Saving Mr. Banks

Wednesday, 15 January 2014Thursday, 16 January 2014 StarrLeave a comment

I watched Saving Mr. Banks during the week of Christmas. It was a highly anticipated film for Disnerds like myself. I was excited for a few things:

The first on-screen portrayal of Walt Disney ever
By none other than Tom Hanks
50th anniversary of Mary Poppins
Great cast
DISNEY MOVIE

I was a little concerned that this movie would be really biased. PL Travers infamously hated what Disney did with Mary Poppins and, when the musical version was made, refused to allow anyone who was involved with the Disney film contribute AND refused to have any Americans, only British contributors. Disney did a few things that went directly against what she wanted and some things that were rude, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that they actually included many of these things in the film.

Needless to say, this was an extraordinarily touching movie, especially if you really loved Mary Poppins and/or if you’re interested in Walt Disney the man himself. I started tearing up at the very beginning when they played the vintage Walt Disney Pictures opening screen.

I want to say this before I forget to mention it, but Colin Farrell was fantastic in his role as Travers Goff. He was such an endearing character, the father who loved his daughter so much, so kind, bringing so much magic into her life. The promos really focused on Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson, and for good reason, but I really wish that Colin Farrell got some more credit for the amazing job that he did. I loved his portrayal of his character, and I became really emotionally attached to Travers Goff, which I knew was dangerous since I already knew going into he film that he was an alcoholic. So of course, his character made me cry.

I was surprised by how much I liked Paul Giamatti‘s character in this movie. He played Ralph, Pamela Travers’s chauffeur while she was in California. I don’t love the roles that he usually plays, but I really liked him here. Again, very endearing. You kind of understand why Pamela is annoyed by him, but you want to like him, too. The friendship that blossoms between the two of them is beautiful and, of course, made me cry.

Emma Thompson played Pamela Travers, um… perfectly. She was absolutely wonderful. She played this very difficult person in a way that made you still like her. Even as she put Mickey Mouse in a corner (the horror!) you still loved her and kind of shrugged and nodded like, “Yeah that’s understandable if you don’t love Mickey, sure”. She is so great and the emotional ride you go on with Pamela Travers, who doesn’t show too much emotion throughout the film, made me — you guessed it! — cry a lot.

It would be rude for me to talk about this film without mentioning Tom Hanks, who played the first portrayal of Walter Elias Disney in a mainstream film. He plays the Disney that, of course, Disney the company wants you see: he’s charming and there’s a magical air about him. He sees the world differently. He is a man shaped by a cruel childhood, and he found solace in a mouse, who helped him prevent other children from having quite as cruel childhoods. Tom was a great choice for this role and he played it so well. (Yes, I cried at Tom Hanks also.)

I was rather surprised with the casting choice of BJ Novak and Jason Schwartzman as the Sherman brothers, but I really liked them in their roles. I’m so used to seeing them in comedies so this was refreshing to see. They stepped up and did well in their roles.

I’ll wrap up this post with a bulleted list of things I loved about this film. There are some spoilers, so please be forewarned. Another spoiler alert: a lot of these things made me cry.

I highly recommend this film. It was beautiful and, yes, made me cry tears of joy and sorrow and nostalgia and oh there were so many feelings. A must-see for any fan of Mary Poppins, Walt Disney, and Disney films.Read More »

2013 in Film

Wednesday, 1 January 2014Friday, 3 January 2014 Starr2 Comments

It’s time for my annual round-up of films that were released this year that I saw. (2012 here) It was a lot fewer than I usually see. The fall-winter season saw a marked decrease in theater visits, aside from my holiday between Christmas and the new year, where I saw 3 movies at the theater in one single week.

KEY:
Without denotation = seen in theaters
* = seen on Netflix/some other service (e.g. Redbox, Amazon)
** = seen on a plane/ship

These are listed in order of the release dates as provided by Wikipedia.
However, it is not the order in which I watched them. I did not enjoy all of these films, but oh well!

