Double Feature: A Stork’s Journey (2017) & The Edge of Seventeen (2016)

As I work through maintaining a little bit of everything every single week, here we are with the double feature of the week showcasing a free movie for a limited time on Google Play Store called A Stork’s Journey and 2016’s teenage coming of age favorite, The Edge of Seventeen. Going into both of these is completely fresh, for one, I just saw Storks and this is A Stork’s Journey, a movie I know nothing about, while on the other hand,  I don’t know much about The Edge of Seventeen, but Hailee Steinfeld has yet to convince me that she is a young actress to watch out for. Maybe this will be the one to do it.

Let’s check it out!

A Stork’s Journey (2017)

Director: Toby Genkel & Reza Memari

Voice Cast: Drake Bell, iJustine, Jane Lynch

Even though everybody else thinks he’s a sparrow – Richard himself holds tight to the conviction that he is in fact a stork. – IMDB

A Stork’s Journey is a pretty generic story. While there is some fun acting and some cool use of characters and play with words as well as incorporating the modern terms, it still has moments where it does fall flat a little. What does it give an edge is perhaps Jane Lynch doing the voice of Olga, the Pygmy Owl. This is definitely a rag-tag aviary team as Richard sets off to prove that he is a stork by making it to Africa, and on the way meeting other birds which are different in their own way to their own type of bird, be it an oversized pygmy owl or an over the top parakeet that wants to be a singing star and the great amount of techie pigeons that divulge a lot of information. A Stork’s Journey is a simple and innocent journey that pretty much tells us to dream big and never downsize ourselves. We can be whatever we want to be but also accept that we are who we are, big or small, and have our purpose and excellence. Absolutely a family-friendly film and probably geared towards a younger audience.

I mean, I probably wouldn’t pay to see this but it was free on Google Play Store and might still be, if you know, then do leave a comment below. I can’t see the price because I own it now. Its a tad cliche as a bird adventure story which might remind you a little of Rio at parts, but the story that move along fast enough and the animation has some adorable bits and I personally love Jane Lynch and her voice for Olga was really cool. There are some clever word plays and I like those in anything. I’m kind of in the middle here. Its not exact a hit but not exactly a  miss either.

The Edge of Seventeen (2016)

Director (and writer): Kelly Fremon Craig

Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner, Hayden Szeto, Woody Harrelson, Kyra Sedgwick

High-school life gets even more unbearable for Nadine when her best friend, Krista, starts dating her older brother. – IMDB

At this point, I’ve watched The Edge of Seventeen once and then rewatched it two more times. I’ve seen The Edge of Seventeen be compared to Sixteen Candles and in some ways, I can see it particularly with an awkward main character who loathes the idea of high school and is really over it. Suffice to say that I like this one a whole lot. Part of it is that the story is written so well with enough awkward dialogue and awesome characters that really highlight the melodrama of being in high school. For Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), this means losing her only friend to her popular and hot (almost perfect) brother who already has everything and takes away her only spark of joy as well. Call this a blessing in disguise, while Nadine flips out in her odd ways and makes some stupid decisions (as you would expect), she ends up meeting Erwin (Hayden Szeto), a fellow classmate who reaches out to her unexpectedly in her time of need.

The Edge of Seventeen is full of great characters. I’d have to say that the highlight is the equally awkward Erwin, played by Hayden Szeto. He took portrayed his awkwardness with silly joke and the dialogue between him and Hailee Steinfeld’s Nadine was a lot of fun. All their scenes were quite fun and meaningful. On the other hand, the scenes with Hailee Steinfeld and Woody Harrelson was also really great as its mostly pretty hilarious with his unexpected brutal honesty. Woody Harrelson’s Mr. Bruner is somewhat of a odd support system, his straight forward answers or comments on her situation spoke a lot of the harsh truth and in many ways, as someone that is past the high school phase, it reminds me of why someone didn’t point those things out.

