GoT Tyrion?

Um, I, like, don't know about you, but I have, like, fallen in love with Game of Thrones. *smacks gum*
Enough with the sickening valley girl accent, but I have to admit that I love Game of Thrones. Ever since a friend of mine introduced me to the HBO series, I have been glued to the screen, damaging both my productivity and my eyesight. Like the Walking Dead (see previous post), GoT has very realistic characters, not to mention a ton of them.

Let's chat about my favorites:
LA PRIMERA EN ESTE RINCÓN: Arya Stark
     She is the girl every tomboy strives to be (or not to be, because they generally don't care). Arya has a strong sense of justice for a girl who hasn't even hit puberty yet, and she is badass about it. From taking sword lessons to escaping the castle with a caravan for the Knight's Watch to *spoiler* pretty much becoming an assassin, she takes everything in stride and works hard to survive. She makes her sister Sansa look like a spoiled brat (which isn't hard to do).

EL SEGUNDO EN ESE ASIENTO: Tyrion Lannister
     Tyrion, my man... Even if you hate Tyrion, you have to admire his acuity. The man knows how to bring someone down several notches - more noticeably when his opponent misses the whiplash of Tyrion's backserve. I'm not gonna lie, at first, Tyrion seemed kind of annoying. He knew his wealth/power, and he used it. There weren't going to be any misconceptions with Tyrion around. But as the series progresses, you learn more about Tyrion's past - his treatment by his father and others as "less than a man," cruel pranks in love, and the pressure associated with being a member of the backstabbing yet powerful Lannister clan. In the second season, more of his morally good and caring side has begun to appear, and you can't help but begin to love and respect him. Right, Laura? ;)

LA TERCERA EN AQUEL BOOTH DE LAS FOTOGRAFÍAS: Daenerys Targaryen
     *cue music* Her brother sucks... she lives with ducks... Dae-ner-ys Tar-gar-yen. Just kidding. She doesn't live with ducks, but rather with proud horselords that even the "civilized" fear. Poor Daenerys' misfortunate fate of being married to Drogo and becoming Khaleesi has actually brought out her fearsome side. If her creepy brother hadn't died, I wonder what he would have said? She now has mastery of baby dragons and a whole slew of people to protect, so I expect she'll have an interesting adventure coming her way, which is a total reverse from the timid, silent child she used to be. I'm interested to see if she will ever regain her usurped throne.

LOS GUAPOS: Eddrt (Ned) Stark & Jon Snow
     So, I have to say, I love your ideals, George R.R. Martin. Ned is the epitome of moral righteousness in every aspect. I'm so glad you killed him off. Don't get me wrong, I love Ned, he's, like, SUPER awesome and all, but it's so easy to like the obviously good character. By introducing us to a protagonist like Ned and then abruptly taking him away, we feel more lost and intrigued by what awaits us in the battle royale for the throne. Although I am still anxiously awaiting Jon Snow's conception story (time to start drinking someone under the table), I have a feeling that we will never know, as that is often the case in real life. Also, I am curious to see how Jon will handle life as a bastard, a subclass in society. His justice-seeking personality (like father like son) will definitely clash with his rank in the caste, so I can't wait to see how he will handle it and hopefully climb to the top. :)

My least favorites:

THE INCESTUOUS TWINS: Cersei and Jaime Lannister
     Dear Cersei & Jaime,
     Hi. I would like to discuss something with you.
     I know it's probably not going to happen for a few hundred years in your world (or not at all), but we have a thing here called "chromosomes." I know it may be hard for you to grasp, but these "chromosomes" are given to your children, and, sadly, inbreeding causes multiples of these chromosomes, leading to diseases and mutations. Although I dearly wish your son Joffrey would curl up in a hole and die, your other children seem rather nice and don't deserve this.
     Please. Think of the children.
   
     Sincerely, and with a backup cane prepared for Joffrey's erroneous behavior,
             Taylor

P.S. Jaime, I know I've told you this a dozen times (though you never seem to respond to me through the TV screen) but please, if you're going to kill a witness, do it right. Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino seem to get it quickly enough, so I think you're capable of it too, Kingslayer.

