I love a good vampire movie, and I love a good sci-fi movie. Add those two together, and you’ve got a movie that’s got me very much intrigued. Even though Twilight was better than I expected (review will follow soon), it’s still not the type of vampire movie I’m looking for. Daybreakers though is something completely different and I’m curious to see more of it.
Here’s the description:
In the year 2019, a plague has transformed most every human into vampires. Faced with a dwindling blood supply, the fractured dominant race plots their survival; meanwhile, a researcher (Ethan Hawke) works with a covert band of vamps (Willem Dafoe, Claudia Karvan) on a way to save humankind.
I always like it when the vampire’s are not necessarily the bad guys, but most of the time it’s still “we must remain a secret, the humans must not find out about us, blablabla”. Finally a movie that dares to shaken that up a bit. The whole vampires main stream society thing is something I’ve been dying to see for ages, and with this sci-fi-ish angle it’s really got me excited for it.
Yesterday I was shopping around in Central London and much to my surprised I found a painted kangaroo statue. I didn’t think much of it, just thought it was some new artwork they planted there. But then I came across a second one. And a third one.
Turns out it’s for a contest to promote South Australia, sponsored by Flight Centre UK and Qantas. The idea is that there are twenty adventurous kangaroos that have escaped from Kangaroo Island and you’ve got to round them up so that they can be reunited with their friends. You only need to find 4 of them to enter the competition to win a group holiday for 4 to South Australia. Here are pictures of all 20 kangaroos and easy tips to find them:
They’ve also got a cute Twitter account Roo Catcher, that gives tips and extra photo clues to find the roos. I’ve already found four of them (and entered the competition), but I’d love to try to track all 20 of them down before they’re gone. I didn’t have my camera with me last time, so I’m thinking of maybe organising a photo walk to find all 20 kangaroos. Thing is: they’re only still around for a week or so (according to the Twitter account), so you’ve got to hurry in finding them.
I noticed that so many trailers come out, I can’t keep up with blogging about them in single posts. I’ll still go on with Trailerrific for the posts that really look amazing and that I want to blog about straight away, but I’ll also do every Thursday a post containing all the trailers that came out this week.
This first week is a bit longer cause I’m catching up on a lot of other trailers I missed out on:
The Box: Norma (Cameron Diaz) and Arthur Lewis (James Marsden), a suburban couple with a young child, receive a wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A mysterious stranger delivers the message that the box promises to bestow upon its owner $1 million with the press of a button. But, pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human somewhere in the world. From the director of Donnie Darko and Southland Tales. Release Date: October 2009 (US), December 2009 (UK)
The Time Traveler’s Wife: This is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare’s passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap. Release Date: August (US, UK)
The Stepfather: Michael Harding returns home to find his mother happily in love and living with her new boyfriend, David. As the two get to know each other, Michael becomes more and more suspicious of the man who’s always there lend a helpful hand. Is he really the man of her dreams or could David be hiding a dark side? Release Date: October 2009 (US), November 2009 (UK)
Love Happens: A romantic drama about a widower (Aaron Eckhart) whose book about coping with loss turns him into a best-selling self-help guru. On a business trip to Seattle, he falls for a woman (Jennifer Aniston) who attends one of his seminars, only to learn that he hasn’t yet truly confronted his wife’s passing. Release Date: September 2009 (US), November 2009 (UK)
Mr Nobody: Nemo Nobody (Jared Leto) leads an ordinary existence at his wife’s side, Elise, and their three children until the day when reality skids and he wakes up as an old man in the year 2092. At 120, Mr. Nobody is both the oldest man in the world and the last mortal of a new mankind where nobody dies anymore. Release Date: unknown
Zombieland: Columbus (Eisenberg) has made a habit of running from what scares him. Tallahassee (Harrelson) doesn’t have fears. If he did, he’d kick their ever-living ass. In a world overrun by zombies, these two are perfectly evolved survivors. But now, they’re about to stare down the most terrifying prospect of all: each other. Release Date: October 2009 (US, UK)
G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra: directed by big action filmmaker Stephen Sommers, of The Jungle Book, Deep Rising, The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and Van Helsing previously. Release Date: October 2009 (US, UK)
Whiteout: Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) is a lone U.S. Marshal assigned to Antarctica whose investigation of the continent’s first murder draws her into a shocking mystery. Now, with only three days until winter, Carrie must solve the crime before Antarctica is plunged into darkness and she is stranded with the killer. Release Date: September 2009 (US)
Creation: English naturalist Charles Darwin struggles to find a balance between his revolutionary theories on evolution and the relationship with religious wife, whose faith contradicts his work. Release Date: September 2009 (UK)
The Last Airbender: The story follows the adventures of Aang, a ten year old successor to a long line of Avatars, who must put his childhood ways aside and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water, Earth and Air nations. Release Date: July 2010 (US)
The Twilight Saga: New Moon: After Bella recovers from the vampire attack that almost claimed her life, she looks to celebrate her birthday with Edward and his family. However, a minor accident during the festivities results in Bella’s blood being shed, a sight that proves too intense for the Cullens, who decide to leave the town of Forks, Washington for Bella and Edward’s sake. Initially heartbroken, Bella finds a form of comfort in reckless living, as well as an even-closer friendship with Jacob Black. Release Date: November 2009 (US, UK)
Fame: An updated version of the 1980 musical, which centered on the students of the New York Academy of Performing Arts. Release Date: September 2009
