandwiched between the two Finnish dwarves and the Maori tribesmen, where I thought, 'Wow, I could really spend the rest of my life with this woman'."
Zoolander - guessed by Anna

3. "We're clearly soldiers in petticoats, and dauntless crusaders for women's votes! Though we adore men individually, we agree that as a group they're rather stupid."
Mary Poppins - guessed by Anna

4. "So happy I could shit."
"Chip, you know how I hate the brown word."
Serial Mom - guessed by Anna

5. "Who wants to hear about my STD from the silent film era?"
Grandma's Boy - guessed by Livvy

6. "And stop saying 'okay' all the time. Okay?"
"Okay."
"Good."
The Professional - guessed by Anna... although I think Livvy is right and the same dialog is in Blast From the Past

7. "Nice job, you fucked up date night."

8. "Juvenile delinquents are everywhere. Right here in this community. Boys with long hair and tattoos who spit on the sidewalk. Girls who wear tight slacks. Hysterectomy pants, I call them."
Cry-Baby - guessed by Anna

9. "This is a crucial question, Bob. Do you believe in the lord Jesus Christ and take him for your personal savior?"
Freeway - guessed by Anna

10. "Now this top line translates into, 'Pharaoh gobbles donkey goobers,' and the bottom line, 'Cleopatra does the nasty.'"
"Say what?"
"Well pretty much, that's the best I can translate it."
Bubba Ho-Tep - guessed by Anna

11. "No matter how many times you save the world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again. Sometimes I just want it to stay saved! You know, for a little bit? I feel like the maid; I just cleaned up this mess! Can we keep it clean for... for ten minutes!"

12. "Do your children enjoy jazz music? For I am here to tell you that Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, and the whole weed-blowing ginger-colored lot are merely masquerading as musicians and are, in fact, agents of evil. Reefer slows down the smoker's sense of time, allowing him to squeeze in unnecessary grace notes, giving this voodoo music the power to hypnotize white women into indulging in acts of unspeakable degradation."
Reefer Madness - guessed by Anna

13. "Oh, nice. 16 Candles is on, man."
"And the award for the least heterosexual statement ever made in this apartment goes to..."
Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle - guessed by Livvy

14. "...you should stop eating. You see, when you skip a meal, your body feeds off its fat stores. And if you skip enough, maybe your body will eat your ass!"
Bring It On - guessed by Lissa

15. "What were you just doing?"
"What? Nothing!"
"Oh no, don't tell me nothing, you were just singing a show tune!"
"You're crazy, I'd never do that."
"You can't be suicidal if you're singing show tunes!"
Dead Man On Campus - guessed by Lissa

Movie Meme - Celeste

Some of these should be gimmes....

1. "We lived on a farm! And I got lonely! We were just a couple of crazy kids!"
Club Dread - guessed by Lissa

2. "I like to grease the highboard better than anyone and if it was just four or five guys, I'd have no problem with that, but when I come home and find her doing the two-backed beast with the entire church council, well by God, that's going too far - especially since half the council is women! That's when I take a stand. That's when I'm counted as a man! That's when I throw my balls up over my shoulder and charge into the fire!"
Ed and His Dead Mother - guessed finally by Anna

3. "The Living Dead and the dying living are all the same. Cut from the same cloth. But disposing of dead people is a public service, whereas you're in all sorts of trouble if you kill someone while they're still alive."
Cemetary Man - guessed by Lissa

4. "As Bertrand Russell once said, 'The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.' I think we can all appreciate the relevance of that now."
"Was that on a beer mat?"
"Yeah, it was Guinness Extra Cold."
"I won't say anything."
"Thanks."
Shaun of the Dead - guessed by Anna

5. "Wait - would you rather live in the ascendancy of a civilization or during its decline?"
Revenge of the Nerds - guessed by Livvy

6. "Houses don't have memories."
Amityville Horror - guessed by Livvy

7. "Stand back boy! This calls for divine intervention!"
Dead Alive - guessed by Anna

