Discussing Film, Music, TV, Books, Video Games and More
Zac: The Twilight Saga has come to a close and Bill Condon, arguably, has made the best entry yet into the series with Breaking Dawn – Part 2.
Heather: Seriously – you think this is the best Twilight movie yet?! Did we even see the same movie?
Lauren: No Heather, don’t worry, he’s joking… [waits patiently]… Wait, you’re not joking? Oh… [Read more...]
That’s right, my write-up for rentals has changed yet again. This time around (and hopefully I will stick to it this time) I will write up little blurbs about the movies I have seen in the past week on Fridays, giving you suggestions for what to pick up and what to avoid when considering what to rent that weekend. On this weeks list we’ve got: The Back-up Plan, The Last Song, Operation: Endgame, Repo Men, The Runaways, A Single Man, and The United States of Tara.
Fight for the Last Copy:
United States of Tara: Season One
This Diablo Cody created, Showtime TV show is about a woman who has recently gone off the medications that have helped to suppress the other faces of her multiple personality disorder (or dissociative identity disorder). Toni Collette plays Tara, and the way in which she moves in and out of these other personalities is pure artistry. Though this is a serious topic, it does not shy away from the humor of it all, thanks in large part to the people she becomes. In the beginning she is aware of three: Alice is a 1950s housewife, Buck is the redneck hick with a heart of gold, and T is basically the teenage slut, but eventually another emerges (but I will not spoil in for those who want to watch) in response to the overriding story arc of Tara digging into her past to discover what caused this disorder to take form during her teen years.
The show does not just stop with how this disorder effects Tara, but shows the strain it puts on her family. John Corbett plays her supportive husband who i leading the search to discover her past and must constantly coral the other personalities (though he is far from ashamed of his wife). [Read more...]
Floria Sigismondi’s The Runaways is a dark, messed up, and insane dive into the depravity and pitfalls of fame destruction of age film that yields three very good performances from, Michael Shannon, Kristen Stewart, and Dakota Fanning.
Before the sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll the members of The Runaways were just young girls that loved, praised, and aspired to be the next gods of rock in a male dominated industry. Joan Jett wanted to be a punk guitar goddess while Cherie Currie wanted to be David Bowie but they would together be a part of something the rock n’ roll community had never seen. When Jett catches the ear of Kim Fowley, who proclaims himself to be a music producing genius, the duo set out to form the first all girl rock band. Filling out their band with ample musicians, Lita Ford, Sandy West, and Robin (a fictional character to avoid the drama surrounding a revolving door of bassists) Fowley needs one final piece before he takes this show on the road; a blonde bombshell to sell the sex side of the band. Enter Currie, a fifteen year old with jail bait sex appeal to spare that is learning the vocal side of things as she goes to become the lead singer and lead icon of the band. From here the group begins cutting their chops and working up the ladder before breaking out in a huge way.
Even with director Catherine Hardwicke’s take on bringing the first book of this series to screen, Chris Weitz fails to do little more than use her vision as a guidebook on how to direct The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and therefore, recreates a lot of the problems that plagued the first film while simply trying to appease the salivating masses of obsessed fans.
If you have read the books of this series, then you know exactly what happens in this ridiculously faithful adaptation. For those of you who haven’t, New Moon begins with Bella’s 18th birthday, which proves to be just as traumatic as she believed it would be. [Read more...]
The Twilight Saga returns with a new director, a new set of monsters, and a New Moon, but the film feels rather rehashed and far to similar to previous film instead this time it is girl meets wolf; compare to girl meets vampire.
Everything starts off alright, in fact it was making me feel quite positive about everything unfolding. Chris Weitz’s direction is far stronger and more confident than Twilight’s Hardwicke, with the camera doing far more interesting things. The focus seems to be solely on Bella, her father, and Edward and the Cullen’s as it should be and pushing all the unnecessary characters to the background. The actors seem to be doing better; everything seems to be going in the right direction and then the Cullen’s leave. The most, and almost only, interesting thing about these films is taken away for the majority of the film and only return in the final few scenes to save the film from being a fairly bad experience.
[Read more...]
I will admit that after my first viewing I was slightly confused by the story of Push because it was a little hard to follow for me. However, after rewatching it once more (okay, twice if you count once with the commentary track), I can finally say that I think I get it.
Push creates an interesting world involving people with powers, including a telekinetic “mover,” Nick (Chris Evans), and girl who can see the future, or a “watcher,” named Cassie (Dakota Fanning) as they search for Kira (Camilla Belle), a girl who is able to bend people to her will by giving them false memories. However, they are not the only ones searching for her. Division, a government based organization, is also looking for Kira because she is the first person with abilities to survive a unspecified drug injection, as well as break out of the facility with a syringe full of it.
