May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor

A little over two years I blogged about a new book I just finished. That book was of course, the Hunger Games. The movie version was released today, and I am so freaking excited to see it! Actually, I am seeing the movie tonight, and I cannot wait! Yes, I am clock-watching.

I am pretty forgiving with the movie versions of the books I love, so it will have to be pretty horrible for me to dislike it. Here's hoping it's as great as the previews made it look!

In Case Anyone Needs a Movie Recommendation

From the looks of it, a large portion of the general public drank the Netflix haterade, including myself; but I simply modified my subscription. I downsized to one movie at a time (plus streaming), and lately the ones arriving in my mailbox have been pretty good. Specifically, Flipped and Beats, Rhymes, & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest—two very different movies.


Flipped is for anyone who wants something light-hearted. It is about a young boy named Bryce and a young girl named Juli. They first meet when Bryce's family moves into the neighborhood, and for Juli, it is love at first sight. Not so for Bryce. The movie takes place in the late 50s/early 60s, so there is a certain innocence to the entire story. I rarely watch movies for artistry behind the filmmaking (although I can appreciate beautiful cinematography), so I can't comment on this as a film. That being said, I loved it! I enjoyed this so much, the book it was based on (also of the same title) is next on my reading list.


The other movie I thoroughly enjoyed was Michael Rapaport's documentary, Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest. It follows the hip-hop group, a Tribe Called Quest during their 2008 reunion tour. I have to admit, I did not really know much about the group, other than songs like Left My Wallet in El Segundo and albums like Midnight Marauders, but this sounded interesting. Michael Rapaport did not disappoint! It felt like a very honest look at the group, without too much Hollywood-sensationalism. Then there was the music! Like or love hip-hop, put this in your queue, because it is a history worth learning.

DC Has a New Green Lantern Fan

In brightest day, in blackest night,
no evil shall escape my sight,
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware my power...Green Lantern's light!

That is one great superhero oath. The first time I heard it was at the 2010 Comic-Con in San Diego, during the Green Lantern session. The cutest little kid asked Ryan Reynolds, "What does it feel like to say the Green Lantern oath?" He was so cute standing up there in his Green Lantern t-shirt that Ryan Reynolds had to say it for all of us in the audience. Ever since then I have been anxiously waiting for the release of this movie.

For some reason I thought it was supposed to come out in March, but I'm glad it was released in June because life was a little goofy in the Spring. Since I was so impatient, I saw this movie on opening weekend.

It was different.

If you just go based upon the trailers and you haven't followed the comic book, then you have no idea that so much of this movie takes place in space. I get the marketing angle, after all, you do want as much of the general populace to go see Ryan Reynolds as the Green Lantern. But, I wonder if this is what turns a lot of people off about the movie?

Nah, its also a bit confusing (somehow Hal Jordan just knows that the pulse of his ring means something's up) and its a little choppy, but as far as summer popcorn movies go, it's just fine. I enjoyed it (and yes, the eye candy is fantastic). I even texted my comic-book-expert friend right away to find out just which Green Lantern comic book I should read first. He recommended Green Lantern: Secret Origin.

So now I know that the ring alerts Hal Jordan to "extraterrestrial incidents" in which he should intervene.

Obviously, I'm hooked. Not majorly hooked, but enough that I've got some new summer reading. I think it's the idea of willpower being the force behind the Green Lantern Corps' power. That, and the oath.

Last Night's Film

Last night I watched Rabbit Hole. It is one of those heavy films you have to be in the mood to see.

In case you have never heard of it, Rabbit Hole is the heart-wrenching story of a couple's life after their young child dies in an accident. Yikes. Just writing the simplest synopsis of the movie's plot is tough. I was hesitant to watch this because it was a little too close to real-life, but I am glad I did.

Despite the weight of the movie and its subject matter, I thought it was a great film. Great because it captured all the raw emotions and struggles of what happens when a couple loses a child. Great because you saw how easily things change and spin out of control. But most of all—spoiler alert—great because in the end there was hope. It was not false hope either; just plain, old hope that maybe, just maybe things would be okay.

Who You Got?

It's about to be one of my favorite Sunday's of the year. No, not the Super Bowl or anything sports related. This time it's about movies—February 27 is Oscar Sunday, and it's so fun trying to guess which way the Academy will go.

