Update .-.

Okay, so, I can't update every single day now, I have a lot going on, but I think I'm just going to have posts Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and just keep it that. Oh, and if I'm going to go see a movie, I'll definitely post after i see the movie. Sometime next week maybe, I will be seeing Ant-Man, so be ready for another Marvel post!

Till next time

~Maddy

Fifty Shades of Grey

Okay, I literally only watched this movie because of a dare. Don't judge me because I watched this. I didn't pay anything for it (watched my friend's copy) so I didn't waste any money on this piece of crap rape fest.


(Spoilers!)
 
As Fifty Shades gained more popularity and getting made in a movie, I've been seeing a lot of people try to raise awareness about how this franchise is not about BDSM, but about domestic and sexual abuse. The "relationship" between Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey is not BDSM, though many people who read this will argue that it is, but that makes BDSM sound like something that is not consensual. Something like rape.

I bet a lot of you who read this have no idea what BDSM is about. Consent is necessary, and partners take care of each other. After the acts and role plays, the partners comfort each other. They don't shove each aside. They don't force anyone to do anything that they aren't comfortable with. Fifty Shades is none of this.

When Ana first meets Christian, she's a virgin. Christian gives her an ultimatum. Like he jumps into it. She either signs the contract and be subject to his every demand, or get the hell out. Because of her inexperience sexually, Christian is able to manipulate her to push her boundaries and make the violent sexual activities that he's into seem okay. He doesn't comfort her after an act, but instead is irritated at how upset she is. He also doesn't care about consent. He gets her drunk to get her consent, which is by law rape. At one point, Ana also uses the safe word, which takes away her consent. Does Christian listen? Nope. He continues to rape her.

Christian Grey is also a control freak. He's crazy jealous and easily angered - to the point that Ana fears for her safety. How does that sound okay? This entire crappy series destroys the true concept of BDSM. Literature and Film have a huge role in the mindset of young  people today. Young men and women read/watch this smut and assume that that is normal for BDSM. This monstrous series romanticizes and fetishizes abuse, making it seem fun and sexy. This series should not in any way be defended. Think about your life. Do you know anyone who was abused? Would you want them to think that it's okay to be treated like that?

Want me to clear up BDSM again? In case you still don't get it? BDSM is all about consent. Every single person involved gives their consent. Fifty Shades of Grey? There were many instances in which Ana did not give her consent, or she revoked it. In case you didn't know, even if you are in the middle of consensual sex, and suddenly someone says "stop" or gives a safe word or says they don't want it anymore, you have to stop. If you continue, it's rape.

Don't get me wrong, you are free to watch/read whatever you want, but don't defend Fifty Shades of Grey and claiming that it's all consensual, because it's not.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Okay, I'm going over the 2008 one because that's the one that I put into the timeline.

Dr. Bruce Banner, played by Edward Norton, is desperately searching for a cure for the gamma radiation that contaminated his cells and, when his heart rate gets too high, turns him into the Hulk, which as you probably know, is a giant, green rage monster (as described by RDJ's Tony Stark in The Avengers). Because of this, he was cut off from his "one" true love, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) as well as hide from his arch nemesis, General Thunderbolt Ross, aka Betty's father. Then, Banner comes face to face with a new monster - The Abomination.

(Spoilers!)

 Okay, so Bruce is on the run. He has to hide from Gen. Ross and thus stay as far away from Betty as possible. And as much as Bruce wants to be with Betty, he would try to stay away regardless of her father. He's afraid of what he becomes and he's afraid he would hurt her if they get too close. But when Gen. Ross finally catches up to Bruce, Betty gets in the way and after multiple explosions....she lives. With barely a scratch. Okay. Okay. I know that Hulk!Bruce put his massive green arms all around her to protect her but you can't tell me she didn't get a single mark on her. That's bull. Hulk took Betty to this cave thing to creepily watch her sleep before shrinking. Now, Betty and Bruce are on the run together. They meet this guy, who apparently found the cure to Bruce's condition. They go to him, and he apparently gets cured. So then, this one guy, Emil Blonsky gets shattered by the Hulk, yet somehow lives and he's also turned into a Hulk-like creature. So, he's the Abomination. By this point in the film, you know you are going to have a Hulk 1 vs. Hulk 2.

Betty and Bruce team up with Thunderbolt. They go after The Abomination and destroy a bunch of buildings before, of course, the Hulk wins. But Bruce still goes "I must be alone." and bam, end of the movie.

Don't get me wrong, The Hulk is kind of a cool avenger, but he's also probably my least favorite. One thing that really gets me, is that before Mark Ruffalo, we had a different actor for each one. That annoyed me. Plus isn't it convenient that Hulk can't die? He heals. You cut him, shoot him, blow him away and he heals. There's nothing that can end him, even suicide. Just no. I don't like the Hulk too much. Human!Bruce is a lot better but once we get the Hulk, I'm out. I'm honestly glad that we're probably never going to have another Hulk film, and the only new Hulk-related films we get will be Avengers.

Okay, obviously, I don't like The Incredible Hulk, but if you want to really understand the Marvel Avengers series, then you kind of have to watch The Incredible Hulk. You might want to watch the 2003 Hulk, but I don't really include it in the timeline. That's also the only reason I'm reviewing it. Buuuut that's my opinion. What do you think?

House MD

Okay, so I said that I was going to do a TV show, and here it is. House MD is a medical drama starring Hugh Laurie as a arrogant, Vicodin addicted, witty Doctor Gregory House. Starring alongside Laurie is Lisa Edelstein, Omar Epps, Robert Sean Leonard, Jennifer Morrison, Jesse Spencer, Olivia Wilde, Peter Jacobson and Kal Penn.

House is a n unorthodox medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. The majority of the episodes start outside the hospital, where we meet the patient of the week and the events that occur leading to the onset of their symptoms.

