Now in their seventh movie, the Harry Potter kids have finally shown how far their acting has come. They’ve realised that a stern voice and a frown is not the only way to convey the seriousness of their situation and now opt for a look or a sigh instead. It makes for some pretty hilarious scenes.
Hilarity is big in The Deathly Hallows, I found myself actual lolling on more than a few occasions and I’m fairly certain it had nothing to do with my midnight screening related tiredness. The laughter however is challenged by some pretty dark scares. The kind you would not let your child see for fear of ongoing nightmares, the kind that makes 20 somethings jump out of their seats!
The real scene stealer though? The landscape scenery. Deathly Hallows Part 1 is focused on Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s search for the Horcruxes and their constant move through the UK to avoid snatchers. Lake side, high on a cliff, or in a snow covered forest I felt like I’d seen it all before. And then I realised it was because this time the movie looked exactly how I’d pictured it when I read the books.
Runner up is the beautiful animation scene that explains the Deathly Hallows, unexpected but perfect.
If you attend without the requisite knowledge you are likely to get lost. There aren’t any long winded explanations of back stories going on here. Half Blood Prince wasn’t nearly as true to the book but magically Deathly Hallows Part 1 carries on as if it’s following on from the Half Blood Prince book rather than the movie.
Comic book style ultra violence, cute nerdy boys, bad ass chicks being bad ass, dramatic music scores playing behind one-against-many shoot outs. If you like any of those things you should go see this movie. If you like all of those things you may spend the whole movie throwing your arms about exclaiming “Oh My God” or “Amaze” or “Ack she’s SO cool” while sporting a dumb agape face because you’re stupified by how awesome the whole thing is.
Comic book movies are my favourite genre. (Is that even a genre? It should be by now) And Kick Ass is my favourite of all the comic book movies. Chloe Moretz is perfect as 11 year old killing machine Hit Girl. This movie deserves its 18+ rating.
It’s so awesome that Hit Girl overtook Gogo Yubari as my favourite bad ass.
It’s so awesome I want to go see it again.
It’s so awesome that even Nic Cage nailed it.
Note that I haven’t read the comic so this is from my view as a complete newbie to the Kick Ass story.
Thanks for indulging me my moment of emo. I’m usually such a happy cynic that when these periods of melancholy and introspection come, and I still feel I can write, I like to embrace them. To bring the drama.
I’ve been sulking about nothing in particular. The bad weather rolls in every second day. Someone says something and I take it the wrong way. I get my period. My friends having to deal with shit I couldn’t handle. None of these things are real reasons for me to be upset, but none of them are invalid either. I’m lucky I have great people around to remind me, even for a few minutes, why I’m usually happy.
Today’s weather was particularly bad and I had nowhere to be and nothing pressing to achieve so instead I watched a bunch of downloaded shows and a few movies.
Cash – OK but not amazing. Sean Bean is great as usual.
Whip It – What’s not to love about derby!? Some lesbian allusions would have been nice, but it was pretty fun anyway. Alia Shawkat aka Maeby from Arrested Development is awesome.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – This one is definitely not a date movie. Rape, murder, and subtitles. It was pretty horrific to watch in parts. Over all though it was very well done, I love the Swedes, and I have a new girl crush in leading lady Noomi Rapace. Particularly in this movie as she is a damn hot goth. The Swedish title works far better for a stand alone film: Men Who Hate Women (translated obv), but as this is a three part series I can forgive the new English title.
I asked Kim if I could do a post while she was on her well deserved break and to my great delight she said yes! The problem was I did not know what to talk about, so after a quick moment of contemplation my eye landed on an early Christmas present form my girlfriends parents. The wonderful book Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and so I thought I would share with you’ll my thoughts on this book and its friend Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Now these two books, from Quirk Books, are fantastic! They are mash-up works combining the classic novels of Jane Austen with zombie crunching mayhem as it he case with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and deadly sea creatures in Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.
I’ll start with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. This book sticks very close to the original by Jane Austen but has several very important differences. The major one being that zombies, or the unmentionables in polite conversation, roam the English countryside devouring all who fall into their path. The second difference is the Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters are all highly trained zombie killers. Their mother is still trying to marry them all off to wealthy suitors and Elizabeth still does clash with Mr. Darcy who is very accomplished zombie killer. But like all good Jane Austen books it does all work out in the end.
Throw in a few ninjas, zombie brides and you have a great read. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Jane Austen and zombies.
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is the second of Quirk Books mash-ups and it is a great read just like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. While Pride and Prejudice and Zombies sticks close to the story line of the original, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is very different from its original. It is a mix of a Jane Austen love story and a Jules Verne adventure, with a leviathan, undersea cities, the Devonshire Fang-Beast and a French orangutan servant you have a cracking read that is full of laughs and will bring a smile to anyone’s dial. Happy Reading!
