Double Feature: Doctor Strange (2016) & A Little Chaos (2014)

Welcome to a much more star-studded double feature! It feels like I don’t watch enough mainstream films anymore but as I am trying to catch up with the few Marvel films that I haven’t seen, I landed on Doctor Strange a few weeks ago but just couldn’t find a worthy pairing for it until well, A Little Chaos the other day which is a period drama but still has the weight of a bigger film to match up. I am working on a few filns that are supposed to leave Netflix in June so those reviews should be coming up.

Doctor Strange (2016)

Director: Scott Derrickson

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mads Mikkelsen, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Michael Stuhlbarg, Benjamin Bratt, Scott Adkins

While on a journey of physical and spiritual healing, a brilliant neurosurgeon is drawn into the world of the mystic arts. – IMDB

I am not going to lie that I had my doubts about Doctor Strange, but it ended up being surprisingly good. I have my issues with Marvel that everyone else doesn’t always seem to have especially in terms of The Avengers and Loki. I find that Marvel movies in general suffer from weak villains who don’t have enough presence to make them threatening. But then can we really blame a superhero film because we know the named superhero will become victorious in the end. However, as much as I still dislike using a bunch of Western actors in source material Asian roles seems ridiculous, I honestly do love Tilda Swinton as an actress because she is unique and then the villain is Mads Mikkelsen who did a fairly decent job as well. To be fair, Doctor Strange is a fun role as Marvel injects a lot of humor in their franchise which is a good approach. Benedict Cumberbatch, known for his Sherlock Holmes role definitely had what it takes for it since those roles other than the deductive abilities swapped into a superhero abilities were quite relatable.

The action here was different mostly because it was about shifting and illusions, something like what you’d see in Inception. There are lots of great moments and some comedic moments to lighten up the mood. Apparently the world of MCU is always on extremes of being on the brink of disasters, luckily the heroes always find their strength to make it a little better and in Doctor Strange’s world and his manipulation of time, things can just reverse itself. I may sound sarcastic or maybe a little tired of superhero films, but Doctor Strange is okay. Its fun but nothing outstanding in the MCU realm. The feelings I have towards Doctor Strange are starting to feel lesser and lesser everyday as I start to feel it being forgettable. I enjoyed it more than I expected so that gets a lot of points there. Plus, that ending was all about setting up for a next film or at least an upcoming villain perhaps.

A Little Chaos (2014)

Director: Alan Rickman

Cast: Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alan Rickman, Stanley Tucci, Helen McCrory, Jennifer Ehle

Two talented landscape artists become romantically entangled while building a garden in King Louis XIV’s palace at Versailles. – IMDB

I’m going to be honest that I love believe that Alan Rickman is a talented man however, I have a lot to catch up in his filmography. With that said, it came as a surprise to me that A Little Chaos was his work as a director. I’m a big fan of period dramas. One of the main selling points is the costume design. In A Little Chaos, it delivers very well especially highlighting the contrast between Kate Winslet’s Sabine De Barra being her normal non-royalty outfits where she gets dirty and they are very basic compared to say the extravagant French royalty with their wigs and big dresses. Matching with the beautiful costume designs is of course my favorite thing about period dramas and that is the score. From the moment the score started in A Little Chaos, I was in love with it. It was so beautiful and matched the scenes so very well. Kudos to Peter Gregson on a great job!

Another really great point of A Little Chaos has to be for those beautiful period drama settings. In this case, it is set in France and the King’s Gardens of Versaille. I’ve been to Versaille back in 1994 and to this day, I still remember a lot of the beautiful environments there and I was just 8 years old back then. This movie has a lot of focus on the whole gardening aspect and the passion for it and how this brought together the two main characters. The cinematography and production set of it all is done really well. Aside from this, the cast here is lead primarily by some familiar faces like the ever so elegant and talented Kate Winslet who is stunning as this female gardener who breaks the societal norms of this period. Paired with her is the also very talented Matthias Schoenaerts who I love so very much not just for his charming appearance but his acting chops. Of course, acting as both director and the King Louis XIV is Alan Rickman and well, we also somehow always get these little supporting roles with Stanley Tucci. The cast here does deliver quite charming and beautiful performances for their characters.

