Not only did I fail in continuing to post nail photos regularly (since the 4th of July, I've had 15 different manis, including my current one -- that's about a little more than a change twice a week), I got behind on movies (I've watched 9), and my work atmosphere is totally up in the air. Work is probably the hardest to deal with right now. It's an 8-hour day of draining energy where I come home and just want to not think or do anything. At any rate, the work story is for another day when things do or do not change.
As for the lack of nail updating, I blame it on the books. I've been in book reading mode (read 18 books since July 1st - about 3 a week). I also had a stint in mid-July where none of my manis were cooperating and I was changing them almost daily for about 4 days. Since then, things have leveled off and I'm changing more like twice a week. I had one of my all time favorite manis during the one-day cycles too, which was rather crushing when it didn't make it through 24 hours. I loved it! My nails or my methods or whatever seemed to have been fixed, though. Either that or I'm just not minding as much when a chip happens! I'll post pictures of some of the better ones at some point.
On to movies...Nothing fantastic and I had a few days where I just felt like I needed to wash my brain or something.
Safe House (Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds) - Apparently it didn't make of an impression on me because I couldn't really remember it and had to look up the plot to even remember! It's your basic spy vs spy type of film where Reynolds is the housekeeper for a safe house and Washington is a CIA agent who everyone is after. Washington is brought to the safe house, Reynolds ends up (after a series of events) having to trek around with him and then you find out that Washington is wrongly accused of his information and it's all because he has information that can expose corrupt agents all over the world. It's not a new script and as good as Reynolds and Washington were in their acting, the script is flat. Grade: C
Flowers of War (Christian Bale) - This movie is about the Nanking Massacre that stars Christian Bale in an otherwise foreign actors and produced film. It's a good film and Bale does an excellent acting job, but it was kind of weird having an American be the star of the film. It wasn't really needed, but I assume it had some to do with trying to get more recognition for the film. It's a mix of English and Chinese subtitles and it got across the impact the massacre had on the survivors and the fear they lived in. It is a movie, though, so it has that cinematic feel and effects to it (a little stylized, I suppose), but it was good. The children actors were excellent and the end really pulls at the heart strings. I think I was in a state of panic, shock, fear, or tears through most of it. It is a little graphic, but war isn't a PG film either. Grade: B
Wanderlust (Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston) - Watched this film right before Flowers of War and both films needed me to wash my brain and memory a little before going to bed for drastically different reasons. This film I do NOT recommend in the least. It might be up there with the worst films of the year I've seen. There is nudity in it that, seriously, I didn't need to see (old men and women running nude? Gahhhh!) and it was just a stupid film all around. Yes, I should have known better given it's an Aniston film, but I was curious! I'm not sure there is anything even really redeeming in it other than Rudd was true to his marriage even though they had agreed to go with Wanderlust's "sharing" attitude and Aniston's character slept with one of the leaders. I will say, there were some funny parts, but not many... Grade: D
Friends with Kids (Adam Scott, Jennifer Westfeldt) - Interesting film that's somewhere along the lines of "Friends with Benefits," but more in line with friends with benefits that have kids? Two good friends decide to have a kid together without the ties of marriage as they've seen their friends who are married have kids and seen what it does to their marriage and personal lives. The female could have an unknown donor, but figures...Why not her best friend who also wants a kid in an abstract sense of just wanting one? One of their set of friends ends up not working out and the other ends up being okay, but, in the end, of course, the two main characters end up together through their trials and difficulties. It's a mostly silly premise, but it is a different sort of rom-com than I've seen before. I don't particularly like Westfeldt, but she works in the role (she also wrote and directed it, I believe) and I liked Scott. Not your best rom-com, though. Grade: C
Lockout (Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace) - All I could think of was, "MIB:3!!." To be fair, this movie came out before MIB:3, but I saw MIB:3 first. Future world where there's a space station that is for realllllllly dangerous criminals. They're put into a sort of cryogenic tube so there is minimal needs from them. The President's daughter decides to visit to check out one of the prisoners and the rumors going around that the sleep-stasis they're put into alters their brain/emotions. Long story short, a man who was going to be sent to the station is, instead, given a chance to redeem himself and save the President's daughter before harm comes of her when things go wrong and all the criminals are released for their stasis. I can't say it's that original, but it was interesting. It reminded me of The Rock a little because it's supposed to be sort of impossible to infiltrate and all that. Grade: C
Wrath of the Titans (Sam Worthington) - Was it better than Clash of the Titans? Erm, I don't know. It's been so long since I've seen Clash of the Titans and I can't find my review (did I review it?). Was it what I expected it to be? Yes. It wasn't fantastic and some of the CG is grating. Also, as much as I like Liam Neeson as Zeus and Ralph Fiennes as Hades, their portrayals don't really work for me. The film was okay. It's not really memorable, which is what the first one is like. It wasn't totally bad, but nor was it really good either. In all, I'm glad I didn't see it in theaters and I'm also glad I saw it just to see it. Grade: C/C-
The Amazing Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone) - I know they wanted to do the origin story again because it's a new man playing Spider-Man, but, gosh darn it, I'm TIRED of seeing the origin story! Move on to something else! I did like Garfield as Spider-Man. He sort of aligns to what you think of Spider-Man as being (tall, gangly, nerdy, etc). Emma Stone as Gwen was also good. I did like having Gwen instead of MJ (just to be different). They also changed the origin just a little. With that said, I'll probably see the others, but I'm not sure if I really like it better than the Tobey MacGuire ones. I think I like it just a little more, but it's almost par. Grade: B/B-
Dark Knight Rises (Christian Bale) - It's a good film, but it is FAR too long. There is a lot in it that didn't need to be in it to make it shorter. I kind of call it the King Kong syndrome with Peter Jackson where the studios give the director, pretty much, free reign to do whatever they want and the director makes a long winded film that didn't need to be that long. There were also holes in things and Bane, as good as he was, was sort of stripped of his identity at the end for a twist ending that sort of belittled who Bane was. Tom Hardy did an EXCELLENT job as Bane, though, and he was an amazing villain till the end. That whole end...*sigh* It felt a little bit like a cop-out. Nolan is such a great director and he likes those twists and turns that make you go, "huh?" and this one had a weak attempt at it that just felt a little contrived to me given it was Nolan directing. The one thing I liked at the end was of Joseph Gordon Levitt's ending, which was neat, but whether they'll do anything with it, that remains to be seen. I also liked Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. I thought they handled her portrayal well and it was farrrrr better than Halle Berry's. I liked how they snuck in the whole "ear" aspect without going costume-y and it was subtle. I do think Catwoman was a little bit of an unnecessary role and they sort of threw in her origin story in the movie, but oh well. I also liked how it went full circle back to the first movie. Overall, I liked it and it did feel shorter, albeit it was actually longer, than Spider-Man so I guess that's a plus. I just wish it was executed just a little better. Grade: B
Total Recall (Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel) - Having not seen the original, I can't compare it to it, but I liked this version. Bill Nighy had a REALLY short roll and it reminded me of Liam Neeson's Unknown, even though Total Recall is older than Unknown. Not much to say about it other than I thought it was a good film. Nothing really deep in it or anything, but I enjoyed the special effects and thought the acting was good. Grade: B
With that, my movie count is up to 65. I haven't rented a movie in about 2 weeks now. Not sure when I'll rent again, but the Lorax and What to Expect When You're Expecting come out in Sept and Hunger Games comes out soon. So...we'll see.
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