Have an awesomesauce day!
Crumble the Elder
Chris is a high school teacher in Central Otago. He’s a little geeky, loves history, and blogs about the things he does and loves at crumbleincromwell. Check it.
From the tense opening scene right through to the humorous end Tarantino’s cast and script is on amazing form.
Musical scores and the style of beginning each change of scene with a chapter name and number were shared with Kill Bill. The similarities work well with both films but were quite obvious as Tarantino styles. This movie also shared the typical Tarantino gore, it was after all supposed to be a movie about Jewish-American soldiers scalping Nazis in German occupied France.
This is another movie I went in to knowing nothing more than it was directed by Quentin Tarantino, starred Brad Pitt, and involved Americans killing Nazis. I’d also heard that it was Quentin’s version of the past, so not historically accurate.
Knowing so little led to a lot of tense moments, not knowing where the story was going or how it would pan out. At one point I was so overcome with emotion that I began to cry a little, and then before you know it I’m laughing again at Aldo Raine’s (Brad Pitt) accent.
Brad Pitt was certainly the biggest name actor in the movie, but it’s doubtful he got as much screen time as other key characters. Particularly the women of the film – a Jewish French teenager Shosanna and a German film star Bridget von Hammersmark. Colonel Hans Landa the “Jew hunter” steals his scenes with villanious almost over the top performances that leave you tense and wondering what the hell he’s going to do.
My only problem is the scene involving Mike Myers. It felt out of place and his natural comedic accent was so conspicuous I kept expecting him to break out into “Yeah, Baby, yeah”. The Boy has no problem with the scene, and Mike Myers part has been declared by many as a comeback. Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention.
Inglourious Basterds is a stunning piece of cinema you must see for yourself. Make sure you attend when you’re properly awake, most of the movie is in French and German so you’ll need to pay attention to the subtitles.
The 6th instalment of the Harry Potter story is much darker, brooding, better directed, better shot, more emotional, and draws you in more than all those before it. Malfoy looks like a young man instead of a child, Luna is still wacky, and Snape is as brooding and drawling as ever (delightfully, he’s my fave!).
I had heard that this movie was darker than the others but I didn’t realise it would be so beautiful. Everything is superbly shot, and the story is played out as well as can be expected in a short time span. I found myself laughing and crying and getting pissed at the girls all around me jacked up on sugar and excitement who wouldn’t stop giggling for seemingly no reason.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a movie I could watch again just for the artistry. A small screen won’t do it justice, you’ll need to see this one at the movies.
[potential spoiler]
And make sure you’ve read the book first because a lot of it is left out of the movie, I don’t know how the last two movies have been written but things left out of this movie will affect the next two. And once you’ve read the book you might have a better understanding of what some of the giggling and awing is about.
When I go to the theatre to see a movie about warring robots I expect tonnes of explosions and little plot. Michael Bay delivers with Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.
The best part about seeing it at the movies is that the Transformers’ twisty changey sound effects are really loud!
Like the first Transformers movie the graphics are amazing. The biggest downfall is the running time of two and a half hours which was about half an hour too long.
Bumblebee is as cute as ever!
3/5
Bought to you by the girl who loved the first Transformers, all of the Oceans movies, 300, War of the Worlds, Australia, and all of the Quentin Tarantino movies she’s seen.
A beautiful Swedish love story about a young vampire “girl” and her young male neighbour who is being bullied at school.
Perfect except for the horrible CGI cat scene.
A hack journalist scores his dream job at a high profile magazine. He sucks but with the help of Alison manages to make something of it.
Enjoyable, well cast movie.
The cover of Panic shouts about its thriller status, “Jeff Abbott’s best novel yet”, “high suspense”, “fresh and gripping plot”. If you’ve been watching thriller movies with their multiple twists over the past 10 years you’re unlikely to be impressed by this book. It wasn’t terrible but the plot didn’t seem original at all.
Evan Casher, 24, has his life turned upside down when his mother is murdered and he finds out his family, and his girlfriend are not who he thought they were. Then just when you think you’ve figured out the story, some more information is revealed about the characters, o my!
The plot twists are predictable and slow, and this is coming from the girl who didn’t know Bruce Willis was dead. The story speeds up marginally in the last 100 pages, almost everyone dies, and then I tell you not to bother with this book. It’s no surprise it took me the full 4 week library loan to get through it.
On a very different note, I can say I am absolutely in love with Wreck This Journal! I received it today (ordered via GoodBooksNZ where delivery is free anywhere in the world, prices are in New Zealand’s weak ass dollar and all profits go to Oxfam!) and have already embraced the defacing.
The premise is that you get this journal, with instructions on how to wreck it on the pages; you follow the instructions, make some up, improvise, have fun and begin to see creative destruction everywhere. Live recklessly.
The best bit: No need to worry about it getting munted in the post or your bag.