Now, where A Little Chaos loses its appeal is really in the story. For most of it, it feel disjointed and to be honest, it can be boring because there isn’t anything too extreme about it. The romance is quite subtle where its just exchanges of glances and small conversations. It jumps to events that happen that don’t really seem to make any big differences but to bring in some circumstance for people to meet up. There is never any huge turning point that happens. I know what was meant to be that moment but it never feels like it had enough build-up to make it worth it. It just felt rather flat and disjointed and if it wasn’t for these charming talented cast on screen dazzling us with their performances, this would have been a snoozefest. Sad to say, but if the script was a little better, the outstanding character created for Kate Winslet’s character Sabine de Barra and the hints of chemistry between her and Matthias Schoenaerts who plays Andre Le Notre, the King’s gardener would have been quite the romance to watch. Still, it fell short of its potential.

My Weekly Adventures!

After some intensely busy holidays, life feels like its tapering off into quiet.  Slowly but surely it is. The one thing I do notice in January is the immense amount of birthdays.  Not a complaint, of course.  I like being invited to parties, even the hermit in me likes to go out and have fun. The first half of January is a little slower than usual. You will see that this might be a rather short Weekly Adventures that isn’t really that adventurous but I still have a few things to talk about.

Cat Naps

Wait a minute! That’s not an adventure! I already told it isn’t but the first half of January was all about my cat napping and recuperating her nerves from all the unexpected visitors that invaded her safe home and once her purring starts, she makes me want to doze off. It was an endless cycle.

Family Dinner at the In-Laws

Last weekend, we had a proper feast at my in-laws with everyone in my husband’s family.  I drank a little too much of my father in-law’s heavily spiked punch and totally channelled all the French speaking me and tucked away all the self-conscious part of me. It was a ton of fun.  I think this picture is just missing the chicken wings that were still in the oven at this point.  Those were fantastically delicious!

Lifestyle Changes: Eating Habits and Working Out

Two years ago, I was great at this, maybe it was 3 years now.  Then, I got that eye infection that wouldn’t go away and it just kicked that perfect sleeping, eating and exercising routine out of the equation.  I get it back in the summer and if anything, I proved that in some pretty extreme conditions, I can still push myself to work out when I need to. Then winter rolls around and things get out of whack again. I didn’t mention it for the New Year’s post but its kind of a the past week decision to slowly make the transformation.

Consider this a new goal this year and I’m going to give you updates so I stay accountable!

I’m going back to a mostly gluten-free diet, working out (weights and cardio) 2-3 times a week and getting back a good sleeping routine, which means no more procrastinating and being much more efficient at organizing everything.

Revamping and Updating

I’ve posted during the holidays that I was updating the site and getting linked up and making sure the indexes were all good.  I did a bit of editing and actually finished all that up that day. But it also occurred to me that we’re approaching 5 years and I’ve been wanting to make a banner and reposition where I am. I have some funky connected Google+ accounts and I really just use social media for the blog except for Facebook but I don’t have a Facebook page.  Which reminds me? Should I set one up?

Either way, story is…if you happen to drop by any videos on any pages like vlogs or whatnot, they won’t work because while I was trying to work out some magic to transfer my Youtube accounts and change the connected Google accounted, I deleted my own Youtube by accident and there we go…all the subscriptions and likes and lists and videos are ALL GONE! It was my mistake in the beginning while setting up the Google + account and realizing it wasn’t done right and now, it was hard to fix it up. I’m not particularly skilled at technology so that didn’t help either.

Well, I do firmly believe that to revamp something completely, you need to break it down and rebuild it in some ways.  Just like when you want to clean something thoroughly, you first create a bigger mess and then clean it all back up. Maybe its a weird method. It works for me though.

With that said, its just an open invitation to clean up a ton of stuff on the site and fix the menu and widgets and all that stuff.  Expect to see some changes gradually show up over the next week or so. If anything doesn’t work, its because I’m messing around with it so just drop by again and things should be all good again.  It shouldn’t affect anything recent since I’m just relocating and evaluating posts from 2011-2012 mostly.