This smallish budget indie sci-fi flick is entertaining and has some good ideas, but pacing and a couple lame ideas hold it back from being as clever as it thinks it is.
Division is a government organization that is responsible for maintaining and surveying the so called “special” people of the world while they are also known for experimenting on these people’s powers as well. One of these people with these powers is Nick Gant (Chris Evans) and he is a mover, able to make objects move or create shield like deflectors to protect themselves. Nick is in hiding in Hong Kong where he spends his time gambling and attempting to hustle the locals. Nick ends up getting tossed into a bit of a mess as a series of events begin to unfold starting with a couple of sniffers (can smell into the past of objects and are excellent trackers) from Division visiting him looking for an escaped test subject (Camilla Belle) that might be super powered after testing at Division. Almost immediately after the sniffers departure, Cassie (Dakota Fanning), who is a watcher (can see the future/predict a persons intentions) and she tells Nick that she has seen that they are going to find 6 million dollars; which would help with Nick’s gambling debt. Nick isn’t sold on the idea but before he can part with Cassie they are attacked by a group of individuals containing bleeders (screeching individuals that cause you to bleed out your brain and take out objects in their yells path) and the two end up on the run together. [Read more...]
Henry Selick’s latest stop motion adventure is his most beautiful yet and while after a first viewing it isn’t my favorite of his work, there is definitely a lot of room for this one to grow on a second and third go around.
Coraline and her family have just moved into an apartment up in Oregon so that they can concentrate on their writing for gardening magazine. As they dwell on their computers working, Coraline’s boredom builds and builds as she desperately tries and fines something to do to entertain her. Added on top of this, Coraline also doesn’t really jive with the rules of her parents, like most kids, and wishes for a life where she gets her favorite foods for dinner and won’t have dessert held hostage from her. One distraction she has around is an awkward neighborhood boy Wybie, though he and the local cat that hangs around him are more of a nuisance than anything. Her family’s house is broken into three apartments, which also allow for some eccentric neighbors as well. Upstairs is a Mr. Bobinsky, a giant Russian man with skinny legs that is training and talking to his mice to perform a jumping circus. And downstairs resides a pair of sisters who are ex-actresses who spend their day’s playing cards and admiring their entire history of stuffed Scottie’s dogs lining their shelves. [Read more...]
With Christmas, New Year’s, and now Valentine’s Day down, Awkward seems to be making a run at using the most holidays in a half season. But if … (more...)
The Fast & Furious franchise is back with its sixth entry, and whatever the series has done for you so far will most likely hold true for this … (more)
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J.J. Abrams is back for another trek into Star Trek and fans of his first entry will have little to complain about with Into Darkness. … (more)
Baz Luhrmann brings The Great Gatsby to the big screen with a style and visual wonder that is irresistible, even when the story doesn't connect as … (more)
Love them or hate them, Vampire Weekend’s latest album Modern Vampires of the City is a must listen of 2013. … (more)
Allison Weiss latest effort Say What You Mean brings a punky charm to a rather plastic singer/songwriter scene. … (more)
Iron and Wine continues his road down the glossy, highly produced road with Ghost on Ghost. This time around, however, he knocks this album out of … (more)
Kid Cudi third rap album Indicud reminds us just how unique and fun the former G.O.O.D. Music artist is, as he rides in and out of the most unique … (more)
Fall Out Boy comes out of hiding to release Save Rock and Roll, their highly anticipated fifth full length that doesn’t fall flat when it comes to … (more)
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As I wipe the tears from my eyes, I think it is safe to say that Arrow knows how to end a season. … (more)
Right before our eyes, Jaime Lannister has gone from being one of the most hated, to one of the most respectable characters in the Game of Thrones … (more)
The new HBO show from Christopher Guest and his gang gets off to a great start that shows a lot of promise for the future. … (more)
Apparently, modern day witch hunts do exist. In case you haven’t heard the story of the West Memphis Three, now is your chance to read all about … (more)
Ross Matthews is right about one thing – any self-confidence he feels about his writing skills is without a doubt delusional. He’d have to be … (more)
Yes, this might possibly be (i.e., definitely is) yet another World War II book review that you by now have probably come to expect from me; but … (more)
I am really struggling to come up with an introduction that does this book justice, because to me, Me Before You was perfection. … (more)
Ken Levine deserves some kind of medal. First, he introduced us to the world of Rapture, where we would kindly roam the halls of a forgotten city … (more)
Plagued by delays and shortcomings, 2012 was an up-and-down year for video games. We saw triumphant returns to form, fantastic new IP's, and some … (more)
For future reference: when skydiving, be sure that your projected landing zone doesn’t happen to be an island full of evil pirates that are more … (more)
