Thanksgiving Weekend Viewing Part 2

I am back on bathroom monitor duty (otherwise known as manning the Nonfiction Reference desk) so I thought I would share with you the other DVD I watched this weekend.  This is the one with the Twilight connection.

Yes, I watched How to Be, starring my beloved Robert Pattinson.  I actually bought this DVD right before Thanksgiving.  I had heard good things about it and I want to make sure his career goes on for a while. 

How to Be tells the story of Art (played by Pattinson).  In his early 20's, Art just broke up with his girlfriend and has to move back in with his parents.  His parents aren't the most pleasant people.  Art works at a dead end job at a grocery store and volunteers at a local community center.  He desires to be a musician but is really bad at it.  Since he feels like he is having a quarter life crisis, he goes to the local book store and picks up a self help book.  He becomes so intrigued by the book that he takes all his money and hires the author to come be his life coach.  The author moves in with Art and his family and the rest of the movie deals with what happens.

At first, I was a little worried about whether or not I would like this movie.  From the preview I had seen, I thought it looked a little goofy.  I was wrong.  I found this film to be quite charming.  It was nice to see Rob in another role beside "Edward".  He does goofy really well.  There is quite a bit of talking in the movie so if you are into action, you probably won't like this movie.  There is also a lot of British humor so if you don't appreciate that, you probably won't like it either.  But if those things don't bother you, I would highly recommend How to Be.

Thanksgiving Weekend viewing part 1

I, like most people, had a very busy Thanksgiving weekend.  I had food to eat, bargains to find and Christmas decorations to get out.  In the middle of all this craziness, I did find time to watch 2 movies.  And neither of them had to do with the Twilight Saga.  Well, actually one of them had a connection to the Twilight Saga but we will get to that one later.

The first DVD I watched was the new Star Trek movie.  I have seen the majority of the Star Trek films that are out.  When I orginally heard about this prequel I was very excited about it.  I didn't get around to seeing it in the theaters so I had to wait for the DVD. 

This Star Trek movie tells the beginnings of the Starship Enterprise and all of the characters from the original series.  The film makers did a brilliant job casting these actors.  You could really believe they were the younger versions of the characters we have come to love.  It is absolutely eerie how much Zachary Quinto, the actor who plays Spock,  looks like Leonard Nemoy.  They could be father and son.

I enjoyed this movie a lot.  The plot was a little confusing, but I can't really say I understood any plot of a Star Trek film.  It didn't take away from the film at all.  I am a big fan of J. J . Abrams who directed this film.  He did a wonderful job.  The action was great.  I really wish I had seen it on the big screen.  I bet it was really cool.  I am eagerly hoping they will make a sequel to this film.  I would definately go see that one.

Opening 11/25/09

Thanksgiving is upon us.  Most people have the weekend off.  I do.  How did I manage that?  Don't know.  But I will not complain.  If you plan on going to movies and seeing something that isn't New Moon, the following movies are starting this weekend:

1.  Fantastic Mr. Fox - (Rated PG)  This is based on the children's book by Roald Dahl.  It tells the story of a reformed chicken thief "Mr. Fox" who returns to his former life of crime.  This movie basically sounds like an animated version of Ocean's 11, which is not a bad thing as I loved the Ocean's movies.  If you are going to do an animated Ocean's 11 movie, who better to cast as the voice of Mr. Fox than George Clooney himself.  Meryl Streep voice's his wife.  I saw a preview for this in the theater and it looks really good.  I may have to catch this.

2.  Ninja Assassin (Rated R) - Not entirely sure what this one is about.  But since it's about Ninja's, I think I will pass.  (This from the person who likes vampire and werewolf movies).

3.  Old Dogs (Rated PG) - Robin Williams and John Travolta play bachelors who have to take care of twins.  This one sounds like 3 Men and a Baby.  The movie is directed by Walt Becker who also directed Wild Hogs.  I loved Wild Hogs.  This movie has some potential but I may wait until I buy it on DVD for the library.






That is what is opening this weekend.  I hope everybody has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

New Moon

Friday night was a wonderful night.  I got to see New Moon.  It's been a long time since I have seen a movie on opening night.  Being a huge Twilight fan myself, I should have expected what I encountered.  It was nuts.  My 2 best friends and I went to the 6:20 showing.  I knew in advance it was sold out so we decided to meet at the theater at 5:30.  It's a wonder we found each other due to all the cars that were in the parking lot.  We did and we entered in the theater and were promptly "hearded" into our holding area.  I have never felt so much like cattle in my life.  I was pleased that when we finally made our way into the theater that we got on the back row (which is my favorite part of the theater).  I was really scared that we were going to have to sit on the front row and I wasn't really wanting to experience werewolves quite that close.  I only do the front row for buffalo.  

After my friends went to get our cokes (I had them sign the bank loan required to pay for the cokes for me as I saved the seats) the movie started.   I wasn't sure what to expect.  I had seen the numerous trailors several hundred times and it did look very good.  But out of the 4 Twilight books, New Moon wasn't really my favorite.  New Moon picks up where Twilight left off.  Bella and Edward are together and we find Bella is approaching her 18th birthday.  Knowing her 17 year old vampire boyfriend isn't going age, Bella isn't too eager to age.  She would rather be a vampire and Edward doesn't want to destroy her soul.  The Cullens do have a birthday party for her and since I don't want to give away too much of the plot, let's just say it doesn't end well. 