 Blogathon Announcement

In case you missed it, I’ve teamed up with Drew at Drew’s Movie Reviews for an upcoming Blogathon called the Ultimate 80s Blogathon to be held on February 15th.  For more details, you can check out the announcement post HERE! Its actually my first time to run a blogathon so its very much thanks to Drew who helped push me to do this one.  Even if you don’t normally write reviews, you are still welcome to do a little write up of your favorite movie. Even if you aren’t a blogger, we really looking forward to see everyone’s choices!

Mini Tribute to Alan Rickman

I don’t normally do much for the death of actors.  I did only once before for Paul Walker.  This past 15 days marked two influential stars passing away but just yesterday, we lost Alan Rickman, someone who my husband and I really love as an actor.  He is so talented and will definitely be missed. I feel it right to take a little moment here to look at some of his memorable roles to us.

Hans Gruber (Die Hard)

David Weinburg (Dark Harbor)

Colonel Brandon (Sense and Sensitibility)

Harry (Love Actually)

Severus Snape (Harry Potter series)

Event updates + Upcoming…

Events are kind of picking up again. I’m just trying to find time to get to them. I did go to one restaurant in Janvier a la Carte at Quartier Dix30, which is a little shopping/entertainment/dining complex in the suburbs of Montreal.  I’ve probably mentioned it somewhere else. Regardless, I will have a post for that going up.  I do want to check out another one if I have the time and company, but no promises on that one.  As I do need to make time to catch up on some movies at the theatres like The Revenant.  I personally want to go to see 13 Hours and later on, The 5th Wave. There are a myriad of winter festivals starting to pop up so I want to try and get to one of those as well, maybe see some ice sculptures.  I’ll fill you all in with an upcoming Events post very soon. I have some plans in the making for February and March weekend getaways if things work out well.

I’m going to keep this short since I’ll have something special go up in just a few days.

To wrap it up, upcoming posts…

• Special post with some announcements
• Netflix A-Z: D-G (at least) and catching up with more 2015 movies
• Janvier a la Carte Restaurant
• Baking Through Disney: Pinocchio theme Baking
• The Classics Adventures: Persuasion Book Review

Happy Friday, my lovelies!

Valentine Marathon: Sense and Sensibility (1995)

We’ve come to the final movie of the Valentine’s Marathon. My schedule has been sporadic and I even skipped a fun post yesterday but I’m taking this as a Valentine’s weekend of sorts so I might have a morphed up mash-up post later on today.  The problem is that I have a million ideas and I can’t do it without bombarding you with posts and I don’t like to do that. Regardless, lets get this last one done!

I had to make some serious decisions about this one.  On one hand, I wanted to see a few Netflix choices but I also received my package of Amazon a few days ago.  I finished Sense and Sensibility (the book) a few days ago and I just had to get the movie and it came in a timely fashion.  I also ordered another movie recommended to me for this marathon which I promise to watch soon but I just couldn’t resist the urge to wrap up this marathon with Sense and Sensibility.

Let’s check it out! 🙂

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1995)

Director: Ang Lee

Cast: Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Greg Wise, Alan Rickman, Imelda Staunton, Hugh Laurie

When their rich father Mr. Dashwood dies, he leaves his fortune to his son while making him promise to treat his three half-sister in his second marriage well and help in whatever way they could.  However, under his wife’s influence, he ends up leaving them with close to nothing.  The two eldest daughters, Elinor and Marianne, are at the age of marriage and its then despite the opposite personality, one emotionally reserved ruled by sense while the other full of romantic sensibility respectively, they find their love and fall into similar fates.

