I liked the twist with Tess coming to Charlie and asking for help. And I liked that he was able to see the dead, because he at one point had died. It was sad to see him saying good-bye to his high school friends who had died in Iraq or Afghanistan. But it was kind of nice to know that maybe someone was there to see them pass on.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the actress who played Tess. I thought she was a little distracting and annoying. But I thought the cemetery part was super romantic. I wonder if the book would be better. Because I thought it was a little too much 1+1=2 kind of movie.
Fun summer flick, especially for $6. Didn’t see a couple of the twist and turns coming, which was fun. I kept thinking that Mike wasn’t what he seemed, but then he died, I guess maybe he was just this ordinary spider loving guy. Borderline liked the fact that they set it up for a sequel. I really like Chiwetel Ejiofor, so it’s nice to see him in a big film like this.
The things I don’t like about this film was how much press Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are getting. Doesn’t anybody get tired of hearing about them? About their “love” for one another and their kids, etc. Blah blah blah blah blah.
And maybe this is completely ridiculous, but I really don’t like that her face isn’t centered on this poster. It’s just slightly to the left, but it looks like a big, unintentional mistake.
Jake Gyllenhaal’s character reminds me of Brian. His charm and his not sure where I’m going life track. I think Tommy fell in love with having a good and healthy family, one with love and support. And he was able to both give it and receive it. But I’m not sure he really fell in love with Grace.
I found this movie to be a little too all over the place. I didn’t really think that the story lines of the war and Sam’s relationships really wove well together. It was a little choppy and all over the place. And I wasn’t sure, are they trying to say something about war? It felt at times too pro and too con to really tell. And other than how horrible the conditions of this war are and what some people do to get back home, to stay alive, I’m really kind of left with nothing. Maybe I just didn’t get it.
I love this poster. I think it’s because I used to do a lot of collaging like this, a subtle split between two things. Just enough separation to attract attention. And I love how this effect brings into question the relationship between the three characters. Sadly, I’ve already seen the trailer, so I already know what the movie is about. It’s hard to know if I would have come to the same conclusion without having seen it.
Most movie posters I find uninspirational and bland. A bare minimum literal visual definition of the movie. But this, this makes you take a double look. Makes you ponder their relationships and in contrast, your own.
by Ann Brashares
I thought this book was great. I almost immediately got drawn in and I devoured it. But the ending left me feeling sad. Daniel was a sucker for repeating the past. He would leave ‘Sophia’ or whatever reincarnation she was and he’d go and do what’s ‘right’. He did it to her as Sophia and he did it again when she was Lucy. And I can’t help but feel a little sad, like he’s the one who keeps making it impossible for them to be together. And she’s left in the meantime waiting. She must have spent the majority of her lives (the ones that overlapped with Daniel) waiting for him to come back.
In fact, I have to say, I hated this ending. I felt like she kind of just lost some wind at the end and couldn’t write another word. She ended it with a letter? What the hell does that mean? And, yeah, it was pretty predictable that Lucy was going to get pregnant. A lot went unexplained. Is there going to be a sequel, cause Brashares sure left a lot of pot holes within the last three chapters. What was the point of not drowning? If they wanted to face him, why not have done it on the beach?
There are a couple things about this movie that I loved whole heartedly. 1- The Minions. Especially the way they laugh. 2- Gru seems a lot like Mark. Not just the accent either, but his whole personality.
My favorite part was when one of the minions grabbed another minion and “cracked” him. He then started to glow like a glow stick. The evil bank was Lehman Brothers. Or when he hated the story of the three kittens. Or when the minions gave the littlest kid a put together unicorn. Or when the kids loved destroying things almost as much as Gru did. It was a great movie and very well done.
I just wished their trailers and marketing had been a little more consistent, because I wasn’t even sure what this movie was about. I almost didn’t see it, whereas most of the other animated movies are pretty in your face blatant about the gist of their stories.
It was a fun summer movie with some pretty cool special effects. But I thought it wasn’t nearly as good as it could have been. All the good parts were really already in the preview. I loved the Fantasia tip of the hat and the whole mop clean up session.
Jay Baruchel was the real reason I went to see this movie and he was pretty funny. But I’m getting a little afraid that he might fall into a typecast. Kind of the same way Michael Cera is in a crack.
by Franz Wisner
I found the book pretty interesting and it was fun to see him gradually, almost by accident fall in love with Tracy. There never seemed to be a secret ingredient or even a tipping point, where Franz all of a sudden is in love. You almost wonder, how DO people know they’re in love? I liked how he and Tracy really got to know each other through emails over the course of 6-8 weeks. And perhaps, he’s right, they were only able to fall in love by not being overwhelmed or distracted by the physical or easy aspects of a young relationship. Only through communication, was he able to fall in love with her. That’s kind of the way G and I were, we met, hung out for 2 weeks and then did 1 year of long distance. It was tough, but I think I really knew him at the end of that first year.
My favorite aspect of the book though was learning about all the dating and courting experiences around the world. My only criticism is, can anyone EVER really know and understand a people enough to say that THIS is how they are? I’ve lived in places for years and never really feel confident in knowing a place, a culture, a people. And it was very obvious that these were not objective accounts. But it was all fascinating. I even got a bit of research for our project: New Zealand has the 4th highest chlamydia rates in the world.
“For me, love is if I am happy and you are happy, we can share. But if you are not happy, you can share nothing.”
Watching this after watching Inception made this movie a bit of a let down. I’m not sure why Leo would choose two roles that are seemingly similar. Both his character in Shutter Island and his character in Inception are living in a world of their own construct. They both loved women who continued to haunt them long after dying.
The part I liked at the end was when Leo says something along the lines of, would you rather die a great man or a monster? Maybe that’s why he always chose to slip back into being the Marshall. He would rather be a great man, someone who upholds justice and truth, than a monster, someone who killed his wife because she killed their kids, yet still loved her completely. Maybe a second viewing would answer some of these questions, but I’m honestly, not up to it. Also, it wasn’t as creepy as I thought it’d be.
