Adrianne Palicki in Wonder Woman Costume

Heres a look at Adrianne Palicki in costume for the upcoming reboot of the Wonder Woman TV show. I read somewhere that they were going to tone down the costume a bit, but with the exception of having skin tight pants instead of a skirt, it doesn't look toned town to me. I'm not really digging the blue boots, but she does look good!

RIP Michael Gough

Some sad news...Yesterday, the great English actor Michael Gough died at the age of 94. He is best known as Alfred Pennyworth in the Batman films, and is the only Alfred in my eyes. He was also great in films like Sleepy Hollow and in Hammer horror films like Horror of Dracula.

Spotlight On: Helena Bonham Carter

This week's spotlight is on one of my favorite actresses, Miss Helena Bonham Carter. She is both extremely talented and beautiful, and I love the fact that she can play both an English Rose and an insane person. I haven't come close to seeing her entire filmography, but these are some of my favorite performances from what films of hers I have seen.

Room With A View

Helena's portrayal of Lucy Honeychurch in this film was one of her earliest film roles as well as her first starring role. She plays a young girl who is engaged to marry a rich man, even though she is in love with another. (Yet another Heathcliff/ Cathy/ Edgar love triangle.) I first saw this movie about a year ago and I almost didn't recognize Helena, she is so young in this film. This is the first of her many English Rose roles, and definitely one of her best.




Frankenstein

I love the story of Frankenstein, so I was really pleased to see that Helena portrayed Elizabeth in the 1994 film version. They do something really interesting in this adaption, and that is that instead of Victor making a bride for the monster, he reanimates Elizabeth after the monster kills her. Thats not at all how it happens in the novel, but I still thought that it was a neat choice. And I love how Helena still looks really pretty without hair and covered in stitches. You can find a clip from the film HERE

Fight Club

I love love love her in this movie! She just plays this totally crazy, disfuntional, messed up woman, and she is absolutely amazing! I honestly can't see anyone else playing Marla Singer. I mean when she walks on screen and says "this is cancer, right?" she just hooks you!



Planet of the Apes

I just love her in this movie because she is in full ape make-up, so for the longest time I had no idea that it was her. She plays the ape that sympathizes with the humans and tries to help them out. This is also the first movie she did with Tim Burton

Big Fish

No matter what accent she is speaking with, she always sounds so charming and refined. In this film she has a southern accent, which she pulls of beautifully. I love her so much in this movie because she plays both a young pretty girl and an old witch that shows you your future. It is just further proof of her versatility.



Conversations with Other Women

I randomly chose this movie to watch one day when I was scrolling through the different choices on Netflix movie viewer. At first I just thought that it was just a cute movie, but then I found myself watching it whenever I was bored. Now I own this movie. It is just filled with great dialogue spoken by both Helena and her costar Aaron Eckhart, who she has great chemistry with. I thought that the split screen thing would get annoying after a while, but I guess I got used to it.




Harry Potter

I've never been a big Harry Potter fan, but I love Helena as Bellatrix Lestrange. I have only read the first three books, so I have no idea if she is anything like the character in the book, but I just love it when Helena gets to be batshit crazy.




Sweeney Todd

Helena gets a chance to sing in this movie, where she plays Mrs. Lovett, the pie-maker who makes meat pies out of the people that Sweeney Todd kills. She doesn't have the best voice in the world, but she does do a decent job. She sings in my two favorite songs in the movie, and here is one of them. (The other one is Little Priest.)




Alice in Wonderland

Her performance of The Red Queen was a bit over-the-top, but I think that it suit the movie perfectly. It makes me smile everytime I watch the part where she yells, "IDIOT!"

The King's Speech

It came as no surprise to me when I read that Helena Bonham Carter recieved an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in this film. This is the kind of role that she is perfect at. I loved her in the scene when she goes to Geoffrey Rush's office for the first time.

Upcoming Projects: She is going to be in the last installment of the Harry Potter series which comes out sometime this year, and she is going to be in another Tim Burton film titled Dark Shadows with Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Eva Green.

