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

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

Doctor Strange (2016)

Director: Scott Derrickson

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

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

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

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

A Little Chaos (2014)

Director: Alan Rickman

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

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

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

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

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

Steve Jobs (2015)

Biopics? Man, I watch so little of these and they appeal to me even less that I always go out of my way to avoid it.  It feels like Steve Jobs has had a lot of biopics over the last few years. Or maybe its some other influential tech “giant” thats been around and done awesome things. However, Michael Fassbender is up for an Oscars nomination and if you read my review on Fish Tank, well, you know I’m a huge fan of his. Plus, it was one of the few movies with the Best Male Lead for Oscar nominations available.

Let’s check it it out! 🙂

Steve Jobs (2015)

Director: Danny Boyle

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg, Katherine Waterston

Steve Jobs takes us behind the scenes of the digital revolution, to paint a portrait of the man at its epicenter. The story unfolds backstage at three iconic product launches, ending in 1998 with the unveiling of the iMac. – IMDB

Who remembers the iMac? I was using an iMac in high school.  I remembered our computer lab one day filled up with these little weirdly shaped transparent-like computers.  They didn’t look like the PC I had at home.  I even did my computer class learning HTML codes and binary numbers and designing cutesy colorful labels with those.  When I used those computers, I didn’t know who Steve Jobs was.  Do I know his history any better as I grew up, even with the explosion of Apple products? Nope. That’s all to say that I don’t know how accurate these depictions of his character is and I’m not one to go digging into his history either. What I am saying is that Steve Jobs is an enjoyable biopic.  The idea to focus on Steve Jobs and the people around him highlighting the events of his life and how he faces them differently (or similarly) each of these times is what makes it focused and well done. It shows character development, adds some drama and creates a well enough balance for us to understand this man a little more each time.

What was great about this is that they don’t try to paint Steve Jobs as someone who is perfect.  This biopic works hard on focussing on his flaws actually.  Steve Jobs is influenced in many ways by his past and the choices he makes are based on one view that he has and his obsession with having control over the end-product. He made mistakes and he actually isn’t afraid to be that person who makes the tough decisions.  Just like most successful entrepreneurs, they aren’t exactly glorified human beings.  They make ruthless decisions and maybe throw a few people under the bus or whatnot to make sure they succeed.  They are extreme at times and stubborn at others and the people around them don’t quite understand what is going on in their minds. The story of Steve Jobs through his three product launch focuses on revealing his character from that first launch, what has changed in the second one and finally who he is by the third one.  Michael Fassbender captures that aspect of the character full of observations and monologues very well.

While we see a lot of Michael Fassbender’s Steve Jobs, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen and the three girls that play the daughter at different ages play also a big part in amplifying the character development of themselves as their roles also show the importance that they have in his life regardless of how he treats them.  It brings out that humanity that we don’t often see in biopics.  While the girls that play the daughter’s role tugs on very much the emotional strings and make us see especially that there is an emotional tie that Jobs may not admit but it also makes him susceptible to having feelings as well.  However, the show stoppers that really seem to appear in the background but actually are rather central to this story is Kate Winslet’s Joanna Hoffman who is absolutely fantastic in this one and Seth Rogen, playing his innovative friend Steve Wozniak who started this endeavor with Apple II with him.  While having a small role, Jeff Daniels deserves quite an applause also.  Its nice to see him back in action doing some serious roles.  I appreciated his role as John Sculley, who is a pseudo father/mentor in some senses.

With my limited experience of biopics, there isn’t much left to say.  Steve Jobs is an excellent movie.  Its choice to highlight on 3 significant events of his life while showing his character through his interactions and decisions in those hard-pressed situations while flashing back remotely to some other past scenes makes for a well-paced film.  It retains his humanity and that he is also a real person with flaws despite being gifted in many ways. With a powerful cast like Kate Winslet and Seth Rogen and even Jeff Daniels, a well-written script and great directing, Steve Jobs exceeds my every expectation.

Have you seen Steve Jobs? What do you think of it? Are you a fan of biopics?

