New Moon Fever

I love that the whole Western World seems to have gone crazy for New Moon. Our local cinema sold out all the

showings a week before the film opened and added double the screens on opening night and sold them out in hours. Everyone I know is talking about it.

We’ve blogged the books and the first movie, Twilight, so it seems only right that I continue the tradition. And it helps that New Moon is epic.

This time around we have a new director, a hotter, buffer Taylor Lautner (playing Jacob Black) and a now world famous Rob Pattinson. It helps that both of these gentlemen spend a good portion of the film with their shirts removed. Thank you. I would also like to add that this blog entry is merely an excuse to post hot pictures of the aforementioned gentlemen.

Twilight has its moments of being good, but New Moon is genuinely exciting. The moment that Jacob (spoiler alert!) goes from being all goofy, long haired kid to super hot, intense werewolf man is very hot. Almost everyone I know is now Team Jacob which would have meant nothing to anyone a year ago.

Don’t get me wrong, guys will hate this film; but if you’re a female who is easily sucked into the latest fad (such as myself), then you’ve probably already seen New Moon, and are probably seeing it again. Soon.

Posted By: Cat

(500) Days of Summer

My friends tease me because although we watch a lot of movies, I rarely find one that I love. I like a lot of movies, but there’s always something which ruins it for me – an unbelievable plot twist, an annoying character, an unnaturally happy ending – it seems I can’t be pleased. Two movies lately though, I have loved. One was Up! Which I got to see in Spain before it’s released here in the UK in October. And one I saw last night, (500) Days of Summer.

Everything about this film was perfect for me. It was quirky and different with its non-chronological storytelling and direction. Zooey Deschanel is appealing, even though she continues to play the same character in every movie she’s been in. What I really loved though, was Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It was great to see him in something cute and endearing instead of dark and unravelling. I’ve liked a lot of his work, Brick especially, but in this he was adorable. He can look so in love that it makes your heart flutter, and then when

he’s playing heartbroken, it makes you think of every time you’ve had it happen to you. On a side note, the wardrobe department sure know how to make him look amazing in a handsomely dorky kind of way.

It may not be the intellectual film of the decade, but it’s really enjoyable and I

loved it. See it if you get a chance, it’s real, funny and wonderful.

Posted By: Cat

The Black Balloon

The Black Balloon is small Australian indie film that borrows from What's Eating Gilbert Grape, and has amazing performances from Toni Collette, Rhys Wakefield and Luke Ford. 

The film follows Thomas (played by Wakefield) as he adjusts to moving to a new town while coping with a disabled brother who suffers from autism and ADHD. His Mother is pregnant, and Thomas must help out with his brother's care when she is put on bed rest. On top of all this, he is struggling his way through first love with Jackie (Gemma Ward). 

The Black Balloon is funny, heartbreaking, intelligent and absorbing. Just like Gilbert Grape, Thomas struggles with the anger he feels toward his brother and himself for feeling such a way. I was completely absorbed with their world and loved the quirky nineties nostalgia the film has. 

Toni Collette is outstanding in everything she does, and this is no exception. I was very surprised by Rhys Wakefield, Home and Away never showed his potential as a good actor and I'm really excited to see how he develops. Luke Ward is so compelling as the autistic Charlie that it's hard to believe that he's acting. 

See the film. Its why small films should be made.

Visit the website: http://www.theblackballoonmovie.com/
Buy the movie: The Black Balloon

Posted By: Cat

Robert Pattinson in Twilight

Every Wednesday, my friend Katie and I go and see a shit film. It’s our tradition and we usually pick pretty bad ones; The Women, House Bunny, Mamma Mia... the list goes on.

So last week we saw Twilight. We’d seen the trailer and it looked awful. I hadn't read the books, but knew about the whole Twilight fandom phenomenon from Nicci and from being alive with access to the internet - its everywhere. I knew that Cedric Diggory from Harry Potter was the leading man. I also thought that he was pretty fugly. In fact Katie referred to him as ‘Guffy McGee’. See for yourself:


The movie started. It was bad. There was a lot of blue steel-esque stares and annoying twitchy acting from Kristen Stewert. Pattinson was fug.

Then something happened.


All of a sudden, Edward Cullen was hot. So hot in fact, that Katie and I were having trouble containing our giggly assertion that Robert Pattinson was the hottest thing we’d seen in quite some time. I have never wanted to be bitten by a vampire as much as I did while watching that movie. The build-up to their kiss was excruciating, the pay off, steamy.


My brother called me when the film was done and I couldn’t concentrate on talking to him. Katie and I told all our friends that they needed to see the movie, if only for the hotness. Let’s not kid ourselves, the movie is still bad (flame away Twilight lovers, I dare you).

I got home and ordered the first two books. They arrived yesterday and I’ve already finished Twilight and am halfway through New Moon. Nicci has already blogged about them, but I can confirm they are like crack. I Googled Pattinson and thankfully, he had returned to his fugly ways. Was it just the vampire thing I found so attractive? The forbidden quality of it all? Then he went and cut his hair.

Hot.

Posted By: Cat

Nick and Nora’s Infinite playlist

Sometimes living in England sucks. We get everything late; movies, TV, music....why? Are we the slow, inbred cousins of the yanks who produce all the big hitters? No, we are the country whose empire once stretched as far as the other side of the world then back again. So why do we have to wait forever to watch the movies out now in the US? It’s not fair.