So, in the show, House and his team use a bunch of unusual and possibly illegal methods of diagnosing the patient. Sure, they lose patients from time to time, but usually they save their lives. House does everything he can, not to save the patient, but to find out what's killing them. Often times, the docs can't figure out the ailment because the patient lied about something. House often mutters the phrase, "Everybody lies," or says something like "the patient is lying", because, well he's not wrong. Patient often lies and well everybody lies.

With most TV dramas, there's a recurring subplot on the show. Lisa Cuddy (Edelstein) and House are often at odds because House does what he can to avoid clinic duty. He also often plays video games on his Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP, and later a DS and even further later a PSP while diagnosing patients. He's basically a dick to the patients and seemingly ignoring them and then suddenly comes with a diagnoses and gets them out.

Whether or not you're into this kind of stuff, it's a good watch. It's not all just doctoring and such, but there's also...drama. It can be an emotional roller coaster at times. You come to love and hate and grow with the characters. As you watch the series, you'll probably see some familiar faces on the show. Off the top of my head, Jeremy Renner, Michael Weston, Curtis Armstrong, Rob Benedict, Anne Dudek and Andre Braugher are just a few of the many actors who appear on the show. At least watch the first season. It's on Netflix.

King Kong (2005)

Okay, so I used to watch this movie all the time. I had it on DVD and I even had the GameCube video game. Well, both got heavily damaged because of some unfortunate events and I haven't even thought about King Kong in years. Then like three months ago, I found it on this website and ended up watching it every night, my obsession renewed. Of course, now that I've been watching it nearly every night for three months, I've become aware of the stupid things that happened in the movie. Oh well, still love it. (Spoilers!)

So, we start out with a montage of singing and dancing and old timey, rundown New York. We meet Ann Darrow, Carl Denham and Preston. Some main characters, right. Well Ann's poor, a theater girl, and really caring about other people. She's also really obsessed with Jack Driscoll. (I can't get mad at her, I'm obsessed with certain character in this very movie as well as the actor that plays him). Carl is a movie director, looking to shoot on Skull Island, a mysterious island said to hold a terrifying creature. Preston is his assistant. Well, Carl meets Ann and convinces her to be his leading woman in his illegal film.

Throughout the first like hour or so, we have random shots of the characters on the S.S. Venture, a tramp steamer, Ann and Jack 'fall in love', Captain Englehorn (fave) starts having second thoughts and Carl reveals to Jack that they are heading to Skull Island. Jimmy, this kid that was found on the boat overhears them and immediately runs to Mr. Hayes. Bruce Baxter, this famous and smug actor, is also onboard, and honestly, I really, truly hate him. He's just my 100 percent least favorite character in this entire movie.

Well, after receiving a message about Carl's warrant for arrest, the ship takes a turn for Rangoon. However, their sudden decision actually ended up screwing them. They head into a dense fog, where they hit rock after rock. They had reached Skull Island.

With the Venture heavily damaged and unable to continue until fixed, Carl, Ann, Jack and a few other crew members take a boat to Skull Island, leaving Englehorn and the rest of the Venture's crew to fix the ship. Of course, Englehorn doesn't care whether or not Carl and them make it back by the time they are ready to leave. Anyways, Carl and co. walk through this path thing until they see a young girl. Carl tries to give her some chocolate, but the girl, feeling threatened, no doubt, attacks. This causes other members of this tribe thing to come forward. Then Mike, the sound guy, get's speared, causing Ann to lose her mind and scream her brains out. This awakens Kong, and sets the rest of the story.

Okay, time to talk about the stupid. Englehorn was totally alright leaving without Carl, Ann, Jack, Preston, Herb, Mike, Bruce and the other guys that went onshore. He was totally cool with it. But then, right when they are able to leave, Jack goes, "they've taken Ann" and suddenly everyone's like "Oh, sh*t" and THEY GO ASHORE TO FIND ONE GIRL THAT ENDS UP WANTING TO STAY ANYWAYS!

Why. Why risk your entire crew for one woman, Englehorn. Like seriously, man. I know you care about your ship and your crew, but seriously. I end up losing all my fave characters - aside from Englehorn of course. But come on. I lose Hayes and Lumpy and Choy and I can't handle losing fave characters, really I can't. I've been having an emotional breakdown because I don't know if Crowley from Supernatural is alive or not. I'm losing my mind here in the unknown and I don't like it.

Then, and I know that this argument has been argued before, they chose to take the big monkey back to New York. Let's think about this for a minute. There is an entire island filled with dinosaurs that were long thought to be extinct, and the one animal they chose to bring back was an oversized gorilla. wtf. guys. wtf.

Well, that's all the time I have tonight. I hope to see some more pageviews soon. Really though, I appreciate the people who have taken the time to look at my blog. Even if you don't comment or like or whatever, I still see that people are looking at them. Thank you so much to the people who have looked at it, however briefly.

Also, tomorrow, I won't be making a post probably since I did three tonight.

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

So Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is the fifth installment of the Paranormal Activity series. At first, at least for me, it seemed like this one wasn't at all related to the first four films. It's actually the first spin-off of the series. (Spoilers!)

So the film is set in 2012. Jesse Arista is living in an apartment with his father, sister and grandmother in Oxnard, California. Below them, lives Ana, a woman everyone believed to be a witch. One night, Ana is found murdered and a classmate of Jesse's, named Oscar, is seen fleeing from the scene and is the prime suspect. Jesse, shocked that Oscar could possibly have killed her, investigates the apartment with his best friend Hector. In the apartment, they find tools of black magic, VHS tapes and a spell book/journal filled with spells that open the doorway to "unholy lands". Creepy right?