Netflix A-Z: The Reader (2008)

We’re at the next letter! The alphabet is almost done and it should be finished right before the end of the year, just in time for some Christmas festivities. Now, its all about getting this thing along nice and smoothly.  I wanted to swap this one out.  Something about a drama didn’t quite amuse me but after looking and wanting to change over and over again.  I ended up just watching this.  It’s Kate Winslet. I’m guaranteed a good performance at the very least. I have no idea what this is about. I can hear you all going, “What, Kim? Have you been living under a rock? Kate Winslet won best actress in this?” My excuse, I’m sorry.  I started blogging about movies in 2012, unfortunately, in 2008, my life was all about international business and accounting.  I was in university… Anyways, I’m working on all of it now. I know I’m missing out on a lot of stuff but I’m trying my best.

Let’s check it out! 🙂

The Reader (2008)

Director: Stephen Daldry

Cast: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross, Jeanette Hain

Post-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.-IMDB

 The Reader is one of those movies that I tend to veer away from.  My enjoyment of movies involving and touching upon anything to do with wars aren’t a lot.  It usually makes it too dramatic and I can’t take it.  My emotions just go out of whack and it hits me super hard and then I get really depressed and don’t want to do anything for a little while.  Well, its one of the reasons I watch these movies sporadically and very spread out. The Reader has been on my to-see list forever, mostly because I have a huge girl crush on Kate Winslet and I think Ralph Fiennes is a fine actor so this movie was a winner before it even started. Plus, hey, look at that, Kate won best actress. I didn’t know that before I looked at this poster. Great blogger I am, right?

The Reader is great.  It was not your traditional sort of romance and it was a good part about a young Michael Berg’s growth into who he is and why he has grown up to be that way.  Kate Winslet plays an older lady that helps him and they fall in love into this awkward affair that they need to keep a secret because its not exactly right for a 16 year old to be having some relationship with an older lady (who I assume is in her 30s?). They say the dates and write the years and yet, my dumb memory can’t register it all fast enough so I can’t remember.  As wrong as the relationship may seen, we see a lot of the signs of who Kate Winslet’s Hannah is before a very naive and innocent Michael Berg (played by David Kross) does and when they part their relationship and meet up again when he is a law student, when it clicks for him, it makes us wonder how it makes him feel. The thing is, what makes The Reader really great and just so attractive to me is that it brings in an influx of emotions.  In the beginning, it all feels wrong for Hannah and Michael but it also feels so right and genuine.

Talking about the relationship, Kate Winslet does a fantastic job. I don’t know who the other candidates were for that year in the Academy awards but this has got be one of her best roles yet.  She turned Hannah Schmidtz into a woman that we can’t exactly read through her words.  Hannah observed and reacted sometimes to Michael’s actions.  She was troubled and conflicted but also, found ways to make herself work out why she did certain things that felt wrong to everyone around her. The question is whether Hannah is a selfish person? I really don’t think so.  She just had issues that lead her to final outcome.  What makes Hannah come to life is that she didn’t have to say a lot but we could read what she actually meant in her eyes.  Now that, my friends, is some impressive acting. I always think that if you can emote without words and communicate those feelings perfectly, you got some skills.  Kate Winslet does that amazingly here.

However, we can’t discount any of the other characters.  A strong plot helps The Reader also. It took time to build the relationship between Hannah and Michael and allowed us to really see deeper into what it meant to both of them.  It shaped who they are as well. David Kross is a very talented young actor who carried the young Michael Berg well.  He goes from the shy and innocent boy and slowly becomes a boy that falls in love deeply and is absolutely genuine. He does get older so he starts feeling like things are unfair between them before Hannah lets the relationship go while using the opportunity to pursue something new which leads her to the trial 10 years later.  Even as Michael gets older and hasn’t seen Hannah, David Kross carries the character to make us believe the influence that Hannah has had on him.  Its a story about right and wrong, no matter its their relationship or being a guard at Auschwitz and the decision they made while there.  Its a strong film that evokes a ton of relationships just between the both of them.

As we fall on Ralph Fiennes who is the older Michael Berg, we can still see the effect Hannah has had on him.  He doesn’t ever talk about and never embraces it but we know its what makes him hold back a little.  The older Michael Berg has a much smaller part in the entirety of the movie but with the little part, we get a glimpse of Michael Berg’s growth as a man.

