Freshly Scented

TruePower USB Outlet... For when you need things charged without all the hassle

2010-04-16T18:00:00.001-04:00

When any of my gadgets need to be charged, I usually do it overnight so they will be ready in the morning when I need them again. However, my things like my iPod require my computer to be on, or I need to fish out a wall charger and my USB cable. Plus there are a ton of other things that need to be charged with USB cables and ports, such as handheld cameras and camcorders, as well as phones. FastMac has designed the TruePower USB Outlet to help solve all your tech charging woes.

This may be one of the coolest ideas I have seen in a while. Not only does this wall socket come with two standard power outlets, but it also comes with two USB outlets as well so you can plug your USB cable directly into the socket to charge your gadgets. Another cool thing about this socket is that it only draws power when something is physically connected to the port so that power isn’t wasted.

In addition to all those fantastic perks, this port, once it becomes UL approved, will cost a measly $20 and will be super easy to install all by yourself! This really is a great deal and idea for any home with lots of tech stuff that requires USB charging.

Sony’s bloggie MP4 Camera

2010-04-16T17:00:00.000-04:00

If you have been checking around the market for a great HD camera, check out Sony’s bloggie. The handheld camcorder, as mentioned above, takes high definition video, compresses the file sizes for easy upload to your Mac or PC, uploads in MP4 format so you can put your videos on you iPod and easily upload to sites such as YouTube, and one of the coolest features about this camera is it’s nifty 270 degree swivel lens that allows you to film people in front of you or turn it so you can film yourself without actually moving the camera.

I have a couple more features to quickly mention… On top of taking video, if you happen to forget your camera and want to take a photo of something, the bloggie has still photo capabilities. Unfortunately, the still photos are only 5 mega pixels, but regardless, it is another really handy feature to have. The last feature I’m going to mention deals with the upload stuff I mentioned before, the bloggie has a built in USB key so you can plug in and start uploading right away without having to find your camera cables and such. This camera has SD card capabilities to store more videos and photos, but comes with a 4GB internal memory as well. For an HD camera, the starting price is really affordable at $169 and it comes in four different colours.

Porn Detection Stick… when you suspect your significant other is lying about their computer content

2010-04-15T21:00:00.001-04:00

You may recall earlier in the week when I reviewed a little something called a Chat Stick created by a company called Paraben. Well, that is not the only item they have created. Paraben also has a nifty little item called the Porn Detection Stick.

If you read anything about Paraben’s Chat Stick, you will likely already know a little bit about the product, but if not, I’ll enlighten you a bit. Basically the Porn Detection Stick is an USB drive. All you have to do to work it is plug it into any computers USB port and the software installed on the stick will search the computer for any of the naughty naughty.

Here’s a fun fact for all you mommies out there… according to Paraben’s web site, the average age that a child is exposed to some sort of online pornography is 11 years old. Yikes. Without even knowing it, your kid may have accessed all kinds of innocence destroying images. And for spouses everywhere, not only does the stick search for porn that is currently on the computer, but it can recover deleted files and images so you can see what the past computer users were browsing, as far as porn goes. If porn is a little too raunchy for you, there is also a great little feature that allows you to blur out anything that you may not want to see, so you can get a gist of what is on there without seeing the full monty (ha!). As a last thing to mention in this review, another great thing is that the stick works solely from the stick, once you remove it from the USB port, it leaves no program behind for anyone to discover, so your porn snooping can be your little secret… all for the low price of $99. Having a one-up on your spouse or significant other is priceless though, isn’t it?

Fujifilm FinePix z700 is Furtastic! Err… Fantastic!

2010-04-15T19:00:00.002-04:00

You know those days when your pet is being so photogenic and the camera just doesn’t seem to want to take a good picture? Thanks to Fujifilm, you will hopefully no longer have that problem. Not only does this camera (launched in March) recognize your people friends’ faces, it recognizes the faces of your furry friends too! That’s right, this camera has pet facial recognition software.

In addition to the furry facial recognition shenanigans, this is actually a pretty sweet camera with 12 MegaPixels and a LCD touchscreen to make it really easy to edit, delete and check out your photos and videos. The camera comes in four different shades of awesome so that not only will your dog match your handbag, so will your camera!

Cleankeys… Bringing out the clean freak in YOU!

2010-04-14T20:00:00.009-04:00

We spend countless hours on our computers working, chatting, surfing and whatever else people do on their computers. Not only that, but we eat around them, drink around them and when we’re off sick from work, we usually make time to check out the internet at least once a day. Needless to say, our keyboards are dirty and full of germs. Can’t even-don’t wanna-cause thinking about it too much would make you never want to use your computer again dirty. Gross. Cleankeys is the solution!

This nifty little handy dandy keyboard is a dream come true for hypochondriacs and clean freaks alike. It is, in fact, the worlds easiest to clean keyboard, or so they say. It’s cleanable with no fear of any water damage… because it’s waterproof! Ta da! Some other amazing benefits of this keyboard (so you can tell your friends about these instead of the whole clean freak thing) include a built in track pad so you can get rid of that crazy dirty mouse that you use all day, the keyboard is also wireless, so you can take it wherever you need to go… bring it to work with you, use it at home, wherever you need it! The only real downside to this keyboard is, because it’s a flat surface, it reduces the speed of your typing by approximately 30%.

Regardless, it’s a pretty good idea for anyone who wants a nice all around clean environment. Light, simple and clean concept design (no pun intended… well ok… maybe just a little bit intended) that will run you $399 for a molded plastic keyboard surface or $449 US for a glass keyboard surface, but can you really put a price on cleanliness? I’m talking to you, hypochondriacs and germophobes..

44 Inch Chest

2010-04-14T19:00:00.000-04:00

Well I’ve just finished watching my Blu-ray of 44 Inch Chest. I wasn’t entirely sure of what to expect given what I had heard about the film and the pretty brilliant cast involved with it. Even after finishing the movie, I’m not entirely sure of what to make of it, so here’s what I DO know.

The movie stars Ray Winstone, Ian McShane, John Hurt and Tom Wilkinson who play a group of friends who become involved in a kidnapping over the infidelity of one of the men’s wife.

Basically I found the film a bit dry. The fine actors that carry this movie do a fine job with what they have been given, but for me, I found that that really wasn’t much to go on. The story jumps back and forth between reality and some really effed up, strange dreams that the involved husband has. Sometimes they’re funny; sometimes you’re just wondering what the hell is going on. The film carries on while the group of friends decides to do with the kidnapped man.

On a slightly, but not really technical level of the actual Blu-ray, the film itself seemed to be in pretty decent shape as far as HD goes, but as for any special features, the film didn’t stand out too much for me to take the time to check them out (sorry for those who are interested). The features listed are an Audio Commentary from the director (Malcolm Venville), as well as an interview with him, a behind the scenes featurette and a trailer. Meh. If reading my review hasn’t turned you off the film (and I hope it hasn’t… one should always see a movie for themselves no matter what a reviewer says), it’s available on DVD and Blu-ray April 20th.

Lord of the Rings on Blu-Ray – Holy Moly Batman!

2010-04-13T20:25:00.000-04:00

Anyone who collects blu-ray knows that Lord of the Rings is one of the titles that would be considered the Holy Grail of blu-ray. So when this was announced for blu-ray, you can imagine how excited people got, including me. So here is the breakdown for you:

Pros: IT’S THE FRAKKING LORD OF THE RINGS… on BLU-RAY! It looks pretty amazing, comes in a 9 disc box set, loads of special features… oh, and just in case you missed it… IT’S LORD OF THE FREAKING RINGS… on BLU-RAY! Seriously now.

Cons: Ya, so… I really hate to make this paragraph longer than the pros, but here we go. Of the 9 discs that are included in the Blu-ray box set, only 3 of those discs are actually blu-ray, the other 6 discs are regular DVDs that have the special features on them. Now when the Lord of the Rings came out, we knew that Peter Jackson would release an extended edition of the movies, but no one knew how AWESOME they would be, so everyone bought the regular edition of the movies. However, we now know better and we want the full package, which unfortunately, this is not. I guess that they thought people would just want to buy the first edition of it, whichever edition it was. Again… to clarify: this box set of Lord of the Rings is the regular theatrical release, NOT the extended edition. Boo.

Other than that, you really can’t go wrong with the Lord of the Rings. If you’re looking for something to test your new player, or whether you just already know that you want it, even though it isn’t the super awesome version of the movies… again, you just can’t go wrong… it’s Lord of the effing Rings! Oh, and as a sidenote to this, they have also released the original animated Lord of the Rings again on DVD and for the first time on Blu-ray, so if you’re a fan, check it out!

Victorinox Secure Pro Channels Inner James Bond

2010-04-13T20:00:00.002-04:00

Do you keep highly confidential and secret files on your USB flash drive? How about those really secret, totally private, most intimate thoughts stored in a digital journal? Maybe you just have some files that you would rather other people just didn’t see. If that’s the case, Victorinox Swiss Army has come up with just the product for you. The Victorinox Secure Pro is a USB drive/Swiss Army knife that the company claims is un-hackable. At the launch, Victorinox even offered a $100, 000 reward for anyone who could crack the code.

When they say that this thing is secure… they really mean it. The USB drive comes with fingerprint recognition technology and will go completely James Bond/Inspector Gadget on you if someone tries to force the drive open by self-destructing! Seriously. Although, instead of a mini explosion, the memory chip will just be burned so that no data can be pulled from it.

As a side note to exploding USB drives and such, the drive is available from 8GB to 32GB and ranges from about $75 to $270. Just when you were wondering if it could get any better, this bad boy also comes with everything you want from one of their utility knives including a knife, mini-scissors and a nail file. Perfect for your inner spy. Or if you prefer the more frequent flyer friendly version, the Victorinox Secure Pro comes with just the USB drive minus the knife etc.

HP Slate – Hot on the heels of the iPad

2010-04-13T19:00:00.001-04:00

As always, as soon as Apple launches it’s newest “it” item, everyone else wants in on the action. Let me first start by saying that, for me, nothing has come close to replicating the sleek, simple and elegant designs and products that Apple comes up with. With that being said, HP is preparing to launch its version of the iPad called the HP Slate.

For anyone who is seriously behind on the tech times, the iPad and Slate are basically giant versions of the iPhone/iPod Touch with the capabilities of a computer, while being extremely portable… and pretty. Very, very pretty.

Some of the features, I will admit are a little more tempting with the Slate such as two built in webcams, one with photo taking capabilities and the other with video capability for video calling. The HP Slate also comes with a handy SD card reader and USB port. However, with great power comes great responsibility, and by that I mean there are some crappy downsides like the HP Slate has approximately 5 hours of battery life to the iPads 10+ hours. Plus it only retails for about $50 less than the iPad, begging the question “Is it really worth it?”

Let It Be Bigger! The new and improved Nintendo DSi XL

2010-04-12T21:00:00.002-04:00

Most people have grown up with some sort of Nintendo console over the years, and the past few years has seen Nintendo create the amazing Nintendo DS and we’ve watched it evolve from there.

First it was big and clunky, then it was small and light, then it was slightly bigger but still light and now it’s much bigger but still light. The Nintendo DSi XL comes equipped with 4.2” screens… 93% bigger than the DSi! In addition to much larger screens, which definitely help with reading teeny-tiny writing on the screen, the DSi XL has also added a full sized stylus, in addition to the traditional stylus, to make playing your games more comfortable.

Long story short, the new DSi XL may be bigger but it takes no shortcuts with customer satisfaction. If this console is as good as it seems, it will make portable game play even more enjoyable than it already is. For new DSi users, the console will be easy to learn and play and for returning console users, you will find that much is the same but it’s more real people sized instead of child sized and will run you not too much more than the regular DSi at about $189.99.

Chat Stick – For the snoopy, suspicious or just bored

2010-04-12T20:00:00.002-04:00

Remember those days when an invasion of privacy meant your parents finding and reading your diary? Long gone are those days. Today, diaries have been replaced with online journals and password protected folders. Parents, spouses and employers: do not fret! Snooping into someone’s private conversations has become as easy as plugging in Paraben’s Chat Stick to any computers USB port. The Chat Stick can tell you pretty much anything from whether your husband or wife is having conversations that are just a little bit too flirty, if your child is really chatting with the next door neighbor about a school project, or if your employees are actually typing up the report that’s due at the end of the day.

Chat Stick will pull any chat logs on the computer from Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, Trillian, Skype, Hello and Miranda. All the files it finds will store on the device and organize them so they are easy to access and read.

While Chat Stick is a great and handy tool for any suspicious, paranoid or just snoopy people out there, make sure subtle is on that list too and cover up the big letters on the side of the stick that pretty well explain exactly what you were doing on the computer.

The Ridiculously Easy/Medium/Hard Screencap Challenge #8!!!

2010-03-01T11:30:00.002-05:00

Tra la la! You guessed it. It's the 8th Ridiculously Easy.Medium/Hard Screencap Challenge! Hoooooorah! Well then. I'm not sure what to put these under as far as difficulty levels go... Check them out I guess and see what you can figure out!

Well then! Good luck everyone and guess, guess, GUESS! Can't hurt!

GOOD LUCK!

Book Review: LOOK AT THE BIRDIE: Unpublished Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut

2010-02-20T12:33:00.004-05:00

This week I took a break from comics and dove deep down into some good old fashioned literature. Or in this case, some previously unpublished short fiction from the dearly departed Kurt Vonnegut.

Responsible for some of the most important works in American literature of the past century, Vonnegut wrote with a voice clearly heard in his tales of comic tragedy, often emphasizing on technology and the ironic pitfalls of human achievement therein; Cat's Cradle and Player Piano, to name a couple. Even while bringing the reader to hysterics, his political and social outrage can be felt in modern classics like Slaughterhouse-Five, Mother Night, and Breakfast of Champions.

With Look At The Birdie, the reader is given a smattering platter of engaging tales written thoughtfully and concisely, but without the bigger ideas hiding at the peripheral. The characters, although met briefly, are groomed nicely and connect with the reader instantly. As a whole, this collection reads like a master craftsman sharpening his tools. Make no mistake however, there is not a dull blade at Vonnegut's disposal. The opening short, Confido, is reminiscent of Vonnegut's early science fiction work, and sets the tone for the book. Each tale reads with a wicked sense of fun (A Song For Selma), is often heart warming (Shout About It From The Housetops), and always fulfilling. My personal favourite is the suspenseful Hall Of Mirrors, although the two part tale, Ed Luby's Key Club, is quite a caper!

