Latest Happenings

I'm quite distraught.

Today I learned that The Cape is being cancelled (only 2 more episodes left!). Lackluster viewers have caused NBC to inevitably pull the show. From cutting the order from 13 to 10, the series is doomed for failure. It's actually quite a good show, a unique idea just hindered by the fact of it's super lame name and the fact that is indeed yet another superhero show, oh yeah, and it's cheesy as hell. Serennie will finish out the series when it finally ceases to exist. I wonder how she feels about the it being cancelled after she put so much effort into blogging about it.

I was looking forward to watching a bunch of new shows this season and instead, the one show that I actually, The Cape, started to like is being cancelled. A total WTF moment for me.

Another thing that I'm remorseful over is that Royal Pains, currently being un-blogged by us, is finished with it's second season. Such a tease. It started out happily in January and I expected it to be a year-long show like our perennial favorites Gossip Girl and Glee, but instead it ended. It was my happy show, my show that I look forward to that I can zone out to. And then suddenly, at the end of February. WTF. I actually didn't know it was the season finale until I was so bored with just the first 15 minutes of the show and then suddenly saw the wrap up of the season leaving a couple of burning questions. Is Divya's lovely suitor coming back? Are they really canceling the wedding? What's going to happen with Hank by his lonesome self? When is Jill coming back? And lastly, has the past 2 seasons, spanned over filming for 1.5 years, just been one whole summer in the Hamptons in Royal Pains world? Oh Royal Pains, when are you coming back? 

And a show I've been kind of keeping up with, Mr. Sunshine, kind of sucks. I don't know why I keep watching it.

But maybe it's for the better. I'm desperately behind in a lot of shows that I'm blogging about. That's another thing that I'm sad about. Couch Potatoes is slowly coming at a stand still, not so up to date as it should be, but don't worry, we're going to do our best to keep it up, and play catch-up with our shows.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that Entourage is premiering their FINAL SEASON this year? I have yet to start watching it since I am behind by a whopping 7 seasons.

Oh and whenever I see the two words, SERIES FINALE, I get kind of sad. It reminds me of my absolute favorite show: Nip/Tuck. I'm still grieving from my loss. A show that I will re-watch from the very beginning and blog every step of the way. It's not so much for you, but for me. I need this therapy in order to get over my year long loss. :(

Now do you see why I'm kind of depressed this season? Really mostly about The Cape though, not going to lie. I actually like ABC/NBC's action shows: Flashforward, Heroes, The Event and now The Cape. All dead, or at least in the midst of dying.

---

On a bright note, I'm being cheered up with Archer, my favorite show this season, and the new breakout hit Bob's Burgers. While a little annoying and extremely cheesy, I can't help but watch Bob. I really wish his kids would be less annoying though. But Archer definitely cheers up my week every week. :) What would make me really happy though is seeing Ugly Americans back on air. :)))))

Oh and a fun fact that I learned recently when I was researching The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington is actually Tim the Bear's wife aka Arianna on the show The Cleveland Show.

So here's my list of shows I'm, I'm not sure about serennie, mar, and nivisaur) currently going to blog about and what I'm just watching on the side:

Current: Glee, US Skins, Shameless, 90210, Gossip Girl, Justified, and any movie reviews I plan on doing

To be blogged from this past season: Boardwalk Empire (I think Mar's doing this one), The Big C, Dexter (hopefully Nivi can finish this one)

To be cancelled from blogging (at least by me): The Walking Dead, Community, the cancelled Mr. J Channel

Watching on the side: Nikita, Parenthood, Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, American Dad, Bob's Burgers, Archer, Mr. Sunshine, Off The Map, Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy [the last 3 which are all doing horribly this season, may have to discontinue and wean off of my Shonda Rhimes], oh yes, and my favorite:Chinese/ Taiwanese dramas. I'm saddened by the fact that I have to end watching Endless Love. :(

I'm a bit busy and I feel like CP started out really ambitious but it actually takes a lot of effort which I did not plan for, fret not, it'll get done. I promise.

Cheers,
heyitsabell

83rd Academy Award WInners

We'll just go straight to the winners, I don't really have a preamble as usual:


PREDICTIONS IN BLUE :)
WINNERS IN RED :)
PREDICTIONS + WINNERS MATCHING UP IN PURPLE


Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
Colin Firth in “The King's Speech”
James Franco in “127 Hours”

YAYAYYAYAYAYAY I love Colin Firth <3

Actor in a Supporting Role

Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
John Hawkes in “Winter's Bone”
Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
Geoffrey Rush in “The King's Speech”

Mmmm. I really liked Geoffrey Rush, must go watch The Fighter to see if Bale is really THAT good!


Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right” -- Comedy
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone”
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan” -- Drama
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

Definitely deserved it out of all of the other nominees in this category. And she was so pretty with her pregnancy bump on the red carpet at the Oscar's :)

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
Helena Bonham Carter in “The King's Speech”
Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”

Animated Feature Film

“How to Train Your Dragon”
“The Illusionist”
“Toy Story 3”

Obvious winner...

Art Direction

“Alice in Wonderland”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
“Inception”
“The King's Speech”
“True Grit”

What?! This is a little weird. But I guess Alice in Wonderland did have it's good parts, I can't really remember, all I remember was watching the movie in 3D, which only exacerbated the crappy parts of the movie. Oh, HBC's super large head! That was pretty amazing. :)

Cinematography

“Black Swan”
“Inception”
“The King's Speech”
“The Social Network"
“True Grit”

Well deserved :)

Costume Design

“Alice in Wonderland”
“I Am Love”
“The King's Speech”
“The Tempest”
“True Grit”

Yes, AiW's costumes were good. Once again, Tim Burthon, HBC and Johnny Depp prevail in having the weirdest but AMAZING costumes.

Directing

“Black Swan” -- Darren Aronofsky
“The Fighter” -- David O. Russell
“The King's Speech” -- Tom Hooper
“The Social Network” -- David Fincher
“True Grit” -- Joel Coen and Ethan Coen


I didn't think that the directing in The King's Speech was really memorable. I remember Colin Firth's and Geoffrey Rush's amazing acting skills, the weird gray color of Lionel's apartment and the ominous microphone. Hmm, still think that Black Swan should've won. The directing and crazy editing was what MADE THE MOVIE, well besides Natalie Portman, well, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree with this one. Hmm, I wonder what would have happened if Inception was thrown into this mix...

Documentary (Feature)

“Exit through the Gift Shop”
“Gasland”
“Inside Job”
“Restrepo”
“Waste Land”

Documentary (Short Subject)

“Killing in the Name”
“Poster Girl”
“Strangers No More”
“Sun Come Up"
“The Warriors of Qiugang”
Film Editing

“Black Swan”
“The Fighter”
“The King's Speech”
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”

Yay! The Social Network! I loved the jump between scenes of the legal discussions and the chronological events of how Facebook was born. It was not headache-y or too confusing, but just perfect. :)
Foreign Language Film

“Biutiful” Mexico
“Dogtooth” Greece
“In a Better World” Denmark
“Incendies” Canada
“Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria

Makeup

“Barney's Version”
“The Way Back”
“The Wolfman”


How come Alice in Wonderland not in this category?!
Music (Original Score)

“How to Train Your Dragon”
“Inception”
“The King's Speech”
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”

Mmm, I guess this is once again something I don't agree with. Must watch The Social Network again and listen to the music I guess. All I can really remember is the pounding fog horn sound from Inception, maybe that's clouding my memory.


Music (Original Song)

“Coming Home” from “Country Strong”
“I See the Light” from “Tangled”
“If I Rise” from “127 Hours”
“We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3"

Enough said.

Best Picture

“Black Swan”
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The Kids Are All Right”
“The King's Speech”
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”
“Toy Story 3”
“True Grit”
“Winter's Bone"


After watching The King's Speech I understand why it won Best Picture. All of the actors/actresses were amazing and believable, the screenplay was fresh and entertaining, and it was just an overall great movie. Black Swan on the other hand only had one character, Natalie Portman and she was amazing but the rest of the movie was only a shadow to Portman's character. So The King's Speech was really an all around best winner for this category.

Short Film (Animated)

“Day & Night”
“The Gruffalo”
“Let's Pollute”
“The Lost Thing”
“Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)”

Short Film (Live Action)

“The Confession”
“The Crush”
“God of Love”
“Na Wewe”t
“Wish 143”

Sound Editing

“Inception”
“Toy Story 3”
“Tron: Legacy”
“True Grit”
“Unstoppable”

Okay, I guess I understand, but no Tron music? :(

Sound Mixing

“Inception”
“The King's Speech”
“Salt”
“The Social Network”
“True Grit”


Yes, Inception should definitely win for this one, but if Tron was in this category, I would pick Tron again.

Visual Effects

“Alice in Wonderland”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
“Hereafter”
“Inception”
“Iron Man 2”

Aptly deserved.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”
“Toy Story 3”
“True Grit”
“Winter's Bone”

Yes. Yes. Yes. :)

Writing (Original Screenplay)

“Another Year”
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The Kids Are All Right”
“The King's Speech"


Understandable but Inception was way more original in my opinion. Hmm, looking back on all my comments, it seems like I love Inception, but trust me, I really liked The King's Speech much better, but in some of the categories, I really think that Inception deserved it...


