Movie Review: The Fall

Possibly the most gorgeous movie I have ever watched. Visually it will take your breath away. The plot will demand your attention even after it ends. Tarsem Singh created a world within a world for every single unbelievable site you see is real. The crew shot in over 18 countries and used as little visual edits as possible. Every character and object you see has significant meaning.

The story centers around Roy Walker and Alexandria. He tells her of an epic tale but soon his intentions become clearer as reality and the story start to merge. A darkness over takes them, a dark reality that we all try to ignore. But even in the face of death and depression there is a small light screaming "Let him live"!

My personal rating for the movie is a 5 out of 5. I doubt I will see a movie as impressive as this one for a while.

Movie Review: No one knows about Persian cats

Bahman Ghobadi directed a shocking if not inspirational film. The movie follows Ashkan and Negar as they secretly try to obtain passports and assemble the rest of their band before they flee to London. Secular, non-religious, music is banned in Iran. There is the constant unseen danger from being caught. These people who love and embrace music have to hide for fear of imprisonment. Through the film you will see real bands from metal, jazz, indie, to Rap play and amaze you! I hope that if you see this film you will watch with the knowledge that this is a very real situation. The movie is a work of slight fiction, but the story it tells is very real...

5 out of 5

shh! I'm watching a movie.

Last night I had the chance to watch another silent film. They come on late at night after 11:00pm. But I enjoy them greatly, I get a different experience from them than other films. They are two different things in my opinion. The show last night was Notre Dame de Paris (The hunchback of Notre Dame). It was produced during 1911 in France. The version I watched was centered more around Esmeralda instead of Quasimodo. I'll be honest i've never read the original book so it might be centered around her. I tried to look up a little bit more info but all I could find was that it was rated R, which i'm not really so sure about that. But one unique thing was when they were out side during the day or inside a well lit room they used this bright sepia color but if they were outside during the night they used a deep blue coloring. I guess to help set the mood!

(Click on the image to see a bigger size)

Movie Review: The Lovely Bones

It has certainly taken me a while to review this movie mainly because I needed to be rational! I will be completely honest with you and say I cried from the beginning to the end. Two hours of straight crying like someone had killed my pet hamster...if i had one. My nose was raw, not a pretty sight. Why did I cry so much? I think because I knew she was going to die, not a big secret, and I was screaming "kiss him please if you love him don't hold back KISS HIM, YOUR GOING TO DIE MOFO KISS HIM!!!!" Then when she did die everything after that was incredibly heart retching.

But enough of my crying session here is a break down!!

Good Points: beautiful store line, graphically gorgeous, and I think it looked historically accurate (i.e. clothes, slang words, and mannerisms)

Bad Points: they did not really follow the book on some points. In the field they find an elbow but in the movie they make it her hat. The mother also has an affair but they left that out. They leave out that they find a coke bottle with the killer and Susie's prints on it. Linking the man to the crime. The book goes into more detail about her killing. She was raped, murdered, and then dismembered. In the movie you don't find that out at all. Only that he killed her.

I also didn't really like the way she died. You think she got away because she "wished" she got away...but she didn't. So that can be confusing if you don't know the story line.

Many people gave the movie horrid reviews, along the lines of how could someone make murder seem dream like....well psychologically some people will repress horrid acts and replace them with other things. Also she's dead and in the "in-between" let the girl dream what she wants....geez people!!

I gave this movie two reviews. If you don't ever hope to read the book I give it a 4.5 out of 5. If you have read the book, I give it a 3.5 out of 5.

Movie Review: Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

This was such a thought provoking movie. If you like movies that demand you to think about the content you will enjoy this movie. The plot can be slightly unclear until the end but the main character Sara Quinn has recently went through a brake up and while trying to understand she starts conducting interviews with men. In the end trying to figure out what makes men tick.

There is one line that I really like, it goes something like "feminism isn't just about women" WAIT COME BACK!! crap.. any who there is truth to that. It isn't just about how things effect women. Men do, whether they show them or not, have emotions. And one of the men she interviews really brings that out. Even the main character brings up that fact at the end.

I will say that if you do get easily offended, WHY ARE YOU ON MY PAGE, then you shouldn't watch this movie because again this is a movie where a girl interviews men about their sex or love lives or just their opinions on women...

