Children of Men (2006)

This week, I plan on getting through 3 movies on Netflix that are going to expire on December 1st.  I decided to choose the first one using the highest RT Score and it happened to be Children of Men.  I’ve read a few positive reviews about it recently so it was one I had already planned to watch.  Knowing that Alfonso Cuaron, director of Gravity that I recently watched, loved and reviewed HERE was also the director for this one made it even more motivating. Lets check it out!

Director: Alfonso Cuaron

Cast: Clive Owen, Michael Caine, Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Charlie Hunnam, Pam Ferris, Clare-Hope Ashitey

In 2027, the youngest member of the population Baby Diego dies at the age of 18.  There hasn’t been a child for eighteen years as the women have become infertile.  This causes chaos.  An activist group has now found a miracle and their leader, Julian (Julianne Moore) seeks the help of her ex-husband Theo (Clive Owen) to help get papers to help them transport a pregnant girl, Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey) to the Human Project, a refuge on the sea that tries to find a way to build up the population again.

Children of Men was an unexpected choice for a Saturday night Netflix pick.  I hadn’t intended on seeing it but it turned out to be a very good futuristic chase thriller. Children of Men is well-rounded with a thought-provoking script, a good amount of action, and portrayed with a great cast.

I’m a huge fan of the cast.  I’ve seen some decent works from Clive Owen before (with one exception being The International *grimace*) I hate that one but in general, he’s great at these sort of thriller roles with a bit of action and suspense, fighting for a cause, etc.  He’s a pretty great actor and most of the time, he pulls me into the story effectively.  In this one, he plays Theo, a man that numbs his life with alcohol after his son passed away years ago.  He doesn’t really care much about whats going on but he gets pulled into this whirlwind of crazy when he decides to help his ex-wife and realizes that he’s in something that seems to be more than it actually seems.

My favorite part of the cast is Michael Caine.  Stick him in any movie and he usually is my fave part.  He is a phenomenal actor and in this one, he has some funny lines to loosen up the pretty tense situation. Although, the supporting actors and actresses didn’t get such a crazy amount of screen time, they did contribute in their small way with their great acting to give some substance to the thriller.  Julianne Moore had that same sort of effect.

Overall, Children of Men is an engaging thriller that touches on an interesting story about a possible future where humans are bordering extinction.  The drama and the struggle behind keeping mankind alive to bring hope for the future.  Although even now, I haven’t quite figured out if the first 30 minutes was just slow so it felt long or it was so much information overload that I felt tired.  But I promise, the following hour after that is pretty awesome! Plus, I didn’t know Alfonso Cuaron by name until Gravity but suddenly I realized he also made one of my fave parts of Harry Potter (I love the 3rd one).  So yes, I do recommend this 🙂

Are you a Clive Owen fan? Whats your favorite role of his? Did you see Children of Men?

Toronto Finds (Take 3) and more!

This week just started and its been pretty awesome!

I went really chill with Toronto and managed to survive the weekend, eating/drinking and shopping for about $250, which is absolutely amazing, seeing as I used to easily spend double that amount.  I’ve tamed myself a bit 🙂 My self-control was in full mode.

Still, I think I managed to get some good stuff…

First up, lets check out MOVIES!

Movies!

I snuck in my Les Miserable 25th anniversary soundtrack.  They were on sale at Pacific Mall so I grabbed World War Z and Pain and Gain Blu-ray. I already saw World War Z and if you’re interested, you could check out the review HERE! As for other movies, last time in September, I had wanted Unbeatable but they weren’t available yet.  This time, I managed to get it.  Special ID is the new Donnie Yen movie (YAY!) and Floating City was the buffer to make the deal look better and I realized that Netflix just added it.  Feels a bit like a fail but thats okay.  Ending off is one of my long time faves that I’ve been wanting to add to my collection and Costco in Ontario had it for a decent price: Anne of Green Gables 🙂 No one does Anne as well as Megan Follows.

Next up, Costco also had some pretty awesome deal on books so I grabbed these ones!

Books!

I’m a mega fan of  Amy Tan. The Joy Luck Club is one of my most favorite books and even the movie wasn’t such a bad one, in my opinion, but I haven’t seen it in ages. I will though, then I’ll review it.  As for Jodi Piccoult, I loved My Sister’s Keeper so I thought I’d give this one a chance.  I’ve read some good reviews of it.

Hmm…I actually think thats all I bought, other than a bunch of food that I ended up eating before taking any pictures.  It was mostly Dim Sum from T&T Supermarket and some Egg rolls.  Groceries, you know? I’m sure you don’t need to see that!

If I ended it here, this would be kind of a pathetic post so I figured I’d share some of my surprisingly quick arrivals 🙂

The first is something that I had bought on Groupon for a Photobook and I managed to finish it right before the deadline! It didn’t come with a lot of long hours looking through pictures and making hard choices for the layout.  It was supposed to be a surprise gift for my boyfriend, but he’s way more decisive than I am, so I asked him to help me and that really sped up the process!

Photobook cover

Random inside pages

Excuse my messy desk and all those newspaper snippets my mom likes to stick under the glass on my table! I’d say it looks pretty cool! The pages all of different layouts and pictures, its pretty  much the highlights of all our trips: summer vacations, day trips, weekend getaways, for the past 5+ years of our relationship.  I actually dug out a lot of pictures that I completely forgot I had and we had a good laugh while putting it together.  Fun times 🙂 That flew from Malaysia (according to DHL tracking) to here in just a matter of days, arriving on Friday (but I was out of town) so I got it on Monday.

Next up, yesterday’s one delivery turned into TWO! WHAT?!?!?!? Apparently all those random things I get over the months all came one by one. I had bought speakers from Groupon for my cellphone since I enjoy listening to music when I shower or work around the house, plus, its light and portable.

Veho Speakers

I listened to it for a bit and it seems pretty decent.  For the price I got it at, I wasn’t expecting anything grand and it turned out alright.  Always a plus!

I also ordered a shirt from These Quiet Sounds, which is also a clothing company owned by one of the Boyce Avenue brothers, Fabian.  I was curious a few weeks ago and went to check out the site and totally fell in love with this tank top! BUTTERFLIES 🙂

These Quiet Sounds package

Here’s what it looks like!

I LOVE IT! I was a bit nervous because the fabric they used usually makes me look fat but hey, it looks pretty decent to me.  Maybe it was the 400 crunches I did before I tried it on, but I’m going to take the positive side of this: I probably toned my body up.  Just have to make sure I keep doing it, right?

See, the post didn’t turn out to be that pathetic, right? I actually have one more package that should be on its way for a Kickstarter project.  After that, everything will calm down as I prep for Christmas gifts and crafts.  Then it’ll be my turn to send things out! Plus, I have to try to keep all expenses minimal…I’ll do a big reveal in December after the Nanowrimo November craze has passed!

Things are going back to some form of normality! I do have a movie review going up soonish, maybe tomorrow, maybe later today. I have a few movies on Netflix expiring on December 1st so I have to get those watched: Dead Silence, Children of Men & Martha Marcy May Marlene. Whether I get all those watched, I have no idea but I’ve read some positive reviews each of them so I’m going to try my best to see them all.  3 movies in 10 days sounds very doable in my mind at least.

Okay! I’m done rambling on! 

Any of the three, you’d suggest me to see more than the others? How’s your Nanowrimo going? Do you like to support Kickstarter projects? Have you started thinking about Christmas gifts already?