---


Predicted big winner: Inception


Actual big winner: Tie between Inception and The King's Speech with 4 each


Technically The King's Speech is the winner because it won the most important categories: Best Actor and Best Picture so yeah. Yay for The King's Speech. :)


10/18 with 6 opt outs. 


My grade: 55% correct


...


Well I guess that's better than The Golden Globes Predictions that I had last time.


But super yay for The King's Speech, I'm so happy I was able to watch it before the Oscar's and I really think that it deserves almost all of the awards that it wins in :)


What's next? 


Overall I'm happy with the result because I loved a lot of the movies that came out in 2010. Yay! This year went much better than last year in my opinion. Well maybe it's because I don't really like The Hurt Locker but that's a WHOLE other story...


See you later for more TV/Movie posts :)

83rd Academy Awards Predictions

The Awards are going to go down on Sunday, February 27th, 2011 and here are some of the predictions that I made based off of what I watched AND I also added which nominees WON during the Golden Globes. That way we can compare the winners from the Golden Globes and the winners from the Oscars to see if there were any discrepancies.

I hope that this time my predictions are going to be more accurate based on my new education of the movies (I finally watched most of them!) and the winners of the Golden Globes. I don't necessarily think that all of the GG winners should of won but that's my own opinion. As you can see I do differ than them in quite a few of them. Also, I'm not going to predict just for the hell of it, as we can see from last time, I opted out of 7 predictions because there was no way that I could have made a educated guess. Enjoy~!

Here are the nominees and predictions and GG winners (and if my predictions/GG match up), oh yes and I crossed out the ones who I don't think should win:

[Side note: when I crossed out some of the nominees, it's not that I don't like them or they don't deserve to win, but I think that some other of the nominees had way of a more substantial impact.]

Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
Colin Firth in “The King's Speech”
James Franco in “127 Hours”

OH MY GOSH! Colin Firth was AMAZING in The King's Speech! Just watched it about a week ago, hence the review, and his acting was impeccable. His stammering and stuttering was not forced, his troubles and tensions seemed real and he was just fantastic. Jesse Eisenberg was also good as Aaron Sorkin's version of Mark Zuckerberg, all weird and tweaked out and AWKWARD and I guess that was the point? But I saw Zuckerberg (the real one) along with Eisenberg and Mark doesn't seem that weird in real life. Jesse on the other hand, really is all nervous like that...for real. So for Firth, he was acting, and for Eisenberg, he was being himself. Therefore, Firth wins. :)

Actor in a Supporting Role

Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
John Hawkes in “Winter's Bone”
Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
Geoffrey Rush in “The King's Speech”

I haven't seen Rush in any other film except for Pirates of the Caribbean and as Lionel Logue in The King's Speech he was the polar opposite of a Pirate. He was dignified and lovely while still being odd and quirky with his mannerisms and methods. I think I just love the idea of  Lionel and it was Rush who was the medium, therefore I think that Rush should win. :)

Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right” -- Comedy
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone”
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan” -- Drama
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

Natalie Portman, hands down. I don't think that Annette Bening was better than Natalie Portman in this category. Sorry!

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
Helena Bonham Carter in “The King's Speech”
Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”

I really liked The King's Speech but I don't think that HBC was really AMAZING in it, she was a cute and quirky character but the main players in the movie were definitely Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, so not sure that HBC deserves this one. But I LOVE AMY ADAMS! WOOT!

Animated Feature Film

“How to Train Your Dragon”
“The Illusionist”
“Toy Story 3”


This one is an obvious win. Toy Story 3 is a genius end to a genius series. It deserves the win. No doubt.

Art Direction

“Alice in Wonderland”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
“Inception”
“The King's Speech”
“True Grit”

You have to admit, whether or not you liked Inception (I watched it 3 times, and I loved it all 3 times) the art direction was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G and so so so beautiful. Mind blowing and something that I think that a lot of future movies will turn to in reference. Remember when Matrix was regarded as so innovative with the scene of Neo dodging all those bullets in slow motion? And then it was imitated like 100 more times in other movies. Well, I think that Inception is the next Matrix.

Cinematography

“Black Swan”
“Inception”
“The King's Speech”
“The Social Network"
“True Grit”

Cinematography is defined as "the art of making movies" by www.dictionary.com and I think that Inception really was the most artistically crafted movie out of these 5.

