Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts

Seventh Row: "Beautiful Creatures"

Posted by Sandra on Thursday, February 28, 2013. Filed under: , , , ,
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Hello everyone, I watched "Beautiful Creatures" the movie this weekend. I read the book last year, and I was a bit conflicted about it; I liked it very much, but it wasn't exactly one of my favorite books. Still, I will never miss an opportunity to watch a movie based on a book... And I emphasize based because this movie has almost nothing to do with the book.... 

Warning! This review contain many spoilers. 

Let me start with the characters:

Ethan Wate was portrayed by Alden Ehrenreich, which in my opinion was right for the role. I never expected Ethan to be drop dead gorgeous (which I liked very much) and Alden is handsome, just like Ethan was in my head. I think he did a great job, he made me laugh, shed one or two tears and I loved the way he narrated the story. 

Lena Duchannes... Oh, well... She wasn't my favorite character on the book, but I really expected her to be more. She was portrayed by Alice Englert, whom (in my opinion) is not very much alike to Lena. Lena was meant to be absolutely gorgeous, and Alice was pretty but it ends there. She wasn't as charming as I thought Lena should be, but I ended up enjoying her in the movie. Kind of. 

Link was absolutely perfect. For me, one of the only two characters that were truly how I imagined. He was cute, fun, and charming. I would've liked to see him perform with his band, but still, Thomas Mann did a great job. He was my favorite character from the movie, but I found incredibly stupid that he shoot Ethan, I mean, why? It was predictable and lame.

Macon Ravenwood is the other character which I think it was portrayed perfectly by the incredible Jeremy Irons. Oh, Irons is one of my favorite actors and I was thrilled to see him as Macon. I reckon he did a great job, but I blame whoever wrote the script for some in-congruencies. 

Amma... I was terribly affected by the decision of kind of mixing Amma's and Marian's character into one, excluding Marian from the movie. I think Viola Davis was amazing, but I wanted to see Marian on screen.

I know that sometimes producers and script writers have to cut off some characters in order to have a fast paced and entertaining movie, without overwhelming the audience with tons of characters, but what the hell happened to Marian, Sarafine (after she leaves Mrs. Lincoln's body) and my beloved Boo Radley????? Also, some scenes were excluded, such as the Winter Ball (bummer). And most importantly, they excluded one of my favorite things from the book... The mental connection between Ethan and Lena. 

They changed a lot of things from the books, and left out some very important stuff, that people who've never read the book should've known. Some friends thought the movie was full of non-sense and bad. I think that with the right script, it would've been awesome. 

And what to say about that ending? GOD, how the hell are they planning to start the second movie with that horrible ending? Unless they're not making a second movie, and this was a stand-alone... And if this is the case, they could've done better, to give it a closure. 

I really hope that there's a second movie (Beautiful Darkness) in the works, and I hope that its better than this failed attempt to make a good adaptation. 

That being said, I have to say, that I thought the movie was entertaining. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it... too much. I thought that for a person who has read the book, it was bad.

If you haven't seen it yet and you've read the book, you won't be pleased. But hey, let me know what did you think about it. 

Movie Trailer: Beautiful Creatures

Posted by Sandra on Tuesday, February 19, 2013. Filed under: , , , ,
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Guys I know Beautiful Creatures is a BIG franchise now, and it's everywhere you go, but if you haven't watched the trailer for the movie, which was released in the USA last week, and will be released worldwide this friday, I leave you here two movie trailers, so you know what to expect and decide if it's worth watching. I personally think it is, although I think I'll leave the movie theater disappointed. We'll see. Post your thoughts about the movie if you already watched it or if you plan to.



and


Thoughts about "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" Movie

Posted by Sandra on Monday, January 21, 2013. Filed under: , , ,
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Well, I also got asked to post my thoughts about "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" movie.

The movie came out months ago in the USA, but I couldn't see it until mid-January because it took a while to premiere here in Mexico. I watched it twice and I absolutely LOVED it.

I am fully aware that there were some changes, but that is necessary when it comes to book adaptions and I think that nothing really important was left out of the movie. The fact that Stephen Chbosky wrote the script, directed and produced the movie made it 99.9% loyal to the book. 

