Depression and Disaster

Kirsten Dunst gave an award winning performance in the film Melancholia.  This 2011 psychological disaster movie about a planet called Melancholia was hiding behind the Earth's sun and is now on a collision course with Earth to destroy it.  Justine, played by Dunst has everything going for her in life however, she is going through depression.  Her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her husband John (Keifer Sutherland) start off by throwing a lavish reception for Justine and her new husband Michael (Alexander Skarsgard).  Director Lars von Trier demonstrates two sides of this movie through the eyes of Justine and Claire.  The comparison of how an extremely depressed woman and a woman that's in control of her life deal with the end of the world is ambiguous and fascinating. The still life photography and the cinematography is absolutely brilliant.  You will either love this story for its symbolism and psychology or dislike it because of it.  Either way, its a beautiful and mesmerizing story.

Women being Women

Bridesmaids was one of the funniest and satisfying "chick" flicks I have seen since "The First Wife's Club" with Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler from the 1990's.  The story centered around Lillian Donavan played by (Maya Rudolph) the bride who is getting married and her best friend Annie Walker played by Kristen Wiig when Lillian is asked to be her maid of honor.  Lillian is single, jealous of her friend, down on her luck because she lost her bakery and savings and she's in a meaningless relationship and one step away from living back home with her mother.  Enters Helen Harris III played by Rose Bryne, a rich friend of Lillian's to stir up trouble and Megan Price, Lillian's future sister-in-law who is the star of the movie played by Melissa McCarthy. With a great supporting cast and some wonderful writing, Bridesmaids is a movie not to be missed.  Bring out the tissues people, you will need them, not from tears of sadness but from tears from all the laughing.

Snow White with a Dark Side

Snow White and the Huntsman starring Twilight's Kristen Stewart as Snow White and Charlize Theron as Ravenna the Evil Queen in the dark version of the Brothers Grimm Snow White and the seven dwarfs. Though the story lacked some substance and clarity in parts and became a bit whiny with Kristin Stewart staring off into space at times with her big beautiful vacant eyes, there were some excellent acting done in the movie that should be credited. Of course you can't miss the eye candy of Chris Hemsworth. Charlize Theron did an excellent job as the evil Queen Ravenna and the special effects around her costume were brilliant. Sam Spruell who plays her evil brother and enforcer Finn is a coward and person to look out for and was a direct connection to his sister in more ways then one. The dwarves or little people headed by Bob Hoskins just like in the dark tale, liked their drink,  told tales and sang but got down to business when it came down to protecting their princess. The cinematography and CGI was fantastic and the story does pick up in parts here and there. It's worth seeing.

Star-Crossed Teenagers

Beautiful Creatures is a love story between two teenagers Ethan Wate (Aldren Ehrenreich) and Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) in Gatlin,SC.  Lena is a 15-year old witch who is destined to turn dark side on her 16th birthday and her family hopes to find a way for her not to.  Ethan falls in love with her and slowly finds out her secret and realizes that he has been dreaming about Lena for a long time.  There are some nice cinematography  throughout the movie, however the story is a bit slow at times and can put one to sleep.  The southern accent was so exaggerated at times that it was nerve wracking and I lived in South Carolina for a time.  This movie has been compared to the Twilight Saga and although I have read the books and have seen all the movies and agree that the writing in that series wasn't that great, it did give you more to keep you going with then this movie.  But that is this reviewers opinion.  The supporting casts, Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis and Emma Thompson who are tremendous actors couldn't do anything to put fire to this story and you can see how they committed themselves to this movie.  This movie is worth seeing the costumes and some of the graphics but little else.

Oblivion: Earth's Non-Existence

 

In 2077, Earth has been through a war and has been vacated by its inhabitants   Two people have been left on Earth, Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and Victoria Olsen (Andrea Riseborough).  Jack scouts the Earth repairing downed drones from alien beings who were scavenging what was left on Earth. Victoria keeps an eye on Jack and reports back to their leader Sally (Melissa Leo) of the colony based on one of the moons of Saturn where Victoria and Jack will be able to go in 2 weeks time.  However, this all changes when a capsule lands on Earth and Jack discovers one survivor named Julia Rusakova (Olga Kurylenko).  She is a face that Jack she's often in his dreams and wonders why.  The cinematography is great, the flying sequences reminds me of a cross between Star Wars and Top Gun.  The story has a bit of a twist to it to keep you interested. It's also nice to see Morgan Freeman and hear his dynamic voice from time to time.