Costume Design

“Alice in Wonderland”
“I Am Love”
“The King's Speech”
“The Tempest”
“True Grit”

No matter how much of a failure Alice in Wonderland was, the costumes and makeup were out of control FABULOUS! I loved all of the main characters' costumes. :)

Directing

“Black Swan” -- Darren Aronofsky
“The Fighter” -- David O. Russell
“The King's Speech” -- Tom Hooper
“The Social Network” -- David Fincher
“True Grit” -- Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Black Swan still...I honestly don't think that the directing in The Social Network was better...

Documentary (Feature)


“Exit through the Gift Shop”
“Gasland”
“Inside Job”
“Restrepo”
“Waste Land”


Documentary (Short Subject)


“Killing in the Name”
“Poster Girl”
“Strangers No More”
“Sun Come Up"
“The Warriors of Qiugang”

Film Editing

“Black Swan”
“The Fighter”
“The King's Speech”
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”

I really liked how The Social Network was filmed and edited with the back and forth between the memory flashbacks and the legal battles. Edited beautifully and it wasn't confusing at all.

Foreign Language Film


“Biutiful” Mexico
“Dogtooth” Greece
“In a Better World” Denmark
“Incendies” Canada
“Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria


Makeup


“Barney's Version”
“The Way Back”
“The Wolfman”


No freaking clue.

Music (Original Score)

“How to Train Your Dragon”
“Inception”
“The King's Speech”
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”


Still kind of disagree with The Social Network as having better music than Inception from the GG...

Music (Original Song)

“Coming Home” from “Country Strong”
“I See the Light” from “Tangled”
“If I Rise” from “127 Hours”
“We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3"

Hmmmmmmm I think that Disney movies always pull through with the best music, not going to lie, so for me it's Tangled vs Toy Story 3. Loved Toy Story 3's "We Belong Together" much much better so TS3 it is!

Best Picture

“Black Swan”
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The Kids Are All Right”
“The King's Speech”
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”
“Toy Story 3”
“True Grit”
“Winter's Bone"

I can't decide. I hate how they give us so many choices!! It makes it impossible to pick which one's "better" than the other one, but they were all so amazing! Yikes! The Social Network was the largest winner in the GG but I still think that Black Swan was better. And then The King's Speech was also super amazing!!!!!!!!! And then they also threw an animated movie into here??? It's so strange because it's on a whole other level. Oh no, so hard to choose! Got to go with my gut feeling on this one. :)

Short Film (Animated)


“Day & Night”
“The Gruffalo”
“Let's Pollute”
“The Lost Thing”
“Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)”


Did you watch The Gruffalo with Helena Bonham Carter??? It was beyond adorable. :) Yet I didn't watch the other ones so I can't say that it was necessarily better. Ahh short films are so hard to get a hold of! :( Must skip this one.


Short Film (Live Action)


“The Confession”
“The Crush”
“God of Love”
“Na Wewe”t
“Wish 143”


I can't make an educated guess on this one. I didn't watch any of these movies so I'm NOT going to guess for the hell of it. Skip. :(

Sound Editing

“Inception”
“Toy Story 3”
“Tron: Legacy”
“True Grit”
“Unstoppable”

I loved the music in Tron: Legacy, because not only do I love Daft Punk but I think that the music matched the movie PERFECTLY. I have the Tron: Legacy OST in my car. :)

Sound Mixing

“Inception”
“The King's Speech”
“Salt”
“The Social Network”
“True Grit”

What exactly is sound mixing?! Is it like the music and how well it blends in with the movie? Than it's definitely Inception!

Visual Effects

“Alice in Wonderland”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
“Hereafter”
“Inception”
“Iron Man 2”

A little bit tied up about this one. I thought that Inception was amazing, but I also loved Harry Potter's effects. Is it me being a nerdy HP fan or do I really think that it's better? Whatever, I picked Inception.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”
“Toy Story 3”
“True Grit”
“Winter's Bone”

Writing (Original Screenplay)

“Another Year”
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The Kids Are All Right”
“The King's Speech"

No doubt about my prediction for this one. The screenplay was beyond original and whether or not the Academy Awards agree with this one, I definitely think that this should win. I'm serious.

I think that the big winner will be Inception, and it's not because I loved the movie, I actually think that it's a little bit overrated after seeing it so many times but for most of the categories that it IS nominated for, I truly believe that it deserves it. And let me just tell you, I am probably one of the FIRST people, maybe the only one, to say that Inception is overrated and I don't apologize for it. The Indie Spirits Award's biggest winner last night was Black Swan though, but Black Swan isn't in many of the other categories that I think that Inception should win for.

