The Way We Live Now

I know I've gotten complaints before about my negative reviews. But I figured out why I prefer negative reviews: I like to give spoilers when I review, and out of respect for the movies I really like, I avoid spoilers. For movies that disgust me, I have no scruples spoiling the plot for two reasons; out of spite for the movie, and in confidence that no one would want to see the movie after I share the spoiler. So with that said...

"The Way We Live Now" was horrible. I'm sorry to say it about an Andrew Davies movie, but there it is. It was an interesting movie, I have to give it that, but the ending is such that you just think, "Wow, I just blew 5 hours of time that I could have spent watching the long version of Pride and Prejudice instead."

There are several interwoven plot lines. First, there's the young lady, Henrietta, who lives in England with a mother somewhat like Mrs. Bennet and a jerk brother (played by Matthew MacFadyen! Mr. Darcy! I'll never be able to watch the new Pride and Prejudice again. Ever). She "falls in love at first sight" with her cousin's ward, Paul (who's in charge of the construction of a railway in America). Paul "loves" her too, and her cousin, Mr. Carbury, is also in love with her. So the two men are at odds because they both want to marry her. Paul has a problem though: he's already engaged to an American woman.

Henrietta's brother, Felix, is a gambler and a cad. He has a woman he flirts with in the the country, and a rich woman in the city that he wants to marry, but only for her money. The woman in the country has a good man who wants to marry her, but she won't marry him because she thinks she's in love with Felix. And the woman in the city, Miss Melmotte, is starved for love and rather odd, and falls head over heels for Felix. Her father, Mr. Melmotte, is a greedy, rich Frenchman who is heading the board for Paul's railway. But Mr. Melmotte doesn't actually intend to BUILD a railway, he just wants to get people to buy the stock and then take all their money.

So. Felix proposes to Miss Melmotte, and tries to get her father's consent. He will NOT consent, because Felix gambled away all his money and is basically penniless, and Mr. Melmotte could get much richer men for his daughter. Miss Melmotte tries to convince Felix to run away with her, because she really loves him, but he only wants the money that she won't get unless she marries with her father's blessing and will not run away until she mentions that she has a lot of money of her own. She steals some money for a train ticket and ship passage, which he spends gambling and getting drunk. While he slouches off home to his mother (who dotes on him in a sickening way) she is trying to meet him. But she is "arrested" for stealing, and taken back to her father, who won't allow her to see Felix. Miss Melmotte manages to get a note to Felix's sister, Henrietta, who delivers the note to her brother and then returns with his message to Miss Melmotte: "he is giving her up. He doesn't love her, and never did." Miss Melmotte is heartbroken.

Paul tries to convince his fiancee, Mrs. Hurtle, to release him so he can ask Henrietta to marry him, but she refuses, and claims that he cannot break the engagement because "only the woman can dissolve an engagement." Finally, she tells him that if he spends one more night with her and takes her to the beach before he goes to Mexico (to oversee the railway) then when he comes back he can choose the woman he really wants. While they're at the beach, they run into Mr. Carbury, who is none too pleased to see his competition in company with another woman after all the trouble that Paul took to "steal" Henrietta from him.

Felix's country woman comes to the city to marry him, but he has no intention of marrying her. He just uses her for a little fun, putting her off about getting married, "Oh, of course, sometime..." He finally blurts out that he never intended to marry her, and she storms off. He chases her, and just then, the good man that STILL wants to marry her shows up and lays Felix flat with one punch. (That was good! Best part of the whole movie!)

Paul comes back from his trip and asks Henrietta to marry him, and she accepts. But Felix knows about Mrs. Hurtle and when Henrietta announces her engagement, he tells her the whole story. She talks to Paul and he tells her that he was trying to break everything off with Mrs. Hurtle, and that he thought it was already over between them when Mrs. Hurtle showed up in England claiming otherwise. Then Henrietta visits Mrs. Hurtle, and Mrs. Hurtle leads her to believe that she and Paul are still involved. So she breaks off the engagement.

Paul finally finds out about the railway scam, and leaks to the newspapers. Mr. Melmotte is ruined and commits suicide. Miss Melmotte, however, is still rich from the money in her own name that she refused to share with her father and goes off to live her life, hardened by Felix's betrayal.

Mrs. Hurtle comes to see Henrietta and confesses that she deceived Henrietta, and that Paul had been faithful to her, at least for the past 2 years. Henrietta still refuses to forgive him. He stops by one last time before he leaves for a second railway opportunity, and she hides on the stairwell while he give her mother all sorts of "I'll always love her" and "I wish her the best" messages. And then he leaves. And she runs after him. And we can only hope they live happily ever after.

And the last shot you see is Felix, with a new conquest in sight.

Miss Melmotte should have found someone to really love her, Henrietta should have married Mr. Carbury, Paul should have been devastated and gone crawling back to Mrs. Hurtle, Mr. Melmotte should have been put in jail instead of the escape of suicide, and Felix should have been left miserable in some way. Or at least shaped up and acting like a man. I didn't like it. At all.

However, the filming was spectacular, the acting was very good and if you don't mind a more "real life" kind of ending, then it's a pretty good movie. Personally, it left me feeling disgusted. But maybe that's just me.

~Lizzie

Mansfield Park...s. All of them.

I have now seen all three versions of Mansfield Park, and having also read the book, I am qualified in my opinion of the book having never been done anything close to justice in movie form. The version that came closest is fairly old, with bad coloring, horribly unattractive characters and a Fanny that rather annoyed me. Then there was the newest version aired on TV with slightly more attractive actors and actresses, but not as close to the book as the old version (which, despite it's other faults, was certainly diligent in following Jane Austen's storyline). And then there's the version we just watched tonight. Besides the fact that I have a lingering annoyance for Frances O'Connor from her performance in "The Importance of Being Earnest," the screen writer managed to mutilate Fanny's character enough by herself. Not to mention obviously being a feminist and mutilating the entire movie.