Sense and Sensibility is a wonderful adaptation of the novel.  If anything, because I didn’t enjoy Sense and Sensibility as much as Jane Austen’s later novels (that I’ve read), I may actually have enjoyed the movie more.  There is no shame in admitting that especially when its full of a talented cast.  Last year, on Valentine’s Day, in a mish-mash post, I confessed that I have a massive girl crush on Kate Winslet and she is extremely darling in this one.  I watch a little less of Emma Thompson normally but I love everything that she does.  She fully immerses herself in a role and just owns it every single time.  Both of them as Marianne and Elinor respectively are fantastic.  What I really do love most about these movies is the music: so elegant, beautiful, sweet.  And I don’t even think it has to do with the fact that I love piano music because thats the instrument I play 🙂

You know how sometimes adaptation have this really ridiculous casting choices and you can’t even picture that person you read on those beautiful pages as this person on the big screen? Its not the case here. I agreed with the choice of Marianne and Elinor, as I mentioned above.  The moment Greg Wise (who I know nothing about) popped on the screen as Willoughby, I was completely convinced. This guy who bashes in Marianne’s affection and attention but shows no restraint to his emotions even if he can’t really be the one.  He is charming and handsome and his character is kind of sad in the end.  Although they cut out the scene I thought was pretty important between Willoughby and Elinor, they did a fabulous job of putting to life is character.

Willoughby would not be as charming if we didn’t have the contrast of Colonel Brandon, same as Marianne to Elinor.  Alan Rickman is the perfect perfect person to play this role.  He can pull off that really unromantic person with hidden emotions but still kind of show his intentions in this quiet subtle way.  Thats the power of Alan Rickman because he is just so talented.  Honestly, Colonel Brandon is one of those characters who I love a lot in Sense and Sensibility.  He just deserves everything he desires because he’s such an honorable man, probably the most honorable in the story.

I kind of feel bad that I only took one paragraph to talk about the ladies while taking three to talk about the men.  Hugh Grant takes on Edward Ferrars, which is a role with rather little on screen time but has such an important role.  He literally has 3 actual phases in the story and its the same as the book in that sense.  Sure he’s sprinkled and we hear about whats going on.  There is no doubt that Hugh Grant was a great choice for Edward Ferrars and he really does a good job.  I mean, that ending scene with Marianne really defines his character a lot.  I read the book so I know what he does.

I love this adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.  I actually think reading Austen before I watch it, made me appreciate this more even if I believe I ended up enjoying my movie experience a little more.  Still, because it was so fresh in my mind, the dialogue is really true to the book and thats also something I appreciate.  With an incredible cast, Sense and Sensibility is a brilliant watch bringing Jane Austen’s characters to life one by one.  That is no small feat but Ang Lee does it and the cast themselves as well 🙂 I highly recommend this one!

Have you seen or read Sense and Sensibility? What are your thoughts?

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!

Remember, I have a finale post coming up later today (or tonight since I’m out of town for a day trip)!

Not-So-Secret Santa Review Swap: Dark Harbor (1998)

I joined into The Cinematic Katzenjammer`s Not-So-Secret Santa Review Swap and the movie that my secret santa chose for me was Dark Harbor.  This movie seems quite fitting since it is set in Maine and hey, I just came back from there. Right after the review, I have a little bonus in celebration for this event 😉

Director: Adam Coleman Howard

Cast: Alan Rickman, Polly Walker, Norman Reedus

David (Alan Rickman) and Alexis Weinberg (Polly Walker) are in an unhappy marriage.  While on Route 1 in Maine hurrying in the rain to catch the last ferry to cross over to their island retreat, Alexis sees a figure on the side of the road and tells David to stop and look.  They end up picking up a young man (Norman Reedus).  They end up missing the last ferry and parting separate ways with this young man.  However, with a twist of events, they end up seeing this young man again and letting them stay with them for a while longer than imagined much against David’s desire.  While David is off with his friend’s, the young man and Alexis get familiar with drinks, costumes and eventually sexual attraction sparks.  Alexis tries to resist while David seems to become more distant towards their relationship.

My synopsis cannot do Dark Harbor justice.  This is a clever thriller. I won’t say that its fast-paced because its deliberately slow and I believe it is done in a certain way to build up the mood.  However, it still kept me engaged and wondering whether something more would happen many times throughout.  Although nothing significant does happen, when the extremely clever ending hits, you will not seeing it coming and thats when those scattered pieces that was ignored throughout the viewing come back and all make sense.

