Since nothing except work, sleep, eat, and watch movies is going on in my life right now...and work has been the same thing for 3 weeks now...Movies it is!
Bounty Hunter (DVD) - I fell asleep at the end so I actually don't know what happens really, but it doesn't take a brain surgeon to know what generally happens at the end. I think I fell asleep at the last 20 minutes too. LoL My falling asleep has nothing to do with the movie quality, I promise. It's been hard adjusting to getting up early and going to bed early. Anyway, it's your typical rom-com. It's not horrible and there's a small "mystery" element in it as Jennifer Aniston is a reporter and gets this lead and her lead disappears. This lead is what causes her to have a "bounty" put on her head because she misses her court date. Her husband used to be a police officer and says he "quit" so he turns to bounty hunting instead. He gets the job, of course. It's probably one of the better Aniston rom-coms, which I suppose doesn't say a whole lot. I liked the parts I saw, though. Especially since they also showed Monmouth Park in Jersey! Grade: B
When in Rome (DVD) - If I had to pick between Bounty and Rome, I'd pick Bounty to watch. When in Rome was okay. It had an interesting story premise around the fact she stole coins from a fountain in Italy and so the owners of those coins fall in love with her. The rest was...eh. Not a great character development within it for her to really understand if there was any real "growth" in the film. You see she's a workaholic, but that character trait usually has some progression in it and hers kind of phases out or never moves? I'm not sure. The movie fell a little flat; though, Chris did enjoy some of the "manly" lines said. I admit they were more clever than you normally hear when a guy is arrogant and complimenting himself about things like his "guns." Grade: B-/C+
Valentine's Day (DVD) - I was thinking this was going to be super, super bad based on the reviews. I had originally wanted to see it because of the great ensemble cast, but after the reviews was hesitant on seeing it. Turns out...it's not bad. It's a combination of "He's Just Not That Into You" and "Crash", but this one takes place all on February 14th. It's similar to "Crash" because everyone in the movie is connected to each other whether they know it or not. It doesn't have the deeper meanings of "Crash" though. :) I thought the acting was good and some of the storylines were predictable, but it wasn't all that bad. There were some nice stories within that and covered older relationships to teenagers. It's a nice fluff rom-com. Grade: B
Unthinkable (DVD) - TOTALLY not what I expected. I'm not sure if I know anyone who would want to remotely see this film. LoL I knew based on the rating there was torture involved, but this entire film revolves AROUND the torturing of a person who placed 3 nuclear bombs in 3 cities in the U.S. The film is part psychological, but...yeah. It's a power struggle between a FBI agent who doesn't agree with the torturing, the guy doing the torturing, and the guy being tortured who has been trained by the U.S. to withstand torture. It's just not what I thought it'd end up being and way too much torture for my taste. No grade
Inception - Believe the hype. Believe it! Oh my goodness. It's mind blowing. I now understand why everyone says that. The acting, story, and special effects are a dynamic grouping. I sat riveted to my seat for 2.5 hours. I think Inception has officially taken over as my favorite film of the year. It's good enough to see again and you might have to see it again once you watch the end. I read in an interview with Nolan that he said that a lot of movies treat the audience as being stupid, but he wanted to let us use our brains through this film. Boy...do you need to. There are so many layers in this film and things going on in sort of parallel situations that it's just amazing how they connected everything. Once you hit the end...your whole perception of the film changes. Inception is exactly the type of things I like. There is action adventure, a little mystery, crazy mind stuff, and great acting and special effects, but there's more in it about forgiving yourself too. I went into this movie with high expectations and the movie surpassed those expectations. A+
Salt comes out today in theaters and Clash of the Titans and Repo Man on Tuesday!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
More movies and Misc