Here are my picks for the "big" stuff:

• Best Picture: The King's Speech
  
• Best Actor: Colin Firth in The King's Speech
  
• Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale in The Fighter (although I am cheering for Geoffrey Rush in The King's Speech
  
• Best Actress: Natalie Portman in Black Swan
  
• Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo in The Fighter (personally, I loved Helena Bonham Carter in The King's Speech

I have not seen all the Best Picture nominees, but at least there is a clear winner this year. Last year I didn't really feel like any of the nominees were a "best" of the year, but this year I fell in love with The King's Speech. If something else wins that I have not yet seen, it had better be amazing, because The King's Speech was the best movie of this awards season. I don't think it will win for Best Director, but I don't really know what will.

Oh, and just for kicks, I'm taking Inception for Film Editing, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing; Toy Story 3 for Animated Feature (it's way too tough to unseat Pixar, but How to Train Your Dragon was great); and Alice in Wonderland for Art Direction and Costume Design.

When I Had a Bad Day

Sometimes Seth and I don't make proper use of our Netflix account, and movies sit at our house a little too long. There have been times when I have given up on ever watching the movie, and just returned it. Then there are other times when someone out there in the universe must have known that I needed to wait for just the right moment.

The right moment for us to watch Temple Grandin came last week. I had a particularly bad day, and was just not happy. It was an evening to park it on the couch, and just veg; so we put Temple Grandin and gave into the laze.

Not only was that one of the better movies we have seen in a longtime, but it was just the right feel-good movie for me at that particular moment.

Temple Grandin is one cool woman.

I don't want to ruin the story for anyone, but in case you have no idea who she is, Temple Grandin is a 63-year-old woman with high-functioning autism. If you want to know more, rent the movie. I know I want to know more about her, and so I will be looking for a book about her at the library.

What's One Egg in Metric?

It's award-season in Hollywood, and during this time of year, Seth and I are usually trying to play catch-up on all the potential Oscar nominations we can. Tonight, we finally watched Julie & Julia. It was quite nice.

I think it was the food. Or maybe, it was just Julie and Julia's love for food and cooking. Or maybe it was that the movie appeals to food lovers of all sorts (and not just so-called "foodies") in the same way that Julia Child's methods appeals to cooks of all sorts.

Beyond the food and the cooking, there were little moments of movie bliss.

When Julie Powell says, "Is there anything better than butter? Think it over, anytime you taste something that's delicious beyond imagining and you say 'What's in this?' the answer is always going to be butter. The day there is a meteorite rushing toward Earth and we have thirty days to live, I am going to spend it eating butter. Here is my final word on the subject, you can never have too much butter," my final word on this is exactly.

And then there were the moments when Julie's mom hangs up on Julie at the end of their phone calls without saying "bye." These are such small moments to love, but I loved them because that's just what my mom does to me. It's always the little things.

If you need a more whimsical escape from real-life, do watch Julie & Julia. At the very least, it's an interesting glimpse into Julia Child's journey to occupy herself in Paris: From searching for a French cookbook printed in English to mastering a quick chopping technique to converting metric measurements to English measurements--it's fascinating.

Home-Home

Contrary to what my family may believe, I do miss my home-home, Hawaii. Beyond the lilikoi iced tea, Island Manapua and W&M Drive-In, I miss my family. Then there are those only-in-Hawaii moments: a fan of shoes outside the front door; the ice-cold slush of your sort-of frozen, sort-of melted can of juice; and the surf phone tree.

I experienced a little bit of the surf phone tree yesterday when my dad called to tell me that the Eddie Aikau was on and there was a live-feed online. It was a sweet way to end the day, watching pro surfers drop-in on some ginormous waves. I loved hearing names like Sunny Garcia, Bruce Irons and Shane Dorian called out. It took me back to high school, and I am always amazed to see that that those guys are all still competitively surfing.

The moment when Greg Nolan went on his 100-point ride sticks out most in my mind. The way the camera shot him dropping in reminded me of the footage of Greg Noll taking on Waimea Bay in Riding Giants. Chicken skin.

I was so proud yesterday to see my home-home, and I was glad to see all those people on the beach playing hookie. The Eddie has been around for 25 years, but because the wave-face has to consistently hit 40 feet, this was only the eighth running of the contest. How often do you get to experience a day like the Eddie?

I can't help but think the Eddie Aikau is so much cooler than Mavericks. Considering that I live in Nor Cal, it's surf blasphemy, I know. But I can't help it. Waimea Bay is beautiful, the temps were near 80 yesterday, and sunshine beats fog any day in my world.

November 20 , 2009 is Finally Here!

