I’m really in a Halloween mood, even though I have to stay in today to catch up on some work. So no dressing up and trick or treating for me this year (to be fair, I’ve never really celebrated Halloween before, so it’s not as if I’m missing out this year, cause normally I wouldn’t do anything anyway). Despite that though, I couldn’t resist thinking of costumes and wondering what I could put together if I had to do something last minute. So here’s my short list of last minute outfits (most of these are somewhat based by clothes I own, and which I could pull off last minute if I wanted to).

1. Lara Croft – Tomb Raider

An obvious place for me to start, especially after I got the remark last summer that I was in full-on Tomb Raider style. All you need is a simple black or brown pair of shorts, plus a black or brown tank top (although white and teal are also possible depending on which game/movie you take). Add a pair of sun glasses, boots and your outfit is complete. For extra effect, add a fake gun, gloves, and a little back pack.

2. Echo – Dollhouse

How simple can you make it? The dolls when in the Dollhouse walk around in what are basically pajamas. Loose fitting pants and a simple tank top… tada! You’re done. Now just walk around with a vacant look on your face.

3. Max – Dark Angel

I’m not even sure most people will get this, but I used to love Dark Angel (until it got cancelled… by Fox… of course). Max had a lot of different type of outfits on Dark Angel, but half of the time it was leather pants (or trousers or whatever you call it here in the UK) plus a neck high zipped jacket. Don’t forget to add the barcode to the back of your neck!

4. Steampunk

You might have seen my tweets yesterday when I realized I could use my bridesmaid dress as the basis for a steampunk costum. This is the dress I got, but anything brown and kind of long and flowy should work for this. There are a lot of ways you can go about putting this look together (there aren’t any real steampunk costume rules, I assume, it just has to be a bit victorian inspired). I’d try adding a leather vest or corset over the dress, or if you can find it a white high collared old fashioned shirt with ruffles. Add extra props like goggles or a parasol.

5. Chuck – Pushing Daisies

Again a tricky one, cause there are so many possibilities. Chuck on Pushing Daisies always had very colourfol combos on, and the main thing you have to bear in mind is to keep it as vibrant as possible. Most of the time she’d layer clothes in the same colour; for example, a bright red dress plus a bright red coat (although any colour would do). Most of the dresses were 50s inspired (although it depended per week). Add sun glasses and a head shawl to complete the outfit.

Bonus: Elle Wood – Legally Blonde

It’s not really a ‘geeky’ outfit, but I thought I add it anyway. To create the Elle Wood look, just take anything pink! Oh, and you have to be blonde (or get a wig). Extra points if you can arrange a chihuahua.

Ages ago when the first Saw came out (well, it was actually only 5 years… 6 movies in 5 years?!? Never stopped to realize that) my brother suggested watching it with the entire family. He had seen it already, and for some weird reason (which I still don’t understand how) I understood from him that it was a Japanese film… Yeah, still not sure where I got that idea from, but suffice to say I was a bit startled when the actors all turned out American and were just talking plain English.

I did like that first movie though, even if it left me feeling pretty disturbed afterwards. I never got around to seeing any of the sequels, mainly because I’m way too squeamish for these type of movies. The gore-and-blood level of the Saw sequels just seemed too much for my tastes (I wonder if there is such a thing like a toned-down cut of the movie? I wouldn’t actually mind watching it, if I knew the ickiness factor wasn’t there).

Anyhow, the lovely people from the BFI IMAX have offered me a pair of tickets to their special Saw All-Nighter on Halloween to giveaway here on my blog! They’re screening all six Saw films back to back, including the newly released Saw VI. There will be free tea and coffee available during the breaks and the bar will be open until the last film starts. The tickets are £26 (and only £16 for students), which is a great deal for 6 movies!

The rules are the same as usual. Leave a comment behind here answering the following question: “What would be your perfect Halloween costume?”. Anybody above 18 is free to enter, but you must be able to come down to London on Halloween to enjoy your prize. The competition ends on Monday 26th 14:00. The winner will be contacted later that day.

I know, I know, this movie has already been for ages in the cinema (well, 4/5 weeks), but I loved it so much, I thought I have to blog about it (and convince all you people who still haven’t see it yet to go see it). As I’ve said in some of my previous posts I’m extremely busy, mainly with organizing BarCampLondon7. I haven’t been to that many movies lately, cause I frankly can’t find the time! I’ve still got District 9 and Coco Before Chanel on my list of movies-to-watch-in-the-cinema, and this month there are loads of cool things coming out (Pandorum, Up, Fantastic Mr Fox, 9, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus).