THE BITTER SPOUSE: Catelyn Stark
     I know you're actually a pretty good person, but sometimes I really can't stand you. You have angry feelings toward Jon (which I can understand, since he's the bright red welt on your pride), and you're gorgeous and aging well according to the HBO cast setup, but you are such a worrywart. You tend to overthink things, and, although it can benefit you, it generally tends to throw you off. But I pity you. It will be hard to be killed and then resurrected like the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. Good luck with that.

THE BITTER SPOUSE'S EVEN MORE BITTER UNREQUITED LOVE: Littlefinger
      *giggles* Littlefinger. I wonder how you got THAT name. *chuckles*
     Anyway, I understand Littlefinger's resentment towards the Stark family for stealing his preciousssss Catelyn Tully, but... actually, I can't think of any but's. His life kind of sucks. He's running a brothel while stuck in a precarious position as informant weasel and advisor. But he does have a good point in the first season: if the royalty doesn't watch out for the people, who does? It makes me wonder if there is a secret society of these people. They all seem to have something sexually frustrating about them - commandeering a brothel (c'mon, it's hard work, people!), being a eunuch, etc. Poor bastards.





HONORABLE MENTION FOR FAVORITES: Robert Baratheon
     Oh my Agatha, how can I forget about Robert?! He was one of my favorite characters before his tragic boar mauling. His bromance with Ned made me think of two frat boys reminiscing over a kegger. He is such a jolly guy, even though his selfishness has become slightly unbearable since the death of Ned's sister. I'm sad his offspring were murdered, but I hope his son who is travelling with Arya will become a great person. :)

Anyway, this was just another brief post to delay my noise control studies at 2:30 in the madrugada.

Zombies, Lies, and Seduction

Wow, it's been a long time since I updated this blog! :O Anyway, on to pressing discussions...

THE WALKING DEAD

I began watching this with Laura's recommendation. Fucking love it. At first I was a bit worried, since the horror movies we watch are generally cheesy, and we tend to humor ourselves by mocking and imagining different scenarios for the characters of old '70s terror flicks. However, the series is so much more realistic than that. The Walking Dead introduces personalities and events that produce some serious moral dinner discussion. I have watched the first season, which brings a chaotic theme to life in 6 episodes (impressive!), and now I'm catching up on the second season (now on episode 8, hell yeah!).

A few things I like to consistently tell when I'm advertising the show to my friends like a street preacher selling God:

• The series premiere: The very first episode was riveting. It starts with a man waking up from a coma in a hospital with absolutely no notion of how he arrived there. He tries to enter the corridor but finds the door blocked from the outside. After body-slamming the door open weakly, he discovers the hallway is strewn with papers and upturned medical equipment and is DEVOID OF PEOPLE. Which, if I may mention, is naturally unusual since hospitals are all about the commotion. The man, whose name is Rick (probably should've mentioned that earlier), stumbles from the hospital exit to see dozens of bodies covered in sheets and half of the hospital building in crumbs. 
• What I love: The audience really feels the fear and confusion from the specific shots and cinematography. You know as little as poor Rick does. Also, the plotline and camera shots allow for the watcher to deduce the situation, slowly but surely. 
• The characters: After the first episode, and a little during it, you start to figure out the characters are deeper than the stereotypes. For example, in the first episode, Rick meets Morgan Jones, a man who stands as an informer to Rick and the audience about the zombie "apocalypse," and you can instantly tell that Morgan and his son Duane have been through a shitload of awful experiences since the zombification (Duane, his preadolescent son, meets Rick with a loaded rifle aimed in Rick's face). Morgan reveals how his wife was bitten and his inability to put her down (I don't really know what to call it, since she's already dead). During his story, the camera flashes to his wife, uncoordinatedly walking around in front of the house at night and scratching at the door like a lost cat looking for its owner. And the loss is apparent in Morgan's face as well as the pain in his son's. 
• What I love: The depth and reality of the characters. Morgan is one good example, and now, as I watch the second season, Shane is becoming more uncouth in his manner. After being "Shane the Savior," he has started to taste the bittersweet truth of his loneliness. The lack of reciprocity for his morally upright actions begins to wear him down, and he steadily loses his protective nature towards others.
• Plotline: The story is loaded with events that present the group with moral dilemmas. In each episode, the characters each deal with a scenario that forces them to make an ethical decision.
• What I love: As if it isn't enough to cause the characters' mental mechanisms to surface, it urges the audience to think as well. What if I were in said situation? If my sibling, parent, child, friend, spouse, etc. were turned into some grotesque version (not just aesthetically) of their former selves and it was dangerous for others and myself, would I have the courage to kill them? How dangerous is too dangerous, and can I do for others what I hope they would equivalently do for me? Another concept not to be taken lightly is the formation of a society. As the group becomes isolated from others (and each other) because of distrust, the roles become clarified: leader, devil's advocate, survival expert, the woman (I really don't know what to call this emotional role - something along the lines of Rev. Lovejoy's wife in the Simpsons - "Think of the children!" Lol), the voice of reason, the instigator, the religious fanatic, and all the background characters to enhance the movement of the plotline. Although the societal change doesn't evolve as quickly as that of The Mist (whoa, Marcia Gay Harden, put the bible down and stop sacrificing people like the Aztecs), it allows for a good study of the evolution of human interactions.

