Double Feature: La La Land (2016) & In My Dreams (2014)

Welcome to the next double feature! Its also the second (and probably last) Valentine’s romance film double feature. This time, we’re looking at romantic musical drama La La Land and then, pairing with it romantic drama In My Dreams. Let’s it check!

La La Land (2016)

Director (and writer): Damien Chazelle

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Finn Wittrock, John Legend, Callie Hernandez, Jessica Rothe, Sonoya Mizuno, J.K. Simmons

While navigating their careers in Los Angeles, a pianist and an actress fall in love while attempting to reconcile their aspirations for the future. – IMDB

Its taken a few years to catch up with La La Land and with Oscar-nominated films, I always hesitate to believe all the hype, especially when it comes to musical and romantic drama type of films. La La Land is a fun little movie. Its not completely about romance but its definitely present throughout as these two find being with each other to find the courage to be themselves and pursue their own dreams. At the same time, its fun because it has a lot of the right elements lined up, whether its Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling being cast as the two main leads and deliver some charismatic performances, a lot of great choreography for their dance numbers and a beautiful soundtrack as well as how the whole film has some wonderful cinematography. It all adds to the whole viewing experience.

If I had to be a little picky, because I do watch a lot of these types of things, albeit lower budget and not with all the other elements, the story of inspiration and romance and succeeding in your dream and the whole journey sort of story line is always rather similar and the same applies to La La Land. The script is absolutely not the standout point here. What helps a familiar script, because I think being familiar isn’t always a problem, is that the other elements done well above, makes the script find its unique elements. Perhaps the best thing about the script is the beautiful bittersweet ending add-in that actually rounds up the film so well.

In My Dreams (2014)

Director: Kenny Leon

Cast: Katharine McPhee, Mike Vogel, JoBeth Williams, Joe Massingill, Rachel Skarsten, Antonio Cupo, Jessalyn Wanlim

Natalie and Nick are frustrated with their luck in romance. After tossing coins into a fountain, the two then begin dreaming about each other. But, according to fountain mythology, they only have a week to turn those dreams into reality. – IMDB

I think the best way to describe In My Dreams is that it has its heart in the right place. The story itself is not a bad one at all. We have movies like In Your Eyes which is about two people seeing through each other’s eyes (review) and then we have movies like The Lake House which is two people at different times, just as examples. In My Dreams success would lie heavily on the mechanics of how these two manage to meet in their dreams and then afterwards, how they end up realizing that they are actual people and not figments of their imagination and end up connecting in real life. For this point, it works and then it doesn’t.

In My Dreams is a TV movie so right away, the quality is probably more along the Hallmark movies kind of deal. And it does have that feel-good and inevitable happy ending. Its an okay movie in terms of those little elements of character building and making Nick and Natalie, played by Mike Vogel and Katharine McPhee respectively, rather decent characters. They don’t have a huge amount of depths, just like they only had a few conversations about not a lot that makes them feel like they would work with each other. However, they do have some fun supporting characters that make for some nice moments as these two characters work towards their own dreams.

Where this falls apart is in letting Nick and Natalie have this frustratingly slow way of connecting the dots of their little details in the conversations in their dreams to the events of themselves in reality as they had those missing each other moments (which is also rather expected in romance films). Those little cues that weren’t connected actually felt like it was ignored deliberately, making the script slightly inconsistent with these two characters who aren’t dumb especially as their conversations together is about deeper feelings and such.

In My Dreams is probably one that is okay for a rainy day but there are some plot holes and then its still a rather predictable movie.

That’s it for this double feature!
Have you seen either of these movies?

