Advent Calendar Time!!

Click on the picture for a nice song. :)

The Monday Mmmm part 1

Who out of these two lovely ladies do you think is prettier?

Anyone seen this movie?

I haven't seen it yet, will do so soon. What did you think of it?

I just watched Miss Pettigrew Lives for Another Day.

Fun, frivolous, with another heart-winning turn by Amy Adams (the scene where she sings the no.1 is astounding), and with some eye-poppingly pretty costumes!

The Monday Mmmm.

Time for a bit o' superficiality, who do you think out of these two is prettier -

a.

or

b.

Bung!

Emma has been tagged!

1. Pick one film to represent each letter of the alphabet.

2. The letter "A" and the word "The" do not count as the beginning of a film's title, unless the film is simply titled A or The, and I don't know of any films with those titles.

3. Return of the Jedi belongs under "R," not "S" as in Star Wars Episode IV: Return of the Jedi. This rule applies to all films in the original Star Wars trilogy; all that followed start with "S." Similarly, Raiders of the Lost Ark belongs under "R," not "I" as in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Conversely, all films in the LOTR series belong under "L" and all films in the Chronicles of Narnia series belong under "C," as that's what those filmmakers called their films from the start. In other words, movies are stuck with the titles their owners gave them at the time of their theatrical release. Use your better judgement to apply the above rule to any series/films not mentioned.

4. Films that start with a number are filed under the first letter of their number's word. 12 Monkeys would be filed under "T."

5. Link back to Blog Cabins in your post so that I can eventually type "alphabet meme" into Google and come up #1, then make a post where I declare that I am the King of Google.

6. If you're selected, you have to then select 5 more people.
The Apartment
Brief Encounter
The Closet
Dead Man Walking
Erin Brockovich
The 400 Blows
Grave of Fireflies
The Hudsucker Proxy
Intermezzo
Jean de Florette
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Ladri di biciclette
Manon des Sources
Not one less
On the Waterfront
Pan’s Labyrinth
Quills
Rear Window
The Shawshank Redemption
Together
Uncle Silas
Volver
Wall-E
Xiao Wu
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Zummertime

I don’t really know who to tag, so bung, do this if you like. :)

You're a hero!

Spoiler pic for upcoming episode of Heroes. I like very much.
.

Film review: HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 [sarcasm alert haha]

At the time of writing this, High School Musical 3: Senior Year has an extremely lowly rating of 3.3/10 on IMDb. This saddens me greatly. My friend Luke and I watched HSM3 this Wednesday, due to it being 3.30 and W. not starting until 5.30, and HSM3 starting at 3.45pm. I’m delighted that we made this choice, because it proved to be everything that cinema isn’t these days – intelligent, moving, witty, and so, so, well acted.

Troy and Gabriella are now in their final year of high school, and they still haven’t bunged. In fact, it takes them 90 whole minutes of celluloid to even have a kiss. And even then it’s not a proper kiss. Anyway, it’s time to go to college. Troy’s dad wants him to pursue his basketball, and Gabriella’s doing Law somewhere far away. Naturally, they have preoccupations over whether or not their oh-so-deep relationship will stand this trying test, but it’s nothing the odd song or two can’t sing. In fact, Gabriella even decides it would be a cool thing to – on top of all the exams they have – put on one last school musical.

Meanwhile, Sharpay’s gotten herself a Machiavellian British little manservant, her camp brother Ryan’s trying to prove to the world that he’s not really gay by winking at the girl that plays the piano, and Troy’s basketball buddy Chad is gonna miss his mate. Oh the woes.

Despite the achingly fresh and original storyline, HSM3 still stays true to its bubblegum roots, wherein all the characters will be break into song whenever they damn well please – whether that be in asking a girl to prom, in the middle of a basketball game, or, best of all – in a deserted garage, where the scene between Troy and Chad is bromancetastic.

Vanessa Hudgens deserves an Oscar for her heart-wrenching performance of the teenage girl who is torn between her loves – her education, and her stunning, not at all impotent boyfriend, although this really is a group effort, with the entire cast not putting a foot wrong throughout the entire film.

