The Grudge!

One of my favorite horror movies of all time is The Grudge. I love Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Jason Behr (Roswell), though neither of them gave their best performance in this movie, but hey, it's a horror movie. No one does their best work in horror movies. The one thing that annoys me about horror movies is how stupid the characters are. I know that they're scared, but that doesn't mean they can't be smart and at least run away. That's why I like Red Eye and The Uninvited so much, the characters are brave and they think fast. But I guess the star of this movie is that Japanese ghost known as The Grudge. She dwells in a tiny old house and haunts whoever enters her territory for the rest of their lives, which end soon after, no doubt. I suppose Karen (Gellar) had to be pretty crafty to survive that long, though. I mean she was able to escape every time, and at the ending, which I promise I will not reveal to you, she was pretty dang brave to be able to do that. I really don't know why I like that movie, as i'm still scared of it. But then again I am very paranoid. The actress that played the Grudge had very terrifying make-up, and tactics, appearing at random moments out of nowhere. But, she is at least restricted to her own house, in Japan. Which is why i hate the second and third movie so much. New characters, and no restrictions. Meaning no distinguishable plot. A killing fest is not a plot, sorry. I really don't like that the curse spreads past the house. And I really don't like the characters. On a slightly related note, the new Nancy Drew game is coming out in two days. How is this related? Well tha game pretty much follows the idea of The Grudge, that there is a vengeful Japanese woman haunting the main female character. Here is the trailer is you don't believe me that there is a resemblance to The Grudge: Nancy Drew: Shadow At The Waters Edge. I just hope this game isn't as scary as the movie, I won't be sleeping that night then. But seeing as Nancy Drew is meant for 10-year-olds, i think I will be alright. The plot of the movie is pretty good. It presents you with something completely out of the ordinary, and explains it in more detail as the movie goes on, which I really like. I hate not knowing why there are creatures and where they came from in horror movies. It makes them that much scarier.

And now, I realize that I never provided that Halloween playlist and movie suggestions like I said I will, and since I won't be on for a while I figured i'd just give you the whole playlist:

1. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
2. Dare - Gorillaz
3. Devil Inside - Utada Hikaru
4. Dirty Harry - Bootie Brown/Gorillaz
5. Feel Good Inc. - De La Soul/Gorillaz
6. The Ghost Inside - Broken Bells
7. The Ghost of Genova Heights - Stars
8. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - Daft Punk
9. If U Can't Dance - Spice Girls
10. Land of a Million Drums - Outkast
11. Making Out - No Doubt
12. Monster Hospital - Metric
13. O Green World - Gorillaz
14. Phenomena - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
15. Plastic Beach - Gorillaz
16. Smiley Faces - Gnarls Barkley
17. Spoon - Cibo Matto
18. Thriller - Michael Jackson
19. Toxic - Britney Spears
20. Toy Boy - Stuck In the Sound

Enjoy!

Guess Who

Gillian Owens. Satine. Grace Stewart. Joanna Eberhart. Lady Sarah Ashley. What do all of these women have in common? Besides the fact that they are all fictional, they are also the same person. Nicole Kidman. She is definitely my favorite actress by far. Almost every movie that I have seen with her in it has been excellent, with the exception of Margot at the Wedding, which was good, I just didn't like it. She is very vesatile, ranging from flashy temptress in Moulin Rouge, to independent tomboy in Stepford Wives, and everything in between. Along with all of that she is a very good role model. She's not one of those celebrities that you hear about getting a DUI every week or offending everyone by one arrogant comment. Moulin Rouge has got to be one of my favorite movies, it has a good plot, a good cast, and good music. Everything a good movie should have. On top of that, Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor were actually singing, no lip syncing necessary, as if I didn't idolize them anyway. Practical Magic is also one of my favorite movies. In this Kidman plays the rebellious red-headed sister of Sally Owens, aka Sandra Bullock. She plays the part well, sucessfully being both iognorant and lovable, a difficult feat. In the Others she plays a completely opposite role, taking on the persona of a very overbearing mother living in France and taking care of her two photosensitive children while her husband is off at war. Since her children are allergic to light, the setting is very dark and spooky within their old victorian house. In Stepford Wives, she easily adopts the strong minded feminist attitute of Joanna Eberhart, and then the contrasting hypnotized version of herself later in the movie. One of her most notable performances was in Australia, though. It's hard to keep an audience interested during a 3 hour long movie, but her and Hugh Jackman do it well. And that's all I have to say about Nicole Kidman, at least until she appears in another great movie.

