The Little Prince (2015)

Have you ever read The Little Prince? I remember it being one of the first books my mom gave me when I was young.  Its been so many years that I haven’t read it.  From the moment I saw the trailer of The Little Prince, I just fell in love with it and it shot up my list of to-see films.  The problem was that The Little Prince didn’t have a set date as to when it was hitting theatres in the Montreal area.  By accident, I was checking out hours for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and it had hit theatres just this past Friday.  Imagine the joy I had! Hello, movie theatre and the best part is my husband volunteered to go with me even if its not really something he knows anything about.  Right before we went to the theatres, I even found time to read the book also! On that note, you should be expecting a review of that soon.

Let’s check it out! 🙂

The Little Prince (2015)

Director: Mark Osborne

Voice Cast: Jeff Bridges, Mackenzie Foy, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Riley Osborne, James Franco, Paul Rudd, Benicio Del Toro, Ricky Gervais, Paul Giamatti

A little girl lives in a very grown-up world with her mother, who tries to make sure she’s prepared for it. Her neighbor, The Aviator, introduces the girl to an extraordinary world where anything is possible, the world of The Little Prince. – IMDB

I don’t think any story has ever captured youth and being a child like The Little Prince.  The novel, I mean.  I guess its why I was a little nervous about how this would turn out.  Reading the novel before I went to see this movie was a good move though.  It wasn’t necessary to understand the story at all but it does justify the need for having a side story of the Little Girl and her meeting The Aviator next door who tells her the story.  Some of the art was taken from the book which helps us connect the stories.  The best part of The Little Prince has to go to using CGI for the modern day story and The Little Prince’s story of his travels was done with stop motion animation. I loved the contrast of that because it gives it a storybook feeling for the recounting of the story.  It was a lovely touch.

Before we talk about the next point, go back up to the voice cast names up there. The talent embedded in this movie is amazing.  Marion Cotillard played The Rose and her elegant voice matches that role completely.  Then we have The Fox who was James Franco.  I feel like Jeff Bridges hasn’t been in any commendable live-action movies in a while but his voice for The Aviator was just fantastic.  As was the voices for young actors doing The Little Prince, Riley Osborne and The Little Girl  by Mackenzie Foy.

Another aspect that was done really well for The Little Prince was the music.  It was beautiful from the score to the soundtrack. My favorite has to be this one called Equation.  I watched it in English so it had the English version but I love this French one even more!

Light-hearted, soft, warm, sweet, cute.  These are all terms I’d associate with The Little Prince.  It knows when to tug at our heartstrings also with the little side story regardless of its The Little Prince or the parallel of The Little Girl finding her youth when her mom has truly been raising her to look into the future as a grown-up before she’s even experienced enjoyed being a child. The Little Girl really finds herself with the story of The Little Prince and spending time with The Aviator.  Their friendship together is really a sweet one and grows in a beautiful way.  It uses gentle hints at the more dreary things that as an adult we can understand.  The Little Prince plays around a little with the original though by inserting their own little adventure of The Little Girl and The Aviator and extends to her going out to find The Little Prince.  I won’t expand on what happens after there as to keep it fresh.  I’m a little hesitant on how that part is contributing to the story itself but it did hold its message well enough.  I’m not sure if it keeps the subtle message that the novel The Little Prince was trying to say and for that, I’m not exactly sure die hard fans of the book might like this change, but while I question that decision, it didn’t stop me from fully falling in love with the characters and catch myself tearing up at certain parts. I’m not one to nitpick on making adaptations exactly like their source material and for that, I could enjoy this one quite a bit.  It adds something extra while telling the beautiful story of The Little Prince that we are familiar with.

Overall, The Little Prince is a beautiful animation.  It handles the source material well and adds something different to help us resonate the message it holds.  With a masterful mix of computer graphics and stop motion animation, it brings a new touch. The voice cast is stellar and brings life to each of its character.  The unexpected friendship between The Little Girl and The Aviator is a special one that connects well. At the same time, it never makes us forget about the heart and imagination of being a child.  While I feel that the last segment felt a little weird and the part where maybe it might make some fans of the book hesitate to enjoy this movie as much as others, it did its best to expand upon the source material in their own way and for that I enjoyed the heart behind it. The Little Prince is definitely worth a watch if you enjoy beautiful animation and soundtracks mixed with an imaginative story.