 This review is already hitting dangerously close to spoiler territory.  Overall, I really liked The Reader.  I gauge movies especially drama at how much it evokes feelings from me and I seriously felt the heartbreak moments to hurt when they happened and when they were all happy and stuff, it also made me feel good.  Its covers a few meaningful themes, a little bit of the alternate love story, a bit of the coming of age thing and hits in the ethics and morals part of things.  Its hard for me to like a historical drama and this one worked for me particularly for the strong performances from both Kate Winslet and the young David Kross. Its definitely worth a watch.

Have you seen The Reader? Do you like to watch historical drama?

S is up next! Can you guess what it is? Hint: 1995 remake

Valentine Marathon: Sense and Sensibility (1995)

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

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

Let’s check it out! 🙂

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1995)

Director: Ang Lee

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!

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

Genre Grandeur – The Holiday (2006) – Tranquil Dreams

Check out this month’s Genre Grandeur for Holiday movies. My pick went to The Holiday. The movie title pretty much says it all but its my go-to feel good movie set during the holidays making it perfect for the holidays.
Remember to check out the other Genre Grandeur entries for holiday movies! 🙂

MovieRob

For the next entry in this month’s Genre Grandeur – Holiday movies, here’s a review by Kim of Tranquil Dreams of The Holiday (2006)

Next month’s genre has been chosen by my good friend Emma of emmakwall (explains it all) and she has chosen the genre of British Thrillers, so send me your reviews of your favorite British Thriller(s) by Jan 25th and I’ll post it.  It’s real simple, just send me an email to britthrills@movierob.net and I’ll post it.

Take it away Kim!

Holiday movies don’t get anymore holiday than The Holiday – also one of my favorite movies.  I watch it during the Christmas holidays every year AND I watch it anytime during the year.  Its kind of my go-to feel good movie.

Director: Nancy Meyers

Cast: Kate Winslet, Jack Black, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Eli Wallach, Rufus Sewell

Simple commitments columnist Iris (Kate Winslet) and big shot…

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Contagion (2011)

I’m starting to feel like I’ve been living under a rock because in the past while, I haven’t really known much about any of the movies I watch. Usually, I just do that for B-horror and this isn’t one of those.  Honestly, I never had a doubt about Contagion because Steven Soderbergh (who I love) directed it and the entire cast is pretty strong so there were high expectations for this one.

Now, just to see if they actually lived up to my expectations 🙂

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Cast: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Jennifer Ehle, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Bryan Cranston, Chin Han, John Hawkes

When Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow) comes home from a business trip feeling ill, the following day she has a seizure and ends up dying.  Shortly afterwards, her son is also infected and her husband Mitch (Matt Damon) is quarantined.  At the same time, multiple people around the world also start falling ill and dying with similar symptoms.  Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) is brought in to take care of what seems to be an epidemic and with the help of Dr. Ally Hextall (Jennifer Ehle) to find out what this virus is exactly; Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) to go out into the field to contain and help set up facilities for the widespread virus and treatment and Dr. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard) to Hong Kong to investigate where and how it all began.  They are racing against time to figure out the vaccine that will save the lives against the constantly changing lethal virus.  While at the same time, they are up against the turmoil in the public along with people doubting their motives such as Alan Krumweide (Jude Law).

Contagion is a drama thriller as you would probably expect with the topic on hand: epidemic and racing with time.  I love thrillers and I believe since Outbreak I haven’t quite found one about spreading virus that has quite as much impact.  Funny enough, I have never reviewed Outbreak.  These movies tend to be heavy and I spread out the viewings.  But, I will do it soon.  With that said, Contagion 1-ups Outbreak.  I’m going to tell you a little story of what happened while I was watching this.  I turned this on Saturday night after dinner and I was sitting in my room and then Gwyneth Paltrow enters and shortly leaves because she dies fairly early in the flick (is that considered a spoiler?) It becomes obvious that coughing is a symptom and then as they were going through this intense part of infected people around the world sweating, coughing, hazy vision and then they go back to Laurence Fishburne and the other doctors talking about it and then right then when its more silent and tense, my mom starts coughing.  I kid you not, I jumped out of my chair and I tensed up really quickly.

