Little Talks

[Warning: Possible Spoilers] Honestly, I thought it was called Bad Neighbours , but according to my dear friend, Google, that is the movie's title outside of North America. I'm guessing then that I learned the title while watching Zac Efron and Seth Rogen on the Graham Norton show. First thing you should know: this movie is full of explicit content aka "adult humor." I don't mind this, but ironically, I find an over abundance of these jokes to be somewhat childish. Second thing you should know: there is a really cute family element to this film. Mac and Kelly, recently new parents to a little girl, Stella, are trying to find a balance between the fun and partying of their old lifestyle and the responsibility of having a child. They are resisting the eventuality that they will becoming boring people whose lives revolve around their baby. But they still want to be good parents. And then the Delta Psi fraternity moves into the house next door, and a feud forms. They

I am super excited this week because, after talking with my best friend last night, I was inspired to write once again. It has been ages since I have had the drive or the ideas. My best friend is great because she pushes me to come up with ideas even when I think I have none. She can fish out all of the creativity hiding out in the back of my mind. When I started writing, all of my work was done in collaboration with her. Now, she is my support system, my encouragement, and my biggest fan as I strive to become a published author. I only hope that I can be the same for her. I hope that if anyone out there is an aspiring writer who is feeling stuck right now, that you might find the motivation to push through that and keep writing. Just write as often as you can, even if you think it's no good. Get the bad ideas out, and the good ones will come eventually. They always do. What do you find helpful when you get writer's block?

Well I had a weekend with my girls where we just binged a bunch of stupid-funny movies, but I think we all got a little tired of them by the end. Nonetheless, I have now seen a whole selection of these light-hearted, somewhat inappropriate films. The first is Wedding Crashers . As I begin to write this post, I realize that the plot is simple and rather predictable. Two friends, John and Jeremy, crash weddings to find women. They attend the biggest social event of the season, the wedding of the Treasury Secretary's daughter, and set their sights on her sisters. Except, John breaks a rule and falls for Claire. As a result, the men must keep up the lie they created while joining the family for a weekend at their estate. Jeremy is frustrated with his friend, and scared off by his clingy new girlfriend, Gloria. John, on the other hand, must compete with Claire's current boyfriend. John finds out that Sack, the boyfriend, really isn't a nice guy: he cheats, and he was only inter

[Warning: Spoilers] And we're back to our regularly scheduled programming. Today's movie is The Watcher. A thriller/suspense film more than a horror movie, The Watcher tells the story of retired FBI agent Joel Campbell. Having moved from LA to Chicago, he is going through therapy after his last case. He seems to struggle with mental and physical side effects, presumably from PTSD. He is withdrawn, and doesn't share much, even with his therapist, Polly. He also exhibits symptoms that seem like withdrawal. He becomes weak, he has a lot of headaches, and sometimes gets sick to his stomach. One day a young woman in his apartment building is killed. Joel rarely checks his mail, but as he finally goes through the growing pile, he finds a picture of the victim that had arrived three days prior. Thus, he alerts the local police. They decide that it is the same killer that he had last been chasing in Los Angeles, but he turns down the FBI's request to have him return to the

[Warning: Spoilers | Also not advised for children] As it turns out, my blog list was missing several movies from my horror marathon with my friends. Along with The Midnight Meat Train , I forgot American Psycho . We figured that this was one of the classics, but it was not what any of us were expecting. We kept confusing it with the classic Psycho . It turned out that we actually knew nothing about the story. Patrick Bateman is a middle-class, American businessman. His life is the ideal. He strives for a perfect appearance, and has a friendly demeanour, but the soul seems completely absent from the shell that is Parrick Bateman. He himself makes comments about being emotionless, hollow, and robotic. All that matters to Patrick is keeping up appearances. He wants to be the best businessman in his office. He is engaged, but it seems that this is only because it is respectable for a man of his age and class. He is having an affair with his fiancé's best friend, since he thinks his fi

I've decided that these posts might be more interesting, for all of us, if I share some thoughts or updates with you all. First, I want to tell you about what happened when my family was watching TV earlier. A shoe commercial came on, showing a woman's feet while she walked up a stack of old books. My sister said she really liked the shoes, and I suddenly realized that I didn't know what the shoes looked like because I was paying more attention to the books. So that tells you what kind of people we are. Well, right now - just like everyone else in the world - I am reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I figured that it was only fitting to share a Harry Potter quote. I love this quotation because it inspires us to step beyond our circumstances to become what we know we can be, rather than what others believe we are. This statement is also extremely significant for the eighth book. Believe it or not, this has a great spiritual message too. Even though we are bo

