Fast Five (2011)

Fast Five

The 5th installment in "The Fast and the Furious" franchise

For any series to be this old (especially one that's not based on books)...makes some sort of history. Since usually the series:

1. Dies, because we all know that the sequels are never as good as the originals OR
2. The director decides to end it, on a high note, while you can still call the franchise a success, before it dies, see aforementioned reasoning.

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So I watched this movie on a whim. I honestly didn't know what it was about. I didn't put together the dots that this was ANOTHER one of those The Fast and the Furious movies. I didn't know that it was the highest grossing movie of the summer, so far, and certainly didn't know that this movie had a 78% (critics)/ 89% (audience) rating on Rotten Tomatoes. All I knew was that I was bored out of my mind and decided to take a little trip to the cinema.

And then it hit me...looking at the title at the marquee...and then on my ticket...this is really WAS another one of those The Fast and Furious racing movies!!! No!!! Why did I just pay $12 for this ticket!!!??? Is this a joke? Am I really going to put myself through ANOTHER one of these movies where the names just keep getting lamer and lamer?

Let me break down the film series for you:

1. The first movie, The Fast and the Furious, was pretty amazing. Good storyline and it introduced to the audience a new type of niche: the underground car racing circuit. 
2. By the time the second one, 2 Fast 2 Furious, came out...it was already becoming..."the sequels are never as good as the originals" cliches. 
3. By the time the THIRD one, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, came out, everyone was already dropping dead. NOT ANOTHER ONE. But at least this one was set in a different country...right?
4. Fourth one, Fast and Furious...Wow, they're too lazy to even think of a new title. They dropped the "the"s and expected us to be wowed?
5. Fifth one, Fast Five. Are you serious right now? You have to be kidding...there's another one?

Needless to say I had low, let's even say underground, expectations.

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My reactions during the movie:

The beginning:

5 minutes into the movie and it already entertaining. I was just blown away by the first scene, I won't spoil it for you but let's just say that the whole time I was poking my friend saying "OMGOOMGOMGOGMOGMOG THAT IS SO COOL!"

The ending :

"OMGOMGOGMOGMGGMOGMG THAT IS SO COOL!" *Still poking my friend* Wow. I can't believe I enjoyed that movie and I feel stupid for saying this but I kind of want to watch it again...

General thoughts:

So what changed? Why is this one so different than the last one? Did they expect me to be amazed just because they changed countries AGAIN?

The film was filled with its usual cheese-tastic lines, the standard corny cliches, the underdog prevails sequences, and the high "action" antics that was featured in every other movie...but this one...while the story line was a little slow in the beginning, really began to speed up and get interesting. Fast. Furiously fast. (I can be cheesy too!). 

It's almost an Ocean's Eleven meets The Fast and the Furious. You got: robbing money, assembling a kick ass team, and coming up with a BAD ASS mind effing plan. This is seriously what they should say on the summary. I actually don't even know what they say, I just think that this is a helluva lot more interesting and it makes so much sense!

There you have it, the movie in a nut shell, except the only difference is that you don't know who you're robbing, you don't know who's on that kick ass team, and you definitely CANNOT BELIEVE what their bad ass plan is.

******Wait, I just watched this movie again, and what didn't hit me among all the jokes and action until now is HOW SHITTY THE ACTING IS! Oh my goodness!!!! It's atrocious, I could be up there saying those lines and look more believable! WOW! How did I not notice this until now? I guess the movie is so mind-blowing that you don't look back on it!******

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The Fast and the Furious franchise never ceases to amaze me on what the hell cars can do. You don't normally see cars weaving under huge trucks. You don't normally see cars magically driving to Las Vegas from Los Angeles in 30 minutes (it takes real people 3+ hours). You don't normally see cars drift down 7 floors of a parking structure. You don't normally see scantily dressed girls dancing around pimped out rides (unless you're into that underground car scene). And this movie has even more surprises than all 4 of the last movies put together.

