Film Review: Nine

So I finally got to see Nine the other night. I am a huge fan of musicals; I was raised on South Pacific and Oklahoma and Chicago with Catherine Zeta-Jones is not only one of my favorite musicals, it is one of my favorite movies, plays, and soundtracks. So I was excited to see Nine and see the elaborate musical numbers and get lost in a great story. But, alas, it is no surprise that it did not wow the critics and only received a 37% rotten rating on the tomatometer. Of course you would expect critics and mainstream America to have no appreciation for musicals and theater in general, so you would think that the tomatometer would be off. Unfortuntely, it wasn't.

Nine follows the journey of Guido Contini as he strives to make his 9th film after a few recent flops. Apparently he was a film genius but now has lost his nerve. The problem is, you just don't care. Guido is a self-indulged, womanizing, has-been. You don't care if he comes up with a great new movie or not; in fact, you hope he even fails. I kept watching, hoping that he would have some dramatic change in his life that would make him become a better person. And while he does at the end try to do a different kind of film, you don't really care.

The actors in the movie are brilliant. Daniel Day-Lewis puts his heart and soul into everything he does, and you can see it. Marion Cotillard is beautiful and talented as always, as is Nicole Kidman. Fergie is very interesting. She has an amazing voice that probably isn't used to its full potential in the Black-eyed Peas. Penelope Cruz is...well, I hate her character, but she acts it well (though her singing voice doesn't exactly match her speaking voice so a part of me really wonders if it was dubbed). The surprise of the film was Kate Hudson though. I am really surprised her career hasn't taken off more after this film. She is very talented and needs to get out of the horrid comedies and do something serious (though, again, hate her character).

The women in this film are disgraceful. They all want to sleep with Guido and you can't really figure out why (again, old, womanizing, has-been - who wants to shag that?). While the women in Chicago are naughty, like a guilty pleasure, the women in Nine are raunchy, annoying, slutty, have no self-respect or respect for one another.

The music cannot even save Nine. While I don't really care for Mama-Mia, the music is great. I play it and sing it all the time. But in Nine, even removed from the film, it isn't really enjoyable. This is probably because removed from the film, the music wouldn't make sense. Most of the songs are all about....you guessed it, Guido. And usually they are sung by the nasty slut-whores who want to steal him away from his wife (the one character in the film you actually do have sympathy for). The only song that is enjoyable is "Be Italian" (congrats to Fergie for getting the one musical bright spot in the film).

So, overall, just hugely disappointing. After the huge success of Chicago, it seems as though Rob Marchal is trying to strike gold again (Dreamgirls did well also and was an OK film). But it is hard to touch the stars twice and this one falls painfully short and crashes back to earth with a sickening 'thud.' The actors try so hard, though, which is probably the most painful thing about it. Any academy award nominations they got were well deserved, but the film itself did not deserve any since Marshal needs to remember that character and story are what make a film, not song, dance, and flash - those are just the yummy extras.

Facebook and Rotten Tomatoes

So I have recently (as in like an hour ago) found out that Facebook as almost seemlessly aligned with Rotten Tomatoes. Now you can go to Rotten Tomatoes, find a movie you have seen recently, write a review on it, rate it. and post it to your Facebook page. And, the main reason why this is really cool, is it posts a film poster and all the film information along with it, which takes a lot of the extra steps out of the process since you don't have to post the picture yourself. This is really a nifty interface and I have really enjoyed using it (probably much to the chagrin of my FB followers to wake up to 20 movie reviews from me, lol). But I will keep posting movies reviews here since I don't want to bog down my FB posts with long movie reviews. But it is a nice way to sum up your feelings, give a quick rating, and post a link to a blog with a more indepth review. The only thing that would be nicer about the merger would be to include blogger in it so I wouldn't have to post to RT/FB and blogger :) Maybe that will be the next wave.

New York City Fashion Week

So, I have been pouring through pictures from New York City's fashion week last week trying to find pictures of Tiny Hats for my other blog, and I have to say I am generally disgruntled with Fashion Week. Designers suck. They are so out of touch with what people really like or would ever wear. Now I realize, part of the appreal of fashion week is to be daring and to make something new, but most of the clothes are just down right stupid, like this one: Now, I ask you, have you ever seen a more herione addicted model, a more stupid looking outfit, or a worse color combination? Ugh! Get with the program A Detacher!