Contagion was a kick-ass thriller.  I have nothing but good things to say about it.  The opening sequence, Gwyneth Paltrow, the buildup of the virus, the balance of chaos and tension, the whole tone of the movie: everything worked well together. The only thing was that they involved so many characters that at times, I needed to recall who those people were and a lot of times, it didn’t give the space to relate to them much.  The one person would be Marion Cotillard’s character who pretty much is dismissed at the second half for a good part until she resurfaces for just a small part.  Some characters, like Matt Damon, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne and Jennifer Ehle had more impact on the movie as they were the main leads of the whole operation on different sides of the situation. Matt Damon was the biggest loser in this though.  He lost his wife and his stepson and even when he’s being the overprotective parent, I still felt that I supported his idea in this one.  He really didn’t have much else to lose so even if it seemed unfair, extreme measures, right?  I had to write some on Matt Damon because I don’t watch a lot of him and he is usually in the “meh” territory but this one, I did like his character.

Still, the other characters did a great job.  I particularly like Kate Winslet’s character.  If you’ve been reading my reviews, you already know I’m a HUGE fan of hers.  She is just a classy awesome actress who can do no wrong.  And if there is wrong, its the movie, the story, the writers and whatever else, but nope, never her.  In this one, she just totally steals it.  As for Laurence Fishburne, the only thing that bothered me was his moustache.  It just doesn’t suit him well but other than that, his character was great.  He tried to keep the pieces together and his character was human because it wasn’t a perfect savior.  He just tried to balance his own personal worries during the tough time and make as objective as possible decisions based on what he had.  Along with Jennifer Ehle, who I have never seen before this, was pretty awesome.  She was really just in and out of scenes for short amount of times but she was in a lot of the critical scenes and handled them very well.

The character I hated the most (and I believe we are supposed to hate) was Jude Law’s Alan. The man was batshit crazy and obnoxious and just ridiculous.  You know the guy that pours oil on fire.  Thats him.  As the story intensifies, his face just irritated me.  Plus, Jude Law actually did pull off those facial expressions so well.  All in all, he did everything his character needed.  Great job, Jude Law.  You never let me down.

Because of all the characters involved in this, switching from different levels of investigation and management and research for this epidemic, the plot stays focused on the big problem on hand. It stay tense and compelling throughout its slight short of 2 hour run time but I never felt it was even that long.  Plus, in the Hong Kong scenes, they actually used some of the Hong Kong entertainment industry’s familiar faces so it hit even closer to home for me.

Overall, Contagion has an amazing cast, a gripping plot and it may possibly be the best epidemic disaster movie I have seen ever! So yes, I’d totally recommend this.  Its smart and it brings out the scary level of this especially since we’ve already experienced some similar scares (not quite to their extent, thank goodness) in the past decade.

Have you seen Contagion? What do you think of its plot and the cast? Did it get under your skin? 

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!

CK’s Not So Secret Santa Review Swap: The Holiday (2006)

Earlier this year in July, I participated in Cinematic Katzenjammer’s Not So Secret Santa Review Swap Blogathon and my secret Santa gave me a fantastic movie, Dark Harbor.  Obviously, since the first time was so much fun, I decided to join for this December edition of it as well.  This time around, I didn’t get an unknown movie but one that I absolutely adore and just as I was wondering how to work it into my Christmas marathon this year since I already reviewed it last year, I received notice that my Secret Santa gave me THE HOLIDAY 🙂

Whoever you are, Secret Santa, YOU ARE AWESOME! Can I say I love you? Is that awkward? Because if not for that, I would never have thought of doing THIS to lead up to this very post.

The last movie to make it a perfect top 10 in my must-see Christmas flicks is The Holiday.  I’m not going to review it again since I read through last year’s and its probably everything I was going to say and you can check it out HERE! 🙂

The Holiday is one of my absolute favorite movies EVER! I always watch it for Christmas, sometimes even more than once, and I usually sneak it in mid year once or twice.  Its not only a great holiday watch but its also one of the best feel good romantic comedies I’ve ever seen.  I literally have a huge smile on my face throughout the whole thing, even if I know whats going to happen and what they say and all that.

So, I figured I’d take a different path and show you my top moments that made me smile 🙂

6) IRIS IN LA

Being revealed to the unknown of a completely different lifestyle from the one you are used to is always amazing and I think Kate Winslet does a fantastic job in showing that.  Its a feel good scene and it emphasizes the lovable character of Iris as the down to earth modern day simple girl. Trust me, if I saw that, I’d react pretty much the same way 😉

5) VIDEO STORE GAME

This scene is simply good fun.  The charisma between Jack Black and Kate Winslet is awesome and with a cameo of Dustin Hoffman, its makes it even funnier.

