Henry Fool & Fay Grim

8/10 for both. Too lazy to type out a review but amazing plot and acting. Good use of angles, especially in the sequel. They turned a story about a mysterious man and his influence on others, specifically on Simon, who he inspired to become a Nobel Prize winning poet, into a gripping tale of espionage in the sequel. Very interesting. Parker Posey is still cool. Oh and nice typography in the opening credits.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Loosely based on the novel, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is about a young girl named Konno Makoto who discovers the ability of time leaping. Rather than using it for anything significant or worldly she spends her time making her daily life what she wants it to be by going back in time to do such things like ace a quiz or eat the pudding her sister ate. Later she finds that her choices create a string of events and consequences. She receives advice from her aunt, Aunt Witch, that if she must be going back in time and is happy that there must be someone else that is suffering and this theme sort of plays throughout.

Like any other movie on time travel I was left with questions and analyzing what I thought were loopholes and inconsistencies. In the end, I just decided to let it be what it is, and that is a great movie. It intertwines excitement, comedy, romance, and most importantly, science. It's like the geeky love story of the 21st century. Fortunately, the love story was not sappy at all. It was very raw, delightful, and hopeful. One blatant message to take away from this movie is: Time waits for no one.

They are starting to show this movie in theaters in the US so I recommend catching it if it comes to your area. The animation is amazing. Simplistic people moving in detailed backgrounds.

SATC

Am I just jaded or bitter or was this movie corny and a tad bit idealistic? Come on, Carrie! And the whole idea of being in New York to find love?? I'd hope women have more to talk about. But, maybe it's because I'm in my 20's and the characters in SATC are 40+ and have already established their careers, gone through all the bad relationships, and their biological clocks are ticking. Okay, when I look at it from their POV, I'd want to settle down at 40+ too. 40 is the new 25.

Anyway, it's a perfect GNO movie. There are moments where you want to find the nearest guy and hit him, moments you want to find the nearest girl and hit her, and then "aw" moments that make you feel a tad bit hopeful about love. But the moral of the story is, in the end, you gotta have your girls. Sappy but true.

Oh and the clothes were AMAZING. Everything from headpiece to bag to shoes. I would watch it again just to see what they were wearing. Ahhh that Christian Lacroix!! And that Vivienne Westwood!! Sigh. They seriously got hooked up.

PAPRIKA

based on a novel by yasutaka tsutsui (1993). visually insane. story about a device that allows psychoanalysts to enter your dreams. however, a "terrorist" steals the device and blurs the lines between dream and reality.

animation is amazing. i give it a B for concept and execution. they raise the question of whether or not technology is always the best solution for humanity. and the scientists are for the device, but even with all the trouble it caused by it getting into the hands of someone with different motives, it wasn't clear if they still wanted it. unlike in ironman where tony stark totally did a 180 and decided that those weapons were bad and he wanted to be a hero. but i guess paprika's look on it was more realistic. we cannot deny technology. it isn't so cut and dry on what is moral and humane. and the person who ends up stealing the device and causing all the trouble is pretty inconsistent between his reasons and actions.

time to find a translated version of the book.

iron man

i liked it. i love tony stark's persona and demeanor. it's very sexy :] i don't know anything about the comic so i have nothing to compare it to but, regardless, it was funny and it was entertaining. okay, i pretty much just enjoyed staring at robert downey, jr.

Movies

I watched three movies this week. Each very different.

1. The King of Kong
Summary: A documentary about a no-name in the Classic Arcade Game realm, Steve Weibe, who attempts to become the Donkey Kong champion over veteran, Billy Mitchell. It's just the back and forth drama between both sides and Steve's hardships trying to get to the top.

Entertaining. A little slow at first. But, once it picks up it's very addicting. They turn this rather pointless situation into a classic good vs. evil plot with Billy Mitchell as the villian. If you watch this, make sure to read up on the latest scores that came out after this movie was made.