I highly recommend Vonnegut to anyone, especially those with a wry, subversive sense of humour. What I love about Look At The Birdie is that it's fit for anyone who needs a quick fix of great storytelling. Go grab it!

The Ridiculously Easy/Medium/Hard Screencap Challenge #7!!!

2010-02-17T09:00:00.001-05:00

I think it's safe to say that all of these screencaps are uber easy. I don't even think I could consider any of these medium... Oh my. I AM terrible at making these screencaps. I wish I could offer you guys a prize! I do have something, but you would have to live in Toronto to claim it... I have a pass to see a screening of Hot Tub Time Machine with John Cusack on Feb. 23 at Yonge and Dundas AMC theatre. Well if you DO live in Toronto and want to see Hot Tub Time Machine... Get these screencaps right!

GOOD LUCK!

Rolling Stone is a Disgrace

2010-02-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time there was a magazine that was so revered in everything it did. Its reviews were trusted, its stories were fabulous and we could just not get enough of it. Rolling Stone made the rock and roll lifestyle so glamourous (not to mention in the past decade it glamourized it even further with Cameron Crowe’s flick Almost Famous).

Rolling Stone has fallen down a tall mountain from where they once resided. Their articles which used to be so unbiased and so amazing are now residing in the shadows of their former glory. Not only has the magazine become more political than musical, the musical aspect of it that still remains feels phony. The reviews have a feel to them like the reviewer hasn’t even listened to what they’re writing about, or sometimes the praise is so ridiculous for something very obviously not deserving of it, that you wonder if the magazine has been accepting bribes to make certain artists look better.

The covers of Rolling Stone are another thing which used to be so very famous, I mean come ON, there is a freakin’ song written about them! The cover used to be such an extreme honour for anyone who was placed on it. Now, the covers are riddled with such complete garbage that the people actually deserving to be on the covers should be ashamed of the company they now share. No one can ever forget the epic cover by Annie Leibovitz of John Lennon and Yoko Ono with one another… the last photo taken of John Lennon alive. In 2009, the covers range from the deserving Bob Dylan and U2 (TWO and a half times!) to the much bigger list of undeserving including Lil’ Wayne, Adam Lambert, Taylor Lautner, Shakira, Gossip Girl, Megan Fox, and the freaking Jonas Brothers. And that’s all in ONE YEAR! All of those terrible covers and unnecessary features on idiotic “artists” and celebrities just in one year. Not to mention Britney Spears demolishing the covers TWICE in 2008.

As another point, I mean… who the HELL is writing Rolling Stone right now anyways?! I’m a big collector of annual best of lists and decade lists in magazines and of course, I picked up Rolling Stones decade edition to see what they thought of the 2000s. You have no idea how very furious I was to see a complete list of nonsense in their top lists… among the top albums were Jay-Z (who has retired HOW MANY TIMES NOW?!), Eminem (whose fame revolves around making fun of and bashing the lives and careers of others), and 50 Cent (whose entire musical career consists of womanizing, drugs, and guns). Ugh. It bothers me that Kanye West made the list as well, but I could understand that even though he’s a moron… his music is still catchy. Where are all the great indie albums of the decade?! Why is everything on this list cookie cutter top 40 B.S.? For me, it was basically like the artists that made the list were what was expected and not necessarily what was deserving of it. And best songs… REALLY? Beyonce? More Jay-Z (again… RETIRED!!), Eminem, 50 Cent, Missy Elliot, Amerie, Justin Timberlake, Kelis, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Snoop Dogg?!! COME ON!

Rolling Stone needs to take a step back and think about what they’re doing. They’re not completely so far off the trail that they can’t go back and fix things, but they are damn close. After changing Rolling Stone’s famous magazine cover sizes to a traditional same old generic layout… they need a proper revamp back to what used to make Rolling Stone so bloody awesome to begin with. Rolling Stone should not be a top 40 magazine; it used to be a rock and roll magazine that has been reduced to complete crap and drivel. Re-evaluate your set up RS… Get your s**t together.

50 Words or Less #1

2010-02-15T00:00:00.000-05:00

I've decided to start trying to put up some power reviews for movies I haven't really seen in a while, but would like to review! 50 Words or Less! If you loved any of these movies and want to write a full review on it, let me know and we will post it up!

Brothers Bloom – interesting story, great cast, good humour, but it was poorly executed and dragged on for too long. Near the end, wasn’t sure where they were taking the story, just got too confusing, but it was a nice and fun attempt.

Coraline – brilliant, not necessarily a kids movie. Beautiful stop animation, excellent voice acting, one of the only movies that may actually be a better movie than book (and I am a HUGE Neil Gaiman fan!). Well worth the buy and well worth more than one watch.

Sherlock Holmes – great story, excellent casting, great action (loved how they used slow motion to plan Sherlock’s moves and then sped it up in reality). Fairly true to original Sherlock, just slightly modernized. Enjoy the eccentric drunk aspect of Holmes and Watson’s general portrayal.

This concludes our very first 50 Words or Less reviews! Again, if you want to write a full review of ANY of these movies, send us an email, write us a comment below or just write your review and send it to us so we can post it up!

The Ridiculously Easy/Medium/Hard Screencap Challenge #6!!!

2010-02-13T00:00:00.000-05:00

Here are some more screencaps for you for the weekend! SOOOOMEBODY said they would post Valentine's Day ones, but since I am too lazy to theme the screencaps, you're stuck with the ones I did instead. Now I mentioned this to Amy the other day, I thought that my screencaps were hard, but it turns out that they are ridiculously easy, leaving me to want to the change the title of this challenge to The Ridiculously Easy/Medium/Hard (but really more like easy and occasionally medium) Screencap Challenge (at least when I post screencaps...). Well anyways... enjoy them and good luck figuring them out... I'm sure you smarties will figure them out!

I also just realized that the second one is stupid easy. Like ridiculously ridiculous easy. Ah. Well if you don't figure it out, I won't think you're dumb or anything... But I just noticed a bunch of things that made it obvious. Regardless... good luck my friends! Guess, guess, guess and good luck!

GOOD LUUUUUUUUCK!

Eye-Catching Comics of the Week

2010-02-12T11:57:00.002-05:00

Hello all! As a new contributor to Freshly Scented, and this being my first post, I feel I must introduce myself: My name is Adam and I like comics. The End. Given the loose nature of reviews here on Freshly Scented, I may review comics one week or make recommendations another. Which is to say my posts may not feature new arrivals for the current week. If you're a frequent reader of FS then this isn't a bold concept to you. Good. We'll get along swimmingly!

My pick of the week is Batman and Robin #8, and with good reason, as Grant Morrison propels this title with fresh characters and plot twists, as well as his manic story-telling style--juxtaposing separate time streams against real-time on the same page. Of course a narrative that elegantly fractured wouldn't work without a capable artist, and Cameron Stewart proved in the arcs previous issue that he's quite a formidable penciler, contending with the titles headline artist Frank Quitely admirably. With this second issue of three in the Blackest Knight story-arc, Stewart adeptly handles Morrison's jumps forward and backward through time. Two panels especially come to mind, referring to plot threads stranding all the way back to R.I.P. and Final Crisis, proving once again that Morrison has big, big plans for labyrinthian Batman saga. Now, such reference may be confounding to newer readers, and I've read other review where that's looked upon as a flaw. I for one don't review things based on how I expect other readers will feel. Because I've been following Morrison's Batman run since Batman and Son, I feel richly rewarded when long-standing plot threads become meaningful. It's not a detriment to the book, but an example of how carefully crafted the material is. Kudos to Morrison for keeping Batman vital and relevant. Double kudos to Stewart for drawing such fun and exciting pages!

Trailer Roundup #5

2010-02-12T00:00:00.000-05:00

Wow... so it's been a while since we've done trailer roundup, but there were some really awesome trailers I've seen lately that I think YOU should see!

I think I'm going to start with the new Last Airbender trailer! This is the first trailer really where we've seen any of the movie dialogue! It looks awesome. I'm really skeptical because of M. Night Shymalan being attached the project, but maybe he will prove his forté in screen adaptations instead of original pieces. Some people are iffy about the movie since it was originally an anime show and none of the people that have been cast are asian, but I have to disagree and say that the cast looks amazing! At least it isn't a Dragonball Z debacle where they only cast Americans in the roles of Japanese characters! Check it out and let us know what you think... As one final note, you might've remembered the movie originall being called Avatar, but thanks to James Cameron, it has now just been changed to The Last Airbender. Jerk.

I'm gonna pile through a few that you should check out that I honestly don't know that much about. First in this list is Adele Blanc-Sec (or the Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec). This movie I believe (I beeeeeelieve...) is french and looks amazing! The graphics look a bit hokey, but the story looks like a lot of fun and could be a refreshing flick! Then there is A.D., which is an animated zombie apocalypse flick, which looks pretty awesome! The art in the film isn't exactly Pixar animation, but it looks pretty awesome nonetheless and looks like it could be freaky! Then we have Heartless, which is the new Jim Sturgess flick which looks to be about a man who may have discovered the presence of demons. It looks pretty spooky and awesome.

Now I'll go back to some ones I do know a bit more about. For all you avid readers out there, a movie adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is coming out. Last year (for me) was a really bad year for book to movie adaptations and I'm hoping the streak of bad will be broken with this one. This looks fantastic! The book takes place in Sweden and the characters are all Swedish and the movie has a Swedish no-name cast that looks absolutely BANG-ON to the book characters. If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it and I'm hoping I can say so about the movie too when it's out!

ANNNNNND because I don't want to get too into a few more titles and make this TOO long, I'll just mention a couple others! Think of them as my honourable mentions! The Crazies looks like a really spooky horror-thriller with a pretty swell cast. The Losers looks a bit like Smokin' Aces or something but it looks funny and again, the cast looks pretty alright! Last but not least is Kevin Smith's new comedy Cop Out. I honestly wasn't sure about this one when I saw the first trailer for it, but after watching the red band trailer, I died laughing and I think this one might be a redeeming movie for Mr. Smith.

That concludes our fifth edition of TRAILER ROUNDUP! If there is anything you want to add or any trailers we should check out, leave us a comment and share what's on your mind!

How To Save Money Going To The Movies

2010-02-11T00:00:00.002-05:00

Nowadays, the price of a movie ticket is no walk in the park. Buying two tickets, popcorn and some drinks will bring you upwards of fifty bucks. It is just ridiculously expensive. Freshly Scented has come up with some pointers to help save you some money when it comes to seeing the movies you want to see, when you want to see them!

Many restaurants (and not necessarily chains) offer dinner and a movie combo. They have a menu of about 5-10 items that you can get for dinner and as well, you can get a movie voucher for the theatre. Dinner and a Movie combos usually start at about $15 and work their way up from there.

Stores like Costco offer 2 adult admissions passes* with a popcorn and two drinks concession ticket for only $25, which is fantastic since you actually can’t even buy the tickets for that cheap if you get them straight from the theatre. The good thing about the passes as well is that when you cash in the admission tickets, you are no obligated to use the concession voucher right away. You can save it for whenever you feel like getting popcorn and drinks, even if it’s not right away.

*The passes are also available for children as well, with children combo snacks and admission passes.

On Tuesdays, many theatres offer discount tickets from a commercial sponsor of some sort or combo packs like the Costco deal. Check out your local theatres web site for more details on what they have going on.

Now this one is going to sound terrible, but hear me out. You pay a LOT of money to go to the movies. If you are not 100% satisfied with your experience, whether it was because of someone noisy in the theatre (talking or refusing to turn off their cell phone), or if there is something wrong with the picture or the sound… tell a manager. They appreciate your feedback a lot. It doesn’t always happen, but if you aren’t 100% satisfied, they will often give you a voucher to come back on them.

If you don’t mind doing surveys and such as well, many theatres offer a mystery shopper experience. These usually aren’t free, but they can start at about $40 for a year and they give you about 10 free movies sometimes, as well as popcorn, drinks etc. and all you have to do is fill out a sheet about your customer experience. Check out your theatres web site for more information

Most theatre chains now have a customer appreciation program card. Basically when you see ten movies, the next one is free. The card is usually free to sign up for and it WILL save you quite a bit of money if you see movies often.

If you have any other tips that you would like to add to our list, comment below or send us an email! I hope that this list has helped you out a bit and saves you some money the next time you go to the movies.

The Ridiculously Easy/Medium/Hard Screencap Challenge #5

2010-02-10T12:00:00.002-05:00

Well here are some more SCREENCAPS! Now I think these ones border on difficult... Except for maybe the middle one, which is actually relatively easy (I think...) Hahaha... Comment and give it a shot!

Guess, guess, GUESS! Good luck to all who try it out... nothing wrong with guessing and getting it wrong and I will be in awe of you if you get them all right (or any for that matter!)

GOOD LUCK!

Why Is Hollywood SO Obsessed With Sequels?

2010-02-10T00:00:00.002-05:00

Well basically over the last 15 years or so, the amount of sequels poured out by Hollywood has significantly increased. Before, it used to be perfectly acceptable to have a movie that did very well and not feel the need to follow it up with a massacre of the original.

Nowadays, we are bombarded by sequels… and as mentioned before… they’re usually massacres of the original. There are certain things I can understand being made into sequels and then there are just things I can’t understand. Now things that have a TON of source material such as books, TV shows, graphic novels, video games etc etc like Transformers and G.I. Joe, I can understand the market trying to capitalize on that. Blockbusters like that will always make their companies big money, especially when they put in all kinds of eye candy that attracts even the die-hard fans of the original source material.

What I can’t understand is things like Disney classics being made into sequels. First of all, 9 times out of 10, they don’t even manage to get the same voice actors to do the parts, so it just sounds weird. Secondly, the animation is usually not nearly up to par as the original, so the characters now not only don’t sound the same, but they also don’t look the same either. Thirdly, the stories are just stupid little sidetracks to the characters supposedly “happily ever afters” and almost always involve the original characters offspring or some secondary characters from the original. Long story short: they just suck.

Things that start out with an original idea are sometimes ok to take a little further than just one movie like the Shrek franchise or something silly like the Mummy movies, but they do well because they aren’t based on anything and the writers can come up with anything they freaking want, because fans aren’t going to get angry about it.