The Croods (2013)

I’m going to try to get through 2013 flicks at least one per week.  Last week, I decided that its been too long that I haven’t watched animated movies.  I think the last one I watched wasn’t even a full review.  Actually, its kind of crazy.  I’m way ahead of movie watching but just so behind writing up all the reviews.  Thats actually never happened before but its comforting to know that I now have time at night to study or explore other stuff than just watching Netflix all the time. Last week, I decided that I wanted to watch The Croods.  I’ve read mostly positive reviews for this and with the bad reputation of Nicolas Cage picking up a lot of not so great movies because of his debts and still getting good reviews, I was pretty intrigued.  Lets check it out!

Director: Kirk De Micco & Chris Sanders

Voice Cast: Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman, Clark Duke, Chris Sanders

The Croods is a family of cavemen who live under the patriarch of the family, Grug (Nicolas Cage), who has proven through his many survivor stories to “never not be afraid”. Although everyone agrees and lives by this, his daughter Eep (Emma Stone) craves to be in more light and exploring the world.  One time, when they were sheltering in their cave, Eep sees a strange light that moves and she follows it to find a boy, Guy (Ryan Reynolds) in disguise with something called fire that protects and scares away creatures.  He warns her that he’s running away to faraway mountains to be safe from the world’s end.  When she heads back and her parents don’t believe her while the signs of what Guy says starts occurring, eventually causing their home to be destroyed, The Croods pick up the whole family and have to try and find themselves another home.  Eventually, meeting Guy again, they travel together to find safety.  While Guy learns about The Croods and their barbaric ways, The Croods also slowly learn the way to survive with something called ideas instead of brute force.

If you’re new to the site, I’ve been pretty impressed with the last two years of animated flicks.  Dreamworks has been kicking some serious butt.  They are the brains behind the neverending Madagascar and Ice Age series, which I will cringe if they make another of because I refuse to watch it.  Still, Dreamworks has proven if not by earlier animations but with How To Train a Dragon, Kung Fu Panda and the more recent Rise of the Guardians, that they are a force to be reckoned.  I’m happy to say that The Croods is in the same ballpark.  Its entertaining for all ages and its hilarious.  The colors and scenes are beautiful especially after the move onto the jungle portion and the creatures are adorable and pretty. Just look at this little guy:

Okay okay, I’m a tiger addict so this feline totally stole my heart away.

Not just looking at creatures, the characters were really fun to watch.  The whole cavemen learning about newer things and learning to use their brain to form ideas and solve problems.  The whole concept of breaking out of tradition.  The voice work was just so good.  Despite how everyone thinks Nicolas Cage really sucks in the recent years, I  haven’t seen too much of his newer stuff but even the movies like Sorcerer’s Apprentice was fun in my book.  But then, my scale and expectations shift depending on the movie genre and the target audience I feel they are aiming for.  I don’t think I’ve seen anything with Nicolas Cage doing voice work but man, he was hilarious.  Add in the very enthusiastic and sarcastic Emma Stone doing Eep and this movie already won my heart over.  As for Ryan Reynolds, I don’t have a huge opoinion on him.  He has done movies I love, hate and am indifferent to but I realized that I never recognize his voice, ever.  Its really weird but somehow in this one, his character of Guy and how he portrayed his voice worked well.  I liked it 🙂

I’m just praising the movie non-stop, right? Is it so weird though? Co-director in this is Chris Sanders, who also does the voice of Belt, the little purple fluff up in that picture that looks like a sloth.  Chris Sanders has directed movies that I love including Lilo & Stitch and How to Train a Dragon.  I didn’t know that part until I researched a bit for this.  He is awesome and I hope he keeps making these things because it totally works for me.  It reminds me of how much I just love animation and could watch ALL THE TIME!

To be fair, its rare to find a perfect movie.  I was very pleased with this.  In a more objective mind, the story was not as developed or maybe not even that original because its just cavemen learning to be more sophisticated, adding in the family aspect and whatnot but thats okay because animations don’t have to be that detailed.  They are for kids and as long as the main point is carried out and everyone has a good time. Thats really what matters 🙂 There were some touching moments here between Grug and Eep in the end and I just bonded with the characters so much, I kind of cheered them on in their escape to evade the world’s end.

