Thanks to the wonderful people over at TwilightSource.com, here’s the new widget!
the OFFICIAL half-blood prince trailer July 29, 2008
finally finally FINALLY, after months of seeing mediocre movies only to be disappointed in the lack of a half-blood prince trailer, AOL Time Warner has posted it online!!!! seems a little half-baked and lame, but…i’ll take it.
the link is below so you may download it in your preferred size for your own personal enjoyment.
http://www.moviefone.com/movie/harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince/27063/main?icid=100214839×1206481852x1200347367
my first impressions?
- basically, this is an expanded scene of harry seeing one of dumbledore’s memories – the first time he met young tom riddle in the orphanage. within that, we see other scenes from the movie as dumbledore discusses his first meeting with tom and as tom describes what he can do that is extraordinary.
- the vials of memories concept is very, very…interesting. i really need to reread the book, but this looks really neat.
- hero fiennes, the boy who is playing young tom riddle, is mildly and appropriately terrifying. “prove it” is a very scary line, coming from him. and so dumbledore does, silently causing the chest of drawers to catch on fire (can’t wait for the rest of this scene).
- near the end, it flashes between young tom and new voldemort, which is a very frightening sequence of clips.
“did i know that i’d just met the most dangerous dark wizard of our time? no.”
all i can say is that i think this movie will definitely be the best of the series and i can’t wait to see where david yates takes it. this promises a very good fall for movies!! can’t wait!
finally the new twilight trailer July 24, 2008
finally, i’ve been able to find the new twilight trailer on YouTube. here it is!! i can’t WAIT for the movie!
the true identity of the joker July 23, 2008
well, i was bored at work today – although back episodes of pottercast were keeping me pretty much entertained – and i found this in my papers at work, and did a little MS Paint work with it. love it.
let’s put a smile on that face: dark knight review July 20, 2008
well, it’s been a few days, and i’ve managed to see “the dark knight” twice in 24 hours. i went and saw it at midnight with some friends, and went again friday night (coincidentally, i saw one of the people i went with at midnight, too, haha).
first of all, i just want to say that it might have been the best movie i’ve seen in a long long time. definitely goes in my top five. if you’ve read my blog before, you know that i’m not a comic book person, but i do like the movies. however, this movie went far above and beyond a “comic book movie” (think “iron man,” “the incredible hulk”). in my opinion, it was on the edge of being practically a psychological thriller. my boyfriend, who is a comic aficionado, absolutely loved it, too.
according to this article on CNN ShowBiz, the movie took in $155.34 million this weekend, making it the top grossing film for opening weekend so far, finally beating out the idiocy that was “spiderman-3.” i’m still mad about that – they made two awesome movies and then beat the pulp out of the third one until it was barely passable as a film, let alone a succession of the “spiderman” films. on opening night, “dark knight” took in $66.4 million, again beating out “S3.”
if we’re going in terms of rating, i give this film 4.5 stars out of 5. i’d really like to give it the full 5, but some parts were a little long/slow. the reason they were long, though, is because of all the story that had to be explained – and they did it very, very well. let’s go with a 4.9 – it was really just that good. it was good for the comic fan and for the non-fan (me), and explained enough to have it make sense to me, but left enough open that i had to do some research to understand some things, like why the joker told a few different stories about how he got his scars (because he’s just insane and has nothing to lose).
from here on out, spoilers are guaranteed. so don’t read further if you don’t want to be spoiled.
the plot: amazing. i was thoroughly impressed. it really sets up the show for you, giving you all of the characters and making you really like them. it starts out with the joker already basically running the mob scene in gotham, but they are not happy about it. the city slowly breaks down as he continues to take control of everything. there’s a lot less action than in the first film, but that doesn’t make it any the lesser. i was definitely impressed. especially since the joker ended up winning, with corrupting harvey dent into two-face, making gotham’s white knight the darkest of them all, besides himself.
characters: christian bale definitely creates an outstanding batman, flanked by a wonderful array of sidekicks in michael caine, morgan freeman, maggie gyllenhaal, and aaron eckhart (to an extent). he’s beautiful and talented, proven yet again. he was really just awesome. batman really ran the gamut of emotions in this film, experiencing great highs and the lowest of lows.
