I am sorry for being so quiet lately... it is just that life altering, staying out of trouble and mostly watching series kinda make it hard on me to write all that much...
anywho... I finished Crossing Jordan today... again... i loved this series growing up and it is right there among my other favorite murder/crime series... i actually remember rushing home from school (at least when i went to school) just so i could catch the entire episode on tv.. what i love about it.. well there is the murder/crime aspect think we already established that i'm quite the fan of the genre but also the characters... mention this before to... you could have the greatest story in the world but if you don't have the characters to back it up it will fall through... and angry little girl like me loved the Jordan who clearly needed anger management and yet had this high amount of love and care for her family..
oh maybe i should explain what the show is about... just maybe..
Jordan Cavanaugh is a medical examiner who has meet well some difficulties in her job... luckily she gets a joboffering in Boston by an old colleague that know just how brilliant she is.. thing about Jordan is that she goes her own way and has quite the angry spirit.. probably because of her childhood trauma of loosing her mom... her brilliance in the job however is from her father the old cop who used to play murder/victim games with her to figure out not just who did it but why...
so there you have it.. that is basically what the show is about.. minus all the relations and stuff.. you have to watch that part yourself.. :P
This is a movie I found on telly one night when I was really getting ready to bed. I off cause ended up watching the damn thing not going to sleep until 3am. I was amazed by the movie and have wanted to write about it ever since but eh stuff got in the way...
Freedom Writers is about a new teacher in a public school forced to do a integration program. She is given a English class filled with "low class" students that all have given up on getting anywhere else than the gang life they are already part of. The thing is so has all the other teachers. They see them as a scum that can't be taught anything. The new teacher Erin struggles with the class and in a moment of rage over a drawing she learns that the kids doesn't even know what the Holocaust is, giving her an idea toward how she should teach these kids.
This movie reminds me so much of Dangerous Minds starring Michelle Pfeiffer, a movie I has watched a lot. It is the same type of new teacher comes to town and teach young kids that every one else has given up on. Freedom writers however is more modern (to be fair dangerous minds premiered in 95) and it gives a lot more insight in the change in the kids. Erin gives the kids a change to be heard by giving them the assignment to write whatever comes to mind. This is also through this assignment we as a viewer gets to hear what is going on in the bright minds of the kids, how their lives works, how everything is ruled by the gangs.
Not living in the US and not being confronted with the issue, because in my part of the country gangs aren't really a problem, I know next to nothing about it. But given I do know it's a problem I believe this movie is really good at showing in an entertaining way what is going on. Don't get me wrong I know that movies like this show a "romantic" side of the gang wars. After all the movie has to sell tickets. On the other hand the use of the words from the book gives it a more real feel to it. And i do find it that the use of the book works really well.
I really recommend watching this movie. If it scares you it should. It is about real life and about real kids that society has just given up on. Simply just Watch it.
So my friend, yeah I spend quite a lot of movie time with this friend.. :) Anyway when we first met he told me he was gonna "teach" me to watch horror movies. The thing about horrors is that I truely belive that it is a group activity... also I have this thing about laughing in really inappropiate moments... :P So we havn't really watched that many in the time we spend together.. don't get me wrong we have fun making good food and watching different movies. So we desided in the spirit of the upcoming All Hallows Eve to go all in.. So this weekend we did... some good food... the try to make a little scary food and some horror movies... The choice of food fell on a chicken burger-sandwich thing... soooo good.. really yummy. And for well it was dessert.. like a couple of hours later... we had this tombstone/graveyard mud thing we found right around here... the thing is being danish the american measurements don't make much sense. Actually I'm fairly sure we did something very wrong in the translation. Which is why I kinda renamed it to Death by Chocolate. It wasn't bad it was just really heavy and it took some time to get through.. and you'd get a bit of a sugar rush.
so to the movies.. :)
After.Life (2009)
I really like this one. It is more a thinker than a scary one, but that should not stop you. Anyway the movie is about funeral director, Eliot, who is preparing a young woman, Anna, for her funeral. Doing this Eliot is talking with Anna, telling her he has a gift to talk to the dead. Anna however doesn't really believe that she is dead. Giving the interesting question and plot of the movie.. Is Anna dead or not?
So no surprise i wanted to watch this one because of Christina Ricci. I think she is a great actress and I am actually ashamed to say that I haven't seen all that much of her later work. Ricci was the actress I grew up with watching her in Casper and The Addams Family. Remembering her like this has in some ways made it a little difficult seeing her as an adult especially because she is so damn tiny.
Anyway I loved her in this one. I felt like I got the same quirkiness I remember from The Addams family.. but an adult one. You know?
Back to the movie. I was really intrigued by this one. Basically I love movies where I have to think about it, where I can't figure out what exactly is the truth. And this is definitively one of those movies.
Insidious (2010)
Insidious (good thing I'm writing cause I have no plans on pronouncing it.) starts of about this family of five moving into this big ass house. Now like any half descent horror movie of cause the house is scary. One night the oldest son climbs to the attic and falls down, alerting the house with his scream. Next day the boy won't wake. And then really weird things starts to happen...
So even with my lack of knowledge in the horror genre I know that this is the way a lot of horrors goes. I liked most of the movie. It was interesting and the effects where spot on and somewhat spooky. But in some way i guess it just didn't fit together. Like the movie was trying to be to much. know what i mean? Well I just believe that this is one of the movies where the "less is more" would have done so much for the movie. As we got along in the movie I got the feel that it was explaining to much. I generally just really like to think for myself and i felt like it was not that big an option. Now you might think I hated Insidious. I didn't, I actually liked it. I was entertained, I got my small jolts of shock, I even had a descent story to follow... it just could have been more by using less.
Trick 'r Treat (2007)
Trick 'r Treat is 4 (well 5) stories put nicely together as one. It tells the story of Halloween tradition (like trick or treating) and what happens when you don't abide to the rules of tradition....
So this is a really bloody one.. lots and lots of lovely blood (yes I'm a creepy one). Loved Trick 'r Treat for the fact that even though it is smallstories it actually fit together... It is these small stories and one big story all wrapped up in one :) ... So get your costume on light your jack o'lantern, find a plate of spooky treats and put on Trick 'r Treat... if you dare!
