Top Ten (1)

Top Ten in 2009 Please Keep in mind that the only movies going on this list are ones I have seen and I feel deserve a place on my Top 10. I'm sure there are wonderful movies, that I just haven't seen yet. Each movie has a short blurb about it. Hope you enjoy! 

10. My Sister's Keeper: In Los Angeles, the eleven year old Anna Fitzgerald seeks the successful lawyer Campbell Alexander trying to hire him to earn medical emancipation from her mother Sara that wants Anna to donate her kidney to her sister. She tells the lawyer the story of her family after the discovery that her older sister Kate has had leukemia; how she was conceived by in vitro fertilization to become a donor; and the medical procedures she has been submitted since she was five years old to donate to her sister. Campbell accepts to work pro bono and the obsessed Sara decides to go to court to force Anna to help her sister.

9. Ponyo:  The son of a sailor, 5-year old Sosuke lives a quiet life on an oceanside cliff with his mother Lisa. One fateful day, he finds a beautiful goldfish trapped in a bottle on the beach and upon rescuing her, names her Ponyo. But she is no ordinary goldfish. The daughter of a masterful wizard and a sea goddess, Ponyo uses her father's magic to transform herself into a young girl and quickly falls in love with Sosuke, but the use of such powerful sorcery causes a dangerous imbalance in the world. As the moon steadily draws nearer to the earth and Ponyo's father sends the ocean's mighty waves to find his daughter, the two children embark on an adventure of a lifetime to save the world and fulfill Ponyo's dreams of becoming human. 

8. The Twilight Saga: New Moon: After Bella recovers from the vampire attack that almost claimed her life, she looks to celebrate her birthday with Edward and his family. However, a minor accident during the festivities results in Bella's blood being shed, a sight that proves too intense for the Cullens, who decide to leave the town of Forks, Washington for Bella and Edward's sake. Initially heartbroken, Bella finds a form of comfort in reckless living, as well as an even-closer friendship with Jacob Black. Danger in different forms awaits.

7. The Lovely Bones: The Lovely Bones is the story of a 14-year-old girl from suburban Pennsylvania who is murdered by her neighbor. She tells the story from Heaven, showing the lives of the people around her and how they have changed all while attempting to get someone to find her lost body.

6. Angels & Demons: When a murder of a physicist, Leonardo Vetra, finds a symbolist, Robert Langdon, and Mr. Vetra's daughter, Vittoria, on an adventure for a secret brotherhood, The Illuminati. Clues lead them all around the Vatican, including the four alters of science, Earth, Air, Fire and Water. An Assassin, working for the Illuminati, has captured four cardinals, and murders each, painfully. Robert and Vittoria also are searching for a new very destructive weapon that could kill millions.

5. Zombieland: The horror comedy Zombieland focuses on two men who have found a way to survive a world overrun by zombies. Columbus is a big wuss -- but when you're afraid of being eaten by zombies, fear can keep you alive. Tallahassee is an AK-toting, zombie-slaying' bad ass whose single determination is to get the last Twinkie on earth. As they join forces with Wichita and Little Rock, who have also found unique ways to survive the zombie mayhem, they will have to determine which is worse: relying on each other or succumbing to the zombies.

4. Paranormal Activity: Katie and her boyfriend Micah have been living together for three years and out of the blue, they are haunted by an entity while they are sleeping. Katie discloses to Micah that she has been haunted since she was eight year-old. The skeptical Micah buys a camera to videotape the paranormal activity in their home during the night. Katie calls Fredrichs, to help them, but he explains that he is specialist in ghosts. However he feels the presence of a fiend and advises the couple to call a friend of his.

3. Where the Wild Things Are: An adolescent named Max has an active imagination, and he will throw fits if others don't go along with what he wants. Max - following an incident with Claire (his sister) and her friends, and following a tantrum which he throws as a result of his Mother paying more attention to her boyfriend than to him - runs away from home. Wearing his wolf costume at the time, Max not only runs away physically, but runs toward a world in his imagination. This world, an ocean away, is inhabited by large wild beasts, including one named Carol who is much like Max himself in temperament. Instead of eating Max like they normally would with creatures of his type, the wild things befriend Max after he proclaims himself a king who can magically solve all their problems.