I am really looking forward to seeing ‘Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist’. It stars my crush, Michael Cera. Its about a guy getting over his first love, who meets a girl that could be his next....

The trailer looks awesome, the reviews are good, so why do I have to wait until January to watch it? Boo!

Posted By: Cat

Films with Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling is but a young man, with the career that many of his peers would kill to have. I always love his movies, purely because of his brilliant performances.

The Notebook:  We all know that that seminal moment in a relationship is when you ‘notebook’ your boyfriend. It’s also a guarantee lay for any guy who agrees to watch it. It’s cheesy, it’s contrived, but its romance at its best. Ryan Gosling is believable as the strong but silent Noah and it made us all squee like teens when it appeared he and co-star Rachel McAdams were dating off screen.

United States of Leland: Gosling plays teen Leland who murders his damaged girlfriend’s mentally challenged brother. There seems to be no motive and young offenders teacher Don Cheadle tries to understand what led placid Leland to murder in cold blood while mining material for his latest book. Gosling completes the task of being sympathetic, but complex and introverted; making the audience root for Leland even though he’s done a despicable thing.

Half Nelson: Earning Gosling his first Oscar nomination, this role was a classic indie about a crack addicted teacher of underprivileged kids. Shareepa Epps is the student who sees his problem and tries to help and the two form a bond that borders on inappropriate. Gosling again plays a complex character who tries to do right even though his addiction suggests hypocrisy.

Lars and the Real Girl: My favourite Gosling movie, this is quirky and sweet. Lars lives in the garage while his brother and his pregnant wife beg him to move into the house left to them by their deceased father. Lars is lonely until Bianca comes into his life, fresh from a specialist internet site for ‘dolls who feel real’. The issue is that Lars believes Bianca is real and converses with her, while everyone else can see that she’s quite obviously a sophisticated sex toy. Continuing along his line of interesting choices, Gosling shines as the hermit who gradually sees his horizons expanded with the help of the towns acceptance of Bianca. 

Posted By: Cat

Step Up 2 The Streets

Step Up 2 The Streets is just recently out on DVD in the UK. I saw this movie twice at the cinema, and I have no good reason for it...apart from the fact that it’s awesome!

For a long time I was telling my friends we were seeing Step Up 2 (colon) The Streets, then one of them pointed out the ridiculously clever point that if you say it all at once, it becomes Step Up to the Streets. My appreciation only grew.

If you’ve seen Step Up, then you’ve seen Step Up 2, just replace Channing Tatum (hotness!) with Briana Evigan. That girl can dance way better than Channing though! Throw in some misfits who just happen to have moves that Justin Timberlake would kill for, and you have the funnest movie of the year.

If nothing else, just rent it for the dance sequence finale. Dancing in the rain may be a cliché, but when you’re doing it to a mash up of hip hops beats with hoodies and sexy heavy breathing then how can you go wrong?

Hotness rating: 3 (out of 5) – Channing shows up for about five minutes to dance to T-Pain in a huge t-shirt, other than that you have to make do with Robert Hoffman. Of course, if that’s making do, I’ll make do any time.

Posted By: Cat

WALL-E

My heart broke about seven times in the first half hour of Wall-E.

Humans have left the Earth in a mess and blasted off into space to let robots clean up their mess. Poor Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth-class) is the only one still clocking in daily and is accompanied only by his pet cockroach. He breaks the monotony of compacting rubbish all day by collecting treasures in a lunch box he fixes to a hook on his back each morning and each night, hauls his finds back to his Aladdin’s cave and shelves them by category –but where does the spork go, with the forks or the spoons?

Soon enough, Wall-E’s simple existence is interrupted by EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator).She has been sent by the mother ship to access whether photosynthesis has begun again on Earth, in the hope of answering the fundamental question of ‘can life be sustained on Earth again’. For Wall-E, its love at first blast, when EVE tries to blow him up...three times. Soon, she’s back at Wall-E’s checking out his rubix cube, light bulbs and ipod video playing the old movie Hello, Dolly!. It’s when Wall-E shows her the green shoot he’s placed in a boot for safe keeping that the action starts.

I can’t understand how Wall-E is a kids film. Yes, it has a cute robot in it, but the underlying themes are rather political in nature. We have destroyed Earth because of our need for convenience. In space, humans have become fat lumps with no bone definition and no idea of life outside their hover chair. Their lack of exercise over the years means they can no longer walk as we do, let alone sit up without the help of a robot. They go through life with a computer screen in front of their faces, slurping huge drinks. They talk over IM instead of face to face while on a five year cruise that’s lasted seven hundred years.

Is it hypocritical for Disney to be preaching to us? Probably, but this is about the little robot that could, not globalisation and the death of human interaction!

The real treat of this movie is Wall-E’s courtship with EVE. The little moments they share in the first dialogue-free thirty minutes are heart warming and beautiful. Anyone who has yearned to hold another’s hand will see a little of themselves in Wall-E, who never gives up on EVE. It’s a love story that the kids won’t appreciate, but that I thought was just perfect.

Hotness rating: 0 – he’s a robot.

Posted By: Cat