If you do not cry at the scene in which Troy finds Gabriella and they have their private prom moment, then I tell you, you have no heart. Everything in HSM3 has been building up to this moment, which is in itself a terrifically post-modern homage to Shakespearean courtly scenes. Everything about this film is perfect, and I so wish that I could sing like Ashley Tisdale.

(Nah, seriously, I liked it quite a bit – 7/10. It was totally shit of course, but ya know, in a good way. It was much funnier than Burn After Reading, at any rate. The gospel version of “We’re All in this Together” was good fun.)

Bless!

For Diego Luna, becoming a dad has simplified his life.

"Well, it's just everything is easier now," the Mexican-born actor says of his 11-week-old baby boy, Jeronimo, Saturday while promoting his new drama, Milk, in Beverly Hills. "There is just one reason for you to be here. It's to make sure someone else is happy, and [he] has everything he needs. It's as simple as that."

Plus, Luna, 28, adds, Jeronimo is "the only guy who is not judging me now."

In Milk, Luna's character Jack Lira falls in love with Sean Penn's 1970s gay rights champion Harvey Milk. A performance his wife, Camila Sodi enjoyed, Luna tells PEOPLE.

"She laughed a lot about it," he says, adding that Camila has been spending time at home, "taking care of the baby."

"I'm here just talking about a film – it's just a film – everything now is just what it is," he says. "It can't be so important. Now, there's just one thing that really matters. It's a different kind of love that you didn't know existed. It makes everything easier really."

[source]

Dawww.

The Monday Mmm.

Today, it's scans of Ewan McGregor for the Japanese CQ magazine.

1 // 2 // 3 // // 4 // 5 // 6

Wai so bunging srs?

Marion Cotillard's first photoshoot for Lady Dior.

I think I love?

The Friday Five

Thought I’d post the five songs that I’ve been listening to the most this week. The songs are downloadable; just click on the title.

01. Kelsey – Metro Station

Now it's gonna get harder
Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
and it's gonna burn brighter
and it's gonna feel tougher each and every day
so let me say, that i love you
you're all I've ever wanted
all I've ever dreamed of to come

This was one of the songs that catches the spirit of my Summer and thus, I like to listen to it at Uni whenever I’m feeling mildly nostalgic. Metro Station, on the whole, are a bit of a bubblegum band, manufactured by the same lot that gave us the abomination that is Miley Cyrus, but there’s something in this song that really connects for me. It’s a sweet, heartfelt love song.

02. I Must Be Emo – Jeffree Star

When I get depressed I cut my wrists in every direction
Hearing songs about getting dumped give me an erection
I write in a live journal and wear thick rimmed glasses
I tell my friends I bleed black and cry during classes
I’m just a bad, cheap, imitation of goth
You could read me Catcher In The Rye and watch me jack-off

A hilarious parody of those eyeliner wearing, Marilyn Manson worshipping teens that are called emos. The OTT melodramatic American accent and allusions to skinny to jeans are nothing short of genius.

03. Fascination – Alphabeat

We love this exaltation
We want the new temptations
It's like a revelation
We live on fascination

A wonderfully upbeat and cheery song, which could or could not be about teenagers discovering love for the first time.

04. The Scientist – Aimee Mann

Nobody said it was easy
Oh its such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said that it would be this hard
Oh take me back to the start

Mann’s cover of Coldplay’s song. Her voice is so strong and really suits this song.

05. Hallelujah – The Dresden Dolls

you saw her bathing on the roof
her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
she tied you to her kitchen chair
she broke your throne and she cut your hair
and from your lips she drew the hallelujah

Not quite up there with Rufus Wainwright’s cover; but still a solid cover.

Good times.

Lolita sunglasses.

Random Facebooking has has me come across a photo of a girl wearing a pair of loveheart-shaped sunglasses, which has brought back memories of Kubrick's Lolita, and those iconic shades worn by Sue Lyon in the film poster-



I don't actually remember her wearing those shades in the film, but whenever I see red love-shaped shades, I shall always think of the 1962 film'

Burn After Watching.