I skipped 6 of the predictions, but hopefully the rest of mine will be right. *crosses fingers* :)

What are YOUR predictions? 

See you soon~!

Information compiled from: www.oscars.org and www.goldenglobes.org

Skins: Stanley (S1E5)

Synopsis from MTV: Stanley is torn between his feelings for Cadie and Michelle and Tony again tries to help him out. Meanwhile, Stanley and his dad work on their strained relationship.

First off, the chorus recital was HORRIBLE! Tony and that rich blonde ditz, Tabatha, cannot sing for shit! And then they decide to have a make-out session on stage afterwards. And then that leads to sex...

Okay, so basically this episode was about Stanley. A little boring, he's really awkward and I guess we caught a glimpse into his most unlucky day. Stole his Dad's car, drove through a private military camp, doesn't have a license, the car blew up, and Michelle hates him because of Tony, surprise surprise. On top of that, he blames his best friend, Tony for all of it. Well it is his fault...but him and Michelle are fine after their awkward beach slow dance. Oh yeah, and his Dad is the hugest douche ever. But they kind of get over it in the end because they bond over doing dumb stuff and drinking beer. The end.

A fairly boring episode, Stanley isn't as interesting as a character as Chris or Cadie, but he has his moments. Mostly he's the victim in the stories, the fall guy who is just there to make the people around him look better. I'm excited to see the next character, this was just boring. Sorry, Stanley, you lose. Again.

At the end, Stanley's clothes. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. His pants are like 3 inches too short and since he's so tall and lanky and it makes him look really awkward.

Phantogram -- Mouth Full of Diamonds

"I think my parents got that call from school too. My Dad just yelled at me a lot and told me to be less weird."

The Cape: Dice (S1E5)

So, let me just say how excited I was that Mena Suvari was in this episode. (As was heyitsabell.  She says she loves her but she kinda looks like an alien.)  When I saw the preview I just about squealed.  I'm glad, when I watched it, that she didn't disappoint.

A little sample of what happens when she analyzes probabilities

So, like I said, Mena Suvari is the focus of this episode.  Her name is Tracey Jerrod, but her nickname (or the one she goes by now) is Dice, so called because she could from an early age predict the outcome of dice rolls.  In the greater scheme of things, she could actually predict the future.  When you watch the episode, you see through her eyes that her mind works like a computer, endlessly analyzing probabilities and such.

Tracey as she was young, being analyzed by her father who was funded by Fleming

You first see her as a little girl.  Her dad works for Peter Fleming as a researcher.  And his study?  His daughter.  He says she's a savant and that her mind will save the world.  She makes a creepy prediction when she first meets Peter Fleming: He's going to kill her father, and then she's going to kill him.

Dice and Fleming at his casino themed party for the launch of T.R.A.C.E.

Fast forward to the future, she's all grown up and attending Peter Fleming's launch of their new predictive program: T.R.A.C.E. -- based off of her brain.  She finds and meets Fleming at a congratulatory party for the product later on.  He's intrigued, and hits on her.  (Can I just say, it's a little creepy considering he looked exactly the same when she was a little girl, and so the age difference is rather high.  I guess whatevers?)  She sets off a bomb at the party, but doesn't manage to do more than stun him.  Even after this attempt on his life, Fleming tells Marty that she's spectacular, and seems to be fascinated.

Vince tries to keep Dice from shooting Orwell.
In the mirror, you see written "God is the Dice."

Vince and Orwell find out about this, and at first Vince is rather happy that someone's gunning for Fleming.  Orwell manages to convince him that it isn't a good idea: if Fleming dies, the secret of his identity as Chess dies as well, leaving Vince stuck as the guilty party.  Reluctantly, Vince agrees to save Fleming's life.  He actually recognizes Dice (as little girl Tracey) too: he's been trying to build a case linking Fleming to Chess, and one of Chess's murders included Dice's father -- just as she predicted it.

Vince and Orwell break into Dice's apartment to learn more about her.  Dice surprises them and puts a gun to Orwell's head.  She calls Vince an interesting "blind spot," saying it's nice because it reminds her that she's not God.

The rest of the show is a flurry of assassination attempts by Dice and Vince's attempts to foil them.  Fleming lays on the charm thick, attempting to woo Dice even as she tries to kill him.  She claims what she wants is for the T.R.A.C.E. program to be destroyed... and of course for Fleming to die.  At the end, she gets at least part of her wish fulfilled: Vince destroys the floor of the building where supposedly all traces (ha ha) of T.R.A.C.E. are being held.