Cold Souls: Paralyzed with anxiety over an upcoming role, Paul Giamatti stumbles upon a high-tech company promising to alleviate suffering by deep-freezing souls. Giamatti enlists their services, intending to reinstate his soul once he survives the performance. But complications ensue when a soul-trafficking mule borrows Giamatti’s stored soul for an ambitious, but unfortunately talentless, soap-opera actress. Release Date: August 2009 (US)
Pandorum: Two crewmen awaken from hyper-sleep aboard a spacecraft. None of their equipment is working, and their memories are incomplete. What was their mission? How much time has passed? Where are they? As they try to piece things together, they discover they are not alone, and the ship’s new inhabitants – tribal warriors carrying crudely made weapons – are moving among them, intent on killing all aboard. Release Date: September 2009 (US, UK)
Miss Nobody: A mild-mannered secretary discovers that she has a talent for murder as she ascends the corporate ladder. Release Date: unknown
Thirst: Beloved and devoted priest (Song Kang-ho) from a small town volunteers for a medical experiment which fails and turns him into a vampire. Physical and psychological changes lead to his affair with a wife of his childhood friend who is repressed and tired of her mundane life. The one-time priest falls deeper in despair and depravity. As things turns for worse, he struggles to maintain whats left of his humanity. From the director of Oldboy and the Vengeance trilogy. Release Date: July 2009 (US)
World’s Greatest Dad: A very dark comedy about a man (Robin Williams) who learns that the things you want most may not be the things that make you happy, and that being lonely is not necessarily the same as being alone. Release Date: unknown
Veronika Decided To Die: The story centers on Veronika, a woman in her mid twenties who appears to have everything: good looks, good job and a great life ahead of her. Yet she decides to end her own life. She is unsuccessful and awakens in a mental hospital where she learns that she has five days to live. The film follows her recovery as she finds true love and a newfound will to survive. Release Date: November 2009 (US)
I never watched the original series of Melrose Place; I was eight when the series came out and unlike Beverly Hills 90210, I don’t remember ever coming across the repeats. This new version of it looks pretty good though: it’s like Gossip Girl, but with characters actually my age!
I love Studio Ghibli’s movies and this latest one looks cute! I’ve seen almost all of Hayao Miyazaki’s movies (including Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle); I think I’m only still missing one of them.
Ponyo (known as Ponyo On the Cliff in Japan) is about a 5 year old boy and his relationship with a goldfish princess who wants to become human. I blogged about the Japanese trailer ages ago, but this US one shows much more and is easier to follow. It’s a bit jarring though to hear the English dubbed voices; I prefer the original voices and usually avoid all dubbings. It just doesn’t sound right!
Google Apps and Virgin America have teamed up for today for the “Day In The Cloud” Challenge, the first online scavenger hunt played simultaneously in the air and everywhere else. For the entire day of June 24th you can enter the one-hour game and try to earn as many points as possible. If you become a top scorer (and are a legal US resident), you can win a “Year In A Cloud”: a brand new HP laptop, 1 terabyte of Google Account storage, and a year of free flying and free wifi on Virgin America (actually what this means though is 12 one-way tickets on Virgin America and 12 complimentary wifi passes, slightly less impressive than “a year of free flying”).
The idea is to solve 9 rounds of tasks, within one hour. The tasks range from Googable questions and trivia, to word puzzles, to using specific Google products to find an answer, like Google Calendar and Google Books. And I think also a special creative round where you have to do something, well, creative.
I didn’t get that far though. I wasted too much time in the first round, so only made it to Round 6 with 9500 points. The tasks can be pretty fun though, and especially the more puzzle like ones were nice to solve. If you try it out though, keep in mind you only have 1 hour to attempt all the rounds.
During my trip to the Netherlands last month, I finally visited the optician again to get my eyes checked for the first time in two (maybe even three) years. It was a bit of a surprise how much worse both my eyes had gotten; I’ve now got -4.00 in my right eye and -4.50 in my left (with a cylinder of -1.75 in both).
I got a complete new set of contact lenses, but didn’t really want to shell out +£50 for a new pair of glasses. I mean, 90% of the time I’m wearing my contacts anyway, but I do need a set to wear during the evening. Wearing contacts the entire day and staring at a computer screen, means (with me at least) that by the end of the day my eyes are dried out and I need to take my lenses out.
I kind of gave up on getting a new pair of glasses and thought I’d had to live with using a set with the wrong strength. But then I stumbled on an offer from SelectSpecs. For only £5 you could get a set of full rimmed glasses: frame, lenses with UV Protection, Anti-Reflection, and Scratch Resistant Coatings, add to that £3.50 for shipping, and for £8.50 you’re done.
I ordered the following pair (the Jacranda design) this morning:
Of course, the downside is that I wasn’t able to try them on and see how they fit, but for only £8.50? It’s a much better solution than keeping on using my current glasses with the wrong prescription, or buying an expensive pair which I won’t use that often. I’ll let you know how the quality of the glasses are once they’ve arrived, but they seem pretty okay.
I’m not sure how long this offer from SelectSpecs is going for, but even then their normal glasses are pretty cheap compared to other places. Check out their website for more details.
The Uniform Project – 1 Dress, 365 Days. Cool project from a girl who's wearing the same dress for 365 days, but uses accessories/layers to create different outfits (not sure, but I also think there's the rule: no using the same accessory twice)
The Usability of Passwords – Great post about the security of passwords. If you've never understood why simple words like "sun" won't do as a password, read this. It also explains why "pass-phrases" are better than random letters/numbers.
Grilla styling – Blog about the Grilla styling "game". Two girls, two cameras, 52 cards with random colours, countries, styles, etc on it. Walk into a store, take 2 cards and you've got 10 minutes to create that look. I loved the combos the cards create like "Welsh Navy" or "Gold Emo".
Alice and Kev – Brilliant experiment about Alice and Kev, two homeless characters created in Sims 3. It makes me want to try out Sims 3 for myself and create my own characters.