2. The Jane Austen Book Club
Summary: 5 women and 1 man get together every month to discuss 1 out of their 6 Jane Austen novels (Emma, Mansfield Park, something Abbey, Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, & Persuasion). And throughout each month, it follows all their different problems with love and relationships.

Maybe I would have liked this movie more if I could connect their stories w/ Jane Austen characters. But, seeing as how I didn't read any of her books, I couldn't do that. However, they do blatantly point it out for people like me, who have never really experienced Jane Austen. Maybe the book is better. It's just hard to really connect to 6 different stories in like 2 hours. There's just not enough time. So, everything felt a little superficial. The one thing I did take from it is that relationships take risk and the ability to sacrifice a little of your comfort zone for the other person.



3. Persepolis
Summary: The autobiography of Marjane Satrapi... based from her comics. A little Iranian girl, born in the 70's, and all the different political changes through the decades. It's mainly about the downfall of the shah, the uprising of the Islamic Republic, and how it affected her life. Animation in French.

I woke up at 3am, realized I had finished dling it, and watched it. Thankfully, it was good enough to keep me up. I never really knew the history of Iran. And it's interesting to see it from a perspective of a woman who grew up during different periods of oppression (depending on how you look at it). The animation was amazing. The drawings are so simple yet very intense.

the orphanage

not directed by guillermo del toro like i thought... only "presented by" & 1 of the producers. well, that's fine... the only movie of his i liked was pan's labyrinth and that's not saying much. and WHY is there a hellboy 2????

this movie had me on the edge of my seat 90% of the time. then it just got too corny and predictable. i was anticipating the twist and when it came, i wasn't even surprised.

at least the others ended in an appropriate tone. this was just all out corny... especially with the music.

i thought this movie was going to scare me... but it reminded me too much of the haunting, especially with the whole thing w/ the children... the poor children!! i'd say the scariest part was with the kid wearing the burlap sack for a face.

i dunno... maybe i was just expecting too much, but this wasn't my idea of a good horror movie. this storyline is played out and the twist was almost anti-climactic.

interview

just saw this movie over the weekend.

2 people: both arrogant, stubborn, and a little crazy have relationship problems. the whole movie is an

interview between pierre (steve buscemi), a journalist used to doing political pieces, and katya (sienna miller), a popular soap star.

it's really interesting to see how things progress in this movie and the twists. i think it's mainly about trust issues and to see that two people who both think they are better than the other are actually more alike than they thought.

i must watch the original: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0360674/

cloverfield

it is not "blair witch meets something". just because they're carrying around a home video camera does not make it blair witch. if anything, it's just a mockumentary... a cool twist to the whole monster genre.

you know, it wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be. i was curious enough to watch it because i really wanted to see what the monster looked like. and i actually had my jaw dropped and was propped up in my seat a good amount of times waiting to see what was coming next. and it was good they added some humor and some stupidity to lighten the mood.

i felt like it really pulled me in... it wasn't just another lame giant monster ravaging the city like godzilla. i could feel the urgency and the fear... the fear that they didn't know what the hell that thing was.

the only thing that bugged me was the immortality of that goddamn video camera... and the ads. sephora. nokia. pepsi. see it worked... i remember that and i don't even remember one of the girls names.

*WOH WOH WOH* the monster babies sound like animal from muppet babies.

THE LOOKOUT

chris pratt (jason gordon-levitt) is this guy who has this amazing life in high school but everything changes when he gets into a car accident killing his 2 friends and leaving him w/ a major head injury.

i don't really know if the point of this movie is to show that you can overcome your "disabilities" because he ends up getting special treatment anyway for having brain damage.

entertaining. nothing really profound or novel... just a decent thriller from the point of view of a "gimp" as Louis puts it (his blind roommate [Jeff Daniels]).

