This review has two parts. First my normal review without any spoilers. Then, after a warning, my thoughts about this movie with spoilers.

I remember seeing the trailer for Passengers a long time ago, and thinking “huh, Anne Hathaway in a creepy thriller. Seems interesting.” And then I never heard anything about it.

Passengers is about Claire Summers (Anne Hathaway), a grief counselor working with the five sole survivors of a plane crash. Despite her better judgment, she develops a relationship with Eric (Patrick Wilson), the most mysterious of the survivors. But then, one by one, the survivors begin to disappear mysteriously, and Claire uncovers what might be a conspiracy…

There’s a reason I didn’t hear anything about this movie. The first two-thirds of the movie are boooring. The underlying plot is kind of intriguing, but everything else about the first hour is just bad. Everything unfolds way too slow, and there’s never any real tension or suspense. For a movie that’s being marketed as a thriller, Passengers doesn’t thrill at all. You never have the feeling that Claire is actually concerned that her patients are disappearing; she’s off fooling around with one of them. The threat of why they’re vanishing never feels real, and the conspiracy angle seems cliched.

But then that last half an hour happens (it could also be only the last quarter of an hour; I didn’t keep track when the ‘interesting’ part started). It’s not enough to save the movie, but I was semi-pleasantly surprised by it.

Another problem with this movie is the marketing. I’ve put the poster after the spoiler warning, cause anybody with a brain could figure it out just by seeing that poster. The DVD cover and tagline is even worse; don’t they want people to watch their movies?

If you catch this movie on TV, I’d say give it a go. You might turn it off halfway though, cause there’s not a lot going for it. If you’re able to watch beyond that (kudos to you!), I’m curious to hear what you thought about it. Don’t get this on DVD; it’s completely not worth it.

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Argh! Here be spoilers

So if you’ve come this far, you’ve already seen the movie or you want to be spoilt. The big twist of the movie is that Claire is actually one of the passengers from the plane crash and that she’s dead and in some kind of in-between limbo world. Everybody she comes across in the movie is dead; either they’re one of the other plane crashees or they are ‘sent’ to help them deal with death.

The idea is pretty cool, even though it’s just a rehash of The Sixth Sense. And it could have worked, if it had been one of those ‘figure it out’ movies. But there just wasn’t enough clues in the first part of Passengers for this. The twist comes completely unexpected (although I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have; because it was so boring, so I was reading blog posts at the same time) and then it goes all gooey “we’re dead, but we’re in love”. Add to that a tedious first part, and I wonder how many people were actually able to watch the entire movie without turning it off halfway.

By the way: I hadn’t seen that poster before the movie. I’m wondering if I would have been able to guess the twist, cause it seems pretty obvious with that poster!

Fringe was one of the most interesting new series of last year, so I’m pretty curious to see how their second season will be. There was a big revelation at the end of last season’s finale, and I really want to know how that will affect everyone involved.

Fox has released a couple of different ads to promote the upcoming season, which will be airing on Thursday September 17th. The first is a short promo showing, some scenes from the new season:

Besides that, they’ve also released a season 2 poster, with a couple of cryptic clues hidden within:

I can’t find a high res version of this, making it a bit tricky to see the cryptic clues. So far I’ve spotted the six-finger handprint, the white bunny, the butterfly and something like a tarot card on the ground. Anybody found anything else?

Episode 133: “Grab your mouse and stroke the keys”

I saw this video yesterday afternoon when it came out, but since then this song has been in my head the entire time!

[Watch on MissGeeky]

It’s written and performed by Felicia Day, featuring the rest of the cast of The Guild. Besides that it’s directed by Jed Whedon (brother of), who also wrote the music. If you still haven’t seen The Guild, go and watch it; it’s hilarious!

I’m adoring some of these dresses from Lipsy! I’m thinking of maybe getting one of them, but I can’t decide. I know I’ll have to go and actually try them on first before making any decisions, but which of them do you like best?

Left: Bow Sleeve Tea Dress for £25.00, Right: Belted Cocoon Dress for £25.00

Left: Asymmetric Zip Shift Dress for £55, Right: Fluted Sleeve Jersey Dress for £25.00

My preference at the moment is for the top left Bow Sleeve Tea Dress, but I’m not too sure whether it might look too cutesy. My second favourite is the Zip dress, but the higher price tag (£55 instead £25) might sway me from getting it.

Check out more dresses on Lipsy.com

Even though I’m very much a “child of the digital age”, I still am addicted to my old style paper notebooks. Most of my longer blog posts are all written down first without ever touching a computer. I’m somehow much more able to structure things properly when I’m just scribbling, crossing things out, and drawing things  out on paper.

So when I saw these notebooks, I just swooned:

Gorgeous, aren’t they? It’s a set of three notebooks, each labeled with a Chapter One, Two, Three. I’m not sure what I’d use them for, but you can think up all sorts of things. The books are available on Girl Of All Work for $26.50.

Via Design Crush

Interesting links for August 10th through August 16th:

• Life-Size – Cute art project from Cynthia Greig who created miniature every day objects.
• The World’s Most Amazing Hotel Pools – Wow, some of these pools are just gorgeous!
• Nerds, Jocks, and Lockers – Programming algorithm puzzle. I came across the same puzzle a couple years back while practicing for a programming contest, although in a different "story" (with Romans, goblets and coins).
• Chroma-Hash – "a smart jQuery plugin that dynamically visualizes secure text-field values using ambient color bars".
• 21 Amazing Movie Posters Recreated with Lego – Lol!

