Character of the Week: Mel from Flight of the Conchords

This week's character of the week is everyone's favorite stalker, Mel. In my opinion, she was the funniest part of the whole series, and Kristen Schaal is absolutely hilarious. She would always bump into Bret and Jemaine outside of their apartment, usually sporting self-made t-shirts with their pictures on them. One of the funniest episodes is when she wins the fan contest (of which she was the only person who entered) and cooks the band dinner. Its this episode when we find out how crazy she is, and that her husband Doug used to be her college professor, and that at one point him and his family filed a restraining order against her. I just love her because she is the band's only fan, and yet she is completely dedicated to them and shows up to all of their gigs, even ones where they don't even get to finish one song.

My Review: Love and Other Drugs

Whats really interesting about Jake Gyllenhaal is that in his earlier film roles he played creepy guys, like in Donnie Darko and The Good Girl, and now hes both an action star and a romantic lead. This poster really showcases a lot of the movie because for a good majority of it Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway are naked and getting it on. Theres lots of banging going on in this movie. I'm not complaining though because Jake Gyllenhaal is fiiiiiiiine in this movie. Who would have thought that Donnie Darko could be a sexy womanizer? So anyways, the movie is about a pharmaceutical sales rep played by Gyllenhaal who falls in love with Anne Hathaway's character, who has Parkinson's disease. When the two of them aren't banging, she wallows in self pity saying things like, "Why do you want to be with the sick girl?" which is understandable I guess, but gets kind of annoying after the millionth time she brings it up. At first their relationship is all about sex, but of course they eventually fall for eachother, but then she breaks up with him after he starts getting really concerned about her Parkinson's and tries to find a cure. Then, of course, at the end theres a car chase where she is on a bus and he's trying to get to her so they can talk. I swear, every romance movie has to end in some sort of car chasing bus scenario. That, or a guy is running after a girl at the airport. Those two get way overused, so the ending of this movie is just really cliche. I wasn't really sure what to think of this movie as a whole. It thought that it was going to be a romantic comedy, but there really wasn't a lot of comedy in this movie, or actual romance until the ending. Overall, I guess this movie was just okay, and Jake Gyllenhaal and his blue eyes are really cute, but this isn't a movie that I would ever buy, or recommend to anyone. If people really want to see it, I suggest to just wait for the DVD. My rating: 5/10  

R.I.P. Irvin Kershner

Some sad news in the Star Wars universe today. Irvin Kershner has died at the age of 87 after a long illness.  Kershner directed Empire Strikes Back, my personal favorite of the Star Wars trilogy and one of  the best movies ever made. This movie features the first appearances of legendary characters Yoda and Lando Calrissian, and features one of cinemas most famous lines "No! I am your father!" In his honor, I'm going to have to watch Empire tonight for the millionth time...

My Review: Tangled

I came home for Thanksgiving, so of course I had to go to the movies with my two little sisters. They actually wanted to see Megamind, but unfortunately it was no longer at the theater. Instead we went to see Tangled, and it was actually a pretty cute movie. It wasn't really all that different from every other fairy tale movie I've seen, and at times it was quite predictable, but it was still enjoyable, and all the kids in the audience seemed to like it. The parts of the movie that got the biggest laughs from the kid audience were parts that included the two main animal characters, the chameleon and the horse. I thought that that was neat because neither of the animals talk, so they communicated just through facial expressions, and the animators did a very good job with that. Zachary Levi and Mandy Moore also did a good job with the voice work. I'm suprised Mandy Moore has never voiced a Disney character before because she has such a sweet singing voice. So, while it is not a groundbreaking cinematic achievement, it is still a cute movie that my 9 year old sisters really enjoyed watching. My rating: 7/10

