The End of the Year

So I can't believe that 2010 is almost over. I always have a few movies that I enjoy ending the year with. For some reason besides Hugh Grant, I really like to watch Love Actually. I like the different dynamics of the group and how the people's lives intertwine. My Favorite is probably the Dorky Best Friend Artist that is in love with his friend's wife and Colin Firth's character. While yes, I fully admit that John and Judy being pretty much porn stand ins was just unnecessary I do like them if you just pretend they have some sort of clothing. Plus we all know I love Hugh Grant, my favorite part does involve him dancing. Its a fun little movie, just don't watch it with the kids.
Next up, My New Years Eve Movie. I Love When Harry Met Sally! It isn't technically a holiday movie but It does wrap up on New Years, so i call it a win. I really love the social interaction of Harry and Sally and how their characters develop together over time. I will agree that the deli scene with the sandwich is very over played, but there are so many great scenes. I think my favorite parts involve them talking on the phone at night when they are depressed over break ups. Thats what friendship is. I'm sure i've mentioned this before but this is one of my favorite movies. It even ranks up there with Cary Grant and you can't get better than Cary Grant.
On a side note, there will probably in the semi near future be a discussion of the Narnia movies. I've been getting in touch with my childhood and watching the Narnia movies from the 80's again. So consider yourself warned

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (aka. Super Fail)

As everyone knows it has been a long journey from the beginning to now the close of our hero's journey. Like many books that are turned into movies in the beginning the movies stay close to the books, but as the series continues the movies fall more and more away from the books, see Lord of the Rings. Overall people Deathly Hallows was a let down. Even though i was expecting them to leave out things, it was still disappointing and left many things unanswered that were answered in the book.
I remember going to the Order of the Phoenix midnight release and being throw down mad for days for all the things left out from the movie while they still added worthless crap that never happened in the books. Deathly Hallows by far is the worst movie at this. Admittedly Half Blood Prince didn't help line up for the new movie. At the start of the Deathly Hallows Movie none of the memories have been shown that help explain Voldemort's decisions and the keys to defeat him.


** Now for the Spoiler Alert! Don't Read any farther unless you have seen the new movie and or don't care if I ruin the movie**
I'm going to just list all the reason's why Deathly Hallows was a huge disappointment.
1. The great battle in the end of the half blood prince was absent in the last movie. So the whole reason why Bill Weasley's face was slashed up only made for a short mention.
2. The Dursley's pack up and leave.. yeah thats all that happens we never heard the letter to the Aunt and the reason why she took Harry in. Also I felt this was important Dudley never protest leaving Harry. He acknowledged Harry saving his life and was concerned about what would happen to Harry.
3. So battle to get Harry to safety, wow disappointing! Harry got out of there right away and we never saw the others getting attacked. I had big problems with the reason the death eaters knew which one was harry because his stupid Owl tried to protect him. Um no actually harry was set apart from the others because he refused to try to kill people under curse to attack him, yeah thats right he went around stunning people.
4. Harry is being searched for by everyone and they take him to the Weasley house right off the bat and he is never disguised. No people that would be stupid, which is why in the book they took precautions to disguise Harry. This is also the case when he goes out traveling through the entire movie, he's famous anyone could have recognized him
5. Never in the movie did they explain why death eaters were able to find the kids when they escaped from the wedding. Or How the death eaters got to the Lovegood house so quickly. Um yeah thats because of the trace on you know who's name to get anyone that would use his name.
6. Kreacher! They completely left out everything about him. This is when we are supose to find out that he's not completely horrible and neither was Sirius's brother.
7. Getting into the Ministry after it has fallen. In the book this took planning and they saved alot of 'mudbloods' escaping. Yeah none of this happened either it was done all spur of the moment.
8. Very Important for the next book, Harry disarms Draco and they also take Bellatrix's wand. Not in the movie he just kind of snatches the wand, not really much of a battle at all. Makes me wonder how death eaters ever get anywhere they look really easy to defeat.
9. Ron leaving and coming back. When he left Hermione cried all the time in the book. She seemed fine in the movie. Coming back, there was also some creepy vision of a nude harry and hermione going at at it. Totally un needed, oh and eww.
10. they left out the twins radio station, shell cottage, Tonks parents, Ron and Hermione's careful planning to protect their families, Lupin offering to leave his wife to protect Harry, also why did Mundungus look like a pimp? and why was his part in the previous books left out?

I could go on but I hope by now you get the point. I will give credit where credit is due, Nagini coming out of ms Bagshot was Awesome! It went right along with the book and looked really well done. With that said though, Read the book people it is so much better than the movie and the character development is so much better.