My Review: Red Riding Hood

God dammit, I really wanted to like this movie! I have been looking forward to this movie forever, and I was really disappointed. I think that the concept of this movie was great and it has a great cast, but overall the movie was not particularily good. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either. It has the main character in a Heathcliff/ Cathy/ Edgar type love triangle, even though she is obviously going to pick Shiloh Fernandez over Max Irons. One thing that is a plus for this movie, is that Amanda Seyfried's suitors are both really cute! Okay, so a werewolf kills Valerie's (Seyfried) sister in the beginning and they bring in a priest played by Gary Oldman to try to help them find it and kill it. I thought that the whole werewolf aspect of the movie was very weak. There was no gore, no transformation scene, and when the werewolf starting talking, I was just like "Nope!" Probably the only intriguing about the movie is that you have to figure out who the werewolf is. I knew that it wasn't going to be either of the main guys because that would be way too obvious. I suppose that's a big of a spoiler, but really that shouldn't be a surprise. I was a bit surprised when they showed who it really was, because it wasn't someone that I even considered. This movie was just filled with close-ups of Seyfried, but when the lead actress has a face like hers why wouldn't you show it off? My rating: 5/10

Actors I Can't Stand

As sort of a companion piece to yesterdays post, I am making a list of the actors who, when I see their name attached to a project, make me go "that looks stupid, I don't want to see that." This list is significantly shorter than my other one because, while there are quite a few actors I can't stand (like Anne Hathaway, Malin Ackerman, and Evan Rachel Wood,) they don't always have the power to keep me from seeing a movie. The following three actors, however, do have that power.

1. Jennifer Aniston

I did like her on Friends. I actually think that Rachel Green was the best character on that show. Everything she has done since though, has made me think that she should just stick with television. With the exception of Rock Star and He's Just Not That Into You (both of which I like for reasons that have nothing to do with her), I haven't liked any of her movies. I didn't think that The Break Up was funny, and I thought that Rumor Has It was just gross. Why would you sleep with someone who you thought was your dad? I had no intention of seeing The Bounty Hunter, or those movies she did with Aaron Eckhart or Adam Sandler. She should just go back to TV and stop making shitty romcoms.

2. Nicolas Cage

Okay, here is my theory for what happens with Nicolas Cage movies. Movie executives look at a script and they think 'no actor in their right mind would do this terrible, cheesy, shitty movie. Lets get Nicholas Cage, people expect it of him anyway.' If any movie trailer seems at all interesting to me, I immediately lose interest when I see his face. Is kind of sad how bad his career is going considering the fact that he is an Oscar winning actor. He should just go back to doing independent films and not shitty action movies. I mean, when I first saw the trailer for Season of the Witch, I busted out laughing when a guy turned around at it was Nicholas Cage.

3. Katherine Heigl

I was a big fan of the show Roswell growing up, so I used to like Katherine Heigl. I was really excited to see her in Knocked Up, and I actually really liked that movie. Even though she claimed that that movie was sexist because she was the serious one, while the guys got to be funny, she still plays that exact same character in every single movie she is in. All of her movies are exactly the same. Uptight, successful girl butts heads with goofy guy and even though they start out hating eachother, they end up falling in love. It is exactly the same in 27 Dresses, The Ugly Truth, and that movie she just did with Josh Duhamel that I had no desire to see. So I guess she likes her "sexist" roles.

Actors I'd Watch In Anything

These are the actors who, when I see their name attached to a movie project, make me go "oooh, I might have to go see that." They are the actors who have me watching a type of movie that I probably wouldn't see if it was any other actor or a movie that got terrible ratings. They are the actors who's pages I go to on Netflix because I want to watch their entire filmography. This list turned out a lot bigger than I thought it would, so I narrowed it down to just living and working actors, and its still pretty big. I didn't feel like ranking them, so I'm just going to put them in alphabetical order.

1. Asia Argento

While she is definitely not a mainstream actress, I just love Asia Argento. My favorite films of hers are probably the ones she did with her father, the great horror director Dario Argento, like Trauma and Stendhal Syndrome. There is just something about her that makes not that great films, like XXX, Marie Antoinette, and Land of the Dead, better. ( I actually own the last two for some reason...I suppose that Asia is that reason.) I've also found Catherine Breillat's films very interesting, so I was thrilled to find out about The Last Mistress, which I think that she was amazing in.