So, these are just a few of my faaaavorite thiiiiinngsssss (I've got to start toning down the Sound of Music segues) about the Walking Dead. I hope it continues on (as I have yet to reach the amazingness of the mystery hooded figure Yahoo! mentioned in an article about the season finale), and I hope it continues to maintain my interest. :D

P.S. I LOVE YOU, GLEN! Call me anytime. ;)

Keanu Reeves... as... dun-dun-DUN! Buddha

Today I watched Little Buddha, a movie that follows a man's search for the reincarnation of Buddha in 1993 while simultaneously telling the story of Buddha's life. The man searches for his "teacher" around the world for several years, finally discovering that his teacher's spirit had split into three and had been reincarnated in 3 children: a boy from Seattle (who was super sweet), a boy from India, and a girl from India. I had a hard time taking this seriously because Keanu Reeves has a specific way of speaking (with many breaths after words) and his being Indian only made it WAY more noticeable. :P I just thought I had better jot this down before I forgot. :D

Also, another movie to add to the list. The Apostle, with Robert Duvall.

The Host and Old Boy

On Saturday, I also watched The Host and Old Boy with one of my roommate Sarah's friends and her niece. Both are Korean movies, but I think it makes them better.

The Host is a sci-fi flick about a government experiment gone wrong that kidnaps a schoolgirl and sends her family on a wild chase to retrieve the girl and kill the monster, which ironically looks like a giant mudskipper (I wonder if that's how sci-fi writers get their ideas: nature-watching on LSD). My favorite character by far was a man with bleached hair whom I lovably named "Sweats." He proceeded to wear sweats until quarantine, where he fought with his sister's boyfriend in a male-version cat fight (including the slaps) and scratched himself in all the wrong places while sleeping. But I have to commend him on impaling the monster at the end, even though the little girl died. It was an interesting movie, made even more interesting by our disability to locate the option for English subs. It's a funny movie to watch (without the intent of being comedic in any manner).

Old Boy was more dramatic. It began with a drunk man (Dae-su Oh) at a police station making a complete fool of himself who was eventually kidnapped and held in a hotel room for 15 years against his will. I personally didn't think it seemed all that horrible, except for the daily sleep-gas releases and injections. Oh, and don't forget the lack of sunlight. Anyway, Dae-su finally escapes looking like he just wandered onto the highway from being lost in the wilderness for 20 years and ends up at a sushi bar. He orders a live octopus to eat and manages to choke on it (surprise, surprise; wouldn't have expected that to happen with all those survival instincts apparent in writhing tentacles), alarming his waitress (Woo-jin Lee) and prompting her caring side to take him in and bandage him up. He wakes up in her apartment and, after discovering she removed his clothes to bandage him, sets out to the bathroom on a mission to have sex with her. She fends him off and tells him that she'll signal her horniness with a song he wrote in his journal (which pisses him off even more because she read his diary like a little brother bent on embarrassment-related blackmail). In order to get revenge, he starts searching for the man who kidnapped him (which is funny because he has a list of probably 50 enemies) and locates his hotel of imprisonment. He cruelly tortures the security guy by ripping out his teeth with a hammer and takes on a score of men in order to escape. He discovers the identity of his enemy, but while he's talking to him, the man with the ripped-out teeth (who I'm going to nickname Gold Caps) is in Woo-jin's apartment with her half-naked and tied to the bed. Dae-su comes back to the apartment and fights Gold Caps and his crew but fails to defeat them. They leave on the enemy's orders, and Dae-su takes Woo-jin, and they leave town. While they're in the car, she starts singing the song from his journal (which I don't see how I would be aroused by being almost killed by a man with 30 gold caps in his mouth), and they rush to a hotel. Dae-su tries to remember how he upset his enemy in order to better understand his reasons, and he talks to an old friend about their high school days. It turns out that the enemy was in love with his own sister and performed an act of incest, which Dae-su accidentally saw and spread as gossip. He finally heads to his enemy's place to kill him, but I missed the fight scene and the end because my source of movie left. :( But I will finish it someday. Despite everything, it was interesting. :D