Manhattan Melodrama

To continue on my recent Myrna Loy/William Powell kick i rented Manhattan Melodrama. This film has another classic player in films Clark Gable. I do have to warn people that while this film does have some of the normal chemistry I have come to expect with any Loy/Powell combo, it is horribly sad. We are talking Disney level sad. Without giving too much away it starts with two young boys and several tragedies that happen to them. As adults Jim Wade (Powell) is on the fast track to being a great lawyer and political figure. He is everything you want in office, Honest and principled. While his boyhood friend Blackie (Gable) has taken a different path. Blackie is more of the charismatic, gambling, gangster, possible murder. Difficult situations arise and in the end it comes down to the choice of ethics or friendship.
It is a really well done film. I recommend it with a box of tissues. Though if your one of those people that don't like films because they are in black and white, well just give up reading this blog now, your beyond help.

Paranormal Activity

After being told by my good friend Shy not to watch this movie because I don't handle scary movies well anymore, he said he would watch it with me. Lets face it i'm terrible at saying no to a movie.
Anyways I was rather disappointed with this. I've seen much creepier haunting movies in the past. I didn't feel invested in either of the characters and lets face it the boyfriend, Micah serious jerk. This movie didn't make me suspend belief at all. In fact I often made fun of the ridiculous scenes that would not happen in real life. Some examples of this would be when they hear noises downstairs and go to investigate and call out "is anyone there". Unlike most people, these people did not turn on any lights but they did pick up a big freaking camera to walk with them. Actually in their defense they never turned on lights, because don't all girls when they are scared curl up in the dark, cry a bit and then go right to sleep? Yes I did find the ending creepy and I don't like loud noises.
Over all I'm not planing to see the sequel, i barely stayed awake for the first one. If you have nothing else to watch and want something creepy, keep your expectations super low and you'll be fine.

Just a side note on this. Shy and I started the movie with just the two of us in the house. In the first 10 mins of the movie while they are talking about creepy noises happening in the house. there was a sudden thuding noise on my basement stairs ( 4 thuds ). It was just the perfect time for a random box to fall off the shelf and fall a few steps.

Death Defying Acts

Death Defying Acts was a movie loosely based off the life of Harry Houdini. By loosely I of course mean if your high and squint at it you might see the connection. I didn't find the acting all that great and it annoyed me the changes and character they tried to make. Death Defying Acts is a bit of a miss name since he only does escapes maybe twice in the whole movie. It is mostly romantic dribble. It was heavy on the spiritualism angle finally leaving the audience at the end to believe is mediums. It completely failed to show that Houdini went out of his way to show the public the truth behind mediums and to expose them.
I did watch a bit of the 'behind the scene' videos where Guy Pierce (actor that played Houdini) talked about all the research he did into Houdini to get a feel for his character but in the end decided he liked what they decided to go with in the script so he threw out all his research. Seriously he actually said he liked the made up crap better than sticking to anything in history. Why didn't they just make a movie about an escape artist with a made off name instead of trying to pass him off as Houdini.
I don't recommend this movie, it was crap and mostly bad romance. If your looking for illusions or magic go with The Prestige or the Illusionist. They are atleast interesting, well written and starring a great cast. (sorry Catherine Zeta Jones, you stank in this one)

I Love You, Again

While flipping through my new Entertainment Weekly magazine this weekend I heard some extremely sad news. Warner Bros is remaking The Thin Man movies... Starring Johnny Depp. Now don't get me wrong folks, I do enjoy Johnny Depp in some roles, like Pirates of the Caribbean, Alice in Wonderland, Public Enemies. But Why are they remaking a classic. Don't touch the classics, go remake something that the original was crap. 3:10 to Yuma for example, the original was short, boring and lacking in everything. The Remake was witty with a plot and Christian Bale. For those of you that might not know anything about the Thin man movies, I recommend clearing a day and renting them. The Thin man stars a detective Nick Charles played by William Powell and his rich socialite wife Nora played by Myrna Loy. These movies have everything murder mystery, witty banter, amazing chemistry and great supporting casts. I highly recommend this series of six stand alone movies to everyone. In honor of my favorite couple, I rented another one of their movies for this weekend. I Love You Again.
I Love You, Again is not something I would rank as high as the thin man but its a fun little comedy about name Larry that has an accident while returning home on a boat from a cruise. After a blow to the head he remembers his name as George. George's last memory was getting a blow to the head on a train 9 years previous, George is also a con man. George decides to go to the sleepy little town Larry has been living and rob people blind. It is rather amusing watching him try to bluff the whole town so they don't know he has no clue who he is. You can imagine his surprise to find Larry has a beautiful wife that is trying to divorce him.
I say this movie has a fun little story and worth watching. Of course with me anything involving William Powell or Myrna Loy is worth checking out.

MIA

I am very sorry for the extreme lack of posts. It is very sad to say that i've not been watching as many movies lately as I am accustom to. Never fear though, winter is fastly approaching and I tend to try to never leave the house. So my large collection of movies and Netflix will have to keep me company.