Honestly, its been a while that I’ve seen something so fun with coming of age elements and kind of at a point really tugged at my heartstrings. I’m starting to see that potential in Hailee Steinfeld although, I do believe the fantastic script and the great cast all around made this memorable. I totally recommend this movie!

Have you seen A Stork’s Journey and/or The Edge of Seventeen?

(Sorry for the later than expected post. I thought I had posted this up. Apparently, I forgot to schedule it…)

TV Binge: Glee (Season 6 Finale, 2015)

Glee has taken us on a journey. Over the six years of episodes, they’ve gone through a lot and for those like myself who spent a lot of time watching it since it first started, it is a goodbye. One that has been expected but still, as you come to discover, a little hard. Its also one of the reasons why it has taken me about a month to get this up. Glee started its journey for the first few seasons in McKinley High School and saw the growth of its characters graduate high school and head off into their own futures staying in Lima or moving to New York or wherever else and finally after hardships still coming back together in Season 6. Sure, the last few seasons have kind of lost a bit of what it used to be but something about watching the final season and the further it gets to the finale, made it a little hard to let go. That just might be sentimental me talking, of course.

Again, I’m getting ahead of myself! Let’s check it out!

Glee (Season 6 Finale, 2015)

Creators: Ian Brennan, Brad Falchuk, Ryan Murphy

The final season of Glee. It is hard to imagine that Glee is has come to an end last year! It is. As much as I stopped watching it after feeling a little disappointed with the fourth season, it always had this nagging feeling to continue. I wasn’t crazy about Season 5 either and going into Season 6 was really trying to stay optimistic about it when I pressed play on the first episode. I feel Glee holds a lot of memories and for the fans, the second half of the seasom definitely improves immensely from the first half and we can see them taking the time to end the series respectfully and they definitely do. The best is seeing a final reunion of pretty much all the characters by the end and sending off a final encouraging message.

Lets breakdown the season in two parts. The first part, as mentioned before was not so engaging. For the most part, we start with hardships and Rachel picking up her pieces after bombing her career and finally finding a way to restart the glee club at McKinley High after Sue has become the principal and ruled out all arts from the school. It starts feeling a lot like how the show started but instead of Will, we have Rachel fighting. As they build up the Glee Club again, the next gen members group together but this time, the focus yet again is not on them but on the original Glee club group that shows up in rotation to help Rachel out, not only in driving Glee Club into the right direction. Here is where the show suffers a little in the sense that it proved that Glee was not viable as a long running show because the audience and crew grows attached to the characters and when these characters grow up and the focus is still on them, its hard to grow the cast and take it back to its roots at McKinley and the new Glee Club. The problems become redundant at times except with new voices. Some of amazing voices but yet they don’t get to hit their full potential.

In the second half, it is still focused on Glee Club andn their path to regionals. However, the main focus goes back to rounding out the season and all the loose ends with the old members, the cast the audience has grown to love (or hate). There are some moments that make no sense and some that are downright awkward. It made me wonder what I missed the whole time. However, the loose ends were done well whether it is for Sue Sylvester and Becky or Rachel, Kurt, Brittany or Sam. Everyone got something about having courage, taking challenges and finding themselves. It constantly paid respect to Corey Monteith’s character which is nice because he was significant to the show. The finale didn’t feel rushed and felt like it was a nice goodbye. It reminded me of a lot of the past early seasons of Glee and why I liked it. It also made me miss it but also knowing that it was the right time.

The final season of Glee is not the best season in its entire TV lifespan however, it is done in a decent and respectful way to the show and its fans. Perhaps it took a little while to get there in the first half but the second half was quite fun to watch. For fans of Glee, I feel like it shouldn’t disappont too much.

Are you a Glee fan? Did you finish the series?

TV Binge: Glee (Season 5)

Honestly, I’ve been in the mood for TV series and there’s is an endless amount of shows I need to catch up on or just simply start.  Netflix doesn’t make choosing very easy and I probably end up taking more time trying to choose what to watch than actually watching the movie.  Either way, Glee was updated with Season 5 maybe a week or two ago and I started it up right away! One thing is that, Glee ended recently and its always a happy and fun show to watch.  The last two seasons haven’t been great on story or content but I always liked how the Glee cast mash up the songs and put it into the context of what was going on.