What I didn't like about the movie is the fact that they don't make it truly known what is going on with the lead actress. She's quiet through out most of the film, and I mean that I think she says three or four sentences, not included this one scene that you think is happening but it never does it's in her mind. But you don't know that unless you really listen to the man. It's basically what she always wanted to say to him but never did...actually the whole scene with that subject is quite confusing...

I gave it a 4 out of 5

Movie Review: Ponyo

Recently I watched Hayao Miyasaki's Ponyo which was loosely inspired by Disney's Little Mermaid. Ponyo is a fish who gets rescued by a little boy named Sosuke (so-s-kA) and she falls in love with him. The desire to become human drives her from that point on. Her father doesn't want her to be human at all, in fact he detests them even though he himself used to be one. The down side is Ponyo can't be human and magical at the same time so completely unaware she creates a rift in reality. She and Sosuke have to make a huge decision based on if Sosuke loves her back and if she wants to let go of her powers. Now the movie itself I loved, Hayao can do no wrong in my eyes. I will say that this isn't his best movie. Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away are much better stories. Ponyo is beautifully done in a water color style art. My favorite character in the whole movie was Lisa, Sosuke's mother. She is by far the most understanding person EVER. During the whole movie she never questions her son once, or holds back, possibly the scariest driver though. She gets upset once about her husband not being able to come home from his fishing job (out at sea), which is understandable. She is kind of the mother I would strive to be minus the crazy erratic driving part.

I give Ponyo 4.5 chips out of 5!!!

Movie Review: Avatar

The other night I watched James Cameron's Avatar. I was really reluctant to watch it. When I first caught wind of it, I was all over watching it but then it became this huge "have to" see movie and I don't usually like those. Then recently new stories of how fans had watch the movie only to wake up the next day depressed about their lives and nothing they did would ever be close to the movie. right....

So Jodi and I watched it and visually it was amazing....and that's about it. There was one scene that I cracked up about. They start sending the "planes" out and this guy is outside the window routing them on when all of a sudden he get's slapped by the wind of the planes and he almost falls over and he loses his hat. Now the funny part is the planes aren't real so I wonder what made him really jerk like that...

bad parts: The voices...script sucked "yeah, yeah you better run, yeah go get your friends, i'll take em' on"

Another thing I want to bring up is that we've all seen this story before!!! It's called Pocahontas.... "What??? Stephanie surely you're mistaken?"

No, think about it.... Pocahontas "white man finds new land and wants it's resources, finds out there are natives, try to be friendly and get in with them, when that doesn't work they just try to kill them all, the guy who was the go-between "john smith" almost dies but Pocahontas saves him by jumping over his body. He learns the ways of the native people..

Avatar is the same story just instead of native Americans it's blue people, not new adventurers but the american army, instead of John Smith it's Jake Sully (Holy crap their initials are the same..tsk tsk), and instead of Pocahontas it's Neytiri

so is it this amazing story??? I don't think so. Visually yes it's spectacular but story wise...not that original.


P.s. My "Box Office" list has been updated if you want to check out the new movies I am looking forward to seeing!

Movie Review : The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Last night I watched The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus with my boyfriend. I remember wanting to see it when I first caught wind of it. But when Heath Ledger passed away, being one of the main characters, the production was halted. For a while I thought they would simple cut their losses and stop but they decided we will shoot certain scenes where he goes inside the imaginarium with different actors. That led to the casting of Jude Law, Colin Farrell, and of course Johnny Depp! The changing of faces was to show how he was "two-faced" or how other people really wanted him to be. Because one of the main rules was "two people don't go inside at the same time". They can...and it happens often through the film. The problem is one person's imagination will over come the other weaker one.

The main plot of the story is Doctor Parnassus bets with Mr. Nick, he's the devil so to speak, and when he was younger bet any child he bore would become Nick's property at the ripe age of 16, guess who's turning 16 in two days VALENTINA!!! Parnassus's daughter, go figure. Mr. Nick being a true betting man strikes him another deal that the first to 5 souls wins Valentina. Now I want to throw something out to you if you ever get the compulsion to watch this fantasy film. You'll see rather soon I think that Mr. Nick, the devil, is not evil. He's actually for the most part, aside from betting, a good guy...GASP! Yes it's true.

Good points; I absolutely loved the casting they did, the graphics and costumes were just out of this world. It had fresh faces (new actors)

Bad points: I thought they did so well through the whole film and then they got to the ending and just...gave up. The whole story, in my opinion, just seems to fall apart. I don't want to get into detail because if any of you do want to watch it the ending won't be ruined for you. But if you watch it and the ending isn't fabulous...you at least expected it.

