Angel

I can't remember if I've mentioned it, but I'm a HUGE Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. I can't remember when I started watching it, but I've seen every episode multiple time. Show me any scene and I can probably tell you what episode its from and what happens next. It's my comfort blanket. If I had a rough day at classes, it's not unusual for me to pop in a Buffy episode to watch to make me feel better.

With all my love for Buffy, I had not gotten around to watching it's spin-off show Angel until recently. To be honest I hadn't been particularly interested in it – Angel was probably one of my least favorite characters. So why would I want to watch an entire show about him? After some bothering from my boyfriend to watch it, as well as being promised that Spike shows up in later, I decided to just buckle down and watch Angel.

So for those of you who don't know, Angel is a sort of freelance investigation show. After leaving Buffy at the end of Season 3, the vampire with a soul Angel made his way to Los Angeles to start fresh. There he starts up a business where he “Helps the Helpless”. Pretty simple premise, Angel goes out at night to save the people of the city from the monsters who go bump in the night.

Even after watching all of the series, I gotta say I'm still not a fan of Angel. I know so much about the vampire, but I still feel like he has not depth to him. To me, he's just a character whose purpose in life is to act as a plot device. I felt that the real stars of the show were Angel's friends he acquired along the way. Doyle, Charles Gunn, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, Lorne, Winifred 'Fred' Burkle, Spike. All of these characters were so heart warming or fascinating in their own way. To be honest any of these characters could be given their own show and I'd jump to watching it immediately.

I actually found the series pretty enjoyable. The monsters were like the ones I loved to watch in Buffy. There were relationships and character development that I loved to watch and I never really felt like the series dragged anywhere. I'm pretty glad I watched it.

However I still think Angel is dumb.

Hesher

I watched this movie primarily because of Josph Gordon-Levitt. The trailer looked interesting enough, but mostly just in that weird indie movie sorta way. When I noticed Josph Gordon-Levitt, Natalie Portman and Rainn Wilson were in it, I became intrigued enough to want to actually watch it.

Hesher follows TJ, a young boy who's mother recently died. TJ and his dad move in with his grandmother as he slowly grows distant from his father. His life is generally down at the moment, rounding off with getting super bullied at school. That's when Hesher enters his life. Hesher is the dude version of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. For those of you who don't know, Manic Pixie Dream Girl is what film critics named the character that loves to show up in films with the sole purpose of influencing the main characters life. They usually have a eccentric personality, quirky and are unabashedly girly. Some examples are Kate Winslet's character in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Zooey Deschanel's character in (500) Days Of Summer. So the dude version would probably be eccentric, rough, and about as dudeish as you can get. Hesher is a loner. He has long greasy hair and homemade tattoos He's malnourished, smoked a boatload of cigarettes and loves fire and blowing up things. He even lives in his van and constantly rocks out to heavy metal music. And then he meets TJ.

I surprisingly loved this movie. It was odd, I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting but it wasn't that. Heshers character was crude, rude, and generally unpleasant – but I loved him. He had depth. Underneath that unpleasant outer level was someone who cared, even when he didn't want to. TJ was a boy in pain, struggling with being misunderstood and feeling cut off from life. He didn't want Hesher around and didn't particularly enjoy having him around, but Hesher still managed to change him for the better. TJ's father was struggling with trying to still be a father while he no longer wanted to put effort in life. He found Hesher very off putting, but still only got his life together because of Hesher.

Hesher's character was a little rough around the edges, but sometimes that's exactly what you need in life – rough around the edges. I'd suggest giving it a watch. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is excellent in it and I found myself surprisingly touched by the movie.

Ponyo on the Cliff

Oops. Been a while. You know how it is: school work, knitting, we just got cable. The usual distractions. Anyways, let's just get started.

Ponyo, or the literal title translation Ponyo on the Cliff, is a Hayao Miyazaki movie. You remember when I talked about him, right? Of course you do. Easily my favorite director. Well I have the great pleasure of watching almost all of his movies which didn't include Ponyo until just recently. I just got lazy I guess, or maybe the prospect of reading subtitles sounded too intimidating at the moment. Regardless, I finally watched it.

Ponyo is simply a retelling of The Little Mermaid. Sosuke, a 5-year old boy, finds a goldfish on the shore outside of his house and names it Ponyo. Turns out the goldfish is more then it appears. She is in actuality a Princess, the daughter of a powerful wizard and a sea goddess. Ponyo decides she likes Sosuke and wants to stay with him and become human - to the great displeasure of her father.

The movie was.. cute. I guess. As much as it pains me to admit, I didn't like it too much. The art was so un-Miyazaki like that it threw me for a loop and the story itself was nothing more then cute. I didn't get the heartfelt connection to the characters like I usually get. Past Miyazaki movies all had strong female characters and the movie portrayed a powerful message throughout the movie. Of course the movie had a message - you can't help who you fall in love with and once you find that someone, don't just give it up; however the message felt a little half assed. Sure the message was there, but it felt like it was there more because of convenience then actually wanting the message to be there.

I wished I liked it more, I really do. If it was on TV I'd watch it, but it's not something I'd go looking for.

Note: I feel the need to mention that I didn't prefer the sub over the dub, or vise versa. I had heard that the dub was terrible and only to watch it subbed. Well I watched both and found that I didn't care one way over the other - a heads up for anyone who wants to watch it and isn't sure which one to watch.

Moonlight

I feel vampires shouldn't sparkle. It's a personal preference really, but Twilight just isn't my jam. I don't need my vampires to be old school exactly, just don't make them goofy like sparkling. Which bring me to Moonlight.

Moonlight follows a certain vampire, Mick St. John, who is a private investigator. Usually the cases he takes on are the suspicious sort, ones that usually end up having vampires at the root of its problem. Throughout the entire show he battles with his vampire ex-wife, his general past, trying to not get outed as a vampire to everyone and possibly starting a relationship with a human girl named Beth.

Moonlights vampires aren't affected by garlic and crosses are just a shape to them. Their image can get captured on camera, which they explain by the way cameras take pictures now is very different by hoe camera took pictures in the older days – which makes sense to me. For them, the old myths hold the most stock in silver, stakes, fire and the sun.