Okay, so what would you do if you found a book of spells that led to an alternate dimension that is described as "unholy" and probably gonna be filled with all sorts of nasty demons? Would you try out the spell? As much as I love the King of Hell, I wouldn't try a ritual from a weird book found in the apartment of a dead woman. Well, that's what Jesse, Hector and their buddy Marisol did. They did the ritual. Oooh, at first nothing happens, but it always ends bad. Haven't these guys seen any supernatural horror flick? Well, afterwards, weird supernatural events start happening in Jesse's apartment. He finds a bite mark on his arm and starts gaining supernatural abilities. Like seriously. This kid knocks out two thugs (and by knocked out, I mean he threw them without touching them).

So Jesse attends this party, right, and he takes this girl to Ana's apartment to do the do. Okay, let's pause here to talk about how ridiculous this is. I get that he doesn't want to go back to his own apartment, because God knows no teenager wants his grandmother or any other family member walking in on them getting it on, but did he have to go the apartment of a dead woman? Does he not realize how creepy that is? Or how much of a turn-off it is? WELL, I guess we needed the plot, right? Okay, so Jesse encounters Oscar, who has a similar bite mark on his arm and his eyes are black. Like totally black. He tells Jesse that they have to kill themselves so they don't hurt anyone and then he jumps off the building to his death.

Then, the group finds a trapdoor in the apartment. Down there, they discover a witch altar (fun!), photos of Jesse, his pregnant mother, Ana, Oscar and Lois. A woman in black enters, the group hides until she leaves, finding nothing.

One night, Jesse hears his dog, Chavo, crying for help, so he goes down the trapdoor to help him. The door slams shut, and witnesses the ghost/spirits/images of kid Katie and Kristi (it was at this point I realized that The Marked Ones was indeed connected to the first four films) and then he is attacked by a demon. Afterwards, Jesse starts becoming violent, and his personality darkens. Hector and Marisol do what they can to help him, even going to Oscar's criminal brother, Arturo, for information. From him, they learn that Oscar was contacting a girl named Ali Rey, who researched (conveniently, I might add) demons after demon-possessed Katie murdered her father, stepmother and kidnapped her half-brother. After meeting with this girl (who I honestly don't remember at all), they learn that the mysterious bite mark on Jesse's arm was left by a coven of witches known as the "Midwives" (not a clever name, but at least we have a name for these dicks), who brainwash women to give up their first-born sons. They are creating an army. Ali gives them the address of the ritual (how would she know this though?) and after the next bit Hector and Marisol, accompanied by Arturo and his friend Santo go to the address ready to kick some witchy ass.

Meanwhile, Jesse's grandmother is trying to cleanse Jesse, but he destroys the living room and pushes her down the stairs before disappearing. He then ambushes Hector and Marisol, who at this point are driving to the hospital. Marisol knocks him out with a bat, and they try to leave but naturally a van smashes into their car and they take Jesse.

Right, so they head to the address which is actually where Katie and Kristi's mother and her boyfriend were killed. The coven attacks the group, Santo is killed, Hector and Marisol flee into the house and who knows what happened to Arturo (dead probably, or he shows up in Ghost Dimension). Marisol is then thrown through a glass roof, so she's dead as well and Jesse takes Hector back in time, back to when Micah was killed. Katie appears in the kitchen, sees Hector and loses her mind. She starts screaming for Micah but ends up stabbing him to death when he comes down the stairs. Hector tries to run, but Jesse is like nah, cause he's totally possessed. Jesse kills Hector off-screen and a witch stares into the camera and then turns it off.

Okay, I can believe a coven of witches marking a bunch of people and letting demons possess them so that they could have an army of possessed young man. Really. That makes sense. What I can't believe is a demon dude taking another guy back in time, fully connecting all the movies. I can't do it.

It was creepier and better than the other films, in my opinion and you should watch it if you hadn't already. That's all I have to say. Till Next Time!

Paranormal Activity 4

Alright, so let's jump right into it. (Spoilers!)

Okay, so Paranormal Activity 4 is set five years after Katie killed her sister and Micah and all that and kidnapped her nephew, Hunter and disappeared. Apparently nobody looked for her? She just killed a few people, kidnapped a kid, and ran. It shouldn't have been too hard to look for her. We had the entire thing on tape! But, we needed a fourth movie, didn't we?

Well, this time our main characters are Alex (Kathryn Newton) and Ben (Matt Shively). They are buddies and all. Well, these two and Alex's family begin witnessing strange events of the paranormal nature (duh) when a woman and her strange child movie into the neighborhood. This kid keeps wandering to their yard, playing in their treehouse and whatnot, disturbing them all. Well, something weird and mysterious happens to the woman which leaves Alex and her family as temporary guardians of Robbie, the mysterious child. And of course, we have cameras installed throughout Alex's home show all the weird crap that happens following Robbie's arrival.

With Robbie living with them, Wyatt, Alex's younger brother is forced to like him (we've all been there) but Wyatt is creeped out by this kid. Do we really blame him, though? Okay, so do we really blame him, though? The day after Robbie started to stay with them, they are caught talking to Robbie's imaginary? friend. Like any rational humanbeing, they just put this off as some kids doing kid stuff. Well, things really got heated when Ben showed Wyatt, Robbie and Alex how the camera picks up the infrared tracking dots the Kinect uses, and they danced around and you know, it actually looked a little cool with the green dots everywhere. Well, Robbie just sat silently on the couch, with his invisible friend. Later, Ben showed everyone the video and you can clearly see the tracking dots picking up movement next to Robbie on the couch.

More weird things with Robbie? Creepy Ben recorded his videochat with Alex, and has footage of her sleeping at night. Alex stopped being angry with him (though she shouldn't have, that's creepy af), well, anyways, the video showed Robbie coming into her room and sleeping with her. Weird, right? This was finally enough for them, so they set up cameras all around Alex's house. Took awhile to get the Paranormal Activity vibe in, but we got it. The cameras catch all the usual weird things, such as black shapes going through the house.  Robbie draws some weird demonic symbols on Wyatt's back - the same ones we see in the second and third Paranormal Activity.

