M: 2011 in review

Resolutions:
1. Watch more movies: An improvement over 2010, I think!
2. Read un-read fiction books on my bookshelf: Utter failure; don't think I read a single one of the books on my bookshelf. Oops.
3. Blog more about non-TV things: Definitely an improvement. Our Thursday Top Threes probably were a bit of a cheat and we made a concerted effort not to be too TV-centric with those posts; but I did try to blog more about movies! :)

Favorite "we like tv"-related things from 2011 (not in any particular order):

• Hulu Plus (and the Playstation 3 integration of Hulu Plus and Netflix)
• Revenge
• Crazy, Stupid, Love
• Michael Fassbender (Jane Eyre, X-Men: First Class)
• Friday Night Lights
• Mumford & Sons
• Greek 
• "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga

Jenn -- We need to figure out what we're doing on Thursdays in 2012!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!

my short list

Because I'm still inspired, I'm going to post one more entry. Coming out of Crazy, Stupid, Love, I was reminded of how much I really like certain actors/actresses. In particular, there are three that are currently on my short list of people I adore and would watch in anything. I currently hypothesize that there are two reasons they have made it onto my short list: 1) Their acting alone was able to make a movie I otherwise may not have enjoyed at all a movie I really enjoyed every minute of; and 2) They maintained the track record of awesomeness in performance in multiple movies.

1) Emma Stone:
Easy A was a movie that I would have expected myself to watch since I love silly high school movie adaptations of literature and Shakespeare. But definitely with any other actress, it would have pretty much sucked. The supporting cast was nothing worth remembering (even Aly whatever her name is from Hellcats). But Emma Stone was FABULOUS. She was so great. I wanted to be as cool as she is. I still do.
In Crazy, Stupid, Love, she is one of many characters in the movie, but I looked forward to every minute she was on the screen. I was enthralled by every scene she was in, and I still want to be as cool as she is.
She's currently my number one pick to be anyone in any movie. I love that she can make ugly faces and be completely goofy, but still incredibly perfect for it. I look forward to the new Spiderman movie solely because she's in it. (I'm a little over the Spidey movies, really.) And I'm actually kinda interested in seeing The Help, too, and that's definitely a movie that would never fall onto my radar otherwise. Additionally, Burkie knows this, but I really think that Emma Stone would be the perfect actress to play the Pioneer Woman in the movie about her.

2) Ellen Page:
She completely won me over in Juno. I even wanted to be Juno, and she was a teenage girl who got pregnant!! But she has such a casual ease about her and is, well, just plain cool. She doesn't overact anything and comes off extremely real, relatable, and fun.
The movie I wouldn't have expected to enjoy so much was Whip It; I mean, really, this was a movie about roller derby. The movie explained how roller derby worked and I *still* didn't get it. Yet somehow I ended up really enjoying it and yes, it only improved upon my opinion of Ellen Page.

3) Carey Mulligan:
For a while all I knew of her was that she was the girl who used to date Shia LaBoeuf and had been nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe for An Education. Then one day, I happened across The Greatest, which was an incredibly sappy and depressing movie... There was so much WRONG with the movie (like the fact that it was set up to make me cry over something I should not have cared all that much about), but Carey really stood out to me. I realized I had seen her before in the Keira Knightley movie version of Pride and Prejudice, but that didn't really count because Kitty barely exists in that movie. In any case, The Greatest piqued my interest in watching An Education.
An Education is a movie that would have never caught my attention because truthfully, it looked boring. But the movie was so far from boring and the storyline really captured my attention -- so much so that I was googling/and wikapediaing the details of the real life story the movie was based upon afterward! But as fantastic as I thought the movie was, Carey Mulligan was the center of everything that made me enjoy the movie so much. Simply put, she's perfect and deserves to be on my short list of actresses (I guess there are no actors on this list!) that I would watch in anything.
The best thing ever, though: she's going to be Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby! I cannot wait!!!

recommendations continued: crazy, stupid, love.

It has been a really long time since I've seen/read/heard something that inspired me to blog about it right away. I just got home from watching Crazy, Stupid, Love in the theater and... wow. All I could think as the credits were rolling was, 'I can't wait for this to come out on DVD!' It was *that* good. At least, I really, really, really enjoyed it.

A great cast; one of my current favorite actresses is in it; one of my favorite actors to look at (when he's all cleaned up) is in it; it has "ships" to root for; it made me laugh, tear, want to applaud; it made me excited with anticipation and nervous about what was going to happen next... I enjoyed every minute of it, and I think you will, too. So if you get the opportunity to see it, in theater or DVD, don't turn it down!

I absolutely cannot wait to watch it again. (Resolution 2011: check, check!)