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (DVD) - I know of the book thanks to Borders and its popularity and then Borders pushed it as a "Make" title (or was it a "Key" title?) so we employees had to recommend it to everyone (or we were supposed to). There are 2 rape scenes in the movie (at the beginning -- one's more sexual assault and the rape is never fully shown, but you know it happens when the officer handcuffs her to the bed against her will) and very minor nudity in it. It's a Swedish film with English subtitles and I think the book was originally in Swedish too. Anyway, it's a good murder mystery story and good character development. The acting was well done and the movie itself too. I enjoyed it and can see why the book was so popular. It's a little dark, but there's a point and it has a good ending for everything that happened to everyone. I'd watch any film of the author's other works if it's like this one. Definitely not a film to watch with the kids or if you want something light, but if you want a mystery film (more like a drama mystery and not a thriller mystery) and can stand watching 2.5 hours worth of subtitles, I'd recommend it. A-
Despicable Me - After seeing the year's worth of advertisements, I was expecting this film to be a flop at first. I then started to see the reviews and people were pretty favorable. I went and saw it and it's rather cute. It's no Toy Story 3 or How to Train Your Dragon (I still say Toothless wins "Best Pet of the Year"), but it held its own against them. All the characters are lovable. It's only 1.5 hours so it does move kind of fast in the story and scenes that could be long (e.g., the climax) are fairly short. The, uhm, "villain" of the movie also has a much smaller role than you'd think. In some ways, the movie feels short, but in others...it felt like if it was longer, it'd have been too long. So I think the short feeling is simply because movies these days push the 2 hour mark more often than the 1.5 hour mark from years ago. I simply expected some scenes to be longer then they were. :P There were some really funny moments too. The humor was throughout the film and there were some scenes that really cracked me up. Not as much as The Proposal, but it's probably the most I've laughed in a film since The Proposal. It was also cute how they incorporated current slang like "dealio" and "chill-ax". The minons were the background humor the whole movie, but the other characters also all had their funny moments. Anyway, it was a good film and I'd recommend to everyone. B+/A-
Next on the list (maybe) is Inception and Salt. Eat, Pray, Love will probably be a movie rental. Nanny McPhee Returns (or Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang) is a no go I think. The first one was cute and I own it, but the 2nd is just going to be too predictable now. Plus, the flying pigs don't do it for me. LoL If Nicolas Cage wasn't in Sorcerer's Apprentice, I would have probably seen that one, but he kills it for me. I like Jay Baruchel too. Shame. Anyway, that's pretty much it for the summer and movies for me, I think. Legend of the Guardians is at the end of Sept, but that should be a movie rental too. I never read the books (IR series). After that...Secretariat in October!! The trailer makes me super excited and it looks like the film is going to be really good. Buena Vista certainly knows how to make the tear jerker/inspiring sports films. LoL This should be better than Seabiscuit. And November brings Harry Potter (!!!) and December brings Narnia! Good year.
Next year will be the year of the comic book films: Green Lantern, Captain America, and Thor. Captain America and Thor should be interesting since it's a set-up (with Iron Man) for the S.H.I.E.L.D film. There's also something going on with a PotC 4 film coming out in 2011 (??). So if that ends up happening, that'll be interesting too. Johnny Depp is supposed to return. And, of course, HP Part 2 is next year. So...yeah.
Anyway, onto other things not movie related.
One of my female shrimp had her eggs, but didn't have any new ones. It was kind of bizarre. This is the first time a female skipped a "cycle." I do think my fish ate the last set, though. They weren't hungry that day and mostly the next and I'm only feeding them once a day. So I still think my male is potent, but not 100% sure. My grass like plant is dying too. It's not receiving enough light in my tank. So when I go back, I'll probably buy another plant. My weird brown snail is HUGE too. It's grown a lot since I came back home. I think it's almost as big as my fish now. : It still manages to hide well, but when it's in sight, it's hard to miss. Don't think I've posted the pictures I have of it. I'll do that later.
