LEGO Was The Best!

You think I’m kidding on some level. I’m not. This is highly competing with Psycho and ET and all my other favorites so far.

DISCLAIMER: If you have not seen this movie and do not wish to know all the spoilers, simply click ‘Like’ and do not read further. I wouldn’t want to unnecessarily ruin the experience for you.

Now that that’s out of the way, everyone has to go see this movie. I mean, all ages, male or female or transvestite or deaf- whatever. It’s got everything. Like a lot of these modern kids movies, writers anticipate that adults (i.e. parents) will have to be watching them, too, wo they might as well be enjoyable. Well, this guy went into this unbeleivable detail in this film, in terms of theme and character development. It was actually quite impressive. I actually thought for a while that maybe it really was intended to be a metaphoric adult film, simply dumbed down in order to reach that broader spectrum of an audience.

So to begin with there’s this gigantic world of a utopian-turned-dystopian society, where in theory all these citizens have jobs and do what they’re supposed to every second and everything is nice and orderly (reminded me much of The Giver, if anyone’s familiar). There’s still this little bit of individuality, however, which essentially drives the story.

Running this tyrannical government is an even more tyrannical president, stripping everyone of individuality and forcing them into conformity. This character even blatantly states that all who refuse to conform to laws by this all-central “Tako Tuesday” will be dissolved. Literally. Again, very reminiscent of the kind of Giver and Brave New World type of stories, if I’m not the only one jumping to conclusions like this.

One of the most blatant statements the writer made about an over-controlling society just made me laugh out loud. I really did laugh. There is a gigantic robot run by the corrupt police of this dystopia actually called the Micromanager. And guess what he does? Micromanages. He forces citizens to conform against their will, or freezes them to the ground (this comes into play later in the story, but I won’t give away everything).

And then of course we have our typical love interests. The hero chasing after the pretty, uninterested girl, as always. This wouldn’t be a movie without it. It’s entertaining.

Even more, the, goes on when theses ‘rebels’ are discovered by the main character, Emmet, who are all convinced Emmet is the only one who can save their home from this evil leader.

One of the biggest things I found fascinating was this constant commentary on one particular character, Good Cop/Bad Cop, whose name kind of speaks for himself. There’s a lot of this back and forth struggle between him and the government itself, that at first he tried to work for the president because he thought it was better for everyone, and now that the gov’t is taking over everything and destroying it all, he tries to put it all back but it’s a little too late. If anyone sees it for themselves, this little character does a lot, and speaks on a lot of different levels.

Oh, and Morgan Freeman plays a black Jesus. The world hath known justice.

New CD Fearless Records Review

I’m highly debating pre-ordering the Punk Goes Acoustic Vol. 2 album. If you’re not familiar, the Fearless records label has a website with all their signed artists on them. They created a lot of that Falling in Reverse, Bayside, et cetera kind of genre. Some of it was probably better left on YouTube, I will be the first to admit. I’m a personal Bayside fanatic.

But what they have done aside from their individual bands’ CDs is created compilations of covers, but all with a specific theme. And because the bands performing them are somewhat similar, they all come out as “Punk Goes Acoustic” or “Punk Goes 80’s” or “Punk Goes Pop” or the like.\

But what’s being announced is this Punk Goes 90’s 2. And I’m guessing the first one had pretty high ratings, or they wouldn’t be pursuing it. Like with the Punk Goes Pop collections, there are a series of five now because they were so popular and I guess this really is a good way to make extra cash for a lot of other people. And it seems like a good marketing strategy, too.

The songs themselves are pretty solid, even as good as the nineties gets, know what I mean (*cough* Rammstein *cough*). And it’s relatively inexpensive. $10. I won’t get it until April Fool’s Day, though. That said, they are a bunch of emo pop/punk bands performing them, and if anybody’s going to be super touchy about the dear desecration of your beloved Green Day, this ain’t up your alley. If any of the Fearless Records albums have ever taught us anything, that is.

There is always the option of buying a song individually, remember. And I highly recommend Pop Goes Punk Vol. 4 for the interested.

“This Is Just To Say”- By William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
The plums
That were in
The icebox

And which
You were probably
Saving
For breakfast

Forgive me
They were delicious
So sweet
And so cold

This is one of my favorite poems my teacher’s read to us in Creative Writing this year. I also like Garrison Keillor, but I read 77 Love Sonnets and it kinda got a little racy. Not really recommended for children. My teacher took it out of the library after that.