The Grandmaster
Movie 43*
21 and Over*
Jack the Giant Slayer**
Oz the Great and Powerful**
Olympus Has Fallen
Iron Man 3
Star Trek Into Darkness
The Great Gatsby
Fast & Furious 6
Now You See Me
The Internship
This is the End*
The Heat
Coffee Town
Thor: The Dark World
Saving Mr. Banks
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
The Wolf of Wall Street

Total = 19.

Which 2013 releases do you think I should still try to see?

If you would like to know whether I’d recommend any of the movies I watched, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and I’ll try to keep it brief with a yes or a no. 🙂

Ride Along (2014)

Saturday, 9 November 2013Saturday, 20 December 2014 StarrLeave a comment

In addition to seeing an advanced screening of Thor: The Dark World (which I really hope all of you get a chance to see very soon!), I also got to see an extra advanced screening of Ride Along, as well as almost touch Ice Cube, the star, and Will Packer, the producer.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SRSLY I ALMOST TOUCHED HIM IT WAS AMAZING.

Ice Cube and Will Packer are currently screening this movie for a college tour they’re doing. The premise is that Kevin Hart’s character is a security guard who wants to be a cop and wants to marry Ice Cube’s character’s sister. Ice Cube also happens to be a tough cop who doesn’t approve of goofy Kevin Hart.

This movie was HILARIOUS. I did not expect to like it that much at all, but I laughed really hard. I’m not going to give it the same glowing recommendation as I do other movies, but if you like Kevin Hart and/or Ice Cube, this is DEFINITELY a good movie to check out.

Reasons to see this movie:

You like to laugh.
You like Ice Cube.
You like Kevin Hart.
You’re a gamer (especially one who plays shooters)
You like opposites-attract buddy cop movies (e.g. The Other Guys, The Heat)

Lots of laughs, but you’ll have to wait until January for this one.

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Wednesday, 6 November 2013Saturday, 20 December 2014 Starr2 Comments

I had the privilege and opportunity to attend an advanced screening of Thor: The Dark World (henceforth referred to as either Thor 2 or TDW) on Monday. I was extremely excited because I really like the Marvel films, I’m a fan of Hemsworth as Thor, and I’m a huuuuuuuuge fan of Tom Hiddleston as Loki. (Hiddlestoners, holla at me!)

SPOILER-FREE

Thor 2 was what I thought it would be. It had a bunch of really terrific action scenes, but I felt more impressed than usual with the visuals. Absolutely stunning visuals. The colors, the landscapes, the stars… it was pretty breathtakingly gorgeous at times. My favorite scene, visually, was the funeral scene. This spectacular funeral scene is the kind that inspired the Viking funerals you remember learning about in school. This scene was set to a perfect score and I really had my breath taken away.

A little sneak peak of the gorgeous scene (Courtesy of TotalFilm.com)

I still don’t really understand the relationship between Jane Foster and Thor, and by don’t understand, I mean I don’t think there are any grounds for it. Their chemistry and relationship sprouted out of seemingly nothing in the last film, and their love seems to be a huge factor in this film. This would be okay if I believed in it even a little bit.

Kat Dennings as comic relief Darcy was funny, but I felt like the writers tried a little too hard to squeeze more laughs out of her after she was popularly received by audiences in the first film. I laughed each time, but I didn’t like that there was SO much comic relief from Darcy.

However, this movie definitely had a lot of great comic moments. Loki plays up his God of Mischief title well. We get some nutty Stellan Skarsgård. I laughed a good deal throughout Thor 2, and I have to commend the screenwriters for that.

I was a little upset about 2 things.

