Books, Movies, and Chinese Food

It's been awhile since I've been to theater. After the Best Picture Showcase where I spent over 12 hours watching movies straight, I was kinda theater tapped out. Plus there hadn't been anything coming out lately that I absolutely had to see. Kung Fu Panda 2 was one that I was excited about but due to trying to conserve funds, I figured that I could wait until it came out on DVD. But then as luck would have it, I had gotten a coupon for a free large popcorn AND a large drink and a GC with about 3 bucks on it. If I went during the early matinee shows, that means I only had to spend $3 bucks on my whole outing. Also my sister had gone to see KFP2 and told me she bawled while watching. Since the two of us tend to cry at the same movie, that totally sold me on going. Yes, I love a good cryfest at the theater. If you haven't seen the first Kung Fu Panda movie, I highly recommend watching it. It is probably my family's favorite non Pixar/non Disney animated film. ...

This is the final movie that I saw at the Best Picture showcase. I still have not seen Black Swan but I am on the holds list for it at the library. Again, this is another movie that I probably would not have watched had it not been nominated for Best Picture. I didn't really know any of the actors, never heard of the book that it was based on and I normally do not see talking dramas in the theater. It's also a small indie flick which I don't see too often especially if I know nothing about it. However, I am very glad that I did and I do think that all the nominations for this movie were greatly deserved. I loved Jennifer Lawrence in this movie. This is the first time I've ever seen her and she was wonderful. She IS the movie. Since I haven't seen Black Swan, I cannot compare Lawrence to Natalie Portman but I can say that I do believe that her nomination was rightly deserved and she was my favorite to win. Her character is heartbreaking. Ree is only 17 year...

This movie may come off as just a boxing movie but it's so much more than that. It's an underdog story. It's a recovering addict story. It's a story about family. It's a story about finding out who you really are and standing up for yourself. This movie is all about the acting because the acting so wonderful. It's nomination for Best Picture is well deserved. Christian Bale absolutely loses himself into whatever role he plays. I have loved him ever since he was Jack Kelly in Newsies and then Laurie in Little Women. I've watched him grow up into playing more serious and darker roles and adore him in the new Batman movies. In this movie he because Dicky, the former boxer who is still trying to relive his glory days but in reality has fallen into his drug addiction. You totally forget the actor and you see the character. It's very easy to both pity and get disgusted with Dicky. Because of his addiction and how his mother treats him, he's qu...

I am normally not a big fan of westerns whether in books or in movies. They are ok but not really my favorite genre. True Grit was first made into a movie in 1969 starring John Wayne who won the Oscar for Best Actor. I haven't watched all of that version but from what I did see it's drastically different from this new version. In fact, even though I had heard good things about the movie and that I had liked some of the other Coen Brother movies I had seen in the past and the actors in the movie were all excellent, if this movie hadn't been nominated for Best Picture, I probably would have passed it over. I'm so glad I didn't! It turned out to be one of my favorite movies at the Best Picture showcase. Jeff Bridges is fantastic as Rooster. He's a drunk but I really liked his character. I love how you can tell he has a soft spot for Mattie though it's clear that he's a bit baffled about her. It's a bit hard to understand him at times but I thought ...

Ok, I'll admit that if this movie had not been nominated for Best Picture and hadn't been showing at the Best Picture showcase, I probably wouldn't have seen it. It's just not my type of movie. That being said, I am glad however that I did see it. While it's not really my cup of tea, it was an enjoyable and thought provoking movie. The premise of the story is that the children of a lesbian couple want to find their birth father. He was the same sperm donor to both of their mothers. The movie takes a twist on the average All-American family story by placing a same sex couple as the main parents. The writing of the movie is well done. It's funny at times (though not a comedy as the Golden Globes seems to think it is), serious and very realistic. The acting is very good especially I felt done by the teens. Joni is quite level headed and Laser is pretty much your typical teenage guy but he's a good kid. Something I found rather interesting was that when...

Over the following weeks, I plan on reviewing some of the movies that were nominated for Best Picture at the 2011 Academy Awards. I won passes to the Best Picture showcase hosted by AMC Theaters. This meant that for 24 hours straight, ALL TEN of the Best Picture nominees were played back to back, from 10 am Saturday to about 9 am Sunday. It was totally awesome. We got gift cards for concessions and people were there with blankets and pillows. One of the best experiences of my life and I hope to do it again next year. I only stayed for 6 out of the 10 because 1) it was getting late and 2) I had already seen 3 out of the 4 remaining movies. I only have not seen Black Swan. This also marked the FOURTH time that I saw Toy Story 3 in theaters, a feat that no other movie I have seen in theaters has even come close. And it was just as good/sad/funny/moving as the first time I saw it (yes I bawled like a baby). I have to say that this year, the nominations were all extremely well dese...