Have you seen The Little Prince? Did you ever read the novel? What are your thoughts on it?

Valentine’s Marathon: Never Been Kissed (1999)

Its taken me all day to finish writing up these posts but apparently after a whole day of meds, water and losing my voice then watching Superbowl, I finally feel a little more energy to get this finished up.  I promised a review to kick off the Valentine’s Marathon and we are starting with two consecutive days of Drew Barrymore movies. Its all coincidence because Netflix decided to expire those two movies.

The first of the two to kick off this marathon is Never Been Kissed. I’ve never seen this (or the other one for that matter). Let’s check it out!

NEVER BEEN KISSED (1999)

Director: Raja Gosnell

Cast: Drew Barrymore, Michael Vartan, David Arquette, Jessica Alba, Molly Shannon, John C. Reilly, Jeremy Jordan, Leelee Sobieski

 25 year old Josie Gellar (Drew Barrymore) is the youngest copywriter at the Chicago Sun Times.  However, her dream is to become a reporter.  A chance presents itself when she is sent to do a undercover report posing as a high school student in her old high school South Glen South.  Having to face her nerdy unpopular high school past, she tries to get along with the popular kids with the help of her brother, Rob (David Arquette).  At the same time, she realizes that her feelings for her English teacher, Mr. Coulson  (Michael Vartan) are growing at the same time.

 First of all, let me confess that I’ve never been much of a Drew Barrymore fan.  I’ve never seemed to like the roles she plays or maybe just how she portrays them but then, I haven’t seen all that much either.  To be fair, I actually watched Never Been Kissed and then rewatched it a few days later and my second viewing yielded a lot more love for it than the first viewing.  I’m not exactly sure what that says but one of the best parts was all the younger versions of actors/actresses that I’ve noticed like Leelee Sobieski and Jessica Alba both as students.  Oh, and there’s also a very young James Franco.

Never Been Kissed is an okay romantic comedy. I’m not going to remember it or want to add it to my movie collection any time soon but there’s something really sweet about it also.  I’m not such a huge fan of it exaggerating the whole nerdy student thing because trust me, I’ve known nerds in high school and I wasn’t a popular kid and its never that absurd.  Sometimes, I’m not a huge fan of stereotypical portrayals of certain roles and I think that’s really what didn’t work as well for me the first time. But, on the second viewing, I think I got used to it a little more and actually found that what really worked was the whole message about adolescence and high school and just how no matter what generation, it really doesn’t change all that much as far as the student population goes and just the whole popularity thing.

Now, we’re talking about a romantic comedy so our main stars here is Drew Barrymore’s Josie and Michael Vartan’s Sam/Mr. Coulson.  Now, there is two people which really has some amazing chemistry.  Oh, and what makes this movie awesome also was that Mr. Coulson totally is an accurate portrayal of that young good-looking teacher in high school that the girls like to go to their class.  In this case, its English class but for my high school, it was French.  Thats just my way of saying that I think Michael Vartan is really handsome and totally adds to why I would watch this again.

Other than that, what makes Drew Barrymore’s character Josie pretty good was that although she is totally awkward and nerdy at times, she has this really passionate regard of finding that person that she loves and would give her first “real” kiss.  I mean, its also one of the parts that made me fall in love with her character a little. Here’s the quote:

Never Been Kissed is not a perfect romantic comedy and its just about average with a few good and bad points to level itself off.  Drew Barrymore carries her role well as the nerdy Josie looking for her career break but finding more than she imagined in her love interest, Michael Vartan.  Their chemistry in every scene together is pretty fun to watch.  Also, there’s an enjoyable element of watching a younger Jessica Alba, James Franco and Leelee Sobieski on screeen.  With a few memorable quotes to add to the mix, this could be a decent choice with a few laughs at the absurd and awkward situations that happen.  It probably wont’ be memorable but there are a few sweet moments to enjoy. 🙂

Spring Breakers (2013?)

Let me explain the question mark.  A bunch of you put Spring Breakers in your 2013 list and I can’t remember when it was released; IMDB puts it in 2012 and RT in 2013.  So I figured I’d go with the general public thinking its in 2013 and then it makes me feel better about getting another 2013 movie out of the way.  I need to know how this movie ended up in a lot of the best lists.  Lets check it out!