They can go in the sun, they don't burst into flames and they certainly don't sparkle. If they stick to the shadows and wear sunglasses, vampires can go outside with some mild irritation. They can even go into direct sunlight for short amounts of time; however any longer and they start to get weaker and weaker until they die.

Stakes don't kill them. Instead it sort of paralyzes them, making them unable to move until someone takes it out. I find that to be an extremely interesting take on it, since most vampire fighting shows put so much faith in a stake to the heart. Although this sort of holds the same idea, if you stake a vampire in the heart you could do anything to them and they can do nothing about it. For them, a stake in the heart could very well result in death.

For silver, its best for everyone if they just don't touch it. It's poison to them. If they touch it, it burns. If it gets in their bloodstream, it basically kills them from the inside. Not pretty.

The only sure fire way to kill these vampires is fire (get it? Sure fire? Fire? Gosh I'm so clever).

Overall I really enjoyed Moonlight. It was disappointingly shot, having gotten canceled after just one season and definitely left me asking for more. I found the characters interesting and the plot even more interesting. The vampires were interestingly portrayed while still getting the idea of vampires out there. If there were more seasons, I'd definitely go out of my way to watch them.

Game of Thrones: From Book to TV

I don't even remember when I first read George R.R. Martins' 'A Song Of Ice And Fire' series - maybe 6 or 7 years ago. It's an intimidating book series. There are currently 5 books - A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, As Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows and A Dance of Dragons - and each book is over 1,000 pages give or take a few hundred, usually on the give side.

It wasn't the first medieval set world book I read and it wasn't the last, but its my favorite. There is so much thought put into all the characters and the world in general that it sometimes leaves me in awe. These aren't just characters you're reading about, its entire familys. At the back of every book there is an appendix where it goes through each major family and gives multiple generations of people as well as who there friends are, who there enimies are, who works for them, a short history of the house, and what their house motto is along with their house sigil. There are around 16 main houses and smaller houses. I can't even wrap my mind around how much thought was put into all of this.

The title of the first book basically explains the entire series - a game of thrones. We start off in a time of peace after a recent change in power. Of course there is the usual royalty shenanigans going on in the background, but then everything changes when the current king dies. The whole Kingdom is thrown into turmoil. The ex-kings spoiled son takes the throne and starts making kingly orders, his thought process ending as 'I want to do that so I will and no one can stop me'. The ex-kings brother claims it is his throne and that the ex-kings son isn't really his son. The ex-kings youngest brother claims it is his throne for no better reason that his older brother wouldn't make a good king. The north wants to split off with their own King of the North and the daughter of the King who was Overthrown is coming back with an army to claim her birthright.

The entire book is from multiple points of views. The chapters range from the Northern folk, to the daughter of the Overthrown King, and to the ex-kings multiple family members. There is no set good or bad side - which I love. Some sides may seem on the evil side, but then you see not everyone on that side is bad and you almost want to route for them to live just for the few good ones. Then the side that seems overly good has some bad blood of its own. It all feels so real and you almost want them all to win. 

I should also mention there are dragons. I couldn't find a good place to mention that, but it definitely needs mentioning. Everything in the series feels so realistic, just with the addition of dragons. I may or may not love dragons.

I wasn't sure how to feel when HBO announced they were going to turn George RR martins books into a TV series. On one hand I was so excited, who doesn't love to see their series in action? But on the other hand I was hesitant, there is so much stuff in the world George RR Martin created with so many characters I wasn't sure if it was even possible to turn it into a TV series.

I think they pulled it off rather nicely. Sure they couldn't include everything, but they did the best they could. I didn't feel like they left out anything major and they obviously put a lot of thought into how they went about doing it. I wasn't disappointed. What I was most impressed with were the casting choices. All the characters were almost exactly how I imagined them in my head and all of the actors performed so well.

Even if you don't feel like putting in the effort to read the book series, you should at least give the TV series a watch. It was a good introduction into the world George RR Martin created and might inspire you to give the books a chance. They are intimidating to say the least, but so satisfying. One of my favorite book series.

Day Thirty: The Host

Day Thirty: Your favorite movie of all time

I love a good monster movie, which are few and far between. A movie where there is just a monster causing chaos, people getting trampled, buildings getting destroyed.  It's my jam.

When a monster comes out of a river in South Korea, Seoul gets put into chaos. Tons of people are either killed or go missing. When one family gets a missing relative because of the attack, the family bands together to search for her. They don't want to admit she was killed, so instead they hunt down the monsters hide out to see if they can figure out what happened to their youngest family member.

This movie has so much heart. Even when the monster is causing havoc, there is something emotion going on in the background. I find the monster incredibly interesting and unique and the main characters are honest and heartfelt. More people need to see this movie, I never get tired of watching it.

And that's the end of my Thirty Movie Day.. thing. I was almost able to post everyday. Sorta. It was close enough anyways. So onto new reviews, I have a few planned out already so it won't be too long before I have a new one up.

Day Twenty- Nine: Fantasia

Day Twenty-Nine: A movie from your childhood

You know how everyone has that one movie they watched over and over as a kid? Well Fantasia was that movie for me. I'm not sure what about it enthralled me so much - it's not the common movie kids repeatedly watch.

There isn't really a plot to Fantasia. They took classical works of music and added footage to it. For example they took the song Dance of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli and shows hippos and crocodiles doing ballet together. Or The Pastoral Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven which had some Greek mythological characters including Zeus, Bacchus the God of Wine along with centaurs and the such.

I can still sit down to watch this movie and love it. I would also suggest Fantasia 2000, which has the best of Fantasia along with new additions. Some of my favorite song... video.. things are from Fantasia 2000 - they really upped the A game for that one.

Day Twenty-Eight: Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki)

Day Twenty-Eight: Favorite movie from your favorite director

Everything Hayao Miyazaki makes is gold. If you aren't that aware of anime, you may remember the animated movie Spirited Away that won an Oscar 2003 - well that was not only a Miyazaki movie (however my least favorite one), but also the first Japanese animated movie to win the category. Miyazaki has an impressive list of movies that he's made, or helped to make, or even just influenced. My Neighbor Totoror, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Porco Roso, Castle in the Sky, Ponyo, Kiki's Delivery Service, Grave of the Fireflies and of course Howl's Moving Castle, are just some of them. Fun fact: one of the reasons Pixar movies are so good is because Pixar makes a habit of scooping up old Studio Gibli people - Studio Gibli being the company Miyazaki co-created and works in. Pixar admited that Toy Story 3 was a homage to Miyazaki, they even included a Totoro doll in the movie.

