renate.nu

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Ok. A movie that combines the sheer awesomeness of Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Colin Firth is more or less automatically a good movie in my book. I’d never heard of this movie until I stumbled upon it on Play.com, and I instantly knew I had to get it (although not at the price it had at that time – I waited a bit and got it for £4.99, BARGAIN!) – and I was NOT disappointed.

Basically the story is that Uma Thurman and Colin Firth are getting married. Thurman plays a radio talk show host that gives advice in love, and she “accidentally” breaks up Jeffrey Dean Morgan and his fiancee, right before their wedding. To get even, JDM has a friend hack into the city registry and make it so that he and Thurman are married, which obviously halts the wedding plans of Thurman and Firth. Thurman then tries to find JDM and make him sign the divorce papers, but of course he is utterly and completely charming and perfect.

<fangirl> Of course he is, he’s JDM. </fangirl>

I’m not a big fan of Uma Thurman (except in the Kill Bill movies where she totally kicks ass) – I just don’t think she’s right for the romcom genre. Of course, I might not have thought that about JDM either, having only seen him in Supernatural and Watchmen so far. But ladies, let me tell you – if you don’t already have a crush on this man, you will after this movie. If not, fine, MORE FOR ME.

More…crush. For me.

Colin Firth is, of course, always fabulous. His character in the movie is the kind of character Firth does best – posh and with a stick up his ass. It might not be a big stick, but it’s there.

I absolutely recommend this movie if you’re looking for a bit of light entertainment with a dash of romance and a heavy sprinkle of my-eyes-don’t-hurt-but-other-parts-of-me-do men. (I’m not really sure what parts I mean, but you can make that up for yourself.)

“Please come out here so we can talk. No no no, not you sir. You can put your hands down. Firemen, we don’t arrest people.” -Patrick Sullivan

A few people have commented on my review of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, saying that Hermione’s conjured canaries did in fact attack Ron, and then slam into the wall behind him to become poofs of feathers. Yes, I know. What I missed was them really ATTACKING him, and not just flying at him.

“Harry spun around to see Hermione pointing her wand at Ron, her expression wild: The little flock of birds was speeding like a hail of fat golden bullets toward Ron, who yelped and covered his face with his hands, but the birds attacked, pecking and clawing at every bit of flesh they could reach.”

See? That’s what I meant by attacking. There was no pecking and clawing of the flesh in the movie, was there? If there was, I missed it. Twice.

So there you go, hopefully we’re all on the same page now.

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You didn’t think I was going to not review this, did you? Well. I watched it a while ago, but I had to watch it again to really be able to give an opinion on it, and HERE IT IS.

A lot of people have said that the movie has the feel of an inbetween movie, and I agree. However: I still enjoyed it immensely! They’d stayed pretty true to the book, more so than I had expected, so that was a surprise.

The good

• Apparation
• Slughorn
• Quidditch!
• Cormack McLaggen. How hot was he!? (I looked it up, and he’s only 5 years younger than me, so it’s allowed and all is well.)
• Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes
• High-on-love Ron – best part of the movie
• Lavender Brown
• Rupert Grint’s acting. Best of the three, hands down.
• The bit with the vanishing cabinets was actually pretty good.
• Hermione’s hair in potions class.

The bad

• The intro? I missed Dumbledore vs the Dursleys.
• Bellatrix was a bit over the top crazy at times. Enough with the “I killed Sirius Black” bit now. Please. You’re evil and batshit crazy. WE KNOW.
• The lack of explanation for the horcrux-ring.
• Hermione’s birds not attacking Ron.

The ugly

• Dumbledore/Snape. Too obvious – in the book you really couldn’t tell for sure whether Dumbledore was begging for Snape to kill him or to help him.
• Sectumsempra. It didn’t look half as dramatic as I had imagined it.
• Harry/Ginny. It was just…eh.
• Narcissa Malfoy. I thought she was supposed to be pretty? She rather wasn’t, in my opinion. Sorry, person who played her. You’re probably a lovely lady, but I can’t really accept you as Narcissa.

It’s still a 4 out of 5 stars movie. Because, you know, it’s HARRY POTTER (= auto awesome). So, you know, go see it. You might want to read the book first though, because knowing what isn’t shown in the movie rather helps (although Tor hasn’t read the book, and he had no trouble following the plot).

“In my life I have seen things that are truly horrific. Now I know you will see worse.” -Albus Dumbledore

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This is a movie I’ve been looking forward for a long time – when I first heard that The Da Vinci Code was being made into a movie, I started thinking about how great a movie Angels & Demons would make.