But, thankfully, just as I was about to poke my eyes out from the horror, I came across Belle Parish. Her outfits are for kids, but they are just so cute! Here is a sample:











Too Cute!

Another good designer I found, and one very popular in China, is Betsey Johnson. She had some crazy, off the wall things (like the over above), she also had some very nice ball dresses and good use of color.

So you wanna be a pirate?

This post is mainly for my sister, Jessica, so she can learn the marvelous trade of pirating and stop wasting money on DVDs and CDs and so she can (FINALLY!) watch True Blood. But anyone who has been wondering what the heck is this pirating thing or anyone who wants to know how to do it will also enjoy my easy step-by-step guide. There are several steps to this process, but once you get everything installed and downloaded, it is very easy.

1) Install utorrent. Torrents are the ripped off information that is shared between computers, and utorrent is the software that gathers and combines the information. uTorrent can be installed here.

2) Now, many movies and TV shows cannot be played with Windows Media Player, so you will just need to install DivX and Xvid so that they will actually play on your computer. Again, this is very simple, you just need to install them both on your computer by going to the links provided. All you need is the free version of both.

3) Find a site to download your freebies. There are tons of torrent sites out there. There are risks associated with file sharing, though. It can open your computer up to viruses. But the way to protect yourself from this is to find sites and torrents that are being used by lots of people. If thoughsands of people are downloading the same file, then it must be safe. Some sites I reccommend are Demonoid (but it is so popular that it is hard to get an invitation code) and The Pirate Bay. But the best place to get TV shows (espeically Tre Blood) is EZTV. But if none of these sites have the file you are looking for (classical and world music can be especially hard to find) you can just go to google and type in "torrent" and the name of the CD or Artist or TV show you are looking for.
4) Download your freebies. Now when you click the link to download your torrent, a window asking if you want to open, run, or save your file will pop up. Click "open." This will actually open uTorrent for you. Then tell uTorrent "OK" to start downloading the torrent. You can watch in UTorrent to see how much of your torrent is downloaded and how long it should take to finish. Once it is 100% downloaded, just go to your downloads folder and voila! there your stolen file is for you to enjoy!
Have fun!

True Blood

I love True Blood. It is the greatest show ever and the best thing to happen to vampires since Interview with a Vampire. What makes it so great as opposed to Twilight (worst thing to happen to vampires ever) is that Harris takes what we already know about vampires and adds to it without taking anything away. Things like the addicitiveness of vampire blood, glamouring, etc are all unique to her, but she doesn't undo the fact that vampires have mesmerismic powers and that there are tales about humans drinking vampire blood. Her universe is also unique. What would the world be like if vampires "came out of the coffin"? Meyer on the other hand completely shuns what we all know about vampires (like that they burst into flames in the sun) and makes a completely different creature. Now, there is nothing wrong with making unique characters and a new mythos. The fundamental problem with Meyer's books is that she calls them 'vampires.' A clear case could be made that Meyer's creatures are not vampires at all since they do not follow any of the known historical facts about them. Had she called them "sparklers" or "cursed ones" it would be much less of a problem.

But the main point is that True Blood is the greatest thing ever and if you are not watching it, WATCH IT! NOW!

The Season 3 Finale is this Sunday night on HBO.

Scott Pilgim vs. The World

We went and saw Scott Pilgrim a few days before we left for China. It was really good. I didn't think I would like it because I'm not a huge comic book fan. But the comic is so video game based, that I think I might have enjoyed it more than Seth since I like video games more than he does. I kept watching in each battle to see what is resembled most. "Oh, that's like Mortal Combat!" "Oh! That's Soul Calibur!" "Oh! That's Street Fighter!"

It was also a good family film. It was kind of funny how when people would cuss it would do the black bar across their mouths. It has a good feeling about it. Scott Pilgrim is kind of a cheating douche bag for a large part of the film, so while he is likable, a part of you is really mad at him. But in the end, it all works out and lessons are learned.