The recasting of Fandral. Josh Dallas, of whom I am a big big fan, played Fandral in the first film and was pretty great. If you watch some of the deleted scenes, you see how he channeled Errol Flynn for the role. He wasn’t able to reprise the role because of Once Upon a Time (my current favorite TV show!) so they cast Zachary Levi. Now I like him, and he was actually the original choice for Fandral and had to pull out because of Chuck (I loved that show). But I missed Josh, and, not going to lie, Zach looks kinda funny with blond hair and a beard. 😛
The benching of Hogun. We have a grand total of one Asian character in this franchise right now. In the first film, Hogun is already the silent, brooding type. His lines are few and in-between, even among the other Warriors Three, who don’t have many lines or screen time for the film. At the beginning of TDW, Thor saves Vanaheim and tells Hogun to stay there with his people. Effectively, this means that Hogun only appears in this scene and then he has sliver of screentime towards the end. Meanwhile, the other Warriors and Sif are pretty cool in this film, but Hogun is left out of the fun.
This is kind of frustrating to me, as you can tell. There are so few people of color in the Marvel movies, sometimes, so it is frustrating that the one Asian one is told to stay home for the film. Why??

“You should be with your people… and have as little screentime as possible.”

I really really liked this movie. While the plot itself wasn’t terribly compelling, here is a quick bulleted list of reasons I think you should see this film:

Christopher Eccleston plays our villain, for fans of the Ninth Doctor. It was nice to see him, as I haven’t seen him since I finished watching series 1 of DW.
There is a cameo appearance by my favorite Avenger and it makes me feel happy and warm inside.
Loki, ’nuff said.
Thor, also ’nuff said.
Gorgeous visuals, as mentioned earlier
Great action sequences
Women taking names and kicking butt (namely Frigga and Sif)
Plenty of laughs
Tears also, if you cry easily at movies like I do.

In short, DEFINITELY try to see this! You don’t have to see it in 3D or anything, but it’s a great addition to the Marvel film collection.

SOME SPOILERS BELOW

Big Apple Recap (… Rec-apple?)

Thursday, 10 October 2013Wednesday, 19 March 2014 StarrLeave a comment

(Sorry about that pun, I had to try!)

This past weekend, I took a little weekend getaway with my boyfriend back to my native metropolis of New York. I was born and raised in New Jersey, and I will always love the city. My boyfriend really wanted me to share my love for the city with him, so off we went on Thursday.

OKAY I need to say something about BoltBus. Now I have heard a lot of good things about them, but it was my first time riding with Bolt to go up to New York. It was good and very timely but DANG, the air conditioning was blasting onto me the entire trip and I was fuh-reeeeezing. Seriously, they need to fix that. Way too cold. The entire wall of the bus was cold, so I had to lean away from the side of the bus and cover the vent with my jacket, because wearing my jacket didn’t really keep me warm when there was air blasting at me. 😦

OKAY SO. (Links to my reviews included.)
We stayed at the adorably Irish Fitzpatrick Grand Central. (Seriously. So Irish. So adorable.) Very comfortable stay, and the location was great. We were only a few blocks away from the Halal Guys cart at 53rd and 6th, so we were pretty much golden.

I saw my old friend from elementary school, Connie, for dinner that evening. It was really nice catching up with her, and I was really relieved seeing her. I remember the last time I saw her having nothing to say… so it was nice to feel like we didn’t have enough time to say everything we needed to say. We ate at Baohaus because Max Brenner is closed for renovation. 😦 Then we headed literally around the corner to try Momofuku Milk Bar, since I’ve heard soooo much about David Chang and his Momofuku restaurants and the cereal milk and the crack pie. (Verdict: Okay, not worth the hype though.) Then we just chilled in Union Square for a little bit before she headed off to go back home.

2013-09-26 20.09.03 — Connie and I have been friends for nearly 16 years, how is that possible??

We walked to the High Line, which is one of my favorite places in the city. I think it’s just so nice to be above all the craziness, plus I love the urban design of the park, which used to be part of a railroad line. There’s a bunch of plants and sculptures and great views up there. It was nice to visit with my boyfriend this time, because it is definitely a very romantic place? And almost exclusively visited by couples. The last time (and first time) I visited, it was with some of my bros. Hahahaha awkward.