Anyway, I am adding Donnie Brasco to my list of movies to watch, and I'm adding Dear God to Laura's. She needs to see Tim Conway in that movie. :D Also, I'm placing Thelma and Louise and Bonnie and Clyde on my list of movies. They are classics that I've never finished, and I would like to watch them.

Shutter Island, Death at a Funeral, Youth in Revolt, Year One

This is incredibly late coming from me, but this last Friday (after seeing Inception), I watched all the movies stated in the title of this post.

Shutter Island concerns the story of a "feder-uhl mah-shal" and his partner who investigate the disappearance of a lady at a top-security insane asylum. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the federal marshal Teddy, Mark Ruffalo plays the partner, Ben Kingsley plays the head psychologist, and Michelle Williams plays Teddy's tormented wife. Unfortunately, when I watched this, I had already predicted the end. My mother and I were picking out movies one time in the store, and I called it: "He's totally insane, and this is all some hallucination in his mind." My mom thought she had to dupe me, like when I discovered she was Santa Clause, so she told me that it had a surprise twist at the end (which I proceeded to argue was his insanity). So, when I watched this, I found that I had the basic idea right. A few things were more complicated than I expected, such as the anagrams of Teddy's and Dolores' names, how crazy his wife actually was, and the scheduled lobotomy at the end (which, thanks to Laura's and my viewing of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with Jack Nicholson, I now know what that is :P). But other than that, this movie was awfully predictable.

Death at a Funeral (the English version) was alright. It wasn't as comedic as I had hoped (I expected the British to have better senses of humor), but some comedy elements were excellent. The plotline consists of a man holding his father's funeral (the timespan lasts a day) and how he deals with his eccentric relatives. The man Daniel (played by Matthew McFadyen, a.k.a. Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley, a.k.a. Mr. Dreamy as I like to call him) has arranged his whole father's funeral and is trying to get ahold of a flat with his pregnant wife. His famous novelist brother Robert returns (whom he resents for becoming more famous than he) and hits on the younger cousins present. He also has two cousins who arrive: one is a drug addict in college (Troy) trying to keep it on the DL, and the other is a businesswoman (Martha) who is about to get married to a prudish, but lovable guy (Simon) who accidentally takes some hallucinogen supplied by Troy. Finally, there is another cousin (Howard) who arrives with a friend who once dated Martha and with Uncle Alfred, the most crotchety old man in a wheelchair anyone could imagine. The day starts out like normal until everyone arrives, and chaos ensues when the fiancée (played by Alan Tudyk of Firefly fame) begins to hallucinate. He thinks he sees the deceased patriarch trying to escape from his coffin and has to be removed from the room. Daniel takes the opportunity to work on his eulogy but continues to be interrupted by random relatives. A short man comes up to him and expresses an urgent need to speak with Daniel. Daniel finally agrees, and the man explains that he was his father's lover and proceeds to blackmail Daniel for money to not release the information about the affair. To his misfortune, Daniel and others in the family try to conceal the man from everyone and incidentally drug him with Troy's hallucinogenic pills. After Simon goes nude and noisily ponders on the rooftop (drawing everyone's attention to him), Daniel, Robert, Howard, and Troy manage to get the doped up midget into his father's coffin, thinking he's dead. After everyone returns inside, and the funeral begins again, the midget tries to escape and succeeds in notifying everyone of his relationship with Daniel's father. The mother goes crazy and attacks him, but after all of the madness and dysfunction of the family gathering, Daniel delivers a beautiful eulogy and manages to end on a good note. Death at a Funeral reminded me of Eulogy quite a bit, but I feel like it's more within the realms of reality than Eulogy (everyone seems slightly more real; a porn star, a closet lesbian, and a man with perverted twin sons doesn't seem like a likely family). I am excited for the American version of Death at a Funeral; I feel like it's going to slightly funnier with some African-American culture involved. :D