Song of the Week: Only Happy When It Rains

Character of the Week: Buffalo Bill

Silence of the Lambs is one of my favorite movies. It features great performances from Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, and Ted Levine as one of my favorite serial killers in film, Jame Gumb aka Buffalo Bill. Jame Gumb is an Ed Gein-like killer who kidnaps size 14 women and skins them alive in the attempt to make a woman suit for himself. Before killing them, however, he leaves them in a well for a few days and starves them. He also believes himself to be a transexual, but according to Hannibal Lecter he is "not a real transexual." As opposed to Lecter, Buffalo Bill is not at all a charasmatic villian. There is no point in the movie where we find him charming or start to like him. Even though he is obviously insane, you can see in some scenes that he does feel somewhat bad about what he does. He refers to his victims in the third person and as "it" so as not to humanize them. In one of my favorite scenes in the movie he is telling his victim to put on lotion, but when she starts crying you can see that it has an effect on him.



The most frightening scene in the movie is probably the scene where Buffalo Bill turns off all the lights and has on his night vision goggles. Its terrifying because we are seeing from his point of view for the majority of it, and he can see Clarice, but she can't see anything. It gets really freaky when you see his hand start reaching towards her.

My Review: Due Date

This movie kind of disappointed me. I've really liked all of Todd Phillips's past movies, but this one was just not as funny as the rest of them. Zach Galifianakis is pretty much playing the exact same character that he plays in The Hangover, but I guess that character works better in a larger group of people. It was interesting putting him with Robert Downey Jr because they aren't really people who I would have picked to be in a movie together. There weren't really all that many parts in this movie that made me laugh, but there were quite a few "what the fuck" moments for me. When Robert Downey Jr. straight up punches a kid in the stomach, my jaw just dropped and I could not believe it. I was like, "and this guy's about to have a baby?" Other moments were when Zach's character was masterbating in the car because apparently thats "how he falls asleep," when he shoots Robert Downey Jr. in the leg, and when he starts crying in the bathroom. I guess that was supposed to be a touching moment or something, but I just felt really uncomfortable watching that. A good majority of this movie was pretty weird to watch. The only part of this movie that I can think of where I actually laughed was the part that was in the trailer where they drove over the drainage ditches that made Galifianakis fly up in the air. That was pretty funny I guess. What was probably my favorite part of this movie was the very beginning. Robert Downey Jr. is laying on his side, looking at the camera, and talking about a dream he had. I just love this part because not only is he a very handsome man, but he also has the sexiest brown eyes ever!!! My rating: 5/10

Wilson Being Made Into A Movie???

Here's some interesting news...apparently Alexander Payne, who previously directed Sideways and About Schmidt, is going to be directing a movie version of Daniel Clowes's newest graphic novel, Wilson. I'm kind of curious how this is going to work because I've read Wilson like a million times since I bought it, and at no point did I think, "This would make a great movie!" I mean in theory, this sounds like it could be amazing. Its being made by Fox Searchlight (awesome), being produced by Sam Raimi's production company Stars Road (double awesome), and the screenplay is apparently being written by Clowes himself (triple awesome.) I'm kind of skeptical about this, though, because even though I love the book, I'm not really sure how it, and more specifically the title character of Wilson, can translate to cinema. I'm sure that Clowes will write a great script, though, because I love all of his comics (can't wait for his next one, apparently coming out April 2011!), and Ghost World is one of my favorite movies. While reading about this online I read a comment that someone wrote about how Bill Murray should play Wilson, and I am not going to disagree...

Song of the Week: Hang You From The Heavens

My Favorite Movie Posters...

Here are some of my favorite movie posters...in alphabetical order....

Movie I Want To See: Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood. Werewolves. Gary Oldman. YES PLEASE! This movie looks really cool! I've been waiting forever for the trailer for this movie, and I just saw it for the first time like two minutes ago. I think that it looks like a really cool twist on the Little Red Riding Hood story, and has a really interesting cast. People have been comparing this to Twilight because it has the same director, but I think that this actually looks like a good movie. Plus, how awesome is that poster? I kinda want to get that and hang it up in my room...