2. Drew Barrymore

I have loved Drew Barrymore ever since I was a little kid. I grew up watching E.T. and Babes in Toyland, and I still love her to this day. I was obsessed with Charlie's Angels when it first came out, and I even had all three dolls. Her scene was always my favorite in the movie Scream, and even though I'm not the biggest Adam Sandler fan, I love both movies that she did with him.  I think that she is so cute and charming and is really funny. I remember being really excited for Whip It! which is the first film she ever directed, and I really love that movie. I'm kind of disappointed that she doesn't have another movie coming out for like a year, but whatever it is, I'll probably go see it.

3. Cate Blanchett

How many actresses can play Queen Elizabeth, Katherine Hepburn, and Bob Dylan? I love Cate because she is so versatile. She is one of those actresses who makes really great role choices, and has been in so many great movies playing really great characters. She is probably one of the most beautiful actresses living today, and yet she got an Oscar nomination for playing a man in I'm Not There. To be honest, that movie wasn't my favorite, but the best parts were definitely the parts wtih Cate. I'm super excited to see her play Galadriel again in The Hobbit Parts 1 and 2, and the movie Hanna also looks really good.

4. Alexis Bledel

I am a huge Gilmore Girls fan so I love Alexis Bledel. She was the only reason I sat through both Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movies and I actually kind of liked the movie Post Grad. Even though she is a gorgeous girl, she is kind of limited in the kind of roles she can get because of her voice and her baby face. I don't think anyone could ever take her seriously as a lawyer or a bank robber or anything like that. I am really excited to see her in The Conspirator though. I watched the trailer for that today and it actually looks pretty good. And even though Sleepaway Camp Reunion is probably going to be really stupid, I'll probably go see it anyways simply because Alexis is in it.

5. Helena Bonham Carter

I love love love Helena Bonham Carter. She is one of my favorite actresses. It's not just because I'm a Tim Burton fan. I love her in Frankenstein, Conversations with Other Women, Fight Club, Room With A View, and even though I'm not the biggest Harry Potter fan, I love her as Bellatrix Lestrange. It was because of her that I wanted to see The King's Speech when I first read about it being made. I had no idea it was going to be this huge Oscar winning film, I just wanted to see it because it had Helena in it. Even though I knew that Melissa Leo was going to win Best Supporting Actress, I was disappointed that Helena didn't win. I can't wait for Dark Shadows to come out! It has such a great cast...including Bonham Carter.

6. Jeff Bridges

Ever since the 1970s, Jeff Bridges has been in some amazing films! The Last Picture Show, Starman, Tron, King Kong, The Big Lebowski, and his Oscar winning role in Crazy Heart. He was in two movies that came out last year, Tron: Legacy and True Grit, and he was great in both of them. I actually wasn't that interesting in seeing Tron: Legacy until I saw that he was going to be in it. He was perfect as Rooster Cogburn, and I'm saying that as a fan of the original True Grit with John Wayne. Its just proof that Jeff Bridges + Coen Brothers = AWESOME! Hopefully he'll do more films with them in the future because that is something I'd like to see...

7. Abbie Cornish

She gave great performances in Somersault and Bright Star, and I expect nothing but good things from Abbie Cornish. She's in Sucker Punch, which I can not wait to see, and even though Limitless isn't my type of movie, I might go see it just because she is in it. There are two movies coming out that she is in called W.E. and The Girl, and I intend on seeing both of those. Even though I do get kind of annoyed with all the young hollywood actresses, I think that Abbie Cornish is someone who has actual talent and perhaps will be a future Oscar winner, but can also do action films like Sucker Punch! Can't wait til the 25th!!!!

8. Benicio Del Toro

I don't know about y'all, but I was super disappointed that he died right away in the movie Snatch. He was pretty much the reason that I watched that movie and he died right in the beginning! (Its a good movie with or without him, but still...) Anyways I loved Del Toro in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Sin City, Traffic, and in the remake of The Wolfman. I thought that he was an odd choice for Lawrence Talbot, but he proved me wrong and did an awesome job. I don't know if he is still playing Moe in a movie version of The Three Stooges, but if he does I am so going to see that. I'm also really excited to see The Iceman and Silence, both of which should be coming out in the next couple of years.

9. Johnny Depp

I thought that the third Pirates of the Carribean movie was terrible, but you know what...I'm still planning on seeing the fourth one. I was really excited to see The Tourist, but I never got a chance, so I'm going to have to wait for the DVD. I'm also really excited to see The Rum Diary and Dark Shadows. If you put Johnny Depp in a movie, I'm going to see it and thats that. Its not just because he is a sexy sexy man, but because I think that he is one of the greatest actors working today. He gets a lot of criticism for movies like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland, but I just love that he can play goofy, rediculous characters like that and then also play cool, calm John Dillinger.