While I seem like a really like this movie, (I DO I DO!), I still have some qualms about this movie:

1. Where did they get all the resources to fund their operations?
2. Why the hell is the film called Fast Five? Besides being the 5th film it has nothing to do with the number 5. It would be cool if there was only 5 people on the team...I'm just sayin'...
3. How come Paul Walker is STILL THAT HOT even though he's THIRTY SEVEN! He still looks like a 25 year old boy! *drool*
4. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? THAT PLAN WAS SO AMAZING! HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?? WAIT. IS THAT EVEN PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE?
5. Damn it. Why did I not stay til the end of the credits???

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Grade: B

Compared to the past 4 films, this one definitely is the best one so it kind of automatically gets props for that. The story is fresh, original, interesting and the ending is still mind blowing me, not even close to Inception status but still super intriguing. Along with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, they brought back old characters (Ludacris, Tyrese, Sung Kang, etc) and mixed in some new faces (The Rock, Elsa Pataky) to make a great, funny, and ethnically diverse cast (AKA Paul Walker is basically the only white guy in the whole movie). 

Okay but seriously, this isn't an Oscar grade worthy film, we all already know that going in, but as an action flick, it's damn entertaining. So check it out. :)

***watched it for a second time and had to downgrade this movie from a "B+" to a "B" because of the horrible acting skills by the three main characters: Diesel, Walker, and Brewster. Otherwise love love love Ludacris.***

Oh yes, there's a sixth one coming out! I have to admit that I'm going to have low expectations especially after Fast Five, but I'm pretty excited...:)

Yeah. That's it. That's all I have for you. :)

Sympathy for Delicious (2010)

SYMPATHY FOR DELICIOUS

Cast: Christopher Thornton, Mark Ruffalo, Juliette Lewis, Orlando Bloom, Laura Linney

Important to note: Mark Ruffalo's directorial debut and winner of a Special Jury Prize from Sundance Film Festival.

Attended a movie screening and a mild Q&A session for this up and coming independent film yesterday. It's available for wide release hopefully sometime soon. But it was released for Sundance in January. Got to see Mark Ruffalo, Christopher Thornton, and Orlando Bloom in person and even took a picture with Orlando~! That was pretty exciting.

Trailer:

Summary:

Delicious Dean (Christopher Thornton) is paralyzed and wheel chair bound, and currently living on the streets of Skid Row in Los Angeles. But he soon discovers that he has to power to heal people, yes, heal people,  just by touching them. But the irony about this is that he doesn't have the power to heal himself. While Joe (Ruffalo), a Catholic priest, urges Delicious to use this power for good, Delicious extorts his power and uses it to gain money and fame instead.

Critique:

For some reason, this movie bothers me a little. The storyline is there, the characters are believable, but what's actually happening, like the power to "heal" is so ridiculous that you know this can't possibly be real. And that's sad because there's some significantly amazing acting on all of the actor's behalf, especially Christopher Thornton.

The cinematography was pretty good, there are scenes that are shot with some hand-held cameras, and blurring of the city skyline and of course, filming on location. This is a movie about a homeless man, living in his car. With such a low budget film, you don't have money to hire set builders and extras dressed up AS homeless people. Therefore, you do what you have to, so they set it in downtown Los Angeles in Skid Row where you can feel the nitty-gritty of the street life. Just watching the movie made me uncomfortable and cringe because I felt I was transported there, getting dirty with everyone else.

The story conveys the meaning of "having faith" in people, but not in an in-your-face religious evangelistic style film. More or so made for secular audiences but main message is there. You don't have to be anything close to religious to slightly enjoy this film.

But when I say enjoy, you have to take it with a grain of salt. While the acting is fantastical, the moral of the story is tangible, and the cinematography is great, the movie is just so predictable which renders the whole movie uninspiring. Obviously when you hear about a story about someone gaining power and has the chance to use it for good (helping others) versus evil (fame and fortune), you're already going to know the ending of the story. Good always triumphs.

That's the problem with good versus evil story lines. If good doesn't win, the audience gets pissed because they just watched a pointless movie. If good does win, the audience labels it as predictable even though there are a couple of plot twists. That's the real catch-22.

Last thing that I have to say. The Ending. Is. Terrible...

So should you watch it?

I mean, I personally had no intention of watching it and was surprised at the screening to see a movie that I had absolutely no idea about, I didn't read the summary or watch the trailer beforehand, but if I was left up to my own devices...I don't think that I would've watched it. But if you want to watch a raunchier version (ie homeless people, rock music, drugged out bandmates, oh, and Catholic influences) of this predictable story line, than, yes, by all means, you should watch it. Oh yes, another incentive to watch it: Mark Ruffalo's directorial debut! It's pretty good for a first-timer!