i am SO glad they replaced katie holmes with maggie gyllenhaal. they look a lot alike, but maggie is just way more talented. my boyfriend even asked me if i was sure they had changed the actress – that’s how much they look alike. maggie really did an amazing job – even though she died, she was amazing. i thought it was really fitting that her character died – it seemed like everyone was disappointed, but we all know that batman doesn’t have a girlfriend/wife as an adult, so she had to go sometime. this is what really made batman the “dark” knight of the film, and it was good. i loved that the joker told him dent’s location and said it was hers – it truly made the joker the sadistic character he was meant to be.
aaron eckhart was a fantastic harvey dent – turned – two-face. i couldn’t imagine a better actor for the job. he did so well as harvey dent, and there was so much foreshadowing to him becoming two-face. when he was around, it seemed like every other word was “face” or he was flipping that two-headed coin of his. this was a lot clearer the second time i saw the film, even though i had known what was coming the first time. his two-face was scary, too – i knew christopher nolan had said it would be unlike any other two-face we’ve ever seen, and he definitely lived up to that statement. it was a little CGI-y for me, but still terrifying and enough to keep me rooted to my seat. i’m praying that he’s not really dead because i’ll be so sad if two-face, one of the “big baddies” for batman, only gets a half hour in such an epic movie dedicated partly to his creation.
told you it was scary, didn’t i? eckhart is amazing.
michael caine, gary oldman, and morgan freeman all stood out as incredible actors, like always. they provided the perfect sidekicks to bale, and did a lot in their own right. they really helped the character of batman flesh out and stand as a force to be reckoned with.
and then we come to the joker, our wonderful heath ledger (RIP). ledger played the joker the way everyone has always wanted to see him. he was the perfect mix of funny and sadistic, often at the same time (early on, he does a magic trick where he sticks a pencil into a table, eraser side up, and slams a mobster’s head into it, and then the pencil is “magically gone”). the chemistry between ledger and bale is amazing and often a little frightening, as they do their dance to see who’s finally going to win out. the sad part is that the joker does end up winning, but he’s locked up for another time. even though ledger is gone, i’m sure they’ll bring out another fabulous actor to fill his shoes because that’s such an important role. ledger, practically unrecognizable underneath his makeup (except for the one scene where he doesn’t wear any and it’s scarily familiar even with the scarring), really plays the joker as he was meant to be, set on wreaking havoc upon gotham with no strings to be pulled and nothing to lose, almost causing batman to lose his mind and causing harvey dent to completely lose his. this is the joker as everyone has always wanted to see him, and he truly made the film the incredible epic that it was.
although the movie was nearly three hours long, it was completely worth it. however, it is rated PG-13 for a reason, and i don’t think people should take younger children (there were a LOT of scared elementary school kids at the midnight showing). it may be batman, but it’s not a fun family film – like i said, it’s practically a psychological thriller and is not meant to be taken lightly. it will emotionally drain you if you’re paying attention at all, so don’t plan on doing anything else except sleeping or discussing it with friends.
in other news, there was a TWILIGHT trailer at the midnight show!! i think we might have gotten the wrong trailer reel, haha, because no one else who saw dark knight saw this trailer, but it was absolutely awesome. makes me even more thrilled for the movie in december!!
i haven’t been able to find it on YouTube except for this stupid E!T link, but here’s the link to it on Yahoo! Movies: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810010670/video/8858452
unfortunately, there wasn’t a harry potter trailer with “the dark knight,” but there was a “mummy 3″ trailer, so it looks like HP will be with the new mummy. i loved the first two mummy films, but i’m afraid this is going to be a disappointment. oh well. it’ll have the HP trailer, and it comes out in a few weeks, so that’ll be nice.
why so serious? the dark knight premieres tomorrow. July 16, 2008
i logged on to wordpress just now to check my blog stats for the day – judge me – and i noticed that the stats for my last post about the dark knight had shot up, giving me over 50 views for that one post today, and it’s not even noon yet!
i’m pretty pumped because i’m going with some friends to see the midnight premiere, so hopefully i’ll have lots of good things to say about it. one of my friends who’s in australia right now has already seen it and said it was AWESOME, so that’s really really exciting. i just can’t wait!!
right now i’m reading the gossip girl books and some of bill mckibben’s stuff. i just finished “you know you love me” for GG and i’m starting “the end of nature” for mckibben right now. i feel like i’ve sunk to a new low for reading GG, but…all of my friends have read it, so i figured i might as well catch up on the times.