Then we decided we’d just walk back to midtown, taking a little detour through Times Square so that Ben could see what was what. I spent a very long time in the Disney Store because I’m a pretty big Disney geek. It was a wee bit frustrating for me, mostly because Ben’s childhood is suspiciously devoid of Disney. He asked me such absurd-to-me questions as:
– Is Goofy Disney?
– That looks like Mary Poppins, but she’s not Disney, right?
– What’s this from, Hunchback of Notre Dame? (Pointing at BELLE in the Beauty and the Beast section of the store.) (He reasoned that both stories were the same thing. Ugly guy, pretty girl. WOW SO MUCH WRONG.)
Basically, if you imagine me staring at him slack-jawed and then slamming my palm into my face, you’d be right.

We then went off for chicken & rice at the Halal Guys’ famous cart at 53rd & 6th and walked back to our hotel, where Ben was blown away by how yummy the food was. Duh, I would never lead you astray.

The next day, we slept in. This is a big deal for me because I’m the kind of person who tries to squeeze as much fun into a vacation as possible. But Ben is the kind of person who likes to sleep in and laze around. It was pretty relaxing to try it out this way, not gonna lie, and I go to the city so often that I have no need to rush around. We went off to go eat lunch at Ippudo Westside (amazing service, seriously). Then, we headed off toward Central Park, making a stop at Columbus Circle and wander around the Shops in the Time Warner Center. We walked about and enjoyed the truuuuuly nice weather we were having.

I got a bit silly while Ben was working out dinner detail on the phone.

We were going to meet Ben’s old roommate and his girlfriend for dinner, so we started down 5th Ave to do some casual shopping and for me to point out some key spots. Stopped by Uniqlo but I get super overwhelmed by stores on that scale. (e.g. the Forever21 in Times Square, the H&M on 5th Ave…) But I had fun shopping around, looking at things, before we headed down to St. Mark’s for dinner.

I had eaten the Korean fried chicken (aka KFC) at Boka before, and I was trying to not let it bug the bejeezus out of me that Ben’s roommate didn’t want to make reservations for us on a Friday night… I figured it he wanted drinks, I’d just take us to this Korean bar for wings and watermelon soju. (They serve it in a watermelon!) We ate, I grabbed some bubble tea, and we sat around in Washington Square Park for a bit before heading our separate ways.

Ben and I went back through Times Square, where I went back to the Disney Store and ultimately bought 2 things:

I got this T-shirt because a) it was one of the FEW things on sale due to the fact that b) it is a limited edition Artist’s Series Snow White T-shirt. They only had it in large and 2XL… but I bought the large because I did like it and it is a limited edition. I don’t know any fancy tricks to make it fit my body better, so I’ve only worn it underneath blazers and cardigans so far.

I figured since this is the Manhattan Disney Store, I should get something that shows my love of my favorite city and of the Mouse himself, so I grabbed this tumbler. I don’t know when is best to use it, but I liked the design a lot. I would’ve gotten a T-shirt if the ones I liked came in smaller sizes. (Why were all the shirts either an L or a 2XL??) (Or ugly?)

Grabbed some more chicken & rice on our way back to our hotel and got some sleep in preparation for our final day in the city.

We headed BACK down to the East Village again (again) to eat brunch with some of my friends I knew in high school. We ate at Yuca, this trendy tapas place with a pretty yummy brunch menu, and chatted about some random stuff. I’m glad my friend Albert was able to make it because he helped add a little more energy to our otherwise sleepy Saturday morning. Then we rounded the corner to hit up the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, which I’ve heard a lot of hype about, too. Good ice cream, good drag queen.

2013-09-28 13.40.53 — Albert, myself, and Willis

Ben and I then headed for Chinatown, where we walked around a bit and got a quick bite to eat at XO Kitchen (recommend!). I was able to walk along the Brooklyn Bridge after, which I’ve never actually been able to do before! That was pretty fun, although it was a much longer walk than I anticipated, just trying to get halfway across the bridge. Ultimately, we had to turn back so that could catch our bus back to DC.

I had a great time, and even though I was being really difficult about the planning, I am super glad that I was able to relax and attempt going with the flow with Ben. I saw some old friends, I got some Disney swag, I ate delicious food, I got to spend time in my favorite city. It was a great trip.