2. Up in the Air: Ryan Bingham's job is to fire people from theirs. The anguish, hostility, and despair of his "clients" has left him falsely compassionate, living out of a suitcase, and loving every second of it. When his boss hires arrogant young Natalie, she develops a method of video conferencing that will allow termination without ever leaving the office - essentially threatening the existence Ryan so cherishes. Determined to show the naive girl the error of her logic, Ryan takes her on one of his cross country firing expeditions, but as she starts to realize the disheartening realities of her profession, he begins to see the downfalls to his way of life.

1. Up: A young Carl Fredrickson meets a young adventure spirited girl named Ellie. They both dream of going to a Lost Land in South America. 70 years later, Ellie has died. Carl remembers the promise he made to her. Then, when he inadvertently hits a construction worker, he is forced to go to a retirement home. But before they can take him, he and his house fly away. However he has a stowaway aboard. An 8 year old boy named Russell, whose trying to get an assisting the elderly badge. Together, they embark in an adventure, where they encounter talking dogs, an evil villain and a rare bird named Kevin.

New Directions....

So I've noticed that pretty much all this blog is, is reviews. Now I am a huge movie person. I have about 1,000 DVD's, I love going to movies, watching movies, and talking about movies. So one thing I would like to start doing is Top Ten lists. Now I don't know if I will do this every week, but I would like to do it every once in a while. I'm still going to continue my reviews, this is just an add on.

Book Review #12

Title: Twilight 1: The Graphic Novel
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Art and Adaptation: Young Kim

Summary: The love story between the innocent teenager Bella and the handsome vampire Edward, which prompted a worldwide phenomenon, breathes new life in a two-volume adaptation of Twilight! The first volume has been rigorously reviewed by Stephenie Meyer and reflects her personal vision of the world of The Twilight Saga. This unique art style -- a black-and-white graphic novel with color interspersed throughout -- is guaranteed to take a bite out of the graphic novel world and leave fans eagerly anticipating the exciting conclusion in Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 2 (publication date not available). (Summary provided by Borders)


Review: I am a Twilight fan, and I wanted to read the graphic novel to see the newest interpretation of it. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed reading this. This was the first time I had ever read a graphic novel, and I thought the art was beautiful, and they kept everything that made it Twilight.
I noticed that some of the art was drawn a little like the movie, and then some was what Kim had interpreted. I liked that because it added a new feel to it. 
The story remains the same, one we all know and love, the story of how Bella and Edward fall in love. It starts off the same, but the first volume ends right when Edward drops Bella off after they go to the field. I personally can not wait for the others to come out. There really isn't much to say about the story because it's all the same. I do wish they had just made a larger graphic novel and just made the whole book on big one, rather than make us wait for them to come out with Twilight part 2. I give it an 8/10 Stars


To read my Twilight book Review click here!

Book Review #11

Impulse

By: Ellen Hopkins

Summary: Sometimes you don't wake up. But if you happen to, you know things will never be the same. Three lives, three different paths to the same destination: Aspen Springs, a psychiatric hospital for those who have attempted the ultimate act -- suicide. Vanessa is beautiful and smart, but her secrets keep her answering the call of the blade. Tony, after suffering a painful childhood, can only find peace through pills. And Conner, outwardly, has the perfect life. But dig a little deeper and find a boy who is in constant battle with his parents, his life, himself. In one instant each of these young people decided enough was enough. They grabbed the blade, the bottle, the gun -- and tried to end it all. Now they have a second chance, and just maybe, with each other's help, they can find their way to a better life -- but only if they're strong and can fight the demons that brought them here in the first place. (Summary by Borders.com)

Review: I'm a big fan of Ellen Hopkins, everything she writes seems to speak to me, so I was not disappointed in reading this book and falling in love with all three characters. Tony, Vanessa, and Conner all end up in a psychiatric hospital for attempting suicide. They all have different reasons for doing so, but seem to have a lot in common. We see each character at it's worst point, and we watch as they grow and develop and come to terms with their lives. 

Out of all 3 my favorite character was probably Vanessa. I felt like I could relate to a lot of things she went through  and that she was able to find love and meaning and a will to live. One thing I didn't like was the fact that it just sort of ended, I would have liked to have seen each character deal with going home, and not the way it ended (now I don't want to give away too much). 