Sophie, a strong willed young woman, gets cursed by the Witch of the Waste which turns her into an old woman. With nothing left for her at home, she sets out to start fresh and finds her way to a warlock named Howl and his strange moving castle. There she strikes up a deal with the fire demon Calcifer who powers the entire castle- he promises to remove the curse on  her, if she can remove the curse on him. While trying to figure out what the curse even is let alone how to break it, Sophie finds herself falling in love with the mysterious Howl.

Howl's Moving Castle is one of the cutest stories around. A story about love despite appearances and per-determined opinions. A story about never giving up even when it seems hopeless. I watch this moving when I'm feeling down, when I'm feeling happy, even when I'm mad and just need to watch something. I even loved this movie so much that I went out of my way to read the book it was based off of (which is equally good and adorable by the way).

Day Twenty-Seven: 28 Days Later

Day Twenty-Seven: A movie that you wish you had seen in theaters

I love zombie. I can get all over anything and everything that has to do with zombies. It's my thing; I have my Zombie Apocalypse survival plan laid out already and everything. I can even remember exactly when my love affair with the living dead - when I saw 28 Weeks Later. (Lets ignore the fact that those aren't zombies in 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, I didn't know that at the time.)

Jim wakes up in a hospital after a car accident, only to find the entire place deserted and in ruins. He walks out into the streets of London to also find that deserted, that is until he happens upon a group of Rage Virus infected humans and gets chased down. He happens upon other survivors and learns that 98% of the population became infected with a virus that turns them into animalistic creatures that are only left with rage. They are basically the equivalent of a super rabid dog. Together Jim and the other survivors try to find a safe place to live in the new world they live in which trying to defend themselves against getting infected too.

Remember when I said I'm incapable of handling scary movies? Well I had to get dragged to 28 Weeks Later because I was so sure that 28 Weeks Later fell under that category of something I'd be incapable of watching. I can't express how surprised I was when I came out loving it. Since then I've gotten knee deep in the Zombie Business. My biggest regret is that I didn't get a chance to see 28 Days Later, the far superior of the two movies, in theaters to begin my obsession much sooner.

Day Twenty-Six: Cloverfield

Day Twenty-Six: A movie that you love but everyone else hates

This is a movie that you either love or hate. Although most of the hate is because people got queasy from all the shakey cam. I loved this movie. I'm into a good monster movie and I could definitely see where JJ Abrams was trying to go with it - Godzilla for America. King Kong isn't really a monster, he's just a sad monkey who wants to go home, so I personally don't really count King Kong. Obviously, Cloverfield didn't really gain the same popularity of Godzilla, or King Kong for that matter.

Cloverfield centers on a small group of people as New York gets attacked and destroyed by a monster. That's all there is to it really - it's just a straight up monster movie. Things blow up, buildings get destroyed, there's chaos everywhere. Just a bunch of good ol' monster madness.

I'm not afraid to admit that the main reason I love this movie is because I got sucked into the viral marketing. In case you don't know, 6 months before Cloverfield came out, it's teaser trailer was shown before Transformers. I was sold instantly. It didn't even show the title for the movie. Then I went home to google it, and was introduced to the wonders of viral marketing. From that point on, I was constantly looking for newly released Cloverfield related material. I had screenshots on my computer from the trailer where I though you could see the monster, I joined discussions about what the monster could be, and I spent hours on the main site trying to find clues to anything and everything. I could tell you the entire back story of every main character in the movie along with where the monster came from and everything. I even have a Slusho shirt. Don't judge me for my obsessions. Almost every waking hour of 6 months of my life was dedicated to Cloverfield. After all of that time and effort spent into it, it was practically impossible to not like the movie since I also knew all the back story that they didn't tell you in the movie - which by the way made all of us who were deep in the viral marketing feel awfully special.

Anyways, I don't care if you don't like Cloverfield. It's oddly nostalgic for me and I'm not afraid to get all up in the Cloverfield action.

Day Twenty-Five: Hamlet 2

Day Twenty-Five: The most hilarious movie you’ve ever seen

This was another hard category to fill. mostly because it's not very often a movie gets me doubled over in laughter. The movies I do tend to find funny are more witty word play opposed to actual hilarity. Since Hamlet 2 was the first actual comedy I could think of, I decided to just go with that.

Hamelt 2 follows Dana Marschz who is a failed actor that then decided to teach Theater at a school to a total of 2 student. Between the 3 of them they produce downright terrible plays, then to top it off everything in Dana's life just generally sucks. One day when he goes into Theater class to find it packed full of students - apparently their usual easy A classes were cut, leaving them only with Theater.  When Dana is told Theater was being cut at the end of the year, Dana decides to put together one huge play to try and save it. He stays up all night trying to come up with a play for them to do, his finished product turning out to be extremely controversial in their town - Hamlet 2. A sequel to Hamlet. You know, the Shakespeare play where everyone dies at the end.

My problem with most comedies is that I hate poop jokes. It's just not my cup of tea. I consider 'hilarious' when you can't breath because you're laughing too hard - and you just don't really get that from witty word play. Hamlet 2 is one of the few movies that gets me to that 'hilarious' state, which is definitely saying something.

Day Twenty-Four: Zombie in Space

Day Twenty-Four: That one awesome movie idea that still hasn’t been done yet

This one took me a bit to figure out what to write. The only thing I wrote down on my list for this was 'Zombie in Space'. I guess I didn't realize I'd have no idea how to write about it, so here's it goes.

Imagine a future, maybe Cowboy Bebop-esque or maybe instead like Firefly. Our main characters land at a planet to do their thing, and they here rumors of a sickness spreading. On their way back to their ship, a guy stumbles in their way, a moaning groaning guy, who immediately tries to eat their face off. The entire dock gets put on lock down and the planet is put into quarantine making it impossible to leave. Now our main characters have to fight off zombies to stay alive and try and get off the planet all illegally and stuff.

