Weeeeeee~ The great thing about being home is finally getting to watch all the good English movies again. I mean don't get me wrong, I love Korean soap operas and movies as much as the next Korean-loving person. But it sucks when you're overseas and missing out on quality movies like NARNIA!
That was seriously funnnnnnnnnn stuff. I haven't read the book, oh, in 14 years or so? So I only remembered the vague outlines of the storyline but the movie was almost exactly as I imagined the book to be. Except I thought that Peter and Susan would be older than me since I read the book when they actually WERE older than me. I thought watching talking animals would be weird, but they made the transition into seeing talking animals surprisingly smooth. And I super duper loved the Beaver family.
Older, I had always heard about how C.S. Lewis was very Christian and how his writings were usually about religion or allegorical in some way. Of course having read the entire Narnia series as a kid, I never really caught onto that until I saw the movie yesterday. Aslan's sacrifice of himself for Edmund? Aslan's rebirth? Edmund as sinner turned saint? There was a lot more. But craziness!
Anyway, GREAT movie. I'm so happy when great books are turned into such awesome movie adaptations. :-)
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
pride & prejudice
I had a lot of reservations going into watching this movie. I love, love, LOVE the BBC 5-hour miniseries version. Jenn knows this very well, as she introduced this to me at 1AM some evening back in the day. And I stayed up through 6AM watching it. Plus, Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennett? I definitely didn't see how that could work.
I was dead wrong.
She was surprisingly extremely well-fit for the role. As was Rosamund Pike as Jane Bennett, and basically EVERYONE in their roles. I thought there could be no better Mr. Darcy than Colin Firth, and though he's still my #1 Mr. Darcy, Matthew MacFadyen is a close second.
They managed to condense this long book, long miniseries, into a 2.5 hour movie. And they did it excellently. I didn't feel like it was choppy or missing stuff. They added some artistic touches to it, some cute scenes not brought up in the book or other small/big-screen adaptations.
Seriously, I loved it! I can't wait for it to come out on DVD!!!
I was dead wrong.
She was surprisingly extremely well-fit for the role. As was Rosamund Pike as Jane Bennett, and basically EVERYONE in their roles. I thought there could be no better Mr. Darcy than Colin Firth, and though he's still my #1 Mr. Darcy, Matthew MacFadyen is a close second.
They managed to condense this long book, long miniseries, into a 2.5 hour movie. And they did it excellently. I didn't feel like it was choppy or missing stuff. They added some artistic touches to it, some cute scenes not brought up in the book or other small/big-screen adaptations.
Seriously, I loved it! I can't wait for it to come out on DVD!!!
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Second Opinions, Part II - Grey's Anatomy
Everyone and their mother (literally) seems to be obsessed with Grey's Anatomy this season, so despite my initial dislike of the show from their first couple of episodes, I decided it was time to give it another chance. It's kind of too late for me to catch up thoroughly (and I kind of don't care enough to) but I'd been reading about the show's happenings on various TV/entertainment websites so I figured I could start by just watching the most recent episode. And honestly, I didn't feel like I had missed much.
The reason I didn't like the show in the very beginning was mostly Ellen Pompeo. This is probably unfair, but I found her whispery voice and squinty eyes to be kind of annoying. The whole thing with Patrick Dempsey was obviously just a trainwreck waiting to happen, and everything just seemed so pretentious, like being a surgical intern is the hardest thing in the world. I mean, I'm sure it's harder than anything I've done, but I guess I just dislike being told straight up that they have it worse and I'm supposed to feel sympathy for them. Plus, this is a medical show, and we all know that I'm not a fan of medical shows.
The second time around, I have to say that things have improved. Meredith isn't nearly as irritating, and I was kind of glad to see that Dr. McDreamy's wife is sticking around and is completely Meredith's opposite. Katherine Heigl has more to do now, and I've always thought that she was a great actress (even in Roswell, although her scenes with Jason Behr squicked me out because it was a little too un-sibling-ish). George is just ridiculously likeable, and Sandra Oh and Dr. Bailey get all the best snappy remarks.