besides, i’m writing again, and reading books about people in the late HS/early college age group can do nothing but help me at this point. i just thought of a short story the other night, but now it’s growing into a monster of a book. it’s been two days and i’ve already tapped out twelve pages, and i’m not even close to being done with the beginning. i know i still have at least 70,000 words to go before it can even be called anything good, but…i’m looking forward to it. it’s been fun and easy to write, so that’s what’s important, right?
i always thought that when writers talked about figuring out the end of the novel after they’ve written a few chapters and about how characters seem to take control of the novel seemed almost ludicrous, but…i’m a firm believer now. i started writing, not knowing exactly where i was going to end up because i don’t want to write some dumb YA romance book, and suddenly it all got laid out in front of me, and i knew exactly which characters were going to be important, and where they were going to take themselves. i’m sure i’m still in for a few surprises, but…i really like it so far.
i started writing because i have to take a few creative writing classes in the spring, so i thought i should get a head start on having something written, but…now it’s turned into something i love, haha.
that’s pretty much it for right now. go see the dark knight at midnight!! i am!
this next video is kind of scary. i don’t know if it’s fan-made or what, but…yeah.
comic book heroes that should NEVER deface the big screen July 11, 2008
thanks to mark pickavance at den of geek, here’s his list:
Comic book heroes are big business these days, since the studios started taking them seriously and getting the movies made properly. But there are some from comic lore that they should really be avoided, even though I know that some of these are already in pre-production.
Wonder Women:
This was so camp and funny as a 70s TV show, but I have huge reservations about the character now. Her powers are matching bulletproof bracelets and a lasso that makes people tell the truth. What? Okay, I accept that in the early comics she had the powers of the ancient gods, but presumably no costume making ability whatsoever. If they succeed in filming this it could actually be worse than the horrendous Catwoman.
The Green Lantern
Another DC character that needs to be avoided at all cost. He’s got a ring that can do almost anything including time travel, invisibility, flight and telepathy, among a zillion other things. But he’s powerless against anything yellow, eh? So you can threaten him with a banana or a lemon? So he’s stupidly overpowered but rather obviously circumvented by anyone colour coordinated. How frickin useless is that?
Arm-Fall-Off-Boy
No kidding? This unique hero turned up in a try-out for the Legion of Super-Heroes, with his amazing power that his arms came off…which he then used to create blunt force trauma. He also went by the name of The Splitter, which is moderately less dumb than Arm-Fall-Off-Boy! Legion of Super-Heroes didn’t let him in, despite offering places in their moronic ranks to equally stupid heroes such as Bouncing Boy and Matter Eater Lad. I’m not excited by the prospect of any of them coming to the big screen, unless it’s to take the piss out of them.
Thor
Marvel isn’t perfect either, and Thor proves it. He’s a god, borrowed from Norse legend, who travels by throwing his hammer, to which he’s attached. Please! Why they needed to put mythical gods in comics was lost on me anyway, but with a winged helmet he looks like a silly hood ornament. No, I wouldn’t be looking forward to that movie…ever.
She-Hulk
Why? The new Hulk movie looks okay, and I can even handle the Ang Lee one until it gets weird at the end, but She-Hulk? No. I don’t like women with bigger pectorals than me, and it’s a stupid name, character and idea. Stop it now!
Dogwelder
If you thought you’d seen powers, you’ve seen nothing until you experienced the hero that is Dogwelder! Part of the crime fighting team Section Eight, he rarely speaks, but with his welder’s mask firmly in place he attaches (welds…actually) dead dogs to the faces of evil doers. No you didn’t misread that, he spot welds dead dogs to people. He does this so they’re easier to recognise next time they meet, I assume. Actually I take it back – this is a movie I want to see so badly. Please Hollywood, bring on the Dogwelder, and let the sparks fly!
The Legion of the Superpets
DC really lost the plot in late fifties, and one of their most amazing ideas was Legion of the Superpets! Animals with Super-pet powers and red ’super’ capes to match, how could it fail? Krypto the Superdog, Beppo the Supermonkey, Streaky the Supercat, and… Comet the Superhorse! Yay! Or is that nay? My personal favourite was Comet, who’d become human once a year and date Supergirl. And most disturbingly I didn’t make that bit up. DC at it’s most bestial. If anyone tries to greenlight this project they should be checked for controlled substance abuse pronto.
Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man
Is this a quiz or a superhero? To be honest he’s a super villain, but he’s so dumb he deserves his fifteen seconds of fame. He appeared in a comic called Doom Patrol in the sixties, and got his powers from being dipped in those exceptionally dangerous chemicals – amino acids. He can be anything, sometimes multiple things at once, a bit like The Thing…but more colourful and Swedish.
Captain Boomerang
Can you guess his power? If you said ‘he throws boomerangs’ then you’ve just undermined his dramatic first film appearance. I can’t see this being made thankfully, because he’s an unpleasant racist character, described as “a jerk and a screw-up.” by his ‘friends’ in his own Suicide Squad comics. He’s so admired by his super team members they drop him onto a deserted island, never to be seen again. Exactly the fate I have planned for any movie exec that comes up this franchise plan.
The Red Bee
This character is comedy gold, that needs to be left buried. He fought gangsters and Nazis in the 40sin a fetching pink and red outfit. Devoid of any actual powers, he did have a ’stinger gun’ and…wait for it…trained bees! These he kept cunningly concealed in his belt buckle. His favourite bee (no, I’ve not been to the pub…yet) was called Michael, but I’m not sure if he named them all. Michael’s little secret was that he must have been a transsexual bee, because as everyone knows male bees can’t sting only females. The buzz about this one is that it’s on the backburner after Bee Movie’s box office numbers came in.
The ones that didn’t make the cut…
Siryn: Woman that screams her enemies to death just like Naomi Campbell.
Vibe: Spanish break-dancing superhero that had ’shockwave’ power and a full wardrobe of Italian suits.
The Absorbing Man: Turns into everything his touches, which must make going to the loo a nightmare.
Infectious Lass: Makes everyone ill…she’s a laugh a minute.
The Black Racer: Death is a downhill skier…apparently
SuperPro: He’s an American football player who hurts his knee, amazingly.
Green Arrow: He fires arrows…usually green ones.
Reverse Flash: Same as the Flash, but bad.
Belle of the Ball: A girl who can control balls, no less. Can’t think of anything funny to top that!
The Four Marys: No explanation does this comic quartet justice, just accept that.
The Whizzer: Not what you think, at all.
Gale Alien and the Girl Squadron: They all wear stiletto shoes on Jupiter, as you do.
Spurt Hammond: Worst comic character name ever, bar none!
Prez First Teen President: We all need political heroes…they keep telling us.
Fatman The Human Flying Saucer: Don’t ask, please.
i’m really not a “comic book” kind of girl (disappointed, i know), and the only reason i stumbled across this fabulous list was because i was searching for lists of famous literary dead. yes, characters that have died gruesome deaths. the OC english department has a halloween costume party every fall themed famous literary deaths, and i’ve got to go this year because i’m an officer, so i need something to do.
however, i’ve yet to find a good list, but i’ve been finding lots of good things like this instead. maybe it’s not as funny as i think it is at 2 AM, but whatever. it’s funny right now and that’s all that matters.
newsflash: starbucks sells 7-11 drinks at ridiculously inflated prices July 8, 2008
I’m sitting in my local Starbucks – well, local is a joke, considering it’s Starbucks and we have six of them in a ten mile radius of my house, but that’s not the point.
The point is that they have their little tray of samples out this evening, and included are tiny-sized cups of “starbucks lemonade” and some delicious lemon crumb cake samples. I’m a true sucker for artificial lemon flavoring – it’s just so good!
I picked up a cup of “lemonade,” which looked more to me like an icy or slushie drink from 7-11 in a tiny cup with an even tinier straw, and sucked some of it out of the straw. Definitely an icy drink from your favorite local gas station, be it 7-11 or Quiktrip or Wa-wa or what have you.
Now, really, Schultz, who convinced you that you could sell an icy drink for four dollars more than I can pay for it at a 7-11 and people would actually pay for it? That right there is an example of paying for the label, not the quality. I’m a Starbucks fan, aficionado even, but I’m not going to pay four-odd dollars for something I can get in greater quantities at 7-11 for 78 cents. Srsly.
I’m utterly disappointed in Starbucks that they would cancel the Pomegranate
drink from last summer and send out a bad slushie instead.