On top of that, Dark Harbor has an amazing cast.  Any flick where I see Alan Rickman’s name on the list of casts merits my full attention.  He is just so talented.  I enjoyed him as Hans Gruber in Die Hard, Snape in the Harry Potter series, as the wanting to go astray husband in Love Actually and now, this one goes right on that admirable list of roles that he’s done.

I’m not as familiar with Polly Walker and Norman Reedus but after looking at IMDB, I realized that I have seen them in others flicks as well.  Nothing that I totally loved so it slipped my mind but I really don’t know where to start.  Polly Walker played a pretty amazing wife who we know right off that she wants to rekindle the affection in her marriage and try to make it work.  She tries to stay loyal even when the young man keeps reminding her of temptation and seduction.  Honestly, the Young Man wasn’t cute or handsome or charming in any way but I think what Norman Reedus does really well is portray the mystery of the unknown and how that in itself is very attractive.  The character of someone being deep and secretive.  We never know the Young Man’s name through the whole movie.

Its been a while I’ve seen a thriller that may be slow but ends off with such a clever ending.  It was definitely a pleasant surprise and totally worth the watch! Thanks to my Secret Santa 🙂

Now for the BONUS PART! Please excuse my nasal and raspy voice…its already gotten a lot better from a few days ago 🙂 At least I can talk again!

You know, I look at you, and its funny, you don’t remind me of myself exactly.  But you remind me of a certain time of when what I used to think love was then: the fireworks, the explosions, the highlights. But its not. Its time, to go through the seasons together, through change, through the ups and downs, to be able to look at your beloved in the eye and say we did that together as one, we chose each other above all others.  Thats love. Its unexplainable.  Its a secret that can only be known once you’ve done the time.

Love the quote! Don’t you?

Who has seen Dark Harbor? What do you think about Alan Rickman? Whats your favorite role of his?

Die Hard (1988)

Wow…I was 2 when this came out.  We all know this movie, especially after the 5th one came out in past February.  However, I promised a fellow blogger Jonathan @ Life of Jonathan to check it out.  He landed on my site during my February romantic comedy marathon and wanted me to do more “manly” movies.  I wanted to make another marathon out of it but I think gradually reviewing Die Hard movies is already going to be fun enough.

Director: John McTiernan

Cast: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson

NYPD office John McClane (Bruce Willis) fly down south to Los Angeles to spend Christmas with his wife, Holly Gennaro (Bonnie Bedelia) and his two kids.  Before going home, Holly arranged for him to go to Nakatomi Plaza where she works to attend the Christmas party.  Not long after he arrives, the office is penetrated and locked down by a group of terrorists lead by German leader Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman).  In desperation, he escapes and not only tries to save his wife from what could happen, but to also find out and stop whatever the terrorists plan to do.

Did you need me to give you a recap? I think most people have already seen this, but then I have to give others the benefit of the doubt, right? So there you go, a short plot summary.

This is one of the best action thrillers.  It is also  in #104 in the IMDB Top 250 movies. Okay, there are some cheesy lines here and there and there is one part I just realized when I was watching that cracked me and my boyfriend up which we had never noticed before.  The long hair blond guy tried to karate chop McClane in their final showdown.  I can’t find the image of it but it was a LOL moment for us! I had to give that part a mention.

Why is this one of the best action movies? Because its completely action-packed.  The intensity of this movie can get really high especially when McClane is running around bare foot and totally alone fighting a bunch of terrorists in an unknown building and trying to not get killed.  At the same time, there are a lot of smart ass comments that are meant to crack you up.  It provides this perfect balance to make it enjoyable and huge amount of action intensity.  We also have a great partnership from through the radio with McClane and the LAPD cop, Al.  They help each other out and they have some nice, funny and great moments happen. All the characters become so amusing to watch in this movie.

With that said, this movie is possibly the best in the Die Hard series because of its villain.  Alan Rickman is a fantastic actor and he does an outstanding job at being Hans Gruber, a criminal mastermind/terrorist.  He’s not crazy or does he act frantic. He’s smart and calm and we never can guess what he will do or say next. I was a huge fan of Alan Rickman even before seeing Die Hard, which I only saw a few years ago.  He is a really awesome actor not just as criminal masterminds but as Snape in Harry Potter and a tempted-to-cheat husband in Love Actually.

