Now THAT's what I call Love!

My best friend, who just so happens to have an excellent taste in movies, told me the other day that I should watch Crazy Love--a Belgium film from 1987 by director Dominique Deruddere.

The movie centers around a boy named Harry Voss at three different points in his life. It starts out showing him in a movie theater as a boy, he has this romanticized idea of love and his friend teaches him that it's really only about sex. It shows how awkward a 12-year-old boy can be when learning about sex and about his body. In a way though it leaves you grinning, thinking the boy is so naive and innocent that it's hard not to think he's adorable. The movie then switches to his High school graduation, this is a completely different feel from his 12-year-old self... He has boils all over his body, his face--people cannot bare to look at him, women cannot stand to touch him. You feel so much despair for him but cannot help but look. This is the point in his life when he begins to descend down a dark path, which leads us to his early 30's. I won't go into too much detail about his 30's except to say that this is where the film gets its name. He had fallen in love with a beautiful maiden when he was 18-years-old, now he meets her again--only it's not the way everyone was wishing for. The movie has a very bittersweet ending. In the end I didn't know whether to smile or to cry, so I did a bit of both. This is definitely a film I will watch again, maybe one of those you watch every other year or once every few years. But it beats the pants off of Titanic, that's for damn sure.
I would have to rate Crazy Love 9/10! You can get your copy at Mondo Macabro as well as some other really awesome films!

Your head is WAY too small...

I finally got around to pulling out my grandfathers VHS tape of Eyes Wide Shut. Stanley Kubrick is anything but conventional and this movie is completely sexual. Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise play as a upper class family in New York during Christmas and it is revealed that Cruise's wife, played by Kidman, though never actually cheating on him had had thoughts of infidelity. For some reason that gives Cruise the idea that it's okay to cheat on her. He ends up finding himself in ridiculous situations, including talking to an attractive hooker and ending up in an orgy cult. The whole movie was going well and I thought that though jumbled, the ending would hopefully redeem itself, possibly with Cruise getting beheaded as should be because the mans head is just WAY too small for his body, I mean really out of proportion. Unfortunately, the movie just ends and leaves you wondering WTF? I would've liked to see more but it felt like the entire movie was not planned out very well and could've been better. All in all I would give this a 6/10, as I did enjoy the content overall.

Man's head is so disproportionate! 

Simply Brilliant.

I have no words to describe how utterly brilliant Albert Nobbs with Glenn Close is. This is a period drama set in Ireland around the turn of the century when jobs were hard to come by and money even harder to come by. If we thought life was bad here in the Americas we were in denial about how much worse things could get in other countries. I do not want to spoil this movie for you--however I will state that this has got to be one of the greatest movies ever created. Ever. Period. End of discussion. The story, the costumes, the acting, everything... Was impeccable. Flawless. The movie will leave you speechless and possibly in tears. My personal opinion of Albert Nobbs is a well deserved 10/10!

And May the Odds Be Ever In Your Favor!

I bit the bullet yesterday. I bought the Blu-ray copy of The Hunger Games. I will not compare it to the book as the book will forever be superior, however, I will rate the movie and say I did shed a tear during one scene.

For those of you that have been living in a whole for well over a year, The Hunger Games is a movie based off of a trilogy of books written by Suzanne Collins. Basically set in the future  where 74 years ago, our ancestors from the 13 districts, rose up in rebellion of the Capitol. As a result, every year the Capitol hosts a "Reaping" where one boy and one girl between the ages of 11 and 18 are chose at random to enter The Hunger Games. This movie is like a less violent version of Battle Royale. Anyway, to cut to the chase--my overall opinion of the movie is this: good acting (great acting from Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, and Lenny Kravitz), the way the movie was shot overall could've have been done differently IMO, and it could've spent LESS time in the training area and more time focusing on the relationships that Katniss had built with other characters. It almost seemed like they thought it would be an epic fail until it didn't. I would've been happier seeing this movie in two-parts rather than it being cut dramatically short as the Harry Potter Films seemed to do. Important parts should not be left out to make way for "pretty shots" etc.

Overall, The Hunger Games receives a meager 6/10.

Something new?

Please forgive the dreary slurry eyedness... It's late! Behold my first video update which I will be trying to keep up with bi-monthly for movie and game releases. If you like this idea or have any feedback let me know, leave a comment. A big thanks to the 200 readers out there, you rock! Wouldn't have kept doing this without you guys! <3 Peace!

That spark that keeps it alive

This week has been bananas. Simply put: I lost my best friend and the love of my life, started fucking up at things I thought I was good at, found out I have a potentially lethal syndrome, got stalked by a man on a motorcycle (who tried to run me off the road and then followed me into my neighborhood until I lost him), and now here I am... I did however, get the chance to watch a couple of movies. RomComs, but hey!

So the first movie I watched was All's Faire in Love starring Christina Ricci, Owen Benjamin, Matthew Lillard, as well as other notable actors and actresses. This movie was kind of a pick me up and a little bit of an idea booster for me this week. The Jock, played by Owen Benjamin is about to fail a class unless he agrees to be Fetch boy at a Renaissance Faire, so to stay on the football team he goes. He finds himself fallen for Christina Ricci's  character who is a actress and has come to the Renaissance Faire also for the first time. Shenanigans and jokery abound in this RomCom set in a different setting. Who would've thought that someone could find love at a Renaissance Faire? Honestly, I'm quite excited to say I will be attending a Renaissance Faire this fall and who knows, maybe--just maybe--something like this will happen to me. By the by, Matthew Lillard delivers a stellar performance, hilarious and charming all in one, definitely one of his better roles since Thirteen Ghosts. This film would have to receive.......7.5/10!!!

The second movie I watched brought me to tears and kept me chuckling, Lovers in a Dangerous Time is a Canadian movie and really the only thing that was disappointing to me was that they didn't say "Eh" enough... And the ending, but I won't spoil that for you. I think I would've liked the ending more had my own ending been slightly different. This is the story of two childhood friends who drift apart after High school but reunite during their 10 year reunion. I won't go into too much detail as it is a very simple story and too much will ruin it for you, I will say if you don't like not so good footage, then you shouldn't bother with this one. I gave this one a 5/10.

It Takes a Village, or not...

I got around to watching a third movie over the weekend: Me and You and Everyone We Know. This is sort of a love story combined with other stories to give it this indie-movie dram-com feel. The stories two primary characters are Christine (a girl with many quirks who runs an elder car service and records media art on VHS) and Richard (a recently separated Dad of two who's just trying to figure out his way in life). The story has many other dimensions than just these two and they all connect somehow in the end. Take for example Richard's two sons: Peter (who happens to be played by Miles Thompson who you may have seen on Return to Sleepaway Camp and who I believe may just pop up in bigger roles one day, he seems talented enough to me) and his little brother Robby (who is obsessed with Poop); Richard & his brother have a long standing relationship with an internet chat fiend and so that one story ties in with another story that is linked with Christine: Macaroni? But in all seriousness, this movie is quirky and fun and sometimes to true to keep it from being sad... Personally my count for crying was three and they were mostly personal moments of realization or comparison. In the end the movie seems to give off this vibe of Everyone has a special someone meant just for them you just have to work to find them and to keep them, no matter how hard or frightening it may be. So I think I'm going to have to give Me and You and Everyone We Know an 8/10. ))>><<((