I was recently introduced to Patrick Jones, but Jesus Christ, his books are expensive………

Hunger Games Part 2- Catching Fire

My dad was entitled to actively try and interact with his oldest daughter this week, so tonight he totally messed up and thought I really wanted to go see Catching Fire, that second Hunger Games movie. I mean, personally, at first glance it wouldn’t have been a movie I was interested in paying to go see, but I can’t really pass up free dinner and a movie.

I feel like everyone in the English-speaking world knows  the generalities of what goes on, so I won’t bother. I was kinda peer-pressured into reading the trilogy, just because I was in seventh grade and all the cool kids were doing it……

So, the graphics for the movie were good, for what they were working with. I mean, they had computer-generated monkeys (scary m*therf*ckers), and they were simulating tidal waves and lots of natural events like weather and lightning, which technologically I can respect are pretty hard to make decent-looking. Whoever made the water park needs a raise 😀

I think stemming just from reading the books, I did not like the casting. I mean, depending on who’s read it, you may or may not have an issue with this and/or the actors, but some of them just don’t work. I do not like the guy who plays the Peeta character, for instance. I like him as an actor, but he just didn’t fit the character description, in my opinion.

Sounds nitpicky, but parts of the dialogue bothered me, too. I don’t know, they just sounded really disjointed and kind of false. Like they wouldn’t come out of anybody’s mouth if nobody told them to say it. If someone can think of an adjective for that, let me know. Again, it might have been the actors’ deliverance, or gone back to the writers.

Seriously loved the costume design. They sounded really elaborate in all the books, so obviously that was a huge priority in the movies, but even background characters had crazy shit going on. The woman Effie had this dress covered in Monarchs, and I kinda wanted it for a second. Yeah, that’s kinda sad 🙂

The Purge

Has anyone besides me seen The Purge? It wasn’t in theaters for too long around us. Probably because it was so between genres- that kind of is it scary, is it just spooky? kind of bit.

I didn’t see it in theaters anyway, guilty. Bought it on demand ‘cuz I’m lazy. I didn’t really like it the first time, because I felt like I was missing some element of the movie, or maybe it was bad acting, so I didn’t really recommend it to anyone. The second time I really got to absorb the movie and look at all the aspects, and in many ways it is a pretty B+ movie. Worth watching.

I feel like the plot line- new gov’t, one night of complete chaos- has been done one too many times before. Which was a tad disappointing. But they added neat details, and a smart person can pick up on little foreshadows in the beginning. The actors are pretty good. I’ve seen them before, I just don’t know their names. Again with the plot- it’s overdone as a whole, but the twists it takes in between are pretty cool. Some of them unpredictable.

And I like that they kill off the protagonist. Oh, spoiler. They do. But movies and books and stuff just don’t do that anymore. That used to be solely a Shakespearean thing. And maybe Hitchcock, but only because he’s a crazy old mother.

Oh, and you have to listen to all the voice recording at the end credits. Just do it.

“We are going to play out the rest of this night in motherfucking peace.”

 

Gravity- Clooney Style :D

So…..went to go see that Gravity movie tonight while my sis was at gymnastics……my buddy at the secondhand bookstore wasn’t working tonight so I went there instead!

First, George Clooney was in it. That just kinda makes it a good movie, period. I seriously think he’s genetically wired to look better with age. Or he has the world’s best plastic surgeon. Looks good grey, you know? I mean, I like Sandra Bullock, she has nice legs, but she’s too skinny for my personal taste really. She did look good with short hair though…..

To the actual point, it was a pretty cool movie, for a space movie. And they’re pretty few and far between nowadays. Looked better in 3-D (yes, I saw both, I had that much time to kill). The graphics were really good, I came in thinking the would look kinda cheesy, because they normally would for this kind of movie, but the whole pictures of earth and the space shuttles and it all actually did look pretty legit. Like, it didn’t look all computer cut-and-pasted like in Star Wars movies (don’t bash me for bashing SW).

One thing- if you’re kinda nit-picky about details, especially if you actually know a thing or two about space. The movie is kinda Hollyweird to the point where if you’re like me and you know a little bit too much about everything then it’s kind of a spoiler. You start to look at what could be impossible, what is crap, what’s stupid, etc. (trying not to give it away)…….

Worth it. 4 out of 5.