Long live the king! I wanted to wait until after the Oscars were over before I FINALLY put up my review of this movie. In case you hadn't heard, The King's Speech won four Academy Awards last Sunday: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. This is probably the first time since Return of the King won back in 2004, that I have been SO excited for a Best Picture winner. First the story. It's WONDERFUL. It's a period drama. It's about the British royalty. It's an underdog story. It brings attention to those who face stuttering in their lives. There is so much emotional energy in this movie. It will bring tears and laughter. This is one of the best movies that I have ever seen, and definitely the best movie of 2010. It totally deserves the Oscar for Best Picture. Colin Firth is absolutely perfect in this movie. First off, Colin Firth is practically perfect in every movie he's in. Ok , there may have been a few snags (n...

In case you didn't already know, I am a HUGE HUGE HUGE Narnia fan. I grew up reading the Narnia books and I still try to read them every couple of years (hmm, if I can read Harry Potter every year, I should do the same for Narnia). I also watched those BBC versions of Narnia on my VHS player faithfully (mainly because I had crushes on Peter, Edmund and Caspian). My sisters and I used to pretend that the back wall in our closet led into Narnia (I mean who didn't?) So it was with great excitement that I looked forward to this movie as soon as I heard that Narnia was being made at the box office. But I got scared when Disney pulled out after Prince Caspian and it looked like the series was heading the way of Davy Jones Locker. But then Fox rescued it and more movies were to be made depending on how this one did. Well, after seeing it, it will be a miracle if there are more. Be warned: Due to my outrage, I am going to spoil this movie heavily for you. You have been warned. Be...

I don't know about you but just thinking about Harry Potter has the theme music just swelling loudly in my head. It's so sweeping and majestic and perfectly fits the theme of the books. Instantly recognizable by long time fans, the music sets the mood for the entire series. And now the series has come to an end....or rather the beginning of the end. As always before a Harry Potter movie comes out, I've been walking around with a pencil (or just holding my hand pretending) and yelling out things like " Lumos !" " Expelliarmus !", " Expecto Patronum !" or my favorite, thanks to the Wizarding World ads, " Protego !" I've also been relistening to the audio books (AGAIN) to get pumped up. I'm currently on Goblet of Fire and am on track to finish Deathly Hallows again before the last movie comes out. Be warned...there will be lots of spoilers throughout this post so if you are one of the FEW PEOPLE who have not read the ...

Before I start my review of the movie, here are my brief thoughts about Facebook . When I was in college, AIM was THE thing. We were obsessed with creating the perfect away messages and listening to that DING! That was how we social networked back in the day. I didn't join Facebook until 2006. I was currently using MySpace at the time and didn't feel like switching. I didn't join earlier because I didn't want to do what everyone else was doing. When I did join, it was only open to college students. I'm sorry to everyone who uses it now, but I honestly miss those days. Now everyone is using Facebook , like my dad for example so sometimes I have to be careful about what I share. When I heard about this movie coming out, I will admit that I didn't really have any desire to see the movie. Even though I am a Facebook user, did I really want to see a movie about Facebook ? Therefore even pretty much until a few weeks before it came out, I was still sk...

Well, what do you know? I seem to be a on a roll with seeing movies this year. I wasn't planning on seeing this movie originally but my sister offered to take me to the movies for my birthday. She also wouldn't let me see Toy Story 3 again (I've already seen it THREE times!!!) so this was the only other movie we could agree on. Well, I'm glad she talked me into it because I loved it! First off, this is actually the first 3-D feature length movie I've seen while wearing 3-D glasses. I've been to IMAX movies to see the short 3-D films but I've never actually seen a movie in 3-D. This is mainly because I don't want to pay the extra money for it but since my sister was paying for it, why not? Was the 3-D worth it? I would have to say yes for this movie. There were several scenes where the scenes jumped at you and the roller coaster scene was especially worth it. Interestingly, what got me was that there was a preview for the upcoming Smurf movie, wh...