I really have nothing more to say about this. OVERALL, it was fun, entertaining, hilarious. The puns worked great and the characters are awesome.  The voice work was great and you know what, the creatures and background was just adorable and beautiful respectively. I had a great time with it and I think it’ll be great for seeing for both kids and adults.

Have you seen The Croods? What is your favorite Dreamworks animation? 

Valentine’s Special: Last Minute Mish-Mash!

I’m having technical difficulties with posting up the normal specials I do, usually a piano cover.  I will try to still get one in before midnight EST :).

I sat around thinking about it and realized that I could just do a mish mash of some stuff I feature here. Maybe invite you to check out some past posts and tell you a bit of some more stuff. Lets get the formality out of the way!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!!

One of the growing and developing segments is the movie section.  Of course, you can head over and check out this year’s theme: Nicholas Sparks marathon.  I even reviewed a few other romantic comedies to help with the mix. You just need to head over to the Valentine’s marathon up in the menu under movies 🙂 HERE‘s the link the page if you’d like to get quick access to this year and last year’s Valentine marathon picks.

I always like to do lists for any events and I’ve done a romantic comedy lists in the past already HERE!

Movies that I know aren’t good but I love to watch

If you dropped by my place, I would NEVER admit that I actually like it.  I’ve probably only admitted it to my boyfriend but thats because he witnesses me watching these once in a while.  They aren’t great but there is a fun aspect to it.  Most people probably will hate it and its totally dumb teen flicks but everyone has an appealing factor. For me, the likes of these female leads were enough to make it enjoyable.

Nicholas Sparks Quotes

If its anything you learn reading and watching Nicholas Sparks books and movies, you know they have some really romantic lovey dovey quotes.  You know which ones I’m talking about.  Those that if my boyfriend said it to me, I’d well up with tears holding back my laugh.  I’m romantic but these things only work in movies.  I mean that last quote especially.  I’m seriously, even when Zac Efron said it, I laughed out loud.

My TV Guy Crushes (or I know from TV)

Ian Somerhalder
(Damon in Vampire Diaries)

Alex Skarsgard
(Eric in True Blood)

Alex O’Loughlin
(from Moonlight & Hawaii Five O)

Colin O’Donoghue
(Captain Hook in Once Upon a Time)

Top Girl Crushes

Emma Stone

Zooey Deschanel

Kate Winslet

Amy Adams

After doing that, my brain has momentarily stopped on heavy thinking.  For the girl crushes, I had so many but these are the most recent 🙂 They are all sweethearts in their own way and just so awesome!

I’ll leave you with some music and videos to leave a warm lovely feeling in your hearts, hopefully.

1) Disney’s Declaration of Love 🙂

2) Jackie Cheung- Love You More Every Day

3) Leehom Wang- A Simple Song

I actually  had done this song with karaoke but it had some third party issue that youtube alerted me when I uploaded it so to avoid problem, I just removed it.  Maybe if I get the piano I’ll do that.  I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing just me singing but the lyrics are lovely.

I’ll try to translate the lyrics here:

This world is complicated, it twists the words I want to say. I don’t understand complicated cultures. What kind of present will make you remember forever? Let happiness not leave so quickly.

Clouds and sky, butterflies and flowers, they never need to say anything.  It cannot break the connection and will always miss each other. Sing love songs and say love quotes, I only want you to hear clearly, I love you, this is the only thing I want to say.

Chorus: I write a simple song, to make you happy.  Love is a river and its unavoidable that we will hit road bumps. This simple song is nothing special, just like me, so normal but profound.

I keep thinking of how to let you see all my good, but I forgot to smile to you regularly.  What I’ve lost and forgot, I will try to make up for it.  You are my most precious treasure.

I’ve been into the Chinese music phase these days *blush*.  Hope you like it!

