Sunday, December 26, 2010

Titan A.E. (2000) HD trailer

Titan A.E. (2000)


My mind is set to space cowboys and adventures for several reasons:
1. I want to watch "Cowboys vs. Aliens"
2. I re-watched a few Doctor Who episodes
3. I just finished the only season of "Firefly"

It was no surprise that my memory was jogged by one of my favorite sci fi animation movies, "Titan A.E."

The movie is set far off in the future. The earth has been shattered by an alien race called the Drej. Only a few of the humans were to escape. One such human was a young boy named Cale who becomes separated from his father. Fast forward years later, Cale is now a grown man who is very resentful of being dumped by his father.
During this time, the survivors of Earth are now lowly refugees. Cale is stuck working at a salvage dump. This is where he meets with Akima and her crew of the Valkyrie. The reason they've looked for Cale is the ring that he was left with. It contains a map with the locations of some sort of device that can restart Earth. So begins the adventure!


I just love the idea that there could be alien societies out there. I'm also fond of the kind of stories where the tables are turned. Coming from a planet where humans were the top predators, out in space they have been slung down to the bottom of the rung.

If you had the means of to remake Earth (no matter how implausible they may be) would you do it? What if all the other survivors were gas tycoons? Or mass murders? Or the cast members of the Jersey Shore?

That just opens up a whole can of speculations, so I won't go there.

One of my favorite scene that I can remember is when they're navigating through I think its the Anduli something. It looks like wispy ghosts or something but it was beautiful.

As a female, I really loved Akima. She was one of the few strong female archetypes I had growing up. She was bad ass, shot guns, strong as hell AND she has purple streaks in hair. The purple streaks were bad-ass.

Cale definitely reminds of an animated Hans Solo. He's such a bad ass with a heart of gold that you immediately like him. Matt Damon voiced the character but it's okay to overlook that.

Speaking of voice cast members, this movie is full of big names: Drew Barrymore, Nathan Lane, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman, Jeaneane Garofalo, .... Tone-Loc. Ahhh, that cracks me up. Was Tone-Lock in every single movie in the nineties???

I have no idea how I came upon this movie. My brother was probably the one who watched it first and I got stuck watching it too. Now that I think about it, this was probably one of the dystopic animation movies out there. I know there's a pirate one with Disney but it's not dystopic.

Alot of people have complaints that the story telling was poor and it took ideas out of other science fiction movies. Well I say screw you to that this movie was made FOR KIDS!!! If the story was any more complicated I would have been bored. If it was completely original, I would not have related to it. Storytellers are constantly extracting ideas from other stories. The ones who make it work, make it stick in their audience mind. Just think of J.K. Rowling and James Cameron.


I really loved "Titan A.E.". I loved the story, I loved the visuals. This movie was just amazing to watch. It was just chock full of actions and fun.

If my VHS copy hadn't been damaged, I would delight in watching it now.


The ultimate, ULTIMATE cherry on top for this movie was the music video that Lit did. I LOVE LIT:

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Pride And Prejudice Trailer HD

Pride and Prejudice (2005)










When I'm in a pretty low mood or feeling pretty lonely I will pop in the most classic , no fail, always awesome Pride and Prejudice. I don't care what your favorite romantic movie , you owe it al to Pride and Prejudice. It is the original archetype for romance and it will always be.


I bow my head humbly to Miss Jane Austen, the author who gave us other lovely novels for us to cherish. I don't care much for other novels, though. ::makes a dismissive hand motion::

Pride and Prejudice is a classic story that is powerful enough to translate through words an movies over and over again. There are countless of television versions, TV mini series, adaptations ( or glorified fan fiction as far I'm concerned). Hell, there's even a version of the story with zombies.

Pride and Prejudice is a story of misinformation and romance. There is a family of five daughters, one of which is named Elizabeth Bennet.All the daughters are aiming to marry and have their sighs aimed rich men. One new bachelor is Mr. Darcy.

Ooooooo Mr. Darcy. Ooooooo yeah.
The ultimate emo, brooding romantic man. Every female who has read and/or watched the story has heir own reason for falling in love with Mr. Darcy. Why is he so amazing? For me, it's his kind and caring romantic nature underneath his stern and brooding nature...ahhh swooon.

Alot of people have seen the version with Colin Firth. I love Colin Firth but the 2005 version with Keira Knightly. I am not fond of Keira Knightly (oh she killed whatever she called acting potential in the third Pirates of the Caribbean"). No. It is because of the beautiful casting the filmmakers did of Mr. Darcy.