Doctor giving Fleming a checkup after the casino bomb

There's a few scenes that suggest Fleming might be suffering from a split persona or something: his physician (that was taking care of him after the first assassination attempt) asks him about if he had any visits from 'our friend,' suggesting that maybe the doctor was treating him for psychological problems as well.  Although Fleming denies it, it seems that it might be a distinct possibility, especially when you notice his eyes change color when he greets a chess opponent near the end.  Maybe Chess is an alternate persona of Fleming's.  Hmmmm....

Being Human: Some Thing to Watch Over Me (S1E3)

The third episode of Being Human.  Yay.

"No one says hi to the neighbors anymore.  You know why?  'Cause we're the neighbors!" - Josh

Above is my favorite scene in the entire episode, and seriously, it happens in like the first real-time sequence after a small narration by Aidan (a regular thing now, which you've probably realized if you've watched them) about immortality and how hard it is (ironically) to live with.

Aidan sets up a neighborhood watch, and needless to say Josh isn't too thrilled by the idea.  Sally, though complaining slightly that all the neighbors she's ever hated are there, is excited because Aidan has invited Danny to join them.  Of course, things don't always go as planned.

Officer Michael Garrity

During the course of this meeting, Aidan gets stared at by a man named Officer Michael Garrity who introduces the neighborhood watch to the petty crime that's happening in their neighborhood (there's a spraypainter on the loose, oh my).  Of course after that little narration by Aidan in the beginning, you know that's gotta mean something.

Turns out of course that it does.  Michael has a horrific past with Aidan in it -- and more specifically he has damning evidence: a tattoo he saw as a child on the chest of man who looks exactly the same as he did back then.  With some minor clashes with the reigning vampires of the city, Aidan tries to work things out with Michael peacefully -- meaning: wipe his mind clear of any memory of Aidan.

The other ghost, Tony

On Sally's side of things, Aidan and Josh try to make her feel better about being a ghost by introducing her to another one.  Tony's been around for decades, and the best part: they can touch.  Huge.  He also shows her her new ghostly powers -- mainly teleportation -- and helps her out the front door.  They go visit her grave and Danny, who she now seems content to watch over, even if she can't touch him.

Josh meeting Jesse, his new neighbor

For Josh, the most reluctant neighborhood watchman, he gets saddled with actually doing the job since Aidan is busy trying to fend off Michael's persistent advances.  Josh finds his new neighbors frighteningly normal, and can't quite figure out how to talk to them.  When he finally gets into his role as "neighborhood guy," his animal instincts remind him once again why he preferred to remain apart.


My thoughts:

Playing with the three separate storylines is pretty smart to give each actor his or her own starring parts, but the problem I find with that is sometimes you just want to know more.  I guess in this case it wasn't too bad, but it has the potential to be extremely frustrating.  The banter between Aidan and Josh is the most amusing, really.  It's just a little too bad they're not together a lot of the time.

Short review today, sorry.  I also realize that I'm behind (like 3 episodes?), I'll catch up soon hopefully.  There may be less screencaps though, depending on if Hulu is obliging and will post up the rest.

The King's Speech

So the Oscars are coming and it's time for me to catch up on the nominated films so that I can make accurate predictions this time around (I had about a 50% fail rate during my Academy Award predictions in January, so hopefully I'll get it right this time around). I've been meaning to get around to watching this film for a while and I am so happy that I did.

The King's Speech was absolutely fantastic. Since I lack any sort of British history skills whatsoever, I was wiki-ing through the whole movie about English monarchs, King George VI's history, and etc...So I'm going to give a little background on the movie, my review and hopefully not include any spoilers in the post. And of course, a little YT video at the end. :)

Trailer:

Characters:
Albert/King George VI -- Colin Firth
Lionel Logue -- Geoffrey Rush
Elizabeth (Queen) -- Helena Bonham Carter
(And also Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall) and Dumbledore (Michael Gambon -- as King George V) make an appearance as well ;), obviously I don't know my British actors but I do watch HP )

Plot:
Price Albert stammers while he talks. Obviously this would be a problem for anybody, but as he comes to term with his status and title it becomes increasingly imperative that his speech impediment be fixed. This is where Lionel Logue steps in as his new speech therapist. We learn that Prince Albert has faced adversity from his childhood, his father, and his siblings, all of which did not help with his problem and only decreased his self confidence. And now he's facing new problems as he comes to term with his father's death, his newly appointed kingship because of his older brother's playboy antics and World War II.