Have just gotten back from the cinema, where I saw Burn After Reading, a film I'd been quite anticipating - for the crazy looking trailer, the cast and crew involved, and the Oscar buzz already being generated. Most importantly, however, the film posters, which are a throwback to the work of legendry movie poster designer Saul Bass ( 1 // 2), are bunging wonderful. Even though my cinema ticket cost the equivalent of £1.42 and a half pence (Orange Wednesdays bb), I was not impressed in the slightest. It was a load of turd.

- The cast were AWFUL; living proof that you can bung as many talented performers as you want into a movie, but they’ve actually got to, you know, bother acting. Frances McDormand epitomized irritation, Brad Pitt did nothing apart from hang about looking like he was missing a few up there, John Malkovich swore a bit, George Clooney looked beardy and confused, and Tilda Swinton worked the asexual cold bitch shtick that is like, beyond passé. The guy that played Juno’s dad in Juno was OK enough, but eh. And no-one needs to know what George Clooney and Tilda Swinton bunging sounds like.



- The plot was just ridiculously poor. Don’t get me wrong, I love fun and frenzy as much as the next guy – District 13 is bloody marvellous – but one got the distinct impression that the Coen brothers had no idea what to do with this movie, created a bunch of characters and threw in a sex toy for good measure. Er, no.

- Speaking of the Coen brothers, those Oscars for Direction & Best Film they picked up earlier this year must have really gone to their head, and instilled them with the belief that they can fob their fans off with just a bunch of crazy shit that doesn’t make much sense. Whilst it’s paid its dividends in the past – The Hudsucker Proxy & Intolerable Cruelty were good fun – Burn After Reading lacked the heart and soul that those movies had, and a result, just looked lost. As for the SPOILER killing off of Brad Pitt's character /SPOILER, it was irritating when you did it with Josh Brolin in No Country for Old Men; don't try and pull that same stuff twice in two years, please. You're not as clever as you think you are; your viewers do actually have memories.


f
- Furthermore, um, Working Title and Focus, what the 4-x were you thinking? If it wasn’t for the likes of Atonement and Pride & Prejudice that these two production companies have collaborated on, I would be pretty unimpressed with the pair of them. How is it possible that the producers did not step back, look at their excuse of a film, and feel ashamed?

- Lastly, was this meant to be a comedy? I laughed a little at the start (due to wanting to larf at a Coen brothers' movie more than anything), but as the movie went on, the laughs wore thinner and thinner. Brad Pitt repeating "Osbourne Cox" over and over again does not a funny scene make. The main lulz I got from this movie was in how terrible it was.

All in all, I’d quite like my time and money back. I’m deeply, deeply disappointed in the Coen brothers for wasting my time with this, and feel that everyone involved in this should hang their heads in shame. If this gets anywhere near Oscar nominations, then there is something seriously wrong with the world.

Two Terrible Movies.

Now that I'm a University student, I don’t get as much time for watching movies as I used to. So when I do watch a movie, I expect it to be good. Sadly, the last two that I wasted my time with were anything but good.



The Quatermass Experiment
I went along to the Sci-fi’s society screening of The Quatermass Experiment with three of my friends yesterday, in complete blindness about the film and its plot. Which just goes to show that I should consult IMDb more frequently, because if I had, I would have had two hours of my life back, to have done some of the thick stack of Maths homework I have, to read a novel, or even, say, watching paint dry. Because any of those things would have been exponentially more exciting than The Quatermass Experiment.

The plot revolves around a failed space experiment (or something or other), resulting with, out of the three astronauts that had gone into space, two are missingng and the remaining one in a stage of crazed coma.

This was a remake of the 1953 film, and director Sam Miller must have felt a burning desire to the maintain the campness of 50s B-movies, because everything about it - from the stodgy script, to the actors who performances make Keira Knightley look expressive – was below par. The finale brought the lulz in the biggest way; my friends and I were just sat there blankly, and overall, nothing made sense, except that the BBC were really bored one day and couldn’t be arsed to make a proper movie. TQC has done little to sweeten my already tempestuous relationship with fantasy movies. As one of my friends said, “the only good thing about it was that it had David Tennant”, but for all his endeavours, no amount of Doctor Who impressions could redeem this “film”, a load of absolute bollocks. E.