Matthew Macfayden. Oh dear me.
He was AWESOME as Mr. Darcy. He had everything. The kind, dark eyes. The tall, strong physique. The deep, oh so deep, voice.

My favorite, absolutely favorite scene is towards the end. When he walks toward her in the mist. Oh. my. goodness. That is the most romantic scene. That is when I start to squeal and rock back and forth. All the build up through the movie has led to this one scene. OH and it's amazing.

With a classic movie suc


h as Pride and Prejudice that you have only two options when it comes to making a movie of it. Either you can play the movie as it goes in the book or make an interpretation of the story. I feel that trying to do the first is just plain boring. It's way better to just read the novel instead. You get a much more personal and enrich experience out of it.

I much prefer interpretations. Most of the time, the filmmakers grew up loving the story and wants to show their own appreciation for it. The other more recent example is "Iron Man" directed by Jon Favreau. The movie may not cover all the aspects of the story but you can tell it as done with love.

This version of Pride and Prejudice is done in a beautiful and musical way. The tone and mood of the movie is dominated by the beautiful music in the background. Knightly isn't too bad as Elizabeth. She actually played it every well. She didn't overshadow the other amazing characters of the movie. Although her head seem really huge in this movie sometimes.

The casting was just phenomenal. It wasn't too hard to imagine the characters they were to portray.

There are just so many awesome scenes. The dancing part. The rain part. Oh so many scenes! They've all inspire such comforting and warm feelings within me.


I can go on and on on how much I love this version. There are alot of versions and interpretations. Some of them are funny ("Bridget Jone's Diary") while others make you cock your head and wonder why? ( as in "Bride and Prejudice"). I would advise every romantic female out there to read the novel and then find their own visual version of the story. I have to warn you though, it may make life seem dreary after hoping for your own Mr. Darcy.
My deal breaker for a movie based on this story is who they choose to play Mr. Darcy. Simply put, Matthew Macfayden is MY Mr. Darcy!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

What a Way to Go

What a way to go! (1964)


Geez this took me a long time to remember this movie. I kept confusing this movie for a completely different title. Months I've been thinking about writing this movie.


I adore dark humor movies. I guess a psycologist or someone of that sort would say that poking light at an otherwise unfunny subject was a way with coping with that subject matter. I would have to agree.

Death is not a funny subject. It's the final act of life and it comes with devasting emotional baggage afterward. There are only two ways to deal with the impending finale: to trudge toward it with melancholy doom or with an amused smile.

This movie absolutely surprised and delighted me. From the cheerful cover on the DVD, I assumed I was in for another lighthearted comedy farce from the sixties. Instead I was treated to so much more.

Your introduced to a pretty lady named Louisa May Foster. She is attempting to donate 1 million dollars to the IRS. Of course, the IRS become really suspicious and have a psychiatrist sort her out. It turns out that she came to the money after four husbands who died prematurely.

And the hilarity ensues of course.

I mean really that does not sound like it should be funny in the least. But it is. The movie deals with how differently each man turns out. The most memorable husband is the one who is a painter who lives by the ideals that he is an artist. Until he gets rich and ends up painting with a machine.

All Louisa May Foster wants is to be happy and loved. Not rich and unhappy. For a movie made in the sixties I thought this idea alone stood out pretty well. I do love the romance movies from this age but most of them had the sole purpose of the female character in just finding love. Not to be loved in return. Just finding your true love. It shouldn't be a no brainer that love and happiness should go hand in hand.

Since people love to equate that money = happiness, this movie goes to great lengths to prove just how wrong that assumption is. None of these men were deeply happy when they came into such money. Instead they all changed for their worse and ultimately died prematurely. So in a morbid sense of way, the lesson of this movie is: you love money= you die.

Despite it's lessons, it is still a really funny movie.
Shirley Maclaine plays Louisa. She is so freaking beautiful in this movie. As in "The Women", this movie came to known for the outfits that Maclaine adorns through the movie. Her outfits mirror the interests of the varying husbands from a weird red latex geisha outfit to pink from head to toe. This shows how much a girl can lose a part of her personal identity when she's smitten with a guy. By changing her changes to suit the man, she loses the ability to express her self through her clothes.

Fight it as much as you want people. Your clothes do define and characterize who you are. People aren't going to spend their precious time listening to you and trying to understand your back story. If they don't like your clothes, they're probably not going to like you. What can I say? I'm surrounded by a city of superficial plastics and that has become my own reality.