I wish Andrew Davies would do a Mansfield Park. He's done my favorite versions of "Sense and Sensibility," and "Pride and Prejudice," and I really liked "Northanger Abbey," "Bleak House," "Wives and Daughters," and "Emma." (Although my favorite version of "Emma" is still the one with Gwyneth Paltrow.) If only he would do "Persuasion" and "Mansfield Park" then one could have an entire Jane Austen movie collection that are almost equal to her novels.

There is hope...

~Lizzie

MI2

Well, Jessica, I think you would have liked Tom Cruise's hair. It was kinda long, and very shiny and swishy.

Mission Impossible 2 was ridiculous. Note to self: when Daddy says a movie is awful, it really is. However, the reverse is not always true... think 2001 Space Odyssey. If you haven't seen it, DON'T!

I don't think it's even worth going through everything that was lame about MI2. It was a good movie to watch in the middle of the night when you're exhausted. Just be sure that there's someone really hyper to wake you up for the action parts.

And if anyone has seen it, we should do a spoof where everyone attempts to rip a mask off of everyone else's faces before they speak. It's like, the secret handshake. Directions: grab cheek or hair and pull. But don't pull too hard, in case it isn't a mask.

~Lizzie

Prince Caspian, Take Two.

So we bought the DVD. (Couldn't resist.) And just watched it again. First of all, the cover is making me sick. It looks so Disney. Sarah even pointed out a sprinkling pixie dust. HOW is that related???

So, with the second watching I've already resigned myself to the fact that they ruined almost everything. (For a more complete review, you may check back to my original post: Prince Caspian) But this time I was actually a little more annoyed with it. I remembered liking Ben Barnes' (Caspian) acting, but this time it struck me as lame. Sometimes he's okay, sometimes... not. And I noticed several phrases from the Pevensies that seemed too modern even for London in the early 1900's, and especially for Narnia.

My disgust and abhorrence for Caspian and Susan's romance has only increased. But now I think more that Caspian doesn't deserve Ramandu's daughter. He and Susan are perfect for each other. Too bad he can't go back to London with her and be replaced by a cooler Caspian who can act.

They've dumbed it down til it's just like all the other greasy cheeseball Disney movies. As a matter of fact, I gagged over so many of the lines this second time that I saw it that it almost equaled High School Musical for gag-worthiness. It's all Andrew Adamson's fault. I despised and loathed Shrek so completely and instantaneously that I didn't even finish watching it. And THAT was the man honored with the responsibility of taking a literary work of art like Narnia and making it a movie? Ah, my feelings require an overly cheesy and dramatic exclamation... "Narnia is about to be annihilated!" *sobs*

Thank goodness for Michael Apted! I'm hoping and almost praying that Voyage of the Dawn Treader will manage to overcome the reputation of its precedors and be more than just another slimy, idiotic Disney movie.

Sarah and I watched the credits. Please don't ask me why, we usually watch the credits in movie theaters, and we watched the credits tonight. Anyway, I noticed some very amusing titles that people were credited with. For example: "2nd 2nd assistant director." Yes, that's two "2nd's." And: "'a' camera 2nd assistant camera." Others were prop-buyers, "2nd payroll assistant" and chaperones. All listed in the credits. Oh, and they also mentioned that the piano used for that production was a Steinway maintained by Steinway and Sons, London. Which I thought was cool. Apparently they actually had a piano... for the music recording I guess. I should watch the credits again and see who the artist was that played the piano.

And now I will avoid watching Prince Caspian.

~Lizzie

It's called Thanksgiving, not Turkey Day.

So when I wrote this I wasn't thinking I'd be posting it on the blog. Lizzie read it and said that I had to post it so there ya go. :P
The following is VERY long a perhaps boring, feel free not to read it, and there will be no need for applause at the end. (:P @ Jessica)

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Thanksgiving. It's the only holiday in which gluttony is considered part of the observing the special day. Really though, it's not about food, just look at its name. Thanksgiving may cause us to think about turkey, but it honestly doesn't have the word turkey in it anywhere. 'Thanks' is a expression of gratitude, 'thanksgiving' is the act of giving thanks, so thanksgiving is a day for giving out of 'expressions of gratitude'.
So, who do we give these expressions of gratitude? Probably, the host(ess) of the thanksgiving lunch, and all the people who helped cook all the food. Special thanks may go to the person(s) who cooked that delicious turkey. If any members of your party are Christians, or even simply go to church, or really, if anyone is not an atheist, someone will pray before you eat (or maybe if they forget, after a bite or so) and thank God for the food, friends and family. Perhaps later, your party may take turns telling about what they're thankful for. Everyone says friends and family (duh, no one wants anyone else to think they're not grateful for that) Christians will say they are thankful for their God, who saved them. Probably everyone will think of something they're thankful for, that they'd rather not say. Kids, who don't really think about stuff like that might repeat what a parent said. After that, everyone is glad that's over; now they can eat the rest of the day and not feel ungrateful.

I admit, last year I was one of those kids. I never asked myself what I was thankful for, I just wanted food. (Thanksgiving! Mmm... turkey day) Then when I was asked by some one else, I just repeated my parents. The only thing on my mind was drumsticks and dessert.
This year was different. Very different. First of all the day I described above didn't happen. But I'll get to that later. Also, this year I asked my self the question, 'what am I thankful for?' This is to answer that question.