Since my plans for this didn’t turn out as I had wanted, here’s to make up for that. I’ll try to see if I can get something that I originally planned 🙂

This is going up pretty late so a lot of you have passed Valentine’s Day (you know, time zone differences).  Hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day my lovelies!

Easy A (2010)

I have no idea how I haven’t watched this movie again in the whole 2013.  I guess I just didn’t as I was busy discovering new genres.  Attached with the fact that the past weekend in THIS post, I claimed it to be my feel good movie, you already know what to expect in the review but still, lets get on with it 🙂

Director: Will Gluck

Cast: Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgley, Dan Byrd, Thomas Haden Church, Cam Gigandet, Lisa Kudrow

Olive (Emma Stone) is a normal not very popular student at school.  One day, when her extremely religious classmate, Marianne (Amanda Bynes) overhears her claiming to her best friend, Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) that she had lost her virginity with a college guy, the rumor spreads quickly.  With this, she sees that these rumors gives her a new social attention in the school that she enjoys and she ends up using these rumors to bring more attention on herself even though it came with a rather tarnished reputation.

This was the first movie I became fully aware of who Emma Stone was. Sure, I remembered her from House Bunny and realized she was in Ghost of Girlfriends Past, but this one placed her on the map in my book.  She’s funny and sarcastic and this movie is just so my type of humor.  I had a great time with it. Since then, Emma Stone has been one of my top 10 favorite actresses.  I really think she can do no wrong.  I even revisit some of her roles and I realize how she might be the shining part in a not so good movies (like for Ghost of Girlfriends Past).  Of course, the movie itself has a great tone.  It was smart, witty humor and payed tribute to great teen comedies, you know, John Hughes era.

Honestly, I love the whole cast in Easy A. After my long girl crush talk on Emma Stone, lets look at the rest of the cast.  We have in a rather smaller supporting role, Thomas Haden Church and Lisa Kudrow.  Both are very good at creating funny moments even when they are really trying to be serious.  We have the before crazy mode Amanda Bynes.  The one I do love quite a bit.  She plays a fully devoted religious girl and she was quite funny, especially her whole talks and attacks with with Emma’s character Olive.

We have some awesome young actors that I like, Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgley.  That guy slowly grew on me as I watched Gossip Girl more.  I really should finish up the last 1.5 seasons.  Penn Badgley is not a bad looking guy but what he has is a charm to him and I like the vibe he gives off in his roles.  In this one, he didn’t have a huge role since Easy A was more of a teen comedy than a romantic one so the focus wasn’t on the guys.

I really think that the cast and the characters are the life of any kind of comedy so I’m going to focus on that.

Moving along, Olive’s family is fabulous as well. I love Stanley Tucci so much, who plays Olive’s father.  The man is a genius. He breathes life into any role he is given.  Seriously, pick any role he’s done and if I’ve seen it, I’ll remember it because he’s just so awesome.  Him and Patricia Clarkson, who played his wife was such fun to watch.

So yes, did you get that this movie was fun and funny? I’m pretty sure you did. These late nights of finishing up the TESL course has ironically zapped most of my vocabulary out of my mind.  Easy A is an awesome teen comedy and one that I totally recommend.  If you haven’t seen it, check it out! I promise you’ll have fun, well, the majority of you.  Emma Stone is amazing and the movie itself just so fantastic 🙂

What do you think of Easy A? Are you a fan of Emma Stone?

Breaking Emotions Blogathon: Awkward

Last week, Mettel Ray announced that she was going to host a second blogathon. Last year my involvement in movies was really limited but she held a very impressive one.  After reading through this year’s, I decided to give it a shot.  Starting this week and for the next 3 weeks, she will post up 2 emotions where we get to pick our most memorable 3 scenes each (if we pick both emotions) and 5 scenes (if we pick one emotion) to post in whichever way we want.  Sounds like a reasonable task 🙂

This Monday, she initiated the blogathon with FEAR & AWKWARD.  If you want to see the full description, check it out HERE, maybe you want to join in the fun!

