Top 3 Posts Last Week

Funny how the Christmas holiday season has already passed and yet my post about a How The Grinch Stole Christmas has been the number one read and searched post on my blog last week.  It was followed in second place by my post about my top five gothic bands with female singers, then lastly by by review of the Megan Fox film, Jennifer's Body.

Two Movies I Look Forward To In 2013

First of all, I hope everyone had a safe New Year's Eve celebration and getting 2013 off to a good start.  What a year we had in 2012, didn't we?  The year was very full of activity for me outside of my "dreamz" blog which resulted in less frequent posts compared to previous years.  (Sorry, fans - didn't mean to keep you hanging).   But it's been great - and I'm very thankful to have the opportunities I've had to do the things I got to do in 2012, thankful for the people that have faith in my abilities, and thankful for the moral support I've received in the process.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

The Bourne Legacy Review

As a big fan of action thrillers (and a big fan of the Bourne series), I was sure not to miss The Bourne Legacy which opened in movie theaters across America this week-end.  Even if you say you're partial to the Bourne movies because of Matt Damon's exceptional portrayal of on-the-run, top secret government agent, Jason Bourne, you won't be disappointed with Jeremy Renner in The Bourne Legacy.

Melancholia Movie Review

I recently decided to upgrade my Amazon account to Amazon Prime so I can take advantage of the many additional benefits of being a Prime member, including the ability to stream movies and shows that I can't find on my Netflix account (many of which are at no extra costs to Prime members).

One of the recently added movies available for streaming on Amazon is Melancholia starring Kirsten Dunst. Since I've heard so much about the movie, I thought I ought to check it out. Besides that, Alexander Skarsgård is also in it. Remember him from True Blood? He was voted Best Horror Actor three years in a row at the Scream Awards!

Two Thoughts on The Hunger Games Movie

I took my kids with me to the AMC Movie Theater this week-end and watched The Hunger Games together. While my son is old enough to have read the book, he didn't read the book because he prefers to read Fantasy and Humor books over this type of novel. My daughter is still in elementary school so she, of course, has definitely not (yet) read the book. They both came willingly anyway because they've heard from others about the movie and know I've been waiting to see it.

Tuesday Thoughts - The Vow

Two of the top movies this past week-end were Safe House and The Vow.  Although Safe House looked like a very exciting movie to watch, I convinced my hubby to go out with me to see The Vow as our post-Valentine's Day date movie.  Wanna know what we thought about it?

Ryan Gosling, Part Two

It's time to share my two thoughts for Tuesday...as we like to do at BlogDumps. Recently, I featured Ryan Gosling on LiggyzDreamz's Dream Guy of the Week. (Post 07/17/2011)

First off, I'm thinking that I could have mentioned the painfully dramatic role he played opposite Michelle Williams in the 2010 indie film, Blue Valentine. 

Dear John...a year later

Sometimes I feel bad that I wait over a year after a movie is released before I get a chance to watch them but some movies are not worth rushing to the movie theater for.  The movie adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' DEAR JOHN is one of those kinds of movies.  With the movie debuting as #1 at the box office and knocking Avatar out of the top spot in February 2010, I guess the majority of movie-goers didn't agree with me.

A look at Salt (the movie)

 
I borrowed the Salt movie DVD from my sister recently and had to watch it twice this week.  Yes, I thought it was THAT good!  I have always been a big fan of Angelina Jolie but her acting skills in this movie really blew me away.  In this film, she's like the female version of Jason Bourne of the Bourne Identity.  Truly awesome!

The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker DVD finally arrived at my house from my 1-DVD at a time Netflix queue.

Let me say that my initial expectations of the movie were not met - they were exceeded!   I've watched war movies before but none of them kept me glued to my seat like this one.  I literally couldn't keep my eyes off the TV screen.  In fact I felt like I must've been holding my breath throughout the movie, just waiting for the moment that either the explosives expert successfully detonated the "unexploded ordnances" or when the ground he was standing on gets blown up to smithereens.

Jeremy Renner was outstanding in his role as an military explosives detonator.  He was so naturally fitting for the role, so believable that you would want to know if he was really that brave and heroic or was he just a crazy thrill-seeker?  

Before the movie was released, I anticipated The Hurt Locker to be full of cinematic effects and include more background soundtrack.  Although the movie played more or less like a documentary in the sense that there was more dialogue than special effects, director Kathryn Bigelow did an excellent job at making the viewer feel like part of the action and every breath-taking moment of it.

Yes, I agree...The Hurt Locker definitely deserved the Academy Awards that it received.  It is a must-have for any DVD or Blu-Ray movie collector.   I give both thumbs up to this one.

Jennifer's Body

What a surprise it was for me to find Jennifer's Body among the DVDs available for borrowing at my local library. I didn't expect to find the movie there because it's just one of those movies that you just don't find too worthy of artistic or theatrical criticism. After all, it's a movie whose publicity centered around half-naked photos of Megan Fox.


But since I had never seen the movie and it was there - where I could borrow it and view it for FREE - I decided to go ahead and add it to the other material I was going to check out.  


When I first started watching it, I thought the storyline was totally unlike any of the reviews I had read about the movie.  Yes, Amanda Seyfried's character - Anita "Needy" - and Megan Fox's character - "Jennifer" - were the best of friends since childhood.  But they had an unbalanced relationship. They were total opposites, with "Needy" being the always eager to please, subservient companion to the self-centered, egotistical Jennifer. 

These two friends were also classmates in school, always sitting by each other.  If the storyline were to have focused on the classroom setting more, you would probably expect to see Jennifer copying off Needy's work.  But of course, that's not what the storyline was about so you won't see that there.  (Whew!  Thank goodness because that would've really added to the boredom of the movie).


Then of course, this girly bonding is a focal part of the movie.  To spice it up (and probably to get some media attention) there is a girl-to-girl kissing scene which I thought was given a few more screenshots than necessary to fulfill whatever purpose it was supposed to serve. 

While watching, I had to question why this relationship was such a primary focus in the movie, especially after that kissing scene.  I thought this was supposed to be a horror movie.  The horror scenes (if you wanna call those gory humor depictions "horror") were fairly mild in contrast to most movies that you'd find of this genre.  It's the reaction of the families of those that died that made the killings seem more ghastly and horrific than the scenes themselves.  The "families" did give pretty outstanding emotional performances, though, I must say.

There are some "horror" flicks that I wouldn't mind if I saw a second time.  But Jennifer's Body, I must say, is not really something I'd care to see again.  It's not really that bad of a movie.  Most of the actors look like they were really "into" their respective roles, enough to give each one a thumbs up performance.  I just feel like the movie is only something  you'd really make the effort to see if you just happened to be fans of the actors in it.   I'd rate this movie just two out of five stars (and that's probably being generous).