I would give this movie a 7.5 out of 10!

Hurt Locker

I finally got around to watching Hurt Locker and it has definitely made my top movie list. It's sad, intense, and dramatic. It's not so sad that it will make you cry, but it is a heart breaker. The intensity is what got me though, it almost sucks you in, "What's he going to do, OH bezeesus he did not!!" So I give a definite thumps up.

I would also like to add that the main actor, Jeremy Renner, is a very sexy man.


OH just look at that face...


wait, Jeremy your belt is around your neck what's holding up your pants?


Hot damn.. O. O



yes, I can have a stupid actor crush too! hahahaha I have others. I might enlighten you about later.

P.s. I know when I give a review it's usually a good one. That's because when I don't like something it doesn't mean that someone else won't. And I would hate to write hay don't watch this movie and then they miss out. It's one of those you need to try it out for your self things. So unless a special circumstance pops up, I won't do bad reviews.

"Like ants making thunder".

Taking Woodstock is not like the original Woodstock movie filled with scenes of music and bands. Taking Woodstock is centered more around the story of Elliot, the young man who contacted Michael Lang when they were kicked out of their first location. Elliot’s land was too small and close to that of a swamp. He ended up taking them to the dairy farmer down the street, Max. Many people were disappointed by the film because they thought it was going to be a remake of the original movie. So if you watch this just erase that thought from your head.



It Is actually a good film. You get to see a different side of the story from this man’s point of view and how it affected his life in the end. I will warn you that towards the ending it gets really sad. I couldn’t help from feeling bad for Elliot and his father.



Another thing I really liked about the film is that they really captured what every thing looked like. As you can see the detail they put into the outfits. I also think they casted their actors very well.



The actors they chose to play Michael and Trish were spot on! I mean just look at the detail in the outfits, it's all there. I was very impressed. The picture above is actually them. The photo below are the actors.



For those out there that have actually watched the original Woodstock movie and know it has multiple shots per scene because they had so much film and good footage they didn’t want to cut it out. Well they do that once or twice in Taking Woodstock, when the crowds start coming and set up begins. That was just like icing on the cake for me.


This is an R movie and It plays out like an indie film (don't know if that's what the director was going for)
cursing
drugs
Nudity and not just breasts once in a while I mean male and female full frontal nudity.

Movie Review (contains some spoilers)

The other night I had the pleasure of being invited to see the horror movie craze of the season, Paranormal Activity. Critics have been raving about how the simplicity is what makes it scary. I literally laughed through the whole film. The male character, Mikah, was a sarcastic idiot or really over confident. I can't tell you how many times something "scary" happened like her getting dragged down the hall way by some unseen force and them keep going to bed every night. If I was dragged down the hall way by some weird ghostly beast I would be high tailing it to a catholic church or voodoo priestess! There were a few other things I wanted to briefly touch on. They mention in the film that they set the alarm every night but when she gets possessed, walks down stairs, and opens the back door the alarm doesn't go off. Plus other things happen that never are mentioned later. Also In the original movie they made in 2007 the ending is different(SPOILERS) she comes up stairs and starts rocking back and forth. Then the cops come and she tries to attack them and they shoot her. End of story. Steven Spielberg wanted them to change it to the more dramatic ending. Which I won't ruin for anyone who does want to see it. The best part of the movie was when we left the theater and this guy was messing with his girlfriend about how he felt it breathing on him and making it look like it was pulling him down the hallway.

Final Conclusion is that It's an okay movie but I wouldn't want to see it again or really tell anyone to pay $10 to see it. It doesn't even get scary till the end.

Movie Reviews

I recently saw Gamer and 9 in theaters and before I start...have I just not been to the movies in a long time or are movies coming through faster. For instance 9 came out 10 days ago and it was already in the back of the theater on a small screen...with only 9 of us in there. The same went for Gamer, it hasn't been out long either maybe a little bit more than 10 days and it was in the back on a small screen with maybe 12 of us in there...? I guess if you don't go the day it comes out you are bond to the back of the theater. hahahaha

Anywhooo getting on to the reviews

I'll start with 9 since that was the movie I originally wanted to see. If you have had the chance to see the trailer and hear it say "this is not your little brother's animated movie" it's true. There is a machine "The brain" and the scary part is that it is a tech-brain it thinks on it's own and builds all these monsters from spare metal parts and spare bones (human and animal) . When the robots it sends fail it makes more..better ones. I wouldn't take a child to the movie, for instance one scene there is a baby doll head-snake-seamstress robot that has one of the dead sack people on the end of it as a lure and it's face gets smashed in with a crank. I can just see the nightmares coming for a little kid.