One thing that disappointed me a bit, was the fact that the tunnel song was changed. I do love David Bowie but I was expecting "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac. I think "Heroes" was a good choice and I really liked, YES, but I adore Fleetwood Mac, so that was the only let down for me. 

When it comes to acting, WOAH!! I was so surprised with Logan Lerman's performance. He did an outstanding job portraying Charlie. I'm a big fan but I wasn't sure he would be a good Charlie... Turns out I was wrong and he was excellent. He made me feel everything he was feeling, he made me think what he was thinking, just as if I was reading the book.

Another surprise was Ezra Miller... Damn that boy can act. I watched "We Need to Talk about Kevin" and he was terrific in it! He did an excellent Patrick, I wasn't expecting him to be so good. I didn't imagine Patrick to look like Ezra, but he shut my mouth with that acting.

And well, Emma Watson. No words needed. As a Potterhead I love her. I got super-duper excited when she was casted as Sam. She was flawless, her acting is so good and she played Sam amazingly!!! 

Another favourite of mine was Paul Rudd as Mr. Anderson. He is one of my fave characters in the book and I have a crush on Paul Rudd since forever, so this casting was perfect for me.

As you read, I found this casting GENIUS! I'm not used to be pleased with the cast of a book adaptation, so another reason to love the movie. It was as touching, overwhelming, deep and fun as the book. I left the movie theater in tears after watching it, and I can't wait to buy the DVD and watch it tons of times. Just perfect!!!

Perks of reading Perks.

Posted by Sandra on Saturday, January 19, 2013. Filed under: , , , ,
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Title: The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
Author: Stephen Chbosky

Pages: 213
Published: 1999
Read In: 2005
Rating: 5/5

I'm really happy because today I got a mail from a Brazilian girl who asked me to post my review of Stephen Chboskys's "The Perks of Being a Wallflower".

The main reason why I got excited is because someone in Brazil reads my blog!!
The second one, because she asked me to post a review about the book that made a difference in my life. 

So, I'm not quite sure this is an objective review since I adore this book, but here are my thoughts about it:
When I first read this book I was 12 years old, and I was going through a lot of similar situations related to school, friends and self discovery. I didn't own the book back then, a friend lent it to me so I used to read it in my recess time at school. This book changed my life, it truly did. It changed the way I used to see the world around me, it made me wonder: Am I a wallflower?

In my opinion, this was such and original and amazing way to narrate a book: Through letters.


Charlie is an amazing character, so complex, unique and real and he talks about his life through letters sent to an unknown character (I thought that by the end of the book I would know who he was writing to, sadly I didn't). Charlie poured his heart on those letters, he wrote about his struggles in life, constant body and mind changes and how he dealt with it. He had to deal with a lot of issues, like the suicide of his best friend, falling in love with someone older than him that only saw him as a friend, discovering sexuality, being introduced to a world of drugs and alcohol at the age of 15, violence, sex abuse and self discovery. I, like Charlie, want to be a writer, and that's another reason why I loved him so much.


In my opinion he is an amazing, complex, well-written character, and I totally connected with him through the whole reading. This is a story of a real person, it’s not fiction, and maybe that’s why I liked it so much, because this book gave something unique to us readers, it is real and it’s honest, maybe a bit raw when it comes to certain situations, but that’s what makes it an amazing and compelling story.


Charlie’s development through the book is amazing, you can see how he starts as a shy, disturbed guy, and how he finds out that there’s more to life than to pity himself, how he discovers the true power of friendship and love, and most important, how he realizes that he is important, that he matters and that he can accomplish everything he wants. How could this book not be amazing? I really wish I had friends like Patrick and Sam, they are incredible. It has a great writing quality, Stephen Chbosky made a great job with his modern prose and with the characters he created, the plot is believable, touching and well, amazing. 


OH and thank you Mr. Chbosky for making me feel infinite and giving me one of the most utterly amazing, real, useful quote of my life: 


"WE ACCEPT THE LOVE WE THINK WE DESERVE" 


I've read this book 13 times in 8 years. Now I have my own copy, and it has an special place in my bookshelf and in my heart. Everything about this book screams classic! One of the best Young Adult books I’ve ever read in my whole life.

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