8. "Let me out. Let me out of here. Get me the hell out of here. What's the matter with you people? I was joking! Don't you know a joke when you hear one? HA-HA-HA-HA. Jesus Christ, get me out of here! Open this goddamn door or I'll kick your rotten heads in! Mommy!"
Young Frankenstein - guessed by Anna

9. "What do we do with this guy?"
"I promised the professor that we take this guy alive. After you blow him all to hell, put one in his leg so we can tell the professor we tried."
Jason X - guessed by Anna

10. "Are we awake?"
"We're not sure. Are we black?"
"Yes, we are."
"Then we're awake, but very puzzled."
Blazing Saddles - guessed by Anna

11. "Where am I?"
"Back from the dead. I've saved you."
"My God! How?"
"By magic, of course. With a kiss, because I like you."
Flash Gordon - only guessed by Russ, despite the number of hints I gave

12. "You hate that job anyway. I don't see why you don't just quit."
"Because I want to fit in."
American Psycho - guessed by Livy

13. "...I'm not a very good shot...but the Samaritan here uses really big bullets."
Hellboy - guessed by Anna

14. "Hello, and welcome to Amsterdam's finest and most luxurious youth hostel. We feature one medium sized room containing 70 beds which can sleep up to 375 bodies a night. There is no bathroom. Nor is there one nearby. If you do not wish to have your valuables stolen I suggest destroying them or discarding them right now. You can also try hiding your valuables. In your anus. This will deter some but of course not all thieves. Once you are inside, the doors are chained and locked from the outside. They will not be opened again until morning, no matter what. Should a fire occur due to our faulty wiring or, uh, the fireworks factory upstairs you will be incinerated along with the valuables that you have hidden in your anus. Tips are greatly appreciated."
Eurotrip - guessed by Livvy

15. "Look, there's no point in arguing about this, all right? We need a solution. We need... we need to get some food over there."
"Yeah, OK, I have an idea. We draw straws and the loser runs across the lot with a ham sandwich."
Dawn of the Dead - guessed by Anna

Movie Meme

Rules:
+ Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
+ Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
+ Post them here for everyone to guess.
+ Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
+ NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions.

1. "People will look at the ashes of Westerburg and say, "Now there's a school that self-destructed, not because society didn't care, but because the school was society." Now that's deep."
Heathers guessed by Alicia

2. "I said I'd die for you!"
"No. You said you'd die with me. Cause you had nothing better to do."
Ginger Snaps guessed by Celeste

3. "Honey! C'mon over here, Sugar-buns. This machine just called me an asshole!"
Maximum Overdrive guessed by Celeste

4. "You better pray to the god of skinny punks that this wind doesn't pick up, cos I'll come over there, and jam an oar up your ass."
Tommy Boy guessed by Alicia

5. "What is the one thing that could ruin my senior prom?"
"That you would trip on your Barbie heels and I'd be named prom queen... Did I just say that out loud?"
Never Been Kissed guessed by Alicia

6. "Move it, garbage boy! You are COOKING? HOW DARE YOU COOK in my kitchen! Where do you get the gall to even attempt something so monumentally idiotic? I should have you drawn and quartered! I'll do it! I think the law is on my side! Larousse, draw and quarter this man - after you put him in the duck press to squeeze the fat out of his head!"
Ratatouille guessed by Olivia

7. "I rescued your hat."
"Well... that's the important thing."
Jurassic Park 3 guessed by Olivia (close enough)

8. "Look, this is an emotional moment for all of us, okay? I know that. Let's not make snap judgments, please. This is clearly-clearly an important species we're dealing with and I don't think that you or I, or anybody, has the right to arbitrarily exterminate them!"
"Wrong!"
Aliens guessed by Celeste

9. "She's not my girlfriend. I find her interesting because she's a client and because she sleeps above her covers... *four feet* above her covers. She barks, she drools, she claws!"
Ghostbusters guessed by Sonny

10. "Mom, I'm worried about Antonia. Did you know that she put on her mouse ears and drives around town, all liquored up, NAKED?"
Practical Magic guessed FINALLY by Celeste

