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.