Director: Harmony Korine

Cast: Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, Selena Gomez, James Franco, Gucci Mane

Brit (Ashley Benson), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Cotty (Rachel Korine) and Faith (Selena Gomez) have been friends since they were kids.  They all go to the same college now and are bored with their current lives and want to experience more, have an adventure.  This motivates them to save money to go away for spring break. Through some unlawful and extreme ways, the girls get the money and head off to spring break where things get out of hand and they get locked up in jail.  To their surprise, Alien (James Franco) bails them out and they end up caught in a different sort of problems.

Spring Breakers is a flick that I’ve been not too sure about seeing.  For one, it doesn’t appeal to me but with all the positive reviews, I really wanted to see for myself.  A lot of times when I give chances to something different, it usually surprises me.  For Spring Breakers, its somewhat of a weird experience.  I started out thinking it was really bizarre.  It was a new in the sense that it used a lot of dazed out and hallucinatory (is that a word?) camera work.  Plus, the dialogue repeated a lot to emphasize a feeling, an emotion.  It felt broken and choppy, jumping here and there, flashing to naked chicks on the beach, booze and then flashing back to our four main characters.  Funny enough, all these things eventually did grow on me and it felt like I connected with some of the characters and just how they felt.  I’ve never been through their situation, goodness, no, I haven’t even experienced taking drugs.  I have no idea how any of that feels like and I was never a spring break girl, but somehow, it really was good at showing the deeper level of this flick.  There was something more that was expressed.

That scene up there is possibly one of the most innocent and fun scenes of the whole movie.  It was the good before EVERYTHING literally goes bad and these girls break apart in a certain way as they learn about themselves. While we are on the topic of the four leading girls here, I can’t help but say that if there was any initial reason to see this movie, it would be because of three of them.  Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez are from little teen movies back when they started.  I used to like them.  High School Musical is not so great to me now but back then, I did like it for a little bit.  Plus, these last few years, I’ve warmed up to Selena Gomez as well.  However, the one I really wanted to see was Ashley Benson because she is fantastic in Pretty Little Liars and seeing her do something outside of that role into this one was quite awesome.  I think other than Selena Gomez having a small and not so significant breakthrough, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson impressed me the most.

However, talking about performances, the one that really stole the show was James Franco as Alien.  Honestly, I almost didn’t recognize him.  As much as his character irritated me when he first appeared as the DJ going “y’all” over and over again.  I have to say that his character was unpredictable and that gave him that whole new edge which pushed it over the limits and made him so good to watch. My respect for James Franco probably doubled with this role. I was really impressed.

Aside from some good performances, I think it was the way the movie was presented that complimented the whole effect.  On top of hallucinatory scenes, repeated dialogue, the movie was full of shades of neon that only would work for a movie set between lots of partying and drugs.  This movie surprised me in a way that I wasn’t sure if I liked it because I’m pretty sure the beginning had me slightly confused with the characters but as it moved along, it really grew on me and I started really enjoying its bizarre set-up of everything.

I really think its worth a viewing.  If nothing else impresses you, try out James Franco’s role as Alien.  You might be as impressed as I am. 🙂

Have you seen Spring Breakers? What did you think of Alien? How about the girls? In your opinion was there a deeper meaning to the whole thing? Did you like it?

This is the End (2013)

Continuing with my 2013 movie viewing! I have a few more to go before the year ends, probably even heading into 2014.  Lets get the show on the road since the next few days might be more 2014 plans rather than movie reviews.  My boyfriend wanted a comedy the other night and honestly, I don’t own a lot of those so This Is The End was the first to drop into the DVD viewing. Despite everything, I’m still a bit skeptical since I don’t like a lot of similar humor to others and I have a hard time being able to laugh at something that actually looks ridiculous stupid. Lets see if it did manage to give me some LOLs 😉

Director: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogan

Cast: Seth Rogan, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson

Good buddies Jay Baruchel go to visit Seth Rogan in Los Angeles.  After a day of hanging out, Seth convinces Jay to go to James Franco’s housewarming party where a bunch of celebrities are also.  Reluctantly, Jay goes and during the night, the apocalypse hits them.  Jay, Seth, James along with Craig Robinson and Danny McBride are now barricaded in James Franco’s house until help arrives.

