Restless Tonight -Reviews and Rants

Stay away from her. I'm serious, run.  *possible spoilers* Yes, I finally saw this! You have no idea how excited I was about this movie. My expectations were low given the poor reviews I've seen, but that didn't dampen my spirits. And was I disappointed? No. Chapter 2 is different from the first. By that I mean the feel is different, which you can't really help. No one knew what the hell was going on in the first one. The family didn't know what exactly they were scared of or what was happening to their son. In this follow-up, which takes place immediately after the first, they're still reeling from all the horrors that happened, including the murder of Elise. Unfortunately, the horrors aren't over. The scares are also not quite the same. It doesn't work so well as a haunted house movie like the first one did, but those aren't the only scares to be had, luckily. The real scares come in the form of the backstory. That being said, the ghosts ar

Aw yeah, it's time for my super duper ahort movie review catch-up! I'm pretty sure I've forgotten half the movies I've watched, but oh well. I still managed to see (and remember) a few that I saw in theatres and on Netflix recently. Bad Grandpa I can't claim to be a big 'Jackass' fan since I had only seen the first movie prior to this (which I liked), but I enjoyed Bad Grandpa. Obviously I like crude humor (to an extent), and I like Johnny Knoxville. I have to say, though, it's a little disturbing knowing there's a hot guy underneath all that old man make-up. Unfortunately, I was keenly aware of it while watching this film. Which is not weird at all. Also, great casting! The kid was surprisingly good in his role, and very daring. And if you didn't know, this is in movie format rather than random pranks/skits like the other films. It's a movie, but only the kid and Knoxville know it. People's reactions are great. I love the end

My friend Sam Dillard has finally put his project up on Kickstarter! I hope he makes his goal. If you like what you see and hear, please pledge to it! Every dollar is appreciated. :)  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/samostudios/eternity-rising-science-fiction-score-and-animatio

I'm never going into space. Not that this was ever a question, but hell no. I'm glad I saw this movie, though. Poor Sandra Bullock has to go through so much in this. They literally try to kill her at every turn; it wasn't just a matter of floating off into space. At first, after seeing the trailer, I wasn't sure what they could do with this premise. I thought, "Wait, is she just going to float in space the whole movie? Nah." Well, obviously not, but I was curious to see what they did with it. George Clooney is in this, but it's up to Sandra Bullock to carry the film, and she does so very successfully. I'm not surprised there's already Oscar buzz surrounding her. My grade: A (I'm giving out a lot of A's, aren't I?)

I finally watched this a few weeks ago. Wow. First of all, great acting all around, especially the kids. Secondly, great story. I hope they didn't embellish this too much, although I know they always do to an extent with true stories. I believe the real-life woman who Naomi Watts played actually had a bit of say in this and made sure that the facts were there. Bottom line: great movie. Pretty scary, too! You might need some tissues for this. My grade: A

Do you know how many movies I've watched in the last several months? Neither do I, but it's quite a few! And how many of them have I reviewed and dissed on here? Hardly any. This makes me sad. So my plan is to start updating soon and get out some to-the-point reviews to cover some of the better movies I've seen this year, since some have been too good to not talk about at all. I've been crawling out of a depression the last few months, so finding the motivation to even get out of bed was hard for awhile, but now I'm feeling better and my fingers are itching to type. Woohoo!

An awesome, original composition for Star Trek, composed by my friend Sam Dillard! So proud. :) I wish I had half as much talent.

I only found out the other day that there is a sequel to Insidious coming out this year. *hyperventilates* I am so excited! It's an irrational excitement, but hey, any excitement is good.

Another compelling series, and I can't believe I hadn't heard of it until recently! I only became aware of its existence because Amazon.com stuck it into my recommendations. Now series two has been ordered (four new episodes!!), so I'm happy. I need my fix. The Bletchley Circle is about four women who worked as code breakers in WWII. They're all smart and should be putting their skills to good use, but after the war, women were no longer considered equal or useful in the ways men were, not that they ever were (argh, sexism!), and were pretty much expected to go back to being housewives and stay-at-home mothers. Not all of these four women did, but our heroine, Susan (Anna Maxwell Martin) did exactly that, and she's dying unleash her skills to solve a recent string of grisly murders. She's excellent at finding patterns, but she needs help catching this serial killer, so she tracks down her former co-workers and boss to help her. And they do, albeit with rel

Great series! I'm not sure I'm giving anything away when I say that I sussed out who the killer was in episode six (there are eight episodes, for the record). I don't think it was that hard to figure it out, which perhaps isn't saying much for the writing...? But it really was a gripping series, not to mention depressing as hell. Of course what do you expect when the character who has been murdered is a child? There are a lot of annoying characters to be had, and they all seem capable of murder, but then everyone is capable under the right (or wrong) circumstances, as my boyfriend David Tennant would say. Speaking of him, it bothers me how they always give the lead detective some  major issues. Most of the time it's alcoholism and depression. I won't give his problems away, but I did have to roll my eyes when it first made an appearance. You know how much I adore predictability. Still, this is a must watch for anyone who loves a good murder mystery! You&#

