A-to-Z Challenge (2015 edition): E is for Elizabethtown

A-TO-Z CHALLENGE:

DAY FIVE

For the letter E I chose to watch Elizabethtown.

And tbh I chose this movie to stare at Orlando Bloom. I missed him since December (the final Hobbit film). So far this has been my longest movie, and considering I kept pausing to do things like, umm, laundry and take a nap, it felt like several days had passed before I reached the conclusion.

The movie starts off really scary because Bloom's character wants to kill himself, and it explores a bunch of themes about life and death, and regret about choices made during life and living towards your death and yadda yadda. It wasn't bad, at least not as terrible as The Good Girl. That one nearly killed me with boredom (and even Jake Gyllenhaal couldn't save it).

It's like I said, I felt all 2 hours of Elizabethtown.

I did like the speech the mother gave at the memorial. It did make me cry. Yup.

Other notes:
1) Kirsten Dunst's character was kind of annoying. But I suppose I'd rather be locked in a room with her pep than with Bloom's depressive thoughtfulness any day.
2) Never really figured out if Dunst's boyfriend was make believe in the movie, and...
3) does a shoe launch really cost something in the billion range?

CAMPNANO (APRIL 2015) UPDATE #1: Beginnings, doubts, loneliness...welcome to Camp.

CAMPNANO (APRIL 2015):

VLOG UPDATE #1

Quick update on my Camp NaNo journey this April.

Not as much "umms" and "ahhs" in this video, but I seriously need to work on my breathing.

Anyways, a promise is a promise and I mean to keep vlogging as promised for the rest of the month. One vlog every Sunday during the scheduled breaks of the A-to-Z challenge.

A-to-Z Challenge (2015 edition): D is for Dream House

A-TO-Z CHALLENGE:

DAY FOUR

Dream House was not my initial choice for the A-to-Z's Day Four topic. But Daniel Craig was in it, and I got to see him shirtless, so it wasn't all that bad.

Still this movie was all over the place. I went in expecting a paranormal/psychological thriller because, well, there was the family moves into a new house opening and it sort of set me up for it. Yet after the first 20 minutes, I figured it was more of a crime/suspense type film a la Orphan.

In the end it turned out to be a bit of both. I really didn't mind it but the ending did feel rushed. The twist was fun, but it didn't exactly explain why Nicole Kidman's character was there. She didn't really have a very interesting role. She was just...there.

Everything felt convoluted. It made me cry, sure, and I didn't walk away feeling like I wasted an hour and a half. Still I thought it could have done better. The action could have been more heart-pounding, the antagonist's motive more frightening and twisted, and the causalities could have been more gut-wrenching.

This film cover was scarier and so much more promising with the fear factor.

So not scary, but it could definitely scratch a movie itch. :)

BOOK REVIEW (32): Finding Hope (A Missing Peace #2)

BOOK REVIEW:

Finding Hope

I haven’t read any YA this year, so far. I mostly stuck to romance, staring adult characters and, in some cases, more adult themes…not that YA can’t get a racy. It can. I just don’t necessarily expect erotic levels or super descriptive sex scenes from more mainstream titles.

And I didn’t get crazy sex scenes or anything over-the-top from Beth Fred’s Finding Hope, but I did get a really fantastic story and amazing characters. Abrahem/Abe was portrayed realistic. I mean I didn’t expect this guy to fawn over Kailee, but he was also a red-blooded young adult who wasn’t oblivious to his desires… So where he was the level-headed one at first, Kailee was so messed up but honest and innocent it was pretty sweet!

I LOVED Kailee. I don’t even care how she was probably portrayed in Book 1 when Miriam, Abe’s sister and Kailee’s sorta nemesis. Like I said she was a mess. A drunken, crying mess when Abe first meets her. Her racist slurs initially put me on edge, but Abe slurred as well and though I was uncomfortable, their characters arcs polished their racial slips as they began to understand the damage race and culture and geography can cause when handled without more knowledge. I mean every time Abe had to explain that he wasn't a "raghead"/Muslim made me shake my head, half in amused annoyance and exasperation for the poor guy. Who goes around assuming someone is part of a religion? That's just...wrong. Asking mostly never hurts. Isn't that why Canada, the U.S. and some parts of Europe are toted for their freedom of speech?

I’m blabbing but my point is Abe and Kailee are kids who begin to nurture a relationship around a pre-established linguistic approach to the racial changes occurring in their Texan town. My appreciation for our right to freedom of speech aside it was hard for me to read those parts, but it’s also just as hard for me to listen to kids (and some seriously uneducated adults) call each other the “N” word on the bus.

So I liked the story. It wasn’t even the mystery subplot, per say, although I hadn’t been able to figure it out and my guesses were actually duds (spoilery hint: I thought Carissa, Kailee and Jackson’s mother had something to do with it and that Jackson used her name for the password). It could have just been a contemp romance and I would have eaten it up.

In Finding Hope Beth Fred writes believable characters that easily outshine the plot. The dialogue, character motives and the reactions didn’t always sit well with me, but it got me thinking that the fluffiest dialogue and characterization doesn’t always tell it straight even if it makes it all pleasant to read.