In order to understand what I'm thankful for, you must understand how my year went. I said it was different, and it was. A lot happened that I never dreamed of in the year before.

Only a month after I couldn't think for myself on what I was thankful for, I got sick. Just a few days before Christmas. It was the sickest I've been in a long, long time. I remember falling asleep on the bathroom floor, because I was too dizzy and tired to make it back to bed. I was still sick when the family came for Christmas. No delicious turkey for me. I was only a little better on Christmas day. Nevertheless, there was something about it that made it a very good Christmas for me. Perhaps it was simply because the worldly part of Christmas was taken away (no food and I couldn't properly enjoy the opening of gifts). All I was left with was the Christmas spirit.

Occasionally, during the basketball season, my sister, brother, dad and I would take the time to cheer for the Raleigh Hawks, the team my swim Coach coached. We were the only people who went to the games regularly, but didn't have family on the team. I took a small amount of pride in that. I thoroughly enjoyed these games, and took a boatload of pictures with my Canon Rebel XTi.

March was the East Coast Homeschool Basketball Championships. I imagine it was 'East Coast' because it was hosted on the east coast. Liberty University in Lynchburg Virginia to be exact. Any homeschool team in America could compete in the championship. I was thrilled when my dad decided to drive nearly 5 hours to watch two games, (the championship games for JV and Varsity) and then drive 5 hours back again. We arrived in the enormous court just in time to see our JV boys lose, and get second. It didn't take me long to realize, second means there was only one team better then us in the whole competition. After a couple hours break, it was the Varsity boys' turn. It was a amazing game. They were tied nearly the whole time, but our boys pulled it out, winning by 2 points in overtime. The best of the best. I was enthralled.

Not at all long after, the baseball season officially cranked up. Coached by the same coach of those awesome basketball guys. Even several of those guys played baseball as well. The teams' name was Raleigh Hawks too. This though, was a bit different, because my younger (but not smaller) brother started playing on the middle school team. I was pleased with this because it meant I could go to all the games... and I did. I tried to savor them, enjoy every minute, and capture the great times with photos and dairy entries. Still, the season swept by quickly leaving me suddenly depressed, and wondering where it had gone.

Sometime in the middle of the baseball season, NRCA's Beauty and the Beast snuck up on us unprepared. Somehow, we managed to get tickets, and after a baseball game, a small group of us headed over early to try and save good seats for a few more people. We arrived early, but too late for good seats. We sat in the very, very back. The rest of our party arrived a few minutes after the performance was supposed to begin, and after we were threatened with having our saved seats taken away for other people if they did not come soon. Fortunately, they were running late, and started just after the rest of our group came. The show was absolutely incredible, even with the bad seats. It was all worth it.

Two years ago, I was thrilled to see one of my ultimate favorite books hit the big screen. C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. since then I counted the days for the second book out of seven to also come to theaters. May 16th was the day Prince Caspian premiered, and I was going to begin to see it within the very first few minutes of that day. I didn't, however think I would see it with friends, though I wished I could. It was last minute, as it is often, but there we were, goofing off in the near-empty theater, and hallway until midnight. I had so much adrenalin I couldn't contain myself. Then again, I didn't exactly try.

Ever since the beginning of the year, North Carolina had been in a drought. Because of this, a law was passed that owners of pools may only open their pools if there was water already in the pool, or if they had a well. Coach, the coach of the basketball, baseball and swim teams owns a out door pool, where we have our summer meets. It had no water in it and there was no well. Or any money for a well. So our summer pool did not open. Instead, we swam inside, as we did over winter, and was always the away team in our meets.

Not only did we swim indoors, we swam long course (50 meters a lap instead of 25) two days of the three our team practiced. I absolutely hated long course. With a burning and undying passion. Because of that I began to hate swim practice. I lived for meets and water polo. Water polo became my passion, a reason to go through with the week. I began to love it even more than I hated long course.

In the middle of these strange changes, the play "Annie" which we'd been working on for some eight months sprang up on us. (plays have a way of doing that) we hadn't even run all the way through on production day. Since there was two performances, the first was like our dress rehearsal. Surprisingly, (but then again, not really) both went rather well. Still, I was glad for not having a main role.

July rolled around. Slowly.
I had turned fifteen in May, and was rather annoyed with myself for still not having taken Driver's Ed. I wanted to do it with people I knew. So when the opportunity came to take it with three other people, I took it. Even though the class was at a high school, so I'd be one of very few homeschoolers, I figured it'd be okay. I'm still not sure if I was right or wrong. On one hand I learned how to drive properly, and had a bit of fun with my friends. I also built a considerable amount of character. It was definitely a experience. On the other hand.... I got headaches almost every day from sitting in front of the computer for so long, the teacher wasn't especially good or nice, and my mind was numb by the end from forcing so much boring information in it. It definitely could have been better.

Now I had been taking private flute lessons for four years, and known of the Lighthouse Christian Homeschool Band for nearly just as long. Mum and Dad seemed to want me to join, but I felt that it was too much of a unknown. I simply didn't know enough about the particular band, or even being in a band in general.

During the baseball season I met the director of the wind ensemble. When he heard of how long I had been playing he told me that he thought I should be good enough to make it.
In my opinion, that suddenly made the band so much less of a unknown. I began to seriously consider trying out. There was one not-so-slight problem. Band Practices were on Monday and Wednesday, and the Wednesday practice conflicted with water polo. Thinking maybe I could skip out on Wednesday every so often in order to play water polo, I tried out, making second and also last chair.

After the first band practice I realized what a bad idea it was to try and play water polo, even only so often. Every Wednesday since, I've showed up at that church where we practice, at least five minutes early. With a undying longing to play water polo inside.
It's not that I don't love band, if I didn't, I could just quit. But I haven't, because I do love it. I just wish that somehow I could do both.