My internship is going well too. It's pretty tedious, but my co-workers are nice and the office location is great. It's nice to be able to go walk along the bike path or to Alvarado or to the wharf on my lunches. It's also nice being on salary. LoL Soon I'll start helping out on other aspects of the report and not just my own so I can get away from my literature review a little. I admit it's hard spending 7 hours a day just reading or finding literature on very specific things. I try and mix-up what I do -- sometimes read the articles I find, sometimes find articles, sometimes read the MLPA reports for references, find primary literature, find grey literature, search WA estuaries, switch to SoCal, go to OR, etc -- but there's only so much you can do. LoL It's frustrating at points, but it's also challenging my internet searching skills. LoL Some of these estuaries have almost NO information at all. It's ridiculous. Anyway, it'll be nice to work on things that have nothing to do with my literature review too. :)
Well, with that, time for bed so I can get up early enough to work at home and then hit CSUMB's library.
Despicable Me - After seeing the year's worth of advertisements, I was expecting this film to be a flop at first. I then started to see the reviews and people were pretty favorable. I went and saw it and it's rather cute. It's no Toy Story 3 or How to Train Your Dragon (I still say Toothless wins "Best Pet of the Year"), but it held its own against them. All the characters are lovable. It's only 1.5 hours so it does move kind of fast in the story and scenes that could be long (e.g., the climax) are fairly short. The, uhm, "villain" of the movie also has a much smaller role than you'd think. In some ways, the movie feels short, but in others...it felt like if it was longer, it'd have been too long. So I think the short feeling is simply because movies these days push the 2 hour mark more often than the 1.5 hour mark from years ago. I simply expected some scenes to be longer then they were. :P There were some really funny moments too. The humor was throughout the film and there were some scenes that really cracked me up. Not as much as The Proposal, but it's probably the most I've laughed in a film since The Proposal. It was also cute how they incorporated current slang like "dealio" and "chill-ax". The minons were the background humor the whole movie, but the other characters also all had their funny moments. Anyway, it was a good film and I'd recommend to everyone. B+/A-
Next on the list (maybe) is Inception and Salt. Eat, Pray, Love will probably be a movie rental. Nanny McPhee Returns (or Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang) is a no go I think. The first one was cute and I own it, but the 2nd is just going to be too predictable now. Plus, the flying pigs don't do it for me. LoL If Nicolas Cage wasn't in Sorcerer's Apprentice, I would have probably seen that one, but he kills it for me. I like Jay Baruchel too. Shame. Anyway, that's pretty much it for the summer and movies for me, I think. Legend of the Guardians is at the end of Sept, but that should be a movie rental too. I never read the books (IR series). After that...Secretariat in October!! The trailer makes me super excited and it looks like the film is going to be really good. Buena Vista certainly knows how to make the tear jerker/inspiring sports films. LoL This should be better than Seabiscuit. And November brings Harry Potter (!!!) and December brings Narnia! Good year.
Next year will be the year of the comic book films: Green Lantern, Captain America, and Thor. Captain America and Thor should be interesting since it's a set-up (with Iron Man) for the S.H.I.E.L.D film. There's also something going on with a PotC 4 film coming out in 2011 (??). So if that ends up happening, that'll be interesting too. Johnny Depp is supposed to return. And, of course, HP Part 2 is next year. So...yeah.
Anyway, onto other things not movie related.
One of my female shrimp had her eggs, but didn't have any new ones. It was kind of bizarre. This is the first time a female skipped a "cycle." I do think my fish ate the last set, though. They weren't hungry that day and mostly the next and I'm only feeding them once a day. So I still think my male is potent, but not 100% sure. My grass like plant is dying too. It's not receiving enough light in my tank. So when I go back, I'll probably buy another plant. My weird brown snail is HUGE too. It's grown a lot since I came back home. I think it's almost as big as my fish now. : It still manages to hide well, but when it's in sight, it's hard to miss. Don't think I've posted the pictures I have of it. I'll do that later.