HELVETICA

a documentary on the history and influence of helvetica on modernism and design. this sans sarif typeface went from being a driving force of swedish typography and the start of modern design to a symbol of conformity and corporate life.

those who liked it embraced its simplicity. those who despised it were moved to create their own typefaces and help change the face of design.

helvetica is overused and is on the face of everything. but, ultimately the film showed that helvetica, when used properly, can still be a beautiful typeface.

i thought this film was going to be more about helvetica vs. arial but i'm glad it wasn't. this is a very good film for anyone interested in typography and fonts.

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL

27-year-old Lars (Ryan Gosling) buys a sex doll (NOT to have sex with) off the internet and pretends that she is his new girlfriend, Bianca, from Brazil. His brother and sister-in-law freak out and enlist the help of the family doctor. Soon after, the entire town goes along with it and acts like she is real to support his delusion.

Bianca was his coping mechanism because his mom died when he was born and his dad took care of him and his brother but he was depressed the entire time from a broken heart and died a few years ago. Also, there's this girl he likes that is constantly advancing on him but he's scared and his brother and sister-in-law are expecting a baby and he thinks she's also going to have complications like his mother.

Basically, he used the doll to get over his fear of being around people and getting close to people. The movie had its funny moments, but I don't know why this was categorized as a comedy because... it was just depressing. It's really sweet that the whole town treats Bianca as if she is real because that they care about him THAT much. The great thing about this movie was the script & acting. Everything said was something important to reveal a little bit about Lars and why he was doing what he was doing. Sometimes you just can't find movies like that, especially with all these action films with crappy one-liners. Anyways...it was slow in the beginning, but I managed to stay awake (unlike someone... hahaha). MOVIE CLIP

I want to watch Noah Baumach's ("The Squid & The Whale") new movie Margot at the Wedding, featuring Nicole Kidman and Jack Black. Another movie about family problems.

And we ate at the original Fenton's. Ice cream was SOOOO good... burger was okay and service kind of sucked. Also, the petite ice cream dish that comes with crunchy cookies DOES NOT come with crispy, hot from-the-oven cookies. It came with 2 tiny ass Mother's cookies... from the bag! That's what I'm guessing. Are they called Mother's cookies?? Their ice cream is so good but some of their menu is really cheapo like you have to pay an extra $1.50 just to split meals. This woman's stroller accidentally fell onto the back of this other woman's chair. The family QUICKLY removed the stroller and said sorry because the other woman was PISSED. She didn't even say anything like, "oh it's okay". She just stared at them with a disgusted look and turned around. HAHA... and then later, as we were walking out, I accidentally walked into the chair of a boy sitting at her table. They probably were pissed again, but I didn't care to look back... I just said "oops" as I walked by.

A NEW WAVE

Andrew Keegan used to be so cute in the '90s but when he grew up, he forgot to bring his acting skills with him, if he even had any. I watched A New Wave because Jim (John Krasinki) and Lacey Chabert are in it. But damn, so much bad acting and so poorly made. I fell asleep so I don't really know what happens.

I'm going to 24hr Fitness soon to meet with my personal trainer for the first time. Kind of nervous because I don't want to be worked too hard because I'm tired as hell. But, it's what my parents paid for so I better make the most of it.

Where are you Darker than Black Ep. 22?!

I'm trying to watch other animes but nothing has been that great. So far, here are my ratings:
Samurai Champloo - 8/10 (love the style & it's hilarious)
Death Note - 8/10 (probably the best thriller)
Bleach - 7/10 (funny & lots of action)
Naruto - 5.5/10 (Shippuden episodes bring it down)
Darker than Black - 7/10 (it has its moments)
Witchblade - 4/10 (pretty freakin' boring.. probably only catches people's attention because of the major boobage)
Devil May Cry - 5/10 (game turned into anime can't get too exciting)

Time to go.

Sunshine

Directed by Daniel Boyle and written by Alex Garland (28 Days Later & The Beach)..

has all the elements of a good science fiction. 8 astronauts go to the sun in order to try and reignite it by basically creating a new star within a star. there's a lot of references about god and existence. don't mean to be a spoiler but the death scenes are beautiful. there seems to be this common theme in all their movies about what people will do in order to survive. and it's interesting to see it portrayed in diff ways, first on the beach, then w/ zombies, and now in outer space. john murphy did the score again w/ underworld. the movie was a little slow at times but once everything starts rolling it doesn't stop.

sigh cillian murphy :] has such beautiful eyes.