It didn't seem like very long after Annie until theatre started again. This time we were doing "Oklahoma!" I tried out for the part of Laurey, knowing I wouldn't get it, and was not surprised. Nevertheless, I took the time to learn the monologue and song, and then I got stressed because I'm a perfectionist.

With the stress of everything that was happening, I could hardly concentrate on my projects for the NC State Fair. Before I knew it, I was rushing, and didn't finish all that I wanted to enter. I ended up with seven entries. I was very pleased when out of those seven, four won first and one won second. Wining a considerable amount of money.

A very short baseball season followed. My brother practiced but didn't play with the team, and we went to all the games.

Then basketball season started, and both my brothers joined the team. As the first game came up I realized a problem. A considerable amount of games are on Tuesday nights. Theatre is on Tuesday nights. Last year everything seemed to fit together like a puzzle. This year? Not so much. Now I was really glad I didn't get a main role; it wouldn't be so bad when I missed a few rehearsals. I skipped theatre to go to the first two games of the season on Tuesday.

NRCA's production of "It's a Wonderful Life" didn't sneak up us. Who am I kidding? Really, it certainly did. We bought our tickets at the door.
There was a guy I knew who was playing the lead role George Bailey. I was rather looking forward to seeing him play the crazy character. Imagine my surprise and disappointment when I read the playbill, which declared that he would be playing George in the night show. Not the one I was at already. I thoroughly enjoyed the show, but couldn't get over that minor detail. We came back that night just to see the guy I knew play George. I actually enjoyed it more than the first time.

The day before "It's a Wonderful Life" we noticed that my cat, Shadow was acting strange. She was refusing to eat and just sitting around. We tried to figure it out, but when nothing changed we took her to the hospital. She has kidney failure. The doctor's figured there was nothing we could really do, and hinted that we might be wasting our money. Somehow, she got better. Well, enough to come home. It was honestly nothing short of a miracle. She progressed slowly after that, and even stopped eating, but slowly began again.
Today (Thanksgiving) she ate some turkey.
Because of Shadow we went nowhere for Thanksgiving. Normally, we would've gone to my Aunt's and my Grandmother's. Instead we had our own meal, all by ourselves, at home.

What you have just read is what I'm thankful for. Not all of it mind you; it's just the out-of-the-ordinary things. The things which have happened to me... really, the things that made me even think of writing this. Not friends family possessions or food. I am, of course still thankful for those things, and I'm thankful for my loving God. But mostly, I'm thankful to my God.
Thanksgiving has two similar definitions: the act of giving thanks, and, a payer expressing gratitude. This holiday is for giving thanks to God. For everything. What we have and what we don't, what we've lost and what we may lose. The good, bad, the painful and wonderful.
There is nothing for which we should not thank Him.

--Sarah

*shudders*

I watch movies to escape real life. I DO NOT watch movies to see the hero killed right after the heroine finally gives in and admits to loving him. That was probably the worst movie I've ever seen in that respect.

I have two main rules for entertainment: 1. The good people always live happily ever after and 2. The bad people either realize the error of their ways, or are punished for their misdeeds and rendered incapable of interfering in the happily ever after of the heros and heroines.

Now I'm depressed. Is entertainment supposed to make you depressed? I DON'T THINK SO!

~Lizzie

Some things should never be shared....

*glares at Sarah* Thanks, but no thanks. (She's sharing her cold.) So now I'm frying myself in my Seahawks sweatshirt, sweatpants and socks and I just had the worst breakfast imaginable.... trying to fix the effects of Sarah's generosity before I actually really get sick. Right now all I have is a slight sore throat.

Here's a picture of my delectable morning meal:

From left to right, we have: a glass of water (for taking the pile of vitamins on the right), a small glass of echinacea tincture mixed with concentrated cranberry juice to disguise the awful taste. Then a glass of grapefruit juice mixed with superfood. *gag* Superfood is comprised of seaweed and orange peels, among other things just as disgusting. And now I'm sucking on a Vitamin C tablet. I think it's supposed to be orange flavored.

And yes, I used three glasses just so I could give you a picture.

So it's only 9:30 and so far my day isn't going so good. Besides the beginnings of a cold, the Hawks baseball game that I was looking forward to was canceled. *pout* And on top of that, the Plugged In Online review for Eagle Eye came out, and it's not good.

*sigh*

~Lizzie

Never watch trilogies..

Pirates of the Caribbean, LOTR, X-Men .... all started out okay/good and ended terrible. It's like the producers go, "Ah, I know, let's sucker some people in with 2 great movies and then bum them out with the 3rd. If we all do it, they'll never suspect that we're intentionally disappointing them, they'll just think it was slump. And then we do it all over again with another trilogy. And what really great is that when the first movie comes out, they won't know it's a trilogy, so even if they figure it out, we can still grab them with the first movie and have them so hooked on the story-line that they'll watch the others anyway, even though they know that it'll be horrible."

The director of the Bourne trilogy messed it up though. He did an entirely good series and woke up the public, and now we can recognize horrible endings. I'm not sure whether or not to be grateful. Anyway, all that to say, *spoiler*

Never watch the X-Men series. At the end of the trilogy, the hero kills the heroine to protect humanity when all he had to do was give her a shot. And it would have been just as easy to give her the shot as kill her. It royally stunk.

I can't believe the ratio of movies I like to movies I despise.

~Lizzie

Mondays.....