I was going to choose the 3 scenes for each emotion but then FEAR and midnight searches didn’t go too well for me.  I couldn’t even bear opening the sound so I ended up staring at my movie collection and thinking up two more scenes to fill up the AWKWARD emotion 🙂

AWKWARD is an interesting emotion to use, since Mettel says that it can be either funny and embarrassing for the character or ridiculous. When you look at it that way, then it becomes a bit harder.  Although, my life is surrounded by lots of chick flicks so there’s a good amount of them, just need to decide which makes the cut for “most memorable”.

1. Bridesmaids –> Airplane scene

Since Mettel already used the pooping in the street as the example, I had to find another scene from Bridesmaids since its full of ridiculous and funny awkward moments.  The airplane scene was one where I found was funny awkward but so very awkward for Annie (Kristen Wiig).

2. Easy A –> Olive’s Fake Sex with Brandon

Olive having fake sex with Brandon has to be one of my favorite parts in Easy A (although I do love the movie to bits).  Its a part I find crazy hilarious.  I don’t know who I find its more embarrassing for though, Brandon unsuccessful making noises and saying inappropriate comments during fake sex or that Olive (Emma Stone) has to engage into this activity.

3. She’s the Man –>” I get really bad nose bleeds”

Tampons up your nose. Enough said.  LOL!

4. Hairspray –> “I’m a bad bad girl who needs to be punished”

Imagine doing this extremely embarrassing thing in front of the guy you’ve been crushing on for ages.  DEFINITELY awkward!

5. Sixteen Candles –> Grandma Helen and Grandpa Fred (video from 0:00 – 1:00)

I don’t know how close grandparents are supposed to be after you are after 12 years old (or maybe even 10) but being smothered from grandpa like that is already on weird territory and then getting felt up by grandma is just a huge no-no.  We may not have felt the scene but it has embarrassing all over it.  Thank goodness it was at home, right?

That about wraps it up for my most memorable scenes.  I probably have a good dozen rumbling about in my brain but these were the first that came to me 🙂

Thanks to Mettel for organizing this and for coming up with this great emotion. I had a fun time reliving these hilarious movie moments.  Can’t wait to see what is going to be next week’s emotions! 🙂

She’s  totally awesome to go on over and check her out and I urge you to join in! It’ll be lots of fun, I guarantee it! 😉

The House Bunny (2008)

Right after the crazy horror movie Insidious that got me all freaked out, I went through my collection and picked out this comedy, The House Bunny.  The first time I saw this was actually the first time I saw Anna Faris plus I had heard about one of my friends saying they surprisingly enjoyed it.  At least it was a vague memory.  I remember my boyfriend and I closed it and thought that was some weird stuff. Still, I don’t know why I decided to check it out again…but I did!

Director: Fred Wolf

Cast: Anna Faris, Emma Stone, Colin Hanks, Kat Dennings, Hugh Hefner, Christopher MacDonald, Katharine McPhee, Rumer Willis

Orphaned as a child but then brought to the Playboy Mansion to live because of her beauty, Shelley (Anna Faris) had planned to have her happy life there forever with Hef (Hugh Hefner) and the other girls.  On her 27th birthday, she wished to be a centerfold but to her surprise, she wakes up after her big party to a letter asking her to leave because she was too old.  In a twist of fate, she ends up becoming the house mother of the desperate and close to ending sorority Zeta.  Shelley teaches the group of misfits composed of Natalie (Emma Stone), Mona (Kat Dennings), Harmony (Katharine McPhee), Joanne (Rumer Willis) and co. how to be sexy and attract more attention from guys in order to get 30 pledges and raise enough money for their philanthropy before they lose their home.

Shelley: “Car Wash!”