Good Time Max
I downloaded this in time for the “Franco Revolution” (the non-Spanish civil war type) what with his performance in Pineapple Express being touted as one of the finest comedic turns of the year (I’m still yet to see it, but I will – any film that plays M.I.A.’s Paper Planes in the trailer has my interest as I bunging love that song). Anyway, this film was incredibly. Directed, co-written and starring James Franco, it’s about two brothers, Adam and Max, both born geniuses, but, whilst Adam purses a career as a surgeon, Max falls down on the slippery slope of drug addiction. After a drug deal gone wrong, Max convinces his brother to go far away and start a new life with him, but it’s not long before his rehabilitation process falls flat on his face and life gets worse than ever.



The only thing of interest in this entire film was probably the sight of James Franco in glasses, for everything else was just an indulgent, sprawling mess. Some of the acting was so poor that it wouldn’t have been out of place in my Sixth Form’s High School Musical-style-play, with Franco himself failing to shine, drooping back into his annoying Spiderman days; he came across as just a whiny, lazy little bastard who invoked no sympathy from me whatsoever despite being so aesthetically pleasing. I usually like to wax lyrical about independent films and their inner beauty, but this has to site alongside Lost in Translation and 40 Shades of Blue as one of the dullest indies I’ve ever seen. Bung, and not in a good way. E.

On the bright side, however, I’m going to the adorable Little Theatre Cinema with my friend Luke today to see the Coen brothers’ Burn After Reading. Am excited!

15. Le Placard (The Closet) (Francis Veber, 2001)

Life’s not looking too good for bland Joe-everybody François Pignon, long-time employee of a condom factory. He’s been without his ex-wife for two years, and his teenage son won’t have anything to do with him. He’s teetering on the verge of suicide when he discovers that his company are making downsizes, and he’ll soon be made redundant. However, his kind old neighbour (Aumont) comes up with a plan that will possibly save Auteuil's job – for Auteuil to come out of the “closet” so that his sacking will seem like an act of homophobia, so keeping a hold of his job. As a result of their lie, further misunderstandings and confusions arise, chiefly involving the company’s alpha male (Depardieu) and Auteuil's boss Laroque, that lead the protagonist to learn things about the people around him, and find out about himself too.



The cast are a total treat. Daniel Auteuil is great in the loser role that has been so well perfected by William H. Macy, transforming a character of, at the start, no interesting qualities, dull and foolishs into a spirited and amusing hero. Depardieu goes to town with his caricatured character, a homophobic, self-proclaimed macho man who fears/resents Auteuil initially after his claims of being gay. Michelle Laroque, from Ma Vie en Rose, makes an appropriately pretty love interest. The plot may be gossamer thin, but the cast give some of their best performances and deliver comedy gold to maintain a lively tone throughout.

There are those who immediately disregard foreign films for being too hard to understand, too prim, too stuffy. And indeed some of them are. But Le Placard is the complete antithesis of one of those type of movies; it refuses to take itself seriously, and has great fun in the process. There are countless laugh-out-loud moments (the process of fabricating the “gay” photos, all the interchanges between Auitiel and Depardieu, etc) in Le Placard, but my favourite of them all is probably the gay rights march, where Auitiel is sat on the top of an open top bus wearing a condom on his head. This amiable and amusing film is delightful as it plays around with themes of homophobia, political correctness and work politics, and whilst it never delves into the layers of these topics, it remains entertainingly satirical. Unassuming and witty, Le Placard is one of my favourite films to watch when I’m down, because it never fails in cheering me up.

How bunging cute is this?

Daww!!

The Monday Mmm.

Today: Rupert Grint.













Yay!

My favourite character in Skins.

Rachel McAdams: wai so bunging gorgeous?