It seems like on Mondays everyone's intelligence is lower than normal.... maybe too much TV over the weekend? And I feel so lucky that this universal daze falls on the day that I drive the most. On Mondays I take Joel and David to basketball (and attempt to finish my math book from last year to the sound of dribbling balls and hoarse shouts), then we come home, grab something to eat and I take Joel to baseball practice, drop him off early, and rush to Wake Forest to pick Sarah up from band... always arriving a few minutes late. Then we run errands and go back to pick Joel up from baseball. Today I encountered at least 5 people who didn't know how to drive, and 7 people who couldn't read speed limit signs. Nothing is more frustrating when you're late than to be stuck behind a car that's just coasting around. Hello... the speed limit's 45! Whyyyyyyyy are you going 30?

When Sarah and I got to baseball, Sean was pitching and Mark was batting. Sean threw a ball, and Mark teased, "Air ball, Sean! If it'd dropped down about 20 feet it would have been a good pitch!" A little later, they switched; Mark pitched and Sean hit. Sean hit a foul and Mark taunted, "Is that where you wanted it?" It really cracks me up how the guys are all friends but they still tease each other like that.

Joel's started taking strange drinks to baseball. On the way home he announced that no one has yet managed to guess correctly. "Christian guessed orange juice... and Sean guessed apple juice."
"Well, how are they supposed to know to guess pomegranate and mango juice?" I asked, incredulously.
We're probably the only people in the world who drink mango juice instead of orange juice. Actually, our usual stock of juice includes cranberry, pomegranate, mango and occasionally apple.

Then my day of driving was topped off with a two-mile long line of cars backed up over the 540 overpass, which we cross over on our way home from baseball. We probably sat there in that line of cars for 10 minutes.

I'm looking forward to the release of two movies.... "Eagle Eye" coming out on the 26th and "An American Carol" coming out October 3rd. I don't know if they're going to be any good or not, but the trailers look pretty interesting to me.

Ugh.

We just finished watching "Middlemarch." I usually like those "Jane Austen-y" type movies, but this one wasn't Jane Austen-y at all, although it pretended to be. It was about 6 hours of absolute torture, for a merely tolerable ending. For the first half, Sarah and I got so tired of it, that we were begging one of the characters to die. And every time the scene changed we would say, "Oh, he's dead! Aw.. no, he's not." He did finally die though, and we burst into cheers. We did the same thing with another character in the second half. A bad guy was going to let another man die, and Sarah said, "Oh, he's bad! But I'm glad he's killing that guy." All the characters were so annoying, I wouldn't have been sad to see the whole town blown up at the end. Or even in the middle to save me all that time. Better yet, right at the beginning would have been good. Or maybe even NEVER MAKING THE MOVIE. That would have been perfect.

I'm not sure what is about Jane Austen, but while her characters have flaws, at least there's something about them that makes me like them anyway. None of her characters are perfect. Except maybe Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. But the people in this movie.... ugh. I didn't like any of them. I think Middlemarch might have just displaced 2001 Space Odessey for "the worst movie I've ever seen."

*chokes* Must see Pride and Prejudice.....

~Lizzie

I found my watch!

Yeah. It's been missing for a while. I was so frustrated... you see, my old watch had a velcro wristband, and the velcro was so worn out that getting it wet (it was a water-proof watch, so I wore it while swimming) would make it prone to falling off. And every Wednesday after water polo, I'd dive down to the bottom of the 12 foot pool and retrieve my watch where it fell after the inevitable fight over the water polo ball. So I finally got a water proof watch with a buckle clasp, and promptly lost it. And I was just looking under my bed for my old computer keyboard (don't ask) and found it! Yay.

We watched the Count of Monte Cristo and Frequency this weekend. And my parents and sister watched Bobby Jones without me. I loved the Count of Monte Cristo. I wanted to watch Bobby Jones (I probably will before we return the movies to our friends who loaned them to us) and Frequency.... well, we just finished it, and I'm still stressed out. Firewall stressed me out too. They're both pretty good movies, but when I watch movies, I like to escape from reality. (If you know Frequency, you're probably laughing at me...) My ideal movie is Pride and Prejudice... the worst scare you get is that Darcy doesn't end up with Elizabeth. But in the end it's happily ever after.

I feel like I had something deep and thoughtful to say, but I guess it's a good thing that I forgot it.... whatever it was. I claim ADHD "Attention Deficit in High Definition"... and I would put who said that but Alex told me someone on her swim team said it. And I don't remember the person's name. Ah, well.

Oh, I need to mention that I'm so glad the Olympics are over! It's so nice to not feel like you have to watch all the time or you're missing something important. I actually missed the gold medal water polo matches and I don't really care.

~Lizzie

WALL-E

This will probably do a number on my nice little facade of being a mature 17-year-old, but I have to confess.

We went to see WALL-E yesterday, and I loved it. Absolutely loved it. I didn't think I would, because the previews were so sad (please don't ask me how an animated robot can look cute and sad enough to evoke emotion) but it was really good! Even if it did ALMOST make me cry..... that's the really pathetic part. A Disney Pixar film for little kids almost made me cry.... *shakes head* But I guess that's how they make their money. All the mature people taking the little kiddies to see the movie like the movie too.

*Spoiler warning*
The problem? Earth was completely covered in trash, and all the humans are on a "cruise" in outer space, waiting for robots to clean it all up before they return. The hero? A lone robot - WALL-E - who is still cleaning up earth, with only the companionship of a cock roach (a CUTE cock roach). All the other robots have apparently stopped working, as you see when WALL-E visits a huge pile of other WALL-Es to borrow a pair of "shoes." WALL-E compacts trash into cubes, and builds huge towers out of them. At the end of a day of work, he goes home and watches Hello Dolly, obviously longing for the companionship he sees in the movie.