My last point regarding sequels deals with source material things again. Now this is sort of a pro and con thing, so I’ll just throw out my thoughts quickly. Comic books like Spiderman would be ok with sequels if the writers were smart enough to sort of follow the story from the originals, such as timelines and such. Really now, it would make their jobs a hell of a lot easier. And their plots would actually make sense. Now, something like Watchmen, which is a ONE story graphic novel doesn’t make any sense. At the time of the release, Billy Crudup made a statement saying that he had already signed on to do a sequel/prequel to the movie. WHY?! I just don’t understand why?! Thankfully Zack Snyder is a huge fan of the graphic novel and refused to sign on to do ANY more movies after the one, but seriously. I just don’t understand why they would even consider it. Especially since by the time they get all the actors, film it and get to the theatre, it will end up costing them more to make than they’re gonna make with box office sales and DVD sales.

I’ve sort of ranted about all this before when I spoke about indie movies, but come on! There are so many great screenplays out there ready to be adapted into original and brilliant movies. I can’t believe that we are all out of original ideas. I have to believe that we aren’t doomed to watch sequels, remakes and redos for the rest of our lives. Come on Hollywood. Help us out here.

Cairo Time Runs Way Too Slow

2010-02-09T00:00:00.002-05:00

For a movie that was actually filmed in the beautiful city of Cairo, you really don’t get to see too much of the scenery. Cairo Time stars Patricia Clarkson as a woman on vacation in Cairo waiting for her husband arrive from his UN job. Upon her arrival, her husbands’ friend, Tareq (Alexander Siddig), meets her and decides to be her personal guide around Cairo while she waits for her hubby. For a movie that is supposed to revolve around this particular plotline, it really strays from it way too often.

The director takes you to UN dinners and luncheons, where you can see how detached Clarkson’s character is from the other wives. She briefly travels around Cairo and area with one of the other wives who isn’t stuffy and boring and tells Clarkson all about her adulterous affair with an Arab man.

Eventually the story makes it way back to Juliette (Clarkson) and Tareq (Siddig), who have become sort of friends who clearly are having not so pure thoughts about one another but also are clearly not going to act on them outside of an emotional relationship.

The movie is just very slow paced and for a movie that only runs for 90 minutes, it feels like a LOT longer. Clarkson barely acts in the movie, she plays a really laid back wife that really doesn’t appear to give a crap about anything, even when her husband is something like a week or two late to meet her for their vacation. She doesn’t care enough to cheat, she doesn’t care enough to say how she feels, she doesn’t care enough to make a stand by doing what she wants in Cairo while she waits or going home because her husband didn’t bother to get there on time. Alexander Siddig’s character does a much better job of being emotionally involved in the movie, but still doesn’t really pull off an emotionally convincing role.

The concept of the movie involving love unspoken and love not acted upon is beautiful, but just poorly executed but quite honestly… very boring. I admire the director for trying something new and stepping out of the normal cliché Hollywood love stories, but in this particular case, it just didn’t work well. Perhaps if there had been more scenery, we could’ve been sidetracked by the beauty of Cairo, but again, we were let down there. Oh well! Nice attempt, but not quite good enough to put in the watch again sometime pile.

Best Comic Book Characters EVER!

2010-02-08T00:00:00.003-05:00

Well this is the comic book characters I think are awesome list. Again, I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, but if you disagree, I strongly encourage you to comment us and tell us about what YOU think! Without further delay, here is ma list (and sort of but not really in any particular order)

Rogue from X-Men
AH! Rogue is probably one of the most badass female characters ever. With the ability to absorb other mutants’ powers, she completely rocks. Also with the ability to fly after accidentally permanently absorbing Ms Marvel aka Carol Danver’s powers and putting her in a coma. I also feel the need to mention that I am referring to X-Men Animated TV show type Rogue, not this weird shorthaired angsty broad they have now.

Hellboy
Do I really need to explain this? He is a giant red crime-fighting demon working for the government. Awwwwwesome.

Gambit
With the ability to turn anything he touches into an exploding mess of pain, Gambit definitely makes this list. Badass in anything he cameos in (short of the Wolverine movie), and with a wicked Cajun accent… you just can’t go wrong.

Phoenix
She is good AND evil ANNNNNND badass. For real. She can pretty much put anyone is a metaphorical headlock and make them scream for mommy.

Molly Hayes from Runaways
She is a little girl in a group of fugitive mutant crime fighters trying to escape the clutch of their evil super villain parents who want them to follow in their footsteps. Molly has super strength that she can use to pummel anyone. And what makes her awesome? Maybe the fact that she wears amazing hats. Or the fact that every time she uses her powers, she needs to take a nap. Yup. Awesome. Want more? How about being created by writer extraordinaire Brian K. Vaughn? Need I say more?

Batman
One of the only crime fighters in the comic book industry (or more appropriately… the first) to actually NOT have any superpowers. His only power is his money, which he uses to get special gadget to help kick some serious ass. Plus he has an AWESOME butler (duh, Alfred…) and he resides in one of the coolest named cities in comic history: Gotham City.

Batman Female Villains
All of the Batman characters are just so well written, but the characters outside of Batman that I am most familiar with are the women. The characters are just written so well and so fierce that you can’t help but love them. These femme fatales just can’t get enough of being bad! You know who I’m talking about… Poison Ivy aka Pamela Lillian Isley (former botanist), a human/planet hybrid that fights crime with the help of her plants and things made from plants. Catwoman, who is not only a villain with her catsuit on, but also regularly shacks up with Batman as Selina Kyle outside of her cat burglary time. And one more thing for Catwoman as far as movies go: Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman? Badass! And as far as my favourite villains go from Gotham, we mustn’t forget Harley Quinn, formerly Harleen Quinzel, a psychiatrist turned psychopath by the Joker after working in Arkham Asylum with him. Kicking ass with swift ninja like gymnastics, you can’t keep up with the crazy moves of Harley Quinn.

Batgirl
Last but not least on this list is Batgirl, aka Barbara Gordon. Daughter of Commissioner Gordon, crime fighting is in her blood, so when she started tackling the crime world of Gotham alongside Batman and Robin, no one was surprised (and no one really knew it was her obviously anyways…)

That rounds out my favourite comic book character list as of right now. Not to say that I don’t love about ten thousand other comics and comic book characters (including awesome indie characters from Vertigo and such), but while this list is mostly Marvel and DC, I want to make it clear that there are still amazingly written characters around (do I even need to touch on Fables, the Sword and anything by Neil Gaiman?!). Wah! Comics rock my little world.

The Ridiculously Easy/Medium/Hard Screencap Challenge #4!!!

2010-02-05T12:00:00.001-05:00

Well then! It's been quite a while since we did a screen cap challenge! So here we go! I don't think these ones are very hard, but I could be wrong... take a guess, see if you're right! Oh and don't try to save the images in hopes that I saved them as the name of the movies... I didn't. Good luck!

Post your answers, take a stab. Maybe you'll be right, maybe you'll be wrong! Try it.

Best of the Decade 2000-2009 - Artists

2010-02-05T00:00:00.003-05:00

Last but not least (as far as our decade lists go), we have our musical artists of the decade. Who has inspired us, gave us amazing music to dance to, cry to, party to etc. The following artists have, and make no mistake... they DO rock our world. Now some of these artists have been around a lot longer than this past decade, but we meriting them on the albums they put out in the decade. Also... these aren't in any particular order!

Best (musical) Artists of the Decade
The Kooks
The Fratelli’s
Band of Skulls
Muse
Arctic Monkeys
Swell Season
Bat for Lashes
Queens of the Stone Age
Broken Social Scene

Doves
Ray LaMontagne
Elbow
Damien Rice
My Morning Jacket
The Killers
White Stripes
Arcade Fire
Wilco

Florence and the Machine
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Modest Mouse
Lisa Hannigan
Lady GaGa
The Frames
Goldfrapp
Metric
Radiohead

Grizzly Bear
Snow Patrol
Calexico
M. Ward
Avett Brothers
Rilo Kiley
Feist
Band of Horses
Dead Weather

Broken Records
Duffy
Jack Johnson
k-os
Kasabian
MGMT
The Veils
The View
Ryan Adams

Glasvegas
Kate Nash
Low Anthem
The National
Sarah Harmer
Spoon
Amazing Baby
Strokes
Wolfmother
Eels

Brakes Brakes Brakes
Robert Planet and Alison Krauss

This concludes our list of best albums of the decade according to Freshly Scented. Any comments, complains, things to you want to get off your chest? Write to us at freshlyscented@gmail.com or leave us a comment!

Best of the Decade 2000-2009 - Books

2010-02-04T00:00:00.003-05:00

Now this is a fun sort of category because we really haven't done too many book reviews on Freshly Scented yet... but we SHOULD! We thought it would be a fancy nice idea to include some of our top books from this past decade! Check it out!

Books

Neil Gaiman – Stardust
Neil Gaiman – American Gods
Audrey Niffennegger – Time Traveler’s Wife
Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones
Steig Larsson – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Louise Rennison – Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging
Pamela DesBarres – I’m With the Band (reissue)
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
John Twelvehawks – The Traveler Trilogy
Charlaine Harris – Sookie Stackhouse books
Yann Martel – Life of Pi
Phillip Pullman – Golden Compass Trilogy

Now as mentioned yesterday, it can be hard to find good video games. The same can be said for books. Books can be a lot of things, but it is a gift to write a book that you want to read over and over again. The above books did just that for us. We got kind of lazy with a couple of them and didn't check the publishing date, so correct us if any of these books are out of the decade zone... time has just sort of lapsed for me and I don't know when what came out!

Best of the Decade 2000-2009 - Video Games

2010-02-03T00:00:00.003-05:00

You read it right. Today the best of the decade theme is for video games on any platform. Effin' right.

Video Games
Gears of War
Assassin’s Creed II
Fable 1&2
Halo
Katamari
Super Mario Galaxy
Kingdom Hearts
The Sims 3

Bioshock
Call of Duty
Oblivion
Lego Games (Lego Star Wars, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Rock Band)
Rock Band
Guitar Hero

This list is pretty short because let's face it. Amazing video games can be hard to come by. These games definitely made the list.

Best of the Decade 2000-2009 - TV

2010-02-02T00:00:00.003-05:00

Well heeelllloooo there! Thanking you for coming back to check out more of our Best of the Decade Articles! Today, as the title says, we will be going over the best of TV! So without delay... here are our picks!

TV
Arrested Development
Six Feet under
Battlestar Galactica
Heroes
Lost
Desperate Housewives
Deadwood
Sex and the City
Sopranos
Rome

The Office UK
Extras
Life on Mars UK
Shameless
MI-5
Skins
Dr. Who
Torchwood
Weeds
Rescue Me
Californication
Glee
True Blood

Flight of the Conchords
The Wire
The Shield
House
Firefly
Band of Brothers
Mad Men
The Tudors

ANNNNNND that concludes Best of the Decade for TV! Tomorrow we will have up the glorious triumps of Games! Check it out! If you have anything to say about what we wrote... let us know!

Best of the Decade 2000-2009 - Movies

2010-02-01T00:00:00.001-05:00

Well, we are a BIT late on our best of lists for '09 and the decade, but nonetheless, we feel the need to publish some stuff for your consideration. Ha. Anyways, here are our lists for best movies over the past decade! They're broken down into genre to make it a little less like we couldn't decide which movies rocked our world.

Action
300
Sin City
Watchmen
Batman Begins and Dark Knight
Pirates of the Caribbean
Bourne Trilogy
Casino Royale
In Brudges
Wanted
Hellboy 1&2
Kill Bill Vol. 1&2

Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Stardust
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
The Fountain
Donnie Darko
Matrix Trilogy
Cloverfield

Thriller
Machinist
Memento
Brick
The Lookout

Horror
Let The Right One In
28 Days Later/28 Weeks Later
The Descent

Drama
Almost Famous
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Once
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Closer
Frida
Requiem for a Dream
Juno

Little Miss Sunshine
Gladiator
The Fall
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Where the Wild Things Are
Children of Men
No Country for Old Men
Slumdog Millionaire
Kingdom of Heaven
Master and Commander

Comedy
Waitress
Garden State
I Love You, Man
Knocked Up
Shaun of the Dead

Western
Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
The Proposition

World
District B13
Amelie
A Very Long Engagement
Pan’s Labyrinth
Downfall

Musical
Moulin Rouge!
Across the Universe
Sweeney Todd
Chicago

Animated
Spirited Away
Howl’s Moving Castle
Coraline
Wall-E
Monsters Inc.
Finding Nemo
Up
Shrek

This concludes our list of the best movies made in this decade (and by this decade, I mean the last since we did this a TAAAD late again... so for clarification 2000-2009!). This whole week we will be featuring our best of lists! Come back for our lists for best artists, books, video games and more!

I Love You, Paul Rudd

2010-01-29T00:00:00.001-05:00

Last night I was able to enjoy my favourite 2009 Paul Rudd movie, I Love You, Man. Going into it, I hadn't set my hopes too high as I had already heard mixed reviews... a fear for me that the movie was doomed to be one of those everything funny is in the preview flicks, so I was pleasantly surprised.

For anyone who hasn't heard about the film, the story revolves around Peter (Paul Rudd) and his fiancée Zooey (Rashida Jones). After Peter proposes to Zooey, the question arises of who will be Peter's best man. It's revealed that most of Peter's life, he has devoted himself to his girlfriends and never gave much thought to friends outside of his relationships. So in order to even out the wedding party, Peter decides to try and make a friend worthy of being his best man. Peter then sets out on a series of man-dates under guidance of his kid brother (Andy Samberg), which lead to disaster and hilarity. His search eventually leads him to Sydney (Jason Segel) and they work towards building a friendship that Peter has never really experienced.

Paul Rudd makes the film such a delight to watch. He pulls off such a genuine awkwardness that everyone can relate to. He doesn't turn the movie into one of the makeover my personality movies either. He's awkward at the beginning of the movie and it carries on throughout the whole thing. His awkwardness makes you cringe and laugh all at the same time. Paul Rudd's comedic versatility makes him such an amazing contribution to Hollywood.
Jason Segel is also great to watch. In his follow-up to last years comedy that he wrote and acted in, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Jason presents himself as an easy-going, honest, and fun solution to Paul Rudd's on-screen dilemma. Like everything else he's been in, Segel is great to watch on screen.