Movie I Want To See: Jane Eyre

I have never read this book, but I intend on reading it before this movie comes out. I have wanted to see this movie since I saw the cast for it because I like Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Judi Dench, and Jamie Bell, and now that I've seen the trailer I think that it looks really good. I am not too familiar with the story, so I thought that it was going to be more of a love story like Pride and Prejudice, but from the trailer I see that there are some darker elements to the story as well. This movie doesn't come out until March, so I have about four months to read the book, which is plenty of time. March is going to be a great month for movies because theres Jane Eyre, Sucker Punch, and Red Riding Hood; all movies that I really want to see.

Character of the Week: Lisa Rowe

Lisa Rowe is a great example of the charasmatic villian, being both charming and terrifying. She is played by one of my favorite actresses, Angelina Jolie, in the movie Girl, Interrupted. Even though she is somewhat attacked by Lisa the first time she see's her, the movie's protagonist Susanna ends up drawn to her and makes friends with her, enjoying late night bowling, breaking into offices to see their files, and singing to one of their depressed inmates.



It isn't until after they escape from the hospital that Susanna sees Lisa's true nature. The scene in Daisy's house is a perfect example of how vicious Lisa can be. In earlier scenes, it is made apparent that Lisa is jealous tha Daisy got released from the hospital, so she uses this occasion to torment her, which ultimately drives her to suicide.



Lisa Rowe is my favorite character that has been played by Angelina Jolie. Even though Angelina Jolie is one of the most beautiful women on the face of the earth, you forget all about that with this performance. You actually believe that this woman is batshit crazy! She is a sociopath who prays on people weaker than her, and yet for some reason you really want her to like you.

Random Video

I first saw this video a long ass time ago on this website called funnyjunk.com. I used to watch it all the time because I thought that it was the funniest thing ever...We had a slow ass computer so I knew this song by heart because it took so long to load and I kept restarting it and restarting it. Its kind of a bummer that it doesn't have anything from Return of the Jedi, but the "I'm your father, I'm your father..." was a pretty good spot to end at I guess....

Song of the Week: Black Sheep

Just Finished Reading: Lolita

This was my third attempt at reading Vladimir Nobokov's famous novel Lolita. The first two times I tried to read it, I always got to Part Two, then got bored and moved on to something else. This time, however, I finished the whole book in a few days. Part One of the book is the most famous and well known part with Humbert Humbert pining for the 12 year old nymphet Dolores Haze. Humbert rents a room in the Haze house after spotting young Lolita, then forms a relationship with Lolita's mother in order to stay in the house, and in return, stay close to Lolita. What makes this book really creepy is that it is from Humbert's point of view. He sees nothing wrong with his feelings and actions towards this 12 year old girl, and since he is the narrator, we are led to somewhat sympathize with him even though he is a predatorial pedophile creep. He goes as far as to marry Lolita's mother, then fantasizes about ways to kill her, especially after hearing of her plan to send her to a boarding school after summer camp, then off to college. He gets a touch of luck (is luck the right word?), though, when the now Mrs. Humbert gets hit by a car. Immediately afterwords he drives to Lolita's camp and takes her to a few hotels. The first night he does nothing because his attempts to drug her fail, but the second night is when he gets his way with her. The book doesn't go into detail about the act, which doesn't really suprise me considering that this book was first published in 1955. The subject matter is taboo to this day, and this book was extremely controversial when it came out, so if Nobokov did go into detail, this book never would have gotten published back in 1955. Anyways, the second half of the book is Lolita and Humbert driving around the county then finally setting down in a place where Lolita goes to an all girls school. Here Humbert deals with issues of boys, Lolita getting older, and the fear of getting caught. He objects to Lolita appearing in a school play, and ends up pulling her out of school a week before the show to drive across country again, which leads to her eventually running away. He then spends the next few years searching for her, only finding her when she writes him a letter telling him that she is married, pregnant, and asks for money. There he finds out that it was a man named Clare Quilty who took Lolita away from him, a man that she had had a crush on since before she knew Humbert. He then goes to Quilty's house and kills him. Throughout the entire book it is known that Humbert has been convicted of a crime, but it doesn't say what. At first guess, you would think it would be child molestation or statutory rape, but later in the book you find out that its murder, but you don't know who. Is it Lolita, Lolita's mom, Lolita's husband? I saw Stanley Kubricks film version of Lolita before reading this, so I already knew who he killed, but in the movie Quilty is a lot more prevalent. He sort of comes out of nowhere in the book, so I liked how his character was expanded in the movie. So, even though the last thing people want to do is sympathize with a pedophile, I really liked this book, and can see why it is considered a masterpiece. It is first and foremost a love story because even though Lo is from the ages of 12 to 17 in this book, it is made apparent that Humbert really loves her and is oblivious to the fact that he was doing something wrong because in his eyes it felt so right. Having said that, he deserved to get shot himself for being a damn dirty pedophile creeper.