Thoughts & review:
So as I said, I'm super confused with royal titles and all of that so I had to look up Albert's name and why he was called George. Same with his brother David aka King Edward VIII. Anyways, so basically, Albert = King George because he changed his name when he became reigning king. Anyways, so to give a little foreground on who exactly is King George to those of you who don't know, he's Queen Elizabeth II's father. :) So I really wonder what she thought of the movie and their portrayal of her father.

Anyways, Colin Firth was amazing. He stammered and stuttered so amazingly that I actually believed it. He portrayed King George VI and his struggles brilliantly and you can tell by just watching him act. The speech impediments, the stiff personality, the temper outbursts, and inner turmoil was effectively delivered and I completely understand why he deserves an Academy Award for this role. When you think Colin Firth, well for me at least, I think of either Bridget Jone's Diary, as that guy with a stick up his ass OR in Love Actually when he falls in love with that lovely Portuguese girl. For him to jump from popular chick flicks to a serious period drama, and with such grace, was wonderful.

Geoffrey Rush, one of the roles we recognize him the most from is the Captain in Pirates of the Caribbean. In this movie he is a wonderfully charming and pushy, if a little bit annoying, speech therapist Lionel Logue. I have never seen any of his movies, besides Pirates, and he's such a great actor in The King's Speech and his character Lionel is absolutely genius. As Lionel, he breaks all of the barriers of any sort of comfort zone that Albert has by calling him by an intimate nickname and teasing him with weird tongue twisters. But all of these antics is really a just a disguise in order to make Albert to face his past in order to conquer the future, oh yeah, and to help with his stammering. He IS what makes the movie so fun to watch. You really never know what he's going to say or do, or make Colin Firth do and the things that they do eventually do are surprisingly funny (see clip below).

All in all this was a serious period piece about a king and his personal issues, with jokes here and there. But usually when you think period piece, you think, this must be boring or dry, but it wasn't. Well at least for me it wasn't. It was moving to see that someone who is regarded as so high and mighty face such surmounting personal problems that literally cripple their ability to do their job AND still persevere through it all. It was a wonderful piece and I really hope that you guys watch it, the acting is wonderful.

A quote I liked:
Lionel Logue: Good speech but you still stammered a bit on the W.
Albert/ King George VI: Well I had to feign a few so that they knew that it was me.

A clip from the movie, a swearing scene so be prepared for a few obscenities:

"Yes! Defecation flows trippingly from the tongue!"


Grade: A-

4th Period Murder Mystery / 40-Minute Detective (2009) review.

4th Period Murder Mystery is a fun, fast-paced high school action thriller and for this review, as it's supposed to be a mystery flick, I won't give spoilers.

Thought you'd never see this day, huh?

Mar the Spoiler Queen saying she won't post spoilers. hahahahaha.

Nope, not even the screencaps.

Okay, maybe just for that one kissing scene but that's because it's cute.

The title itself is a tell-all, it summarizes pretty much everything about this movie, excluding the healthy dose of teenage romance between the school's ace and the weird girl.

Ranked #1 in Nation (S. Korea) student, Jung Hoon, gets into a fight with his troublemaker douche-face classmate Tae Gyu and almost lose his cool. After he calms down a bit, he goes to the restroom to wash up but when he returns to the classroom, Tae Gyu is dead - stabbed to death, blood everywhere and Tae Gyu's laptop and cellphone are missing. Everyone else is away having P.E class and all the teachers and students know Jung Hoon beat up Tae Gyu the day before. So now he is the prime suspect of the murder. Then walks in the mystery-loving creepy girl with curtain hairstyle (her hair covers part of her face so she looks like Sadako) that Jung Hoon has a crush on and she agrees to help him find the real murderer. Problem is, they only have 40 minutes left before 4th period is over and everyone will return to the class and no doubt find the corpse. They have to find the murderer before the bell rings for the next period.

Thoughts:

• Tae Gyu is such a dick. He probably deserves to die, but not by repeated stabbing cos that's just plain evil and super painful. The blood used in the film looks like soy sauce to me. It's not red, but more of dark brown (not dark red, mind you) liquid with very runny consistency. They could have done better with it cos there's quite a lot of blood scenes. The stabbing sounds and scene are pretty gory to bear...
• Jung Hoon and 'Curtain Girl' Da Jung's romance blooms in 40 minutes while they hunt the murderer together. hahahaha. wth. Fast pace everything indeed. Funny and cute.. Girl looks wayyyy older than the boy though. Kim So-Eun would have fit the role better but she dropped out of the project before filming began.
• There is a LOT, LOT, LOT of running in this movie. Those actors must be pretty fit. Seriously. This movie is like, 80% chasing scenes. Watching them gives me phantom fatigue to my legs.
• The school commissioner is hilarious. Watch him. 
• I like the nicknames given to the teachers at the school.
• The story is linear and predictable but with enough twists and drama to keep you watching till the end. So I guess it's pretty good and deserving of a high rating for an asian high school teen thriller (which usually suck so much I want to gouge my eyes out).