Grade: B-

For an awesome directorial debut by Mark Ruffalo ( I know this is my 3rd time using the same word and mentioning this but I don't know what else to call it -_-") and great acting,  but a lack of spontaneity, although there are a few plot twists, on the storyline of good versus evil. There's better films out there that convey the same meaning and message without falling into the perils of predictability. Oh yeah, and it was a bit too long for my taste.

I'm truly sorry that I didn't like it as much as I should have. Especially after an awesome Q&A session with Ruffalo, Thornton, and Bloom. They were so sweet, and Ruffalo was talking about his film like an expectant father. Reminiscing about the making of the movie and the hardships of acting and directing at the same time, and of course, the financial issues. The movie took more than 10 years to make but I couldn't appreciate it for what it was, even though I wish I could have.

Interesting fact: Christopher Thornton, who plays the main character, Delicious Dean, wrote the screenplay because he was inspired by his own wheel-chair bound experiences. Yes, he actually is paralyzed and in a wheel chair. Cool right?

What I am feeling is...sympathy for Mark Ruffalo :(

"LIVE IT. LOVE IT. KILL IT."

The Fighter (2010)

Main actors/actresses: Mark Wahlberg, Melissa Leo*, Christian Bale, Amy Adams

* indicates Oscar winners.

Trailer:

Summary:
Showing how torn Micky (Wahlberg) is about whether or not he should pursue his dreams or listen to his family's advice: his sports "manager" of his mother (Leo),  and especially his idolized big brother Dicky (Bale). Dicky, a once great boxer has turned to substance abuse  leaving Micky to fend for himself in the boxing world emotionally, and physically and literally lost on his career. And through all the adversity from his family, and some encouragement from his girlfriend Charlene (Adams) and a couple of others, he decides to do it and go for his dream, his way. And needless to say he becomes a great champion. :)

My thoughts:
Finally watched it, 3.5 months too late but it doesn't matter. It was amazing. Completely understand why Melissa Leo won over Amy Adams for the Oscar's Best Supporting Actress, but still iffy on Christian Bale vs. Geoffrey Rush from The King's Speech. They're just too different to compare and both of their acting abilities show a wide spectrum of genius that I kind of can't pick. But it really is amazing. I was surprised that I actually liked it but now I understand what everyone's talking about now. Should've totally watched these 2 movies before my Oscar predictions but oh well, they deserved it. :)

Review:

The movie has every sports movie cliche that you can imagine. There's a uphill battle against adversity, but in the end, it all works out. They win. Everyone's happy. End of story. But it's not.

Instead there's terrific terrific terrific acting. There's nothing forced about the movie which just makes this movie so much better and believable. The only big qualm I have about this movie is that the ending is abrupt. I mean the ending is good except it doesn't take it all the way leaving the audience wanting more. Well at least for me I guess.

I would and could write more excepts but I don't really want to ruin the movie for anyone who's planning on watching it, basically, you will WANT TO watch this movie. I promise. :)

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Even if you don't like sports movies, like me, I think that you'll appreciate it for its great cast and its tempting so go out and watch. Mad love for this movie, and it doesn't help that Wahlberg is adorable, he makes even sweat rolling down on a shirt look hot and all. :)

Grade: A- (due to the lack of an ending)

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...


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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

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. :)

東京少女/ Tôkyô Shôjo / Tokyo Girl

I'm on a string of Japanese shows this week for no significant reason other than wanting to see more of Takeru Satoh everywhere. After googling for more info, I realized that some of these shows I've watched really lack more comprehensive reviews than a few lines of summary, so here I am to offer a longer, more-detailed ramblings of plot lines. No guarantee on the quality of ramblings but hey, it's still better than wikidramas. 

Tokyo Shojo is a 2008 Japanese movie starring child-actress and model Kaho who plays the willful, slightly-bratty high schooler Miho Fujisaki. I say 'slightly-bratty' only because she's pretty and so the pouty I-want-what-I-want attitude that she pulls off with her cuteness is somewhat bearable. If you're average-looking or ugly, please be a nice kid unless you want your social agenda to crumble like dry bread.