Beauty and the Beast Wannabe!

Beastly is supposed to be an updated version of Beauty and the Beast.  Apparently, Daniel Barnz, the writer and the director of this film forgot the concept and the story.  I saw it is was showing on cable one day and thought, "why not...it can't be that bad!"  Well...

Alex Pettyfer who portrays Kyle/The Beast plays this character much like he acted in the movie "I Am Number Four" as "John Smith", brooding with an attitude and never really learning his lesson until the end.  At least in that movie you have a good soundtrack!  Kyle is a pretentious and mean young man and he humiliates the wrong person.  A young lady named Kendra that unknown to him is a witch played by Mary-Kate Olsen.  She retaliates and puts a hex on him and will not lift the curse until he learns a lesson.  His father who acts no better than he does, leaves him with his housekeeper and a blind tutor played by Neil Patrick Harris.  Lindy, the "beauty" that Kyle falls for brings a little brightness to the story but only a little.  The story becomes too trivial and you start to lose interest in Kyle and his immediate problem.  I can see why this film was forgettable in the theaters and it didn't last that long on the cable stations either.  That is not a good sign.

Rotten Tomatoes

The Spanish Flu and Murder

Murder by the Book An Unmarked Grave by Charles Todd is the fourth book in the Bess Crawford series.  Here we find Bess in the Spring of 1918 in France in the middle of something deadlier than World War I, the Spanish Influenza Flu.  It is becoming more of an issue  by the minute.  However, Bess Crawford finds hidden among the countless dead waiting for burial the body of a friend and officer who also served in her father's regiment who was not killed by disease or by a German's bullet.  Bess wants to report this heinous crime but falls ill with the Spanish flu.  When she recovers, she finds out that the only other witness to the crime has hung himself.  Bess refuses to let either death go without investigating further putting her life and others close to her in danger.  This is another intriguing look into World War I with its heartache, compassion and dedication of all who have lived through this time period.
Murder by the Book

A Lady, an Engagement and an Adventure.

Our Lady of Pain by M.C. Beaton is a lighthearted and adventurous murder mystery set in the early 1900's.  Lady Rose Summer is engaged to private detective Captain Harry Cathcart in order to thwart off her parents from shipping her off to India to find a proper husband.   In the interim, Captain Cathcart's new client,  Delores Duval, who has a seductive french accent appears everywhere with the detective which annoys Lady Rose. Ms. Duval mysteriously turns up dead the next day and unfortunately is found by a very jealous Lady Rose who had threatened her because of her association with Captain Cathcart.  From England to Paris to Scotland, Captain Cathcart, Superintendent Kerridge of Scotland Yard and some other friends and colleagues race against time to keep Lady Rose out of jail and alive long enough to prove who the killer really is.Murder by the Book

Die Hard...died!

Bruce Willis returns as John McClane in a story that is so non-existent that the title should have been a "A Confusing Day to Die Hard.  What was incredible, is it took two writers, Skip Woods and Roderick Thorp to come up with this story.  A Good Day to Die Hard starts off with John McClane finding out that his son is in trouble in Russia.  He decides that a "New York City" policeman can just waltz into Moscow saying several times throughout the movie that he was on vacation and save his son not knowing what is going on.  How he knows his son is where he is when he gets to Moscow in the beginning of the movie is still a mystery.  He gets mixed up in a terrorist conspiracy between two men and the CIA.  The car chase is the longest and most dizzying scene I have ever seen.  I don't know what director John Moore was thinking.  The plot was all over the place and predictable.  The dialogue between Jai Courtney's character (Jack McClane) and John McClane was pathetic than laughable.  Between the "I'm on vacation", "Yippee Ki-Yah" and Jack constantly yelling "John" instead of dad, it was really getting tiresome.  This latest edition of Die Hard was unbelievably bad.  Sorry Bruce, I really like you but not in this one.