That's all I got.

Day Twenty-Three: Finding Nemo

Day Twenty-Three: Favorite Animation

Let's just say I'm all over the Pixar. Except for Cars, I've loved every Pixar movie I've seen. But at the top of that list is definitely Finding Nemo. It makes me laugh so hard at times, then is able to do a complete 180 and make me borderline crying. I can't count the number of time my family has sat down together to watch this movie, it might just be all of our favorites.

Finding Nemo follows overly cautious Marlin as he searches for his son Nemo who got taken by the humans. Along the way he meets Dori, a fish with short term memory loss who believes she can talk to whales, Bruce, a vegetarian shark, and Crush, a radical sea turtle. This is a story of love, the willingness to do anything for someone and the desire to keep going - even when it seems impossible.

This movie has so much heart in it. The characters get so much depth to much that you start to feel like you really know Marlin, Dori and Nemo. I could honestly sit down and watch this movie over and over and over again without getting tired of it - I love it that much. This is one of the few movies where I've actually laughed so hard that I couldn't breath, as well as one of the few movies that I started getting all teary eyed for. Maybe I'll watch this movie again this week.

Day Twenty-Two: This Film Is Not Yet Rated

Day Twenty-Two: Favorite documentary

If you haven't noticed, I'm a big movie fan. So when I was presented with a documentary ABOUT movies, well, I got all up on that.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated is about how the movies system gives movies its rating. It talks about how the MPAA(Motion Picture Association of America) is corrupted. How easy it is to pay off the board members to sway its rating higher - usually forcing the movie maker to change their movie around for contract reasons. The big thing they talk about is the boarder between getting an R rating and getting a NC-17 rating. Specifically the fact that it's an extremely biased process relying on the boards personal feels opposed to any per-determined guidelines.

This documentary made me extra watchful of R rated movies, seeing just what they allowed and what they didn't. I'm definitely still all up in the movie love, but I'm a little more watchful - willing to look past just what the MPAA says is appropriate and what isn't. This documentary is definitely for anyone who doesn't just love movies, but is also sorta curious about the process of getting a movie onto the big screen - for which getting it rated can be the biggest speed bump.

Day Twenty-One: Rambo

Day Twenty-One: Favorite action movie

I was going to put Rambo:First Blood in this spot, but I'm not sure if that is Action-y enough. It's more stealthy and emotional. Whereas the new one is just murdering a whole bunch of people.

Rambo is now in Burma, trying to make a living on his own terms and away from the United States. Some Peace Corps type group seeks out Rambos' boss boating skills to take them up to Burmese refugee camp. Somehow they convince Rambo to take them despite his multiple warnings that it was super dangerous. Long story short, Rambo was right and had to kill a whole bunch of people. Like all the people.

This movie definitely doesn't have the heart and emotion behind Rambo: First Blood, but it's still a whole lot of fun. Unlike in the first movie where Rambo utilizes Vietnamese techniques to individually hunt down everyone. However in this one, he at one point hops onto a Gatling Gun and just kills everyone. This is also one of the few movies where if someone asks me what happens in it, my answer is 'Everyone Dies'. So that's pretty cool.

Day Twenty: Fright Night with David Tennant

Day Twenty: Favorite movie from your favorite actor/actress

To be honest, my main reasoning for seeing this movie was because of David Tennant. I never saw the original and probably never would have even heard of it if it wasn't for the David Tennant-ness of this movie. Don't get me wrong, I love vampires, I'm a huge Interview With A Vampire fan. Also the fact that Colin Farrell was going to be the vampire and Anton Yelchin was the main guy were big pluses. It's just that David Tennant was the huge selling point for this movie.

Fright Night follows Charley after he fulfilled every teenagers high school dream of becoming popular and getting a hot girlfriend. So he does what every newly formed popular kid tries to do - distance himself from his old friends. However that become extremely harder to do when his super nerd ex-friend comes to him saying that their Third Musketeer got eaten by a vampire, who also happens to be his neighbor Jerry. At first, Charley doesn't believe it, but when he's provided with undeniable proof he understandably freaks out. Now he takes it upon himself to kill Jerry the Vampire.

This movie is a killing fest, which I love. You actually care about the main characters and the movie definitely doesn't beat around the bush about getting to the vampire part. David Tennant isn't in a whole lot of this movie, but when he does have screen time he definitely steals every scene. This is actually the second David Tennant movie I have put on this list. The first being Casanova, where he of course played Casanova. There is just something about David Tennant that draws me in, not matter what he's in.

Day Nineteen: X-Men 2

Day Nineteen: Favorite movie based on a comic

Remember when I said I love the X-Men? Well I guess it's no real surprise then that it's my favorite movie based on a comic book. Briefly I debated putting Spiderman 2 or Thor in this spot, but then I decided I love this movie way too much to bump it. Who cares if I already did a movie review based on the X-men universe, I'm doing it again. So there.

In the first movie we mostly followed and were introduced to Rouge and Wolverine. This time around Wolverine is in the center of the plot. Someone has been controlling mutants and making them perform 'Mutant Freedom' acts that greatly in-dangers multiple high up humans. Of course the X-Men aren't to pleased about that. Quickly it becomes apparent that Wolverines' quest to find out about his past and the X-Men's quest to find the guy behind the attacks are connected.

The characters were done so well in this movie and it had wonderful scenes with them. Even though Magneto was arrested at the end of the first movie, he still shows up in this one through visits from Xavier. They do an excellent job of showing the old friendship between Xavier and Magneto - even though they are on different sides, they still don't completely hate each other.

We also get to see some teenage mutants. I'm sure it would be incredibly difficult being a teenage mutant at that time. It's already hard being a teenager, having to deal with school, making friends, general drama and such. Now add in that you have powers, and if you go to Xaviers School then all your friends also have different powers that none of you can completely control yet. All around you is the beginning whispers of a war brewing. People are picketing mutants, governments are trying to find ways to control and restrict mutants, and there are even other mutants that are making trouble with the humans as well as Xavier's school. Personally I'd feel so.. caught up in everything. There would be so much anger, hate, and violence everywhere. Being a teenager is hard enough, a mutant teenager even harder, but a mutant teenager growing up during war times? Even worse.