Anyway, the film starts off in the year of 2008 with Miho voicing her objections against her mother's plans to remarry the head of Japanese Literature department of a publishing house, Atsushi Shiomi. She storms off from the restaurant where the three (mom, Miho, Mr. Shiomi) are supposed to have lunch together to add that oomph to her objections. Halfway down walking the stairs, she drops her cellphone which falls into a wormhole that connects to the year of 1912 where it is picked up by a young aspiring novelist, Tokijirou Miyata.

Tokijirou, which is a really old-fashioned Japanese name by the way, wonders what the little box he picked up is and puts it on his writing table without further thought afterwards.

Miho tries calling her phone many times and finally gets through at night and asks for the address to pick up her cellphone but Tokijirou gives her an address that doesn't exist anymore so she gets mad at him and starts calling him a liar and a thief.

But he doesn't sound like a liar and a thief at all. So after a few ask-and-answer, they figure out that they are separated by a 100-year difference and their calls only get through when the moon shines.

Every night, she would call him and even taught him which buttons to press on the cellphone to save battery life since he doesn't have a charger for the cellphone. They grow closer through their night voice-rendezvous - him advising her on her relationship with her mom and Mr. Shiomi; her giving him the inspiration to write a heartfelt novel of their encounter.

They arrange for a 'date' together at Ginza on a day the moon shines at midday and Tokijirou buys a wood-framed hand mirror from a gift shop that still exists in Ginza in year 2008 (he crosschecks this with Miho). He instructs the owner of the gift shop to hold on to that gift for 100 years when a girl named Miho would later collect it. The owner thinks Tokijirou is pulling his leg, but the owner's five year-old daughter Nanami listens intently and promises to safeguard it for Miho. 

Miho enters the store and asks for the mirror, whereby a frail old grandma comes out and hugs her tightly. The old lady is Nanami. She gives Miho the mirror and when Miho passes the phone to her to speak a few words to Tokijirou and 5 year-old Nanami, the old Nanami thanks Tokijirou with tears in her eyes.

So that's about it for their little date together. On the mirror that Tokijirou bought for Miho, he wrote, "Although we're separated by a hundred year difference, it feels as if our hearts are within reach and never apart. - Tokijirou Miyata."

As Miho ponders on what to do about their situation, Tokijirou sets home to finish his novel which he titled, "The Girl Who Walks Towards the Future". Miho's name 未歩 means 'walking towards the future', so the manuscript is a story about her. 

He plans to show the manuscript to the editor at the publishing house the next day, which lines nicely with Miho's plan to have lunch again with her mom and Mr. Shiomi the next day, this time with her approval to the marriage since she has changed into a better, more understanding daughter after interacting with Tokijirou on the phone. 

All that is great but her real motive to have lunch at the publishing house was to pass her cellphone charger to Tokijirou through the wormhole again so they can continue phone-dating. Her efforts fail miserably though, as the charger breaks into pieces on the bottom floor. As she returns to join her mom and Mr. Shiomi, Mr. Shiomi shows Miho the result of a search she asked of him before regarding Tokijirou Miyata and that is when her dreams collapse like a sand castle in the wind and the real twist of the movie begins. 

You can probably make a few guesses as to what happens next but I'm not going to spoil it further for you all lovely readers. I suspected it from the middle of the movie and even though the twist came towards the end of the movie, it felt right and not too late. It fits the story nicely. 

This movie is all sweets and fluffs and made for girls. Your boyfriend, brothers, husband, father and male friends will not like it because males get too technical most of the time. I'm girly girl and all but I've been told countless times that I think like a man so I can figure out how a male would actually feel watching this.

There are many plotholes that I can call off right from the start of the movie and I just have soooo many opinions on the looks and manner of speech of the characters but they are for me to know, and for you to form on your own. My girly mind helps me to brush off all the errors and doubts that usually demand explanations and logic. Besides, this is Japanese teenage movie, you have to ignore common sense to enjoy it thoroughly.

6.5/10

worth watching for the re-created Ginza scenes and fashion of 1912 and the cute, young Nanami in traditional Japanese outfit.