An Unexpected Hero

Peter Jackson's The Hobbit:  An Unexpected Journey was surprisingly entertaining for me especially since I never saw any of the Lord of the Ring movies.  I also liked that the story was explained for novices like me and I was able to follow along and look forward to watching the trilogy movies.  The story starts off with Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit, sixty years in the future writing his story about his unexpected adventure with Gandolf the Wizard and thirteen dwarves who are trying to reclaim their lost dwarf kingdom of Eredor.  It was overtaken by Smaug the dragon many years ago.  The new dwarf king, Thorin, who has unresolved issues with the elves for deserting his people many years ago and a strong desire to regain the dwarves home, leads this group through Middle Earth where they run into many dangers along the way.  One of my favorite scenes is with the goblins.  The visual effects of that scene was fantastic and of course the cinematography was great throughout the movie.  With so many shots done aerially and the movement of the camera, looking at some of the scenes was a bit dizzying and some scenes can make you feel a bit uneasy.  The beginning is long but that's Peter Jackson's signature.  However, once you get pass that, it is a fun movie. The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey is definitely worth it's weight in gold literally.

A different kind of Princess

Before I begin my review, I would like to remark that the dedication to Steve Jobs at the end of the movie was respectful and well deserved.




Brave, an animated movie by Disney and Pixar set in what I perceive is late 19th to perhaps early 20th century Scotland, about Princess Merida, daughter to Queen Elinor and King Fergus whose fate has been chosen by her parents and who decides to choose her own fate.  In order for her to change her fate, Princess Merida feels she has no other  recourse but to rely on the help of an old witch that turns out to be her undoing and finds herself running out of time to right many wrongs when she takes this course of action.  Brave is depicted  as a children's movie and on some levels it is.  The playfulness of Merida's brothers are wonderful and enjoyable to see. The camaraderie between the King and the other clan leaders are endearing and at times playful along with elements in the forest that are pure Disney will definitely entertain the children.  The vibrant red curly hair of Merida and her brothers and the beautiful cinematography are unforgettable.   However, some elements that were more understandably for an older child were the underlining "coming of age", "mothers and daughters" and "trust and respect" issues.  The Scottish accent was very heavy and I'm sure if children were not thrown by it, many adults might have been.  I watch a lot of foreign films and the BBC, so I was not put off by it, but we are talking about a bigger and younger audience.  Overall this was not a bad film,  I loved it and would recommend seeing it.  I'm just blowing caution to the wind to parents with very young children who believe the story is one thing and it turns out to be something very different.  Otherwise, sit back and enjoy a very well made movie.

Selene kicks butt once again

Underworld Awakening did not disappointment me.  I did appreciate the fact that the director saw fit to go over the whole series for those who were not familiar with the story.  The Lycans and the Vampires were still kind of at each others throats but they have a new enemy...humans.  Of course like another franchises, dare I say, Resident Evil, humans decide to experiment on humans to make them indestructible and something goes terribly wrong equals someone has to set the balance right. Sound familiar?  Kate Beckinsale, Selene and newcomer Inia Eisley, Eve kick butt for the greater good with help from a couple of friends.  The story is fast paced and leaves behind a lot of dead bodies and a feeling that there will be another sequel.  For any fans of Underworld, it stayed along the lines of the story and Selene kept with the tradition of fighting for a cause.  It was worth the wait.

Stealth

Josh Lucas, Sam Shepard, Jamie Fox and Jessica Biel star in this science fiction fantasy movie.  It started off with an old premise.  The military relies on a military stealth machine and it can learn, think and react faster than humans.  Of course we never thought of mother nature coming into play and causing the machine to malfunction.  Humans are then called in to come to the rescue to save mankind from it's own destruction.  Heroes are sacrificed  and the world is saved.  Unfortunately, the direction and story is all over the place and the dialogue is almost laughable.  It was a struggle to sit through the two hours of this movie.  The way it was shot was also dizzying.  The movie as a whole was disappointing.

California Pizza Kitchen - Revisited

It has been a while since I have gone to California Pizza Kitchen at Memorial City in Houston.  A year ago they had a different menu, a different cook and their food was decent.  However, with the economy being the way it has been, it is understandable that cutbacks and changes would have to be made.  The few times  my husband and I have gone back, the tacos were heated and not grilled so the meat was chewy.  The salad was made with mostly the end parts of the lettuce and was hard to eat.  Last night was the last straw.  I ordered the pea soup and it was watery and tasted like dish detergent.  Management apologized and asked if I wanted to order something different.  We were on a time crunch to see a movie and I really was in no mood to try something else and possibly be disappointed yet again.  The positive side to this was that we were not charged for the soup, but I was fed up and resorted to eating a hot dog at the movie theater instead.  That was just ridiculous.  We have given our time, patience, loyalty and money to this restaurant on too many occasions.  Personally, I have had enough.  I am not putting down all franchises of California Pizza Kitchen, but the one at Memorial City has literally put a "bad" taste in my mouth.