Katie also shows up, claiming to be Robbie's mother. She tells Wyatt that he's adopted and is name isn't really Wyatt. Katie also starts showing up around Alex's house, being all weird. More weird things happen, as usual (don't want to give it all away here). Anyways, the movie ends with Alex trying to take Hunter and run but a hoard of witches and demon Katie show up, closing in and then credits.

So what's going on in Paranormal Activity? From what we know of Paranormal Activity 2 and Paranormal Activity 3 that a demon and a coven of his buddy witches are at play here. One of said witches was the mother of Katie and Kristi. It was grandma that led both girls to the other world at the end of the third movie when they were young. So apparently, the witches needed a son for their master plan, right? And after 75 some years, it was Kristi who finally had a son. Katie killed Kristi and takes the boy, Hunter. Katie either put him up for adoption herself (unlikely) or dropped him off at an adoption/foster home (likely). Hunter was then adopted by Alex's family and renamed Wyatt.

So from what we see here, we can assume that Hunter had to be raised by a different family, not the witchy one, so that he could be used for the "Master Plan" but what is the master plan? Let's see if we find out in Marked Ones or Ghost Dimension.

Paranormal Activity 3

Continuing our review of the Paranormal Activity series, we will be doing the third one today. (Spoilers!)

So, in this one, we go even further back. This takes place all before the events of both Paranormal Activity and Paranormal Activity 2. Set in 1988, sisters Katie and Kristi befriend an invisible entity. Right, so Katie and Kristi are the two girls from the first two films. In the first one, Katie is facing the problems, and in the second one, Kristi is facing the problems. Now, due to the information retrieved from Paranormal Activity 3, we know that the entity that haunted Katie and Kristi as young children is the same one from the first two films.

Their father, actually, I think that he is their stepfather...whatever. Dennis was his name. Of course, his life's work has something to do with cameras. He's a wedding videographer and decides to use is cameras to figure out why all the weird things are happening at night'. Now, it wouldn't be a Paranormal Activity movie without a bunch of repetitive shots of all the security cameras. The majority of the movie is just repetitive shots of the whole house - occasionally catching something falling over or some weird movement or something like that.

Alright. I have to admit that when the sheet came out behind the babysitter (also, so cliché, a babysitter coming to watch the kids while some weird stuff is happening) and we all think that it's the kid, but then it just drops and we are all like "oh sh*t!" was pretty good. Again, one of the few good things about the movies.

They really put the "found footage" thing to work. In an actual horror flick, we would get something scary a lot. In movies like Paranormal Activity, we get a couple of jumpscares and a few things falling over or objects being in places that they shouldn't be. Then, at the end, we get like five minutes of scary. That's it.

Well, I wish I could write more about Paranormal Activity 3, but I have to be somewhere, soooo I'll post tomorrow about the Paranormal Activity 4.

We are almost done with the Paranormal Activity Series! We just have the fourth one that I'll do tomorrow and on Thursday, I will do Marked Ones.

I will do a TV show on Friday. Not sure what yet, but I'll figure it out.

Paranormal Activity 2

 Paranormal Activity 2 is obviously the second installment of the Paranormal Activity series. Just like the previous post, I will post a list of the things I found annoying in the movies. Don't think that I'm saying the movies are crap, and you shouldn't watch it. I would say watch it for the sake of jumpscares. Anyways. (Spoiler!)

Annoying Things

• The movie is about the creepy stuff that happens to Katie's sister and her family. Apparently, all this happens before the events of Paranormal Activity, yet Katie never once mentions anything of the stuff that happens in this one.
• Once again, the demon starts off just casually knocking stuff over and messing things up.
• Cliché: ethnic housekeeper/nanny really religious and tries to ward off spirits.
• If they are doing this as found footage then why is the order all out of whack? Wouldn't like the entire series be reversed. I'm not exactly sure where Marked Ones and The Ghost Dimension would fit in, but seriously.
• Tons of cameras are set up all over the house, but they rarely catch anything yet all we get is all the security cameras catching nothing.
• The parents shut the door on the baby's room with the dog in there with him.
• They set up security cameras, but they don't look at them and assume nothing is happening, so why did they even set up the security cameras?
• The cameras are on constant repetitive of nothingness
• Even if they don't want to believe that a demon or a ghost is screwing with your family, with all the weird crap that is clearly going on, you'd think an intruder or something was at fault. Okay, so stuff is clearly not where you left them. Intruder, maybe? No? Am I the only sensible human being?

There's a lot more things that are totally stupid about this movie, but the one thing that really gets me is the fact that THEY DON'T EVEN LOOK AT THE SECURITY FOOTAGE IF THEY HAD SEEN WHAT WE SEEN, THEN THEY WOULD KNOW THAT SOMETHING IS CLEARLY WRONG EVEN IF THEY DON'T BELIEVE IN SPIRITS THEY CAN'T JUST IGNORE WHAT THEY SEE.

Alas, they don't check the security footage off the security cameras that they set up because of the weird stuff that's been happening.

Again, the only reason I watch these series is because of the relatable weird things that happen.

Paranormal Activity

I don't know if you guys know this, but a new Paranormal Activity is coming out October. It's called Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension. So, to prepare for the upcoming film, the next few days will discuss the Paranormal Activity series.

Honestly, I'm the type of person that loves films shot in the way that Paranormal Activity was. I really like 'found footage' films. But I'm pretty indifferent to this series. It was too clichéd for my tasted. (Spoilers!)