M+J: Jane Eyre

M: Jenn and I went to see Jane Eyre last week after having talked about it for a few weeks. We thought it'd be a perfect opportunity to do a joint post! :)

Overall Assessment:
M: I really enjoyed it! I thought it captured the story really wonderfully and I was immersed in every second of it. There were a few scenes that worried/scared me, but I thought it was beautifully done without trying to make everything look so Hollywood beautiful, if that makes sense.
J: I appreciated the craft of this movie (acting, cinematography, music, etc) but I don't think I really loved it. I'm used to watching much longer BBC/Masterpiece Theatre miniseries productions of these kinds of classic novels and I felt like this was just too...short. The romance in Jane Eyre is the epitome of "slow burn" and there just wasn't enough time for that. I was a bit mixed on Mia Wasikowska as Jane. She was really good in scenes where Jane was allowing her "passion" to come through but the rest of the time I thought she was too bottled up and a bit too frail and delicate looking.

Book vs. Movie:
M: So I've read Jane Eyre at least twice, but both times were well over a decade ago. Given that I can barely remember anything in books I read 10 months ago, 10+ years ago = I remember nothing. I have a vague sense that there was a crazy lady in the attic and I knew the main characters were named Jane Eyre (no duh!) and Mr. Rochester, but that was about it. What I remember of reading the book was that I thought it was a bit boring. I thought the movie did a good job of staying interesting. :) I probably should re-read the book sometime soon...
J: I remember the book pretty well. The movie took some liberties and shortcuts in the story (which I think it had to) but I wasn't upset over any of that. The book does get a little boring at points...there's actually a lot of stuff about religion...

Favorite Thing About the Movie:
M: Uh, Mr. Rochester. Michael Fassbender was extremely good-looking, almost reminiscent of Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in Pride & Prejudice (5 hour BBC version). I cannot wait to see him (the actor) in X-Men: First Class. Also, given that Jane is supposed to be plain, I did like the fact that Mia Wasikowska was not made to look beautiful all the time, just sometimes. Other times with her weird hair, she really did look plain.
J: Ditto on Michael Fassbender, although I'm pretty sure Mr. Rochester was described as not being very handsome in the book. I also liked the scenes with young Jane, and the landscapes and grand houses in these kinds of movies are always wonderful.

Least Favorite Thing:
M: The goatlike Mr. Rivers. I couldn't stop thinking about how he'd make a fantastic satyr/faun.
J: I thought the ending was rather abrupt. After all that I think a little bit more explanation or time with the reunited couple would have been nice. Also I thought Judi Dench was pretty much wasted as Mrs. Fairfax. I've never thought of that as being a particularly interesting or important role. Oh, and the hairstyles in this movie were all pretty unattractive, though I can't comment on whether they were historically accurate.

New Movie vs. Previous Adaptations:
M: Um, yeah, unlike Jenn, I have not seen any previous adaptations...
J: I'm a big fan of the 2006 BBC miniseries with Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson. Like I said before, the four hours just gave it more time to develop. The performances are slightly different...Toby Stephens is a bit wilder and Ruth Wilson's Jane had more poise and actually smiled on occasion. In general I liked the miniseries better. Not that this was that bad...

Miscellaneous:
M: Really glad I got to see it! Yet another movie for my 2011 resolutions!
J: I enjoyed it but when I'm in a Jane Eyre mood I'll reach for the miniseries or the book (both of which I own) instead.

2 Movies!

One of my new year's resolutions was to watch more movies... So I'm finally starting to!

Unknown: My friends jokingly called this movie Taken 2. Liam Neeson in an action-packed movie where something important to him is taken away -- his identity. Truthfully, until I actually got to the theater, I didn't know what the movie was called, just that it was "Un-something" and I only had a vague idea what it was about. Obviously I had low (or no) expectations, so as is often the case, I came out mostly satisfied. If you enjoyed Taken, this movie was pretty much satisfying in the same way. There were a few "why the heck would someone do that?" scenes, but that's to be expected of any movie! (20 February)

I Am Number Four: The concept of the movie interested me but the biggest reason I did not want to see this movie initially was because of the name of the movie; I thought it was stupid. Then I learned it was a novel by the same name and I forgave it a little. Reviews all panned it but a few girl friends wanted to see it, so we went and saw it. Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly?), I liked it! Quite a few scenes made me jump; the ugly bad guy things with the gills next to their noses grossed me out; and I couldn't stop thinking about how crazy Alex Pettyfer is rumored to be in real life. Dianna Agron is kind of like Alexis Bledel; no matter what role she plays, she's still Quinn like Alexis was Rory. Other things I liked: the little details in the movie made me happy; Number Six's powers were really cool; and changes between the book and movie (according to wikipedia.org) made me really glad I saw the movie and have not read the book. In any case, not a stand out movie but it was enjoyable. At least worth adding to the Netflix queue when it comes out on DVD. (10 March)

Up next: The Adjustment Bureau and Jane Eyre (Hopefully!)

[2011 Resolutions 1 and 3!]