Youth in Revolt was different. I thought it was interesting to see Michael Cera in a badass role, but it wasn't as funny as I'd hoped it would be. It wasn't bad, though. It was fun to watch his sudden transformation into a complete opposite of himself in order to impress a girl (and yes, I'm aware it's for all the wrong reasons). I really disliked the girl, though. She played him throughout the whole movie and wasn't into him until he was classified as juvenile detention center jailbait. I did find it hilarious to see him as François, a suave man with a pencil mustache, tight pants, and a white button-up shirt. Overall, it was okay, but not one of my favorites.

Year One wasn't very good, either. It's the story about how two nomads leave their tribe to travel the world. It contains several Biblical references (the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, Isaac's almost-sacrifice, and the town of Sodom). I liked watching the blooper reel at the end (I have a fetish with watching blooper reels; I really enjoy seeing how actors are when they are offscreen), but it wasn't a very good comedy. Jack Black and Michael Cera made an interesting team, but I felt they could have complemented each other better.

That's all I have for now. I've been meaning to put this up for awhile, but I hadn't had a lapse from my ADHD long enough to sit down and type this up. The next two movies I'm going to write about are Korean, so it will be entertaining. :P

Oh My God... Inception

I went to see Inception this afternoon, and I think it has got to be the best movie out this year. Christopher Nolan (director of Batman Begins, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight) is definitely one of my favorite directors out making films right now. He knows just how to time the suspense in each of his films and how to develop the characters in a timely fashion. Inception follows a team of thieves/engineers who share dreams in order to get information about classified projects. It starts out with Dom (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt sharing a dream with a Japanese energy tycoon Saito (Ken Watanabe) in order to steal information from his mind. Unfortunately, Dom's wife interferes, leaving you to wonder, how is she there? In order to make it back to the U.S. to see his kids, Dom takes on a project offered by Saito to plant an idea into a rival energy businessman's son to break up his company. This process, called "inception," is a very difficult one because the team would have to travel into the third level of dreams, which is the deepest part of the mind. The team breaks into the man's mind but has many unforeseen obstacles along the way, which includes Dom's memories' interference. At the end, Dom and his architect (Ellen Page) are trapped in the subconscious of the man, and Dom has to retrieve Saito, who was shot and has fallen into the limbo. *SPOILER* Dom returns home to his kids, but his totem, a spinning top, continues spinning and sucks the audience in by continuing to spin until the screen goes black, suggesting he may still be within the depths of his own subconscious.

I loved the action scenes in this film. They pulled in anti-gravity, drive-by shootings and car chases, and even cliff-climbing for the action scenes, which made it amazing. I also loved the characters' personalities: Dom with his mysterious past that is slowly revealed, Arthur with his rational thinking and seemingly smooth moves, Ariadne with her honest and practical approach to life, Eames with his sly and goofy manner, and Saito with his determination to see it through. I am definitely going to watch this again when it comes out. :D And I can't wait!

The Royal Tenenbaums

Yesterday, while getting ready for class, I watched The Royal Tenenbaums, a movie directed by Wes Anderson about a dysfunctional family. It has a cast with many famous names in it, including Gene Hackman, Angelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, the Wilson brothers, and Danny Glover. I don't know how Wes Anderson did it, but all of the characters have such interesting personality quirks, which makes for really funny interactions. For example, when Richie (Luke Wilson) tries to kill himself and is lying in the hospital, Chas (Ben Stiller) keeps drilling him about trivial things, such as: is there a suicide note?, could it be paraphrased?, was it gruesome?, etc. This movie made me laugh so hard that the proverbial milk was running from my nose. :P But anyway, it's definitely a movie I will be keeping with me to watch. :D

A Few Key Funny Points:
Pagoda stabbing Royal with a pocketknife while calling him a "son of a bitch."
Eli's suddenly going tribal and crashing a car into the wedding.
Ari and Uzi's tracksuits (made me laugh the whole movie).
Raleigh and Dudley's interactions.