A woman with a secret and a love for cemeteries

The Restorer by Amanda Stevens is a romantic, paranormal murder mystery.   Amelia Gray from Charleston, SC restores cemeteries.  She can also see ghosts like her father can.  He gave her a set of rules to follow to keep her safe from these spirits:
1. Never acknowledge the dead
2. Never stray far from hallowed ground
3. Never get close to the haunted
4. Never, ever tempt fate
Well her world comes crumbling down when she meets police detective Devlin who is investigating dead bodies that are showing up at the cemetery where Amelia is restoring.  Devlin has secrets and spirits hanging around him and Amelia becomes drawn to them.  Now Amelia is not only in danger from a killer on the loose, she has also disobeyed her father's rules which puts her in more danger.  The Restorer is a fast-paced read.  If you are interested in paranormal activities and ghost stories, this will be an interesting read.  The Restorer is the first book in Amanda Stevens' - The Graveyard Queen series.

Super apes with a vengeance

Rise of the Planet of the Apes was excellent.  This was only the second movie so far this year that I would love to see over and over again.  Ok...I am a fan back when Charlton Heston starred in the first Planet of the Apes.  The cgi in this film was amazing.  Congrats to the visual arts team.  The expressions on Cesar's face and body language was unbelievable.  The story is pretty much the beginning of the Planet of the Apes saga.  Cesar's mother, a chimpanzee used in an experiment to find out how to enhance the brain functions is mistakenly killed trying to protect her baby, Cesar.  The experiments stop and James Franco (Will) takes the baby chimp home and gets help from Freida Pinto (Caroline) a vet and is joined by his sick father John Lithgow (Charles).  Cesar has the serum in him from his mother.  Cesar becomes older and wiser and that is when things start to become complicated.  This movie keeps you engaged and excited.  It was a great movie and I highly recommend it being seen.

An old friend came for a visit

Winnie the Pooh is an icon for a lot of people all over the world.  It was so nice to visit the hundred acre woods and see Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Owl, Roo and Christopher Robin.  The movie was a refreshing reminder of our innocent days as a child.  The hand drawing they used in this new addition of Winnie the Pooh was a wonderful welcome.  The story was classic and fun.  It was a nice escape on a very hot day.

Witches and baked goods

Trick or Treat (A Corinna Chapman mystery) by Kerry Greenwood is the 4th book in the Chapman series. Corinna is a baker who owns Earthly Delights and works and lives in a building in a small town in Australia with a cast of very interesting characters. She has a gorgeous boyfriend, Daniel, a former junkie apprentice named Jason and a host of cats two of which are the mouse patrol and keeps the area clear of mice and juicy rats. Daniel has a friend, Georgina, who has a devious secret and is causing trouble for Corinna. A new bakery, Best Fresh, opens and is direct competition to Corinna's bakery. People start turning up hallucinating and acting crazy in Corinna's alleyway and trouble starts heading in the way of her witch friends and a long lost treasure. This series is fun and relaxing.

A betrayal and a lot of dead bodies

The Mechanic starring Jason Statham and Donald Sutherland is an action packed drama that has a predictable ending.  A "Mechanic" is a "hit man".  He is called when he is needed to clean up someone else's mess.  Trouble starts when his assignment is to exterminate his mentor and friend.  When he finds out who is behind this and then tries to make amends with his mentor's son, his house of cards starts to tumble down around him. These is not much more to tell with this story.  There is a lot of shooting and dead people all over the city and problems start to get solved.  The movie is fast paced and entertaining. If that is what you are looking for and no more, then this would be a nice movie to rent.

Christians on a witch hunt

Season of the Witch starring Nicholas Cage and Ron Perlman is a short film, just 96 minutes.  A crusade of Christian army men are attacking cities who are home to non Christians and who are sanctioned as devil worshipers because they harbor witches.  They come across one city where mothers and children are killed and they start to question their leader and their beliefs.  They decide to quit the crusade and survive on their own.  Some time after, three witches are found and hung and die except for one young witch. She survives and needs to be transported to the monks to be judged.  Cage, Perlman and a small band of Christians, go on a journey to transport this witch to the monks.  Little do they know what truth is behind this young witch and what they will face when they arrive at their destination.  Season of the witch is not a bad movie but it becomes apparent as to what is going on and fizzles out in the end.  Oh well...it is a short movie and it's entertaining.