I find it fascinating to think about. Obviously.

Day Eighteen: Wristcutters: A Love Story

Day Eighteen: A movie that you wish more people would’ve seen

No, this isn't a movie making light of suicide. If anything this is the opposite, an anti-suicide movie. I forget when I first watched it, but it's definitely one of my favorite movies. Has some romance, comedy, life lessons, heartfelt scenes, Tom Waits. What's not to love? (I did mention of the Tom Waits part right?)

Wristcutters follows a guy, Zia, right after he kills himself (by cutting his wrists, see where the title is from? Get it?) The movie suggests the idea that after you kill yourself, you wake up in this alternate world consisting only of other people who have killed themselves where everything is slightly.. worse. All the walls are more grey, the jobs slightly more sucky, the people more depressing since everyone there has found some reason in the past to kill themselves. However everyone in the world is afraid to kill themselves again, worried they'd end up in a world even worse than that one - so instead they just go about living. Zia killed himself because his girlfriend Desiree broke up with him, but while in this alternate world he gets wind that Desiree killed herself shortly after him. Now Zia goes on a quest to find his ex-girlfriend to reunite with her along with his two new friends Mikal, who is looking for the People in Charge with the belief she was put in this world by mistake, and Eugene.

I seriously love this movie. It's so beautifully crafted, doesn't hit you over the head with its life lessons and moves at a good pace. It can be so heart warming one second, then laugh out loud the next. And the soundtrack for the movie? Excellent. Gogol Bordello did most, if not all, of the music. If you haven't heard of Gogol Bordello yet, you probably should. They are a Ukraine gypsy punk rock band, who I dig real hard. I could listen to their song Start Wearing Purple all day long. And I have too.

Day Seventeen: X-Men Orgins: Wolverine

Day Seventeen: A movie that disappointed you the most

I'm a huge X-Men fan. The main reason I love Marvel more than DC is because Marvel has the X-Men. I absolutely loved the first two movies, as in a periodically re-watch them, and the third one was.. okay. Not great by any means, but not Spiderman 3 bad. To be honest I didn't have very high hopes for it - something about third movies just always seems to go bad (see: Spiderman 3, Shriek 3, ect.). Well for Wolverine I was unbelievably excited for it. Wolverine is just an interesting character that I'm sure it'd make a kick-ass movie. Then I heard Gambit was going to be in it - and I. love. Gambit. Easily my favorite character ever and the fact that they were going to put him in the movies satisfied every excited particle of my being.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine set up out Logan's early life. How he grew up, first found out about his mutant powers, who he made friends with, eventually leading up to the amnesia ridden mutant we knew in the X-Men movies. Along the way there was Sabertooth, Deadpool, a young Cyclops, Gambit, The Blob, William Stryker. The whole gang. It was suppose to be so wonderful.

Well it wasn't. It wasn't even kinda wonderful. The CGI for Wolverines claws was strangely terrible even though it was great in the X-Men movies, a lot of the acting wasn't too great at times, and it was like they didn't even read the characters back stories. Logans' was generally right, but Deadpool and Gambits? So wrong. It's like they took the wonderful character Gambit was and watered him down until he was a boring blob of nothing. And Deadpool? Definitely one of the best characters was destroyed. The Deadpool everyone knew and loved was a psychotic mercenary who was incapable of dying because of a healing mutation who occasionally broke the 4th wall  and talked directly to the reader. Well Ryan Reynolds did great as early Deadpool, before all that stuff set into place. Then they turned him into Weapon X and destroyed him, he no longer had the flamboyant and enthusiastic personality where he'd sometimes shoot himself in the head just because he knew he couldn't die. It was just.. sad. The movie ended and I just sat in the theater, surrounded by a bubble of disappointment and crushed childhood.

Day Sixteen: Cars

Day Sixteen: A movie that you used to love but now hate

When I first saw Cars in theaters, I loved it. I told everyone I knew how good it was and how enjoyable it was even though I wasn't 10 years old. Then I didn't even really think about it for years and years. Just recently I was at my cousins house and my little cousin suggested watching Cars. Well of course I was all for it, why not? Last I remembered I loved that movie. Turns out I don't anymore. Some of the lines made me cringe and the characters got annoying. The movie in general was so.. un-Pixar like.

If you don't know, Cars follows Lightning McQueen who is a famous race car. Somehow he gets lost on the way to the biggest race of his life and gets stuck in some little town no one has heard of. There he learns to not be such a dick all the time and gain some friends.

Boy the main character is extremely unappealing. McQueen has no redeeming qualities as the entire movie just basically yells "hey look, he's learning life lessons. In case you haven't figured it out yet, he's learning a life lesson. Just checking you didn't miss the life lesson McQueen just learned." Maybe it's because of all the other extremely good Pixar movies that have come out, but Cars just leaves a bad taste in my mouth now.

Day Fifteen: Belle from Beauty and the Best

Day Fifteen: A character who you can relate to the most

This one was really hard for me to decide on. Not because I couldn't narrow it down but every answer I seemed to come up with was lame. Me and my sister discussed it for days, jumping from main characters to vague side characters before finally deciding on someone - Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

Not in the 'my boyfriend is overly furry with a tendency to growl' kinda way, but instead in the 'I read books like my life depends on it and occasionally bursts out into song' sorta way. I have a huge affinity for books and my room is well on its way to become a library by itself. And the singing? Well I don't have the voice of Belle, but I do spend a lot of singing. Probably more than I should for someone who.. well can't sing.

 Side note: people in librarys' don't appreciate it when you do this.

 My sister insisted that I mention the person she was voting for that I 'relate to the most'. That person being Justin Finch-Fletchley from Harry Potter.

 Her theory was that I tend to melt into the background, no one really realizing I'm there till you're actually talking to me. I quick to start to hate people if they do something, not always caring about the truth since I have no real interest in actually making new friends. I keep to myself and I tend to get forgotten easily but me and my friends are close. Also I would probably be in Hufflepuff (even though I like Ravenclaw more, although that has nothing to do with Justin Finch-Fletchley. Just thought you'd like to know my preference).

I like Belle more, although my sister's theory was a lot more thought out than 'Belle like books and I like books so we're the same'.

