Trailer Park: Dear John

I loved every second of this trailer! I almost cried watching it! Amanda Seyfriend and Channing Tatum are perfect for this adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel (A Walk to Remember, The Notebook). Dear John is moving high up my must see list of 2010!

James Franco does Daytime Television

Did I miss something? Is it April 1st or am I being Punk'd? Golden Globe winner James Franco is heading to soap opera General Hospital for a 2-month recurring role. Via nydailynews.com:

Actor James Franco is headed for "General Hospital." He'll play a recurring role on the long-running ABC daytime series for two months staring Nov. 20, coinciding with Nov. sweeps, reports the Associated Press.

And though the "General Hospital" crew is keeping tight-lipped about the particulars of his role, Franco's character will supposedly be the "worst nightmare" for Jason Morgan, a mob crook character who's played by Emmy winner Steve Burton, according to Fancast.com. Insiders say that the fact that Burton and Franco share the same manager is pure coincidence, and deny rumors that Franco will return permanently to the small screen.

I'm pretty sure this can't be right and I'm having an aneurysm or something. A soap opera? A SOAP OPERA?! GENERAL HOSPITAL?! Look, for the record, I don't like James Franco. I think he's a great actor, but I also think he's a jackass. I really wonder why he's doing this. It looks like 'look at me not feeling like I'm too good for daytime television like my fellow A-listers', while it feels like 'look at how cool I am, that despite my success, I will do daytime television for fun. I'm so quirky!'

Honestly, the whole thing is so ridiculous, it almost makes me like him a bit.

Also, Jonathan Jackson is returning to General Hospital! He originated the role of Lucky Spencer. Now, JJ's career has not been as glamourous or successful as James's so I understand his move. Still, seems like a shame. JJ was fantastic in The Deep End of the Ocean. Too bad the kid never really got a chance to shine in other movies.

Trailer Park: The Crazies

Even though this is a remake of a movie I have never seen, George Romero's The Crazies (1973), I feel like I have seen this movie before. But hey, it's TIMOTHY OLYPHANT! I have mad love for him, so this is a must see for me. Radha Mitchell reminds me too much of Melissa George in 30 Days of Night. I miss Melissa George. *sigh*

I Love Megan Fox

Girl's a good sport.

Review: The Final Destination

The Final Destination? Please say it's so! But looking at the box office and I'm pretty sure it won't be THE Final Destination as it's the highest grossing entry of the series. Of course, the higher ticket prices for 3D has helped the movie quite a bit, me thinks.

I'm still kind of mad that this is the second movie I've seen this year where the opening credits are the best part of the movie (I'm also looking at you, Wolverine!). I wish the rest of the movie was as clever. But no. Just no.

They're out of ideas, man. OUT OF IDEAS. Beware of SPOILERS: Someone gets hit by a bus (see FD1). And there's fun with a nailgun. Which was 'fun' in FD3, but felt tired in part 4. I was like, 'Seriously, guys? Another nail gun? Didn't we already see that in the previous one?' And I couldn't help but think of Palahniuk's short story 'Guts' while watching Nick Zano in the pool (actually, I'm just surprised he could hold his breath such a long time in such a panic-y situation).

The fake out at the movie theater followed by the escalator 'death' was frustrating. It felt like they needed to fill up some time, which I thought was unacceptable as the movie only has a runtime of 82 minutes? How hard is it to fill up 82 minutes? Try character development! /SPOILERS

I did kinda like the scene in the beauty salon with Krista Allen so props for that. Also props to Allen for being a good sport.

The racism was unnecessary. Is this what counts as character development these days? *shakes head in shame* No, wait. SHAME ON YOU, ERIC BRESS! You wrote FD2 and The Butterfly Effect! You could do better than this! SLACKER! /rant

Hmmm.. what else? Oh right, 3D. Don't think it would've made much difference if I had watched it in 2D.

Overall, The Final Destination is the worst of the series (not sure why people hate on FD3 so much). They're running out of ideas and the 12 euros I paid to watch it in 3D were not worth it. A 2,5/5.