First of all, I’d like to make it clear than when I see Jay Baruchel on screen, I can’t help but cheer a little and hope he does good because he represents Montreal, my beautiful city.  The first shot when he arrived, he was sporting a Habs cap and even though I’ve given up on hockey, it does represent the city very much. I did a little ” You go, Jay” plus fist pump while my boyfriend shook his head and smiled.  And then by the end of the movie, I started thinking that I really can’t wait for How To Train a Dragon 2 and I wanted to see some more of Hiccup….

Second, I honestly enjoyed this a lot more than I expected.  James Franco doing funny is something I haven’t quite grasped yet and Jonah Hill really doesn’t tickle my funny bone (or maybe he does because the funny bone doesn’t make me laugh either).  Anyways, I’m not going to get technical with my terms.  You get what I mean.  And then Craig Robinson and Danny McBride is who again? I’ve never seen these dudes before so okay, the only guy fairing any form of humor for me was Jay and Seth.  But, this was funny in a stupid, shut off my brain sort of way.  And I was in one of those moods, so it all worked out.

The BEST part of the movie though was not possibly the six guys but rather all the cameos from the other celebrities.  Emma Watson was hilarious and awesome.  Channing Tatum was a huge OMG LOL moment, if you know what I mean.  I haven’t decided if I really liked Michael Cera’s cameo but it was a bit weird in my opinion.  Rihanna did get a few moments and Jason Segel had one also (and I spent a few moments trying to remember his name).  I’m sure there was a whole bunch of other people that I was naming as they popped up but I can’t remember them now.

I’m going to have to be extremely honest and say that some parts of this movie did have me yawning and I think, it just has to do with not really enjoying the humor they wanted me to like.  Still, I had a blast in the beginning and at the end.  Plus, its like a comedic way of setting out a story about bromance and at the very end, redemption/selflessness.  Whatever you want to call that.

All in all, I probably didn’t enjoy it as much as the bunch of reviews that I did see when it first came out but surprisingly, a lot of it worked for me also.  The cameos were extremely memorable and hilarious and the guys sported some nice comedic moments as well.  Not my favorite comedy but it was a very different experience and a pretty enjoyable one at that! 🙂 Comedy is something I don’t want to say I’d recommend or not, its so personal so if you like these guys, you’d want to give it a shot. If not, well, what can I say, maybe you want to see Emma Watson, not as Hermione but still being pretty bad ass? 😉

What did you think of This Is The End? Are you a fan of any of these six guys?

3(some) Reviews: About Cherry, Sexual Chronicles of a French Family & Diary of a Nymphomaniac

I almost wanted to use that 3some as a name for this…but I figured it would be a one shot deal unless I started reviewing adult films and I will not. I’m not sure there’s that many steamy romance genre out there, or maybe there is, Netflix seems to have it quite often. What do you think?

Just to clarify, I did not watch all of the three in one shot.  I’m not sure that its possible for me to mentally take all of that.  With 3 short(ish) reviews, lets get started 🙂

ABOUT CHERRY (2012)

Director: Stephen Elliott

Cast: Ashley Hinshaw, Lili Taylor, James Franco, Dev Patel, Heather Graham

About Cherry is about a girl Angelina leaves her small town home to San Francisco with her best friend Andrew to find her own success.  She becomes involved in the porn business and she also starts a relationship with a drug-addicted lawyer.

So, what can I say? Excuse me, James Franco. Why did you take on this movie? Maybe I lack some form of compassion for Cherry’s situation or maybe it wasn’t outlined too great.  I think the point is that its something of a rite of passage story for her to learn about what she wants, and find her worth? I’m not exactly saying that its a bad movie.  As a movie about porn, its actually the lightest one out of the three with the whole sensual and nudity element.  But its also one where I connected the least with the character.  I don’t know anything about the porn business except for from My Daughter My Angel.  I’m not exactly familiar with how true the portrayal is but I think the problem is with the layout of the story.  I found her a tad stupid and even selfish and she made all sorts of insensible choices. So no, I won’t say its particularly worth your time but if you want to see this…

And the rest of the scene and some more stripping, etc.  You could always check it out, but you might want to skip to those scenes.  It should still be on Netflix…but I’m not too sure. I’m just not too fond of this one.