11. "Everything. OK! I'll talk! In third grade, I cheated on my history exam. In fourth grade, I stole my uncle Max's toupee and I glued it on my face when I was Moses in my Hebrew School play. In fifth grade, I knocked my sister Edie down the stairs and I blamed it on the dog... When my mom sent me to the summer camp for fat kids and then they served lunch I got nuts and I pigged out and they kicked me out... But the worst thing I ever done - I mixed a pot of fake puke at home and then I went to this movie theater, hid the puke in my jacket, climbed up to the balcony and then, t-t-then, I made a noise like this: hua-hua-hua-huaaaaaaa - and then I dumped it over the side, all over the people in the audience. And then, this was horrible, all the people started getting sick and throwing up all over each other. I never felt so bad in my entire life."
The Goonies guessed by Alicia

12. "One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach, all the damn vampires."
The Lost Boys guessed by Sonny

13. "Oh, God. I look 20 years old!"
A Nightmare On Elm Street guessed by Olivia

14. "Are you trying to kill me?"
"No, sweetheart. I'm making you not care. Okay?"
28 Days Later guessed by Celeste

15. "At least you'll never be a vegetable - even artichokes have hearts."
Amelie guessed by Olivia

Fido

If ever a movie was produced specifically for me, Fido would be it. It's got the '50s-style kitschy setting, the dark humor and zombies(!), all seemed aimed right at my weird-movie-loving heart.

The opening montage is fabulous. America has fought and won the Zombie Wars, and domesticated the undead, so that now the average citizen lives a lifestyle of relative ease, with tedious manual tasks relegated to rotting corpses with electric collars around their neck that keep their urge for flesh in check. Enter our hero, Timmy, a friendless runt of a kid with a father obsessed with death and terrified of zombies. (Dad is played by Dylan Baker, who I will always, unfortunately, associate with his creepy role as the child-raping dad in Happyness.) Timmy's mother buys the family a zombie, because they are the last family on the block who doesn't own one, and she hates to feel like she doesn't fit in. Lacking actual friends his age, Timmy names their new zombie Fido, and quickly develops a rapport with him.

Of course things can't stay that simple, and a la Dead Alive, Timmy's zombie breaks loose and kills a nasty old neighbor-lady. Rather than see his pet zombie destroyed, Timmy moves into damage-control mode and tries to cover up the crime, which of course results in a neighborhood-wide outbreak of zombies.

If you liked Ed and His Dead Mother, or Dead Alive, or Shaun of the Dead, this is a movie you'll probably enjoy. I loved it. It's been definitively entered into the "To Buy" list.

Chick Flicks worth Seeing

Inspired by Sonny's need to share an AskMen article with me, I have compiled a list of my top ten chick flicks. I thought the list that AskMen put together was pretty weak; I mean "Serendipity" (suck!), and "Meet Joe Black"? There was one good scene in "Meet Joe Black" and it involved Brad Pitt getting hit quite unexpectedly and perversely, hilariously with a car. So here's my list of the Top Ten Chick Flicks Worth Watching:

10. Pretty in Pink (Andrew McCarthy and James Spader in their heyday. Le sigh)
9. Pretty Woman (Interesting tidbit: I want to say Jennifer Jason Leigh auditioned for this part, and they told her she was playing it too dark. She said "this woman has been giving blow jobs for $10 dollars". The studio replied "yeah but she hasn't been doing it that long".)
8. Love Actually (For the brief month that Jin the perpetually angry asian and I lived together, I caught him watching my copy of this about eleven times. It melts hearts people.)
7. Never Been Kissed (It's lame, but it still makes me cry. Every freaking time.)
6. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (Because we really do)
5. Foxfire
4. The Craft
3. Thelma and Louise
2. Jawbreaker
1. Freeway

Hot Fuzz

Some day, they'll allow you to buy movies pay per view style on their theater release date but until then, I'll probably not see movies until after they make it to DVD. And I saw Hot Fuzz last night. And if I were to give Shaun of the Dead a 5 stars out of 5, I would give Hot Fuzz a 10 on the same scale. I laughed so hard I woke the baby up. It was brilliant on so many levels... words fail. I just loved it. Too bad it's too gory to watch around the baby, because I want to watch it again as soon as possible.