Great action movie, awesome cast, intense fight scenes, laughs here and there and great partnership formed and an awesomely evil villain, oh right and Bruce Willis in one of his most awesome movies and it makes me love Die Hard! By the way, did you realize that Bruce Willis ran REALLY fast across one of the scenes.  Never seen him do that before in other movies! Even more awesome!

Let the Die Hard reviews start 🙂

Which is your favorite action movie? Do you like Die Hard? Why do you like it? Maybe its for the same reasons or different ones?

Christmas Marathon: Love Actually (2003)

LOVE ACTUALLY

Director: Richard Curtis (Pirate Radio or The Boat That Rocked)

Cast: Bill Nighy, Keira Knightley, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Rowan Atkinson, Laura Linney

I’d like to start this off with the quote that starts off the movie because I find it best describes the whole concept of this movie.

“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion… love actually is all around.”

That is what this movie is about.  Love actually is all around us, especially in London.  It is promoted as the ultimate romantic comedy filled with separate stories from all the cast that we see in the beginning of the movie either in a wedding and the others in a funeral.  The wedding is for Peter and Juliet (Keira Knightley) and we see how it rolls into the story of unrequited love of Peter’s best friend, Mark (Andrew Lincoln) for Juliet.  This event brings together Jamie (Colin Firth) who we see ends up falling out of love with his cheating girlfriend and flying to France to spend his holidays where he meets a young Portuguese housekeeper, Aurelia.  At that same wedding, we also see Sarah (Laura Linney) who we get introduced to her not so secret crush to her co-worker, Karl and how sometimes you have to make choices for family that we love.  In her office, we see the relationship of her boss, Harry who is tempted to cheat with a younger employee while his wife, Karen (Emma Thompson) tries to rekindle their relationship and keep her own family together.  Her brother, the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) starts his position and meets his lovely “catering manager”, Nathalie.  The funeral however is where we get the shot of Karen who is there for Daniel (Liam Neeson) who has lost his wife and must take care of his stepson, Sam and help him get the love of his life who is a girl in school that will be going back to  America.  In the background, we have a old rock and roll singer, Billy Mack (Bill  Nighy) who tries to get top spot on the billboard.  Lots of love stories all twisted together is what makes up Love Actually.

Love Actually is one of those movies that I know is very awesome to watch, (however I forget during the year its awesomeness).  I love watching every minute of it because it makes me laugh and smile and then by the end, I get tears of joy because of all the sweet moments.  Here’s one of the especially sweet moments of Mark’s unrequited love for Juliet.  Of course, its only one of the many but I thought it was sweet and original.

The cast is just beautiful and charming and you start getting attached to all the love that is around during Christmas in this.  It consists of such a perfect group of actors and actresses that I adore like Keira Knightley, Bill Nighy, Alan Rickman, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Liam Neeson.  On top of that, we also had a few cameos of Rowan Atkinson.  I love him in general and in this one, he’s just the spectacular even for that little moment he’s on screen.  Maybe some stories could’ve been more elaborate if there were less put together but I think the point is to show the simplicity of each situation, how love is just very simple and we can find it when and where we least expect it.  We’ll do things that we don’t expect ourselves to do for it.  So great concept and great little stories, I loved them all.  However, I found that the key to the success was the soundtrack that they put together to support everything that was happening.  Just listen and look at the beginning song that pops up at the wedding.

Its some fun stuff when you find that perfect song that gets the viewers moving.  Especially when another song had Hugh Grant dancing through his Prime Minister headquarters.  We had the hilarious Bill Nighy doing his best routine of laid back old rock and roll star and swearing here and there with “Christmas is All Around”. Then we have “All I Want for Christmas” also one of my favorite songs.  There’s just so much more.  This definitely enhances the movie.

I may forget about Love Actually and its awesomeness throughout the year but whenever I see it, it just makes me feel so good.  Acknowledging that love actually is everywhere and all around is something we all want to remember when Christmas and the holidays comes around.