Despicable Me 3D

So, on Sunday, I saw my first ever, actual movie in 3D. As you can guess, it was Despicable Me, a Pixar-like film about an evil villain trying to become the most evil villain/thief until he adopts three girls. I expected to see a more comedic movie when I went with my friend Larissa, but it wasn't as funny as I thought. It was really cute though. But I'm not really looking for cute. So, I'm going to say that Despicable Me wasn't really a good movie for me. I'm more into funny or action-packed or mysterious.

Also, I am going to see Inception at some point this week. I've heard from everyone who's gone to see it that it is freakin' amazing.

Step Up and the LXD

Tonight, I watched Step Up with my roommate, Sarah. It's a pretty stereotypical dance movie, but what I enjoy is watching the actual actors dance instead of having someone else dance for them. It makes the story better/more fun to watch. Anyway, I saw this movie awhile ago, and it was great to rewatch it tonight. Step Up 3D is coming out on August 6th, so I'm looking forward to seeing it. Unfortunately, my exam is supposed to be the same day, so I'll either be traveling home or, hopefully, have my exam moved up and be home by then. It looks like it's going to be awesome.

The LXD is an internet series by the director of Step Up 3D, Jon Chu, and it involves a bunch of dancers who become superheroes. There have been 3 episodes out so far, and my favorite is Robot Lovestory. It's set up like a live-action graphic novel, but with crazy moves. I have to admit, I'm jealous of dancers. I know it's hard work, but it would be totally worth it to move as fluidly as they do. But anyway, it's fun to watch them do what they do.

I would like to add that we need to add Battlestar Galactica to our must-watch list. I feel like it's going to be awesome.

Men Who Stare At Goats

Tonight, or, rather, last night, my friend Larissa and I watched Men Who Stare at Goats, a movie about a journalist's journey with Lyn Cassidy, who was once a part of the New Earth Army, a military section based in psychic research. The journalist (EWAN MCGREGOR!!!!!!!) reaches a mid-life (or 30s) crisis where his wife leaves him, and he heads to the Middle East in order to show that he has what it takes as a writer. In Iraq, he runs into Lyn Cassidy, the psychic prodigy of the New Earth Army who has been reactivated and is taking on a new mission, although he has no idea where he's going, or what exactly he's doing. The journalist learns to loosen up and accept life as it comes and to have some fun every once in awhile. I love the comedy in this movie. It's so random and ironic. They are a crazy bunch of people, and I love them for it. I'd highly suggest watching this movie, especially for Jeff Bridges' acting and Kevin Spacey's strange "spirit guide" voice. :D

She's Out of My League, Firefly, and The 4400

Last night, I watched She's Out of My League. Surprisingly, I had a good time watching it. It has a lot of funny parts to it, but about the same amount as other B-rated comedy movies. (Not as bad as a C-rated movie, like The 40-year-old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It. I mean, c'mon, really?). But I have to say that the combination of his family and friends and her really hateful friend made the movie. The main characters were alright, but the supporting cast really brought home the laughs. Also, I really liked the soundtrack. It had a lot of rock similar to 90's/early 00's rock. Overall, I liked it. Not loved it, but just liked it.

We also watched the pilot of Firefly. I watched its one and only season at the beginning of this summer. It's a really good series. The plotline follows the crew of Serenity, a spaceship called a Firefly, as they travel through space avoiding the Alliance and taking on random jobs. My fascination with the show is the style. It's a Western and futuristic/sci-fi as well. In addition, the characters have more depth to them than some sci-fi series. And there's comedy, for which I'm always a sucker. :P

Finally, a series that I have been rewatching with my roommate and friends is The 4400. The 4400 is about 4400 people who have been abducted over the past 60 years and returned in a giant ball of white light all of a sudden on a shore in Washington state. Even more strange is the unexpected presence of special powers that accompany everyone's arrival. As the plot develops, the storyline and characters get more complex. The first two seasons are to build up relationships between the characters and are, therefore, slower than the third and fourth seasons. By the second or third episode in the third season, a whirlwind of events picks up and carries away your boredom. It's an amazing series. :D And I fully suggest watching it.