Day Fourteen: Baghead

Day Fourteen: A movie that no one would expect you to love

Remember when I said I hate horror movies? Well not hate so much as incapable of processing, which then makes me unable to enjoy then on any level. I saw the trailer for Baghead, and it made it out to be a sort of.. comedy making fun of horror movies. Liars. Yet somehow, I actually kinda enjoyed it.

Baghead is about 4 actors desperately trying to make it big without much success. Their solution is to go to a cabin in the woods with a pact to not leave till they write a screenplay. Well, of course it's not that easy to write a screenplay and they start to cling to any remotely good idea. That remotely good idea being a group of kids in a cabin that slowly begin getting picked off by a guy with a bag on his head. As they are writing and filming it, off camera a guy with a bag over his head shows up to different members of the group on their own - each assuming it was someone else playing joke. Then they find out it isn't, and that it's really some guy in the woods starting to pick off their group.

Part of the movie was comedyish. The other part had some guy that you would sometimes see in between the trees and sometimes in the windows. It had me looking over my shoulder whenever I was in the woods. I can't explain why I even remotely liked this horror movie and can't stand others. So far my theory was that it had just enough comedy to put me at ease with the bonus of having a definite ending opposed to the open endings other horror movies seem so fond of. Anyways, long story short: hey look, I found a horror movie I actually kinda sorta like.

Day Thirteen: Bring It On Again

Day Thirteen: A movie that is a guilty pleasure

Don't scoff at me, I know what I'm talking about.  I'll watch this movie if I'm feeling too stressed out and I need to just not think for a while - sometimes you just need a movie that isn't mentally stimulating. And yes, I know I put the sequel here instead of the first one. In my opinion, the second one is better then the first. Crazy right?

It's Whittier's (What a stupid name) first year of college, and the thing she's most excited for is joining the cheerleading squad. When she try's out for it, she's not only welcomed onto the squad but is told that she could potentially be Cheerleading captain. As the practices progress, Whittier realized what a terrible person the current captain is and quits to make a statement; however then she doesn't know what to do now that she's not in cheerleading. She is then struck with a brilliant idea - to make another cheerleading squad that uses all the rejects on campus. The unfortunate souls who got their funding for their club cut and can now no longer have the club. The end of the movie come down to a showdown between the two cheerleading squads, competing for who gets to represent the school at Nationals.

I've never been a cheerleader. I've never held any interest in cheerleading, in fact I sorta made fun of them in high school [They were never very nice to me in high school]. But for some reason, I love this movie. It's fun, quirky, upbeat. It lets me just enjoy something without having to think too hard.

Day Twelve: Legion of Fire: Killer Ants!

Day Twelve: A movie you hate

Don't get me wrong, I love bad movies. We make movie nights out of movies that are so bad they are good: Santa Claus Conquers The Martians, Troll 2, The Skeleton Man, Sleepwalkers. Love them. And by the title of this movie you'd probably think this movie fall into that category - usually anything with an exclamation point in the title is delightfully bad. 

To be honest, I don't remember this movie very well. I'm going to have to tap into my 7 year old self's memory for this one. I went to stay with my grandparents when I was 7 or 8 for maybe 2 weeks, which was super exciting since it was just me. No mom or dad or sister, just me and my grandparents who I rarely got to see since they live in Wisconsin whereas I live in Pennsylvania. My cousin who was a year old than me came over to spend the night and we decided to watch TV. To add to the excitement it was past 8, which was my definite bedtime at home, can you say living on the edge? A movie came on TV which we decided to watch for.. some reason or another. Boy did I end up regretting that.

It opened in some small town with a kid playing on a really really tall and narrow mound. Then he crashed through the mound which you find out is actually an anthill that's home to some rare South American Ants that ate people. So of course this kid was eaten clean to the bone. From there it went down hill, the town got swarmed by these ants and everyone was getting eaten - the town was in panic. At the heart of it all was I think an expert of something, probably bugs or ants. He had a group of people with him, and they went in search of the Queen Ant to kill, which I guess would cause all the other ants to go away. Or something.

It sounds funny and all, but let me share something with you - I'm terrified of horror movies. I'm fine with thrillers and gory movies, but the minute they branch into horror [ghosts, possessions, pretty much anything I can't fend myself again I suppose] then I just can't handle it. This movie is the entire cause of it I think. I had nightmares for weeks and weeks. I forced my sister who had just moved into her own room to share a room with me again. I couldn't even tell myself I safe on the top bunk of our bunk bed by theorizing they couldn't climb ladders cause the movie specifically showed some guy try something like that only for the ants to climb the ladder and eat him alive. I guess you could say I was traumatized.

To be honest I'm afraid to re-watch it to see if it's still scary or just funny - even thinking about it makes me antsy [see what I did there? Antsy? And I'm talking about Ants. So punny.]. Regardless of the quality of the movie, I still think I would hate it. This movie cause me so much trouble over my life, I spent most of my nights hiding under my covers since, you know, covers shield you from everything at night.

Ps: In case you're wondering, I actually couldn't even find a poster for this movie. That's the picture they have on imdb and when I googled imaged for it nothing came up but that picture. I didn't even know the name of the movie until I googled the plot about 10 minutes ago.

Day Eleven: Stranger Than Fiction

Day Eleven: A movie that changed your opinion about something

I hate Will Ferrell. Well, I did. But then I watched this movie and everything changed. I dunno what it was about him that just set me off. I definitely didn't like the humor in most of his movies - was just not something that tickled my funny bone - and really didn't like his.. persona he seemed to create in interviews with people. Basically I wasn't big on the Ferrell. However this movie changed everything. I still don't like most of the humor in his movies or his characters in his movies, but it's okay. I'll always have this movie to fall back on, so everything will be okay.

Will Ferrell plays an IRS auditor who is pretty OCD and does stuff like brushing his teeth the same exact way each time, for the same number of time. Then one day he wakes up to continue his normal routine to find everything he does narrated. At first he's suspicious, thinking he might even be crazy, but harmless none the less. He starts to actually get worried when the narrator says he's going to die, causing him to seek outside help. This narrator changes everything in his life in Will Ferrell's desire to now live life to the fullest, desiring everything he never had because of some innate fear.