Because of the ill fated birthday party, Edward decides to leave.  This sends Bella into a deep depression.  She discovers that she can "see" Edward if she does dangerous things.  She gets some motorcycles that need fixed up and takes them to her best friend Jacob who is a mechanic.   She starts hanging with him and discovers she starts to feel better.  But like everybody in the series, he has a secret too.  He is a werewolf.  I did learn a interesting fact.  Werewolves run around without their shirts on.  And they look REALLY good without them.  This fact was not lost on a majority of the audience as they applauded EVERY time a werewolf came on the screen (this included the person I was sitting beside as well).  

Bella eventually does something really stupid and it gets back to the Cullens that Bella kills herself.  Because he can't live in a world where Bella doesn't exist and he is kinda hard to kill, Edward goes to Italy to visit the Voulturi coven to get them to kill him.  The Voulturi are the "ruling" coven over all the vampires.   The Voultri are really creepy looking.  I am surprised I didn't have nightmares of Dakota Fanning.   She was especially creepy looking.  Alice and Bella rush to Italy to save him.    Bella and Edward are reunited, a big fight happens, and to avoid being killed by the Voulturi, Bella needs to be turned into a vampire.  That's pretty much the story.

Did I like the movie?  Yes I did.  It followed the book pretty faithfully.  I thought the cinematography was beautiful.  It was much better than Twilight.  Everything in Twilight had a blue tint to it.  New Moon was much warmer, which probably had a lot to do with the werewolf theme (I'm just saying).  Chris Weitz did a great job directing.  I hope he comes back to direct Breaking Dawn.  I have read other reviews on the internet that said the middle part dragged (which really did in the book) but I didn't think this movie dragged at all.  I thought Kristen Stewart was wonderful as Bella.  She did Bella's depression very well.  I wasn't a big fan of Jacob, but I really liked him in the movie.  I am glad they didn't replace Taylor Lautner like they were talking about.  He was really good.  And I know this is a given, but I really thought Robert Pattinson did a good job.  I almost passed out at the scene where he quotes Shakespeare.  A lot of people were put off that he wasn't as much.  I was glad he wasn't because that would have deviated from the book and that would have bothered me. (I am a librarian you know).  And I thought the very ending of the movie was brilliant.  (I am not sure my friends thought so but oh well).  It definately makes you want to see Eclipse.

The only part I was disappointed with was I thought Bella and Edward's reunion was a bit rushed.  There was a lot of stuff in the book that they left out that would have been really good. 

Was New Moon predictable?  Yes  Will it win a Oscar?  Probably not.  Was I entertained?  Oh Yes.  When I go to the movies, that is what I am going for and I truly got it with this one.  I was so entertained that  I plan to go back tomorrow and see it with my Mom (a Team Jacob member).

My friends and I decided that we would not go see Eclipse on opening night.  We will give it a couple of days.

Duplicity

Today, I hung out at my Mom's house.  We started our afternoon watching Twilight.  My mom had recently purchased the DVD and we had to make sure the dvd was ok. (It was her 3rd viewing of the film, I have lost count on how many times I have seen it.  Let's just say, I can quote dialogue)  The DVD was fine and after we were done, we had some more time to kill before church so we decided to watch the movie Duplicity.

Duplicity stars Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.  I enjoy both of these actors.  In this movie, I think they were playing corporate spys.  I stress "I think" because it took me over half the movie to figure this out.  And even after seeing the entire film, I am not totally sure that was the case.  The plot was extremely hard to follow.  I am usually ok with complex plots if it all comes together in the end.  This didn't happen for me in this film.  I am not sure if it was the script or the editing that was the problem.  Either way, you really had to think to figure out what was going on.  When I watch a movie, I don't want to think that hard, I want to be entertained.  And entertained, I was not.   I guess I will have to wait patiently for New Moon to come out in the theaters.

Opening in Theaters 11/6/09

I am going on vacation next week and don't really have anything specific planned to do.  So I thought it would be a good time to get back to my "Opening in Theaters" posts to see what is coming out in theaters next week.

1.  The Box - (rated PG-13).  A couple (played by Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) received a "box" (thus the title) from a creepy old guy (played by Frank Langella).  If the couple pushes the button, they will receive 1 Million dollars.  In return somebody they don't know will die.  I have seen the previews for this film and it really looks creepy.  It may sound sick and twisted, but I would to see this film.  I don't know if I will see it at the theater.  Hopefully a certain AV Librarian will have enough money in her budget next year so she can buy it for the library and I won't have to pay to see it.  One can hope.

2. Disney's A Christmas Carol - (rated PG) - As I have said, I come from a family that loves Christmas movies.  My mother, brother and I all have extensive collections in our home.  One of our favorite tales is A Christmas Carol.  I was really excited when I heard about this remake coming out this week.  It stars Jim Carrey as Scrooge.  It's animated in the same style as The Polar Express (a movie that I don't get the appeal for.  Just my opinion).  It looks really cool.  I will definately see this on the big screen as all animated films should be viewed.

3. The Fourth Kind ( rated PG-13) - I honestly haven't heard anything about this film.  It stars Milla Jovovich and is about aliens.  Since I am not a big alien movie fan, I think I will pass.

4.  The Men Who Stare at Goats - (rated R) - This is a movie I really want to see.  It stars my beloved George Clooney.  It also stars Ewan McGregor and Jeff Bridges.  It's about a experimental US military unit that uses it's psychic powers to fight wars.  The previews look hiliarious.  An let's face it, with a title like "The Men Who Stare at Goat", the movie just has to be seen.

That's what is coming out this week.  I don't know if I will get to any movies this coming week but if I do, I will be sure to blog about them.