Ahem... Yeah.

At the behest of Laura, I decided to stop for a moment and take a look at the movie Deliverance. So, um, yeah... What is there really to say about Deliverance? Well, it is a movie about four guys who work together who take a trip up into the Appalachian mountains to canoe down the river before it is destroyed for industry's sake. The trip starts out simply enough with the men looking for someone to drive their car to the endpoint of the journey downstream and some wicked banjo/guitar-playing ("Dueling Banjos") by one of the men and a young Appalachian boy. Then, they take off down the river, and the real horror begins. Two of the guys (played by Jon Voight and Ned Beatty) are accosted by mountain men and tied up, and the character acted out by Ned Beatty is then violated by one of the hillbillies. This includes the famous line: "Squeal, piggy, squeal!" (which isn't a pretty mental or visual image). The guys escape with the help of one of their friends (the oh-so-rugged Burt Reynolds) and take off down the river. One of them is killed, and two others are seriously injured before they finally escape the hell known as Appalachian backcountry. Don't think that I hate this movie because of all the gruesomeness and graphics; it is a good film for comparing the aspects of humanity and nature. It's just different from what I'm used to with all the cookie-cutter films nowadays. :P

But, I'd like to include some fun facts. James Dickey, the author of the novel and screenplay for Deliverance, liked to play with people's minds. He would tell stories about himself and others that weren't true just to mess with people. I found it hysterical when his son and the actors of Deliverance talked about it on special features. They provided lots of examples, so check it out! Also, I heard from my uncle's friend that the actor Ned Beatty would go to public places, and people thereabouts would say, "Squeal, piggy, squeal!" I don't think I would ever be truly comfortable with playing that character if it would lead to comments like that. But he managed somehow, and all the more power to him, as my mom likes to say. He became really good friends with the actor who played the mountain man who raped him. They spent a lot of time together onset in order to be comfortable enough with that scene. That takes some serious dedication. I would like to talk about Burt Reynolds too. He made me laugh really hard with his tough personality and wilderness skillz (that's right; he gets a 'z' because it's that awesome). I especially love when he looks into the distance and says,"You don't beat the river." I crack up every time because of the seriousness etched into his expression. :D

Finally, a word about my mother. She watched it last night with my aunt and I for the first time. Needless to say, she was not a happy camper this morning in relation to that topic. She's used to the cookie-cutter movies also. :P

Jade Warrior

So, yesterday, I decided to watch the much-delayed (in my case) Jade Warrior. At first I thought it was like the stereotypical Chinese/Japanese martial arts films that come through the United States on a whirlwind of English subtitles, but it proved to be more than I expected, in a good way. Jade Warrior tells a story of the Kalevala, an epic poem made from years of storytelling, where Sintai Seng-pu, the son of the smith Seppo, has to face a demon in order to create happiness for the world. This movie starts out with the incarnation of Sintai in a blacksmith named Kai Pelkonen who has just been dumped by his girlfriend Ronja. She trades in his belongings at an antique shop, and one of them triggers a mysterious metal box covered in runes to partially open. The man who runs the store, Berg, travels to Kai's hut to get him to fully open the box, and a demon takes over Berg and orders Kai to build the Sampo, a mythical box that could return hope and happiness to the world. Kai complies reluctantly and slowly remembers his past life as Sintai, a half-Finnish, half-Chinese warrior destined to defeat a demon. Unfortunately, Sintai falls in love before meeting the demon and discovers that she loves someone else. It's a very tragic movie (like the story), and it was a far cry from the martial arts film I expected, but I really loved the plotline and characters. I found it interesting how Sintai's fate is intertwined with the demon's, and how he constantly reminds Sintai of it. Also, the special effects were pretty neat. They weren't as good as other movies I've seen, but they were definitely better than those of the SyFy channel's latest movie productions. I really hope they make a second movie to follow the storyline, since the ending had the potential to continue.