Then one day, a gorgeous white robot arrives in a huge space ship. He's immediately smitten.... and almost gets killed when she blasts him upon sight. She's looking for something.... he tries a various line of gifts to get her attention and approval, then finally breaks through and learns her name: EVE. Then a sand storm comes up and he takes her to his home, where he shows her all the neat things he's collected from the trash, the last of which really excites her. A plant. She puts it inside her internal container, and shuts down with a green light flashing on her panel.

WALL-E desperately tries to revive her to no avail. The ship that brought her arrives to take her back, and WALL-E rides along..... to the cruise spaceship, containing the world population, all as fat as beached whales and lying on floating chairs with TV screens in front of their faces. They've been in space 700 years, and they aren't interested in returning to earth. But the plant that WALL-E gave EVE is proof that earth is ready for rehabitation. The captain's interest is revived by the plant, and he researches everything about earth that they've forgotten over the 700 years and decides to go back.

But the robots on the ship are determined not to go back. They have their orders.... from the original cruise director: Never return. They try to destroy the plant and incriminate EVE and WALL-E. Just to skip all the boring stuff, EVE and WALL-E get the plant and take it to be evaluated by the ship. If it is a plant from earth, the ship will set a course back to earth. Just before they insert the plant, the co-pilot (a robot) intentionally crushes WALL-E into the stage with the receptacle that is supposed to identify the plant. The captain disables the robot (and learns to walk!), but WALL-E is already crushed.

The plant is identified, and the ship returns to earth, where EVE tries to repair WALL-E with spare parts. He works again, but doesn't recognize her. She tries everything and is just about to give up when he snaps out of it and remembers her. And they lived happily ever after; The End.

It really was a cute movie. My new Pixar favorite! I can't wait to see it again. :P

~Lizzie

Staying up late.... er, early....

We just finished watching "North and South" a movie based on a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. It's something like a Jane Austen..... and I absolutely loved it. It's the first movie that's even gotten close to displacing Pride and Prejudice as my favorite romantic movie. I wish we owned the DVD so I could loan it to all my friends. Instead I have to emphatically say that you HAVE to see it! I would say something about the plot-line and what I didn't like (since that would be a shorter list than what I liked) but I don't want to ruin it for anyone. You just have to see it.

Anyway, just a quick post while I wait for Sarah to brush her teeth so we can turn out the lights. *drums fingers on desk*

~Lizzie

Prince Caspian = Awesome!

So here's my PC review.

Acting: I'm not really great at judging acting, but I thought it was good. Better than the first film. Not awesome though. I didn't notice anything particularly great about it, and nothing made me wince either. The four kids have gotten better at their acting, and everyone else cast were just good actors. It made everything nicer, and less painful than LWW. :)

Directing: I'm not a big fan of Andrew Adamson's directing. There's nothing wrong with it, I just don't care for it.

Digital Effects: These were really good. I have a strange obsession with CG stuff and I always notice when it doesn't look real. I didn't notice anything in this one. Probably the least realistic thing in there was the river god, and he really was OK, 'cause I've never seen a river god other than him. :D
Aslan was amazing. He was so big, and beautiful, and completely looked like he was really there.
There were moments when Reep looked less than perfect, but mostly, he was awesome!
The effects in this movie were better than the first film.

Music (score): I didn't really notice it, except when some one was actually singing. So that a good thing in my opinion. It means that it was good.

Cinematography: Very nice. No complaints on that one. I did kinda wonder about the lighting in the treasure room though...

Adaptation: First with the script. It was cheesy. Not as cheesy as the first film, but still cheesy. There were some good lines, and some funny lines, but they all seemed to have a bit of cheese sprinkled on 'em.
The best lines were the ones straight out of the book. I was so happy when they put Ed's line, "I left my torch in Narnia" in there! Also millions of other little details. The planets crossing paths at the beginning. The fireworks as Caspian runs away. The chess piece. The apples. Ed fighting Trumpkin. Trumpkin shooting the bear. Pattertwig actually being in the movie. Ed delivering the duel challenge to Miraz. Peter hurting his sheild arm during the duel. Peter walloping off the Telmarine lord's head. Aslan saying that because Caspian doesn't think he's ready to be king, he is. Reep losing his tail, and getting it back because the other mice are willing to cut off theirs. And some others I've forgotten.
There were some changes I didn't like, but some made sense. I didn't exactly like the night raid on the Telmarine castle, but if they had put in the movie only what was in the book, it would've been rather short.
Peter's character change I didn't really like. Making him so arrogant... but he got better, and it added drama to the movie. Which could be a good or a bad thing.
The change in Susan I liked even less. It wasn't necessary to make her fight. It only made the movie less realistic. (Like she could really be strong enough to throw an arrow hard enough to kill some one who's wearing armor!) Susan and Caspian's romance I didn't like either. It was very unnecessary. There was some stuff in the book that hinted at then flirting, so that was fine. The kiss was WAY to much though. I just hope that I still feel that Caspian's worthy of Ramandu's daughter in VotDT.
I was very sad when they didn't put the part where Lucy wakes everyone up in the middle of the night to follow Aslan, and Ed is the first to see him besides Lucy. That was a rather big change, making Aslan come in later. It was good, and it worked well. It's just too bad they didn't have that bit in there.
There was also some changes I liked. (amazing, right?) The calling back the White Witch scene wasn't all that different from the book, just more creative. It was a great moment for Edmund too. When he broke the ice, I just felt like shouting "go Edmund!!" Actually, there was alot of parts where I felt like doing that. :D
I imagine that it was extremely hard for them to adapt Prince Caspian, you can just read the book and tell. It's not cinematic at all. So they did good for what they had. Maybe they could've done better, but they did good.
The violence didn't bother me at all. It's nice when the violence is more realistic. It was actually closer to the book that way too.