Jaime Pressly and Jon Favreau are also great additions to the cast. If you like the Apatow crew movies and projects, you will love this. Although it is not directed by Apatow, John Hamburg takes the helm of this flick and his connection to the Apatow crew, is the early and short-lived series, Undeclared. As probably one of the biggest comedies since the Oscars, we know that this isn't going to be up for any awards and as one of the first great comedies of the year, it does fantastic. It keeps the audience engaged and laughing. Definately worth checking out!

Pandorum's Pandemonium

2010-01-28T00:00:00.001-05:00

Pandorum is a sci-fi space thriller that stars Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid as a group of people aboard a space ship traveling to a new home for the human population. Earth's resources has grown too few for the population which, by the time they send out a ship to find a new home has reached something like 24 billion people. Yikes.

Foster and Quaid wake up early from their hyper space sleep to find that something has gone terribly wrong during their 8 year nap. The story follows Foster as he navigates his way through the ship to restart the reactor and Quaid as he navigates Foster through.

Along the way Foster meets some unexpected and unwanted company that leads to some bad ass thrills. I'm a pretty easy scare, so I half hid behind a pillow until the baddies revealed themselves. The baddies are not poorly done, but once they're unveiled, it's a little easier to relax (sort of...). Anyways, I really enjoyed the film, minus the parts where I thought I was gonna pee myself. The story was really well done and thought out, leading into a whole cluster of twists and turns and really making you wonder what the hell is going on. It also stars that guy from the first Twilight movie who isn't Edward or one of the good guys (Cam Gigandet). Check this movie out. For reals. It's pretty bad ass and the acting, minus one Dennis Quaid is pretty awesome as well. Ben Foster is almost always a treat to watch on screen (you may remember him from Six Feet Under or X-Men 3 or even this year's the Messengers).

Avatar or Avaturd?

2010-01-27T00:00:00.000-05:00

There is this film playing at every major multiplex in the world that the great unwashed movie masses can’t seem to get enough of. Which film you ask?

Avatar!!!

This film is nipping at the heels of Titanic to become the highest grossing film of all time. Avatar is a film dealing with a race of beings, the Nav’i, living on a world called Pandora, being invaded by, wait for it, U.S. Marines!!!! They are in the employ of a corporation that is looking to mine a mineral, inanely named unobtainium????

The only thing that is exceptional about this movie, is the special effects and the 3D technology, that was developed specifically for this film. The acting is just okay, it is far too long and the story has been done before and done much better. The story is almost an exact retelling of Pocahontas or Dances With Wolves. The film is good, but not great, certainly not the best film of 2009. It has had the distinction of winning the Golden Globe for best picture and best director, being nominated for BAFTA awards and will most likely be multi nominated for Oscars.

It becomes glaringly obvious that all of these awards are being given for the amount of box office business this film generates and not for actual technical, story and acting. The awards are basically a sham and meant to pat Hollywood on its own back.

There are so many independent films that are more deserving of these awards and yet most of them will never be nominated and will hardly been seen by the great unwashed movie going masses. What a shame!!!

I could actually go on at great lengths about James Cameron, about, how he is arrogant and shouldn't be as popular as he is, how he shouldn't be awarded the praise and statuettes that other directors are more deserving of, especially his ex-wife, the extremely talented Kathryn Bigelow, but I won't!

A Christmas Massacre

2010-01-26T00:00:00.000-05:00

This one is a bit late, but I still feel the need to warn the masses about this massacre of a Christmas classic. While I recognize that they tried to do something good with the animation and bring a younger generation closer to the original classic story... they failed. They unintentionally made it into a parody of the original with too much silliness and too much comic relief.

Jim Carrey managed to come off enormously creepy throughout the entire film. He played the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, as well as Scrooge. But again. He was just plain old creepy in it. The animation also doesn't help much either, on top of sounding creepy... he looks creepy as well. The animation just makes him look like some creepy sex offender that lives in a neighbourhood full of children.

The movie managed to actually scare the little girl I went to the movie with at times. When the ghost of Christmas yet to come visits, he is overdone and is terrifying for a children's movie. The ridiculous chase scene with him scared the crap out of her. Honestly, if you want a children's version of a Christmas Carol, it's not fantastic, but it's fun and it actually tells the story pretty proper compared to this... Muppet's Christmas Carol. That is my recommendation.

Hell Is Nine

2010-01-25T00:00:00.000-05:00

Ever since this trailer came out, I was ridiculously excited for it. It just FANTASTIC! I mean really... Fergie REALLY looks like a prostitute. Like she had some previous experience to help her channel that look. But seriously, it looked awesome.

Over the holidays, we decided to check it out, even though it did really bad in theatres. I was massively disappointed. Not to be a negative nellie or anything, but I think I'm pretty much just gonna list everything that is wrong with this movie because honestly, there isn't much that's right with it. Really.

1) The acting was bloody awful. Not just by one in particular person. All of them. AWFUL. Realistically the only one who was successful in making me believe their character was oddly enough, Fergie (although I guess not that hard to believe. She makes a REALLY good prostitute). But enough with the prostitute jokes...

2) The music was terrible. Like just terrible. The songs were bad, the music was bad, the singing was bad. Bright side: only song I didn't hate and is somewhat tolerable = Kate Hudon - Cinema Italiano. I'm also going to take this time to mention that while I was at the theatre, I had this deranged woman in front of me who felt the need to clap and cheer after every musical number. This also could've had an effect on how much I hated the music, but I doubt it. It was just bad.

3) Choreography was just stupid. Especially the Penelope Cruz phone sex song. Ugh. Vomit.

4) The story was ridiculously slow and bad. It just didn't go anywhere. The whole thing was basically one big pointless story that didn't make anyone care about the characters.

Long story short. Shame on all the amazing actors and actresses involved in this movie. SHAME! You have taken part in a movie that now enters the realm of the worst movies I have ever seen. I can honestly say that my own personal hell would involve watching this movie over and over again for eternity.

Disney At It's Finest

2010-01-22T12:00:00.001-05:00

I loved it. I guess it's fair to say that right from the beginning I have always been a HUGE fan of Disney. The worst I can say about their movies (minus the weird sequels) is that I don't like them as much as others. However, with the Princess and the Frog, Disney is back it's true self.

When the story was in production and all sorts of reports kept coming into the medias attention about how they changed the title of the movie, the name of the character, where she lived, how she lived etc. to appease the black community, I was worried. The pressure of having the first coloured princess seemed to be taking it's toll on Disney. However, while everyone was busy making a big deal about it, they simply forgot that she wasn't the first coloured princess... Jasmine was in Aladdin. Regardless, I honestly thought that the fact that they kept changing things a bad omen.

I went into the movie with a sort of mediocre expectation and was thoroughly overjoyed. WHAT A TREAT! With Anika Noni Rose leading the cast as the exuberant Tiana, Bruce Campos as Prince Naveen and Jennifer Cody as Charlotte, the cast was just perfect. I think by steering away from main stream actors and actresses, they really made it all the more classic for Disney. Not just even the voice acting made the movie. Obviously the plot was just outstanding, turning a classic fairy tale into a fun and exciting and hilarious movie with great twists and turns.

I'm pretty sure that I don't have to go into the plot with you, so I will just continuing raving about it the movie. The music was fantastic... mixing in Disney-esque musicals with cajun tunes and bouncy, fun songs that actually tied in with the plot instead of songs that are just put in for the sake of being put in. And the crocodile int he movie... Louis I do believe... FANTASTIC! The characters were just so well written. Honestly, I cannot say enough good things about this film. You absolutely have to see it. As another bonus too, it takes a really fun spin on a princess story and takes the female out of the typical need to be rescued role, although I can't say that all Disney women are written like that, but anyways.

Aptly named Fantastic Mr. Fox

2009-12-22T09:00:00.001-05:00

This year has been a banner year for animated films and I, personally, am glad that I have been reintroduced to this film format at this time. Along with the magical films UP and Coraline, I have recently seen a gem, called The Fantastic Mr. Fox, based on the children's book of the same name, written by Roald Dahl.

The film was directed by Wes Anderson, who quite honestly, has been hit and miss in my books as a director. I didn't like Bottle Rocket, Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums, however, beginning with The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling Limited my opinion of him began to change. The Fantastic Mr. Fox has made me a believer!! The film is bright, colourful, fun and funny. Days later I am still quoting the film (i cuss you) and imitating Mr. Fox's trademark!

The animation is all stop motion and Anderson moved into Roald Dahl's house by invitation from Dahl's widow. The furniture, nik naks and dishes are mini replicas of Dahl's actual belongings that Anderson photographed while staying there. The voices of the main characters, Mr. Fox (George Clooney) and son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) were actually recorded while they walked in the forest to achieve realism. Although based on a children's book, this film is definitely more for adults.

The unfortunate thing about awards is there can only be one winner, because in this year there have been many fine animated films that all deserve the accolades and awards that are out there. The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Coraline and UP have all been nominated for the Golden Globes, but honestly I believe that it is nearly impossible to pick one of those 3 films as a better film than the other 2! Do yourselves a real favour this holiday season, to relax and lose yourself for a couple of hours, check out UP, Coraline and at the theatres The Fantastic Mr. Fox!!!!!!

-Doug

500 Days of Summer A Non-RomCom for Guys who hate RomComs

2009-12-21T09:00:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, the Hollywood Foreign Press announced the nominees for this year's Golden Globe awards and to my great delight one of my favourite films of 2009 was nominated!!

The film itself was nominated in the best musical or comedy category and in my mind the finest and most versatile young actor in film today, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, was nominated as best actor! The only crime here is that Zooey Deschanel was not nominated for her role as the titular Summer.

The film details the 500 Days that the relationship lasts between Tom and Summer, a relationship that was fated to never last from the beginning. Essentially it begins with a mopey Tom telling us, the viewers how Summer was the one true love of his life. He then details the ups, downs and trials and tribulations of HIS once in a lifetime romance. The problem is that Summer doesn't believe in love and especially love that lasts forever.

The film is a lot of fun and there is a partially animated dance number that is priceless. There are also some viral videos on the web that are checking out... and they also perform a Sid and Nancy video, with Joseph portraying Nancy and Zooey as Sid.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been impressing me in his films for some time now, in particular, the little seen indie films Brick and The Lookout. If you haven't seen either of these gems, I suggest that you seek them out as soon as humanly possible, you won't be disappointed. There is also a site called HitRECord.org where you can leave thank you messages for the Hollywood Foreign Press for nominating Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I believe that they will be edited into a thank you mash-up message.

I realize this review is not really about 500 Days of Summer, but trust me the film is not your average RomCom/Chick Flick, but, a chance to check out one of the brightest, most talented actors in the movie business today. Make sure you pick up the DVD on Tuesday Dec. 22. You will NOT be disappointed.

-Doug

Holy Moly Golden Globes Pt.4

2009-12-19T12:00:00.002-05:00

Best Television Series - Drama
"Big Love" (2006)
"Dexter" (2006)
"House M.D." (2004)
"Mad Men" (2007)
"True Blood" (2008)

I would've loved to put down True Blood there, but I can honestly say that even though I love the show, the end of the second season drove me nutters... which is why I chose the consistently awesome Mad Men. Don Draper is just cool beans. House also rocks, but I just don't think it's in the same ball park as Mad Men. I haven't seen this season of Dexter, but I've heard that Dextor and his wifey/baby have started to make viewers go crazy, so I'm gonna say that's a no for winning the golden globe. And Big Love? Polygamy is the show, but I just don't think that it will take it either.

Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy
"Entourage" (2004)
"Glee" (2009)
"The Office" (2005)
"Modern Family" (2009)
"30 Rock" (2006)

Let me first say that I LOVE 30 Rock, so putting something else is hard for me. But with THAT being said... I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE GLEE! This show makes me happy! And I personally think it should win because it's not JUST a musical or comedy... it's BOTH... therefore completely rounding out the category. But seriously. The show is amazing and deserves this award. The acting is fabulous, and the music is awesome... it can't get much better (unless they kill off Mr. Shuester's wife!). Entourage is old news, Modern Family is a sitcom and the Office has seen better days. Give the award to the new sensation... my personal favourite right now... GLEE!

Best Actor in a Television Series - Drama
Simon Baker for "The Mentalist" (2008)
Michael C. Hall for "Dexter" (2006)
Jon Hamm for "Mad Men" (2007)
Hugh Laurie for "House M.D." (2004)
Bill Paxton for "Big Love" (2006)

Now even though before I put that Mad Men was in a different ballpark than House, Hugh Laurie is brilliant. The English actor pulls off cranky American so damn well, he should win an oscar. The rest of the noms are amazing albeit, with the exception of Simon Baker (WTF?!)... bad actor people... But ya. Hugh Laurie... you DESERVE this one!

Best Actress in a Television Series - Drama
Glenn Close for "Damages" (2007)
January Jones for "Mad Men" (2007)
Julianna Margulies for "The Good Wife" (2009)
Anna Paquin for "True Blood" (2008)
Kyra Sedgwick for "The Closer" (2005)

I am not really sure about who really will take this award, but I think that Anna Paquin's role as Sookie Stackhouse deserves a return award. Glenn Close in Damages is supposed to be brilliant and so is Kyra Sedgwick, but I just feel as far as a fantastic show goes, Anna should own this. This Canadian pulls off southern belle mighty well. Hmmm... And after January Jones on SNL, I think the cat might be out of the bag that you can't get it all in life.

Best Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Alec Baldwin for "30 Rock" (2006)
Steve Carell for "The Office" (2005)
David Duchovny for "Californication" (2007)
Thomas Jane for "Hung" (2009)
Matthew Morrison for "Glee" (2009)

I think David Duchovny is overdue for this. Californication is a fantastic show and deserves the props for it. Hank Moody really doesn't seem to be too much of a stretch from Duchovny in real life, but he still makes it hilarious. Alec Baldwin is hilarious in 30 Rock, but he's already won a bunch of shenanigans and can cool it for a bit. Steve Carell is funny, but I don't think he's ever deserved any sort of nomination for his role as Michael in the Office... not even an emmy! I haven't seen Hung, and don't really have much desire to. Which leaves my second choice, which is actually kind of more like tied for first. Matthew Morrison for Glee. He's adorable, charismatic, a good actor, fun AND he can really sing. I think I just changed MY mind... Really! Tied for first... Matthew Morrison for Glee with Mr Hank Moody in Californication.