Based off a Book by...

You've probably all seen the Twilight movies, am I correct? Well I bet most of you have read the books too. I know I have. Don't expect this to be a post of me gushing about how great Twilight is, it's not. I started reading the first Twilight book the summer of seventh grade right after my sisters had finished it (this was back before it was super populer). I loved it, of course, and quickly continued on through the whole series. When I got to Eclipse, right after it came out, was when I started to notice how annoyingly popular the books had become, but I wasn't going to let it get to me just yet. It was when Breaking Dawn came out that I put my foot down. First of all, the plot of the book was ridiculous. (Do NOT CONTINUE IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK) Bella finally becoming a vampire wasn't nearly as satisfying as I thought it would be. The story lost it's thrill. Also, the obsession with Twilight had become unbearbly annoying so I just stopped reading. I realize now that those books weren't actually al that great. Don't get me wrong, Twilight will always be one of my favorite books, but the plot is just simple. A silly teenaged girl developes feelings for a 100 year ole vampire. What more is there to say about it? My growing hatred for the series was only fueled when the movie came out. When I first heard that there was going to be a movie, several years before, I was extremely excited. My sister had printed out the cast list that Stephanie Meyer originally wanted. And then I saw who would really play Bella and Edward. And let's just say my excitement was no more. Kristen Stewart just isn't right. She's too awkward but yet not clumsy enough. And as for Robert Pattinson, I loved him in the fourht Harry Potter, but I just don't see him as being a gorgeous immortal vampire. And Jacob is not supposed to be better liked by the public than Edward, but somehow that has happened. The movies, have at least, gotten better. The acting doesn't make the audience feel as awkward as it did in Twilight. To close, I will let you see my ideal Edward and Bella:

Psycho Killer, qu'est-ce que c'est?

Tonight I watched the first episode of the show Dexter. After a few suggestions to watch it, I finally gave in. My sister forced it upon me. I'm not quite sure if I like it or not, I mean, I like crime shows and all but this one is really gruesome. But yet it didn't really phase me, and it is mystery so that pretty much guarantees that I will like it a little. Well, not always. If the mystery is easily solved or badly set up I won't enjoy it as much. But this show is good. The main actor is really great at being both a sociopath and a caring boyfriend at the same time. I guess that has something to do with the fact that he really is a good man, if you can imagine a good murderer. So I commend the actor on being able to portray that role so well. There is a lot of swearing, but being in high school I am used to it, though my mother was a bit offended, as usual. As for continuing on with the show, I don't know if I will or not. My priority is to finish Lost, and then if I have the time or desire to I will start watching Dexter after that, though I am considering going through the Buffy The Vampire Slayer series for the fourth time. It might be nice to change it up.