Favorite Songs From Movie Musicals

Here is my list of my top ten songs from movie musicals. I limited it to one song per movie or else this list would be filled with songs from Grease and Rocky Horror Picture Show. I haven't seen too many older musicals, so this list is mostly contemporary musicals.

10. A Little Help From My Friends (Across the Universe)
Even though I can't stand Evan Rachel Wood's speaking voice, I really liked Across the Universe, and this is my favorite song from that movie. Not because its my favorite Beatles song (which its not), but because it is the most fun song in the movie and is one that I love singing along to.



9. Be Italian (Nine)
Overall, I didn't think that this movie was too great. A bunch of the songs were pretty boring in my opinion, and there were only two songs in the movie that I really liked. I really liked Kate Hudson's song Cinema Italiano, but I LOVED the song Be Italian sung by Fergie. It shows that Fergie really does have a great voice, and without a doubt the best song in the whole movie even though Fergie's role is pretty small. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that she doesn't have any lines in this whole movie except for this song.



8. Seasons of Love (Rent)
I'm pretty sure I've seen this movie only once, but I've watched this video on Youtube over a dozen times. I love singing along with this song and makes me wish I had a larger vocal range (of which mine is pretty miniscule).



7. Hard Knock Life (Annie)
I've probably seen this movie over a hundred times. I watched this movie all the time when I was a kid and this was always my favorite song.



6. Come What May (Moulin Rouge)
Choosing one song from this movie turned out to be really hard. I really love Elephant Love Medley and Roxanne, but I had to go with Come What May, because it is such a beautiful song. This movie is really sad, but this song alone is enough to make me cry. Ewan McGregor has such a great voice...



5. Little Priest (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)
I was originally going to go with Worst Pies in London, but I actually like this one a little bit better because I'm kind of a sucker for duets. Plus, its a song about putting people into meat pies and eating them, what could be better than that?



4. Phantom of the Opera (Phantom of the Opera)
I honestly wan't a big fan of this movie, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE this song! While Gerard Butler's voice is okay, Emmy Rossum's voice is amazing, and she made a wonderful Christine. Also, this part of the movie just looked really gorgeous, and was beautifully shot.



3. Cell Block Tango (Chicago)
Hands down the best song from the movie Chicago. This movie came out when I was in junior high, and I completely adored this movie and this song. I don't think that its possible for someone to hear this song and not want to sing it, which is interesting because a majority of this song isn't singing at all, but monologuing by each of the "six merry murderesses."



2. Time Warp (Rocky Horror Picture Show)
This was also a movie where it was hard to choose one song. I mean this movie is filled with great songs like Science Fiction Double Feature, Sweet Transvestite, and Touch-a Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me, but I ended up choosing the fantastic Time Warp. The dance for this song is very simple, but thats probably what makes it so great. I guess on Halloween the world record for most people doing the Time Warp was broken, which is really cool. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a good video for this song on Youtube anymore, but here's the song...