10. Michael Fassbender

Fassbender came out of nowhere! He was great in supporting roles in 300 and Inglourious Basterds and now he is getting really cool roles left and right. I mean theres Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre, Magneto in X-Men: First Class, and roles in David Chronenberg's A Dangerous Method, Guy Richie's Excalibur, Shame with Carey Mulligan, and probably the coolest thing ever, a role in (the Alien Prequel?) Prometheus. I was pumped when Noomi Rapace was cast in that movie, but I was even more pumped when I read that Michael Fassbender was cast in that movie as well. I have no idea if it has anything to do with Alien or not, but I honestly don't really care because with that cast, the movie is going to be awesome!

11. James Franco

Okay, this dude carried a movie about a guy stuck under a rock. That can't be an easy task for any actor. I love James Franco because he can do super serious roles, but can also be in movies like Pineapple Express and the upcoming Your Highness. Also, he is damn FINE!!! He is one good looking man. I am super excited for The Iceman, The Broken Tower, and most of all, Rise of the Apes. That is a movie that I probably would have seen no matter who was cast, but when I heard that James Franco was in it I became super excited! So, I'll be able to watch another Planet of the Apes movie, and also see his gorgeous, gorgeous face. Win win scenario....

12. Zooey Deschanel

Messing up my alphabetical order, but I just thought of her right now. I remember I was super excited when I was first reading about (500) Days of Summer. Both because I love Zooey Deschanel and because it seemed like a perfect movie for her. I was totally right. I'm really excited to see both Your Highness and My Idiot Brother, and it is really nice to see Zooey move up from best friend roles. She was pretty much the only good thing about Failure to Launch, which was a terrible movie. Shes also a singer in the band She & Him, and I love their video for Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? It is probably the cutest thing Zooey has ever done.

13. Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie is probably best known for being the most beautiful woman on the face of the planet, but she is also a very talented actress. Her performance as Lisa Roe in Girl, Interrupted is one of my favorite movie performances ever. She was amazing in movies like Changeling, which made me sob like crazy, and she is probably the only bankable female action star with her roles in the Tomb Raider movies and Salt. I was so bummed that she didn't get cast as Catwoman in Batman, but I'm looking forward to see her as Malefiscent and Cleopatra. I'm also still hoping that she'll be cast as Ava Lord in Sin City 2 if that ever gets made!

14. Keira Knightley

For the longest time I thought that the first Pirates of the Carribean movie was the first movie I saw her in. In actuality, it was Star Wars Episode I when she played Sabe, Queen Amidala's decoy. After Pirates came out though, I just LOVED her! I bought a bunch of her movies like Princess of Thieves and The Hole, and I was super excited when Doctor Zhivago finally was on television. Since then its been great to see what a great career she has had. I wish that Last Night would hurry up and get an American release date because I really want to see it! She is also going to be in A Dangerous Method with Michael Fassbender, and play Tinker Bell in a TV movie about Peter Pan. Should be cool!

15. Chloe Moretz

As far as child actors go, they don't get much better than Chloe Moretz. In the past couple years she has been in awesome movies like (500) Days of Summer, Kick-Ass, and Let Me In. Let Me In, which was a remake of the (better) Swedish film Let The Right One In, could have been terrible, but Chloe, along with costars Kodi Smit-McPhee and Richard Atkins really made it a great remake. She has a buttload of movies coming out in the next few years, but the one I'm really excited for is seeing Chloe Moretz play Emily The Strange. Could you have more perfect casting? I'm also excited for Kick-Ass 2 because she was awesome as Hit Girl, and really made that movie.

16. Gary Oldman

Just like Cate Blanchett, Gary Oldman is a great example of a chameleon. He has had some amazing roles. Dracula, Sid Vicious, Beethoven, Lee Harvey Oswald, Drexl Spivey, Mr. Zorg, Sirius Black, and Commissioner Gordon in Christopher Nolan's Batman series. I just love Gary Oldman. I even saw that terrible movie The Unborn just because he was in it. Oldman also has a million movies coming out, but I am really excited to see him in Red Riding Hood. I am probably going to see that in the next couple of days, so I'm pumped. I also can't wait for The Dark Knight Rises, which will probably be the last time we see him as Commissioner Gordon.