Costumes: I liked the costumes. Everything was neat and creative. The difference between the Temarine costumes and the Narnian ones was very nice.

Makeup/Prosthetics: That was very nice too. I didn't care for Lucy's hair, but I got used to it fast. Caspians hair could've been dirtier, (the Narnians didn't have showers or shampoo after all.) And Susan's hair at the end didn't look great, (I think I have problems with curling hair) but it's OK.

Overall: It. Was. Awesome. There was a few thing I didn't like, but the huge amount of things I loved made up for them. I wish they hadn't made some of the changes they did, but it'll be alright. Edmund was great!! He is even more my favorite character now. I can hardly wait 2 years for him to be a more main character in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader!

--Sarah

> (x) did the quiz thing

I have finally decided to post again. (!) But only because I somehow enjoy putting X's in between parenthesis, so that everyone knows all the completly pointless/stupid stuff I've done. :D

Put an X by all the things you've done and send it to all of your friends. Make sure you send it back to the person who sent it to you!!
> () smoked a cigarette
> () crashed a friend's car
> () stolen a car
> (x) been in love
> () been dumped
> () shoplifted
> () been fired
> () been in a fist fight
> (x) snuck out of your parent's house
> (x) had feelings for someone who didn't have them back
> () been arrested
> () gone on a blind date
> (x) lied to a friend
> () skipped school
> () seen someone die
> () had a crush on one of your internet friends
> () been to Canada
> () been to Mexico
> () been on a plane
> () purposely set a part of yourself on fire
> () eaten Sushi
> () been skiing
> () met someone in person that you met on the internet
> () been moshing at a concert
> (x) taken painkillers
> (x) love someone or miss someone right now
> (x) laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by
> (x) made a snow angel
> (x) had a tea party
> (x) flown a kite
> (x) built a sand castle
> (x) gone puddle jumping
> (x) played dress up
> (x) jumped into a pile of leaves
> (x) gone sledding
> (x) cheated while playing a game
> (x) been lonely
> () fallen asleep at work/school
> () used a fake id
> (x) watched the sun set
> () felt an earthquake
> (x) touched a snake
> (x) slept beneath the stars
> (x) been tickled
> (x) been robbed
> (x) been misunderstood
> (x) petted a reindeer/goat
> (x) won a contest
> (x) run a red light
> () been suspended from school
> (x) been in a car
> (x) had braces
> (x) eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one night
> (x) had deja vu
> (x) danced in the moonlight
> (x) liked the way you look
> () witnessed a crime
> (x) questioned your heart
> () been obsessed with post-it notes
> (x) squished barefoot through the mud
> (x) been lost
> () been to the opposite side of the country
> (x) swam in the ocean
> (x) felt like dying
> () cried yourself to sleep
> (x) played cops and robbers
> (x) recently colored with crayons
> () sung karaoke
> () paid for a meal with only coins
> (x) done something you told yourself you wouldn't
> () laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
> (x) caught a snowflake on your tongue
> (x) danced in the rain
> () written a letter to Santa Claus
> () been kissed under a mistletoe
> (x) watched the sun rise with someone you care about
> (x) blown bubbles
> () made a bonfire on the beach
> () crashed a party
> (x) gone rollerskating
> (x) had a wish come true
> (x) worn pearls
> () jumped off a bridge
> () ate dog/cat food
> () told a complete stranger you loved them (for the fun of it)
> (x) sang in the shower
> (x) had a dream that you married someone
> () glued your hand to something
> () got your tongue stuck to a flag pole
> () kissed a fish
> (x) sat on a roof top
> (x) screamed at the top of your lungs
> () done a one-handed cartwheel
> () talked on the phone for more than 5 hours
> (x) stayed up all night
> (x) didn't take a shower for a week.
> () pick and ate an apple right off the tree
> (x) climbed a tree
> (x) had a tree house
> (x) own more then 15 pairs of shoes
> () worn a really ugly outfit to school just to see what others say
> () gone streaking
> (x) are scared to watch scary movies alone
> () believe in ghosts
> () have done doorbell ditching
> (x) played chicken
> () broken a bone
> (x) been easily amused (I'm doing this aren't I?)
> () caught a fish then ate it
> (x) caught a butterfly
> (x) laughed so hard you cried
> () cried so hard you laughed
> (x) cheated on a test
> () have a Britney Spears CD
> (x) forgotten someone's name
> (x) French braided someone's hair
> () gone skinny dippin in a pool
> () been threatened to be kicked out of your house
> () been kicked out your house

Also, you can probably expect a decidedly more positive review on Prince Caspian than Lizzie's sometime soon... ish. I might want to see the movie again before I do it. :)

--Sarah

Prince Caspian

We saw the midnight showing of Prince Caspian (and the theater was almost empty! I expected more fans would be there for the first showing.) and I have now stewed over it long enough that I can write a lengthy opinion on it. Be warned that there are spoilers, and that my opinion is most decidedly negative, so if you haven't seen it yet and hope to enjoy seeing it, please don't read any further.

The very first moments in the movie began destroying Peter and Susan's characters. Susan is looking at a magazine when a young man introduces himself and says that he's seen her around the school that she attends. He asks her name and she lies, obviously in disgust of him. Lucy runs up and calls Susan just after she tells him that her name is Phyllis. Lucy came to get Susan because Peter is in a fist fight. Cops break up the fight, and Susan asks Peter what it was about "THIS time." And Peter replies that the person bumped into him and then demanded an apology.

Peter and Caspian have a very rocky relationship. Both seem to not like the other, and Peter is very arrogant and demands power. He seems proud of his status as "High King" and unlike in the book, seems to want to reclaim his throne, rather than help Caspian claim HIS throne.