What has been interesting is the way that people both who are fans of the comic and those who have never seen it before like it. Movies based on comics usually have one following or the other. Like when Watchmen came out, the people who were fans of the comic were disappointed, but general superhero fans were really impressed. But with this film, it seems to not matter if you are a fan or not, it appeals acorss the board.

I would reccommend this movie to all the geeks, nerds, and gamers out there or anyone who was alive in the 80's.

Tickles!

I don't usually post LOLcats becuase I figure if people want to see them, they would just to lolcats. But every once in a while, one cracks me up so bad, I have to share. This is one of those times:

It was for Delaney too because she is our Owl nut :)

Review of Rivership Romance

The Rivership Romance is a dinner cruise of the St. John's river in Sanford, FL. It is something we have been wanting to do for a while, so since we are leaving in 4 days, my hubby's parents were sweet enough to take us there. So here is my review of it.

It is a little pricey, but you can get a good deal. We went to this site and got a coupon for $100 off a $200 check. It is around $50 per person, so we got 5 people on the dinner dance cruise for around $150. Sodas and cocktails are extra. The artichoke dip with pita chips appetizer was wonderful.

The food was excellent. The mashed potatoes were made from real redskin potatoes and the broccoli was cooked just right. The meats were all good and the steak was huge. The only problem was that my sister-in-law did not like the vegeterian lasagna. It was more like a veggie alfredo. Also, you don't get a dessert choice. All they had was cheesecake which I don't like.

The service was lacking. After we got our first round of waters, it was probably half an hour before we got our sodas or water refills. It was as if they did not have enough staff for the number of people there.

The dance floor is tiny, slippery, and uneaven. It serves it's purpose, just be mindfull when you step so your feet don't fly out from under you.

The entertainment was pretty good. They had two live singers at the dance floor which plays through the ship all evening. However, other than walking around the ship, dancing, listening to the music, and talking, there isn't much to actually entertain you.

Overall, it was really nice. My inlaws have done it like 5 times now, so it is worth going. I'm not sure that it is really worth the price, so look into the coupon if you are planning on going.

Air Boat Tours

So today we went on an air-boat tour. It was a lot of fun. For people who don't know what that is, an air-boat is a flat-bottom boat with a huge fan on the back that propels the boat over the top of the water. These types of boats are prefered in the Everglades and swamps because the water is too shallow for traditional under-water propellers and under-water propellers injure wildlife like manatees and alligators. Airboat tours are one of the best ways to see gators in Florida. But, I learned few things about air-boat tours that I didn't know before and thought I would pass them along.

1) There are mosquitos! Lots and lots of huge mosquitos. We put on sunscreen because we knew we would be in the sun, but we didn't put on any mosquito repellant. They just coated us! So, mosquito repellant.

2) Sun glasses. This is both to protect your eyes from the sun and the wind. air-boats are open and go pretty fast to glide over the water. Even if you don't normally wear sunglasses, make sure you at least get some cheap ones just for the ride.

3) Go when it is cool. It was really hot out today and so we only got a glimpse of 3 gators. The captain said that the hotter it gets, he would be lucky to see any. When it gets hot, the gators stay under water to stay cool. The best time to see gators is in the spring when it is both cool and mating season. But if you must go in the summer (that is peak tourist season) go as early in the day as possible.

Those are my biggest tips. I didn't get many pics, but here are a few. Even though we didn't see many gators, air-boats are a lot of fun to ride so I highly reccommend taking a trip if you are ever in Orlando.
There is the top of the head of a gator in this picture, really, lol.

I just thought this old cypress tree looked really nest.

First Post

I already have a couple of blogs going, but they all have themes. Now I do prefer it that way. I like blogs that have a purpose to them. But I always have a lot of thoughts and ideas that tend to float around that I have no where to put them. Like, I take a lot of pictures of flowers, but nothing to do with them, so I think I will put them here. Also, while we are in China, I think I will start one of those "picture a day" threads so I can see how much I change in a year. So, anyway, this blog is probably more for me, but here it is. Enjoy!