Best Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Toni Collette for "United States of Tara" (2009)
Courteney Cox for "Cougar Town" (2009)
Edie Falco for "Nurse Jackie" (2009)
Tina Fey for "30 Rock" (2006)
Lea Michele for "Glee" (2009)

Hands down Toni Collette. Most actresses are lucky if they get a nomination for doing well in ONE role. In the United States of Tara, Collette manages 4 roles and counting as a wife and mother of two who is trying to survive her life with multiple personality disorder. I didn't like the show much at first, but it grew on me and now I miss it not being on! I will go through the rest of the noms quickly. Courteney Cox... really??! Edie Falco... meh you are overrated. Tina Fey... I heart you Tina. Really. You make me happy! And Lea Michele... your character is fabulous in Glee and you are right up there with Toni and Tina in my faves for this category! Good luck!

Best Supporting Actor in a Television Something or Other
Michael Emerson for "Lost" (2004)
Neil Patrick Harris for "How I Met Your Mother" (2005)
William Hurt for "Damages" (2007)
John Lithgow for "Dexter" (2006)
Jeremy Piven for "Entourage" (2004)

I haven't seen any of these, except for Dexter (but not with Mr Lithgow in it yet) and parts of Lost, so I'm just shooting in the dark here for this one.

Best Supporting Actress in a Television Something or Other
Jane Adams for "Hung" (2009)
Rose Byrne for "Damages" (2007)
Jane Lynch for "Glee" (2009)
Janet McTeer for Into the Storm (2009) (TV)
Chloë Sevigny for "Big Love" (2006)

As much as I love Glee... Jane Lynch drives me MENTAL and I would not really enjoy seeing her win this one. However, Rose Byrne is a personal favourite of mine and I have heard nothing but good things about her in Damages. I haven't seen much of the other shows, except an episode or two of Big Love, but I can say that Ms Sevigny drove me nuts in it.

AND that concludes Holy Moly Golden Globes! I hope that you have enjoyed reading this and if you have any comments, please leave them for us to read!

-Cookie

Holy Moly Golden Globes Pt.3

2009-12-18T12:00:00.003-05:00

AaaaaaaHA! Welcome to part three of our golden globes breakdown! Feel free to read and comment at the end if you want to join in the discussion!

Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2008)
James Cameron for Avatar (2009)
Clint Eastwood for Invictus (2009)
Jason Reitman for Up in the Air (2009/I)
Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Yup. That's my choice. Alright. James Cameron; he's been working TWELVE YEARS on Avatar and basically what we have is a really pretty, super new shiny graphics version of different world Pocahontas. The story is completely parallel and a lot of people have already said this, but for someone who has been working on this movie for 12 years, it should be much better. I can honestly say that I haven't seen the movie, so I'm sort of formulating my opinion based on that (which is BAD!), but ya. Clint Eastwood... after Gran Torino I have given up on him. He's just plain old overrated, much like Meryl Streep. Jason Reitman I'm really not too sure about because I haven't seen Up in the Air. And the chances of anyone giving Quentin Tarantino a golden globe or an oscar for this movie seem slim to none in my opinion. Besides all that, Hurt Locker was actually pretty alright and given the competition, I think Kathryn Bigelow should win it.

Best Screenplay
District 9 (2009): Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell
The Hurt Locker (2008): Mark Boal
Inglourious Basterds (2009): Quentin Tarantino
It's Complicated (2009): Nancy Meyers
Up in the Air (2009/I): Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner

Ok, I did a bad again. I went and chose the movie that I would like to see win it. With that being said, I didn't actually like this movie THAT much. It was just way too overhyped for me (plus I had these giant scary rude hillbillies sitting behind me through the whole movie who kept coughing weirdly and burping and such...), BUT I think the story and the concept are exceptionally fantastic, and for that... they should win it. This category is honestly the only category so far that I've gone into and had trouble really thinking about who might win it. Any one of these screenplays could take it, except for It's Complicated. That's just bollocks.

Best Animated Film
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)
Coraline (2009)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
The Princess and the Frog (2009)
Up (2009)

I can honestly say that with the exception of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, I would be thrilled for ANY of these movies to take the award. With that being said though, I do believe that Up will take it, following in the footsteps of Wall-E last year. Doug and I were just discussing this yesterday, but it's kind of a shame that Up and Coraline had to come out in the same year, because Coraline is brilliant and definitely deserves an award. The stop-animation is just brilliant and so very well done. And same with Fantastic Mr. Fox. Just plain old BRILLIANT! What a fun lot of movies! I'm actually off to see the Princess and the Frog soon, so I can't judge fairly on that one until later, but it looks brilliant and has been said to a return to form for Disney. EXCITING! This category I am definitely stoked about.

WELL my friends. That concludes part three of HOLY MOLY GOLDEN GLOBES! Only one more installment left. I also just want to point out here that I left out a few of the categories that I didn't know much about so that I didn't look like a jerk talking about stuff I had no idea about. Comment below and be merry my friends!

Holy Moly Golden Globes Pt.2

2009-12-17T12:00:00.004-05:00

Alrighty! So here is part two of our four part Golden Globe break-down. Honestly, I ranted so much that it would've taken SO long to post everything, so thanks for understanding. I hope you enjoy my rants as much as I enjoyed writing them, and as I said in closing of part one... if you disagree, or just want to comment or put your opinion on the table, leave us a comment and let us know!

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
(500) Days of Summer
The Hangover
It's Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine

Now my heart broke a little when I had to highlight Nine because this isn't a list of the movies you WANT to win... it's the movies that you think WILL win. Now, if I had to pick the movie that I really wished would win... it would have to be (500) Days of Summer. Not to say that Nine is bad, in fact, Nine pushes all my musical movie buttons and I want to see it something fierce, but I just wish that my indie pick was a more likely choice. It's SO good. Anyways though, Nine is also the most logical choice. The Hangover was funny-ish, but not really GREAT, It's Complicated... really? COME ON! WHY DOES EVERYTHING THAT MERYL STREEP DO END UP WITH SOME SORT OF NOMINATION?!! Let me say this part as calmly as possible... THE WOMAN IS A TERRIBLE ACTRESS! Move on an find someone else to actor/actress stalk, film board! I won't even start on Julie & Julia because (I know this isn't even in the actor/actress section yet, but I will just get it all out of the way), again, Meryl Streep is nominated for her crappy role, but Amy Adams was shunned. Jerks. Anyways... Nine looks fabulous though. I mean alone for the cast (minus Fergie) they're guaranteed some sort of award compensation!

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Matt Damon for The Informant! (2009)
Daniel Day-Lewis for Nine (2009)
Robert Downey Jr. for Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt for (500) Days of Summer (2009)
Michael Stuhlbarg for A Serious Man (2009)

Again, if this category was what I WANT to win, my nod would be to Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but it's not and I think that Daniel Day-Lewis is gonna take it. We all remember Chicago. I think Nine is the new Chicago and we shouldn't underestimate it's award-taking abilities. Matt Damon... every time I think about him, all I can picture is the clip from Team America where all he can say is his name. Robert Downey Jr. I think is gonna be passed over as well for this award, seeing as the reviews coming in for Sherlock Holmes haven't been exceptionally fantastic so far. And Michael Stuhlbarg for A Serious Man? I haven't seen it, but THAT has gotten some fabulous press and wouldn't be surprised if Daniel Day-Lewis has a run for his money against this gentleman.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Sandra Bullock for The Proposal (2009/I)
Marion Cotillard for Nine (2009)
Julia Roberts for Duplicity (2009)
Meryl Streep for It's Complicated (2009)
Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia (2009)

I know I said that I was doing this objectively and I was gonna pick the person who I thought would win, and don't get me wrong, I DO believe that Marion Cotillard can and WILL win this, it's just that, I can't really even consider any of the other nominations without wanting to vomit. Again, REALLY PEOPLE?! Sandra Bullock?! For the PROPOSAL?! Were we really that short on people to nominate for the comedy category?! What about ZOOEY DESCHANEL IN (500) DAYS OF SUMMER?! Surely she did a MUCH better job than Sandra freakin' Bullock?! Ah. *sigh* Julia Roberts? Really? Didn't that movie suck? *sigh* And again, let's not even get started on MERYL effin' STREEP! TWO nominations though? REALLY? Oh dear lord. Shoot me.

Look for part three tomorrow at noon! Later!

-Cookie

Holy Moly Golden Globes Pt.1

2009-12-16T12:00:00.003-05:00

Wow, so all of a sudden (it seems), the Golden Globes have been announced... and as we all know... winning one of them is second best to an Oscar. I'm here to discuss some of the nominees and who I think will TAKE IT ALL HOOOOOOOOOOOOME! You can check out a full list of the nominees here if you're already bored with MY version.

(Now I'm going to make all of the movies I think will win in BOLD... and then we will discuss... my comments will be in italics underneath the category)

Best Motion Picture - Drama:
Avatar
Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air

Well Hurt Locker seems like the only really reasonable choice here. All of these movies have built up some serious hype, but Hurt Locker was the only legit contender in my eyes. Inglourious Basterds was good... but c'mon now... a golden globe? An oscar? No way. And Avatar? The only good thing people are saying about it is that the graphics are pretty. That's it. I can't see anyone giving someone a golden globe for pretty graphics. I have actually heard a ton of fantastic things about Up in the Air, but I haven't seen it. Either way, I think that Hurt Locker has it in the bag; 1) war movie 2) AWESOME acting 3) Heart-felt, edge of your seat suspense. As you can see from my 3 point list... point number 1 almost guarantees a win. Americans love their war movies.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart (2009)
George Clooney for Up in the Air (2009/I)
Colin Firth for A Single Man (2009)
Morgan Freeman for Invictus (2009)
Tobey Maguire for Brothers (2009/I)

I can honestly say that I haven't seen any of the above movies. So I will make this one short. Colin Firth looks brilliant in that movie. If him or Jeff Bridges don't take the golden globe, I would be shocked.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
Emily Blunt for The Young Victoria (2009)
Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side (2009)
Helen Mirren for The Last Station (2009)
Carey Mulligan for An Education (2009)
Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009)

*sigh* In what parallel universe is Sandra Bullock considered a good actress? That's all I'm gonna say about THAT nomination. Emily Blunt was rumoured to be in good standing for at least a nomination for the oscars and it looks like she's not gonna be passed over, but as for the win? I'm not too sure. As you can see, I've put my eggs in Carey Mulligan's basket (even though she's dating Shia LaBeouf... ugh...). I can honestly say that I have yet to see An Education, but it looks brilliant and SHE looks brilliant in it as well. Helen Mirren is always a good choice as well, seeing as she's awesome, but I just think she will get passed over here. Now again, I have not seen Precious, but I just feel that even though it has a bunch of hype built up, it's gonna be passed over as well. Carey Mulligan's my gal for this category.

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
Matt Damon for Invictus (2009)
Woody Harrelson for The Messenger (2009/I)
Christopher Plummer for The Last Station (2009)
Stanley Tucci for The Lovely Bones (2009)
Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds (2009)

I'm just gonna cut to the chase on this one. The rest of these movies I'm sure are just peachy, but I have only seen a clip of the Lovely Bones with Stanley Tucci's character and he has captured the essence of the man so perfectly that if he didn't win, I would be sadly disappointed in the film board (again...). Alice Sebold's book the Lovely Bones is a very dark and haunting story and I didn't know if it could be brought to life without being butchered (excuse the puns for anyone who has read the book, they are (I swear!) completely unintentional), and so far, what I have seen is just stunning and I am completely 110% behind this movie winning a whole buttload of awards.

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
Penélope Cruz for Nine (2009)
Vera Farmiga for Up in the Air (2009/I)
Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air (2009/I)
Mo'Nique for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009)
Julianne Moore for A Single Man (2009)

In truth, I kind of believe that Penélope Cruz is gonna take the award. I would love, however, for Julianne Moore to win it. Again, I haven't seen Up in the Air or Precious, but I think Penélope and Julianne blow the rest of the nominations out of the ball-park. And that's all I have to say.

Now, I'm splitting up my Golden Globe discussion into 4 parts, this being the first of them. They will be published at noon for the rest of the week and I hope you enjoy them. If you have any input or feedback, discuss it with us! Leave us a comment and tell us what YOU think.

-Cookie

Trailer Roundup #4

2009-12-15T11:00:00.000-05:00

Well hey there. It's been a while since I last posted, but I intend to make up for that today by showing you a couple of trailers that look pretty alright! I've got 3 for you today without any special theme (I know I said that last time, but this time there really is no theme).

First up we have Nicholas Cage's new effort the Sorcerer's Apprentice. The cast is actually pretty solid; in addition to Nick Cage, we have Canadian Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, and Italian bombshell, Monica Bellucci. SO ya, there is some serious potential here. Now director Jon Turteltaub gains and loses points all over the board with his record... major points for Cool Runnings and then he loses a butt load of points for National Treasure 1 & 2 and then gains points again for 3 Ninjas. It seems like his early stuff was good and then somewhere along the way he got lost, but maybe this movie will be a return to form? Let's hope. Now the trailer looks sweet with some awesome special effects and a pretty cool car scene where the car morphs into a different car and then does this crazy flip thing through a mirror or something. Basically the movie seems to be about a magical battle between good and evil sorcerers. Nick Cage's character has been looking for an apprentice to train to add him to the forces of good. It's a definitely maybe see in theatres movie for me, but maybe I will just be one of those people to wait for the reviews and such.

Our second movie to talk about is already full of Oscar buzz. A Single Man is starring Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode (who seems to be EVERYWHERE lately!) and Ginnifer Goodwin. OH! And because I am in love with UK drama Skins, I need to give a shout out to Nicholas Hoult who is in this movie as well! This is fashion guru, Tom Ford's director debut, and does it ever look like a good place to start. The movie has a sort of American Beauty quality to it where it has really dark undertones to a seemingly normal life type thing. Colin Firth's character plays a professor who is looking for meaning in his life. I don't know what else to really say about it other than it really needs to be seen. Colin Firth is already in talks of winning an Oscar for his performances and just from the trailer, I don't doubt it one bit. This movie looks brilliant.