1. You're the One That I Want (Grease)
Then, of course, there is Grease. A movie that I have watched since, like, birth and still love to this day. It is no longer possible for me to hear the words "tell me about it" without immediately saying "stud" and then breaking out into song. "I've got chiiiiiiills, they're multiplying, and I'm loooooosing contro-ol...All the power you're supplying, its ELECTRIFYING!!!" A few months ago when I was driving home from somewhere with my mom this song came on the radio, and we both got so excited and just started belting it out. There was not a doubt in my mind that I would put this song as number one on my list.

Character of the Week: Staff Sgt. Dignam

While I am generally not into this type of movie, I absolutely loved The Departed. It was funny and cool, and absolutely unpredictable. My favorite thing about the movie was Mark Wahlberg as Dignam. He's a complete asshole, but has the best lines in the whole movie, and earned Wahlberg a well deserved Oscar nomination. I found a really good "best of" video of Dignam, but unfortunately its pretty poor quality, and I couldn't embed it, but if you click on the link it will take you to Youtube...



Also...he's the one who gets justice at the end. No big speech...no "you killed Queenan," he just shoots Sullivan right when he walks in the door...fantastic!

Some Nice Horror Tribute Videos...

Here are some videos that pay tribute to the fantastic genre of Horror. This first one was at the most recent Academy Awards. I was so excited to see this at the Oscars that I forgave the inclusion of non-horror films like New Moon. Its a really neat video so check it out...



This second video is a compilation of all the best horror movie lines. It is from hh1edits on Youtube, who has tons of other great videos that I watch all the time.

Song of the Week: Walking On Air

Evil Dead: The Musical

Holy crap, this show was fantastic. It combines two things that I love: Evil Dead and musicals. For my Acting for Non Majors class we need to see a show and write a paper on one of the actors so, of course, I decided to see Evil Dead: The Musical. It was all kinds of cheesy, but thats what made it so great. It combined the plots of Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2, and had some of the more famous lines from Army of Darkness which included many of these...


The guy who played Ash was no Bruce Campbell, but he did a pretty good job. There was blood spattering galore, and there were even "splatter seats" where the cast members were aiming their blood spurts, and where they also had tubes surrounding them that splattered them with blood. The songs were also really fun, and were made better by the dances that went with them. One song in particular has been stuck in my head since the show ended, and thats Do the Necronomicon....check it out!

New Sucker Punch Trailer!!!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG! I thought that the first trailer was badass, but this looks spectacular!!! Why can't it be March right now??? I was pumped for this movie, but now I am waaaay beyond that! There are no words for how excited I am about this movie. Mr. Zack Snyder, why must your movies be so amazing all the time? And now he's directing the next Superman movie! I wasn't too fond of the last one, but I thought that Brandon Routh was a great Superman, so they should keep him. Anyways, the new trailer for Sucker Punch looks awesome, so everyone should watch it because this movie is going to be fucking amazing!

Movie I Want To See: Blue Valentine

Because this movie is rated NC-17 I probably won't be able to see it in the theater that I usually go to, but I think that it'll be worth paying a little extra to go see it at a different theater. This movie features two actors that I really like, Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling, and the trailer is really cute. From what I've read about the film's synopsis, it sort of sounds like 500 Days of Summer and Peter and Vandy because it cross-cuts through time periods, showing the relationship of a married couple. I really liked both those movies, and they were really different from eachother even though they had a similar plot structure. I'm sure that this movie won't be anything like either of them storywise, and that the only thing it will have in common with those two is the cross-cutting through time element. From what I've read, this movie got an NC-17 due to an intense and emotional sex scene between the two main characters, and that the Weinstein Company is appealing the rating and trying to get an R without cutting anything out.I hope that they get it, because even though I don't see anything wrong with a NC-17 rating, it usually means that less people will be able to see it, which would be unfortunate because this movie looks really good.