This one has a lot of potential to be really funny.  I still found it weird this time around but I found that its mostly some parts of Anna Faris’s humor I don’t get (sometimes).  After seeing her in Whats Your Number?, I know that she has a  different type of humor.  Its really her.  Plus, she always does quite daring roles where she has to expose her body a lot.  In this one, she does have to match up to being (or seem like) a blonde bimbo but actually have something more underneath .  Honestly, she really does a lot of it really well and even at times, she can get really silly  and it just grows on you (well, on me).   I started with rolling my eyes and facepalming to actually getting a lot of laughs from her jokes.

The transformed Zetas

The girls who play the Zetas are pretty funny as well.  I mean a lot of it has to go to Emma Stone because she is a sweetheart on screen.  However, it is one of her earlier roles so nothing compares to what she can pull off for say, Easy A.  I love her in all her earlier roles as well.  She does exactly what the nerdy girls would do.  I mean I’ve been there and done that…maybe not sorority stuff since thats not how my university work (not sure if any in Canada are like that…).  Before and after the transformation, they still kept a lot of the humor here and there. I ended up enjoying in the way that I’d like Mean Girls.

 

There had to be a little bit of romance for Anna Faris’s Shelley that turns out to be a riot in the end.  And then we switch over and have a younger romance bloom with Emma Stone’s Natalie and her long time crush Colby.  Although the latter wasn’t very focused on as much.

As always, there is always a hidden meaning with these flicks.  This one focuses a lot on acknowledging on who we are on the outside and not let the superficial take over.  Its alright to be physically attractive but to not forget to be nice and not stop others from being themselves.  I like the message even though it was set in a comedy.

It may not be the most creative plot in the world but it has its goofy characters and if you like Anna Faris, I’m sure she’ll be worth the watch.  Second time around, this was pretty enjoyable.  You might get a few laughs from this 🙂

Have I asked about Anna Faris before? If I have, maybe you have some new thoughts.  What do you think about her? Do you think she has a unique type of humor? How about Emma Stone? Whats your favorite role of hers?

 

Marathon Intermission: Zombieland (2009)

Everyone needs a little break and just so no one starts getting fed up with my movie marathon for the non-Valentine’s Day avid bloggers.  I took a little breather and watched Zombieland with my boyfriend.  Although, is it really taking a break? Tons of horror movies and slasher flicks get released during Valentine’s time, no? Anyways, its also the newest addition to my movie collection, along with Pirates Band of Misfits.  Movie buying has to be stopped now until my atrociously huge stack of unwatched movies are seen. What do you think? Okay, maybe one more…seeing as Peter Pan just got released from the Disney vault.

Sidetracking again, so back to our main feature…ZOMBIELAND!

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin

America has turned into Zombieland.  The nerdy Columbus has survived based on his firm belief in following his set of over 30 rules (as far the movie showed us).  He is on his way to head back to Columbus to see if his parents are still alive.  On the way, he meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) who is his exact opposite.  Tallahassee is a fearless man who is on the constant search for a Twinkie and sees the need to go full out destruction mode on zombies and the already destroyed land.  As they both head off together, they meet up two sisters, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) who have learned to survive in the chaos with extreme measures, while going on their way to Pacific Playground in search for a land with no zombies.

The only reason I bought this movie was because of Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin.  I’m putting straight out right now.  Also, because I enjoy zombie movies.  It never really scares me too much and this one is a horror comedy.   I went into this one pretty much blind and I had no idea what I was getting into.  You know what? I LOVED IT! It was funny, entertaining and the zombies were convincing.  I had one moment that startled me but its just because I’m easily startled.