My internship is going well too. It's pretty tedious, but my co-workers are nice and the office location is great. It's nice to be able to go walk along the bike path or to Alvarado or to the wharf on my lunches. It's also nice being on salary. LoL Soon I'll start helping out on other aspects of the report and not just my own so I can get away from my literature review a little. I admit it's hard spending 7 hours a day just reading or finding literature on very specific things. I try and mix-up what I do -- sometimes read the articles I find, sometimes find articles, sometimes read the MLPA reports for references, find primary literature, find grey literature, search WA estuaries, switch to SoCal, go to OR, etc -- but there's only so much you can do. LoL It's frustrating at points, but it's also challenging my internet searching skills. LoL Some of these estuaries have almost NO information at all. It's ridiculous. Anyway, it'll be nice to work on things that have nothing to do with my literature review too. :)
Well, with that, time for bed so I can get up early enough to work at home and then hit CSUMB's library.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Twilight Saga: Eclipse movie
Surprisingly, I actually liked Eclipse. I'm not sure if it's because it's just the best Twilight movie so far, my expectations were low, or it's because I saw it so closely after The Last Airbender. LoL Anyway, it was pretty faithful to the book, which was amazing. The fighting was really good CG too. The comparisons of what made Eclipse work and The Last Airbender not is just amazing. If anything, it had decent acting! I think Kristen Stewart has gotten better at acting as Bella over the years. She's more how I imagined her now. She's still a little too weak for me, but she's better. Pattinson and Lautner have also gotten better as Edward and Jacob. Lautner has definitely come into his own as Jacob. Pattinson didn't annoy me as much as he usually does (I do not prefer him as an actor -- even in Harry Potter).
I do think this book has one of the more interesting storylines in it than the other books. The other books kind of lead up to, which is why it kind of feels like Eclipse could have been the end of the series. Almost all the plot lines (except her turning to a vampire and the Volutri) are solved in the 3rd book and most start in the 1st book. I'd say Eclipse was ALMOST my favorite book in the series, except..the love triangle really annoyed me in the book and the second one (New Moon) had no Edward (I'm an Edward fan). So, the first book, Twilight remains my favorite, but Eclipse just has so much more going for it than Twilight. I just wish the book series ended at Eclipse with an epilogue than Breaking Dawn, which ruined the entire series for me. So...I MIGHT see Breaking Dawn in theaters or I may just see Part 1 and skip Part 2. LoL
Chris and I also watched Adventureland. It's about a year old, but it was better than we thought. It was your pretty typical "coming of age" film. It was nice to see Kristen Stewart in something other than Twilight. LoL I still don't particularly like her, but she's okay.
Anyway, with that, first day of work at TNC tomorrow!
I do think this book has one of the more interesting storylines in it than the other books. The other books kind of lead up to, which is why it kind of feels like Eclipse could have been the end of the series. Almost all the plot lines (except her turning to a vampire and the Volutri) are solved in the 3rd book and most start in the 1st book. I'd say Eclipse was ALMOST my favorite book in the series, except..the love triangle really annoyed me in the book and the second one (New Moon) had no Edward (I'm an Edward fan). So, the first book, Twilight remains my favorite, but Eclipse just has so much more going for it than Twilight. I just wish the book series ended at Eclipse with an epilogue than Breaking Dawn, which ruined the entire series for me. So...I MIGHT see Breaking Dawn in theaters or I may just see Part 1 and skip Part 2. LoL
Chris and I also watched Adventureland. It's about a year old, but it was better than we thought. It was your pretty typical "coming of age" film. It was nice to see Kristen Stewart in something other than Twilight. LoL I still don't particularly like her, but she's okay.
Anyway, with that, first day of work at TNC tomorrow!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
The disappointment of The Last Airbender
What could have been a great film was ruined!