All that aside, Inglourious Basterds is the latest film by Quentin Tarantino. Set in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, it’s about a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as “The Basterds” who are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

What I found surprising of Inglourious Basterds is that while the movie is named after ‘The Basterds’ it actually isn’t really about them. Yes, they feature quite heavily in the movie, but I don’t think I’d call them the main characters. There are a slew of interesting characters that are focused on as much as The Basterds, some maybe even more.

As most people who have seen the movie will tell you, one of the highlights is Christoph Waltz’s performance as Colonel Hans Lauda. His character walks that fine line between being genius and unbelievably creepy; some of his monologues are just brilliant and one of the main things that make this movie worthwhile. Like most Tarantino movies the dialogue in general is pretty topnotch, and the way Brad Pitt pronounces ‘Arrivederci’ will be imprinted in my brain forever.

I liked Tarantino’s previous movies, but I must admit I always found them a bit too… bloody. Gruesome. Over the top unnecessarily violent. (Feel free to disagree with me, but I seriously got a bit squeamish with his previous films) Here in Inglourious Basterds he’s toned it down somewhat. There are still one or two ‘icky’ scenes (always with The Basterds), but most of the real gruesome stuff happens off screen.

The movie has a couple of plot problems (like how does Shoshanna suddenly own a theatre?), but I’m guessing this is because of the cuts made after the criticisms at Cannes. The problems that were reported there though, like the slow pacing, are nowhere in sight. Inglourious Basterds runs for almost 2.5 hours, but it doesn’t feel that long. Still I’d like to see a longer version to straighten out those missing story lines gaps.

If you haven’t seen Inglourious Basterds, you should definitely try to catch if before is disappears from the cinemas. I loved this movie, more than Tarantino’s previous ones. And if you’re hesitant, because you’re scared it will be gory, don’t be; this is one of the mildest Tarantino movies. Inglourious Basterds provides a couple of hours of great dialogue, absurd plot and lots of killin’ Nazis.

As regular readers here might know, I love the Terminator movies (well, the first two mainly) and I love the IMAX. Combine those two together… awesome!

This Saturday (3rd October) starting at 23:30 there’s a Terminator All-Nighter, showing all 4 Terminator movies back-to-back. That’s practically 8 hours of Terminator!

If you’re interested, there are still tickets available on the BFI website (£26 for Adults, £16 for Students, £18 for Concessions).

I thought I’d introduce yet another recurring series of posts, this time highlighting the music I’m listening to. To start it off, here’s one of my favourite pieces from Ennio Morricone, the theme song from The Untouchables. I still get goosebumps every time I hear this:

Btw, does anybody have any tips what the best website is to find these type of embeds? YouTube doesn’t really feel right, seeing as it’s only audio.

I heard about the onedotzero Adeventures in Motion festival a couple of weeks ago, and almost forgot it was happening this week. It’s running from tomorrow, Wednesday the 9th of September till Sunday the 13th of September at the BFI Southbank.

The festival is all about showcasing up-and-coming talent alongside leading creatives within the arts of digital animation, motion graphics, experimental shorts and music videos. They’ve got some amazing stuff going on, and I’m hoping to make my way down to the Southbank on at least one of these days.

For starters, there are a couple of movie screenings. On Friday there’s a preview of Pixar’s Up with a Q&A afterwards with director Pete Docter and producer Jonas Rivera. I wish I found out earlier; I’ve been dying to see this movie, but it’s sadly completely sold out. On Saturday though there’s a screening of Mary and Max; I think I might have posted a trailer of it a while ago, but if you missed it here it is again:

It looks sweet, right? Next to the movie screenings there are also a couple of compilation programmes, showing a selection of short movies with a similar theme. I’m really interested in terrain, featuring 19 shorts:

terrain will take you on a journey traversing arresting moving vistas from directors who hail from a diverse spectrum of disciplines but who all share one common fascination – the myriad environments in which we dwell. from the extreme visual clutter of over-populated cities to the tranquility of rural panoramic plains as well as otherworldly imagined spaces.

