Just Finished Reading: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

This book was a lot different than what I expected it to be. Most people are probably familiar with the story, with mild mannered Dr. Jekyll turning into the murderous Mr. Hyde, but the story is different than how movie adaptions portray it. The story isn't even in Jekyll/ Hyde's perspective until the very last chapter. If I had known nothing of this story, I wouldn't have even known that they were the same person until the very end. I expected it to be a first person narrative from Jekyll because that is how the movies have been, but as I said it is mostly from other people's point of view. Having said that, I still really liked this story. I think that it is very interesting in how it discusses duality and things like that. It was also a very easy read because it is so short. For some reason I was expecting a long novel, but there are only a handful of relatively short chapters. I'm not really a fan of Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island is BORE), but I really enjoyed Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Song of the Week: How Soon Is Now

Totally just realized that I didn't have one for this week. I chose this song because my roommates and i have been watching season 1 of Charmed, so this has been stuck in my head all week.

Spotlight On: Doug Jones

This week's spotlight is on the greatest creature actor of our time, Doug Jones. While there is a chance that you do not recognize his face, you will more than likely recognize at least one of his characters. He is probably most well-known for the work he has done with Guillermo del Toro, but he has worked on several other really cool projects. He has worked on several movies/ TV shows/ music videos, but here are my favorites of his roles going in chronological order.

Thin Clown

In 1992, Jones played the thin clown in Tim Burton's Batman Returns. Not a particularly big role, but still a really cool one in my opinion. He was part of Penguin's evil gang and help rewire the Batmobile.

Billy Butcherson

Hocus Pocus was one of my favorite movies when I was a little kid, and Billy Butcherson was always my favorite character. He is a zombie man that Winifred brings back from the dead to help attack the kids. Has a really cool look to him and Doug Jones does an amazing job. Here is the part of the movie where he is risen from the grave.




Ripper

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of the movie Tank girl. The one thing that I did like about the movie though, were the Rippers. I thought that they looked really neat, and one of them was played by Mr. Doug Jones.

Gentlemen Leader

This is one of his creepiest roles. He plays the leader of the Gentlemen in what is probably the most well-known Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, "Hush." Creepy. As. Hell. The creepiest thing about them is probably the fact that they don't speak and they just communicate to eachother by gestures, which is something that Doug Jones, being a creature actor, is perfect at.



Abe Sapien

This is probably the role that Doug Jones is identified with the most, and for good reason. He is perfect as Abe, and is one of the main reasons why the Hellboy movies are so great. In the first movie, David Hyde Pierce does the voice of Abe, but Jones does it in the sequel. I just love it because he really knows how to move when wearing a costume, and really makes the characters come alive.



Cesare

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is my favorite silent film, so I wasn't too pleased with the idea of a remake. When I read that Doug Jones played the somnambulist Cesare, however, I had to see it. Overall, the movie is not that great and has horrible acting, but I loved Jones as Cesare. There is other living person who could have played this part, or at least played it nearly as well as Doug Jones.



The Faun

He plays two creatures in Pan's Labyrinth, the first being the faun. "Soy un fauno." It is obviously not Jones' speaking voice, but the character is all him with the look and the movement of the creature.



The Pale Man

The Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth is probably my favorite of Doug Jones' characters simply because he is scary as hell. Like the Gentlemen, this creature says nothing, so the creepiness is all in the movements. Even the way his hands movie is creepy, and when he started running after Ofelia, I thought I was going to have a heart attack.



Silver Surfer

Laurence Fishburne did the voice of the Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, but again Doug Jones owns this character. To be honest, I have never actually seen this movie, but from what clips I have seen the whole movie looks pretty stupid. Jones as the Silver Surfer would be my only reason to watch.



Chamberlain

In Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Jones reprises his role as Abe Sapien and also plays two other characters. The first of the other two is the Chamberlain. He is this really odd looking creature with these really long fingers, and I think that it takes a really great creature actor to make a character like this work.

Angel of Death

God damn, how cool would it be to be Doug Jones and to be able to wear all of these amazing costumes and makeup? The Angel of Death in Hellboy 2 just looks amazing!

Ice Cream Man

I have absolutely no desire to see the movie Legion. When the CGI old woman crawled on the wall in the trailer, I was just like, "NOPE!" I just thought that this was worth mentioning because it is such a strange character. In the trailer you see all his arms stretch and his face gets all long. I mean, its a neat role for Jones, but this movie just looks stupid to me. On a plus, though, it is actually a movie where you see Doug's actual face...