Last but not least we have Ridley Scott's upcoming action remake of Robin Hood. What's that you say? Badass? Why yes! I would have to agree. Especially with a oh so awesome cast including Russell Crowe (meh on him actually... I only ever really liked him in Gladiator, but I have some seriously high hopes for him in this movie...), Mark Strong (of lovely things like Stardust and the upcoming Sherlock Holmes) and Cate Blanchett (hoorah! You can never go wrong with Cate. She's brilliant.). Anyways, the trailer looks AWESOME. It's just a teaser, but oh my, it just makes my skin tingle in a pleasant sort of way. Russell doesn't quite look in tip top form like he was in Gladiator, but maybe that's on purpose? Still looks awesome. I don't have much more to say other than check it out! This shenaneries gets a butt load of stars from me.

Train Left the Station Without a Good Ending to Julie & Julia

2009-12-08T12:00:00.001-05:00

As a general rule, I believe that Amy Adams, can do no wrong. Pretty well everything I have seen her in has warmed my heart, and as rare as it is, has put on performances that have almost drawn tears from my eyes. Perfectly charming in Junebug, enchanting in Enchanted (yes I know, I hate myself a little too), funny in Talladega Nights, heart-warming in Sunshine Cleaning, sweet and charismatic in Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day, and I haven't seen it, but I've heard that she is the absolute best part of Night at the Museum II as Amelia Earhart.

She always manages to bring a convincing performance to the screen (and I am actually really interested to see her in the rom com Leap Year opposite Matthew Goode next week...).

For me, Julie & Julia was no exception. Adams just always shines. Her character was sweet and touchingly relatable. Now unfortunately, for me she was the highlight. I try to remain unbiased but I can honestly say that I don't usually enjoy Meryl Streep (although she was fun in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortaunte Events). I just find that the woman overacts like crazy. CRAAAAZY! I think it's because her facial expressions are just too exagerrated for what she's saying. In this movie, she is no exception, she just overacts her whole way through it. She is believeable, but just a bit overdone.

If you aren't familiar with the story, it follows famous chef Julia Child through her roots to becoming an icon in the cooking world and it follows a political secretary named Julie Powell, who, when feeling like she's in a rut, decides to start a blog about making her way through Julia Child's cookbook. 365 days and 524 recipes.

The movie has too much story and not enough time. It jumps from Julie to Julia not very efficiently and jumps the timeline too frequently without really explaining what happened in the gap of time. The ending just didn't give you much either. I'm gonna kind of spoil some stuff here, so if you want to watch it (I mean it's not like it's a thriller... and it's more or less obvious what ends up happening to Julie Powell) don't read the rest of this writing that is in italics. Anyways, they build up Julie's life to amount to something fantastic and save her marriage and perk up her life etc etc., but when she finally completes her project and starts getting all these phone calls and interview requests and such, the movie just doesn't tell you about that aspect of it. It was a huge part in Julia Child's story, but they didn't bother in Julie's. The movie basically ended with Julie's trip to the Smithsonian where she confesses her love of Julia to a photo of Julia, leaving her a stick of butter as a parting gift.

The movie definitely had potential and it was on my must watch list, but it just left me wanting to know more without having to do the work (basically... I just wanted to SEE what happened). I had friends and family who just raved about how fabulous the movie was, but for me, it just left too much untold. I can be rather cold towards chick flick type movies, but I thought this movie would have more substance than that and it just ended up falling short.

Is this for real? Seriously?!

2009-12-07T00:48:00.013-05:00

Stumbled upon this over at Apple's Movie Trailers page:

BEASTLY

(WARNING: it'll be 23 seconds of your life you won't get back! Talk about a teaser trailer...ohhhh bet you're excited and have ordered your ticket online already!)

It'll take you longer to read the synopsis:

Kyle Kingson (Alex Pettyfer) has it all – looks, intelligence, wealth and opportunity – and a wicked cruel streak. Prone to mocking and humiliating “aggressively unattractive” classmates, he zeroes in on Goth classmate Kendra, inviting her to the school’s extravagant environmental bash. Kendra accepts, and, true to form, Kyle blows her off in a particularly savage fashion. She retaliates by casting a spell that physically transforms him into everything he despises. Enraged by his horrible and unrecognizable appearance he confronts Kendra and learns that the only solution to the curse is to find someone that will love him as he is – a task he considers impossible. Repulsed by his appearance, Kyle’s callous father banishes him to Brooklyn with a sympathetic housekeeper (LisaGay Hamilton) and blind tutor (Neil Patrick Harris). As Kyle ponders how to overcome the curse and get his old life back, he chances upon a drug addict in the act of killing a threatening dealer. Seizing the opportunity, Kyle promises the addict freedom and safety for his daughter Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens) if she will consent to live in Kyle’s Brooklyn home. Thus begins Kyle’s journey to discover true love in this hyper-modern retelling of the classic “Beauty and the Beast” story.

THIS IS A JOKE RIGHT?! Seriously. Come on!?

Visit CBS Films' Official Website for more (since I know you're curious):

Beastly: Official Movie Site

Yes, CBS Films plans to release four to six films annually, each budgeted under $50 million. It's ok to weep...
(was this blog too sarcastic??)

- Christian

SNAP! CRACKLE! POP! ...BOOM!

2009-12-07T00:09:00.017-05:00

2012

GOOD GOD!? Roland Emmerich's latest disaster opus took forever to end and my rear end will never forgive me (although Cineplex's seat is mostly to blame). All I was thinking was how could the 'Irwin Allen' of our generation top some of the films he's already done? With such classics as Universal Soldier (absolutely fab! *wink*), Stargate, Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow and the HATED 1998 Godzilla flick, German born filmmaker Roland Emmerich has perfected the "art of global destruction". Take that Michael Bay! Like you needed MORE proof of this claim. Every famous and infamous landmark on earth has been practically blown up, countries worldwide have been destroyed and a cast of thousands (if not millions) cinematically euthanized (thank you CGI).

With 2012, all I wanted the film to do was...END. That was my wish. Emmerich's disaster films are all rip-offs of one another - just on a grander scale from his last. His characters are literally carbon copies of ones previous seen in years past, and his 'paint by the numbers' story-lines (2012 was co-written with 2012's composer Harald Kloser - yes you read that correctly - and Roland Emmerich), are all recycled from one another but freshly coated with massively expensive digital paint and pencil (2012's reported $200M budget!?). 2012 is what it is, somewhat entertaining, but continues the patented bland and empty film-making of Roland Emmerich.

Props go out to whoever casted Zlatko Buric as Yuri. Many of you will be saying who?? Well, seek out Nicolas Winding Refn's PUSHER trilogy and you'll be introduced to his character of Milo. What an amazing and chilling performance. Also, it's always nice to see John Cusack on screen - prefer his talents in something else, but yeah, cash that cheque John.

[SPOILER]The film ends with a shot of planet earth - and I was wondering if Emmerich would just simply destroy it. Seriously ...just like that. OR, have the aliens from Independence Day arrive for round two. Oh well.[END SPOILER].

A mildly entertaining 2 1/2 stars

- Christian

The Ridiculously Easy/Medium/Hard Screencap Challenge #3!!!

2009-12-06T12:00:00.001-05:00

Taaa da! MORE screencaps! These ones are all pretty easy again. Maaybe medium. Maybe. LadyGore is much better at finding challenging ones than me. Anyways, regardless, test out your movie knowledge and tell us what you think they are!

Here is #1:

#2:

Annnnnd #3:

GUESS, GUESS, GUESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! And good luck!

Trailer Roundup #3

2009-12-04T14:00:00.000-05:00

Weeeeelcome to another edition of Trailer Roundup! The last couple of times I've had sort of a method/theme going for all of the trailers, but this week it's just gonna be mishmashed chaos. Enjoy! This week I'm gonna start with Micmacs trailer.

This movie is written and directed by french mastermind Jean-Pierre Jeunet, responsible for Amelie, The City of Lost Children, Delicatessen, A Very Long Engagement, as well as Alien: Ressurection. As you can probably tell, I am kind of a fan. I have actually already seen Micmacs at TIFF (the Toronto International Film Festival), where I nearly peed myself with excitement when my man and I got sat beside Monsieur Jeunet and the star of the movie, Dany Boon. I did not put this trailer up to gloat, but rather to make sure that you see this movie. It is absolutely fantastic. It has been a LONG time since I have seen a near perfect movie like this that is SO well rounded... funny, intriguing, intricate, mysterious and just plain old fun. The cast is nothing short of brilliant as well as they bring the story to life flawlessly. The movie follows a man in his quest to destroy two arms dealers that were seperately responsible for a bullet being lodged in his head and a mine that killed his father when he was a boy.

District 13: Ultimatum stars the stars from the first movie, David Belle (the inventor of the crazy ninja-like stealth moves known as Parkour) and Cyril Raffaelli. Basically, the city is divided up into districts and District 13 is overrun with crime bosses and corruption etc. David Belle's character grew up in the District and knows that it is not all bad people and tries to make the government realize that, but the government has other plans that include demolishing crime by destroying District 13. Raffaelli's character partners up with Belle to stop the government by exposing what they're doing and stopping the crime bosses that run the district. The movie is action packed and generally bad ass. The stunts are real, David Belle is a parkour/stunt coordinator for other movies and such including the upcoming Prince of Persia movie, so what you're seeing is for real. REEEEEAL!

Watch the trailer for awesome moves including him jumping off a HUGE roof onto another building, another where he jumps off a balcony grabbing a bar above him and swinging himself up a level on the side of a building and a pretty awesome move where he jumps off a building with people following him and closes a tin roof behind him as the pursuers are jumping and ya, you can imagine. They fall. Awesome.

Well, it seems that for at least part of this roundup, I lied and managed to follow a theme of french movies. I know, this was a very short edition of trailer roundup, but honestly, the trailers that were online this week weren't that fantastic, so I wanted to give you a couple movies that would leave a good taste in your mouth. I'm gonna leave you with the District 13: Ultimatum UK trailer (which is slightly different from the American one linked in the write-up), so check it out!

Newest Supergroup = Superawesome? Yes. They do.

2009-12-04T13:30:00.004-05:00

Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones. If you don't know who any of these people are, don't bother reading the rest of this review. That's right. I have fired you from my review. However, if you DO know who these fine gentlemen are, you also know that a super group with these rad dudes in no way could go wrong. Really now... how could they? These men are practically the essence of rock and roll and each one of them is responsible for a huge milestone in the industry in one way or another.

I got the privilege of seeing the guys perform in Toronto before they were sure they were even going to release an album. Let me just say that it was brilliant. No opening band, just right to the point, which is funny considering they guys made their debut live in the UK when they were a surprise opener for the Arctic Monkeys. Appropriate considering that Josh Homme had just finished working with the guys on their newest album Humbug. My only complaint with the live show was that Dave Grohl, who is back on the drums (like he originally was when he was a member of Nirvana...), was way too low to the ground so you couldn't quite the full effect of their awesomeness.

Everything else was amazing. They opened up with their killer song Elephants and just kept rocking the whole way through. I didn't manage to get a video of it, which sucks, but the song Spinning in Daffodils was brilliant live, starting out with some mad piano/keyboarding skills by JP Jones. It was pretty epic and fantastic live.

The record itself is awesome, but I was disappointed that it didn't quite capture the intensity of the live show. Josh Homme also has very distinct vocals and very recognizable method to his guitar playing, and in turn, it sometimes makes everything he touches sound like Queens of the Stone Age. Although the song Reptiles has a sound that is veeeeery Led Zeppelin.

It was rumoured that the 10 or so show that TCV did would be the only shows they would do, but if they DO tour again, make sure you're a part of their fan club for the following reasons:

1) be the first to know about all the upcoming shows.
2) exclusive presale codes that allow you to buy tickets before everyone else.
3) exclusive merch info and merch sales information.

Let's face it... you need to see these guys live to truly appreciate the album. I still have yet to see Queens of the Stone Age, the Foo Fighters and I'm pretty sure I can just forget about Led Zeppelin and Nirvana (obviously), so this is an amazing compromise to that. I will leave you with a video I took at the show and if you like it, feel free to creep my YouTube account for other TCV videos and other awesome things I have posted there.

-Cookie

"The Dude" still doesn't like The Eagles...

2009-12-01T17:03:00.009-05:00

This year's Once?

Four-time Academy Award® nominee JEFF BRIDGES stars as the richly comic, semi-tragic romantic anti-hero Bad Blake in the debut feature film CRAZY HEART from writer-director Scott Cooper. Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Golden Globe® Nominee MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician. As he struggles down the road of redemption, Bad learns the hard way just how tough life can be on one man’s crazy heart.

Check out the Theatrical Trailer here (in various sizes and HD).

"I'm Bad Blake. My tombstone will have my real name on it. Until then, I'm just gonna...stay Bad."

-Christian

The Ridiculously Easy/Medium/Hard Screencap Challenge #2!!

2009-12-01T10:30:00.002-05:00

Here are some screencaps for today! Can YOU guess what they are? These ones are all medium I think. Maybe one border lining easy and one border lining hard. Good luck!

Assassin's Creed II - Awwwwwwwwwwesome!

2009-11-30T12:00:00.000-05:00

I've already lost approximately 12-18 hours of my life playing the sequel to the popular Assassin's Creed game. Entire days and all my alone time is spent playing the uber fun game. The first game had a significant amount of flaws including extreme repetitiveness, limited voice overs from the characters (again, going back to the repetition thing), and some difficult (but more annoying) climbing glitches.

The creators took in all of the feedback from the first game and tweaked everything. This is one of those rare franchises that wanted to improve their game to the point where they practically have an all new game... to an extent. It's the same feel, and same characters, with the exception of a new assassin in the Animus named Ezio and this time you're in Italy. There are many references to Altair in the game... they speak about him and you find things of his kicking around. This time in the game, you befriend Leonardo DaVinci who helps you create new gadgets and weapons. It's pretty sweet.

The game flows a lot smoother than the first as well. The load times are much faster, the game isn't always interrupted by Lucy and the gang in the real world telling you to go take a nap. My personal favourite tweak is the climbing ability... it runs SO much smoother now, it's all like one fluid motion. Before you used to stop after everytime you reached for something, but with Ezio, he just reaches one thing after another and you reach your destination much quicker. Also, you receive the grasp command right away instead of having to wait until 3/4 of the game is done, and that definitely helps when you're falling or just trying to make a getaway from the guards.

Speaking of the guards too, they have different guards as well now, some of them called Brutes are stronger and they are very hard to kill, while others are really fast and can catch up with you when you run away. Plus, there is an assortment of new weapons in the game to play with and new tricks, including poison daggers and such. Oh and did I mention that you can commission help from fighters, thieves, and courtesans?