17. Guy Pearce

Guy Pearce is probably one of the most underrated actors working today. He is amazing in everything I've seen him in, especially The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Memento, L.A. Confidential, and Factory Girl. With Helena Bonham Carter, he was also one of the only reasons I wanted to see The King's Speech. Now I'm just waiting for Don't Be Afraid of the Dark to come out. It was supposed to come out two months ago, but now its been delayed until August. LAME! No worries though, because Mildred Pierce is premiering at the end of the month on HBO. I don't have HBO, but that is what the internet is for. I really loved the movie Mildred Pierce with Joan Crawford, so this'll either be really good or terrible.

18. Natalie Portman

Lets hope Chloe Moretz will have a career like Natalie Portman. Starting with a great career as a child actress, she grew up to be an Oscar winner. I have loved a good majority of Natalie's movies, and shes had two good ones come out in the past year. She was funny and charming in No Strings Attached, and was absolutely amazing in Black Swan. She has two more movies coming out this year, Thor and Your Highness and I intend on seeing both of them. Wow, the movies Your Highness has three people on my list, I guess I'm definitely going to have to see that one, even it it does look a little rediculous.

19. Sam Worthington

Like Fassbender, Sam Worthington is another actor who seemed to come out of nowhere and started getting all of these cool roles in movies like Terminator: Salvation, Avatar, and Clash of the Titans. While he does make a great action star, he is also a talented actor, which he shows in the movie Somersault with Abbie Cornish. He's worked with a few of the actresses on my list. He's worked with Cornish, with Helena Bonham Carter in Terminator: Salvation, and in the upcoming Last Night with Keira Knightley. Seriously, is that movie ever coming out in this country? Well, if it doesn't I still have sequels to Avatar and Clash of the Titans to look forward to.


So there you have it, the 19 actors that I would watch in anything. I could make it an even 20, but I don't feel like it.

My Review: Gnomeo and Juliet

I'm kind of half and half with this movie. While I thought that some parts were really cute, there were just as many parts that I found rather odd. I liked the beginning where the little gnome was explaining that this was a story that we've heard a million times (its the Romeo and Juliet story...with gnomes,) I liked all of the voice over performances, and I thought that the little bunnies and the tiny gnomes were cute. Having said that, I'll talk about some of the things I thought were a little off. For starters, there were references to films like Brokeback Mountain and American Beauty, which are good movies, but I thought that they were weird choices for a kiddie movie. Also, some parts just had a really strange tone to them. Like, for instance, the ending. *Spoiler alert* Gnomeo and Juliet have just been attacked by a killer lawnmower and everyone thinks they're dead and are all sad, and then we hear rocks move and see a little hand emerge. Everyone is excited because they think it's Gnomeo emerging from the rubble, but it's the gnome in the Borat bathing suit instead and he pops out and says "Its alright, I'm okay," or something like that. I thought that this was a weird spot to try to put in some comic relief, and I ended up literally saying outloud, "what the hell?" So, of course Gnomeo and Juliet both ended up being fine and they get their happily ever after. No surprise there.
While I'm sure that the animators who worked on this film wouldn't appreciate this very much, I spent a majority of the movie trying to figure out the voice actors. I already knew that James McAvoy and Emily Blunt voiced the title characters, so they don't count, but I figured out quite a few of them. Ozzy Osbourne as the deer was the most obvious one, and so was Michael Caine as Juliet's father. I also figured out Stephen Merchant's voice right away as the gnome with the glasses who was trying to woo Juliet. The one that took me a bit was Jason Statham as Tybalt. For a second I thought it was either Ray Winstone or Vinnie Jones, but I eventually figured out that it was Statham. I was getting so annoyed though because I couldn't for the life of me figure out who did the voice of Shakespeare's statue. I knew that I knew that voice, but I could not put face to voice for some reason. It was driving me crazy and I never figured it out...until, of course, I looked it up in IMdB after the movie was over. It was Patrick Stewart!!! How could I not figure that out??? Besides maybe Ozzy, he has the most distinctive voice out of the bunch, and I'm usually really good at remembering voices. Also I couldn't figure out Maggie Smith as Gnomeo's mom, but that one didn't bother me as much. My review: 5/10