Episode 133: “You are always near”

I’m sure I’m not alone in this, but you get those evenings when you start spiraling down the YouTube hole. You know what I mean: you watch one video, then another, then one more and before you know it you’ve “wasted” an hour watching cats attempt to sing. Anyhow via the Guardian blog, I came across sand artist Kseniya Simonov (pronounced as Xenia), who won the Ukrainian version of Britain’s/America’s Got Talent. The videos of her are just amazing; it’s not just painting a picture in sand, but actually telling a complete story through it:

If I’m right, the following two videos are what she did during the final:

After a couple more of her videos (having spent already 45 minutes on them), I discover that (of course) she’s not the only sand artist out there. Here’s one from Ilana Yahav:

And another. With penguins and butterflies!

I’ll stop with the overload of videos now, but if you’ve got a couple of hours to kill, just search YouTube for ‘sand art’. There are loads more like these posted here.

Via the Guardian

I still want to blog about the fun I had at this year’s Hide & Seek Festival. As usual there was lot’s of running around (lots and lots), puzzle solving and random silliness. I hope to blog about it in more length some time this week, but for now here’s a short video about it:

This is part of this week’s Pocket TV episode, a new music based show hosted by Holy Moly’s Matt Edmondson. Every week, you’ll be able to watch a new episode in full or broken down into 5 segments so it’s a bit like jumping to a scene on a DVD. Simple and easy.

I like the idea of the show, but I’m not that much into current music myself. It’s not that I don’t listen to music (I do, a lot), but seriously 90% of my music library consists of movie soundtracks, TV show soundtracks and West End musicals; I’m not exactly up to date with the “hottest” music out there. However, if you are into music, Pocket TV seems pretty fun.

Check out the Pocket TV channel on YouTube.

Legion: Having lost faith in the human race, a legion of angels descend to Earth to bring about the Apocalypse. Humanity’s only hope lies in a group of strangers trapped in a diner and the Archangel Michael himself. It stars Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Kevin Durand, Tyrese Gibson, Adrianne Palicki, and Doug Jones. I think this looks awesome! It seems a bit similar in story to The Prophecy, but the visual effects here just look crazy. Release Date: January 2010 (US), March 2010 (UK)

Dorian Gray: A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty eternally, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all. This trailer came out a couple of weeks ago, but somehow I managed to miss it. I like the dark look they’re going for, but I’m hoping it’s not too costume drama-ry. Release Date: September 2009 (UK)

Astro Boy: When a scientist’s son dies, he secretly creates a powerful robot to replace him, but the robot uses its powers to become a famous superhero and faces his biggest challenge when an alien threatens Earth. So far we’ve only seen teasers, but now we finally get a full length theatrical trailer. It looks funnier than I imagined it to be. Release Date: October 2009 (US), January 2010 (UK)

New York, I Love You: In the city that never sleeps, love is always on the mind. Those passions come to life in New York, I Love You – a collaboration of storytelling from some of today’s most imaginative filmmakers and featuring an all-star cast. And what a cast! Release Date: October 2009 (US)

It’s Complicated: Oh wow, a movie inspired by a Facebook status. Jane is the mother of three grown kids, owns a restaurant/bakery and has an amicable relationship with her ex-husband, attorney Jake. But when Jane and Jake find themselves out of town for their son’s college graduation, things start to get complicated. Hmm, Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. I want to like this movie, because of Baldwin and Martin, but I just can’t stand Streep in romantic comedies (she was the main thing I didn’t like in Mamma Mia). Release Date: December 2009 (US), January 2010 (UK)

Me And Orson Welles: Set in 1937 New York, the story centers on a high school student (Efron) who happens upon the yet-to-open Mercury Theatre and is noticed by its mercurial founder, Orson Welles. The man lands a part in “Julius Caesar,” the production that catapulted Welles to the top, and spends the next week learning about life and love. Looks a bit cutesy, although I might end up seeing it. Release Date: unknown

The Open Road: A tale of a young man looking to reconnect with his long-lost father — a famous baseball legend — and bring him back to the bedside of his ailing mother. Together they embark on a road trip that none of them will ever forget. It’s got Jeff Bridges in it, so that’s got me kind of interested. But the other main character is played by Justin Timberlake; I don’t know, I just can’t stand him most of the time. Release Date: August 2009 (US)

The Boys Are Back: Inspired by a true story, The Boys Are Back is a deeply moving, wryly confessional tale of fatherhood, that intimately evokes both the fragility and wonders of family life. It follows a witty, wisecracking, action-oriented sportswriter (Clive Owen) who, in the wake of his wife’s tragic death, finds himself in a sudden, stultifying state of single parenthood. Release Date: September 2009 (US)

Episode 132: “Storm Shadow’s taking out the trash”

I still want to see G.I. Joe, even though most reviews I’ve seen have been pretty negative. Anyhow I really liked this Funny or Die video about the private lives of G.I. Joe and Cobra:

The video features quite a lot of familiar faces: Laz Alonso as Doc, Alexis Bledel as Lady Jaye, Billy Crudup as Zartan, Zach Galifiankais as Snow Job, Tony Hale as Dr. Mindbender, Vinnie Jones as Destro, Joey Kern as Tomax, Joey Kern as Xamot, Chuck Liddell as Gung Ho, Julianne Moore as Scarlett, Henry Rollins as Duke, Alan Tudyk as Shipwreck, Olivia Wilde as The Baroness.

Via Blogomatic3000