SEXUAL CHRONICLES OF A FRENCH FAMILY (2012)

Director: Pascal Arnold, Jean-Marc Barr

Cast: Mathias Melloul, Valerie Maes, Stephan Hersoen, Leila Denio, Nathan Duval, Yan Brian, Adeline Rebeillard

After the youngest member Romain, of a French family is caught filming himself masturbating in biology class, his mom initiates a look at the sexual experiences and desires of everyone in the family from the grandfather of the previous generation to her relationship with her husband and also her three children.

Sexual Chronicles of a French Family (original title: Chroniques sexuelles d’une famille d’aujourd’hui) is a peculiar French movie (although I’m not particularly familiar with actual French France movies). I watched it in two separate parts mostly because I thought it was really pointless and I needed a month-long break.  For one, I’m not sure I’d be open about talking about my sex life with my  parents.  I think that would go in the weird awkward category.  Just a personal opinion of course.  So regardless, lets say its not totally awkward.  Its not as much they talk about it with their parents as it is that we get to see all the action going down.  Its a lot of nudity, a lot of sex but its all in those blurry shots as if they are in this daze? Is that the word you use for it?

Well, somehow in my research, three of the actresses are actual porn stars (if they aren’t, its what wikipedia said, I think, I will correct it). So, these are mostly sexy ladies but we all know thats subjective. This movie was really about Romain finally having his first time, although you wouldn’t really have figured that part out. It was just choppy sequences so hmm, not as bad as About Cherry but nothing that I really felt about it in particular.  I’ll go with that I’m indifferent. Maybe I should’ve watched porn instead..haha..joking…Ok, ok they had sensual and some pretty hot sex scenes. Some good, some bad, I guess.

Lets just go to the last one…

DIARY OF THE NYMPHOMANIAC (2008)

Director: Christian Molina

Cast: Belen Fabra, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Llum Barrera, Geraldine Chaplin, Pedro Gutierrez

Diary of a Nymphomaniac is a foreign (Spanish?) erotic drama about a girl called Valerie who has insatiable sexual desires and sleeps with a lot of different men to experience new feelings and fulfill her curiosity.  These desires stop her from being able to be in a fully functioning relationship. When her grandma suddenly falls ill, she realizes that she wants to change the way she is.  She ends up experiencing his and lows in the world of love, lust and sex until she finally figures out what she really wants.

Remember a month or two ago (or more?), I had THIS post go up about Lie with Me? I really liked that one.  Funny enough, after experiencing two pretty meh movies centred around sex and eroticism and whatnot, this one was actually pretty good.  I connected with Valerie, the main character here.  Her life, the things she had to face, her relationship with her grandma, falling in love, her confusions, mishaps, etc.  It was all done extremely well.  The sex scenes are done really awesome as well.  There’s really  not much to say about it but its a sexy movie when it wants to be and its a serious one when it needs to be as well.  I’d recommend it for sure, if you’re into this sort of erotic drama of course.

There you go! 3 short reviews on some sexy (or not so sexy) movies. I find it hard to review these so I’m keeping it short.  After my rather serious post this morning,  I figured I’d give Friday night a nice, fun reviews on movies.  I personally thought the whole 3some thing was kind of cool.

What do you say? More erotic dramas?

Happy Friday everyone! 🙂

Super Sweet Blogging Award..Take 2!!

Having a partially baking blog, its always nice to get this Super Sweet Blogging Awards! Huge THANK YOU to DJ Matticus from The Matticus Kingdom for giving me this a few weeks ago.  Sorry for the late reply…I’ve been kind of in a funk…I’m out now! For the most part at least! Its taken two weeks to sort out the mess in my brain.  Happy stuff though! I have never been more proud to accept this award because last week, I did make some awesome Hamburger Cupcakes! Thats about the most creative I have EVER been, granted I was following instructions 😉

The star here is DJ Matticus! If you haven’t visited his blog, well, you’d better head on over.  I have the link right up there on top with his name.  He has an ongoing story that he posts up chapters every week. He writes witty and fun posts and he’s just totally awesome in general!