What movie, at the least, has the main character's name mispronounced?! I mean, who does that? It's not like the pronunciation of "Aang" was a mystery before this movie. There is a 3-season TV show that has ALL the characters names pronounced and, somehow, Shyamalan wanted to change it to "Ung" instead of "Ang" (like "angry" without the -ry). It was unbelievable. The people sitting behind Chris and I kept going on and on and on about it.
Somehow he and I both ended up sitting next to and in front of talkers. It was unbelievably rude. The people behind us were youngin's (mid-teens) and though it was annoying because they talked through the WHOLE movie, some of their commentary was spot on regardless. The people next to us was a mother and young son (maybe 6?). Sometimes the mom would explain things to the son and sometimes the son would explain things to the mom. The ironic thing? Whenever the son started talking about something not-so-important, the mother would go "shhhh" and then start talking to him! It was unbelievable. Talk about hypocrisy. Anyway, that wasn't so enjoyable, but the movie theater was pretty darn packed. I think there were maybe 2 rows in the very front mostly empty, but the theater was basically full.
Anyway, other than the name thing, the acting was horrid. They're mostly unknown actors, but I blame Shyamalan for their acting job since he's the director (and producer and writer). Sokka was just...bizarre...He spoke really, really fast and it came off very awkward. I also didn't like how Sokka, the brother, came off being older than Katara. In the TV show, it's made clear that Katara is older than Sokka, but Sokka was given the duty (as the only older male when his father left for war) to protect the village. So he takes it seriously, but you know he's younger. This age difference and Sokka's "job" of protecting everyone creates a great sense of humor and heart through the series. That humor (and basically all humor) is lost in the movie. When there is attempt at humor, it's lame. The other acting was pretty much just as bad. It made it hard to get into a character when their acting is bad.
The movie also attempts to take an entire season (~8 hours) and shove it into less than 2 hours of film (more like between 1.5 to 1.75 hours). It doesn't work. They took a lot of the big plots from the whole season (or book as it's called) and put them into the movie and, surprisingly, what they kept they stuck to pretty well. They changed some things (one didn't quite make sense, but oh well), but they did a generally pretty good job. I appreciated that, but the rushed feeling left you hanging on your character development. Even for someone who has seen the TV show, I felt like it was rushed. It was hard keeping pace. I think the Harry Potter movies enable fans to be able to skip past the flaws/gaps in the movies pretty well, but this movie did NOT do that.
I think the thing I missed most was the charm of the TV series. The TV series is fun, exciting, heartfelt, and funny. This had nothing but excitement in it. The Uncle is a class act in the TV show and a steady force and mentor for Prince Zuko. He's semi-mentorish in the movie, but his humor is totally lost! The playfulness and youth of Aang is also lost. It's one thing that the TV show develops -- his realization that being the Avatar is important and he can't push off his training. In the movie, it's like he instantly knows it. So it has a serious tone from start to finish.
Anyway, with all of that, I'd still see the 2nd book (Book 2: Earth) if it was made. The bending (when you manipulate the elements to do what you want) was pretty darn cool. I do think the dance moves were a little too long before anything came of it, but that's a minor thing. I do wish there was more bending and less fighting. The fighting was cool too, but bending is not something you see all the time! The special effects were also okay. I had some issues with some of them (when I can tell it's on a green screen, that's a bad special effect), but it was mostly good.
With that...I think it's time to rewatch Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix! Netflix has all 3 books on instant again. (The movie dropped "Avatar" in the title because of, well, Avatar coming out last year. They didn't want people to get confused. It's funny because I was confused until I figured out the difference and then they officially changed the name, which confused me again.) I do recommend the TV show. Not just for kids, but also for adults. In fact, I've heard more praise for the show from adults than from children. It's simple kids friendly/attraction animation, but the story/characters make it all worth it. Chris and I watched it on a whim on Netflix and really got into it and enjoyed it a lot. We didn't expect to like it so much (like everyone else I've heard/read about).
