Something Borrowed

Released: 2011
Romance
Director: Luke Greenfield
Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, Kate Hudson, Colin Egglesfield
Running Time: 112 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  A girl's best friend sleeps with her fiance when she's a bit drunk on her birthday.  Based on a book by Emily Giffin.

From the reviews I saw on Rottentomatoes.com I wasn't expecting anything good of this movie.  It turns out, I don't agree with the critics this time.  I didn't love it, but it was good.
Basically there's these two girlfriends who have been friends for their whole lives.  One is a responsible brunette and goes off to law school to become a lawyer, the other one is a blonde self-centered girl and doesn't seem to do anything for a living, but she has money.
The brunette meets a great guy that she totally adores in law school, but she thinks he doesn't like her, when it's totally obvious he does.  She introduces him to her girlfriend, and the blonde tries to get him to ask her friend out first, but the brunette kinda' says well, we are just friends, so you go after him, when that's the last thing she really wants.  Anyway, he asks her if it's ok with her for him to pursue someone else, especially her best friend and she says yes, even though, she wants him for herself.  He ends up dating the blonde and proposing.  The brunette is now the maid of honor. 
On the brunette's birthday, a chance happening puts her and the guy alone and she spills her feelings to him, kinda' on a whim.  He responds by kissing her passionately and then they end up having sex at her place.
The characters are flawed, but so are we all in real life.  The storyline is a messy one, but so can real life plots be.  I thought it was realistic and not everyone will like the ending, but I think it's a realistic portrayal of flawed people making decisions that affect lots of people in good and bad ways.

3 and 1/2 out of 5 for a story that I ended up enjoying.

Crazy, Stupid, Love

Released: 2011
Drama, Comedy
Director: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Starring: Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling
Running Time: 118 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  A middle-aged man has a huge upheaval of his happy life when his wife of 25 years asks for a divorce.  He immediately moves out and into his own apartment, trying to adjust to his new single and lonely life.


In a bar he finds a Romeo who seems to go home with a different woman each night.  One day the Romeo approaches him and asks if he wants to learn how to do what he does and he agrees.  The middle of the movie shows the friendship that develops between them and the newly single man learning about himself and growing.  There's also a couple of sub stories involving romance in all it's various states.
Overall, I wasn't expecting much, and when I do that I am completely open to allowing the movie to be whatever it is.  This wasn't a fantastic movie, but it wasn't terrible either.  It had it's cute, touching moments, and others made me smile so if you were interested at all in seeing it, I say, go ahead and see it.

3 out of 5 for being cute enough for me to like it overall.
PS the girl who plays Jessica in this is actually someone I recognized from Cycle 11 of America's Next Top Model.  For her being a former model wanna' be, she's actually a pretty decent actress, so kudos to her.

Halloween Haven 2012

Hello all.
Grandin Road just sent me an email telling me that their Halloween shop will be up and available to shop on August 1st!
This is the usual time that they release their inventory, but I thought I'd share it with you in case you didn't know.
I got a gift card for them last year for my birthday and I've been waiting all year to use it.
I can't wait to see their new stuff!!!!

The Avengers

Released: 2012
Sci-fi, Action
Director: Joss Whedon
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson
Running Time: 143 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  An evil force threatens Earth and a handful of superheroes must fight together to defeat their common foe.

Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and The Hulk have all been building towards this movie where all of them come together for Nick Fury, the Director of an organization called S.H.I.E.L.D.  Director Fury has been trying to get them all to work for him with his worldwide peace plan.  Loki, Thor's brother has come to Earth  and has nothing but trouble following behind him.
This is a large ensemble cast and it's fun to watch them all interact and play off each other.
I highly recommend it as it has plenty of humor, action, and great special effects.  Not to mention an entertaining story line and good acting from all.

4 and 1/2 out of 5 for being such a good overall superhero film and a lot of fun to watch.

Twilight

Unfortunately Released: 2008
It's supposed to be a drama, but I think of it more as a unintentional comedy/bore-fest
Directed by a pitiful excuse for a director: Catherine Hardwicke
Starring (but not real stars that can act): Kristen Stewart (twitchy), Robert Pattinson (stoned)
Running Time: (way too damn long) at 122 agonizing minutes
Rated: PG-13 (so the only people that actually enjoy it can see it, which is preteen girls)

The breakdown:  I have such a hard time taking this review seriously, it's painful.  I'll try......
A teenage girl falls in love with a vampire who's a hundred years old, but looks like a stoned, pasty, teenage boy.


Do you know how much it cost to make this film? 37 million dollars.  Do you know how much it grossed? Over 382 million.  It's gigantic. It's mind blowing.  It's unbelievable that a piece of crap "story" like this could make so much freakin' money.  Actually, it shouldn't surprise me, lots of little kids dragged their parents to go see it and they have no taste.  Adult women that went to go see it have no excuse, they just don't know what a good story should look like.