I've never seen Will Ferrell in a serious role before, and this movie was a refreshing change of pace - as an extra bonus the movie was extremely emotional. On the Will Ferrell note, I was equally pleased with his role in The Other Guys. It's probably the first Will Ferrell role that actually made me laugh.

Day Ten: Young Frankenstien

Day Ten: Favorite classic movie

I seriously love this movie, I can never get enough of Gene Wilder. The movie is funny, heartfelt, crazy. The one liners in this movie are just phenomenal. When the original Dr. Frankenstien dies, he leaves his castle to his neurosurgeon of a grandson. His grandson then moves to Transylvania into the castle and initially views his grandfathers research and experiments as utter rubbish. After going through his books, he finds that maybe creating life was possible after all, and goes about to make his own monster.

What makes a movie a 'classic' movie? Does that mean old? Or does that mean something that will withstand time and stay popular? I wasn't really what sure what movie to chose for this, it took a good amount of consideration and jumping back and forth before I finally chose Young Frankenstein. I'm still not positive that counts as a classic movie, but I googled lists of popular classic movies and that was on it's list. So there.

Day Nine: Harry Potter

Day Nine: A movie with the best soundtrack

Okay, This is not the 'best' soundtrack. Not by a long shot. Also up for the running was Juno. I'm all about the dorky indie music, and Juno has indie coming out of the wazoo. If you haven't listened to the song Treehugger by Antsy Pants and Kimya Dawson from the movies album yet, then you have to - it's such a happy song. Scratch that, I'll just put it up here because of how happy and fun it is:

Anyways, my reasoning for choosing Harry Potter is because it's been a huge part of my life. The music for this movie has been with me through the best and worst times of my life. Even today, in anticipation of writing this blog, I found myself humming along. Also I can play the crap outta the song on the clarinet (I play the clarinet like a Boss. And by that I mean I'm pretty good and proud of what I can play. Which includes Hedwig's Theme. Ya know the one, the main song you hear).

I suppose best is subjective. Sure it may not be the critically best soundtrack, but it hits home with me. Something about the music is welcoming and familiar, and that's good enough for me to be considered the 'best'.

On a slightly related note, have you heard the song from Requiem for a Dream? Even if you haven't seen the movie, I guarantee you've heard the song. So many trailers and movies use it that it must be some inside Hollywood joke at this point. I admit, I do a little rage every time I see a trailer use it. The entire soundtrack for Jumper (that was a bad movie) was the Requiem for a Dream song, throughout the entire movie. Rage.

This is the song, actually called Lux Aeterna by Clint Mansell:

 

An example of a movie trailer that uses it (one of many):

 

Even my homeboy Lord of the Rings uses it. However to give them a little slack, they re-orchestrated it with a choir and full orchestra, then renamed it as 'Requiem for a Tower'. So punny:

If you haven't noticed, I just found out how to put videos on the site. Go me.

Day Eight: Lord of the Ring

Day Eight: A movie that you’ve seen countless times

I love Lord of the Rings. Also yes, I'm counting the trilogy as all one movie Because I love all of them. I've watched the movies countless times, read the books so many time they fell apart. I have the graphic novel for The Hobbit (speaking of. SO excited for The Hobbit movie coming up) and I have a map of Middle Earth on my wall. 

 

See? There. I'm awfully proud of it. So you may have figured out that I’m pretty into the whole Middle Earth. Frodo traveling to Mordor to try and destroy the One Ring? The Fellowship of the Ring at his side to lead him along the way, Gandalf the White, Aragon the Ranger, Gimli the Dwarf, Legolas the Woodland Elf, Samwise the Brave, Pippin and Merry, Boromir the generally stupid but not all together bad guy. Good ol' Gollum popping up every now and then to be creepy. I can't get enough of it. Fun Fact: my favorite of the three movies? The Two Towers. Most likely because I'm all about the Ents.

 

Seriously. I want one.

Day Seven: Oldboy

Day Seven: The most surprising plot twist or ending

Oh gosh this movie. Oldboy has about 3 plot twists and/or surprise endings. The movie has you on the edge of your seat from the very beginning with this deep seeded need to find out why everything was happening.

One day Dai-su is kidnapped from a phone booth and wakes up in a shabby little room. There he is kept for 15 years without any clue who locked him up or even why. When one day he is finally freed, he sets out to find out why and get revenge for all those years lost from his wife and daughter that are now gone from his life forever. Once out in the town, he meets a woman named Mido who takes pity on him and decides to help him out, in which Dai-su gladly accepts after so much isolation.

This movie is such a mind trip, I was captivated. When the movie ended, I'm pretty sure I just sat there, since I needed my brain to catch up with everything that was going on. I recently found out that Oldboy is part of a series called the Vengeance Trilogy, which are three movies that have same themes opposed to being connected by plot or characters. The Trilogy goes Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, then Sympathy for Ms. Vengeance. I'm excited to watch the other two who has, from what I understand, an equally plot twist-y ending.

Day Six: Casanova

Gosh that poster looks cheesy, but I promise, I'm going somewhere with this.

Do mini-series count as made for TV movies? The only made for TV movie I could even think of was that one Lifetime movie where the entire high school gets syphilis, so I thought that counting mini-series was probably a good idea to save everyone from that particular description.

So Casanova was obviously about Casanova, the womanizer of Venice. This mini-series is written by Russel T. Davis, with Peter O'Toole and David Tennant. I'm only specifying who's in it so everyone doesn’t get this confused with the movie Casanova with Heath Ledger. The mini-series follows Casanova from childhood, to starting out as the Casanova we all know and love and how he falls in love with a woman he desperately wants but cannot have. Over the years, while still getting it on with oodles of women, he never forgets his one love – even when he's an old man with little left in life.

David Tennant makes this mini-series, his portrayal of Casanova is enjoyable on so many levels. I've watched the mini-series multiple times and each time I've loved it more and more. I highly suggest it.

Day Five: The Princess Bride

Day Five: Favorite love story in a movie

Let me start of by saying I'm definitely not a chick flick kinda gal. It takes a lot for me to actually care about the love story in a movie – to find it believable. Well The Princess Bride has everything I want from a romance movie: sword fighting, evil Princes', giant rats, revenge, kindly giants, true love, a good amount of comedy and a lot of adventure.