These are the rules for accepting the award:

1-Answer the 10 random questions or those of your own choosing.
2-Nominate 10 other bloggers for the Award and link their blog sites.
3-Notify the bloggers of their awards.
4-Ask the award winners to answer the 10 questions when they accept their Award.

10 Random Questions

1.  Do you think it’s weird that the Breakfast Club ate lunch rather than breakfast?

Now, we have a Breakfast Club too and I go there for brunch..maybe thats what they were having 🙂

2.  If you had Breakfast at Tiffany’s would you order the eggs or the diamonds?

I’m not really into diamonds but how about some other gems?

3.  Have you watched the movie Layercake?  Thoughts on that experience?

There is a movie called Layercake? I’m not sure I ever want to have that experience….

4.  If you boarded the Pineapple Express, which stop would you get off at?

Wherever James Franco and Seth Rogen get off, I guess.  What is Pineapple Express? haha!

5.  Do you prefer American Pie over pies from other countries?  What is your favorite?

Any pie but American Pie…Life of Pi sounds remarkably better from the looks of it.  I can deal with tigers..we’re buddies! Or how about Minny’s pie in The Help? My fave to watch being consumed but I wouldn’t personally.

6.  If the forecast for the day was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, would you stay inside?

Hell no! I’d be out there with a huge bowl (maybe bucket) and my fork and knife…okay, okay, my chopsticks 😉

7.  Do you slather Space Jam on your toast in the mornings?  Or do you prefer something else?

No Space Jam..not much into eating basketballs.  Some simple peanut butter would do! 🙂

8.  Have you ever had to Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

I hope not! Although, with the right arrangement, that could be fun, to a certain extent…

9.  Do you drink a glass of warm Milk before bed?

Sorry, lactose-intolerant! Skip!

10.  Have you ever had a Chicken Run away from you before?

 Usually I’m the one running away from them! Although, there was once when I was 2? My dad bought me a bunch of little chicks for Easter and they all grew up to roosters…guess what happened to them afterwards…

 

I’m still amazed at how he managed to stick movie titles in all those questions! How do I match up to that…can I just reuse them? Fine, fine, I won’t be lazy 😉

Lets get those nominations out first! DJ Matticus nominated 10 so I’ll follow his lead 😉

 

Serenity Sometimes

More Sprinkles

Scrummy Yummy

Mandy <3s Food

the Goodie Plate

Papaya Pieces

Thistle and  Maize

The Kat & the Falling Leaves

Life is Short. Eat hard!

at350degrees

 

Check them all out! Amazing blogs with wonderful recipes of meals or sweet delicious desserts!:)

Now for my questions to the nominees!

Which one do you like more:

1) Muffins or Croissants?

2) Cake or pie?

3) Chocolate, vanilla or marble?

4) Butter or margarine?

5) Almonds or hazelnuts?

6) Dark, Milk, or White Chocolate?

7) Frosting or defrosted?

8) Coffee, tea, milk to go with your desserts?

9) Pancakes or waffles?

10) Final question: Cooking or baking?

 

Easy, right? Just have to make a choice! If you don’t want to play along thats alright as well! Just wanted to show how much I appreciated all of your blogs!

 

Have a fun, sweet and fantastic weekend! 🙂

 

If you’re in Quebec, lets all wish this province a happy birthday! Although, Montreal is kind of looking mighty bad right now (if you’ve heard about it you’d understand)…Still! Its the provincial birthday and I get a day off on Monday! Its all the better reason to celebrate! 🙂 Plus, we’re getting some crazy hot and humid weather this weekend!

Oz: The Great and Powerful (2013)

I’m super happy that I got to watch this opening weekend.  I rarely ever do that because my boyfriend and I aren’t crazy about crowds.  However, we both wanted a little date night at the theatres since the last movie we saw was Les Miserables on New Year’s Eve.

