The Line: I Capture the Castle

"I love. I have loved. I will love."

- Cassandra Mortmain

The line in the movie is slightly different from the book (I love you. I love you. I love you), but I think they've changed it well.

Random Rants/Thoughts: Mail Order Movie Rental

I first saw this comic strip at /film. And I thought it was interesting. I actually like these mail order movie rental services.There's actually two companies in Singapore providing such service and I think its one of the best ways to rent movies. It is indeed a very economical way to watch a lot of movies if you're a big movie fan like me. As you can see my reality is not as depicted in the comic. I took full advantage of the service. I have always been on a three disc plan, and in a month I was able to watch between 15 to 21 movies. Great isn't it! It has definitely enabled me to watch movies I otherwise wouldn't have been able to. The trick is to have your movie queue filled with lots of movies. And mix it up with some serious drama, depressing stuff with something light, like comedies and romance. This is to ensure that you won't be stuck at home with three serious depressing movies all at once. Hence you always have a choice of movies to suit your viewing mood at any one time. And lastly always, always remember to return the ones you've watched the next day, so that you can get a new movie within 2 days time. Keep the cycle moving is the key to maximizing the subscription you've paid for.

What about you? Do you use a mail order movie rental service? How many movies are you able to watch in a month?

Posters Galore: Unknown

Gotta say, this poster looks like one for Taken 2.0. Its complete with Neeson gun in hand and part of his face in the shadows. Need a refresher. See the taken poster below.

Movie Tracks: The Man In the Iron Mask

The movie may not be very good, although I did enjoy it very much way back when I saw it first during its theatrical run. But what stuck for me was the soundtrack. Which is really good. Soaring is one word to describe it. Take a listen to one of the pieces.

Rabbit Without Ears (2007)

I'm not much for romantic comedies. And well this is a German romantic comedy. I've only seen some serious German dramas, so this would be the first comedy. Oh wait there was Goodbye Lenin which was somewhat of a comedy, okay so that was different. That was actually good. This is another matter.

I do think this movie tries to emulate some of the known romance and romantic comedies we've seen in the past like When Harry Met Sally and Before Sunrise/Sunset movie touching the whole relationship between men and women, with the two leads being at loggerheads in the beginning and them later discussing how casual sex results in different expectations from men and women. Their little talks were interesting but it didn't compensate the fact that the whole story was bad and that the romance bit fell flat.

Firstly I'm not sure how its possible that the female lead is able to run a day care center for kids. Second how is it the male lead was instructed by the court to do community service at a day care center for kids? I believe people tend to have a stigma against men working at childcare centers right? And this guy is not even a trained professional. In fact he's someone who broke some law and had to do community service to avoid jail! I know sometimes you need to suspend disbelief when you watch movies, but the circumstances they have chosen could have been replaced with some other more believable alternatives. I mean really, why not have him work at an elderly home?

Anyhow the slapstick is bad too. I hardly laughed. The characters too are hardly interesting, likewise the acting. They have no chemistry. And we don't see that moment where we see the guy fell for the girl and why. I mean we get why the gal liked the guy but it just seemed that he liked her suddenly without much reason.

Suffice to say, stay away from this. Boring, boring, bad. Definitely not one of the good ones Germany has to offer.

Snippet: The Hunger Games Short

Ooooh...I just saw the Hunger Games short that someone made and posted on youtube. Its pretty good. Looks like it could be a real movie. Definitely something the actual official movie has to do better or at least match. Though I think they have to make the death scene a lot shorter, it does seem it just dragged on much too long.

Posters Galore

I've loved the posters for this movie thus far. But this new one has to be the weakest I think. The head is tilted in a weird photoshopped manner. And that hand is just bad photoshopped inhuman.

50 Best Movies [I've Seen] Of The Decade: No 36. The Savages

I thought this movie was great. It had one of the most realistic portrayal of siblings I've seen. And also a pretty realistic depiction of the challenges of caring for elderly parents. The Savages siblings here are seen trying to juggle their own lives and self interests and image while trying to find the best way to care for their father. The movie could have gone the typical route throwing bombastic complexities with the challenges the siblings have to face. But gladly it didn't. Its quiet and honest. There's moments of humour filled with bittersweet sadness and filled with great performances by the major cast. Its really a gem that I think unfortunately has been overlooked because it is a story of middle-aged adults caring for an old man.