Clichés (Some of them) And other Annoying Things

• There was opening text to fool people into thinking what they are about to see is real.
• Katie calls up a psychic to help explain all the weird stuff that's been happening, and Micah is skeptical.
• Micah gets a Ouija board after Katie expressly states that she doesn't want him to get a Ouija Board.
• Also, the camera that Micah had was so stupid. It was freaking huge. He's going to have some back problems carrying that thing around.
• So in the beginning, we have a shot of the TV. Then, in a later shot, which is set several hours later, the TV is on the same scene from the previous shot.
• Why does it take so long for the demon to possess Katie? Like does it need to scare the crap out of them by flickering lights and opening doors for the lols? It can't have anything to do with gaining strength, it's a freaking demon.
• They went towards the creepy noise.
• Katie put the camera at fault. Like, crazy crap has happened LONG before the camera came into the picture. But suddenly, the camera brought the demon into our world, right?
• They pulled the psychic back to say the same stuff he said before and then leave.
• How did Micah not wake up after his girlfriend got pulled out of bed and down the hall?
• The entire movie, Micah brought the camera for every little thing, but not the whole Katie being possessed crap. Just the one scene that would have been creepy and scary and all that, and Micah didn't grab the camera.
• In the end, there's like over a minute of a black screen and grumbling, making you think something is going to happen, but then nothing does and you feel betrayed.

The above is the reason why I'm indifferent to the first Paranormal Activity. I love found footage films, especially if they are of the supernatural nature. Basically the weird creepy stuff that I can actually relate to is the reason I watch these movies and the reason I will be seeing The Ghost Dimension when it comes out. But the rest of it is just stupid.

Captain America: The First Avenger

 It's Independence Day here in America! So, naturally, the best film to review is Captain America. I usually don't even realize that it's Independence Day, but I saw a ton of Captain America shirts and I was like "ooohhhhh". Anyways. Onto the good stuff. (Spoilers!)

Captain America: The First Avenger starts out with researchers in the Artic Circle finding the wreckage of a large aircraft and end up finding a circular, red, white and blue object. Backing up to 1942, we see Johann Schmidt, leader of HYDRA invading a stone church in Norway. They are looking for the Tesseract - a mysterious artifact with untold powers (though you find out in later movies). Meanwhile, in New York City, Steve Rogers is rejected yet again by the military. He desperately wants to fight in World War II, but he really doesn't meet the standards. He confides to his buddy Bucky Barnes, and his conversation is overheard by Dr. Abraham Erskine. After enlisting Steve for his tests and seeing just how kind and good he really is, Erskine subjects Steve to the super soldier treatment by putting him in this special chamber where they inject him with Super Soldier Serum (didn't do a good job of picking the name, though). He was also dosed with "vita-rays." Steve comes out totally ripped.

Using his super-enhanced abilities, Steve becomes Captain America and fights the Schmidt, the Tesseract and HYDRA.

Anyways, I like Captain America. Steve is my favorite avenger. But the movie had a few points that bothered me. Like why did they inject Steve with Super Soldier Serum, where he was literally turned into the perfect soldier and the only person capable of defeating Schmidt and then turn him into a Broadway show? And why did Steve go with it at first? Also, in the beginning of the movie, how did Bucky get to right where Steve was when that guy was picking on him? Does Bucky just stalk Steve around? Because that's creepy. Then there's Peggy Carter and that whole ordeal. Why did Steve kiss another girl when he was clearly so into Peggy and she was clearly so into him. Or was she only into him because of the ^after? Kidding, I know she wasn't.

Also Howard Stark was literally just his son the entire movie. If I didn't know better, I'd say that Howard cloned himself and Tony Stark is really Howard. Just saying.

Well that's all that I have for the moment. I'm dead tired and I can't really say a lot of bad things about Captain America: The First Avenger because I freaking love this movie. It is fantastic and if you are thinking of getting into the marvel cinematic universe, I would probably watch this one first, and then Thor and then The Incredible Hulk. When I do a post on The Avengers, I'll upload a cinematic timeline for you guys.

Eragon

Eragon. This film is based off a book by Christopher Paolini. It's about a farmboy who discovers a dragon egg. The egg hatches and he becomes one of the legendary Dragon Riders and it is up to him and his dragon, Saphira, to save Alagaesia from the evil Galbatorix and his own dragon and army. 

Now, don't get me wrong. The books were AMAZING. My brother and I love them so much. Actually, we love them so much that my brother is naming his daughter after the elf, Arya. I kid you not. But the movie...that sucked. I can't tell you how psyched I was to see that there was going to be a movie based off of one of my favorite books. Then I see the movie...and they butchered it. It's like they didn't even read the books.

Everything about the entire movie was wrong. (Spoilers!). Like how Saphira grew. In the books, it took actual time. She actually grew like a normal freaking creature. In the movie, she flew and grew instantly. Also, in the books, Eragon first heard the name "Saphira" from Brom, when Eragon asked him names of dragons from the days of the Dragon Riders. However, the movie showed that Saphira chose the name for herself. Then there was the matter of how Eragon defeated Durza. They totally left out the part where Arya breaks the Star Sapphire, which creates a huge whole in any future sequels.

Just...the movie was ridiculous. They made such a terrible mess that they destroyed any chance of there being any movie sequels. Eldest...Brisingr...Inheritance. We will likely never see these being made into movies. The mistakes I mentioned before are just some of the scenes butchered.

I 100% do not recommend you see the movie Eragon. If you want something worthwhile, read the books. They are actually good.

Now this, this is for the guys who created the film. If you are going to make a movie based off a book, make sure you actually base it off the book and don't come up with your own ideas for it. Because then, in future movies, you would have to completely change factors from the books to fit with the story that you twisted.

The Living Dead - Discussion

What’s that one topic that everyone has an opinion on? Zombies. I remember back in the eighth grade when my friends and I would talk all the time about the zombie apocalypse. Now, when I was in eighth grade was when that whole Mayan Apocalypse thing was happening and everyone was expecting the world to end December 2012. Everyone had different ideas of how that was going to go down, from Lucifer and Michael going at it to full blown Night of the Living Dead. 