One high point for me about the film was that the character who kicked the most robot butt was the ONLY girl sack-person in the whole movie. She was 7 and you can kind of think of her as a rouge character since she doesn't follow the leader.

There were a few things that puzzled me through the film. There were many explosions and not once did these sack-people catch on fire. Another point I wasn't quite sure on was if they could feel pain at all. In one scene the girl (7) gets a metal rod shot through her leg (for anyone else that in it's self would have done it) and then the rock they're on starts shifting. Two of the sack-people grab a hold of the string attacked to the rod ( okay rod in leg-people hanging on by it ) did she show any sign of pain or anything....Nope she just needed to be sewn up and she was good as new.

I'm not going to ruin the ending for you but I will mention that I didn't expect what happened.



On to GAMER!!! ROAR!! Gamer is what Gamer is. It's an adrenaline movie; explosions, fighting, and boobs.

There isn't really anything profound or intense to say about the movie since it is what it is. If you are looking for a high-action based movie I would suggest you watch it. I didn't like the ending, I felt like it happened to "easy".

There were little parts that I thought were either funny because it actually happens in games (getting stuck, lagging, corpse-humping)and then things that I thought were just plain cool.


A few down sides for me were that when it starts to get to the end you stop seeing certain characters...and you're left with (well what happened to that guy...did she die?) So that was aggravating for me.

The Last Mistress

I watched "The Last Mistress" today and I'm left at odds. I really did enjoy it and thought it was very dramatic and emotional. On the other hand i'm hesitant to openly tell others to watch it. It's an R film; nudity, sex, violence, and language(by the way its in French). Those things aren't the problem...

In one scene Vellini(the mistress) and Ryno de Marigny(we'll call him Ryno) have a child together. The little girl is sitting outside and is stung by a scorpion. She dies and Vellini can't come to terms with the loss. She cries and clings to her little girl for 3 days before she agrees to let Ryno burn the body. When Ryno starts the process she goes insane and demands they have sex together in front of the body. She strangles him, cries, and yells through the whole process. It's a very intense and emotional scene. I don't have a problem with the scene but i'm sure others wouldn't want to see the parents of a dead child screwing in front of its burning body.









Ryno leaves Vellini after the death of their daughter because she has become a nymphomaniac but when they are not screwing she hates him. He finds love in another but it can't be left alone. Vellini follows him where ever he goes. He can't escape her.

What will Ryno do? Kill Vellini? Does his new bride leave him? You'll have to watch the movie!

"I'll always protect you"

I really enjoy this short film, Kung Fu Love, made by 4 degrees studio. The main girl is called Hanako, but usually referred to as Hana. Her boyfriend has a name but she almost always calls him Darling. It's a very short film. Lasting 10mins. The film is apart of a 4 part series that the studio did. Amazing Nuts 1,2,3, & 4. Kung fu love is the 3rd. I really wish I could go into more detail with this but because it is such a short film I don't want to ruin it if anyone does happen to watch. It's such a lovely film. It is in Japanese but it had subtitles at the bottom. Bright side is there isn't much talking after 5 minutes.




I did a polyvore inspired by Hanako from the short film. If you watch it, all of the things in here will make sense.

KungFuLove by pinkapplecore on Polyvore.com

Movies and Music

The story begins at a bar with an old friend telling director Ari about a recurring nightmare where he is being chased by 26 ravenous dogs. The friend asks Ari if he has any dreams from the war but Ari can not remember that period of his life at all. The two men conclude that there's a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needed to discover the truth about that time in his life. As Ari delves deeper into the mystery, his memory shoot back up in surreal images. Majority of the voices are the actual person. All his friends did their own voices for the movie including Ari himself. This is a true story that the director Ari wanted to make. Even though it is based on himself you will experience other war stories from his friends. This is an Israeli film and not in English, but there are subtitles.

You can listen to one of the songs they play during the movie. It's called "This is not a love song" by PIL


I really enjoyed this movie but I will say that it's not for a young audience. There are graphic parts and nudity.