I'm going to say right now, this was the surprise hit of the summer for me, movie wise. I'm kinda iffy about Dreamworks animated movies. Other than the Shrek series and Kung Fu Panda, none of their movies have been a hit with me. And then when you compare them with Pixar's movies, they just fall flat. The animation is hit or miss (sometimes it's awesome, other times extremely fake) and the same goes with the writing. For some reason, Dreamworks movies seem to be more childish than Pixar's. Also, during the Olympics this movie was featured like 30 times EACH night during the games to the point where I was sick of it. I had no desire at all to see this movie. Until my sister went to it and came back from it saying that she had cried. Well, that peaked my interest since we cry pretty much at the same movies. By the time, I finally decided I wanted to see the movie, it had already gone out of the first run theaters. So, two of my fellow interns from the Smith...

It is a rare occasion where I go to see a movie more than once. That is usually reserved for my geek movies like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, James Bond. You know, the epic movies that demand more than one sitting to drink everything in and also because I was so geeked out to see it the first time that I missed out on half the stuff. Well, with this movie, I did not see it just once. Or even twice. I saw it THREE TIMES. And guess what? Each time I saw it, it was just like seeing it for the first time. And I had the same reactions and same emotions every time I saw it. I grew up watching the Toy Story movies. I was 11 when the first movie came out and could still relate to playing with my toys even though granted it had been a few years since I had last done so. After watching the first movie, my sisters and I were convinced that our stuffed animals came to life when we were gone so sometimes we would sneak into our room t...

Well I don't know about most of you but I grew up watching the original Karate Kid. It came out right after I was born, but we watched it constantly on VHS growing up. "Wax on, Wax off" could be heard quoted constantly at family reunions and anyone who had the name Daniel was always referred to as Daniel-son. Mr. Miyagi is forever an icon. (Did you know that Pat Morita was the first and only Asian American to be nominated for an acting Oscar?) Therefore when I heard that there was going to be a remake of this classic movie, I was thinking "Seriously????" Even though Jackie Chan was going to be in it (and it was probably between him, Jet Li, or Chow Yun Fat for the studios to pick from), I didn't really have any desire at first to see the movie. Why mess with perfection? Then I was dragged along to the theater with my sister and her boyfriend. They were willing to pay for my ticket so I figured "Well, if I don't have to pay, then if it's...

First off, I know it's been FOREVER since I've done a movie review. Well I just haven't been to the theater in forever. There weren't any good movies that I wanted to see at the theater for the longest time. In fact, last Christmas was the first time there was NOTHING that I wanted to see. Luckily 2010 seems to be a much better year as there is at least a new Narnia and Harry Potter movie to look forward to. As readers of this blog know, I am a HUGE fan of Sex and the City. I own the complete series on DVD as well as the first movie on DVD. Both are completely rewatchable and wonderful to watch whenever they are on TV. I really enjoyed watching the first movie and even though some people complained that it was just an extra long episode, that's precisely why I liked it so much. I thought the movie ended well and even though Samantha and Smith didn't end up together, everything was tied up very nicely. So therefore I was a bit perplexed as to why they d...

Thanks to Rebecca @ The Book Lady's Blog , I was able to get sneak preview passes to see this movie. Which was totally awesome since a) movie tickets in the DC Metro area are expensive so I probably wouldn't have seen this movie til it came out on DVD and b) we got to go to a part of DC we hadn't been before yet which was really nice and c) the day before our car had gotten broken into and our GPS unit stolen. Even more fun was that I got to sit next to Jenn from Jenn's Bookshelves as she had gotten passes too. I brought my husband along because he's not one to pass up a free movie. He didn't mind going to see a chick flick, after all he added the Romance Writers of America Literacy signing with me. I'm one of the few people who hav en't read this book yet, so I honestly had no idea what to expect going into to the movie. Other than the trailer, I was pretty clueless about the storyline. I discussed this with my husband on the way home and we ...

----SPOILERS! If you haven't read the books or watched the movie beware!------ So for the past month I've been walking around with a pencil (or just holding my hand pretending) and yelling out things like " Lumos !" " Expelliarmus !" or " Expecto Patronum !" In a year of blah movies (Up and Star Trek being my exceptions), I have been eagerly awaiting the new Harry Potter movie. Heck, I've been waiting for this movie since last year when it was supposed to come out during November but got pushed back due to Twilight (grumble grumble). As you know I'm a HUGE fan of the books. I remember when this book originally came out and I stayed up late to finish it. I also remember the debates about certain character's true loyalties for months until Deathly Hallows came out. To prepare myself for the movie, I have been relistening (yet again) to the audio books and was currently about 3/4 through HPB by the time I saw the movie. Therefore ever...