Susan fights all during the movie in a very feminist manner, including dive-bombing the Telmarine castle on gryphons. I've never liked Susan very much, even in the books, and the way she was portrayed in both of the Narnia movies so far just disgusts me. I have a lack of respect for Anna Popplewell's acting and everything in the movie annoyed me. Especially how the romance between her and Caspian was played up. She kisses him at the end and I was nearly gagging. Don't get me wrong, occaisionally I enjoy romance, but this... ugh. Anyway. Moving on.....

Actually, not moving on. Now I have to rant about how the romance ruins Caspian before I move on to what else I hated about Caspian. I'm so mad that they made Caspian appear to be in love with Susan. Now I won't be happy in Voyage of the Dawn Treader when Caspian marries Ramandu's daughter, because it will seem like he's being unfaithful to Susan, even if she does drive me crazy. Augh, I can't believe how terrible this all is. I am SO glad that Andrew Adamson won't be doing any more Narnia movies!

So anyway, the rest of what I hated about Caspian. Oh, wait, changed my mind. What I liked will be a shorter list, and therefore easier to write. I actually kinda liked Ben Barnes' acting. Amazingly enough. But I didn't like him as Caspian. I like how he looked. He looks like I wanted Caspian to look. I liked his accent. And I liked when he meets Aslan for the first time, and Peter, Susan, Edmund and he are kneeling and Aslan says, "Rise, kings and queens of Narnia" and Caspian remains kneeling. That was cool. And that's all I liked about Caspian.

I absolutely loved Edmund. That's the good thing about this movie: as much as it made me hate Peter and Susan, it doesn't really matter because they aren't in Voyage anyway. Edmund was awesome. I loved that he helped Peter in his fight, even if the fight was stupid, and I loved when he stabbed the ice that the White Witch was in, and I loved his line after he destroyed the Witch to Peter "I know, you had it sorted" (Peter was gazing at the witch in spellbound stupidity). Skandar Keynes did a great job with his part. And I was ecstatic at the end when they included my VERY favorite line from all the books "Bother, I left my new torch in Narnia!"

Lucy still kinda irritates me. I don't like Georgie Henley. But I liked Lucy much better in this movie, and I anticipate liking her even better in Voyage. She was really cute when the Telmarine army was marching over the bridge of Beruna, and she stood at the other side with her tiny little dagger held up like a sword.

I'm wildly excited about Reepicheep!!!! He was sooooooo perfect!! I've never seen a picture in the books or anything that perfectly captured how I imagined him, but they really did it. He was exactly right. Absolutely perfect. (Infinitely better than the horribly huge costume in the BBC version... *choke*) Everything about him was PERFECT. And they included the bit about his tail, which I had been so scared they would leave out.

I hated that they had a battle at the Telmarine castle (which was a huge failure and made Peter look like an idiot) before having the battle after the duel. I liked how they did the duel. That was pretty cool. The battle afterwards was ridiculous though. There were hardly any Narnians and tons of Telmarine troops and yet somehow the Narnians weren't wiped out.

But as long as I just try to forget about everything that I hated, it's so nice to finally have the perfect image of Reep, and I really liked Edmund. So hopefully, Voyage of the Dawn Treader (which is my favorite book) will be good. I trust Michael Apted to do a good job. (You can't imagine my disgust when I found out that the director of 'Shrek' was going to do Narnia. I hate Shrek.) I think it's set up perfectly for Michael Apted to refresh the series.

~Lizzie

King Kong *spoiler warning*

Greatly against my wishes, my family decided to watch King Kong as our family movie today. I didn't even want to begin watching it because I know Kong dies at the end, but Sarah talked me into it, promising that I could always watch all of it except for the end and then create my own ending like I always do for movies that I don't like. So I consented, and tried to eat my pizza as the movie got worse and worse.

First creepy natives tried to sacrifice the girl (that NEVER happens in Jane Austen!) to Kong and then she escapes, and discovers a huge lizard thing that tries to eat her... but instead the lizard thing is eaten by a T-Rex. And then the T-Rex goes after the girl, and 2 more Rexes magically appear and then are fought by Kong... who just finished killing and injuring the rescuers. The surviving rescuers are in the bottom of a ravine, being attacked by huge spiders. Then ginormous cock-roaches appear. When slimy wormy things started attacking them and the cock-roaches plastered themselves all over guy that the girl is in love with, I decided that I'd seen enough. Read: I ran out of the room.

I did go back long enough to discover that the movie has a whole hour left! *shudders* Ooooh, I can feel the cock-roaches crawling on me. Augh!! There's nothing I hate worse than not finishing a movie. Even now with how creeped out I am, I feel the draw.... I'm being pulled downstairs... Ahhh!!! Help! I. Will. Resist. *deep breaths*

*cringe* I'm scarred...... *shudder*

~Lizzie

Amazingly enough.

The snake that was under our piano came out this morning. He must have been really hungry. Anyway, we caught him and dumped him in the woods outside. I can't believe he was in our living room for 9 days! I really thought he was dead.

Except for that slightly disturbing occurrence today was exactly the kind of not-rushed and lazy fun that every Saturday should be. I didn't really enjoy the rain however, even though I'm glad we're getting it. I didn't get up til 9, Sarah and I dropped Joel off at baseball practice and then went shopping. We got back to pick him up, watched a practice game in the rain (I got wet.... and cold..) and went home, had lunch, went to Comedy Cafe, came home, watched The Transporter and now I'm going to read Emma.

I'm sure you were all desperate to know how my day was. Unfortunately, I can't think of anything more interesting to write about, so that'll have to be it for now.

~Lizzie