If they cancel the Green Tea Latte, I’m going on strike. Or something.
answer me this, david sedaris and bill mckibben! July 7, 2008
i’ve been listening to the answer me this! podcast with helen and olly (but mostly martin the sound man) for a few weeks now while i’m at work – which, conveniently, is where i am right now – and i just wanted to give them a little shoutout while i’m waiting for my machine to load up so i can get some work done.
they’re a british comedy podcast that just, quite literally, answers people’s random questions. i’m only on episode 35 right now and my ipod has just died so i’m out of laughs for this afternoon (until i get in my car and use my fm transmitter, haha!), but it’s quite possibly the funniest thing i’ve ever heard, with perhaps the exception of david sedaris (i’ve got “me talk pretty one day” on an audiobook, so i’m sure my coworkers think i’m insane as i try to hold in my laughter at work). incidentally, i’ve yet to read his new book, “when you are engulfed in flames” – anyone read it? funny as the rest? i don’t know why i’m asking, i’m sure it is.
they’re absolutely hysterical and also british, so it doesn’t really get much better than that. you can subscribe to them on itunes and/or visit their website at this link here. my favorite episode so far is number thirty-four (quite a lot of links in this, aren’t there?), in which helen and martin recount a trip across the pond to the set of the “sex and the city” movie (although by accident), among other exploits. of course, this was in like september or october, so…it’s been a while, but still hilarious.
i really wish it wouldn’t cost me an arm and a leg to make an international call, or i definitely would. i suppose i could email them sometime, but we’ll just have to wait and see. anyway, definitely check it out.
in other news, i’ve just found out that bill mckibben is going to be a guest of honor at my university this fall at the mcbride lecture and leadership seminar (or something similarly named, shame on me). since i don’t really know who he is, let me copy a little taste of the press release.
Best-selling author and environmental activist Bill McKibben will deliver the fourth annual McBride Lecture for Faith & Literature at 7:00 p.m. on Oct. 3 in Oklahoma Christian University’s Gaylord University Center. The evening lecture will be followed by a book-signing reception. Both events are free and open to the public.
McKibben is author of the national bestseller Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future (Holt, 2007) as well as books such as The End of Nature (Random House, 2006, revised) and a host of essays in the nation’s top magazines. McKibben is scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College and lives with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, and their daughter in Ripon, Vt.
The Boston Globe has called Deep Economy a “hopeful manifesto” and “an inspired book.” USA Today has written of Deep Economy: “What makes McKibben’s book stand out is the completeness of his arguments and his real-world approach to solutions.” Bill Moyers has written, “Bill McKibben enjoys the most conspicuous place in my own pantheon of journalistic heroes for his pioneer work in writing about the environment.”
“We invite Oklahomans to hear this powerful thinker discuss issues of great importance – not only how both to design durable human communities and care for the planet, but also specifically how to sustain the great quality of life we enjoy in Oklahoma as well as pass on to our children the best of Oklahoma’s natural resources,” said Scott LaMascus, Professor of English and Director of the McBride Center for Faith & Literature.
The lecture will come at the end of “Green Week” on campus of Oklahoma Christian University, which is sponsored by the university’s Student Government Association. For more details about the activities of Green Week at OC, visit www.oc.edu.
so there’s that – free and all, so if you’d like to come, please do. it’s always a good time. last year we had marilynne robinson, author of “gilead” and “housekeeping,” and the year before we saw robert pinsky, former US poet laureate and author of nineteen books (dream big). he definitely cuts an intimidating figure, but he was a great speaker. so if you’ll be in the area at the time, feel free to stop by.
my life on twitter June 28, 2008
so i finally created my own twitter account – ok, that’s a lie. i’ve had one for a few months now but i know NO ONE who uses twitter so i would tweet every few weeks, to no apparent avail. however, i do have one good friend who finally clued into the potential of twitter, so we’ve started twittering back and forth a couple of times a day. why should we twitter when we can just talk? well, we do that, too. we just like twitter.
unfortunately, however, the majority of our tweets appear like the above image. neither of us has the most adrenaline-pumping of lives, so my tweets consist of “going to work,” “doing accounting homework,” and “sitting around,” and hers lately have consisted of “I HATE BEING SICK.”
i found this picture that was the comic a few days ago for toothpastefordinner and died laughing because it is so me, and i thought i’d share. drew is a genius, as is his wife natalie dee.