UPDATE: summer school ends this week. then i have one week off before more school starts again:[ i have so much stuff to do but instead i'm blogging and watching movies :[

BRICK

A modern take on film noir with 1930s style dialogue about suburban high schoolers caught up in drugs, lust, and violence. Good eye-candy, interesting plot, but very cookie cutter film/writing techniques as far as trying to mimic a certain style. Without that style, the movie would fall flat. But luckily, the way it was directed, it wasn't just another high school druggie movie with a lot of sex and barely any substance in dialogue. It really reminded me of old detective movies where the detective meets a woman he can't trust, slyly mingles his way into the situation, and then gives a quirky but dramatic synopsis of what exactly happened in the murder. This won the visual... something... (originality?) award at Sundance. With all its well-thought out use of camera angles and light, something that I don't think a lot of movies put a lot of reason behind these daysother than to make things look cool (ie. Running Scared), I can see why it won... but original? Everything has been done before.

Before Sunrise, Before Sunset

So far I've pretty much enjoyed Richard Linklater's movies: Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly. So I decided to rent his two love stories: Before Sunrise & Before Sunset (Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy). When I watch a movie I want it to be outside the realm of reality, for the most part. These two movies could've basically been done by filming two strangers meeting and watching how they connect. The story is simple: two people meet on a train and spend a night together then in Before Sunset it's 9 years later and they bump into one another again. It's so realistic that it was just dialogue the whole time between the two characters. It's basically what would happen if you started a conversation with someone, hit it off, but realized you live in two different countries.

I think the concept was interesting but why should I watch this movie when I can see it or experience it for myself. It basically seemed like a waste of time. However, I like the point they bring up in Before Sunset: are you a romantic or a cynic depending on whether or not you thought they would end up meeting 6 months after their first night together like they had promised? And it comes up again at the end: are you hopeful for love and think he stays or does he go? Another interesting thing after seeing them only a day apart is seeing how much they really aged in 9 years. It really makes you feel like this is real, these people grew older.

All in all, if you can put up with over an hour of constant philosophical talking and complaining then watch this movie.

Lucky Number Slevin vs. Running Scared

So when I told my friends I just watched Lucky Number Slevin they said that Running Scared was better and that it was almost the same thing. After watching both... they are NOT the same thing. Lucky Number Slevin is all about the "Kansas City Shuffle" and has an interesting twist that even though you figure it out before the end, it's still cool to see it play out and to see the scenes that were omitted the first time around. Then you're like.. Ohhhh so that's why that happened.

Running Scared is a seizure waiting to happen with the CSI type theatrics (ie. slow motion bullets, rapid cuts, and super saturation). The ending was a little too happy for my liking. They should've cut the last 10 minutes out. And when you find out about the twist it's like... Interesting... but how does this even change my perspective of the story.. unlike in Lucky Number Slevin. Plus, Paul Walker annoys me. The movie reminded me of what Grand Theft Auto 3 would be like if it were a motion picture with all the racial gangs and crazy shootings.

28 Days vs. 28 Weeks Later

I ended up watching the sequel first because I figured it wouldn't matter.

Some cool things about 28 Weeks Later:
1. the theme song - In The House, In a Heartbeat
2. the zombie killings
3. the constant running and not knowing when a zombie would pop up

Some not so cool things about 28 Weeks Later:
1. the headache that was the cinematography
2. the superficial plot
3. the lack of zombie action

Some cool things about 28 Days Later:
1. the more in depth story .. the connection between zombies, survival, and society
2. the music
3. watching it didn't give me a headache
4. cooler zombie scares
5. Cillian Murphy

Some not so cool things about 28 Days Later:
... haven't come up with any yet.