The movie version of New Moon is in wide release, and I just got home from the Nordstrom screening. Chris Weitz did a great job, and I am content. Of course, I plan to see this in theater again, and I know next time I will scrutinize less. It also may help not to sit near someone who makes loud commentary throughout the movie. Mostly she said "wow" and it pretty much ruined the effect of a pack of wolves stalking a vampire.

Now, about the movie (stop reading if you want to judge the movie for yourself).

I thought Melissa Rosenberg captured the essence of the book well, and I am happy with what was and was not included. As I mentioned earlier, Chris Weitz did an excellent job, and the special effects did not disappoint. Even Seth, who does not care for CGI, thought the wolves were awesome.

Side note: Seth prefers Jacob to Edward now that he has experienced New Moon. This is something my youngest sister will be happy about, but I am not so thrilled.

The fight scenes are better than I expected, and I especially enjoyed the addition of the row between Felix and Edward. Thumbs up on making the Cullens all look more like the Cullens of my imagination. Thumbs down on the silly moment that flashes through Alice's mind when she shows Aro the vampire future of Bella and Edward. Thumbs up if it was meant to poke fun at the Robsession (something I would not put past the director given the razzing that went on at Comic-Con). Selfishly, I would love to see the post production team pay more attention to small details like making Alice's eyes black when she comes back to Forks. But then again it would only be something for the fans of the book, and would probably fail to add substance to the storyline.

Though this was the most difficult of the four books for me to get through, I thought the movie was much lighter in feeling than Twilight. It was still awful when Edward left, but the general feeling of the movie was not as angsty, and there were so many more laughs which helped to foil the depressing moments. I wonder how I will be able to wait for my trip home to see this again.

Final thoughts are reserved for the event itself: The Nordstrom event was well organized, and since all 14 screens were taken over by New Moon, we somehow ended up in a theater with an older age group. This made a huge difference in keeping the screaming down, which is a big plus.

It's November!

I think I went to sleep my one night in the beginning of October, slept a restless, stressful sleep, and awoke to find that it is now November. Everything has been busy, busy, busy.

The good thing about all the busy is that I forgot to be antsy about the release date for New Moon. This weekend, that changed. I caught bits of the trailer during the World Series and some football games, and that brought all the excitement back.

That's when I got fidgety and my mind started buzzing. I started to wonder, "How will see New Moon on November 20? Is it sold out already? Can I really stand all the screaming? Would Seth go with me? Probably not. But then maybe he would. Should I try to go to LA and see it with friends down there? Seth did mention that he would rather pay for me to fly down there than to have to see it with me..." Luckily I happened upon a promo at Nordstrom's Brass Plum.

Basically, you spend some money and you get a pass to a screening on November 19. So, I took care of some early Christmas shopping, and I got two tickets to see New Moon one night early. Somehow I even got Seth to be my plus one.

I think it will be relatively controlled since it is limited by the number of seats they have in the theater. Hopefully it's not too crazy of a night, but I will still be prepared for high-pitched screaming and loads of teenie boppers.

Comic-Con 2009

When someone asks “Where are you going on your vacation?” and you say “Oh...to Comic-Con,” be prepared for laughter and “geek,” or “dork,” in response. Really though, Comic-Con isn’t just about comic books and geeks anymore. In recent years it has morphed into a pop-culture phenomena, and this year, it was bigger than ever.

Between July 22 and 26, about 125,000 people invaded the San Diego Convention Center for the Con. Every single day, and every single pass sold out. In fact, if you tried to buy a four-day pass in April, you were out of luck.

Luckily, my sister and I bought our four-day passes in February. I should admit now that our main reason for going was Twilight; and before this year, neither of us had never been to Comic-Con. I should also be thankful now that this is an unpopular blog so I don’t have to worry about veteran attendee ire over the vampire-fan convergence. But, like I said, the Con is also about pop culture, and it truly isn’t for your average geek anymore. Now it includes the general population, and the teenie boppers.

Comic-Con is amazing and crazy. There are an unbelievable amount of people moving through the convention center: pushing their way through to pick-up swag, straining to see the latest toys, getting pictures of costumed attendees, etc. It also smells. There is a lot of body odor and not enough deodorant. You can easily forget that part though, because Comic-Con is multiple sensory overload.

The big name studios (Warner Bros., Fox, Disney to name a few) and major comic book players (DC, Marvel and more) have huge booths filled with displays, merchandise to consider and autograph opportunities. Besides the giant corporate areas for movies and comics, there are sections for gaming, manga, comic distributors, and merchandise opportunities galore. Then you spot a Stormtrooper; oh wait it’s Princess Leia; now it’s Naruto; what is this steampunk thing; look a battle-worn Stormtropper; I think I see Slave Leia; oooh Spiderman; another Stormtrooper…you see? Sensory overload.