Review of Percy Jackson, Fame, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, and *eek!* Happy Gilmore

Last night was movie night! :D Well, and this morning... We watched Happy Gilmore last night, and I watched Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. The night before, I watched Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and Fame. Let's start with Percy Jackson.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is about a boy who discovers his father is Poseidon and that he is the prime suspect in the theft of Zeus's master lightning bolt... all within 14 days of discovering that he is superhuman (demigod). He has to try to find the bolt while fighting ancient Greek creatures that are out to kill him. Overall, it was a pretty good movie with special effects making a huge factor in my like for it, but I would have to say that the book is much better. The book has a much different plotline with the same goal (retrieve the lightning bolt before Zeus kills him), but little aspects made it better, like the humor always present in the book, and a smoother segue into events and relationships.

Fame was pretty cool. It was a lot less graphic than its '70s predecessor, but the issues were made to conform to modern times, which I really liked. It's a movie that follows several students who are admitted into a high school in New York with an emphasis on the arts, but it shows the ups and downs of their lives over the four years. I really loved all of the characters, and the actors did a great job playing them. I loved Denise's and Marco's voices, and I especially loved the lunchroom scene. If I were going to a school of the arts, lunchtime would be my favorite part of the day. :D Also, I would like to add that Kevin the ballet dancer (well, ballet teacher now) looked kinda like Bruno. :P

I rewatched Happy Gilmore with a couple of my friends. I hadn't seen it in a few years, and I instantly loved it again. It made me laugh so hard with its wry sense of humor. I'd have to say that my favorite character is Chubbs. He is so ridiculously ridden with bad luck that I couldn't help but giggle. Oh, and I finally discovered that the IRS agent (played by Robert Smigel) who comes to repossess the house is the same guy who creates the TV Funhouse cartoons for Saturday Night Live (which from hereon out, I will refer to as SNL). It was nice to put a face to the name.

Finally, I watched Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid via recommendation by Laura this morning. It's a detective comedy where Steve Martin incorporates several scenes from '40s and '50s films into his plotline of Det. Rigby Reardon's search to discover who kidnapped a client's father. It was very funny, and Martin's sense of humor is a little offkey from the stereotypical middle-class American humor, but it makes it all the more hysterical. One of my favorite parts is when he dresses up like a woman to seduce a suspect because he can't find a blonde woman to bait the suspect. He ends up being taken home with the man and drugging him, but he just looks so un-womanly (not feminine) that I laughed for the whole scene. Overall, it was an awesome movie for its subtle humor.



Also, I need to add another movie to Laura's and my list of movies to watch. We will be adding the Dracula movie which stars Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves. I feel like many parts in this will be too funny to pass up. It makes me think of Interview with an American Vampire, which is about the turning and life (or existence) of a vampire (played by Brad Pitt) in America. It costars Tom Cruise and Kirsten Dunst (when she was younger) and is based on a book of the same name by Anne Rice. I haven't read the book, but the movie was actually pretty interesting. It had its downfalls, but I liked it overall. But I am excited to watch Dracula. :D

P.S. Don't let me ever get started on The Village. My disappointment with it will never end.

To-Be-Seen Movie List: Parte Uno

So, this is the first part of the list of movies that my friend Laura and I plan to see:

The Last Temptation of Christ (directed by Martin Scorsese)

Bluebeard (a French film involving the folktale)

Freeway (a thriller about a girl {Reese Witherspoon} 

who runs away only to be stalked by a  

                wispy-mustachioed man {Kiefer Sutherland})

High Crimes (thriller about a lawyer {Ashley Judd} 

whose life gets turned upside down when her husband

     {Jim Caviezel} is arrested and put on trial for serious crimes)

Eulogy (a dysfunctional family reunites for the patriarch's funeral)

The Secret in their Eyes (murder mystery -- en espanol!)

That's what we've got for now. Mostly, we want to see Freeway because of Kiefer Sutherland's excellently creepy get-up, and High Crimes for the twist at the end. :D

New Blog!

So, this is my attempt at trying to keep track of all the movies I've seen, want to see, or, even, am in the process of seeing. Each post will provide a summary of the movie or my review. Also, it will provide highlights of my favorite parts. This blog is really only being provided as a reflection for me in later years, but if you're following this, thanks! Also, let me know what you thought of these movies. ^_^

Sincerely,

Taylor