Was it great? Maybe, maybe not. But it was good, no doubt. But I’m going to just come clean here and confess that I love movies that involve the Catholic church. Usually I love them even more when there’s a demonic possession involved, but they also appeal to me in general, with or without the demons. However, I did get a secret society instead, so that’s almost as good. I read somewhere that the film crew weren’t allowed to shoot inside the Vatican at all, but you really wouldn’t know it (or at least I wouldn’t) when seeing this movie – the sets are stunning, absolutely stunning.

The story is really fast-paced, happening over a time span of just a few hours. I’d completely forgotten about that part of the book. Actually, I think I’d forgotten everything from the book except that the “baddies” were the Illuminati, and that cardinals ended up dead. So- the story moves fast, and at least to some degree it makes you feel that same rush, the feeling that there isn’t enough time, but on some points I just completely forgot about their time limit until suddenly one of them would mention what time it was, or a bell would sound.

Tom Hanks did a good job, as he always does (seriously, can you name one movie where he hasn’t done a good job? I can’t.), for his return as Robert Langdon. In the movie they make it so that Angels & Demons is set after the happenings of The Da Vinci Code, but I seem to remember from the books that A&D is supposed to be set before the Code? Anyway, this didn’t make any difference, all it did was nix the romantic relations between Robert and Vittoria (again, I seem to remember this happening, if not, that’s just my imagination running wild again), and if it’s one thing I can do without in movies like these, it’s the romance. Seriously, people, you have 20 minutes until the Vatican might explode, there is no time for kissing! So that was a piece of the story I didn’t miss at all.

Ayelet Zurer portrayed Vittoria Vetta, and she did a good enough job, even though she did sort of remind me of the second Ruby of Supernatural, and her I do not like. Sorry, Ayelet. It’s not your fault. I do like it that they cast someone not too famous. They could very well have gone for someone more known to the public, like Eva Green, but I’m glad they didn’t.

Ewan McGregor. Well, when is he not awesome? You’re on my list, Ewan. What list is that? I’m not telling. But you’re on it.

And then of course, the big surprise for me: Stellan Skarsgård! After Mamma Mia I have very much warmed up to him, and it amazes me how versatile that man is. They should try and find a place for him in a Harry Potter movie, he’d fit right in there as well, I’m sure.

All in all, a good movie that didn’t really feel as long as it was. It will inevitably be compared to The Da Vinci Code, for the obvious reasons, and I’m no different: In some ways, I think it was better than its predecessor, but in other ways, I prefer The Da Vinci Code (which I will no doubt have to watch tonight).

Well worth the money, but perhaps not as made of awesome as all the media hype leading up to the premiere would have you believe. Still, I’d go see it for the visuals, and for the play between religion and science – including the message that the two don’t have to be polar opposites, they can work together. A message that appeals to me in so many ways.

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I went to see Coraline as a treat to myself after my first horrible history exam. I got a ticket to the 3D version, mostly because I’ve never seen an entire movie in 3D before (my only previous experience with 3D on TV was during the Winter Olympics in 1994, where everyone got cheap 3D glasses to watch something in 3D. Can’t remember what it was, only that it wasn’t revolutionary.), but also because I figured that an animation movie would be perfect for 3D.

And I was NOT wrong. Wow. Here’s a photo reenactment of what I imagine I looked like during many parts of the movie:

(Yeah, it’s not a very good picture, and I’m not a very good actor.)

I love Neil Gaiman’s work, there’s no secret there. I’ve read Coraline, and it was…creepy. In the movie, the creepy is enhanced, tenfold, at least. So is the quirkiness of Gaiman’s world – I especially loved the mouse circus (before the truth of it was revealed, that is).

So – visually stunning, with a great score and excellent voice acting, this is a movie well worth watching. The 3D just put the icing on the cake, and I highly recommend you see it in 3D if you have the opportunity. It did get a little hard on the eyes after a while, but if that’s a general issue with longer movies in 3D or if it was caused by my eyesight differing from one eye to the other, I don’t know. Still, I’d do it again.

If you’ve read the book, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed in its translation to the big screen. It’s been quite a while since I read it myself, so if there were any major changes I didn’t catch them simply because I’ve forgotten the details of the written story. However, the movie’s storyline came together flawlessly, and made the movie into a wonderful, enchanting and scary fairytale – just the way I like it.

“You probably think this world is a dream come true… but you’re wrong.” -Cat