Summer Movie Madness

Soo, me and Anna have been going to see as many movies as possible this summer :). The two most recent have been Transformers and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Both movies were excellent. The Transformers was action packed, and I just have to say, Michael Bay is *awesome*. People always complain about his movies, but as far as I am concerned, if you are going to a Michael Bay film, then you are going purely for entertainment value. Yes....look at the pretty pictures...cooooolll dude! That's it. It's not to think, and this movie definitely met all of my expectations; escapism at its best. I definitely recommend seeing it in theaters too! I don't think it'll be as awesome on a small screen television.

Harry Potter was also *fantastic*; it was the best one yet and I simply can't wait for the next one to come out in 2009. Woohoo!! I definitely think that everyone should go rent the first 4 movies, and then go see this one. I think when I am done with school next year, I will break down and read the entire series...and it'll be perfect because I will be able to read them all in a row without having to wait for an unspecified amount of time for the next book to come out! It is the only thing I hate about reading books in a series. The waiting really gets to me!

More movies to come! Maybe Anna will post about the next ones!

1408

Hmmm...Also, two weekends ago, me and Anna went to see 1408. It was a psychological thriller, mostly about overcoming your own personal demons. I enjoyed it, even though it stopped being scary about half way through. It just kept building up and up and up, until you were just like...ok...I get it. The room is evil. John Cusack did a FANTASTIC job of playing the protagonaist though. Who knew he could act so well? None of his other movies, mostly all fantastic, don't really go through the extreme emotions, but this one did and he did wonderfully :). Samuel L. Jackson was also amusing, even though I did not understand his character. Anna felt he was just the hotel manager, but I thought he was more like the gate keeper or something...the one who warned people away from the room, but also let them in if they were persistant. But, I think he definitely had a role in what the room was doing. Either way, the funniest scene in the movie revolved around Mr. Jackson and that was when they miniaturized him and put him into a tiny little refridgerator that Mr. Cusack would attack later. Very funny, and also the turning point in the movie for me, where it went from scary to just intense. Overall a good movie, but I don't know if it is worth seeing on the big screen. I would rent it when it comes out :). That's all!!

I won something!

So, I know that Heathers is a timeless classic, and that any attempt at a remake would immediately be panned by me and anyone else with taste; however when I saw this contest to recast it . . . I couldn't resist. Guess what? If you haven't already your reading comprehension skills are lacking *cough*thetitleofthepost*cough*. I won!! They picked my new cast! Go here to see who I chose.
I'm eaker, i.e., the winner.

Hey it's that guy!

Watching '300' I had a very "hey it's that guy!" feel. Most of the main characters rung faint little bells, and by faint I mean, it was driving me crazy trying to figure out who they were the entire time. Placing the actors was made especially difficult by gorgeous and extensive stylization of the movie. I had the sneaking suspicion that I remembered King Leonidas from 'Dracula 2000' as the tortured and immortal Judas cum bloodsucker, and hey . . . I was right! Gerard Butler did play Dracula! Yay!

The other character that bugged me was Queen Gorgo. That crooked mouth . . . the entire night I tried to remember where I knew it from. Eventually I decided that I was thinking of Olivia d'Abo, who was definitely not playing the part. Imdb has saved me! Lena Headey, you saucy minx! I saw you in 'Gossip'! That tripe is from whence I remember that sad look of betrayal and crooked duck lips. You sure showed James Marsden aka Cyclops who was boss in a much less satisfying way than you schooled . . .

Dominic West aka Theron aka the guy in '300' who lends himself to the best female revenge scene ever! Your monkey face is the same mug they attempted to sell as ruggedly handsome in 'Mona Lisa Smile' and 'The Forgotten'. You are times disturbingly ugly and yet strangely appealing . . . not at all.

*SPOILER*
your death scene made the theatre clap, and I would have too, but I'm not a complete tool.

Of Course They Are

I have meaning to put up a post about how good '300' was.

'300' was really good. I saw the movie with Sonny and his friends, and I remember Ben saying that he wanted to show it to one of his Persian friends to see how he would react.

Hopefully he wouldn't react this way.

Who needs President Bush and Congress to declare war when apparently Frank Miller's got that covered?