New Moon

This weekend, J being an amazing and wonderful fiance, took me to see New Moon. Before I begin, I want everyone to know that I'm not a big fan of the books. Yes, I have read all four of them )and the 12 chapters of Midnight Sun that were released last year). And yes, I have seen the first movie. And yes, I realize that they changed some things about the books in the movies. And no, that does not upset me. Because the books needed changing. However, this is not a book review so I will leave it at that and begin my review of the second movie in the Twilight series: New Moon.

For those of you who have lived under a rock for the past few years, Twilight is the story of a young girl named Bella, played by Kristen Stewart, and a guy named Edward Cullen, played by Robert Pattinson, who turns out to be vampire. Well, Bella and Edward fall in love and begin the most forbidden romance since Romeo and Juliet. New Moon is the second movie in the series. It begins with Bella's eighteenth birthday party. While opening a present, Bella cuts her finger and bleeds. Chaos ensues as Edward's vampire brother, Jasper, tries to attack Bella. After this Edward decides that it would be safer for Bella if he left her. So he leaves and then she begins hanging out with this guy named Jacob,played by Taylor Lautner, who happens to be a werewolf. And that's basically the whole plot: Who does she love more, Jacob or Edward?

The plot isn't the best ever written, but you can't really blame the director or screenplay writer for that because the book didn't give them much to work with. However, you can blame the screenplay writer for the terrible, and I mean TERRIBLE, dialogue. Honestly, every sentence was completely cliche and unrealistic. No one in the world talks like these characters. And did I mention the melodrama? Everything is so over the top that it ends up being horrifyingly cheesy.

The acting, however, wasn't terrible. Lautner and Pattinson both did very respectable jobs with their characters. The did the best they could with the dialogue and lifeless characters. However, the best actor in New Moon was, by far, Dakota Fanning who plays the horribly evil vampire Jane who can inflict pain on anyone with just one glance. Unfortunately, Fanning only appears in one scene and has very few lines, but she did great with what she had. That being said, I cannot say that all of the acting was good. Because Kristen Stewart was absolutely terrible. She is unconvincing and cannot deliver any of her lines with the same power that Pattinson and Lautner do.

If you are looking for something deep and meaningful then New Moon is definitely not the movie for you. But it is a lot of fun. The scenery is beautiful and the leading men are even more beautiful! Director Chris Weitz did the most he could with the story, and I feel, that he made it even better than the book. New Moon is not the best movie of the year, but it was very enjoyable.

-H

Announcement!

Dear readers,

I'm so sorry J and I have stopped posting as regularly as we used to. Both of us are in school and with the holidays coming up (holiday season means final exams) we don't have much time for watching movies or writing reviews. I promise as soon as J and I get the time to watch movies again we will write more reviews. Please be patient and, for newer readers, please enjoy reading some of our older reviews. Thanks so much for reading our blog! We appreciate every single one of you!

-H

P.S- Next week is Thanksgiving break so we should have some time to watch some movies so be looking for new reviews next week!

Cruel Intentions

Cruel Intentions is a very interesting movie. Normally I don't like dramas but Cruel Intentions was an exception because it was very much a drama and I liked it very, very much. The plot was extremely intriguing and sexy. Cruel Intentions tells the story of Sebastian, played by Ryan Phillippe, who is extremely attracted to his step sister, Kathryn who is played by Sarah Michelle Gellar. The two come from a very wealthy family and they are very prominent figures in the New York social scene even though they are only seniors at a prep school. Sebastian is also very popular among the young ladies of New York and has quite a reputation of sleeping around then breaking the girls' hearts. Then Sebastian sees an article about a young virgin who wrote an essay saying that she plans to wait to have sex. Sebastian and his sister Kathryn then decide to make a bet: If Sebastian is able to sleep with this young virgin, then Kathryn will willingly give herself to him and if not she gets his Jaguar. This little bet turns into one of the most interesting movie plots that I have ever experienced.

Let me make this clear, the acting in Cruel Intentions was not amazing. The plot was incredible so the actors had a lot to work with. The dialogue, however, was not and therefore the actors had to work extra hard to make it come off as realistic. Which it never quite did. But that didn't really matter in the end. The entire plot was not very realistic, but both Gellar and Phillippe did a respectable job of being sexy and alluring. They portrayed their characters as realistically as possible and the insanity of everything just made the movie even more interesting. One thing that I must compliment Gellar and Phillippe on is their on-screen-chemistry. The two just play off of each other's strengths and create an amazingly sensual atmosphere.

The smaller roles in the movie are also played my well-known actresses. Annette, the young virgin, is played by Reese Witherspoon. While Cecile, another young woman that Sebastian is trying to seduce, is played by Selma Blair. Blair shows of a somewhat quirky side, while Witherspoon becomes a very romantic and down-to-earth young woman. Both actresses portraying their characters very convincingly and help to enhance the outrageous plot.

Cruel Intentions is a sexy thriller about betrayal and lust with an incredibly depressing and shocking ending. But it is incredibly fun to watch. However, I would only recommend this movie to mature audiences because of it's overtly sexual themes.

-H

Dawn of the Dead

Recently, J and I watched the remake of the horror classic Dawn of the Dead. Having never seen the original Dawn of the Dead I will not be able to compare the remake to the original. I will say this however, seeing the remake of Dawn of the Dead seriously makes me want to see the original.

Dawn of the Dead is about a young woman, Ana played by Sarah Polley, who wakes up to find that everyone in her town, including her husband who is sharing a room with her, have all turned into zombies. Ana runs out to her car and eventually runs into another group of survivors. All of the survivors gather together and decide that their best plan of action is to hide out inside a shopping mall where the zombies supposedly cannot get to them.

Dawn of the Dead was not what I would call a horror movie. It is suspenseful, yes, but not scary at all. Unless, you're scared of zombies, then you might not want to watch. But anyway, the movie is much more sad than it is, scary. The ending is completely depressing and yet extremely realistic, well as realistic as it can be with dealing with zombies. But you must, must, must watch the credits to see the full ending of the movie. If you turn off the movie before the credits you will completely miss the effect of the ending.

Dawn of the Dead is not the best horror movie I've ever seen. However, it is the best horror zombie flick I've ever seen. I specify horror zombie flick because Zombieland is the best zombie movie I've ever seen but it is no where close to being a horror movie. The gory costumes that the zombie wear in the movie are disgustingly realistic and amazing. The images of legless zombies with half of their faces gone is equally as disturbing and helped to create the tense and unnerving feeling in the movie. However, the scariest thing about the movie was actually one of the very first scenes. Ana wakes up to find that a little girl in her neighborhood has turned into a zombie then witnesses her husband transform into a crazed zombie. The idea that someone you love and care so much about could ultimately be the person who kills you is just too terrifying.

Sarah Polley who plays Ana was a very good actress. Her emotions of fear and sadness were both extremely believable. However, the best actor in the movie, who played one of my favorite characters, was Ving Rhames. Rhames played a tough cop who was the "leader" of the surviving group. He was an extremely believable actor. I could feel his pain when one of his friends was killed and I could also truly feel his anger towards and fear of the zombies.

I would recommend Dawn of the Dead to anyone who likes zombie movies. But you don't have to be a zombie fan or even a horror fan to enjoy the movie. Dawn of the Dead is a well-made, disturbing, and sad movie, but would be a good movie to watch on a rainy day.

-H