Beyond the exhibit hall, requiring hours of patience, are panel sessions. Fans get sneak previews and question/answer sessions with the stars, directors and producers of their favorite sci-fi and/or superhero movies and TV shows. The great thing about the panel sessions? They don’t clear the rooms. The horrible thing about the panel sessions? They don’t clear the rooms.

If you want to see a panel that’s not until 1:45 p.m., plan to camp out in your seat, or hopefully move up if people vacate. But, if you are there for something Twilight related, especially something that includes Rob Pattinson et al, then don’t hold your breath and hope for people to leave.

The New Moon Panel
On day one of Comic-Con, my sister and I arrived at the convention center at 6:00 a.m. Thanks to a parking mistake, we saw the line for the New Moon panel. The sun was barely up, and there were already hundreds of people in line. It turned out that you could sleepover—something we thought you couldn’t do (or maybe we just hoped you couldn’t because we really didn’t want to sleep on concrete). Eventually it was apparent that people were holding places in line and instead of hundreds of people ahead of us, there were thousands. By the time Hall H opened, it was 10:30 a.m., and we were seated in the middle of this 6,500 seat hall. But, we were in.

Thanks to the Con’s practice of not clearing rooms, we saw the Disney 3D panel (A Christmas Carol, Alice in Wonderland and Tron Legacy), another 3D showcase panel (not that great) and a surprise appearance by Johnny Depp (Alice in Wonderland). When Chris Weitz, Rob Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart and Ashley Greene walked onstage for New Moon, it made the hours of waiting and the extremely early morning totally worth it. Interestingly, the screaming was not that bad, and even more surprisingly, everyone kept to their seats. The movie clip they debuted was awesome (Jacob teaches Bella to ride her motorcycle, and she starts having her Edward hallucinations), and at the end of the panel they treated us to another clip (Bella and Alice race to Volterra in the yellow Porsche, and Bella races through the city to stop Edward…clip ends right as Edward takes a step toward the sunlight). It was cool seeing the cast, but honestly, some of them have a hard time with interviews and questions. All in all, it was a fantastic experience. And yes, I would do it again (even if while standing in line, I said never again will I do something like this for Twilight).

The Coraline Panel
The other panel on my list was Coraline. I just wanted to see Neil Gaiman. He is one of my favorite authors, and because of my Forks trip I missed a wonderful opportunity to attend one of his events in San Francisco. This panel was a lot easier to get into, and I had prime seating. For me, the only drawback was that the director, Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach), has a huge following so many of the questions were directed to him. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the making of Coraline, and that night I went out and bought the DVD.

In addition to holding a panel discussion, there was an autograph opportunity for Coraline. However, it was a lottery drawing that took place right around the same time that you had to stand in line to get into the panel. Lucky me, my sister was willing to stand in line for the lottery, and even luckier, she got the ticket. The only problem was that they then put a wristband on her (one that could not be easily removed), so only she could stand in line for the autograph. It all turned out okay in the end. Even though I didn’t get a chance to meet Neil Gaiman, he was graciously willing to sign two items. I let my sister keep the autographed Coraline print (signed by Teri Hatcher, Neil Gaiman, Henry Selick and David) and my copy of Good Omens was also signed by Neil himself.

The Experience
Comic-Con is one of those things that should be experienced by everyone at least once. You just have to get over the crowds and the smell. It really seems like the studios do their best to treat fans to something special, before the viral video hits YouTube and while movies like Alice in Wonderland or New Moon are still in production. The whole thing really is enormous, and while it gets bigger every year, I have heard that the convention center is at capacity. I hope the Con figures out how to handle the Twilight craze, because there are two more movies yet to come, and it is a bit out of control. Plus, the veteran Comic-Con people are not happy with the rabid vampire fans—everywhere we went we heard varying forms of “dumb Twilight”. Regardless of your interest in the different genres of comics, Comic-Con is something you don’t want to miss. If you are in the right place at the right time you might hear people dressed in costume, from different movies, speaking in character to one another. I missed out on this, but hopefully I hear this sort of talk next year. My sister and I already bought our four-day passes for Comic-Con 2010.

Discombobulated

I am in need of some time with my sewing machine, knitting and books! Weekends have been so jam packed that my weekdays are turned upside down, and I have been constantly on the go. There has not even been much time to keep up with blogs, tweets and Twilight news.