Let’s check this out! 🙂

Glee (Season 5)

Creator: Ian Brennan, Brad Falchuk, Ryan Murphy

Cast: Lea Michele, Matthew Morrison, Jane Lynch, Chris Colfer, Naya Rivera, Kevin McHale, Jenna Ushkowitz, Darren Criss, Chord Overstreet, Becca Tobin, Jacob Artist, Melissa Benoist, Blake Jenner

 In case you are not current with Glee, Glee follows McKinley High School’s Glee Club called New Directions lead by Mr. Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison).  This group is not the cool kids and they are always bullied for being different from the rest of the group.  At the same time, cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) is always out to get in their way.  In Season 5, the first group has already graduated including Rachel (Lea Michele), Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Santana (Naya Rivera) who have moved to pursue their dreams in New York City.  While at the same time, the glee club in McKinley is lead by now seniors: Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), Sam (Chord Overstreet), Blaine (Darren Criss) and Artie (Kevin McHale) and with the younger blood, they hope to win the Nationals a second year in the row, in fact with the changes at McKinley, a lot lies on them winning it.

In a nutshell, that’s what Glee is about.  I guess if you didn’t watch the first 4 seasons, you probably won’t be inclined to watch this one.  Season 5 was a step up from Season 3 and 4.  What works here is how they now incorporate whats going on in Lima and McKinley and NYC and the graduates.  In fact, the song choices and themes are pretty good (for example, The Beatles).  The season started a little rocky and I wasn’t really sure if I could get into it but they did find some sort of balance.  While the young blood isn’t quite as strong plot wise.  Let’s face it: the original Glee club had a lot of drama in the first two seasons to make up for everything that they didn’t really have much to work with and be different.  But they were still good singers and they were going somewhere, except they weren’t enough to build a deep connection with the audience (at least they didn’t with me).  As much as I enjoyed watching them, I didn’t really mind whether they were there or not and it felt like the focus was on the original members of Glee club anyways.

Another factor that had some of the best episodes was how they kept Finn (Cory Monteith) and his death into it.  There was a lot of tugging heartstrings to keep that feeling there.  It wasn’t just the tribute episode, which was done extremely well, and I have to admit that I did shed quite a bit of tears there.  But then, they chose Seasons of Love to open the episode and I love that song.  That episode was definitely the best one in the whole season.  They didn’t stop there though.  Finn’s character was a constant reminder throughout the entire season and I respect that, except at some point, I started wondering if it was really a way to keep the dedicated viewers to keep coming back since he was a key character.  Still, I liked how they added that in.

On the New York City tangent, a new deeper friendship develops between Santana being part of Kurt and Rachel’s life.  At the same time, they also have guest appearance for a few episodes with Adam Lambert.  I was never too familiar with him except for the few songs that hit the radio but this guy is pretty good.  I like his style and flair that he added to the show.  Plus, once the focus of the show landed more on New York City after graduation and phased out McKinley a little, the tone changed and it made it feel a lot more like it was watching Glee from the first few seasons but just in a different place. Its not a bad thing and they work hard to give them more older decisions that have to determine their future.  Glee was always a lot about these kids following their dreams and fighting against the norm and it seemed to be reaching for those roots again and I personally really appreciated that.

Overall, Glee Season 5 kicks it up a little more.  Maybe its that season 4 helped build liking the new blood in New Directions and also getting used to flipping between New York City and McKinley so it works out better.  At the same time, Cory Monteith’s death gave his character a lot of heartstrings that were being tugged as we remembered his character and all the influence it had on the plot and the show in general.  He is definitely missed.  The music they choose was really good and I enjoyed it all for the essence of what Glee is.  It may be a new place but seeing the old cast appear as guests for a few episodes also really added to it all as well.  I definitely enjoyed Season 5 of Glee and I look forward to how they end it all in Season 6.