Director: Sam Raimi

Cast: James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Zach Braff, Joey King

In 1905, an ambitious yet unsuccessful magician, Oz (James Franco) finds himself carried into a tornado and landing into the enchanted land of Oz.  There he meets Theodora (Mila Kunis) who is convinced that he’s the wizard mentioned in the King’s prophecy to save Oz from the powers of the wicked witch.  She then takes him to meet her sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz) who is taking care of the kingdom while there is no one on the throne.  Evanora shows Oz the benefits he would reap if he were to become the King after he’s proved himself as the wizard.  The one thing he would have to do is to destroy the wand of the wicked witch residing in the Dark Forest, Glinda (Michelle Williams).  On his adventures, he takes on a flying monkey Finley (voice by Zach Braff) and saves a little China doll in China Town (Joey King), who ends up joining him in the quests to prove his greatness, they get whirled into the problems of the land of Oz and he needs to not only figure out who to believe, who is good and evil but also how he chooses to become: good or great

I’ve been anticipating this movie a lot and I haven’t actually seen any of the trailers.  Its just I’m into the Wizard of Oz story and the cast seemed fantastic.  The CGI fantasy world looks so beautiful in the poster.  I watched this in 3D because the normal version had ridiculous hours where my boyfriend was still at work.  It was worth it even with a stupid ticket issue before the movie at the theatres.

One of the best part of the movie was its visuals.  It started in the 1905 real normal world in black and white. Everything was black and white till he got spun around literally and whisked into the enchanted world. Let me say that the landing sequence in 3D was super awesome and fun.  If you saw it, you know what I mean. It was a pretty rough landing but it was just beautiful to look at as well.  It gave the audience (and Oz) a general view of everything around him and when he got out, he got to see the enchanted world around him.  The vibrant colors they used and it had this slight cartoon-ish touch to it that reassured us of the magical world around us.  I really  loved it a lot!

Next, I loved the cast.  James Franco was amazing and he really shone as the lead.  I haven’t seen a great amount of him doing comedies.  I’ve seen him in drama (127 Hours) and action (Spiderman).  However, I felt he fit right into the role and brought out all the charisma that he needed.  Man, did he kiss a lot of girls in this movie! And he had a lot of funny moments as well!

As much as Oz was a great part of this, the conflict between the three witches were a huge chunk as well.  Lets start with the order they appeared.  Mila Kunis as Theodora was gorgeous.  Its probably one of the best roles I’ve seen her in and she looked really pretty.  She took on an innocent believer, just the type that Oz would prey on to help him and her love ended up changing her into the total opposite of the spectrum.  She did it really good. Rachel Weisz played Theodora’s sister Evanora, a manipulative witch that holds a lot of hidden secrets.  Prior to this, I’ve only seen Weisz in The Lovely Bones and I don’t really remember much of it.  She is a very charming woman as well.  She portrayed really well the elegant yet manipulative and slightly evil role she was given.  Her expressions and tone of voice was spot on.

Last we have Glinda played by Michelle Wiliams. I haven’t known this actress before however she played the sweet and soft but had strong will and inner strength.  She was convincing not only with how she represented that character but she had a very wonderful smile to match it. I think for all the 3 witches, they did cast the right women.  Charming, pretty and elegant embodied each of them. Many times where the witches were involved, it was the most intense and dramatic moments in the movie.

The comic relief in this movie other than Oz himself had to be the addition of his flying monkey, Finley.  I don’t watch Scrubs personally and I’m not really familiar with Zach Braff but his dialogue and facial expressions that they gave for this animated character was just hilarious.  He was my boyfriend’s favorite part of the movie, I think.  Aside from that, another character worth mentioning was the Chinadoll that was rescued from China Town.  I love the name, a twist on what we know as Chinatown 😉 That little girl was super awesome. The detail in the character and the voice was done by Joey King.  It showed perfectly at times, how she was fragile but courageous at the same time. Very well depicted characters!

 

I could go on and on about this.  I love this movie and its a great choice for seeing in theatres.  The CGI, the characters, and the whole animation was gorgeous and well-portrayed.  The story itself had a twist from the Wizard of Oz story that we know.  It wasn’t too dramatic or tense and had a balance of fun and comedic moments, which makes it highly enjoyable!

Valentine’s Marathon: Eat Pray Love (2010)

Not really a romantic comedy or even much of a romance, but it does look at another type of love.  This movie is based on one of the most inspiring books I’ve read in the same name.  That book made me smile from my heart as I read through Elizabeth Gilbert’s one year journey in 3 different countries.