 

Personally, I thought the whole “It’s the end of the world!” thing was just a big joke and people were totally overreacting. And I was right, wasn’t I? 2012 continued right onto 2013 and a lot of people looked really stupid. Anyways, even though I thought it was all bull****, I talked about the matter with my group of friends. We actually got so into talking about it, that my one friend, Colton, and I wrote a zombie-like short story (well, it really was killer squirrels attacking people and turning them into half human/half squirrel zombies). 

Well, the point of this post is to not only talk about my favorite zombie flicks, but to ask anyone who reads this their favorite ones. Please comment below what your favorite zombie movie is, or email me at gomegaswellow@gmail.com or message my tumblr. 

Okay, now onto the good stuff. I watch a ton of zombie films, though there haven’t really been a whole lot of good ones recently. My favorite zombie movies, however, are the ones of George A. Romero. Night of the Living Dead, Land of the Dead, Day of the Dead, etc. I love them all. Now, by far, my favorite is the original 1968 Night of the Living Dead. I first watched that one when I was around six years old, and I was terrified, but I was amazed as well. It was the zombie flick that opened me to a whole new realm. From then on, I watched every single living dead film that passed my way. One that really caught my eye, however, was Land of the Dead. This film starred Simon Baker, Robert Joy, Asia Argento, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, and Eugene Clark. If you haven’t watched it, you should. It’s pretty good, like Romero’s other works. (Spoiler Alert!) Right, so the film is about Riley Denbo (Baker), and his friends Slack (Argento) and Charlie (Joy), who realize that the zombies are ‘evolving’. They are learning. They are starting to act almost human again. One zombie, ‘Big Daddy’ (Clark) leads them on a revolution against the last of the humans. Riley and the others try to save as many humans as possible and while the all of this is going on, Cholo DeMora (Leguizamo) leads a group of fighters in their truck “Dead Reckoning” against the top human, Kaufman (Hopper). That’s basically what it’s about. 

 

Let's not forget The Walking Dead. I'm probably the only one who doesn't really like this show as much. Like I watched the first couple of seasons and was into it and all but after awhile, it got kind of old. It's far too mainstream for me at the moment. I can't walk into a single store anymore without finding some kind of Walking Dead merch. For those of you who don't know, it's pretty annoying. It's like Grumpy Cat. There are way too many things based off of it. Some stores have entire aisles or walls dedicated to the show. Anyways. I like the the first few seasons and all, but it wore off. 

Anything else? It's pretty late at the moment, so I'm kind of dead. Living Dead *waits for someone to laugh* *no one laughs*.  Ah, a thought just came to me.

Do you guys like fast zombies? Or the classic slow ones? Why? Or, do you like the World War Z types that are fast when there's food around, but slow and unresponsive when there is nothing to stimulate them? 

Personally, I like the slow ones better. Reasons: 

1. You're less screwed with slow zombies because at least you can power walk the f**k away from them. 
2. They're classic.
3. If you're dead, I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be able to run faster than you did when you were alive. 

Well, that's all I have on the undead. So sorry I made this post so late into the night, and sorry for totally skipping yesterdays post. I've was a little busy and I'm not feeling too great and couldn't find the time to make a post, but I'll see if I can make two posts tomorrow. Another note: I'm going to try and find time to go see The Gallows, which comes out July 10th. It looks like it's one of those supernatural found footage films, which I'm really into. I'll be sure to review it for you guys.

Inside Out

 

Time to talk about Disney's Inside Out! I went to see this one last week, actually, and I really liked it. I had been planning for quite a while to go see it, not only because of it's uniqueness, but because of it's message. Most Disney films portray a similar message: That the only way to achieve true happiness is to be beautiful and meet someone equally as beautiful and fall in love. This one shows something completely different. I'll let you watch the movie to see what I mean. Riley, the little girl whose mind is the setting, is a topic of interest amongst many fans. She's one of the reasons I really wanted to see the movie.

I first heard about the movie itself on tumblr, where discussions about the gender of Riley crossed my dash. This isn't spoilers really, as you can see this in the trailer. In the mother's head, her emotions are all female, whereas in the father's head, the emotions are all male. In Riley's head, the genders of each emotion are mixed. You can see her emotions in the picture above as well. Does this mean that Riley is bigender? Or gender neutral? The fact that bigender and/or gender neutral individuals are rarely shown in entertainment media is something that really sparked my interest.

Well, now to the movie itself. Young Riley and her family move from Minnesota all the way to San Francisco, where her emotions, Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness try to take over her emotions and how she feels about her new city, home and school, leading to many problems inside of her head.  It's something that is really relatable too, you know? How you try to be as happy as you can be, but sometimes the sadness is too strong. If you want to see one movie this month, I suggest that you go see Inside Out. Let me tell you though, a lot of people are hating this movie, though some the reasons seem a little weird. Some say that this movie will barely hold the attention of a child, but I can debunk that. My own little sister, who has serious attention problems, was glued to the screen the whole movie.

This is for those of you that have seen the movie and disliked it, saying that the movie would depress you.

Did you really get it? The film wasn't saying that in order to be happy, you have to be sad first, it was saying that all emotions tie together. It was saying that although something upsets you, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. I suffer from depression as well, and I didn't walk out of the theater in a depressed state. It's hard on a child to move halfway across the country. You leave all your friends behind; you leave your whole life behind. You enter a new school, with whole new people that you've never met before. Your friends back home have other friends there, and you feel replaced. Inside Out wasn't "depressing" and a "waste of time" it was realistic. Depression can take over when something like that happens.

Someone is probably going to argue that people's lives are hard enough as it is, and trying to escape that at the movies and seeing this movie is wrong and all that, but did you even finish seeing the movie then? If you had, then you would have noticed that Joy realized that you can't be happy all the time, and that sadness isn't always a bad thing. Following sadness, will come happiness, even if it takes a little while. Riley was depressed at first, because she had just moved away from everything she knows and was thrusted into a whole new world. If you can stay happy through all of that, then wow. I am honestly surprised. But that doesn't mean that everyone can. Inside Out is a realistic film that gave showed kids that sadness doesn't last forever.