Netflix

This summer my parents decided that we needed Netflix. I had no opinion on the company until I started using it. It opened up a whole new world for me - a world of laziness. Instead of taking the time, energy, and money to go out and rent a movie, I could now instantly watch movies with the click of a mouse. I realize I probably sound just like the TV adds right now. One of the few downsides of Netflix is that not every movie can be watched instantly, meaning that you have to wait a couple of weeks for it to be sent by mail, which can be a real pain when your dad adds the whole series of Twin Peaks to the list. I finally got Red Eye today, meaning the Cat Returns is next! Yipee! Quick side note, I don't remember if I already explained the plot of that movie and why it sounds so awesome, but I might as well say it again. The movie is about a little girl, voiced by Anne Hathaway, who rescues a cat, that turns out to be the King of Cats, who steals to girl away to take her as his wife. So she has to have her other cat friends rescue her. It may sound ridiculous to you, but it sounds amazing to me. Did I mention that it is by the same director as the Japanese film Spirited Away? Anyway back to the topic of Netflix. Though there are a lot of movies on Netflix Instant, a lot of them are less than good. The titles and ratings can be deceiving, I suggest you don't add anything below three stars. Somehow I added what looked like a good old-fashioned werewolf movie but what I got instead was nudity, hallucinogens, and confusion. Point being, it was awkward and insane. My other point being, you won't always get what you expect on Netflix Instant. Unless you are very curious I would stick to the movies suggested to you or with well known titles. Or you could always add Pee Wee's Big Adventure. That's always a good option. I can't rightly criticize all Instant movies though, I have seen some pretty good ones. Take for example: You, Me, and Everyone We Know; Pandorum; Let The Right One In; and Labryinth. Another redeeming quality of Instant is that they switch up the movies every month or so, which was actually quite unfortunate in my case, I got all excited about to watch Lost: Season 3 when to my dismay, it was only on Instant Queue until October 1st. Long story short my mom ended up going out and renting it at the closest movie rental establishment. I was that important for us to watch it right then and there. Though I love Netflix and all of their odd and rare foreign movies, I still am grateful to movie rental stores. They provide a quick solution to a movie not being in the Instant Queue, though they don't always have what I want and there is a limit to how long you can rent a movie. I'm still a bit disappointed that they didn't have the Cat Returns or Breakfast on Pluto, but those are strange movies so I'll let it slide. Now that my dad's movies have finally stopped coming in and mine have started, I can be a better judge of the quality of Netflix's sent movies. I'm sure I will be pleased as always.

Halloweentown

If when you read the title of this post you thought of the Disney Channel movies Halloweentown, you would be correct. I am going to talk about Disney Channel movies, Halloween centered ones in particular. So I love Halloweentown and almost all other Halloween movies created by Disney, even though they, like a lot of other things that I like, have horrible acting and plots and such. Again, I don't care. They remind me of my childhood and make me even more excited for Halloween. Though it did really bother me that they randomly changed the main character in Halloweentown 4, I was able to look past this ridiculous mistake because I just love Halloweentown so much. I love Twitches. I love Mom's Got a Date With a Vampire, though that is partially because Aunt Hilda from Sabrina the Teenaged Witch is the mother, Mr. Sheffield from the Nanny is the Vampire, and Craig from Degrassi is the little brother's best friend. Anyway my point is that a movie doesn't have to be good for someone to like it, I don't like these movies because they have stupid plots and bad special effects, but because they make me happy and reminescent. I've watched the same movies every October of every year, and I never get tired of them. One movie that I have only seen once but that I loved the first and only time that I saw it is Now You See It, the one about the magician competition. I want to see it again! Now I suppose I need to redeem myself by talking about other Halloween movies, the ones meant for adults that is. Practical Magic. One of my favorite movies of all time. Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock, Stockard Channing, is there a better cast than that? I saw it for the first time last summer and it instantly became one of my favorite movies. It has a good plot, seemingly a family movie but I would not recommend showing this to your children until they are in middle school. The plot is just pretty much that Kidman and Bullock and their aunts and all other female ancestors are witches. That's pretty much all I can tell you, just watch the movie for yourself.

Because this is the month of Halloween, I thought it would be a good idea to recommend a Halloween movie or song for every post. So there you go, Practical Magic and all of the Disney Channel movies. That's more like 20 movies, but whatever. I'll just call it a good start.