*Possible Spoilers* I recently re-watched every episode of Jonathan Creek, and it was great! Of course, it was a little strange watching every episode back-to-back, considering they went through three different female sidekicks throughout the series. I could never decide which woman I preferred. Caroline Quentin's Maddy was...well, mean. She did have her moments, didn't she? Still, there was something I liked about her, and the earlier episodes in particular. It was weird when she suddenly wasn't there. I assume she left to do 'Blue Murder' instead, which I never got into. Then came Julia Sawalha, who I love. Her character, Carla, was also rather mean at times, but I liked her. And lastly, Sheridan Smith's Joey came along as Jonathan's last sidekick. She's the only one he didn't have any sexual or romantic chemistry with, the only time neither were interested in each other. Heck, she didn't even seem to like him as a person that much. I was

Aliens! This is a haunted house movie, only with aliens. It's nowhere near original, but unless you expect all of your scary movies to be unique, I can't see digging into it too much for that. As far as aliens creeping around and being scary, well, Signs did it better. And as far as haunted house/demon movies, Insidious and Paranormal Activity both did it better, which will immediately turn you off if you hate any of those movies (I know a lot of people dislike PA). Funny since, as the poster says, it's made by the same producer of those films. So all you have to do is read that to know whether or not this movie is for you. Personally, I'm a fan, so it was a no-brainer for me. Dark Skies may not be a standout in its genre, but I wouldn't let its negative Rotten Tomatoes rating put you off; it's not a bad film. Maybe I'm just easy to creep out (okay, I am), but it delivers a few scares, although some of the intended scares were just silly. It'

Hmm, I wonder if they're going to start making prequels for other old movies. Which one will they do next? And are they necessary? It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure how well it works. It's a weird thing to do, really. You make a prequel to a film that was made decades ago, and the one thing you are definitely not going to do is match the tone. This doesn't even feel like it has anything to do with The Wizard of Oz , even though Oz, Emerald City, the witches, and the Munchkins are there. Nice special effects, but everything else is rather weak. One of the things I disliked the most was the wicked witch's back story. It was too...easy, the sort of story line you'd plop in a book for young adults. I wish they'd come up with something more interesting and original. Another problem is that I'm not a big fan of James Franco. I like him occasionally, e.g. in Pineapple Express , but most of the time I'd prefer him off-screen. Some of the a

How often do you remember your dreams? And how vivid are they? Maybe you never remember them at all. Lately, however, mine have been quite...interesting. There were several nights in a row in which I woke up after having very vivid dreams; the sort that stay with you all day. They weren't all bad dreams, but they all left me feeling a little disturbed. I guess that's what happens when you feel like you were actually in the dream to some degree, rather than simply watching it. I don't mind this, though. Dreams can be terribly entertaining, don't you think? Take, for instance, two dreams I had last week (although I had several good dreams). In the one, I was set to marry a serial killer. And, by all accounts, I had the makings of a serial killer myself (which is why he didn't kill me), but I was like, Nah, I don't feel like killing people. And then I decided that I didn't want to marry my serial killer boyfriend (to be fair, he was rather old. Who am I, Lo

One of my favorite bands released their new album last week! Yay! There are only ten songs, which is sad. Come on, you could have put more on! They do have two bonus tracks, however, so perhaps I shouldn't complain too much. I'm not sure why they're bonus tracks, though. Both songs are good enough to be on the album. In fact, they're two of my favorites! All right, so let's break it down: Best songs: *Drove Me Wild: A *How Come You Don't Want Me??: A *Shock To Your System: A *Closer: B+ (wasn't crazy about it at first, but it grew on me) *Now I'm All Messed Up: B+ Worst Song: *Love They Say: B- (it's not a bad song, but it's overly cheesy for my taste, and I'm not sure it works on this album) Everything Else: * I Was a Fool: B *Goodbye, Goodbye: B+ *I Couldn't Be Your Friend: B *I'm Not Your Hero: B Bonus Tracks: *Guilty As Charged: A *I Run Empty: A My overall grade: B+

Yes, it has been awhile since I wrote a review, and it's been so long that, naturally, there are movies I've seen that I won't be reviewing, e.g. Silver Linings Playbook , which I saw way back in December when it was still playing in the UK. Although, for the record, I would give it a B+. Also, Jennifer Lawrence is hot, and I'm not a Bradley Cooper fan (disliked him since Alias), but I actually didn't hate him in it. But we're talking about Wreck-It Ralph, which came out in the UK recently. I had wanted to see it when it was playing in North America, but I didn't get to. I finally got my chance last week. To be honest, it was a disappointment. Not a terrible movie by any means, but it was a let down in that it was formulaic, and my god, that little girl was annoying! Sarah Silverman can be grating as it is, although I sometimes find her funny. She has the kind of voice that fits that of an overly bratty, annoying child, so I suppose the casting was perf