Snippet: First photos of the Moth Diaries

I'm currently reading the book. So far so good. Can't wait to see the movie. You can see the rest of the pictures at Bloody Disgusting.

Snippet: Breaking Dawn on set pictures

Apparently Breaking Dawn is filming in Brazil now. I didn't even know. Haven't really been keeping up with the Twilight news lately, part of it has to do with the fact I haven't read Breaking Dawn yet, so I'm trying to stay away from as much spoilers as I can. Anyhow, some of the onset pictures have leaked. I'm just surprised by how grown up the characters look. Bella looks more feminine and why does she dress so professional like she's going for a business meeting? So go on ahead and check out the pictures here at Sky Movies.

Trailer Watch: Jane Eyre

We just saw the 1st poster for the movie earlier in the week and now the trailer has been released. As you might know, I love watching adaptations. I've actually seen at least 3 Jane Eyre adaptations so this would be my 4th and definitely looking forward to this one. The trouble with most of the previous Jane Eyre adaptations I've seen in the past is that they didn't quite have a good child actor to play young Jane. So hopefully they have a good one here to make this a better adaptation overall. And since this is a movie with a bigger budget, I'd expect beautiful shots that capture the landscape and the sets in all its depressing Gothic glory. Oh, did you see how plain they made Mia Wasikowska look. Good yeah. Though she does look very very young in it too.

50 Best Movies [I've Seen] Of The Decade: No 35. The Royal Tenenbaums

Everything about the movie is storybook like, from the narration to the colours to the sets. And have you seen the Criterion DVD for it? Well it’s packaged like a book. How fitting! I guess one of the things I love about the movie is the narration, how matter-of-factly it is with its dark sense of humour. And of course there’s the characters. Such  wonderful interesting characters. It’s just a delightful watch for me.

TV Tracks: North and South - Thornton's Walk

If you've been watching some of the BBC's recent adaptations of classic literature, than you'd notice other than that they're great adaptations, they also have brilliant scores. Each unique and distinct. They're soo good, you'd forget they're made for a TV miniseries. North and South is of course one of them. I love it. Every time I hear it, I see the the cotton mills all white with fluff. I mean really, BBC has got to get all of its scores and release it as a soundtrack. I'll buy it. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.

The Runaways (2010)

I guess I had heard of Joan Jett before, and knew that she was a rock singer. But the Runaways prior to this movie...nah...never heard of them. And the only reason I wanted to watch it in the first place was because it starred Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning.

The Runaways as you might already have known is about the all girl teen rock band. And the movie, well it was rather lukewarm. Its a movie about a rock band! You would have thought it would have been hot with drama what with all the drugs sex and rock and roll. Yeah sure there was some sex and drugs but not much of the rock and roll stuff.

The thing is everything seems a little rush. And just too much focus on Joan and Cherie...I'm sorry...but isn't it called the Runaways and not the Joan and Cherie movie? Anyhow even then, I don't think we even got to know Joan much other than she being the girl who kinda started this band. Its all pretty much Cherie and all her problems. And just as we started to see the Runaways actually playing and being a band, Cherie left...and that's it! Game over, even though at the credits it states the Runaways carried on without her for about two years after she left. So wait? The movie ends just when the first (or maybe not) member left, and when the band was really just starting. Really? Not much of a story there issit? Just when it all started, the story halts to a break and ends.

Performance wise, I thought Kristen was competent, she already has that rock musician look about her. And with the costume, its easy to belief shes Joan. Dakota, well she was ok, but trying a little too hard at being this rock girl.I guess, I didn't really believe her as this troubled little "jailbait"...that scene with her drunk,does seem a little overdone. She just doesn't have that look about her that she's carrying the weight of her troubles. Generally some of the drama scenes in the movie seemed a little contrived.

In summary, I didn't really like the Runaways much. Not an interesting story, supposedly about a band, but really of just one member. You know what?  Kristen and Dakota had actually both acted in a short film called Cutlass some years ago. It maybe short but that was definitely much better than this.So check that one out.

Snippet: Vampire Diaries in Singapore

Its showing on Saturday at 10pm on Channel 5.

Dear blog, live sucks. It sure does. I just got the DVD set, and the series started last Saturday. Oh well, its not like I can wait a whole week for the next episode anyway. This series is fun.