Both have good zombie frights but if you're looking for something more, a better plot, watch the first one. The way they showed the soldiers and survivors to behave in a state of panic, fear, and on the edge of death was amazing because it connected people to zombies. They showed how when people are put in a certain situation they'd do anything to survive which is what zombies do. They eat flesh to survive and do anything to get it. And I like the contrast they do in the two main characters, Jim and Selena. Selena would leave anyone behind in order to survive, and Jim wouldn't. Jim is the exception to show there is a human element that seperates them from the zombies.

Zombies are freakin cool.

PS. Just got the 28 Days Later Soundtrack... John Murphy is amaaaaaazing. Brian Eno did a track, too. Too bad the Godspeed You Black Emperor song isn't on there. Still good.

Marie Antoinette & The Holiday

Marie Antoinette

Aesthetically pleasing, modern portrayal of Marie Antoinette from Austrian to Dauphine to Queen. Music, clothes, wigs, make-up were amazing. Shows her 7 year hardship of trying to consummate her marriage, her love for extravagance and rebellion against French royalty rules, her love affair, and then her fall. It didn't go into the later part of her life with the treason and the guillotine but still good. Jason Shwartzman and Kirsten Dunst really do a good job of showing their immaturity, fear, and then comfort with one another. And damn the dresses were amazing!

The Holiday

A typical, holiday chick flick. It's like they NEEDED the all-star lineup in order to sell this movie, because without the names I don't think it would've made any money. It was totally corny and Cameron Diaz can't act. I expected more out of Kate Winslet and Jack Black's relationship but it was more about the other two. It's basically about two women who got dicked by their men and try to escape only to find something better. How lucky are they that they learn to get over someone and find someone new within two weeks. HA! I kind of wish I just downloaded it instead of dishing out however many dollars at Blockbuster.

ATHF & Hot Fuzz

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters

Seeing Frylock, Shake, Meatwad, the whole shabang on the big screen was surreal. It had all the typical random, offensive, silly jokes that made me fall in love with the TV series. It's basically about them trying to destroy the Insanoflex, an insane workout machine, and figure out where they came from. I don't really know what else to say other than... "STAAAAAAAR!"

Hot Fuzz

If you liked Shaun of the Dead and hate Hollywood action flicks, you'll love this movie. From beginning to end, the way they mock our cop movies is hilarious and so true. If you've seen Bad Boys you'll understand. I think I enjoyed this one more because it reinforced my hatred for all those CSI-type shows and movies like S.W.A.T.

QT with the mom

I decided to go out with my mom and my grandpa and this is what she wanted to watch. The amusing part was watching the 80's music video and their mockery of pop stars. The not so amusing part was the acting. Drew Barrymore is cool and all but she cannot act. Her trying to seem upset and sad is not believable at all. It's just a typical feel-good movie. Something cute to watch when it gets aired on TBS as you're falling asleep.

Another amusing part was hearing a lady behind me get scolded for talking on the phone by 2 other women sitting by her.

At least it wasn't so bad that I had to get a refund for my tickets like with THE HITCHER! Seems like a lot of horror movies these days are just an advertisement for bad rock music & short skirts.

For dinner we ate at Sushi Tandy because my mom got a coupon and everything was really cheap: obento dinner for less than $8. After eating there I understand why it was so cheap. The vegetables in the salad tasted old. They skimped out on the meat portions. The gyoza was overfried and had a bitter taste from some unknown green vegetable. The good part was the tempura, but when can you ever really screw that up? So if you're on N. Texas in Fairfield, I wouldn't recommend eating there.

Sushi Tandy
Fairfield, CA

Price Range: Obento (3 choices) - lunch around $5, dinner around $8; sushi as low as $3-4
Service: friendly
Food quality: not amazing; I'd rather pay up the extra few dollars for more quality food
Environment: seats were uncomfortable; I felt like I was too far from my table & it made it hard to eat; also pretty tiny & in a ratty shopping area of N. Texas
Rating: 2