Review: Inglourious Basterds

EDIT: I've rewatched it and loved it even more so I'm upping my score from 4/5 to 4,5/5. Best movie of the year so far! /EDIT

I was looking forward to Inglourious Basterds for a long time and now that I've seen it, I want to see it again! I loved it! It wasn't a perfect movie, but I'm also having trouble pinpointing what exactly I didn't like about it.

Christoph Waltz was absolutely amazing. I extremely enjoyed his performance throughout the entire movie. From the first scene at the barn, Waltz was perfect. IMDB tells me that Leo DiCaprio was first choice for the role of Landa, and I think we should all be very thankful Tarantino changed his mind about that and hired Waltz instead. Will go all Basterds on the Academy's ass if they overlook his performance.

More greatness:

The opening scene at the barn was brilliant. Denis Menochet and Waltz played well off each other in the tension-filled scene.

Til Schweiger! I wish Til had a bigger role in the movie. Loved his angry and digusted looks. He was hilarious! Same goes for Brad Pitt with his hillbilly accent when he's trying to speak Italian. Eli Roth's delivery was okay, but I loved his crazy eyes! More Roth in front of and behind the camera is cool with me. BJ Novak is always great. Wanted him to have more screentime though!

Mélanie Laurent and Daniel Brühl also gave great performances. I really felt for Brühl's character at certain points. Too bad he went crazy towards the end. Laurent's scene at the restaurant with Waltz was really well done. Her emotional breakdown at the end of the scene was fantastic.

Tarantino made an excellent and brave decision by casting French and German actors and having them speak these languages for a large part of the movie. It's not something that will appeal to the general movie going crowd, but I guess that can be said for Tarantino's film in general.

Also loved the cinematography. The movie is a visual treat.

Now that I've had some more time to think about the movie, I do have a few negatives. For a movie called Inglourious Basterds not a whole lot of screentime was spent on the Basterds. I think I've only seen Michael Bacall once. Samm Levine had one line? Shame!

Not sure why Tarantino decided to cast Mike Myers. Nothing against Myers, but his character looked and sounded like he just stepped off the set of Austin Powers 4.

Am I morbid for expecting to see more scalping?

I'm having a hard time deciding on my favorite movie of the year so far: Basterds or Star Trek? I can tell you this is my fave Tarantino movie after Kill Bill. A must see if you love movies! A 4/5.

Review: Bride Wars

NOTE: I wrote this unfinished post approx. 2 weeks ago right before I went on vacation. I have very little memory of the movie now, except that it's crap. Didn't want to rewrite the post, because I'm blurry on the details.


Just caught Bride Wars on DVD. And woah.. that was crappy.

I am kinda amused by the lowbudget casting of the grooms: Steve Howey and Chris Pratt. Did Hudson and Hathaway have such high salary demands they couldn't afford say Chris Evans or Mike Vogel? Even Bryan Greenberg would've been a good choice for one of the grooms. Not that Howey or Pratt were bad, not at all! They are just guys I don't see often in high profile films. Props to the casting director for thinking outside of the box.

From the beginning of the movie I felt Hudson and Hathaway were a mismatch. Hathaway is so young-ish looking. I think someone like Liv Tyler would've played off of Hudson much better and the two look the same age-wise. Hathaway does fine though, but I felt she was on autopilot.

I had some problems with the screenplay and (lack of) character development. A big problem for me was that neither Hudson's Liv or Hathaway's Emma are likeable. Who am I supposed to root for here? I was hoping the guys would dump their asses! Especially Liv, who comes off as needy, neurotic and insane before she even gets proposed to. Who announces their engagement when the guy hasn't even popped the question yet?

Howey's Daniel is the painfully nice and understanding guy. Why he puts up with Liv, I have no idea. Then there's Pratt's Fletcher, who starts off nice but for some reason turns into a big a-hole towards the end. You know, just so Emma conveniently ends up with Bryan Greenberg. Of course. Who didn't see that one coming?

Then the war itself.. well, it took pretty long to get to it and then it came and went. They went for the easy laughs. Good lord, they're women. Let them realistically play dirty. I will never believe Emma had the chance to change Liv's hair dye. Mean Girls did it better. A 2,5/5.