4) TENT

Wouldn’t you want that tent? I’m seriously impressed. Plus, the little girls are adorable.  Its like a fantasy world at home and thats pretty incredible.

3) LEADING LADY VS. BEST FRIEND

The character of Arthur Abbott is one of my faves because even though he isn’t a main character, he helps Iris to grow and also put in perspective what this movie is all about.  You can’t help but agree with him, right?

2) KISSING A STRANGER

The whole scene is great but the part I’m referring to starts at 5m 10s of the video.  Funny, passionate and pretty awesome in my book. This was when I fell in love with Jude Law! And goodness, aren’t you thinking that she should shut up and enjoy the moment? 😉 The romantic in me is speaking, of course.

1) IRIS/ARTHUR’S THEME

This scene is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE! Its romantic and cute! I think thats where I fell in love in Jack Black, something that I did not think would ever be possible.

I didn’t intend for this to be a countdown and I love the WHOLE ENTIRE movie so this was mega difficult to put together. Plus, there were some scenes that were fantastic. I did love Jude Law in so many other scenes.  Although, if given who was not so great, it would have to be Cameron Diaz.  I’m just not a huge fan of hers in general but she does a decent job :).

Not only that but her and Kate Winslet are fabulous together for example with their expressions.

That scene was seriously funny! I think I’ve admitted that I have a girl crush on Kate Winslet and think she is possibly one of the best actresses with elegance and charm.

Before I start spilling the whole movie because I would love to convince a few of you to actually give it a shot.  I think The Holiday is one of the most underrated movies ever!

Overall, great cast, hilarious, heartwarming and clever romantic comedy set during the holidays, The Holiday is a great watch! Thanks again to my Secret Santa because you allowed me to watch this three times in two days to be inspired as to how to approach this post.  AND, I was feeling really not in the holiday mood and I think this just made it all come back.  Also, HUGE THANKS to Nick for putting this together because once again, it was mega fun! 🙂

Have you seen The Holiday? What are your thoughts on the four leads here?

Remember to check out the other reviews for the blogathon either by clicking HERE or its linked to the blogathon banner on the top 🙂

Breaking Emotions Blogathon: Smiles & Thrills

We’re now on the third week of Mettel Ray’s Breaking Emotions Blogathon.  I had a lot of fun with the last two weeks breaking awkward and then breaking tears and surprise.  This week, our mission is to break smiles & thrills.  You can check out the post HERE for more info! I have to admit right from the get go I already had two (one each) that popped in my head.  The rest I’ll have to skim my movie collection and see which really brought out some smiles and thrills.

1) My Neighbor Totoro – Meeting Totoro

This was only part of the scene but its the best that I could find on Youtube.  A lot about Miyazaki makes me smile.  Totoro is my all-time favorite and its all kinds of smiles and laughter for me.  Its cute and especially that scene where Mei meets Totoro.  Its heartwarming and adorable and that brings on lots of smiles.  At least one type of smile 🙂

2) The Holiday – If You Were A Melody

This was really between this and Pride and Prejudice but then that had a million scenes I could’ve but in The Holiday this one with Jack Black and Kate Winslet makes me all giddy and happy.  Maybe its the whole musical background I have but it doesn’t make you stop loving it every single time.  This scene is one of those feel-good scenes that brings smiles to my face all the time!

3) Tricky Brains – Stephen Chow‘s awesomeness

Stephen Chow is my comedian hero.  I’ve watched him since I was really young, maybe 8 years old and I’ve been hooked.  Tricky Brains is one of the many that I know by heart all the dialogue and this segment makes me laugh every time (along with the rest of the movie) but I could’ve picked tons of scenes from this and other movies but Stephen Chow has to be part of any list that contributes to my smiles.  Its not romance-y or cute smiles but its just all the humor, wit, absurdity that he brings to his scenes.  Its just epic!

Next up is the hard part.  I almost didn’t want to do BREAKING THRILLS.  Why? Because I can’t remember enough to do this.  I had one and then I stood in front of my movie collection for a few times in the evening before figuring it out.

1) Fast Five-Final Ending Car Chase/Heist

When I think thrills, a few scenes from Fast and Furious come to my mind.  The 4th one had a few scenes but nothing beats the thrills from watching the final heist and car chase down Rio de Janeiro streets.  Its awesome, fun and just SO exciting! I’m a fan so maybe if you’re not, you won’t love this over the top heist (but then what could beat the crazy long runway from Fast Six, right?