[Warning: Spoilers | Also not advised for children] I am finally getting close to current on my blog list (things I want to write blogs on), which is both exciting and scary. Once I catch up, I'm not sure what I'll write about. We'll have to wait and see. However, what I noticed is that The   Midnight Meat Train  was missing from the list. I'm just unsure of whether leaving it off was accidental or intentional on my part. I don't recall. But I figured that since I blog about every movie I see that I should include this one. Warning: it's an odd one. You may have noticed an increasing amount of horror movies in my recent blogs, and you will see more to come. My sister and best friend have decided that this is our new thing, and we watch horror films almost every time we get together now. But we don't really know what's good. This one said it started Bradley Cooper and Brooke Shields, so it seemed promising. I'm not sure if this was the right choice, t

[Warning: Spoilers] Based on the Stephanie Meyer novel of the same name, The Host  tells the story of a future in which an alien species, having conquered (or perhaps the better word is re-colonized) most other planets, have come to earth. These aliens, called Souls, are unique in that they need a host body, since their form is like a large, silvery centipede, but almost more fluid. The main characters in the story are Melanie, a girl who fought to escape the invasion, and Wanderer, the alien who is placed in her body. Melanie is strong and she fights to stay alive and to get back control of her own body. The girls (Wanderer and Melanie) fight, but ultimately learn to get along. Once Melanie is taken, the Souls attempt to use Wanderer to locate the rebel community of humans to which Mel belonged. However, Wanderer (aka Wanda) runs away to join the people, who she knows to be the only real family she or Mel might have. The Souls continue to hunt her and the hidden society of rebels, and

Based on a Roald Dahl book, this movie is understandably quirky and sweet, and perhaps a little freaky. Matilda is the unwanted second child to Harry and Zinnia Wormwood. Her father is a car salesman who scams his customers, and her mother spends her days at the bingo hall. Her brother is a spoiled brat, but her parents ignore her. They care so little that they don't even know how old she is and they leave her home alone as soon as she is big enough to walk and (sort of) take care of her self. Luckily, she is a genius child. At the age of three, she discovers books and spends every day at the library, bringing home wagon-loads of novels, and she falls in love with reading. When she is old enough to go to school, her parents reluctantly send her to Crunchum Hall Elementary where there is a scary and downright nasty headmistress, Mrs. Trunchbull. The woman hates children, but Matilda's teacher is the opposite: sweet, encouraging, and loving towards her kids. The teacher, Miss Ho

[Warning: May Contain Spoilers] I had no idea what to expect from this movie. The commercials didn't indicate much about the plot, and the concept of an all-animal human-esque world seemed interesting, but it was hard to know what Disney was going to do with the idea. I began this movie with reasonable optimism. I figured it had to be decent since it was Disney, and because if all the hype being built up around it. But this was the first of their movies to have no human characters, and somehow that made me curious and perhaps a little hesitant about the potential storyline. So for anyone who hasn't seen it, and who may have been just as unsure a I was about what to expect, let me tell you what this movie is about: Judy Hopps has always had dreams of being a police officer, but everyone tries to discourage her because she is a rabbit. She is small and sweet, but when her friend is being bullied by a young fox, she takes him on. Years later, she successfully becomes the fi

So I found two quotations to share today, because I saw them both and couldn't decide which better communicated my feelings. I think the message is even better when you put them together, anyways.

[Warning: Spoilers] The Shining is one of those classic horror films, a Stephen King story of course, and so it seemed like a movie that needed to be watched. The concept of this movie is basic enough, but it was actually a little confusing. I found myself constantly screaming or asking questions. It was not what I expected from a classic horror film, but I'm starting to think that what I assumed was the "classic" format doesn't really exist. So the movie focuses on a family of three. Dad Jack gets a new job as the caretaker of a hotel in the mountains that is closed during the winter, so they live there in their own and keep up maintenance. This means that the only other people there are his wife and son, Wendy and Danny. Based on the manager's comments, the hotel has, at least once in its past, driven the caretaker crazy. Several years back, the man killed his own family, and the ghosts of his young daughters are later seen by Danny. Danny, as well as the cook f

[Warning: Major Spoilers] This is the story of a medical student, Gabby, who moves into her new place next to an annoying neighbour and his troublesome dog. She believes his dog got hers pregnant, and she gets angry with him for playing loud music while she is trying to study. Predictably, there is chemistry. The problem is that Gabby is engaged to a doctor named Ryan. Over time Gabby bonds with her neighbour, Travis, and his friends and family. She also discovers that Travis and his father are the local vets. Gabby is particularly fond of Travis' dad and sister, and becomes part of the family. She and Travis fall for each other. You'd think that the choice is which man to marry, but you'd be wrong. When Gabby's fiancé returns to town, she spends most of her time with him again and Travis is upset. She gets very mad with him, but tells Ryan about her affair with Travis and her fiancé breaks off the engagement. Travis goes to Gabby's family home and asks her paren