Th game is awesome, I really can't get enough of it. It's stunning to watch as well, the graphics are just top-notch. You should DEFINITELY pick up this game and play it.

-Cookie

Trailer Roundup #2

2009-11-27T00:00:00.005-05:00

Welcome to Trailer Roundup #2! This week on the agenda, we've got a few cool trailers for you to take a look at. First up is Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief. The name is a mouthful, but the trailer looks kind of awesome. If you read last weeks roundup, you will have noted that I am a big mythology fan. I can't personally say that the cast members that are shown in the trailer all impress me, especially Pierce Brosnan after his Mamma Mia! contributions, but the movie still has promise. The special effects look cool, but this also seems like one of those movies that will either be wickedly awesome or just freaking terrible. It's got that sort of The Seeker: The Dark is Rising feel to it.

Next up we have Nine and let me specify that it is the Nine featuring Daniel Day Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Sophia Loren and Fergie (meh Fergie. At least she plays a prostitute...)... NOT the animated action-packed number 9 that was released in September with Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly and friends (which by the way was AWESOME). Anyways... I thought I should throw in a movie that appeals to our inner musical, and as far as musicals go, this one gives me the good kind of shivers. This movie follows Daniel Day Lewis and all of the women in his life and is based on the movie 8 1/2 and the broadway production of it. Yup. I definitely want to see this.

Annnnnnnnnnd last but not least, Angelina Jolie's new badass action flick, Salt. I can't even begin to describe how awesome this movie looks. I generally like Angelina Jolie, but mostly just in action flicks, where strangely enough, I find her the most believable. If you watch this trailer and after watching it still don't want to see this movie, I'm pretty sure I will consider myself worried about your mental health. Seriously. This movie is like a celebrity super couple making the most amazing baby in the world. Like Wanted is one half of the couple and the Bourne Trilogy is the other half and they become pregnant with the beautiful love child known as Salt.

Dude: "Don't you want to know the name of the spy?"

blah blah...

Dude: "It's Evelyn Salt."

Jolie: "MY name is Evelyn Salt."

Dude: "Then you are a Russian spy."

DUN DUN DUN!

Baaaaaaaaaadass. Yup.

That's it for this week. Check us out next Friday for a brand new edition of Trailer Roundup. If there's any awesome trailers you think we should check out, send them our way and we will add them to the roundup!

-Cookie

Why Hollywood Should Make More Original Movies

2009-11-26T18:00:00.006-05:00

Lately, and by lately I mean the last forever amount of years... Hollywood has been bombarding us with crap. Don't get me wrong, among this crap manages to come a sparkly diamond or two that wow us with their awesomeness (but then with that being said, are they just so good because the other movies are so awful??). There are very rarely original screenplays at all, most movies are based on a book/play/comic/graphic novel/video game or something else that has already been done, not to mention all the movies that are getting remakes now as well.

Now with that being said, I know that there are TONS of people out there who do write original screenplays and such and they just never make it to screen on a big budget scale. Hollywood prefers a generally risk-free guaranteed blockbuster type screenplay over the ones that some starving artist has been slaving over their entire life. However, with a economy like we have now, very few movies are achieving what we once considered blockbuster status. Really thinking about it, this past year the only movies that really did any considerable money making would be this past weekends phenomenon the Twilight Saga: New Moon, Transformers 2, Star Trek, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Ice Age 3, and a few others. For a more in depth list, you can check out this Winners and Losers of 2009 page.

Going back to my point about original movies though, indie flicks seem to be rising in popularity and winning over fans from all over. Indie films did incredibly well this year earning themselves wide theatre releases instead of limited and setting the bar high for future indie films to come. Some of my personal highlights this year were (500) Days of Summer (and anyone that knows me knows that regardless of how awesome this movie was anyways... I would've loved it for Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the fun and hilarious Away We Go, and even though I didn't see this movie (because the last time I watched a semi-scary movie, I accidentally punched myself in the face...), Paranormal Activity. All of these movies had extremely limited viewings and by popular demand (and by sold out shows everywhere...), they were released widely to theatres, much to my pleasure.

While these indie flicks will never ever make as much money as a franchise like Transformers, people WILL pay money to see them in the theatres and will leave feeling fulfilled with a great story, great acting and just an overall great movie. If only Hollywood would release more of these great movies and market them to the mass media, the indie film industry would have a fighting chance of making a dent in the blockbuster industry. Although I seriously doubt such a day will ever come, I can still hope that someday the things that deserve their proper dues will get them.

Next time you're at the theatre contemplating on what to see, whether it be the next big thing blockbuster movie or the more B-list indie movie, try adding a little substance to your movie diet and see the latter choice on the big screen. Although the indie movie might not have big explosions and huge A-list actors, a lot of work went into the indie movie too and they deserve your movie theatre love too.

-Cookie

The Ridiculously Easy/Medium/Hard Screencap Challenge #1!!!

2009-11-25T19:25:00.009-05:00

Welcome one and all to the first installment of the ridiculously easy/medium/hard screen cap challenge. Below are three screen caps from three completely different films, your mission should you choose to accept it......guess the films. You probably saw that coming. Anyways, let's start things off slowly.

Now that you have warmed up and stretched a little bit, let's try something harder.

And finally, the most difficult yet....

Let the guessing commence. And no worries if you don't know any of them, we'll still respect you.....kind of.

Movie Poster Quiz #1

2009-11-25T14:00:00.000-05:00

Hey there everyone! So today we decided to start you off with a fun a little guessing game. I saw this idea originally on a web site and thought it would be fun to try and make one for OUR site! The idea of the game is to guess which movie poster each letter belongs to. If you are unsure, just guess in the comment section and I will let you know how many of them you have gotten right! I will eventually post the answers for everyone to check out, but until then, happy guessing! Some of the movies are new and some of the are old and some of them aren't quite out yet. That's the only hint I am giving! GO nuts people!

FlashForward TV Show vs. Flashforward the Book

2009-11-25T13:30:00.004-05:00

Recently I started watching the newest thriller/drama/sci-fi show Flashforward. Now after watching just ONE episode, I realized that this was going to be one of those shows, just like Lost, where you have to wait for about 7 seasons to get answers. This still didn't change the fact that I want to know what the hell is going to happen, so after creeping around on the internet, I discovered that there was a book that the show is based on. AWESOME, I thought, as I set out to find the book. Upon arriving at the bookstore and finding it, I felt pretty smug with myself at beating the system. Oh yes.

I began reading Flashforward almost immediately. And almost immediately I noticed drastic changes in the TV show vs the book. Now, I was not expecting the two to exactly the same, I knew that they would really Americanize it and all that, but I was truly not prepared for how the book is really more like a guideline to the show.

Here is some info about the show before I start a breakdown of book vs show. The show stars Joseph Fiennes (kid brother to Ralph Fiennes), John Cho (aka that guy from Harold and Kumar), Jack Davenport, Sonya Walger (from Sarah Connor Chronicles and Lost) and Christine Woods. The show also features a few Lost almuni including Sonya Walger (as mentioned before) and Dominc Monaghan. And just like Lost, there are all kinds of clues hidden throughout the show, where if you pay attention enough, can help you discover some of the secrets of what's to come. The show takes place in the USA and centers itself around a FBI agency. ANYWAYS. The shows premise is basically the world blacks out for something like two minutes and during those two minutes everyone has a glimpse of their future 6 months ahead. I don't want to get too much into the TV show synopsis, cause it can get complicated, but that's more or less the gist of it.

Now the book on the other hand is written by Robert J. Sawyer and was first published in 1999. The reason for the TV show probably being aired now is that the book actually tells the story of the future in 2009. So when you're reading the book now, it's actually of the present, or at least Sawyer's vision of it. The book follows a few scientists working in Geneva on a particle accelerator at CERN, Lloyd Simcoe, Theo Procopides, and Michiko Komura. Now Lloyd and Theo are partners working trying to recreate scientific particles and such. While working on this experiment, something goes awry and causes a blackout lasting for two minutes or so. In those two minutes, everyone flashes forward to 21 years in the future.

Right off the bat, you can see a major change in the book vs the TV show. Of course it's hard to do a TV show over the span of 21 years, so you can understand why they changed that, but nonetheless... that will be point 1. So Lloyd Simcoe makes an appearance in the TV show, but he is far from the main character at this point and, although they have hinted at him being a scientist that was involved in the blackout, there appears to be a much more sinister reason behind it, and not necessarily involving him. Again, another obvious change from the book to the movie would be the change in setting... Geneva vs L.A. (I believe it's L.A.). Now, in the book Theo's character doesn't have a flashforward, implying that he will be dead. This is consistent with the show aside from the fact that instead of a Greek character, we have a Korean character and in the show his name is Demetri. Now the only thing that even remotely links that name back to the original character in the book is that in the book Theo has a brother name Demetri.

I'm not gonna get into the comparison too much, but needless to say, if you want to know what happens in FlashForward the TV show, you should probably avoid the book. The book basically tries to make sense of what happens for you, but it only really makes sense if you are a scientist of some sort. You get the gist of it, but it's not enough to make you go OOOH! I wouldn't have guessed that! Although really, I wouldn't of guessed what happened, but only because it's over my head. I'm not stupid, but I'm also not a super-genius who made any sense out of what happened in it. The book is sci-fi and it gives a far too technical explanation of what happens to make a good ending... and then the ending ending is just plain ol' ridiculous. But again, I won't get into that, just in case you want to read it. The first two thirds of the book are enjoyable and the part of the third is good, especially seeing Theo's fate, but then after that is just nonsense.

And as far as the TV show goes, I've heard that their shutting down production on it for a while to help develop the stories more and improve the writing etc etc (somebody from there should contact the Heroes team and tell them to go on hiatus if this production stop thing actually works...). After the show goes on hiatus, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go back to waiting for things like this on DVD as a complete series because it's just far too frustrating to wait to find out what happens.

-Cookie

The Road

2009-11-24T11:02:00.025-05:00

"Are you carrying the fire?"

I've been anxiously waiting for this week to arrive!! Finally, after being delayed for a little more than a year, The Road hits theatres tomorrow in the USA and on Friday for us Canadians.

Unfortunately, the film is getting a limited release so it'll be one of those you'll have to seek out.

Based on Cormac McCarthy’s best-selling and Pulitzer Prize winning novel, "The Road" is the epic post-apocalyptic tale of a journey taken by a father and his young son across a barren landscape that was blasted by an unnamed cataclysm that destroyed civilization and most life on earth.

Dark, bleak and depressing. But the film will take you on a courageous journey, one that focuses on the strong relationship and bond between a father and his son. Starring the always great Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smith-McPhee (soon to be seen in Let Me In - the remake of Let The Right One In), Robert Duvall, Garret Dillahunt (fantastic actor you'll recognize from such films as The Assassination of Jesse James, the recent remake of Last House on the Left and TV's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce and Michael K. Williams (best known for his role as Omar on the fantastic HBO series, The Wire). John Hillcoat directs. If you haven't seen his previous film, The Proposition, starring Guy Pearce, Danny Huston and Ray Winstone...watch it! Please be sure and add The Road to your "to see" list.

It'll be one of the year's best films.

The Road Theatrical Trailers & Clips

- Christian

Avatar Sneak Peak

2009-11-24T09:30:00.000-05:00

Anyone who has been anxiously awaiting James Cameron's newest blockbuster Avatar will be thrilled to get a sneak peak of the film. A two and a half minute clip has been released through IGN and is available for everyone to watch. Now we have all pretty much seen the trailer by now and needless to say, it looks pretty sweet. The CG in this clip looks a bit unpolished from my perspective, but maybe I'm just nuts. The movie still looks pretty cool and the plot seems awesome, but we all know how movies that look awesome have the potential to go wrong.

I am hoping that this is not one of them.

I've embedded the clip below, however, I think it looks much better on the IGN site, so I won't be offended if you travel elsewhere to watch the whole thing. I would really like to know what you all think of it, so if you have any thoughts or opinions on the trailer, the film clip, the movie in general... share them below! Leave us a comment or two!

More Avatar News & Previews

The Boat That Rocked (Sort Of...)

2009-11-24T00:00:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, I finally got the chance to check out a movie that was supposed to hit North American theaters this time last year: The Boat That Rocked (aka the newly named Pirate Radio for the North Americans). I'm not completely sure of what the delay is here, but it came out on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK about a month ago and I made a point of finding it so I could finally watch it.

The film itself stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Nick Frost, Katherine Parkinson, Kenneth Branagh and a number of guest appearances by such people as Emma Thompson and Gemma Arterton.

The movie takes place in the 60s at the peak of the British rock and roll era when the BBC chose to ignore the people's desire to hear rock music and play less than 45 minutes a day. This led to groups of individuals setting up studios off-shore on boats and spinning tunes from the Atlantic Ocean. The radio stations were so popular that they drew millions of listeners and revenue from advertisers etc etc.

The story basically follows the shenanigans of one said group of pirates playing tunes for a station called Radio Rock. Mostly their escapades with women, drugs, alcohol, and of course, music. As well as following a sort of coming of age side story.

I've kind of made this a bit more technical than I would've liked, but aside from all that, it was a decent movie. I really thought that the movie was going to be more focused on the music side of things rather than the constant bombardment of sex, sex and more sex. It isn't always a bad thing to incorporate sex into your movie, but when the movie is supposed to be about such an amazing era of music (and yes, I do realize that part of the rock and roll lifestyle is the sex, drugs and alcohol...), I really expect there to be more music involved. However, with that being said... the music that they do play is sensational and this soundtrack would be an excellent addition to anyone's collection.

My final word on this movie is see it. It's not so bad that you won't enjoy it. It's fun, like I mentioned before, the music is fantastic. The cast is great, the IDEA of the story is awesome, the execution was a bit poor and the story was a bit all over the place but really, give it a shot. I'm just one person who doesn't expect you to hang on her every word, but I truly hope that my review has helped you out.

-Cookie

The Strain...Vampires done properly

2009-11-23T00:00:00.001-05:00

Having been a fan of vampire lore since childhood, I try to read any and all new material regarding this subject...yes even the Twilight series!!!! Just the fact that Guillermo Del Toro's name was a part of this book made me anxious to read it.

Initially, it felt like I was reading a screenplay, but the more I read the more it felt like I was reading a journal of events that actually happened, similar to the film Cloverfield. The vampirism is a virus in this book and considering the world obsession with viruses and flus, I thought it a perfect anecdote for current conditions.