Are you or were you a fan of Glee? Have you seen Season 5? What do you think of it? Have you finished the show?

Julie & Julia (2009)

Next up in recommendations is from a lovely blogger, Livonne.  She is a fabulous photographer and writes amazing posts.  I totally love hanging out at her blog and if you haven’t been there, well, lets just say you are missing out and you should!! I’ll give you a some time to head over there to follow her and check out what she does.

Ready? Well, she suggested to me to watch Julie & Julia.  Funny enough, I’ve read the book but never actually finished watching the movie entirely.  I mean, whats wrong with me, right? Its literally a movie about EVERYTHING I love and honestly, it (the book) has a bit to do with why I even considered blogging in the first place.  Cooking, blogging, eating, Amy Adams and Meryl Streep and add in a bit of Stanley Tucci and a dash of Jane Lynch: count me in on that one!

Wait wait, I’m getting ahead of myself! A little synopsis, shall we?

Director: Nora Ephron

Cast: Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina, Jane Lynch, Linda Emond

Julie Powell (Amy Adams) is a government worker who moves to Queen’s because of her husband ‘s (Chris Messina) job and aspires to be a writer and with her passion for cooking, she decides to take 365 days to cook through the 524 recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  Back in the day, Julia Child’s (Meryl Streep) life unravels somewhat similarly when she moves to France because her husband (Stanley Tucci) is sent there to work at the American embassy.  She decides to learn French cooking and eventually after meeting certain people decide to publish a book geared towards teaching servantless American woman to cook. 

Julie & Julia, the book, was a unique reading experience.  It was fun and light-hearted and so inspiring because you know what it is.  We all hit a bit of road bumps and sometimes the little turns and bends down the unexpected and spontaneous roads become experiences that turn out to be more rewarding than we imagine, not just in the sense of career but a self-satisfaction and a personal journey to learn more about ourselves.  At least thats why I love blogging, I just can’t help but wonder if sometimes I become self-absorbed although I try my very best to balance my life as much as I can..

Back now to the movie, Meryl Streep gives a charistmatic performance.  She’s fun to watch as the clever and witty Julia Child.  There’s something so lovable about her character.  She’s cooking and watching those little snippets of her teaching cooking and I wanted to go pick up her book and cook it also, but then, I don’t think my rather lactose-intolerant/sensitive stomach could take so much butter and cream and fat.  Its just so inspiring.  Thats whats great about this adaptation because it manages to re-enact the light-heartedness with a hint of comedy.

Comedy is not so much in Meryl Streep, except for her witty dialogue but rather in Amy Adams’s Julie Powell portrayal. She’s the modern person and for me, I felt like I could relate to her.  Other than that inner journey that I talked about in terms of blogging, it had to do with that whole learning new cooking skills, especially the lobster part.  Amy Adams is just a lovable and adorable actress and she can handle a range of emotions from bubbly to full-on crazy meltdown.

Julie & Julia is a fun and entertaining trip especially for foodies.  Its funny and entertaining and also inspiring.  Being a blogger, we understand the world of being a blogger and the whole journey of being dedicated to it and finding a balance between this life and our own life not in front of the computer.  The whole doing something not related to work or that we’re passionate about and sharing it with the part of the online community that has similar interests.  I liked this movie a lot and it really made me feel really good afterwards. It injected me with a dose of well-needed energy and motivation. I guess thats why I’m typing up this well past my bedtime. So I’ll stop now and say, do watch this.  Its a really good one 🙂

Thanks to Livonne for bringing this one up.  It gave me the push to watch the full movie and fully appreciate it for its awesomeness! 🙂 Remember to check out her blog!

Have you seen Julie & Julia? What are your favorite roles of Amy Adams and/or Meryl Streep? Are there other movies related to cooking that you’d recommend?

Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

Have I told you about my Disney animated collection? My goal is to collect all of Disney movies.  Mostly, it includes animations/classics but then I have a few that aren’t but I always enjoy it.  When I went to Burlington/Plattsburgh for Easter weekend, I managed to pick up a cheaper (than Montreal) copy of Wreck-It Ralph.  Finally, in the lineup of comedies, I chose this one to see!