In all honesty, here's the plot.  A girl's divorced mother wants to run off with her new rock band boyfriend so the weird teenage daughter gets pawned off on her clueless father far away in another state.  So, she's new in town and really likes the pasty white, stoned looking loser boy in her new high school.  The loser boy a.k.a. elderly vampire/boy drug wonder likes her too so they start dating.  It's really creepy because he looks at her like he's an old boyfriend of hers that's just stalking her, not like lust.  Unfortunately for the audience, the local werewolf/Native American boy also likes the new weirdo, I mean, girl.  She never is attracted to him, so I'm not sure why they play the whole love triangle story, but they insist she is torn between two Halloween characters, I mean, guys.  There's some car chase and flying scenes, oh and "fighting" scenes as well that are ridiculous and laughably bad.  And don't forget the absurd softball game in the middle of a field.  It all looks like a long commercial on MTV aimed at kids with ADD to me.  It was filmed in 48 days so that might explain it.  The couple that are dating in real life are so bad at acting that they can't even use that to their advantage and make anyone believe they have feelings for each other on screen.  Overall, this story just. doesn't. work.  Watch the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Television Show Season 1 to see how it's done effectively and entertainingly.

Never, ever see this movie or any others that follow it in the series.  It is absolute rubbish and will make you want to throw up.
-100 (that's 100 below my usual lowest possible of 0) of 5, my worst rating forever, for lack of entertainment, lack of talent from the actors, and lack of any sort of enjoyable story line.

Happy Birthday America!

Happy 4th of July to you and your family.
I hope it's filled with fun and safely setting off fireworks.
Also happy birthday to my auntie Polly!!!

One Year Anniversary

June 26th!
I missed it.
So I'm posting this as soon as I realized that my blog's one year anniversary has come along.
I was so busy blogging, I actually forgot to check the date of when all this started.

Happy Birthday to my blog, sorry I was late!
I'll do better next year!

Dead Again

Released: 1991
Drama, Mystery
Director:  Kenneth Branagh
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Andy Garcia
Running Time: 107 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  A Los Angeles private detective takes on the case of a mysterious woman, who he calls Grace, who cannot remember anything about herself or her life, not even her name.

So you're this woman who can't remember your name or where you live, anything.  A cute p.i. gets assigned to your case and you kinda' start dating, even though you don't know who you are.  He takes you to this guy who seems to be a quack at first, but the more you're under hypnosis, the more you start remembering, BUT it's from a past life!
I love love love this story.  Original, entertaining, romantic, and mysterious, it just didn't get any better than this!

Watch it please!
4 and 1/2 out of 5 for creative plots, great acting, fantastic chemistry between the two main characters (who were married at the time) and a story that keeps you wondering until the end.

American Psycho

Released: 2000
Drama, Horror
Director: Mary Harron
Starring: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Chloe Sevigny
Running Time: 102 minutes
Rated: NC-17

The breakdown:  In the 1980's a young New Yorker likes to pretend he's much more important than what he really is, and kills people for fun in his spare time.

This movie is based on the book with the same name by Bret Easton Ellis.  This movie was good, I actually picked up the book after I finished watching it.
Patrick Bateman is a New Yorker who works at his father's Wall Street company, but he really doesn't do much.  He obsesses over his business cards and the latest musical sensations and does a lot of drugs....oh and he also kills people for no reason.  He's a very disturbed guy, but this movie is so interesting.  It's like watching a puzzle being put back together.  If you can stand extreme sex and violence in movies, you gotta' see it.  This one's really good.

This was one of the few books that ever made me nauseous upon reading certain parts.  The main character likes to torture some victims before killing them and the writing is so graphic, some readers might find it hard to take.  With that said, the book is still very good and the movie sometimes seems a lot more tame than the book itself.  I still, recommend both to you because it is a good story at it's core.



4 and 1/2 out of 5 for the movie version.  It has a great ending, a naked Christian Bale with a perfect physique, and a solid story.

5 out of 5 bookmarks for the book version as the writing was clear, the story was well thought out and the characters are vivid and well fleshed out.

Stargate

Released: 1994
Sci-Fi
Director: Roland Emmerich
Starring: Kurt Russell, James Spader, Alexis Cruz
Running Time: 121 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A group of military members travel through space and time using a machine that was found in Egypt.

A great story that's unique and smart; I loved this movie when it came out.  A special team of military soldiers along with a college professor go through something that none of them really understand - something called the stargate.  When they enter it, it turns out they travel across space and time to another planet where the actions of the team will affect an entire world.  This movie is inventive, unique, and entertaining all the way through.

Watch it!
4 1/2 out of 5 for being interesting to watch and well done overall.  My only complaint is that they could've really imparted the audience with some sort of message at the end, but wasted the opportunity.