Psst....Shirley Maclaine is Endora in the "Bewitched" television series. Ahh, there's that light bulb going off.

I really, really enjoyed this movie. The sets are that typical technicolor variety. The costumes are really fun to watch. The sequences in between are really awesome.

PLUS, there are some major hollywood actors in thhttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1539719768131180557is movie. Many of them my absolute favorites:

* Dick Van Dyke (LOVE him)
* Gene Kelly (LOVE LOVE HIM)
* Paul Newman (love the salad dressing!)
* Dean Martin (ooo, that voice)

Holly molly. Maclaine smooches them all!

It's a movie that is very much different from the rest. It's subtle, witty, and just absolute fun. If I ever see this movie in DVD format, I'm going definitely going to snatch it!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Whip It - Official Theatrical Trailer

Whip It (2009)


It's been so long since I wrote in my little blog about movies. Why was I so amiss? Well school is a major factor but mainly I had decided to take part in National Writing Month (a.k.a NaNo Wrimo) this past month. The goal is write a story of of 50,000 words in one month. It was HARD. For a new writer it was the ultimate purging out the first draft that had been stewing in my mind for years. And I did! Thanks to all my friends , coworkers, and very supportive boyfriend. They were all supportive in giving me as much time and opportunity to write. I achieved a personal achievement.

Which brings me to my inspiration for this blog entry. It is a movie that echoes personal achievement and fighting your own personal obstacles. Everyone has their own scapegoat they want to point to when they can't achieve their goals. Oh it's lack of time, my boss is keeping me down, I'm too old, I'm too different, I have obligations to fill, blah blah blah. No one is keeping you from achieving your goals except for yourself. You are your own worst enemy.Partipating in Nanowrimo echoed that, an inspiring ranch hand echoed this, and this movie really shows this.

This is a movie that really speaks to all the females out there in the world. It;s also a movie for the males who just want to see females beat the crap out of each other.

"Whip It" is a movie directed by Drew Barrymore (oh yeah, Drew Barrymore! Whoo!). It centers around a young female named Bliss Cavender(played by Ellen Paige) who is just breezing listlessly through life. She only puts up a mild rebellion with her mothers overbearing forcing her into pageants and working her dull life in a diner. She has no known goal or desires.

Until she finds a flier for a roller derby exhibition match.If your not familar with roller derby, then you should be! It's an amazing all contact female sport. ALL CONTACT!lemme reiterate, these are girls that will punch you, kick you, trip you, bruise you , all on roller skates! You should check out the LA Derby Dolls if your curious to know more.

Bliss attends and is completely dazzled by the whole world. Hell I want to be an LA Derby Doll. Only two things stands in my way : 1. my glasses, 2. my teeth (my mom spent a helluva alot of money to fix my teeth, I ain't wrecking it!).

Here are Bliss's problem: 1. she is underage (it's 18+ to join) 2. her mother would not permit her to engage in such an activity ( no surprise- what mother would?) 3. she hasn't skated since she was very very young.

So what's a young slightly rebellious teen to do? Lie to the Derbys and her mom in order to participate. She goes through carefully crafted lies, alot of bruising and training to get what she wants.

The story flows pretty much as anticipated. She becomes great, inspires jealousy, gets found, overcomes more adversity. The story isn't original but it's the content of the story that makes this movie so much fun.

Paige pretty much plays a role that doesn't seem to deviate so far from her other movie roles. She almost reminds me of a female form of Michael Cera. Only difference is that she established as a pretty good actress in "Inception".

Like I mentioned before, Drew Barrymore directed this movie. So there's a great rock vibe throughout the movie. It's more an indie-rock vibe with all the music and characters. I don't have a problem with that since I pretty enjoy indie-rock music. Some people may find fault with this since I've been noticing a backlash against indie-rock music and hipsters. I just shrug at all the negative response. If I'm going to enjoy the music, then I'm going to enjoy the music regardless of whatever stigma is attached.

I'm also a fan of Drew Barrymore. She may not make the greatest movies but she's a great role model overall. She does her own thing, she is who she is. She made alot of mistakes in her past but she is her own time line of overcoming personal obstacles. Hoorah!

The ultimate enjoyment for this movie is what attracts both males and females to this movie. The roller derby parts are just AWESOME! I watched this in the theater with some girlfriends and we ran out of that theater just pumped with energy. We were just going crazy running around, trying to make up our own Derby names.

It's a simple movie for anyone who is looking for a pick me up. It's motivational in it's own way It's funny, charming, and just awesome.

Till next time, toodles!