A grandfather visits his sick grandson to read him a story, William Goldman's The Princess Bride. The story follows Buttercup after her true love Westley is murdered at sea by the Dread Pirate Roberts. Without Westley, love no longer seems like a real thing, and soon she finds herself courted and engaged to Prince Humperdinck, a vile heir to the kingdom Florin. Days before their wedding, Buttercup gets kidnapped by a three men: a Sicilian genius, a great swordsman with a revenge plan, and a kind giant. However the kidnappers soon realize someone is following them, someone who also wants Buttercup.

This is an extremely well paced, adventure story with everything I love in a movie, and at the heart of it is true love. Love story's usually aren't my cup of tea, but there's something real and heartfelt about this love story. Something admirable.

Day Four: Toy Story 3

Day Three: A movie that makes you really sad

You've seen Toy Story 3, right? Of course you did, so I don't really need to explain why it's sad. I knew the ending was going to be sad, however I was not prepared for the entire movie to be sad. Okay, that may have been an exaggeration. The entire movie wasn't sad – just most of it. The beginning was sad, then there was a happy part, then a sad part then a happy part, then another sad part. Then to top it off, the greatest sad to ever sad. It seemed then as soon as I stopped getting all teary eyed from a part and enjoyed the happy, another sad part swept in to moisten my tear ducts. It definitely didn't help that my aunt was sitting next to me bawling the entire time, hearing someone else cry just makes you want to cry too.

Day Three: How To Train Your Dragon

Day Three: A movie that makes you really happy

I want a dragon. Specifically a dragon exactly like Toothless. I want to ride it, feed it, do that cute thing where you get it to chase the light spot like a cat. If I’m ever feeling down, I watch this movie. Not only is it so happy and cute, it's so pretty too. The way the dragon is giving an actual personality is genius, and just makes me want one even more.

This movie is about exactly what the title suggests. Hiccup is a Viking, but you wouldn't be able to tell from his appearance or attitude. He doesn't feel any real need to pillage or plunder or fight dragons or yell a lot. The other Vikings few him as a disgrace, so he goes out to kill a dragon in an attempt to prove himself worthy. He finds a wounded dragon that's just ripe for the killing, but he can't do it. Instead he nurses it back to health and tries to find ways to fix the dragons broken tail wing. He grows attached to the dragon, names to Toothless and becomes friends with it. He then tries to change the Vikings view on dragons, with … mixed results.

What's not to love about this movie? Dragons, Vikings, epic fights. Did I mention Dragons? Cause that's my favorite part.

Day Two: Moon

Day Two: Most Underrated Movie

Have you heard of Moon? Probably not. It got a limited release in theaters and even then it didn't last very long, which is a shame because it's such a spectacular movie. The people who did know about it took one glance at it, and just saw a space movie. No aliens, no big bad guy, no explosions - boring, right? Wrong, so very very wrong.

The movie follows Sam Bell as he works on the Lunar Mining Base for his 3 year contract. He's alone except for a robot named GERTY who helps him in his mining tasks. GERTY is his only contact since something damaged the satellites, stopping his ability to communicate with his family at home. But it's okay, he only has a few more months left of his contract before it's time for him to go home to his wife and newborn baby. That's when things go strange.

This movie is quietly beautiful. It smoothly transits from scene to scene, from nothing happening to.. everything. If you haven't seen this movie, you need to. Not enough people have and it definitely deserves it.

Day One: Super 8

To kick off the site, I'm doing a 30 Days Of Movies .. thing. That way I'll have 30 things already set up to talk about, then I'll get into the swing of things and continue to post after the month is up. Without further ado, let's get this party started.

Day One: The best movie you saw during the last year

I went to see this movie on a whim, although none of the trailers impressed me and even the promise of J.J. Abrams didn't seem to convince me. To be completely honest, that might have been because of the incredibly disappointing viral marketing they used for it, I was promised Cloverfield-esque viral marketing and all I got was a sad excuse. (Seriously J.J .Abrams, how could Cloverfield's viral marketing be so spectacular and then Super 8's so meager and sad?)

Anyways, back to the movie and not about how disappointing the viral marketing was. ...Okay, I maybe still be a bit bitter about that. Right, so we went to the movie, sat down in the completely empty movie theater and I had my mind blown. This movie wasn't an alien movie. This movie was a look into people, namely children, and their reactions to change and chaos. Yes there was an alien, but that wasn't the most important part of the movie, it was a side character.

The movie is about a group of kids who go out to film a movie for a festival they want to enter. When a scene takes place at a train station and a train starts to arrive while filming, the kids think it's awesome – now their movie will be more realistic. Then the train derails, which is possible the coolest scene I've ever watched. The biggest problem was something was on that train, something that got loose and invaded the city. The military comes in, people went missing, strange things happened. In the middle of it all are the kids, trying to continue their movie despite the chaos starting around them.

Of the year, I definitely say this movie was my favorite. I was just blown away by how good it was and I'll most definitely be buying it when it comes out on DVD. Super 8 satisfied my inner Monster Lover.

Once more with feeling.

I like the idea of blogging, I really do. I love reading blogs and the more I read blogs, them the more I want to write my own. I've started up several attempts in the past and I've realized something: I suck at it. I always have visions of writing witty re-accounts of something funny that's happened to my day. However whenever I try to do that, I have flashbacks of my Diary days where I'd write 3 pages then suddenly forget I have a Diary.

So now I'm trying something new. I'm giving myself a set topic to talk about, a task. See I consume media like crazy - I marathon run entire series at a time and knock out multiple movies in a day. If I put my mind to it, I can finish a book in a matter of days. Now I'm figuring I can put my unusual super powers to good work by reviewing what I've recently watched/read/listened to/whatever.

I have a lot of hope for this blog. Unlike my previous... attempts, I have a pre-laid out plan on what the purpose of the blog is going to be. Opposed to waiting for something interesting to happen in my life and then remembering to write a post about it on my sad excuse for a blog, I'll just do what I always do - consume media like the beast I am. Just in addition I'll also be writing about what I'm watching.

Here's hoping it goes as smoothly as I'm thinking it'll be.