What movie, at the least, has the main character's name mispronounced?! I mean, who does that? It's not like the pronunciation of "Aang" was a mystery before this movie. There is a 3-season TV show that has ALL the characters names pronounced and, somehow, Shyamalan wanted to change it to "Ung" instead of "Ang" (like "angry" without the -ry). It was unbelievable. The people sitting behind Chris and I kept going on and on and on about it.
Somehow he and I both ended up sitting next to and in front of talkers. It was unbelievably rude. The people behind us were youngin's (mid-teens) and though it was annoying because they talked through the WHOLE movie, some of their commentary was spot on regardless. The people next to us was a mother and young son (maybe 6?). Sometimes the mom would explain things to the son and sometimes the son would explain things to the mom. The ironic thing? Whenever the son started talking about something not-so-important, the mother would go "shhhh" and then start talking to him! It was unbelievable. Talk about hypocrisy. Anyway, that wasn't so enjoyable, but the movie theater was pretty darn packed. I think there were maybe 2 rows in the very front mostly empty, but the theater was basically full.
Anyway, other than the name thing, the acting was horrid. They're mostly unknown actors, but I blame Shyamalan for their acting job since he's the director (and producer and writer). Sokka was just...bizarre...He spoke really, really fast and it came off very awkward. I also didn't like how Sokka, the brother, came off being older than Katara. In the TV show, it's made clear that Katara is older than Sokka, but Sokka was given the duty (as the only older male when his father left for war) to protect the village. So he takes it seriously, but you know he's younger. This age difference and Sokka's "job" of protecting everyone creates a great sense of humor and heart through the series. That humor (and basically all humor) is lost in the movie. When there is attempt at humor, it's lame. The other acting was pretty much just as bad. It made it hard to get into a character when their acting is bad.
The movie also attempts to take an entire season (~8 hours) and shove it into less than 2 hours of film (more like between 1.5 to 1.75 hours). It doesn't work. They took a lot of the big plots from the whole season (or book as it's called) and put them into the movie and, surprisingly, what they kept they stuck to pretty well. They changed some things (one didn't quite make sense, but oh well), but they did a generally pretty good job. I appreciated that, but the rushed feeling left you hanging on your character development. Even for someone who has seen the TV show, I felt like it was rushed. It was hard keeping pace. I think the Harry Potter movies enable fans to be able to skip past the flaws/gaps in the movies pretty well, but this movie did NOT do that.
I think the thing I missed most was the charm of the TV series. The TV series is fun, exciting, heartfelt, and funny. This had nothing but excitement in it. The Uncle is a class act in the TV show and a steady force and mentor for Prince Zuko. He's semi-mentorish in the movie, but his humor is totally lost! The playfulness and youth of Aang is also lost. It's one thing that the TV show develops -- his realization that being the Avatar is important and he can't push off his training. In the movie, it's like he instantly knows it. So it has a serious tone from start to finish.
Anyway, with all of that, I'd still see the 2nd book (Book 2: Earth) if it was made. The bending (when you manipulate the elements to do what you want) was pretty darn cool. I do think the dance moves were a little too long before anything came of it, but that's a minor thing. I do wish there was more bending and less fighting. The fighting was cool too, but bending is not something you see all the time! The special effects were also okay. I had some issues with some of them (when I can tell it's on a green screen, that's a bad special effect), but it was mostly good.
With that...I think it's time to rewatch Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix! Netflix has all 3 books on instant again. (The movie dropped "Avatar" in the title because of, well, Avatar coming out last year. They didn't want people to get confused. It's funny because I was confused until I figured out the difference and then they officially changed the name, which confused me again.) I do recommend the TV show. Not just for kids, but also for adults. In fact, I've heard more praise for the show from adults than from children. It's simple kids friendly/attraction animation, but the story/characters make it all worth it. Chris and I watched it on a whim on Netflix and really got into it and enjoyed it a lot. We didn't expect to like it so much (like everyone else I've heard/read about).
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