Mystery Mania

So I spent my whole Sunday watching a Scooby-doo marathon and it got me to ponder how much Scooby-doo has changed, and how much it has stayed the same. To tell the truth I have no idea whether or not I have actually ever seen an origianl episode. I feel like I have at some point in my childhood, but definitely not recently. How exactly do you tell them apart? Is it the theme? Did they have the original theme in some of the newer ones? I could easily answer these questions with a little research but i'm too lazy. I have mixed feelings on the new episodes. Obviously since I can't tell the difference with the early recreations, I like those. In general I like What's New Scooby-Doo? Which is one of the continuations. They have the same personalities, similar voices, and identical features. The only aspect of the new show that I am very opposed to is the time. It is supposed to take place in the 70's and they are supposed to be in high school. I appreciate that they are trying to modernize the show without changing it too much, I feel like their popular 70's fashion was part of the appeal to the show, as was their Mystery Machine and their youth. The phrase "I would've gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling kids" doesn't apply so much to adults. Moving on to the movies, as they follow the the What's New Scooby-Doo? series. I don't think I rememer enough of the movies to make a solid statement. With the exception of Scooby-Doo and the Witche's Ghost, I haven't really enjoyed the movies all that much. I saw Scooby-Doo and the Samurai's Sword today and I hated it. The fact that Daphne would be invited to an international martial arts competition in Japan is completely ridiculous. She's not supposed to be that good, it's just supposed to be a little hobby on the side because she is tired of being the damsel in distress. Abracadabra-Doo was the other movie that was on today and that one was infinitely better, but it still wasn't amazingly good. I don't know what it is about Scooby-Doo and the Curse of the Witch's Ghost, but I just love it. It's good. The music by the Hex Girls is actually alright and the plot is interesting. Anyway on the topic of the Hex Girls, the first episode of Mystery Inc. that I saw featured them. They were being sabotaged and Daphne had to disguise herself as one of them to protect Fang (the lead singer). She sang a new song, Trap of Love, which is actually pretty good I think! Mystery Inc. has the opposite flaws as What's New Scooby-Doo? The appearence and personalities of the 'gang' was altered a little too much for my tastes, but their clothing and era went back to the original. As for the plots of these episodes, some of them can be pretty ridiculous and a little too modern, but other than that I feel like it sticks more to the original mysteries. On the topic of mysteries, the demo for Shadow at the Waters Edge (the new Nancy Drew Game) finally came out! I played it and I approve. Though the beginning is a little slow, most are and I have faith that it will pick up and become infinitely more interesting. The setting is gorgeous and culturally correct as well as creepy. Very Grudge-esque if you ask me! The characters have very distinctive personalities which is always more fun than four bland motive-less culprits. As I was playing along, I noticed a possible reference to the Ring. Nancy is supposedly teaching 7-8 year old Japanese children how to speak English and you, as Nancy, must grade their homework. One of the girls names is Sakura. Slightly similar to the name of the little girl in The Ring, Samara. Also in the desriptive profile of Sakura it explained that she is obsessed with wells and she tends to make cryptic and dark comments and often has to be redirected. Coincidence? I think not. I really hope that this turns out to be a really scary super mystery. That ghost thing, or Yurei, better pop out several times! Several times as in every five seconds. And there better be plenty of secret passages and spying on the characters and snooping through their stuff to find out what they are hiding. The fact that I still don't know how two of the characters' mother suddenly died in a horrible way having to do with the ghost is very very promising. I hope whoever is reading this takes my advice and attempts to play a Nancy Drew game instead of just calling me a nerd and never reading my blog again. After all, the demos are free. I mean who doesn't love a good mystery? That is the only kind of plot I am still never able to fully predict, which is great because movies have gotten just a tad too predictable for me lately. I think it's the fact that I watch a lot of movies and so I know what to expect rather than the plot, but it's nice to admit that I am completely clueless as to what is going to happen at the start of every Nancy Drew game, or mystery book, or Psychological Thriller movie. I hope I will never have the misfortune of being able to predict the outcome of a mystery. And with that I will end this post. Happy Sleuthing everyone!