Overall it was a good read, and has secured my love for Ellen Hopkins novels. She always tells her story beautifully and her characters are always so real. I give it a 7/10 Stars. 

DVD Review #5

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs


Summary: Flint Lockwood thinks he's a genius. But none of the things he invented are things that make sense or are useful. However, he has the support of his mother but when she dies, he's left alone with his father who thinks he should give it up. When the community that he lives in, is in an economic crisis because their primary source of income a sardine cannery was shut down, Flint decides to try his latest invention, a machine that can turn water into food. But something goes wrong and the machine ends up in the atmosphere. Later it starts raining food. And so the shifty mayor tries to use this as a way to help their community. But when Flint sense something's wrong with the machine, the mayor convinces him to ignore it. But as Flint predict chaos ensues. (Summary found on IMDB)


Review: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a highly entertaining movie, that will keep you laughing throughout the film. The movie is about everyone's basic nee, Food! Flint is an inventor that invents a machine to turn water molecules into food. He does this so that the town can finally stop eating their only source of food, anchovies, and start eating well anything else!


The story did seem to have an underlying meaning. Everyone in the town goes food cray and actually the mayor becomes incredibly overweight, because he ends up eating nearly everything in sight. Everyone knows that obesity is becoming the leading cause of death in our nation and I think that this movie was trying to show kids that it is not a healthy obsession.


Cloudy was a great movie in all, and I can't wait to watch it again. The animation was so much better than I ever expected, as was the story. I give this a 7/10 Stars.

Game Review #6

Karaoke Revolution
PS3, Wii, X360

The newest installment of the singing game, adds quite a bit to the table. It adds a whole new type of career mode, that is entertaining to play through. You play through 3 cd's, and please don't confuse that with having 3 different Karaoke Revolution discs, it is a one disc game. The game has a good array of songs, and everything you have downloaded (if you have a PS3 or X360) from the older versions will work as well.

Playing through the career mode as a single player adds some challenge to playing by yourself that I like. With each song, medley, or set list you sing you have to achieve a certain score if you don't achieve that score you have to re-do it. Once you start the career mode you will notice a small circular shaped object on the screen, that is the start of your disc, and as you beat challenges it will get bigger.

I've only played the PS3 version of the game, but as far as I can tell the online capability is well done. The only bad thing I would have to say about it would be that not a lot of people play it online so unless you have a lot of singing parties, you'd be playing the game by yourself a lot.

After a few added things, not much else has changed in the series, but hopefully this sort of career mode will keep the series afloat. However, many of the singing gamers have veered more towards SingStar, Lips, even Rock Band. It doesn't compete well with those games, but this is one of the best Karaoke Revolution games I have played, and I do hope they come out with another.

For a complete setlist please click on the following Wikipedia link: Karaoke Revolution 2009

Movie Review #4

Alice in Wonderland


"19-year-old Alice returns to the magical world from her childhood adventure, where she reunites with her old friends and learns of her true destiny: to end the Red Queen's reign of terror."


Everyone knows the story of Alice in Wonderland; little girl falls down the rabbit hole and fun ensues. Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland is similar however it's the second time she's fallen down the rabbit hole, but she doesn't remember and thinks it was all a dream. Tim Burton fans will not be disappointed because his kooky style is style there along with his sidekick Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. Depp's interpretation of the Mad Hatter was wonderful! It was a combination of his Pirates character and his Willy Wonka character. Helena Bonham Carter played the red queen and if you can get by her unusually large head and tiny body she played it rather well. Anne Hathaway as the white queen was great! A little overly sweet, but other than that she was great.  And I can't forget Mia Wasikowska as Alice, in my opinion she was perfectly casted. I was happy that she didn't disappoint me in this, because it would really have changed my view of the movie if I didn't like her as Alice. 


The story was good. It was different than the disney version, and I really liked that. It was almost like a sequel. I was not expecting that. I went into the movie expecting to see a darker version of the disney movie, but that's not what I got. It was very different. The set was beautifully designed I enjoyed having it pop out at me. The 3D added so much depth to the movie and I loved that. I'm not a huge fan of seeing movies in 3D, but I was happy to have seen this one. 


Alice will be loved by adults, teenagers, and children everywhere. Whether you loved the disney version, just love the story, or are a die-hard Tim Burton fan, you will enjoy this movie. I would have to give this an 8/10 Stars.