Besides that there are also installations and innervisions, which are free to visit. Some of the installations look pretty cool, like an interactive music video lounge, and a huge projection on the National Theatre that lets you interact with the visual via handsets, text and Twitter.

The onedotzero Adventures in Motion festival runs from 09 September – 13 September at the BFI Southbank. To see the complete schedule, check out the onedotzero website.

I’m loving this series from deviantArt artist Jeffrey Thomas, featuring darker versions of the Disney Princesses. Here are my favourites:

I love the detail of the three fairies trapped in that thing hanging from her waist. In total there are 11 Twisted Princesses: Cinderella, Pocahontas, Aurora (the 3 pictured above), Belle, Ariel, Snow White, Jasmine, Jane, Nala, Mulan and Alice.

Via Film Experience

A month ago I got invited to a blogger/twitter screening of (500) Days of Summer, and I was gutted to discover it was on the same day as our Mozilla GeekDinner. Luckily for me though that wasn’t the only screening, and last Monday I was able to head down to Fox’s Soho screening room to finally see this movie.

(500) Days of Summer is about the relationship between Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel), a girl who doesn’t believe in love, and Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a guy, who strongly believes in true love and The One.

“This is not a love story. This is a story about love” That’s the tag line of this movie, and it’s exactly what this film is about. It’s about 500 days of Summer’s and Tom’s relationship, including all the ups and downs. It’s one of the sweetest and most beautiful movies I’ve seen this year, and I know it will be one of my rainy day comfort movies for many years to come.

The writer of this movie deserves an Oscar, cause the way this was put together is remarkable. Instead of following a linear story line, the movie is presented in a non-chronological format, jumping back and forth between different points of the relationship. Each scene starts off with a {}, showing which of the 500 days it is. It’s a refreshing way of putting things in perspective; you don’t remember everything in a linear fashion, and sometimes initially you might only remember the good stuff.

There’s also a lot more quirky storytelling elements/cinematography in (500) Days of Summer, which I adored. I’m not really sure how to describe some of my favourite scenes here without giving too much away. To not spoil too much, one example is of an early scene where the narrator (oh, yeah, there’s also a narrator, it gives the movie almost a fairytale-like edge to it) tells you what type of girl Summer is, and it’s done in this black-and-white fifties education video style. There are more of these special type of sequences, which are just so amazing and give the movie a unique twist.

Both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are fantastic in these roles. Joseph Gordon-Levitt brings a great range of emotions to this role and you can help but empathize with him. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing much more of him in the future. Zooey Deschanel is adorable as Summer. I’ve always liked her, but I’ve never really liked any of the stuff she was in, until now. It’s great to see her in a role as wonderful as this.

One more thing I have to mention about this movie is the style. The music, the clothes, the hairstyles, I loved it all. While it may not be everybody’s cup of tea, I was so jealous of Summer’s look. Some of the (vintage?) dresses she wore were just gorgeous, and I love the bows and hairbands she had in her hair throughout the movie.

(500) Days of Summer is a great romantic comedy, but not in the traditional sense. As the tag line says, this is a story about love, not a love story. And yet, it is one of the best cinematic romances I’ve seen in a long time. This movie is quirky and cute, and one I’d definitely recommend to everyone.

(500) Days of Summer – Release Date: 2 September 2009 (UK)

Episode 136: “I would like you for my own”

I got to see (500) Days of Summer last Monday, and I think it’s amazing. A real review will be coming soon (I promise), but in short it’s one of the sweetest and most beautiful movies I’ve seen.

This video kind of serves as a promo for the movie, because it stars both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, and is directed by Marc Webb (the director of 500 Days). In reality though it’s the music video for “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?”, by Zooey Deschanel’s band She & Him. It’s a bit slow at the start, but is stay with cause it gets pretty cool:

[Watch on MissGeeky]

Besides that, there’s a clip from the movie where Summer and Tom talk about being Sid and Nancy. If you haven’t seen it, check it out:

I love the clip, but the cool thing of that is that for Cinemash (swedes but then semi-professional) they played Sid and Nancy.

Via Firstshowing.net

Bit of a late blog post, but I just found out that The Wizard of Oz (1939) turns 70 today. And I just had to share that with you, my dear readers. So to celebrate, here’s Miss Garland herself with Over The Rainbow:

[Watch on MissGeeky]