Episode 98: “Do you love me?”

I love the idea of flash mobs, even though I’ve never actually participated in one myself yet. I went to last year’s Real Life Rickroll at Liverpool Street Station, but I didn’t know the lyrics so couldn’t really sing along.

If you don’t know what a flash mob is, it’s basically a large group of people meeting somewhere and doing something unusual. For instance, the one that I went to was to get as much people together during rush hour at Liverpool Street station and sing Never Gonna Give You Up from Rick Astley and then leave. You can imagine the amazement of all the people who hadn’t heard about it beforehand. Another example is the Ninja attack. I don’t remember where it was exactly, but a group of people dressed as ninjas started fighting each other in a busy park.

Now T-Mobile has come out with the following ad:

[Watch the video]

While I do like how the people there responded to it, I’m a bit annoyed by it. All those people dancing have got to be professionals, right? Or at least hired to do this dance. Somehow this would have made more sense, more impact, to me, if they had organized this like an actual flash mob. Get actual people, who want to do it for the fun of it, not because they are payed to do it. Am I the only one who thinks this?

I still had a long list of movies I had seen in 2008, but for which I hadn’t taken the time to write a review yet, thus this blog post. Now if I keep to my New Year’s resolution of reviewing every movie I see I won’t have to do these type of posts any more.

Kung Fu Panda

Funny animation about a panda with dreams of becoming a Kung Fu master. What I especially like of this film was how it wasn’t too predictable; I never had a feeling “oh, it’s gonna end like this and this”. My one quibble with it: there are so many famous actors cast in this (Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan) and some of them only have a couple lines. Don’t promote the movie as if they’ve got big roles then!

The Strangers

One of the worst “horror” movies I’ve ever seen. Almost no plot, no real frights or scares. It just felt like a complete waste of time after watching it.

Newsies 

Sigh. Christian Bale in a musical! And he’s singing and dancing. Even though he might be a bit ashamed of that movie nowadays, it’s still a great little gem. The singing is a bit cheesy and not always in tune, but, hey, it’s a kids movie and it’s perfect for those stay-inside-cause-you’re-sick-or-it’s-cold-outside days. 

Shoot ‘Em Up

I know a lot of people loved this movie, but it just didn’t work for me. It was too ridiculous and absurd, I just couldn’t get into it. Now I love old B action movies, but this didn’t even have the charm of those movies. It just felt awkward.

The House Bunny

Cute movie about a Playboy bunny that gets kicked out of the Playboy mansion and then becomes a house mother for a geeky sorority. Pretty obvious plot, but still quite funny and sweet.

Taken

I saw the trailer some time last year, and definitely wanted to see this movie. Liam Neeson as an ex-spy/special agent whose daughter gets kidnapped? Sounds good, right? And the movie is actually quite good, although a whole lot grittier and realistic then the trailer leads you to believe. I don’t mean in “blood and guts” gritty, but more in the plot and ambience.

Quantum of Solace

Greatest disappointment of the year. The action sequences are superb; there’s no problem with that. But the plot? it felt like they first came up with the main action shots and then decided to write a story to connect them all together. For me, it didn’t work. I was expecting much more emotional turmoil from Bond and at least a slightly less convenient Bad Guy.

Tropic Thunder

Not as brilliant as I expected, but still a great movie. I think it would have made more impact, if I hadn’t heard anything about it at all, but how can you ignore so many ads and marketing? You’re bound to hear something. 

Burn Without Reading

I’m not a fan of the Coen brothers, but Burn After Reading was quite funny. I’m not sure though if it deserves the nominations it’s getting. Still, Brad Pitt and George Clooney are both just so different and weird in this movie, it’s worth seeing for that alone.

Mamma Mia!

Abba songs are catchy; there’s no doubt about it. But an entire movie based on that? To be honest, it actually could have worked, but this movie suffers from one main problem: Meryl Streep. She doesn’t have the voice to pull this off. And while she may be a great actress, I never truly believed her character. 

This is my second submission to the 52 Themes challenge. The assignment this week was “Creative Colour”. The creativity of this photo? I don’t own a pair of tights with legs in two different colours…

To celebrate the healthiness of carrots, and the evilness of bunnies.

Note: there’s no such thing as “Carrot Day”… unless you want there to be 🙂

Episode 97: “Brosandi”

Here’s a great montage of the movies that came out in 2008 (although it’s according to the US, so some movies aren’t even out here yet):

[Watch the video on YouTube]

Week 1: An unforgettable fable that proves love, family and imagination conquer all.

As I mentioned in my New Year’s resolutions post, one of the challenges I’ve set up for myself is to watch 52 Movies. Cristiano and I discovered that we both had only seen about 25-30% of the Top 250 Movies on IMDB, missing a lot of the classics and just general good movies I never got around to seeing. So every week we’ll be watching one of these movies and I’ll try to blog about it.

For this first week we did La Vita è Bella, at the moment #87 on IMDB. I had told my brother about my idea of this challenge before Christmas, so (of course and great that I did) I got two DVDs of two movies I hadn’t seen, one of which was La Vita è Bella. 

The first half of La Vita è Bella is set in the 1930s Italy. Guido (Roberto Benigni) has just moved to a small town in Tuscany where he falls in love with a schoolteacher, Dora. She’s already engaged, but the playful Guido manages to woo her in surprising and unusual ways. The story then jumps ahead to five years later; Guido and Dora are living happily together with their son, until they get sent to a German concentration camp. Guido does everything in his power to get this family through this ordeal.