Verdict?

8/10

and I don't even find the actor cute.

So yes, it was worth my time. :)

Taiyou wa Shizumanai EP 1: Why did mother die?

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!
Hopefully you all get lots of chocolates, brownies, hugs, cuddles and kisses from your special ones and family.

I'm back with a vintage review here but before you skip over this post with disinterest, let me just tell you that it's a fine, fine series with high ratings that doesn't disappoint, unlike the crap shows that saturate japanese tv nowadays. 

Taiyou wa Shizumanai 太陽は沈まない , or The Sun Never Sets, runs from April to June 2000, more than 10 years ago, and tells the story about a son who suspects that his mother's death is not due to overworking as he was told by doctors, but rather a result of malpractice during an emergency surgery.

Hideaki Takizawa, more affectionately known to fans (me!me!me!) as Tackey or Takky/Takki, plays Nao Masaki, a high school junior who gets in trouble at his kendo club and is embarrassed by his mother's eager-to-please, sunshine personality.

During his summer kendo camp, Nao gets suspended for mischief and on the way back to Tokyo with his mom, he meets a girl, Ami Isetani, who seems to have a crush on him and gives them a ride to the station. They part ways at the station and Nao continues his cold war with his mom for a week.

At the end of that week, one day, his mother collapses and dies at a hospital. Doctors tell the Masaki family that Teruko Masaki's death is caused by overworking. Shiro Masaki, Nao's father, injured his arm years ago and ended up opening an okonomiyaki shop which is mainly run by Teruko until her death.

She leaves behind her young children - Yuko, Nao and seven year-old Runa. Friends, neighbors, customers and even Nao's friends loved her for her friendliness and caring nature. They all show up at the funeral with tearful faces and words get around about Teruko's cause of death and they blame it on Teruko's husband.

Nao, in contrast, seems uncommonly cold compared to the mourners but that is only because the fact that his mother is dead hasn't sunk into him yet. His narrative voice of the story keeps on repeating the date of his mom's death, as if reminiscing and still unable to believe that it is all happening.

At the crematorium, Nao finds a burned scalpel amongst his mother's ashes and begins to doubt everything he knows about the cause of death. He calls up the hospital but they deny any mistake and even suggest that someone else must have put it near the body before she was cremated. 

Desperate, Nao rushes to the police in anger but they are unable and unwilling to help him because there is too little information at hand to do anything about it. 

Meanwhile, his father drowns his own sadness with drinks and sister Yuko tells Nao to avoid creating a mess of the matter at the time being because the family wants to send off his mother in peace.

As reality sinks in for Nao, Ami calls and asks about going to his okonomiyaki shop to taste his mother's cooking and that is when Nao's emotions finally spills out and he breaks down in tears, inconsolable.

He cries alone in a corner and muffles his sobs while holding on the his mom's apron and broken heels. His heartache witnessed by no one but himself.

The opening theme - Nao.

The ending theme - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John

Thoughts:

• Tackey was only eighteen years old when he filmed this but his acting skill was already beyond many of today's japanese young actors. In fact, this is the very reason why he is my absolute favorite Japanese actor. I won't argue that he's the best, but he's definitely made to act, just like his adoring senior Takuya Kimura whose eyes emote immensely even in silence. I am biased but the fact that Tackey is a good actor still stands. It doesn't hurt that he's gorgeous as hell too. In case you are wondering if I listen to his songs, the answer is no. I don't like T&T's songs. I love Tackey as actor.
• The theme songs for this drama are winners! So fitting, heart-wrenching and beautiful. This reminds me of another Tackey's drama, Taiyou no Kisetsu - Season of the Sun, which has a similarly dark tone to its plot and amazing OST. They don't make shows like they used to anymore. sigh. So if you plan to watch jdramas, remember to watch Tackey's and Takuya Kimura's! You will NOT be disappointed.
• Although this is a vintage review, the series hasn't entirely been subbed yet since it's such an old drama. Currently, takki.us has subbed it up to episode 9 only and therefore this can still be counted as an 'ongoing' series, yeah? I don't speak fluent Japanese so I need subbed episodes, you see. 
• I took a lot of screencaps as the episode/series deserves it. If you notice, they are not in 16:9 hd size so it gives extra space to make collages. hahahaha.

Stay tuned for this!

- I heart Tackey.