Character of the Week: Lily from Eagle Vs. Shark

Lily is the main character in one of my favorite comedies, Eagle Vs. Shark. I loved this character since the first moment that she appears on the screen. In the very first scene of the movie she is standing in front of a mirror talking to herself, being both herself, and pretending to be a guy, who we find out later is a guy she likes named Jarrod. I love this scene because although at first it seems sort of strange and pathetic, it is actually really cute and sweet. This movie is really funny because the guy that she likes isn't your typical romantic leading man, nor is she the typical romantic leading lady. She is in love with Jarrod even though he is an awkward loser who is always trying to impress his dad.  Throughout the movie, though, we see that Lily and Jarrod are absolutely perfect for each other.

Random Video

That Darth Vader is such a brat....

My Review: Saw: The Final Chapter

We'll see if this is actually the last Saw movie. I highly doubt that it is because for some reason or another people still go see them year after year. If they still make money, why wouldn't you keep making them, even though they get worse and worse each movie. I really loved the first Saw movie. I thought that it was very creative and original, and that the ending was very cool. What seems to be happening every time they make a new one is that the traps get more and more intricate, but the reasons for the traps get lamer and lamer. In the first movie, it is explained that because Jigsaw was a cancer patient, he makes people play these "games" because they don't appreciate their lives. For example, a guy who attempted suicide and a girl who was a drug addict. He said that he did the games so that they could appreciate life more and prove that they do want to live. That, to me, is what made the first movie so interesting. Now though, that doesn't seem to matter at all. They are putting people into these games for no apparent reason at all. The first game features three people who are in a love triangle. Just because this girl is with both of these guys doesn't mean that she doesn't appreciate her life and needs to be taught a lesson. It seems that they're just picking victims out of their asses now. I mean, sure, the people who go see these movies don't really care about the story and just want to see some gore, but they should at least stick with the reasoning for all of the games from the first movie. I mean jeez, if (when?) there is a next movie, they'll probably put someone in a trap for j-walking or something. I can see it now..."Hello Charisse. I'd like to play a game. For years you have been crossing the street even though the sign says that you can't. You do not seem to realize that there are specific rules that you must follow when it comes to crossing the street . For this you must weave through the rows of moving chainsaws, as if you were dodging traffic. You must get across in 60 seconds with the key inside of your stomach so you can save the woman at the other end of the chainsaws. Do you recognize her? She is a woman who saw you j-walking at did nothing about it, even though she knew it was against the law. You must use the key to unlock the chain or she'll fall into a bat of acid. You can't let her fall into the acid because inside of her is a key that you need to use to unlock the trap around your face. You must do all of this in 60 seconds or your head will explode. Live or die, make your choice." Haha, I didn't really put a lot of thought into that...
There was one part of this movie that really had me on edge, though. It was the part where Bobby's friend was blindfolded and Bobby had to talk him across the wooden planks. With all the gore and blood in the movie, this was the part that freaked me out the most. It reminded me of this trust game I had to play in my Acting for Non Majors class where I had to be led around the room by my partner. I was freaking out the whole time and waving my arms thinking I was going to run into something. In the movie, its like a million times worse though, because he has to walk on these wooden planks across a room where most of the floor is missing, over like a 15 feet drop. F that S, no thank you!
Also, I was pretty disappointed that Gabby West had such a small role. She was the winner of season 2 of Scream Queens, and all she does in this movie is lay down and scream before being run over by a car. They could've at least given her the part of the lawyer or the publicist, or the girl in the beginning of the movie. She's in this movie for like 2 minutes as Chester Bennington's character's girlfriend.  I mean sure, its a movie role, but she had to do however many challenges to show that she can act, just to get a part in a movie that only requires her to scream. Hopefully her part in Fright Night will be better than this. My rating: 5/10