There were a couple of reasons why I had never seen this movie. For starters, (I know this sounds a bit lame, but this is truly one of my reasons) I tend to watch (or at least start watching) a movie during dinner, and films with subtitles… not that handy when every other minute you have to look down at your plate (told you it was lame). Another reason was that every time I saw a clip or something else with Roberto Benigni in it, I just got completely exasperated by him. He’s so busy and bubbly and peppy, it’s tiring to watch him (I have the same with a Dutch comedian Bert Visscher; it’s too taxing to watch).

And for that first half of the movie, he is very much busy and bubbly and peppy. But in an endearing type of way. The way he woos Dora is just so sweet, you can’t find it irritating (still a bit tiring though to be honest). And when the second half of the movie hits, when this character that is so busy and bubbly and peppy lands in a concentration camp, he remains busy and bubbly and peppy. In a unique way, he keeps his son hopeful, never letting the harsh realities of the war affect him. 

I’m not one to cry that often during movies, but the end of La Vita è Bella had me slightly in tears (not too much, mind, and not until the last minute).  It’s a sweet story, and at it’s heart you could say it’s a bit of a fairy tale, even though it’s set in not the most fairy tale-ish of places. One note: if you’re avoiding this movie because it’s a “war-movie-drama”, don’t. You’re missing out on a great tale of hope and love (not to sound too soppy).

La Vita è Bella deserves to be in the Top 250 of IMDB, maybe even a little bit higher than #87. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should. Trust me, it’s a film you’ll always remember. 

Next week: The Shawshank Redemption

Interesting links for January 8th:

• Jason Mecier – Cool gallery of Jason Mecier, who makes portraits of celebrities with "weird" materials, like candy.
• My Organized Closet – Wishing I had space for an organized closet like this.
• Power of Seating – Three designs of chairs, personifying three great figures: Queen Elizabeth, Superman and The Thinker from Rodin.
• Top 10 Gruesome Fairy Tale Origins – Some of the fairy tales we were told as kids, didn't start out as fairy tale-ish as they are now. A lot of them were way more gruesome, ending with not-that-happy-endings.

Episode 96: “fortune cookies… they are more American than anything else” 

I love listening to TED talks; they’re always interesting, yet fun to listen to. This one features Jennifer 8. Lee talking about the origins of familiar Chinese-American dishes and how not that Chinese they actually are. It’s 16 minutes long, but definitely worth watching:

[Watch the video on TED.com]

As I said in my previous post, for 2009 I’ll be participating in 52 Themes, a photo every week each with a different theme. This week was the first one with as theme “New Beginnings”.

Cristiano and I got this little statuette from Cristiano’s parents as a sort of anniversary present (we’ve been together for over 5 years now). It seemed like a nice way to portray “New Beginnings”, cause I do feel as if 2009 will be a new and fresh year for both of us. This will (hopefully and finally) be the year where we both start working and get our own apartment.

After reviewing last year’s resolutions, I’ve (just like Cristiano) decided to skip the more “usual suspects” of resolutions. Of course, I have to sport more, eat healthier, be more organized, etcetera, but those aren’t the most interesting resolutions I can make. So here are my 2009 resolutions:

1. Finish my degree and get a job

This should be my number 1 priority this year; I’ve been taking way too long in finishing my degree and it’s about time I complete this. While I might be a bit demanding, I want to find a job that I love doing, day in, day out. I don’t want to settle with something that will pay the bills, I want to find a job I am actually passionate about.

2. Get a new apartment

I’ve had it with my housemates and I really want to move some time this year (the sooner, the better). I’d like to get a place on our own, so no sharing anymore, but with the prices here in London I’m not so sure if that would be possible yet.

3. Try out and create more recipes

The past year I’ve been slowly learning how to cook from scratch, not using any sauce bags etc. Instead I’m trying out recipes and learning how to use the different ingredients together. I’ve created a couple of dishes I’m already proud of, but I haven’t even scratches the surface yet here. Main Goal: making a perfect Risotto Milanese with Ossobucco.

4. Start my own startup

This might be aiming a bit too high, but I do want to get my idea of a startup going. I at least want to think it out a bit more better, and figure out if it’s possible or not.

Besides these four resolutions, I’ve also got a couple blog related ones:

1. 52 Movies

Cristiano and I discovered we’ve only watched a measly 25% of the Top 250 IMDB Movies, missing a lot of great movies (confession: I still haven’t watched The Shawshank Redemption). So we’ll be watching one movie from that list a week, and I want to write a blog post ever single time. We’re already not having such a good start though; tonight is the last day of the first week, so we have to watch a movie tonight (and I have to blog about it tonight).

2. 52 Themes

Similar to the 52 Movies, I will take 52 photos, every week with a different theme (according to an already predetermined list of themes). I was interested in a Project 365 (taking a photo every single day), but I’m not that much of a photo addict yet to do that. What I do want to make sure of though is that I take every one of these photos with that theme in mind; I don’t want to make “random” photos and then look back thinking “oh, I could use that for the theme this week”. 

3. What I Wore

I’ve been inspired by blogs like Karla’s Closet, the What I Wore tumblr, and Sunny-Side Uptown, who post photos of some of the outfits they wear. While it won’t be every day (I don’t have enough different clothes and I don’t go outside every single day, for that), I want to start doing something similar to that. It will have to wait though until I figure out what the best way to take those type of photos is. I don’t have enough space here in my room, and I don’t trust London enough to leave my DSLR outside on the street alone (even if it’s just for a few seconds).

4. Write more reviews

I’m already writing reviews for movies and books, but not as much as I’d like. I want to try to actually write reviews for every single book I read and every movie I see this year (although repeats on TV won’t count).

What do you think of my resolutions? Anything I’m forgetting?