But unlike Everwood, I don't think I'm quite a converted fan yet. I might watch a few more episodes to make sure, but there are still two big things holding me back. First is the medical thing. The hospital stuff just really doesn't hold my attention. I know that we're all supposed to be fascinated by all these weird and different and heartstring-tugging cases, but I'm just not. I can't help it.
The second thing is Meredith's voiceovers. Voiceovers can really make or break a show for me. If they're good, they can really contribute a lot, but when they're bad they can ruin the entire show for me. I hate Meredith's voiceovers. They're filled with too many metaphors and wisdom and life-affirming crap, and I just don't buy it as really coming from Meredith. It just sounds like Ellen Pompeo reading it off a sheet of paper.
So...yeah. Mira, I know you continue to be a fan of the show so keep posting on it! I'll focus on 24 when it premieres in January. So excited for that!
The reason I didn't like the show in the very beginning was mostly Ellen Pompeo. This is probably unfair, but I found her whispery voice and squinty eyes to be kind of annoying. The whole thing with Patrick Dempsey was obviously just a trainwreck waiting to happen, and everything just seemed so pretentious, like being a surgical intern is the hardest thing in the world. I mean, I'm sure it's harder than anything I've done, but I guess I just dislike being told straight up that they have it worse and I'm supposed to feel sympathy for them. Plus, this is a medical show, and we all know that I'm not a fan of medical shows.
The second time around, I have to say that things have improved. Meredith isn't nearly as irritating, and I was kind of glad to see that Dr. McDreamy's wife is sticking around and is completely Meredith's opposite. Katherine Heigl has more to do now, and I've always thought that she was a great actress (even in Roswell, although her scenes with Jason Behr squicked me out because it was a little too un-sibling-ish). George is just ridiculously likeable, and Sandra Oh and Dr. Bailey get all the best snappy remarks.
But unlike Everwood, I don't think I'm quite a converted fan yet. I might watch a few more episodes to make sure, but there are still two big things holding me back. First is the medical thing. The hospital stuff just really doesn't hold my attention. I know that we're all supposed to be fascinated by all these weird and different and heartstring-tugging cases, but I'm just not. I can't help it.
The second thing is Meredith's voiceovers. Voiceovers can really make or break a show for me. If they're good, they can really contribute a lot, but when they're bad they can ruin the entire show for me. I hate Meredith's voiceovers. They're filled with too many metaphors and wisdom and life-affirming crap, and I just don't buy it as really coming from Meredith. It just sounds like Ellen Pompeo reading it off a sheet of paper.
So...yeah. Mira, I know you continue to be a fan of the show so keep posting on it! I'll focus on 24 when it premieres in January. So excited for that!
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Second Opinions, Part I - Everwood
This is a series of posts on shows that I've decided to give second chances to, with mixed results. Stay tuned!
Inexplicably this season I've started to watch Everwood again. I actually never really watched this show regularly before, but for some reason I'm really digging it now. When the show first premiered, I had actually found it kind of annoying. The whole Colin thing was just way too melodramatic for me, and I found it irritating that at like 15, Amy was already this long-suffering girlfriend who acted more like she was in her thirties. Ephram was too whiny, the adults were too quirky, and I hated those voiceovers. Plus I really am completely disinterested in medical shows, and while Everwood had mostly cutesy small-town medicine as opposed to the standard TV hospital stuff, I still found all of those scenes really boring.
Admittedly, I still skip over a lot of the doctor stuff and I'm not very interested in the adult plotlines in general, but the show has really grown into its own. Bright's transformation has turned him from dumb jerk to just plain loveable, Ephram has relaxed a little and is a lot less whiny, and Amy has actually joined my very short list of female TV characters that I actually like.