The vampires in this book are not your "shimmer" in the sun, romanticized, gorgeous vampires from the Stephenie Meyer Twilight, but evil, unfeeling, smelly and downright ugly vampires. They have one purpose and one purpose only...drinking human blood!!!! They and everyone that is turned become part of a collective "vampire" consciousness that links back to the master
Sardu. That is the name of the last victim that the master had changed some many years ago, an aristocrat suffering from gigantism and poor health who returns from hunting the master a changed man. As you can imagine a gigantic vampire is even more evil than your average vampire. All of the vampires spend their hours of daylight buried in dirt...dirt anywhere, in one case even a doghouse, hence their smelliness.

The heroes of the story are 2 CDC doctors whose initial task was to investigate the mysterious landing of a plane. They become partners an old Jewish professor who survived the Nazi internment camps and a brush with the master. He has been following Sardu and preparing for this day since his escape from the internment camp, so it is to the doctor's advantage to hook up the professor to learn all there is to know about this "virus".

If you want an exciting read about the reality of what it would probably be like to be a vampire then I strongly recommend this book. After all vampires don't actually exist...or do they???

-Doug

Take that Twi-HATERS!

2009-11-22T15:30:00.009-05:00

After unplugging the Bat signal Friday, which held the record for "Opening Day" box-office ($67.2M), New Moon went on to finish the weekend with an astonishing $140,700,000 in the register. CHA-CHING! Fan-boys were clinging to the edge of their seats, thinking Batman's seemingly unbreakable records would fall. But all is not lost for Bruce Wayne, as The Dark Knight continues to hang onto the "Opening Weekend" record with $158.4M. PHEW! New Moon settles in at number three, behind Spider-Man 3's $151.1M. PHEW! New Moon set a remarkable feat for a non-summer film indeed but in the opinion of this writer, this huge box-office opening means nothing. Just proves that there's a ravenous built-in fan-base who showed up in droves Friday (GO SHIRTLESS WEREWOLVES!). Ticket sales fell 40% Saturday and another 40% Sunday. A film should never be judged by it's opening weekend anyway. The big question is, will New Moon have legs at the box-office, or will the insanity be quickly carried off into the inevitable DVD and Blu-ray release come March or April of 2010? Twilight went on to gross $192M domestic. My guess is that New Moon fizzles out around $275M.

Internationally, New Moon grossed $118.1M! (Twilight grossed approximately $192M overseas)

I wonder if studios are shuffling around their Summer 2010 dates in anticipation of Eclipse. No doubt the third film in this franchise will open to massive numbers. Record numbers? Hard to say. Time will tell. All I can say is thank goodness there were only four books in the series.

- Christian

Band of Skulls

2009-11-21T00:00:00.005-05:00

Let me start this review by saying that Band of Skulls has quickly become my favourite band of 2009!!!!! I have listened to the album, Baby Darling Dollface Honey, numerous times since it has been released and had the pleasure of seeing the band perform at the El Mocambo in Toronto. The band is a 3 piece consisting of Russell Marsden on guitar & vocals, Matthew Hayward on drums and Emma Richardson on bass & vocals. Emma also designed the CD artwork and some of the t shirt designs (check out their web site to enter to win a custom designed bass by Emma!).

My introduction to the band was through the track "Death By Diamonds and Pearls" which sounds a lot like a White Stripes song but is a real cool rocker! Once I heard this track I was hooked and soon found the CD which has not left my player! My favourite tracks from the CD are "Fires" which I heard called incorrectly by a fan at the concert, "Baby Darling Dollface Honey". An understandable and forgiveable error considering that is how the song opens. The other fave is "Impossible" which was also wrongly called "I Am The Man", again forgiveable as it is the chorus of the song. They also have a track on the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack called "Friends" which is also one of my most liked tracks, although I believe that the track "Blood" from their debut CD would have been a better fit for a vampire movie! All of these tracks are great catchy brit pop tunes with driving bass, great drums and incendiary guitar playing. Their sound is a unique blend of pop and raw raunchy bluesy rock.

Seeing them live was a great experience because they were able to recreate the sound of the CD. Russell and Emma have a great onstage chemistry and their voices work extremely well together live and on disc. I would highly recommend catching this band live on this tour if you can, that is saying before they become big and can fill bigger concert halls.

-Doug

Florence + the Machine

2009-11-20T08:30:00.004-05:00

From the title, you probably guessed that it's a little UK artists named Florence Welch aka Florence + the Machine and she makes her debut with her album Lungs. This is one of those rare albums that you can listen to from start to finish and then want to play all over again. Her powerful vocals touch on almost a bluesy/R&B/soul/alternative rock sound which all just work so well for her.

The album starts out with a song that you will fall in love with instantaneously called "Dog Days Are Over" (all of the videos are linked to live video of her performing at a show I was lucky enough to see early in November at the Mod Club in Toronto). This song is not only catchy, but just so damn fantastic that it actually makes you just want to sing along anywhere you're listening to it. And how many rock/alternative bands include a harpist and make it work? Florence does.

Other highlights on the CD include "Hurricane Drunk", sporting lyrics "I'm going out, I'm going to drink myself to death/And in the crowd I see you with someone else" about her depression upon seeing a boyfriend with someone else. Many North Americans discovered this spunky brit through the song "Kiss With A Fist" with spousal abuse lyrics "You hit me once, I hit you back/You gave a kick, I gave a slap/You smashed a plate over my head then I set fire to our bed" and another couple of songs including a cover of the song "Hospital Beds" originally done by the Cold War Kids and a cover she did for BBC Studios of Beyonce's "Halo", which is said to be a better version of the song than the original.

My personal favourite on the album that catapults this record to my favourite album of the year (and favourite live show EVER) is called "Cosmic Love" and after seeing "The Drumming Song" live, fell in love with it as well.

Now I can rave and rave about this album, but it's gonna take away from your time to go find it and listen to it. I'm gonna leave this review with one more video for you and it's a little song called "Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)"

-Cookie

Trailer Roundup #1

2009-11-19T10:00:00.007-05:00

Here's the deal. Whenever a bunch of new trailers are out, we are going to review them for you. Whether it looks like something you should see in the movies, wait until DVD for or just not watch at all. Sound good? We think so. At the end, we will leave you with a trailer that we feel you NEED to watch, just so this whole entry isn't filled up with trailer things.

Let's start off Trailer Roundup with these:

Our first trailer is Clash of the Titans (click on any of the titles to take you to the actual trailer if you haven't seen it for yourself already). Now for real... this trailer gives me shivers it looks so good. This movie just pushes all my buttons. Seriously. Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson... just the music in the trailer is enough to make me want to see it. On top of that, I have a mad love for greek mythology and this movie pushes all those buttons too. *sigh* For me, this movie trailer definitely screams MUST SEE IN THEATRES. Now, as a little sidenote to this... You MAY remember this movie as one of the hokiest movies of all time way back in the day. It had a massive cult following, so we will see how people react to it when it comes out.

Alright, so while we're on the topic of ass-kickery and such... I thought this would be a good time to toss the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time trailer in here. We've got Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton again (this woman is in EVERYTHING right now... and you may remember her taking off here in Quantum of Solace as Agent Strawberry Fields). This trailer looks pretty awesome too. Special effects look stunning and the movie looks action-packed. My only concern is the fact that Disney and Jerry Bruickheimer are backing the movie. Big names and companies don't always equal fantastic movies. However, talking about the companies and such defeats the purpose of watching the trailer and telling you whether this is something you should see or not. Regardless of Disney, Jerry or whether you think it's gonna be a crappy adaptation of your favourite video game (or Jake's accent is really weird and the fact that he's playing a Persian is even weirder), this movie still looks bad ass. I know I'll be seeing it at the theatres opening weekend.

Alright, I wasn't GOING to do another action movie, but I think it just makes this entry flow much nicer with 3 badass movies in a row... start the trailer roundup the right way. Our next trailer is going to be for The Wolfman with Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Emily Blunt (who is rumoured to be in the running for an Oscar this year for her work in The Young Victoria). Anyways, this movie is yet another remake of a classic horror film. The special effects, again, look brilliant and the movie itself looks extremely well done. If Emily is even nominated for an Oscar, we have an all-star cast of nominees/winners. Long story short on this movie... Benicio is looking for his brother (Emily's husband)... finds him. Gets bitten. Becomes a wolfman. Is hunted and falls in love with Emily. And ummm... looks badass. Yup. I think that about covers it. Go check it out for yourself though.

Anyways, that is unfortunately all the time I have for today for movie trailers for you. I hope you find this useful and if you haven't seen the trailers... informative as to what you should be watching in the coming year. I'm gonna leave you with the trailer to Clash of the Titans, which I am going to watch at least once more before I sign off and think you should too.

-Cookie

Twilight Saga: New Moon Review

2009-11-18T22:30:00.007-05:00

Tonight I was invited out to see the newest movie in the Twilight phenomenon series, New Moon. I’m not gonna lie… after the first movie, with hokey special effects and even hokier acting, I truly didn’t expect much. The same cast returns from the first movie, the forever type casted Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen, Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan and renewing his role after much controversy; Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black. Even though the cast stayed the same, New Moon sports a new director; Chris Weitz who leads the movie in a direction involving a higher budget for more realistic special effects, better dialogue and highlights the parts of the story that we actually care about (or at least as much as one person can care about completely fictional vampires, werewolves and plain person stuck in a love triangle with previously mentioned vampire and werewolf).

Without anymore of the technical shenanigans, I enjoyed it. Really, it was fun, action-packed etc. The acting isn’t fantastic, the story isn’t perfect, but c’mon now people… do we REALLY expect any of these movies to be nominated for Oscars? No. We don’t. If you aren’t extremely critical, just want to see a movie or you just want to have a good laugh, go see it. But if you are one of those people going into this expecting this to be epic like Titanic or something... you have another thing coming. As a side note – the movie has an AMAZING soundtrack. For real! A bunch of fantastic artists were asked to write original songs to have in the movie such as The Killers, Band of Skulls (LOVE the song they did…), Thom Yorke of Radiohead, Lykke Li, Bon Iver and St. Vincent team up for a song and Muse is thrown on there with an exclusive remix done just for the movie. If you aren’t planning on seeing the movie… at least buy the soundtrack because it’s worth it.

-Cookie

Freshly Scented

2009-11-17T03:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome to Freshly Scented!

We are currently getting things up and running at the moment, but YOU will be the first to know when things are happening!

What IS happening here you ask?! Well, this site is going to be a go to for all of your entertainment needs. Unbiased reviews about movies, music (concerts (photos, videos as well), CDs etc.), books, comics, and video games. As the site gets going as well, we would love for YOU to send us your reviews so that we can post them up for the world to see. It doesn't necessarily have to be new titles, just something that you want to write about.

If any of that sounded appealing, then Freshly Scented is the perfect place for you!

Stay tuned for updates and reviews coming soon!

Contact Us

2009-11-17T00:00:00.018-05:00

If you want to send a message to any of our contributors, you can find their contact info here!

To send a general email to Freshly Scented click here or email us at freshlyscented@gmail.com We love to hear how awesome we are. Really. Or if you want to know how to get involved with writing for us, any questions, comments etc. Send us mail!

For Stephanie click here or email drewly.cookie@gmail.com

For Doug click here or email dbroadley@hotmail.com

For Amy click here to send her a message through Facebook

For Adam click here to send him a message through Facebook

For Christian click here to send him a message through Facebook

For Erin click here to send him a message through Facebook

For Sarah click here or email sarah_h54@hotmail.com

For Linds click here to send her a message through Facebook

For Nelson click here to send him a message through Facebook

Contributors

2009-11-17T00:00:00.017-05:00

Stephanie aka Cookie - Once upon a rabid monkey in a far away land called Spankingly, there lived a red gerbil named Stephanie. Her cake was so poignant that all the guitars of the land were very jealous. Not only was Stephanie soft, but also she was also very gifted. Stephanie could draw like no other person could. Some said that she was plushie and that her gifts were really a molotov. One day a dark book became so swimmingly loud of Stephanie that they decided to curse them with a spell of bubonic plague, which would cause Stephanie great festerings. The only way for Stephanie to break the spell was to somersault on one foot, while juggling tigers, and drinking a potion containing tulips, sheep and eyeballs. And all would be silly unless it was sealed with a spatula from her one true love, Louis XIV. Stephanie made a spankituduous recovery and married Louis XIV and they had 13.75 children and lived swashbucklingly ever after.

Doug aka rambling man - may or may not be batman.

Amy aka Lady Gore - Is a mythical being. She has six horns and a lovely tail. She eats pony's and snacks on the fears of children. By day, she rests in a snuggly warm bed of hellfire. By night, she preys on the weak minded, weak willed flesh bags that call themselves the human race. She have a pet iguana named Pebbles and a sea monkey named Rocco. She loves long walks on the beach and a man with a good sense of humour. And finally, her number one goal in life is to become the world's most poisonous spider. Just a little piece of Amy. Slightly bitter, but after one acquires a taste, palatable.

Adam -

Christian -

Erin -

Sarah -

Linds -

Nelson -

Links

2009-11-17T00:00:00.016-05:00

Here are some links that we love and that you might find useful!

IMDb - Internet Movie Database
Screen Rant - Movie Reviews, trailers, news and more
Newthisweek - What's out in theatres, what's on DVD and video games
Twitch - Movies, festival info, reviews and more
Film Junk - Movies, trailers, reviews
The Documentary Blog - All you need to know about movie documentaries
JoBlo - Everything you want to know about entertainment
Arts&Crafts - Some of the best indie music out there... this record label rocks
Florence and the Machine - Because we're mildly obsessed and by "we", we mean Steph
UKBands - Everything you need to know about UK music
Stereogum - Everytime I visit this site I find something amazing... everything awesome about music

About Us

2009-11-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

Freshly Scented is a collective site for reviews about things that matter to YOU! That means we write about awesome crap like movies, music (CDs AND concerts with awesome photo and video footage), video games, books, comics and the odd gadget or two! The team consists of a variety of people who love the previously mentioned things as much as you and just want you to get the best review possible without having to read about it in the newspaper by someone who was paid to tell you the "facts".

We will try our very best to make everything on this site as applicable to what you want to know about. If there's anything that you would like us to review or even if you would like to contribute to our site, please feel free to send us an email or leave us a comment to tell us how we're doing!