The Creature

Now I am just waiting patiently for Guillermo del Toro's adaption of Frankenstein, which is supposedly coming out in 2012. Doug Jones will be playing the Creature, aka Frankenstein's monster. According to del Toro, the look of the creature will be based on Bernie Wrightson's artwork, so Doug should be a perfect choice. Can't wait!

Wonder Woman TV Show

This is totally old news, but still worth mentioning I think. So, a few weeks ago it was announced that Adrianna Palicki has been cast as Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman in the upcoming television series. Not a terrible choice, but not my favorite either. Personally, I'm not really all that intrigued by the whole premise of the show with her being a modern day business woman and everything, but I guess a little Wonder Woman is better than none. I just wish that they would have made a movie instead of a TV show. If it was a movie it probably would have had a much better premise, and they probably would have got a better Wonder Woman. Like I said though, Palicki isn't a terrible choice. She is very pretty and will probably look great in her Wonder Woman costume (which I guess is going to look a lot different than the original costume...LAME.) Some cool news that I read today though is that Elizabeth Hurley has been cast as the shows main villain.

Her and her English accent will do an amazing job at being villainous. I approve!

Superman Casting News/ My Pick for Lois Lane

Some interesting casting news today, the beautiful Diane Lane has been cast as Martha Kent in Zack Snyder's Superman: Man of Steel. She is joining Henry Cavill who has been cast as Clark Kent/ Superman. I'm really excited about this casting choice because I think that she will make a fantastic Martha Kent, and I think that Diane Lane is such a great actress. It is also rumored that Kevin Costner will be playing her husband, and I think that that will be perfect too. My big concern with the movie is about who will play Lois Lane. Apparently people like Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway, Kristen Stewart, Malin Ackerman, and Rachel McAdams have been rumored to play her. Portman, Hathaway, and Ackerman already have their superhero movies, so I say no to all of them. Stewart would just be a horrible choice. I think that Rachel McAdams would make a decent Lois Lane, but the actress that I personally think should be cast is Kristen Stewart's Twilight costar Anna Kendrick.

I thought that she was great in Up in the Air, and that performance shows that she would be perfect as reporter Lois Lane. Her and Cavill would look really cute together, too.

Character of the Week: Brian Kinney

I just finished watching the first season of Queer as Folk. I had never seen a single episode of that show before, but one of my roommates owns it on DVD so I decided to watch it because I've always wanted to see it. I watched it nonstop until I finished the season, and now I want to watch the rest of them. I love all of the characters on this show (except for Michael's doctor boyfriend...) but the one that I ended up liking the most was Brian Kinney. He is definitely the most promiscuous character on the show, and definitely the biggest asshole, but I can't help but like him. He is a total dick to everybody, but you can tell that he really cares for his friends, especially Michael and Lindsay. He is also totally SEXY!



While I think that him and Justin are cute together (even though Justin is WAAAY to young for him), my favorite moments of the show were always when he was with Michael. The two of them have been best friends since they were 14 and are just perfect for eachother even though they are so different. Every episode I watched I'm like "just do it already!!!" and, to my disappointment, they never did. The episode where Brian outs Michael to his coworker so that he would hate him and go back to his stupid doctor boyfriend I was so sad!! It really showed how much Brian cares for him, but caused them not to talk for like a whole episode, which sucked, because Brian's relationship with Michael is one of the main reasons to watch the show.



His relationship with Justin is also interesting. He treats him like an annoyance (which he basically is) and acts like he doesn't care about him at all, and yet he lets him sleep at his place when he leaves home, he goes to New York to find him, and even does the cutest thing ever by showing up at his prom. Here is one of my favorite Brian/ Justin moments.



Gale Harold is amazing as Brian Kinney, and I really want to watch the rest of this series now.

Just Finished Reading: Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus 1818 text

I just finished rereading this book for my Women Writers class. We had to write a literary analysis on a novel of our choice, so of course I chose Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. This is one of my absolute favorite stories, and I never get tired of reading this book. It has fantastic elements of science fiction and horror, but is also quite beautiful and heartbreaking. In my literary analysis I wrote about the themes of love, revenge, and the consequences of trying to play god. It was actually pretty easy for me to write and I ended up writing a lot more than I needed to. Well, to be fair, she said that it had to be five pages, but she didn't say that it had to be double spaced. So, I have five pages of single spaced, which is way longer than it needed to be but, whatever, I think that I wrote a good literary analysis.
I am somewhat obsessed with the Frankenstein story. I love the story of how it first came to existance with Percy Shelley and Lord Byron telling horror stories with Mary Shelley. I have loved most of the film adaptions that I have seen (my favorite being Bride of Frankenstein,) and I am super excited for the new adaption being made by Guillermo del Toro with Doug Jones as the creature.