After I saw the film, I got skyped with a friend of mine who had moved to the other end of the country a few months ago. She had also seen it with her younger brother. So let me tell you a story. Her younger brother, who is almost ten years old, was devastated when they moved all the way to Nevada. My friend told me of his plight.  He didn't have any friends for several weeks. He would barely eat. He wouldn't talk to anyone. He wasn't the same. I skyped with my friend several times since they moved and I saw how he was. He looked dead in the eyes. Well, my friend had seen the trailer for Inside Out, and took him to see it the day that it came out. And when I Skyped with my friend after I saw Inside Out, I saw her younger brother. He was smiling. His eyes were full of life. I mentioned this to him, and he said that he didn't have to sad anymore because Riley wasn't sad anymore.

Do you understand what I'm saying here? This movie helped a nine year old boy through his depression. He was undergoing a very similar situation and this movie helped him.

It's up to you. If you want to go see Inside Out, go ahead. It's a good movie. I liked it. If you don't want to, well you're entitled to your own opinion. But don't go around telling people that all this movie does is depress everyone who goes and sees it because that is not the case.

Ouija

 

Ouija Boards. I've used them before. I'm sure some of you have as well. I actually still have a Ouija board. It's sitting right next to me as I type this post.

October 24, 2014 was the date that Ouija premiered in theaters. This film inspired many people to pick up a Ouija board of their own and play. I myself honestly thought that people were done trying to summon spirits using the board, but the movie brought that back. At least that's the case where I live. Well, anyways. I myself was too unfortunate to see the film when it came out in theaters. At the time, I was loaded with school work and by the time I finally got free time, the movie was out of theaters. I had to wait like what? Six months before I could even see it? Well then there was that problem. I didn't have the money to buy the movie myself. And my mom wouldn't take me to any Redbox to get it. Even if I could get to a Redbox, for the first few months, it was continuously rented out or only came as Blu-Ray. I don't own a Blu-Ray player, so I was pretty much screwed. It wasn't on Netflix and at the time, MegaShare was shut down, so I didn't have any way to see the horror flick.

Well, finally, last night, I was able to get the movie off Redbox. All that anticipation leading up to the film, and I was pretty disappointed. Sure the graphics were pretty good and all, but the movie wasn't as good as I thought it would be. It seemed to rely on mainly jumpscares and plot twists. I wasn't in the least bit scared. The only thing that really grabbed my attention was Lin Shaye, who plays Elise Rainier in the Insidious series. The film was pretty straightforward,  one character dies, and her friends use a Ouija Board to say goodbye but they accidently catch the attention of an angry spirit/demon who they try to stop, some dying on the way. That's pretty much how the movie goes, as well as tons of other movies.

While the film isn't as good as it's hyped up to be, it's still a movie worth watching. If you haven't already seen it and you're into supernatural horror flicks, then go ahead and watch Ouija. It's pretty good.

The Jurassic Saga!

 A couple of weeks ago, I saw Jurassic World in theaters. I have long since been a fan of the Jurassic Park trilogy and was extremely excited for the fourth installment. I would have made this post simply about Jurassic World, but I felt that I should include the first three as well. (There may be spoilers! I don't hit huge details really, but I do have questions that need to be answered)

Let's start with number one, Jurassic Park, which was based off the 1990 book by Michael Crichton. The film features Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, Joseph Mazzello, Ariana Richards, Sam Jackson, BD Wong and Wayne Knight.

This one came out in 1993, a little bit before I was born, of course, but my family had a VHS copy of it when I was little, and they let me watch it when I was around five. At the time, I was amazed by the movie and all I could ask was "How did they get the dinosaurs?" It was a stupid thing to think, but then again, I was five and I didn't really understand the whole animatronic thing. Naturally, the dinosaurs in it aren't very diverse, only having the most popular dinosaurs or at least the ones that the kids can pronounce. T-Rex, Raptor, Triceratops. You know the ones. Also, it wasn't really "Jurassic Park" given that some of the dinos weren't even around in the Jurassic Period. Raptors, for instance, were alive during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. But that's just the technicalities, right?

The movie overall is pretty straightforward. Guy clones dinosaurs from incredibly ancient DNA and builds a park. Brings people in, and it all goes horribly wrong, right? That then spawns the next three movies, though Lost World and Jurassic Park III is based of the failure that spawned from the first one. I like it and all, but I have to say the only reason I watch it nowadays is to see dinosaurs eat people and Sam Jackson.

Four years later came the sequel and second installment of the Jurassic Park series, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. This one featured Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Arliss Howard, Richard Attenborough, Vince Vaughn, Vanessa Lee Chester and Peter Stormare.