Director: Ryan Murphy

Cast: Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem, James Franco, Viola Davis

Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) is unhappy with her life, but more specifically with her marriage.  One night she can’t take it anymore and sits on my bathroom floor in tears and prays for the first time to God in desperate need for him to tell her what to do.  A voice tells her to go back to bed and her husband wakes up and says that he doesn’t want to go on a trip and she says she doesn’t want to be married anymore.  This starts her long harsh divorce, the one which a few months ago in Bali, a guru, Ketut, told her that she would lose all her money and then get it all back.  In the middle of getting a divorce, she meets David (James Franco), a guy who is acting her piece and they get into a relationship.  However, soon after, she realizes that isn’t right for her either and she finally decides that she wants to pursue what she’s always wanted in life: to travel and at the same time, find herself again.  She decides that for the following year she will first travel to 4 months in Italy and learn Italian and eat great Italian food, then go to India to meet a guru and pray and meditate, and then her last stop is Bali, where she will find Ketut (the same guruwho predicted she would lose all her money) and learn from him as he promised the last time they met. Its there she spontaneously meets Felipe (Javier Bardem), a man who has gone through a bad divorce and also doesn’t know how to love again.

The book that is movie is adapted from is probably one of the best books I’ve read.  I know that some people question the authenticity of the novel but whether it actually happened or not is not as important to me as the concept behind it.  The idea of learning to find balance within yourself and truly learning to love yourself, learn from your mistakes but forgive yourself for them as well and learning to move on.  However, that part is for a book review.

I have to say that this movie is decent as a standalone movie.  The shoots of landscape and scenery are absolutely beautiful.  It made me want to buy a plane ticket, hop on a plane and just travel to Italy.  Especially because I’m a huge food addict, the food shots in Italy was to die for. The temple where Elizabeth stays in on her stay in India is pretty detailed.  I’ve never been to India but I’d imagine a temple and meditation and rooms would look something like that.  It shoots the streets going into the temple, the outside chaos and in some areas, extreme poverty.  The devastation she had from the relaxing and breathtaking Italy to a loud and hectic India.  When she goes from India and departs for Bali, we get back into a balance of the two.

Julia Roberts does a fantastic job in this movie.  When she sits on the bathroom floor and prays for the first time, you can feel how desperate and confused she is.  How she doesn’t know how to make a choice anymore.  When she travels, you can see her breeding into a true Italian as she captures the essence of speaking your hands to support your words. In India, how the sudden change affects her character and reflects eventually her struggle to find peace because she hasn’t forgiven herself and learning the whole meaning of praying.  When she reaches Bali, her character is learning to find balance from the two places she had traveled before and when she suddenly meets Felipe.  Here Julia Roberts does a great job at showing us this struggle as she feels her life go out of balance and not knowing exactly how to balance loving herself and loving someone else.

This movie is the first time I’ve seen Javier Bardem.  He is a fantastic actor, even though he was only in pretty much a third of the movie. Also, Richard Jenkins who plays Richard in Texas in India is worth a mention because he does a great supporting role as a man who tries to help Liz get over her problems and see herself for who she is.

However, if you want to be truly inspired, I really suggest to read the book.  The movie doesn’t really portray it that well.  But it does take out the essential quotes of the book and put it in as Elizabeth narrates some parts in the background.

And I leave you with this:

“Sometimes to lose balance for love is part of living a balanced life.”-Ketut Liyer

“In the end, I’ve come to believe in something I call “The Physics of the Quest.” A force in nature governed by laws as real as the laws of gravity. The rule of Quest Physics goes something like this: If you’re brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting, which can be anything from your house to bitter, old resentments, and set out on a truth-seeking journey, either externally or internally, and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher and if you are prepared, most of all, to face and forgive some very difficult realities about yourself, then the truth will not be withheld from you.” – Liz Gilbert

I’m a huge fan of Julia Roberts.  I’ve liked almost all her movies (that I’ve seen).  Are you a fan of her? Which movies did you like the most?

Have you seen this movie? Did you enjoy it?

P.S. My first post after its entered Valentine’s Day! Just a warning that I will be overloading you with Valentine’s Day posts.  I have at least one more movie review, Valentine baking and a little special something.  I’m putting it all together right now.  By the morning, the first of those posts should be up also.

Happy Valentine’s Day!