True Kailee and Abe are both a little rough around the edges, and there are other main characters who’d said and did things I had seriously questioned… Yet the world’s a whacky place and I would have hated the novel to be told through a pair of rose-tinted glasses given the tone that was set from the start.

Yes, the conclusion to Finding Hope was a bit cheesy, but after the up and down roller coaster Kailee and Abe had I loved the time skip epilogues. Admittedly I swooned when Abe gave Kailee all those marked up list of schools he’d researched, marking the ones that had a biology degree for him and a fashion-related program for her. What a dream boat.

SO I read this series out of order. I’m going to have to go back to Caleb and Miriam’s story in Book 1. If anything I think it has softened me up for Miriam and Caleb who were a bit abrasive in this second book. Also I’ll be more than happy to read a bit more about Kailee and Abe, even if they aren’t together in this first one yet…

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮✮

(5 stars)

A-to-Z Challenge (2015 edition): C is for Crank + Crank High Voltage

A-TO-Z CHALLENGE:

DAY THREE

I've been wanting to watch this next movie for...well, since it first released in 2006. I love a good action thriller--though personally I could always do less with the crime and the gratuitous violence that comes along with the underworld. But criminal activities sort of goes hand-in-hand with the action.

Crank and its sequel, Crank High Voltage were even crazier than I expected. I mean I'd argue that my heart was racing quicker than Chev Chelios' during most of the movie. The funniest thing is I didn't care about anyone but Chev. I didn't care for his gf, Eve, the doctor guy who helps him out, the trans/porn star or the passersby who were offed and/or injured during the chases.

Look at this crazy guy...

Seriously. And normally this would be result in a bad review, but in this case I figure that it's difficult not to root for Chev. The guy is one badass antihero. I didn't know whether to love him or hate him because he kept me entertained for 2 films totaling ~3 hours. I didn't even mind the cliffy endings to the two movies, and usually I do. I'd like some closure, but I don't think any HEA or HFN would have worked in Chev's life.

It was all go-go-go throughout, can you imagine him stopping to marry Eve or something?
Yeah no.

The only thing I cringed through were some of the weirder torture scenes. I don't really want to stick around and watch some guy cut off his nipples. (Yes, I cringe my way through GoT.) So this movie is definitely more violent and sexual than Triple X/XXX, but I drooled over Jason Statham as much as I do Vin Diesel (I guess I'll have to watch Furious 7 now for Day Six).

A-to-Z Challenge (2015 edition): B is for Behaving Badly

A-TO-Z CHALLENGE:

DAY TWO

I pulled double-movie duty yesterday with Aladdin and now with today's Day Two movie, Behaving Badly*. I figured that I should probably watch these movies the night before so that I can sleep on them... So that's my new plan of approach.

But Behaving Badly was an all right movie. I sorta went into it not expecting much. I mean I expected exaggerated shows of "teen stupidity", a nerdy/incompetent best friend, some sort of crazy plot that includes criminal activity, and the unattainable girl for the plain male protagonist.

I got all that and I'm also fine with it. It was sorta annoying, but I didn't exactly feel like I was wasting 90ish minutes of my life. And that's always a good thing.

The actors were all right. I was surprised to see Ashley Rickards playing a porn star. Since I'm in the middle of playing catch up with her TV series, Awkward it was pretty weird seeing her in a dramatically different role. Weird, but still cool because she worked the stereotypical absentminded stripper...

I didn't get the whole saint thing either. I mean, were the saints invisible? Or just crazy ladies helping underage males? Was I supposed to read an Oedipus complex into the situation?

I don't know, but I do know my head's hurting now...

My favourite character was Karlis Malinauskas, the son of a Lithuanian crime boss.

The creepy one in the back. That guy.

Very funny, very strange character who acts as the catalyst for the hero's crazy adventure in the film.

Overall, not a bad movie, not a great movie it was just so-so for me. But I do have a feeling I'm going to avoid teen movies for a bit before I become too cynical...

*FUN FACT: this movie is based off Ric Browde's autobiography, While I'm Dead Feed the Dog. Makes me really curious as to how much of this story is really nonfiction. Mhmm...

A-to-Z Challenge (2015 edition): A is for Aladdin

A-TO-Z CHALLENGE:

DAY ONE

Last year I missed out on the A TO Z Challenge because I found out about it halfway through April--so WAY too late to join. But this year I had planned to join up, only without a clue as to what to actually make my theme for my first ever Challenge.

I know you can sorta freestyle these posts (so long as Day 1 corresponds to a topic starting with A, Day 2 with B and so on...) but I really like to keep things organized, or at least as organized as I can keep them.

In the end I chose a movie theme, because I figured I might as well watch movies and have fun reviewing them. WARNING: my reviews will be short and amateurish. I'll just give it a rating and explain why or why I don't like it.

Keeping this post short, I chose Disney's Aladdin for Day One.

I've never watched the movie and I bought it last year on a whim, only to finally get around to it and watch it. :) See? Already something good coming out of this challenge.

I liked Aladdin.  The music, the plot, and the characters were interesting. I love Disney songs--I don't really think they can ever go wrong there. And the plot had an appropriate pace, didn't really slog through randomness, and I actually enjoyed the conclusion--mostly cause I didn't see it coming. And the characters, well, what was there not to love with the Magic Carpet and the Genie... Robin Williams is still making me smile from beyond.