Director: Rich Moore

Cast: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, Mindy Kaling

Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) is the video game villain in the 30 year old arcade game Fix-It Felix Jr. After 30 years, he feels alone and rejected.  As Felix  has his hammer to fix everything and he’s the hero of the game, he always gets the medal.  After an encounter with the “good guys” in the game, he vows that he will get a medal to prove that he can hang out with them so they know that he isn’t a bad guy.  As he searches for a solution, he finds himself the opportunity to jump to another game, Hero’s Duty to get their Medal of Heroes.  Its there, things get a bit out of hand and he unleashes something and ends up accidentally bringing that into another game Sugar Rush.  Little did he know that he would end up with an annoying little girl called Vanellope who wants to race in the game but King Candy (Alan Tudyk) and the other racers will go to no ends to stop her from joining in.  In between all this, we get Hero’s Duty leader, Sergeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch) and Felix teaming up to bring Ralph back before their games are all affected and get unplugged forever.

“I’m bad, and that’s good. I will never be good, and that’s not bad. There’s no one I’d rather be than me.”

Wreck-It Ralph is very appealing.  It has a lot to offer and I loved the premise.  I love arcades and when you set it in an arcade scenario and manipulate the use of the setup there to make its own imaginative (but real) community, I found it completely ingenious.  The power bar was the central station of the games.  They had everything including a Bad-Anon group to give therapy to all the bad guys in the games because they are just normal characters who are playing a role to keep their game alive and plugged.  My boyfriend and I particularly loved it when they even inserted the Metal Gear Solid exclamation mark! We love that game to bits! Plus, Pacman, Sonic, Street Fighter, Bowser..its a gamer’s dream right there.

“Here you go, guys. Its fresh from Pac-man’s”

Other than having a great premise, this animated flick has some pretty awesome characters.  To start, we have Ralph.  He’s our protagonist, despite being a villain in his game.  All he wants is to not feel wanted and accepted for who he is and not his job per se.  He ends up overlooking the balance of things and he learns that being a hero means a whole lot more.  The responsibilities behind it and just simply what it means to be friends and to tell and analyze right and wrong and seeing the true nature of someone.  He’s big but he’s sweet and caring.  We can see that when he deals with the situation like with Vanellope.

“So…how’d I do?”

Vanellope is the cutest little girl ever! She’s annoying and all but she has her reasons for being the way she is.  At many times, this flick is about the developing friendship between her and Ralph.  They both start it off with manipulation to get something from one another and use each other’s skills to get to their end goal but it changes around.  The spark and the dialogue between them are just so fun and it made me fall in love with these two.

Sergeant Calhoun in Hero’s Duty

Being a sub storyline and supporting characters in this flick, Sergeant Calhoun is the one that packs in the intensity and has this type of sarcastic humor that only the awesome Jane Lynch can do.  Which is also why she is playing this hilarious role.  She has her own back story and the character’s tough gun-wielding gal matched up with peaceful and righteous hammer fixer-upper Felix to save Sugar Rush from its abomination.  Its a weird and awkward team but silly and crazy fun at the same time. 🙂

“It’s my job to fix whatever Ralph wrecks!”

This is getting a bit longer than I expected and I haven’t even gotten to King Candy.  This is a really fun animation.  I had to insert these quotes and it doesn’t really ruin the review.  Still spoiler-free, right? Its been a while that I’ve felt so young and absorbed into a more current animation.  I liked a lot of last year’s flicks, but this one really takes it.  There are a great amount of laughs and it pleases not only younger audience with the little girls and the easy dialogue, and has a light love story mixed with nothing really in the scary area, but at the same time, its fun for the adult audience thats been through gaming (like me) that grew up with Mario, Pac-Man, Sonic, etc.  I really had an awesome time with this one! I watched it again in the evening and I found it as great as it was on the first viewing 🙂

Do you have a favorite animated Disney flick (excluding Pixar)?