2) New Police Story – Bus Scene

I’m pretty sure most of you have witnessed Jackie Chan‘s stunts.  The man is amazing at what he does from his Project A days till now.  New Police Story was an awesome movie with ridiculously thrilling stunts from not only him but well, my own personal fave, Nicholas Tse.  This makes this movie, especially this scene (which had the front part not included) completely intense.  Its a long chase that somehow turns into a crazy bus scene.  Jackie Chan’s stunts at his very best are unpredictable so they make every scene a thrill to watch.

3) Journey to the Centre of the Earth – Infinite Fall (among the many)

Journey to the Center of the Earth was possibly the first movie that I saw with the whole 3D effect as their main purpose.  The experience was enhanced by the 3D effects.  Among the many scenes that were really exciting including the finale, although with some jokes the infinite falling part was crazy thrilling.  We don`t know whats at the bottom of the drop and on top of that as the movie progresses, it only gets more amazing with more adventures and more unknown factors thrown at them.

Now that I went searching, my mind had a hard time actually choosing scenes. So many choices! Both breaking smiles and thrills has brought back a lot of movie scenes.

What scenes do you think of that make you smile and laugh or brings you sitting edge of the seat thrills?

CHRISTMAS Movie Marathon begins with The Holiday (2006)

Welcome to 2012 Christmas Movie Marathon featured here! I have a lot of Christmas movies like 20+ DVD/Blurays and some multiple short animated features.  Usually, I stack them up in certain preferences and just watch them. This year, I decided to go random.  I just going to pick out the movie of the night randomly from a pile of folded paper in a little bag.  We’ll see how that goes.  I think it’ll at least give us a bit of spontaneity and mix it up…should be fun!  And different from the Halloween marathon, I’ll be reviewing all the movies individually (no Top Ten lists).

Lets get it started!

Movie: THE HOLIDAY (2006)

Director & Writer: Nancy Meyers (Something’s Gotta Give)

Cast: Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Jack Black

The Holiday is about two women, Iris from Surrey, UK (Kate Winslet) and Amanda from Los Angeles (Cameron Diaz) and both go through a bad break-up.  Amanda decides to take a vacation during the holidays to not be lonely and finds Iris on a home exchange site.  They decide to swap homes for 2 weeks. Iris ends up staying in Amanda’s mansion in LA and ends up making friends with her next door neighbor who is an elderly retired screenplay writer called Arthur Abbott and in the process, meets Miles (Jack Black) who is a film composer. While living in Iris’s cottage, she meets Iris’s older brother, Graham (Jude Law) and sparks fly.

I’m a huge fan of this movie. Ever since I’ve had it about three years ago, I always watch it on Christmas at least once.  During the year, sometimes I’ll give it a second or third run.  Its a fun, hilarious, witty, heartwarming romantic comedy.  What I loved THE absolute most is the chemistry between the characters.  Honestly, I never really preferred watching any of those actors.  This movie changed my view of things, especially Jack Black.  Kate Winslet is charming as always in her role as Iris.  Jude Law, as Graham drunk (and sober) just melts my heart (it didn’t before this movie).  I can see the charm.  As for Jack Black, I always felt that the roles he took on never really was to my taste, but this role made me feel that he can do this corny, witty type of actor.  He was really sweet and there were a lot of laugh out loud moments.  It was really awesome in that department and I think that is the one of the key elements of a good romantic comedy.

Another element that really worked for me was the dialogue.  The director, Nancy Meyers is also the writer and I guess that always adds something a little extra.  It connects better since its her own thoughts I suppose.  I’m not an expert on this, but I bought it. I thought it was witty.  If you asked my boyfriend, I’d say that he would probably say there was corny dialogue here and there.  Still, its a very likeable chick flick.

This is my feel good movie.  I never fails to put a smile on my face and some to roll over in laughter and other moments, to just get all warm and fuzzy from the cute and sweet moments.  The Holiday is a romantic comedy set during the Christmas and New Year’s holiday period so very fit to start this marathon! Especially since it comes with a happy ending and lots of smiles and laughs during the whole thing.  I highly recommend it.

Have you seen this? Did you enjoy it? If you didn’t like it, what didn’t you like?