Lazy Post

Wow it's taken me the day that I'm leaving to go overseas to post this lol. Really quick post cos I'm lazy and I can't be be bothered writing more than a few lines of these, partly cos I can't remember what I thought and partly so I can stop piling up my backlog of reviews.

Anyway using the ever efficient tool....bullet points!

• Watched The Matrix. Yes in all my 20 years I've never watched this sci-fi classic, so I thought it was time.
  
  

  

  Lesson learned: always carry spoon in case of doubts about reality

  It was super fun to spot all the landmarks in Sydney, where it was filmed. I kind of squealed when I saw a Westpac (bank represent!) building hahaha... Awesome idea, excellent execution, cool cyber-punk aesthetic, but a little cheesy at times. Ending felt a bit forced and rushed. 4/5 STARS.
• Went and saw the highly anticipated Looper at the cinema.
  
  

  

  Man couldn't stop marvelling at the prosthetics used on JGL, wonder if it was weird for Bruce Willis

  I love a well done time travel movie, and love dystopian depictions too! So this was an (almost) A+ in my book. Great thriller atmosphere (FML totally thought I was going to have nightmares at one part). Like The Matrix, let down by the slightly hurried ending. 4/5 STARS.
• I've only ever seen one short film of Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai, whose luscious cinematography I wanted to experience in a feature length format, so I decided to go with one of his most famous works, In the Mood for Love.
  
  
  
  Um.....guuuuhhhhh, just GUUHHHHH at ALL the imagery. COUPLED with the MUSIC. It's one of those movies that every screen grab can become a trending Tumblr post. Acting was nuanced but very on point by both the gorgeous Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung. I wish I looked good in a cheongsam.... 4.5/5 STARS.
• Had a good old chill sesh with one of me and my friends' guilty comedy favourites: White Chicks.
  
  

  

  Looks so wrong, yet so right

  I can never understand its low rating on IMDB, but I can't really describe why it makes me laugh without fail every time either. Maybe it's the quotability, almost on par with Mean Girls even (I just checked and Mean Girls is a 6.9 on IMDB!?!?). Maybe I'm just too low-brow. 4.5/5 STARS. (please don't judge me)
• Decided to further foray into the magical land of Ghibli and gave one of the older ones, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, a go.
  
  
  
  I had already experienced Miyazaki's environmental themes in Princess Mononoke but this was something slightly different. Maybe it's the sci-fi and dystopian elements again that drew me in, reminded me a bit of Akira. Nausicaä herself was a little lack lustre but other characters made up for it. Dem bugs though....*shudder* 4/5 STARS.
• So the trailer for Now You See Me came out and it looks AWESOME:
  
  
• Can't help thinking the genre 'Black Fu' doesn't sit right with me, with the release of The Man with the Iron Fists

Movies Janet is Essited About: Alternate Realities

Just a quick dump of some trailers/pics of upcoming films that make me go 'Oooohhhhhh...'. And I don't know, I tried to find a theme amongst them and came up with something ridiculous like 'Alternate Realities' because, well, these things don't happen in real life I guess. But do stories in movies ever do? Except docos and movies based on true stories *cough*.

First is a trailer for kids animation Rise of the Guardians, which is about magical characters children are all familiar with, including Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and the Sandman. How great does this reinterpretation of them look? Plus they're made by the same people behind How to Train Your Dragon, yay!

More ridiculously awesome eye candy with Oz: The Great and Powerful, which stars James Franco and is an imagined prequel about the wizard in The Wizard of Oz. Looks beautiful but not so sure about the content, familiar Alice in Wonderland territory?

Combining epic visuals with epic storylines is Cloud Atlas, an adaptation of the bestselling book that I am currently hunting down. Hopefully the giant team of Hollywood heavyweights doesn't up the cheese factor on this awesome cross-dimensional, time-travelling, multi-narrative flick (enough hyphens yet?).

Oh and the trailer is crazy long:

Along the same lines of fusing surrealism and constant questioning of life itself, we have indie film Love. A lonely astronaut questions his sanity and other existentialist questions while we're bombarded with other scenes that are probably quite meaningful as well. Reminds me of Moon, which I need to watch. Obviously it's too hard to tell what the themes are yet but here's the trailer:

But oh my god that awesome soundtrack by Angels & Airwaves...it really is the icing on the cake. Hopefully it really is awesome despite the low rating it has on IMDB right now.

Last on the list is a bit on the bloody side, with new photos emerging of Chloe Moretz of Kick-Ass fame and Julianne Moore from Carrie, which is more a re-adaption of the Stephen King book than a remake of the 1976 version.

Keeping the picture small so I don't get creeped out by my own blog *wuss*

No that is not her own blood, but that doesn't mean the story isn't creepy. I read the book a long time ago and am excited to see the main character Carrie portrayed by the awesome Chloe, while her psychotic mother is portrayed by the equally awesome Moore.

Yay hopefully I'll get to watch some of these! Unlike others that have been hyped and neglected..... Prometheus *cough*

Blockbusted

Two major action packed movies have released new trailers and the first is Christopher Nolan's third installment in his Batman adaptations. The Dark Knight Rises releases its third trailer:

This immediately reminded me of the trailer of Nolan's other epic Inception. Besides the presence of Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, both are tied together with deceptively quiet background music that blows up to a crescendo, successfully pulling audiences in. You know, that famous BUAAAAAMMMMM that is now synonymous with Inception. Other action movie trailer editors should take note.

I thoroughly enjoyed the last installment of the franchise, The Dark Knight, and look forward to more of the careful controlled suspense Nolan is famous for. And even though Christian Bale was majorly upstaged by Heath Ledger last time, there will be a new baddie (it's always more fun to play the evil guy) Bane (Tom Hardy) to look forward to. And even though we can't actually see much of his mug behind that Saw-like contraption (shoosh, I'm not well read in comic books), there is lots to look forward to. Anne Hathaway proves that she might even be able to pull off the Catwoman role. I mean, who doesn't still see her as Mia Theamapoulos (sp?).

I am much much more excited about the next movie in question. If you know me in person and I haven't ranted to you yet about Prometheus, then I will probably do so the next time I see you. Check out the new international launch trailer (pish posh it's just another trailer) below:

Why am I excited? I think the first few trailers and teasers have captured my heart already, pretty much. Ridley Scott, god of sci-fi, returns with an epic prequel to Alien with visuals and audios to match. Ok I'll admit, I haven't watched Alien and the only Scott movie that I've watched, Blade Runner, was for school and a bit of a let down after I pumped up my expectations. But I will admit that it was probably groundbreaking at the time, and as a recently new sci-fi fan, Prometheus looks amazeballs.

There's not much to say for the story as it is all in the trailer. This can also be a bad thing as many YouTube comments have pointed out that it gives away too much............I guess. I don't really mind as these movies are pretty predictable anyway, but at the same time entertaining because of that. Plus I've been actively trying to pry my eyes away from the copious amounts of Prometheus featurettes, viral ad campaigns, etc to stop hyping myself up.

Can't WAIT to see this on the big screen, ahhhhhhh.