And seriously, the writing and acting this season has just been damn good. Bright and Hannah are running against Seth and Summer for cutest couple ever, and after all of their ridiculous ups and downs, Amy and Ephram still manage to have amazing tension and chemistry. This past week when Ephram suddenly told Amy that he was still in love with her, my heart totally skipped a beat...it was that convincing. (I never said that I wasn't a sap.) And the show doesn't only focus on the romantic storylines. The story arc where Hannah's father died and she wanted to leave Everwood showed how conscious the writers are of that other stuff: the scene when Amy tells Ephram how much she was going to miss Hannah and the scene when Ephram goes to tell Hannah about it were just perfect. Plus the show has moved away from the annoying quirky humor that always seems to come along with small-town shows but has kept enough light and funny moments. The show still can get a little too schmaltzy at times, but overall I've really been enjoying it.
Of course, as soon as I get into it all, the show is taking a break to make way for another season of Beauty and the Geek. Of course I'll probably watch that too though...
Inexplicably this season I've started to watch Everwood again. I actually never really watched this show regularly before, but for some reason I'm really digging it now. When the show first premiered, I had actually found it kind of annoying. The whole Colin thing was just way too melodramatic for me, and I found it irritating that at like 15, Amy was already this long-suffering girlfriend who acted more like she was in her thirties. Ephram was too whiny, the adults were too quirky, and I hated those voiceovers. Plus I really am completely disinterested in medical shows, and while Everwood had mostly cutesy small-town medicine as opposed to the standard TV hospital stuff, I still found all of those scenes really boring.
Admittedly, I still skip over a lot of the doctor stuff and I'm not very interested in the adult plotlines in general, but the show has really grown into its own. Bright's transformation has turned him from dumb jerk to just plain loveable, Ephram has relaxed a little and is a lot less whiny, and Amy has actually joined my very short list of female TV characters that I actually like.
And seriously, the writing and acting this season has just been damn good. Bright and Hannah are running against Seth and Summer for cutest couple ever, and after all of their ridiculous ups and downs, Amy and Ephram still manage to have amazing tension and chemistry. This past week when Ephram suddenly told Amy that he was still in love with her, my heart totally skipped a beat...it was that convincing. (I never said that I wasn't a sap.) And the show doesn't only focus on the romantic storylines. The story arc where Hannah's father died and she wanted to leave Everwood showed how conscious the writers are of that other stuff: the scene when Amy tells Ephram how much she was going to miss Hannah and the scene when Ephram goes to tell Hannah about it were just perfect. Plus the show has moved away from the annoying quirky humor that always seems to come along with small-town shows but has kept enough light and funny moments. The show still can get a little too schmaltzy at times, but overall I've really been enjoying it.
Of course, as soon as I get into it all, the show is taking a break to make way for another season of Beauty and the Geek. Of course I'll probably watch that too though...
the WB meets Princeton Review
This is really only marginally entertainment related, but I clicked on a link today and ended up at this website: http://www.theu.com/site/. It's a site advertising a guide to colleges on DVD and there are preview clips of each of the 50 schools that it covers. The funny part is that it's hosted by stars of the WB like Gregory Smith (Everwood), James Lafferty (One Tree Hill), and Jared Padalecki (Supernatural). Cornell's segment was introduced by Kristin Kreuk from Smallville, and I have to say that it was really bizarre hearing Lana Lang talking about how Cornell is famous for "getting some...from your textbooks." Of course during the talk about hard work they showed one girl in a bikini top studying outside on the grass, which cracked me up because what they should really be showing is Phillips 319. And all of the exterior shots in the preview were during the summer which really isn't a good representation of Ithaca in general.
Anyway, to hear your favorite WB star say a few sentences about a school they probably never considered and a process that they likely never went through, check out the website. I'll admit that I watched more than a few of the intros to see which celebrities gave into this bizarre idea...
Anyway, to hear your favorite WB star say a few sentences about a school they probably never considered and a process that they likely never went through, check out the website. I'll admit that I watched more than a few of the intros to see which celebrities gave into this bizarre idea...
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