I loved all the cast.  I don’t think I’ve ever hated any movie with Emma Stone.  Okay, I did dislike one of the movies but I loved her role in that one.  I’m referring to Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, if you were wondering.  Emma Stone is a fabulous actress.  She act the hell out of anything you give her.  So this one is the same director as Gangster Squad which also has Emma Stone and one I haven’t seen yet.  I’m sure that you get my Emma Stone love.  Next up, Abigail Breslin is just a pretty awesome young actress.  I’d like to think she wasn’t part of New Year’s Eve garbage. Back to some good thoughts, she was wonderful here.  Seriously, I can see good things happening to her if she gets some decent roles. As for Jesse Eisenberg, I didn’t see Social Network so this is the first time I saw this guy on screen (I think) and I actually have this thing of watching nerds on screen because they are crazy awkward hilarious, just as much as Woody Harrelson’s Tallahassee grew on me.  Tallahassee was a fun character! Plus, there was even a special appearance of Bill Murray.

The action, the shooting, the humour and the story  matched with witty and fun characters just made this movie super awesome to watch.  I can truly say that I haven’t had this much entertainment watching a movie in a long time.  I’m starting to really enjoy this  horror comedy subgenre (is that what its considered?)

Zombieland? What do you think? What’s your favorite zombie movie? Any Emma Stone and/or Abigail Breslin fans?

The Amazing Spider-man (2012)

After trying multiple times to go see a movie at the theaters, today I finally succeeded to go see The Amazing Spider-man.  It was a debate between 3 movies for me but due to various reasons, this was the final choice.  I wasn’t really sure what I expected from this movie but it was definitely one of the movies I did anticipate starting earlier this year when I had already seen its previews multiple times.  Other than the effects during the preview making this movie very appealing, I did have certain aspects that I wasn’t particularly sure how to feel about.

My biggest issue was Spiderman himself.  Right, right, I’m laughing as I write this.  Technically, if I’m not too sure about the main actor, perhaps it should be something I’d catch at home instead, but then thinking about it deeper, when the Spiderman trilogy started with Tobey Maguire, he was a newbie also.  The same was for Andrew Garfield.  At least I hadn’t seen anything he’s done (or not in a movie I’d recollect much of).  I took a quick research on what he’s done: The Social Network, Never Let Me Go, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, etc.  Okay, I saw Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus but that movie didn’t really make much of a good impression on me, so most days I tend to forget what it was truly about.  I did come back and just finished watching Never Let Me Go (finally gave me the extra push to pick it off my shelf and watch it).  I am down for more of him as Spider-man.  I never read the comics to start with so I’m not sure what Peter Parker is supposed to resemble as the original character in the comics, but I do like this dorky, lost, slightly clumsy act he has but at the same time, learning and growing.  His character development was really done very well and I think that helps in the whole storyline and makes this movie good.

On the line of the cast, Emma Stone was great.  I love her as an actress already and she did this role very good as well.  I’m also a big fan of Sally Field so when I knew she was doing the role of Peter’s aunt, I was overjoyed.  As always, she did a stunning job.  What else can I say about the cast, I liked Martin Sheen as Peter’s uncle.  The last role I say of Rhys Ifans, The Lizard, it was in Pirate Radio/The Boat That Rocked and he did a fantastic job there.  I actually had to search up his filmography to be sure it was him.  I’m not exactly sure what The Lizard was supposed to be like but I saw some pictures online for it but I just find he is the most poorly CGI one in the movie but it wasn’t a big deal for me.  My boyfriend said that in a movie that relies so much on CGI, there’s a point that you can’t really complain so much where there’s just one aspect that didn’t work as well.  I agree with that.

Let me tell you one thing though: I loved the movie.  It was a fun movie that mixed in a bit of humor, wasn’t too serious and the cast was great.  The effects were amazing, and the 3D enhanced the experience quite a bit.  I was thoroughly impressed.   It kept me pretty focused through the whole movie.  There were scenes that had I had expected something to happen and still, despite expecting it, I was still buying into it completely and getting me to feel what I should for the characters.  The storyline was enhanced by decent character development.  Its definitely worth the visit at the theaters, just for the whole 3D experience even.   Just a sidenote, remember to stay for a bit into the credits, there is an ending in between.  Maybe its to work up to a second movie? I don’t know but at this point, I’m in for a second one if it happens.