The film kept its technicalities from the previous film, given the time period it was created in. Ah well. No movie is perfect, right? Anyways, this is set on Isla Sorna, where two teams with very different goals arrive to see the dinosaurs in their "natural" habitat. Sarah Harding and her team are researching the dinosaurs to learn more about them, and Peter Ludlow and his team are hunting down the dinosaurs to open up a new park (bad idea), while this other guy simply wants a T-rex for his own weird reasons. They clash and the usual, running-for-their-lives-from-man-eating-dinosaurs ensues. But what makes this movie interesting is how they take the setting to San Diego (I'm pretty sure that's where they took it, it's been a while since I've seen it but they did mention San Diego) As seen in the above still, they took a Tyrannosaurus Rex to the mainland where it wreaked havoc. I think that's the only reason I even like, apart from seeing dinosaurs of course. I'm not that big a fan of the main cast, being the only one I really like in the mix being Attenborough. Plus, there are a few questions that raised when I watched the film later in life. (Spoilers! Skip to next paragraph if you haven't seen the film!) Like, how did the daughter manage to even sneak onto the trailer and travel all the way to the island without being noticed? You can't tell me she literally hid for hours without making noise or even using the bathroom. How did the T-Rex kill the entire crew, yet was not even out of the cargo hold? It took some idiot to open the door on the cargo hold for the T-Rex to escape! Also why did that one idiot feel the need to open the freaking cargo hold knowing there was an entire dinosaur inside of it? Also, what about when T-Rex actually started roaming San Diego? This isn't some kind of disease or something that got slightly out of hand and the media is trying to hush it up, this is a DINOSAUR RUNNING AMOK! I'm pretty sure the public would have been made aware of this immediately and evacuation would've ensued the minute got loose, so the scene with the kid seeing the dinosaur in the backyard and running to tell his mommy and daddy is stupid. Oh, and I understand the T-Rex being hella thirsty and going to search for water, but wouldn't the chlorine in the pool have some kind of affect on it's body? Now, let's talk about the ending. I guess we really want to have a "feel-good" moment, right? Well on The Lost World, our feel-good moment is having the parent dino letting the baby eat the bad guy as his first kill. Then we have all the dinos living "peacefully" amongst each other. Fun.

I didn't like this one as much as I do the last two, but whatever. Dinosaurs, right?

Okay so time for the third film - Jurassic Park III (2001) and I have to admit that I'm probably going to be a bit biased on this one. This used to be my favorite film as a child - so much to the point that I bought it on iTunes and currently have it on my iPod so I could watch it anytime, anywhere. I remember back when blockbuster was still open, and every time we drove by it my brother and I would beg mom to stop and let us get a movie. At first, my brother and I agreed on the film that we would get - Jurassic Park III. But eventually he got sick of the science fiction flick and we started getting separate films. Every time we walked in, I would run to the far wall and grab a copy of the movie. Pretty sure the clerk knew me by then. I would get visibly upset when the film wasn't in there. Then blockbuster closed down and I didn't see the film as much. But I still love it.

 Sam Neill comes back as Alan Grant, where he and his friend, Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola) are tricked into to Isla Sorna, the second Ingen dinosaur lab, in order to search for the Kirby's missing son, Eric, played by Trevor Morgan. The running theme continues as everything goes wrong when a Spinosaurus attacks. What's fun about this one is that the main threat isn't the Tyrannosaurus anymore. We still have the raptors, but we also have new dinosaurs to see in action.

The downfall of this one, though, is the really annoying woman played by Tea Leoni, who screamed the entire movie. Don't get me wrong, I too would scream if I was being chased by a dinosaur but come on! Let's talk about how ridiculous this woman was. (Spoiler Alert! Continue to next paragraph of you haven't seen the film and don't want to know how often this woman screamed!) Alright, so when they land on the island, she gets out and starts yelling into a megaphone. You don't have to be a scientist to know that yelling into megaphone on a dangerous dinosaur-infested island is a pretty bad idea. It takes Grant to come out, tell Paul Kirby, portrayed by William H. Macy that it's a bad idea, who then starts yelling at his wife, Amanda, that it's a bad idea. Then she turns around and yells, through the megaphone, "What's a bad idea?!?" Then we hear the Spinosaurus roar and she finally shuts up, however briefly. That entire scene made gave me a headache. Then how did they survive that plane crash? Through a heavily wooded area? Plot convenience, no doubt. Magic. *stares at camera like I'm on the office*. 

I have to say though, the film is worth watching, regardless of the plot holes. If you're into this kind of thing and haven't seen Jurassic Park III, then I suggest you find the nearest store and buy/rent it. It's pretty cheap at Walmart. They usually have it in a pack with the first two, so there you go!

Finally! We've reached Jurassic World, the latest installment of the series. This one takes place twenty-two years after the events of Jurassic Park. The new theme park is built on top of the original site, and it actually goes pretty well. It's all amazing, you know. Finally the park is open. BD Wong and his character, Dr. Henry Wu, are back, and this time they made a brand new dinosaur, using DNA from several difference species. This film features Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Irrfan Khan, Vincent D'Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy and BD Wong.

Overall, the film is fantastic. I believe at this point the film is still in theaters, and I really want to see it again, so I might in the next couple of days. I recommend that you try to see it before it goes out of theaters. Considering the film hasn't been out as long as the previous ones, I won't say as much so you guys don't get the whole idea before you get a chance to see it.

Introduction

Hey!
My name is Maddy, and I love films. Not just watching them either. I also like making my own short films from time to time. I unfortunately do it less frequently now that I have a whole lot of other things I have to do now. But that didn't stop me from creating this blog, did it?

The point of this blog is to help you, the general public, find out what movies to watch. I'm sure that many of you have sat down and scrolled through Netflix or flipped channels on your TV trying to find something good to watch. Well look no further, because I have seen a ton of movies, new and old alike, and I want to help YOU soothe your boredom.

That's not all I'm going to do, though. I often go see films in theaters, so I might as well put what I think of them on this blog as well to help you figure out whether going to see Inside Out is worth the time or not (it is, by the way).

I will also give my thoughts on any movie or TV show that you send to me. If I haven't seen the movie or TV show, I will try to watch it so I can give feedback. If you want to send me your own thoughts or recommendations, you can do so either in the comments or in the following ways:

Tumblr: gomegaswellow.tumblr.com
Email: gomegaswellow@gmail.com

For your interests, I tend to watch more films in the following genres:

Horror
Supernatural
Action
Adventure
Animation
Children/Family
Comedy
Thriller
Suspense
Foreign
Independent
Sci-fi/Fantasy
Anime
Documentaries

The above is what I tend to watch, but I am open to watching a whole lot more than just those.

I hope this blog actually helps someone, and I will be posting as much as I can, and I will answer back to anyone as soon as I can.