That being said, something did catch my eye tonight: Summit has said there will be a New Moon panel at Comic-Con on Thursday, July 23! Since I cannot find any confirmation on the Summit site, I am not 100% sure about this tidbit, but it still makes me happy-happy-joy-joy since this is the whole reason my sister and I are venturing braving the convention.

Drive Like Cullens

Podcasts are the best thing about the iPod phenomena, and there is a new one out there all about Twilight. The podcast is called Drive Like Cullens, and it was created by "a group of friends/siblings who are fans of Twilight." You can also find them on Facebook, where you can and should [as a Twilight fan] become a fan of their page.

I'm only Episode 2, but so far I like it! They have good rapport with one another and their discussions are witty and make me laugh. Of course, I am may be a little biased since I used to work at the school they all went to, but hey, what can I say? I am always happy to support people with whom I have some sort of connection! Plus I have to confess that I feel a little better about my Twilight obsession since Alyssa saw Twilight in the theaters four more times than I did.

How to Be

The thing is, no one ever tells you how to be in your mid-20s. The usual recipe is you go off to college, you graduate, you get a job, you get married, you have kids. The part that no one tells you about is how to be when you come to a stop at the job part; and now you're stuck because marriage is nowhere in sight, and neither are the kids. I was a little lost in my mid-20s for exactly this reason. I had a degree and a good job, but no marriage prospects, and definitely no children. Eventually, I figured it out and got a lot more comfortable with myself and my direction, but it was a frustrating time.

Tonight I saw a movie that captured all the confusion, frustration and lost feeling I had in my mid-20s. The movie is How to Be, directed by Oliver Irving and starring Robert Pattinson. Of course, now I feel the need to admit that I was never quite as lost as the main character, Art; and my parents gave me a more than satisfactory upbringing, but still, I could empathize with the poor guy.

Initially I wasn't sure if I liked the movie because I felt like Art was too awkward, but then I realized that it was supposed to be that way. It is easy to see the Art is supposed to be awkward and uncomfortable to say the least, but for a lay-person in the film world, it is not easy to see that there's more to it than just the acting. It was Oliver Irving who added to the feeling--his choices in at times in lighting or at other times with the camera lens, combined with Art (the character) made the movie work.

Next, I have to admit that I didn't get there entirely on my own. I saw this at the California Independent Film Festival in Livermore tonight, and after the screening, Joe Hastings (composer) and Oliver Irving participated in a question-answer session. Oliver graciously answered questions and shared a lot of the behind-the-scenes information you rarely get to hear. I found it pretty cool that he shared tidbits like how he used a wide angle lens to create a certain effect when Art visits his childhood room; the bed size was an accident; scenes where actors play music and/or sing are entirely real, except for one guy; homage is paid to other movies through costuming or set design; etc.

Oliver Irving did a good thing when he made this movie. Not only did he give us a movie capturing the 20-something experience, but he made a true, independent film. It's quirky and low-budget, and that is an important movie-going experience. Plus, you get to watch this only via the film festival circuit before it releases on DVD. I highly recommend film festivals. This was my first one, and I loved every moment. The question-answer session led to some interesting insight, and the people there asked intelligent questions; their obvious knowledge and love of films improved my appreciation for this movie.

So, if you love independent films, go see How to Be. If you love British-anything, go see How to Be. If you love the comedies that make you think while you laugh, go see How to Be. By the way, the soundtrack is interesting too, and that is coming out on April 28. But please, don't order your copy through the How to Be website because I want more of a chance to have get one of the 250 autographed posters.

Who Watches the Watchmen

It is a rare thing for Seth to actually want to see a movie in the theater; it is usually a painful process to get him there. Apparently though, I have been lucky in 2009. Hopefully my luck continues since this year is stacked with some big shows:

January
Somehow I convinced him to see Twilight, and that's when we saw a preview for Watchmen

March
Got to see Watchmen on opening night; seeing a movie on opening night with Seth is a first

May
X-Men Origins: Wolverine

June
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

July
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

August
G.I. Joe

November
New Moon

By the way, Watchmen was excellent. The cinematography, music and editing alone are worth seeing on the big screen. My two favorite scenes:

• Opening scene with the killer and the Comedian; love the contrast between the action, darkness and music
• Rorschach in jail, "None of you understand. I'm not locked up in here with you. You're locked up in here with me."

I have not read the graphic novel yet, but it's jumped up to the "must read now" level as I am beyond intrigued. Apparently the dork in me has found another interest; not one that has replaced Twilight, but rather one that has formed a line behind it.