Sunday, February 20, 2011

Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest/ The Cell/ writing news


Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest/ The Cell/ writing news

Feb. 18 Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest: I saw the first movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl back when it first came out in 2003 with my friend Leslie in the movie theatre. I liked the first one. It was good, though I can't remember too much of it because I only saw it once 8 years ago. Wait, I got a flashback where I went to Leslie's house to celebrate her birthday with her family in 2004. She got the dvd and we saw the bloopers.

Now onto the actual movie which came out in 2006. I saw it a few months ago on TV with my sister. I took notes during it. Dead Man's Chest was beautifully shot, great sets, big budget, and special effects. It was scary at a few parts. There were good surprises, original, suspenseful.

How Jack Sparrow shows up is very quirky and funny. There was a funny, interesting swinging prison. There was a creative, and daring prison escape. It was fun to watch the chase and fight scenes. There are great action sequences that are exciting. There was that 3 guys and 3 swords fight scene instead of the usual between 2 guys and 2 swords.

Monsters Inc: This came out in 2001. I also saw this movie a few months ago on TV with my sister. I saw about 1 hr and 20 min of this movie on video at my family friend's house back in 2001 and never finished it until now. Then I saw a little bit of the beginning again in 2003 at my job where I had to watch kids.

There were good graphics and surprises. It was an interesting world that the monsters lived in. It was creative, original, and unpredictable. What if monsters aren't scary? They scare kids to catch their screams and use it as electricity. They introduced the villain creatively.

My sister says there's going to be a Monsters Inc. 2 sequel in 2012. I checked on imdb.com. A sequel coming out 11 yrs later is pretty late. Then there was Men in Black 2 that came out 5 yrs after the first one. Then there's Wallstreet: Money Never Sleeps that came out 20 yrs after the first one.

The Cell: This movie came out in 2000. I saw the trailer on TV and I thought it looked cool. It was 18+ and I was 15 back then. I wouldn't have liked it if I watched it when I was 15. Now that I have watched 5 yrs of Criminal Minds where they catch serial killers, I can enjoy this movie. I also watch a lot of crime dramas so I would be interested in this. I saw this last summer on TV and now I'm writing about it.

Jennifer Lopez plays a neurological researcher and enters into a serial killer's mind to find his latest kidnapped victim. The killer is played by Vince D' Onofrio. Vince Vaughn plays a cop. VV can play serious roles, though he often does comedy.

My sister told me it had scary imagery and she couldn't sleep after she had seen it. It was very disturbing. It was hypnotic, creative, and original. The killer was in this coma mode. If he was awake, then the whole movie would be like every conventional cop movie. The cop interrogates the suspect, and then the cops have to run around looking for the victim.

In this movie, the neurological researcher has to get into the killer's mind because he's asleep. There are clues in his head.

It was good how VV told JL's character how he became a cop. It wasn't too expository in dialogue. He was a DA prosecuting bad guys until one guy got away due to contaminated evidence.

This movie made me think of the movie Inception (2010) about going into dreams to get secrets. There was also that Buffy season 4 finale ep called "Restless" where it delves into Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles's dreams.

Through the dream as JL gets into the serial killer's head, it showed how the serial killer was made. He had an abusive father. A lot of serial killers do come from bad homes. Some come from good homes, but they're still psychopaths. It's a smart movie. It was creepy, scary, and freaky. I recommend you watch it, if you don't mind getting scared.

Feb. 19: Writing about The Cell makes me want to go and watch it again.

Valkyrie: I saw this a few weeks ago. My little brother saw this in the theatre and borrowed it from the library, so I decided to watch it with him. He loves history. This stars Tom Cruise and it came out in 2008. It's about a man named Valkyrie who tries to take down Hitler and the Nazis.

There was good action, and it was well shot. I don't really like war movies. There was good suspense and tension. Good acting and good story. However, I'll add this to my list of "Good movies that I don't find entertaining" like Robert Deniro's City by the Sea.

Writing news: I was reading in The Globe and Mail a few weeks ago about Hilary Duff's book called Elixer. It turns out a ghost writer wrote most of the book. The ghost writer talked about how she and HD talked on the phone and HD told her what the story was going to be like. GW wrote it, while HD read it. GW got a good pay check out of it.

In the article it mentioned how HD was interviewed by George Lopez.

GL: Did you write it by hand or on the computer?
HD: I'm a horrible speller, and I didn't go to college. I had a lot of help.

That was very true of HD to admit that she didn't write much of the book. It also shows that she's insecure by saying she's not a good speller and didn't pursue higher education.

Beauty and the Briefcase: I was going through my agenda and it turns out my sister and I were talking about HD's career. What's the last thing she's been in? She was in the TV movie called Beauty and the Briefcase.

Me: Is that a romantic comedy?
S: Yes.

S read it in a Cosmopolitan magazine. I was watching True Blood, and then I checked what else was on and caught the last 20 min. of the TV movie. I see old MTV VJ Amanda Walsh playing the best friend. Matt Dallas (Kyle XY) was in it. They actually used the real Cosmopolitan office building and the magazine that HD's character works at.

This seems like those other romantic comedy movies like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days where Kate Hudson works at a magazine called Poise. In 13 Going on 30, Jennifer Garner works at a magazine called Composure.

It's one of those glamorous jobs that women like to work in the fashion industry being a designer or fashion magazine. The people on the reality shows The Hills and The City worked there.

Radio: Did you know that the radio station EZ Rock 104.9 has closed down and is replaced by Virgin Radio? It plays Top 40 music which 91.7 The Bounce and Hot 107 already plays that kind of music. Three Top 40 music stations in Edmonton.

Linked In: Does anyone use this? I signed up, but don't use it. I got an email from them saying that they have 3 million members. It's to network between business people about jobs.

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