Have you heard (or read) the news? Anna Dressed in Blood is jumping in the bandwagon and is about to become a movie, too!
If you haven't heard of the book, here's a little something to help.
ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.
So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.
When you and your boyfriend/girlfriend break up, do you keep the things he/gave to you?
The reason I am asking this is because it's how I happen to have acquired a copy of Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. And every time I hear or see Miss Peregrine, I always remember the story of how got my hands on the book.If you want to skip the story, it's okay. You can just scroll down below and jump right on to the movie update.
I knew that the book was going to be a movie. I read about it when it was announced and I knew Emilia Clarke (Game of Throne's Daenerys Targaryen) and Sam Claflin (The Hunger Game's Finnick Odair) got the two lead roles for the film. But I was not a big fan of the book. I read it almost two years ago, and admittedly, it was a profoundly moving and a gut-wrenching book. It successfully stirred emotions and might even (most probably) make you shed (a lot of) tears. The story was great and the characters were alright as well. But it was not my cup of tea (and I probably had a different taste back then), so I did not pay much attention to movie updates and whatnot.
So, surprise! Surprise! I was indeed surprised (sort of) when Jojo Moyes herself revealed the movie poster yesterday, and the movie trailer was released a day after (which is today!). Here is the poster:
One of the most critical parts of recreating a book into a movie, aside from filming it as close to the story details as possible, is the casting. It is also one of the most awaited moment by the fans during the pre-filming phase of the movie. Not only is it hard to find the right actors, but it is really hard to impress the "already established fan base" of the book. If you don't come close to their dream cast, all hell will break lose on every social media site.
The Siblings, The Lovers
When Shailene Woodley was casted as Tris in the upcoming Divergent movie, I had really no objections. Even with the other casts, I feel okay with them. I don't see them as the Tris, Four, Jeanine or Caleb in my head, but I think they will be able to pull it off. Even the other fans seem to agree because I haven't read any extreme hate towards the cast. They even freaked out when Kate Winslet was chosen to play Jeanine. So the Divergent movie is almost good to go!
But imagine my surprise when I found out that Shailene (Tris) was also chosen to play Hazel Grace Lancaster in the TFiOS movie.Wow! She has landed the most talked about roles in the YA booksphere. (BTW, she will also play Mary Jane in the sequels of The Amazing Spiderman movies. Lucky girl!) My shock did not end there... Ansel Elgort, the one playing Tris' brother, Caleb, in Divergent, will be Augustus Waters. I was like, "WHY?" I do not "not like" him for the role, I just can't imagine how I'm going to see him as a brother on March, and as a lover on June. It's going to be a slightly awkward movie experience. But I'm still hopeful that these actors will play their parts well, enough to make me forget that both of them played other roles in other movies.
If you haven't seen the movie trailers yet, here they are:
DIVERGENT
The first trailer released for the Divergent movie was not good. It did nor persuade me to watch the movie. It was all about Tris and Four's love story and all those mushy stuff. But this one is good, better. It tells the what the movie is about. It is interesting and intriguing, Thank God the trailer became better.
THE FAULT IN OUR STARS
This trailer made some fans shed some tears. Really! It was great. And based from the trailer, the movie team paid attention to the book details, and the scenes shown were actually recognizable from the book. Clap clap clap!
P.S. I did not mean to rant about the cast here.. but it came out as it is.
P.P.S. Divergent will be on movie theaters in March this year, and TFiOS on June.
Set in contemporary New York City, a seemingly ordinary teenager, Clary Fray (Lily Collins), discovers she is the descendant of a line of Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of young half-angel warriors locked in an ancient battle to protect our world from demons. After the disappearance of her mother (Lena Headey), Clary must join forces with a group of Shadowhunters, who introduce her to a dangerous alternate New York called Downworld, filled with demons, warlocks, vampires, werewolves and other deadly creatures. Based on the worldwide best-selling book series.
*******
My Thoughts:
August has finally come, and what
event am I most looking forward to this month? The release of the movie
adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s worldwide bestselling series, The Mortal
Instruments: City of Bones.
Lead Cast: Jang Keun-Suk, Mason Moon, Song Ha-Yoon
Director: Kim Jin-Young
Prime Entertainment
Comedy
AsianWiki:
Joon-Soo (Jang Keun-Suk)
is a rebellious high school kid, popular with the girls, but an
absolute nightmare for his parents and teachers. Joon-Soo soon drives
his parents batty enough that they decide to up and leave their house.
When Joon-Soo finds out that his parents are AWOL he does what any party
animal would do, he calls his friends over for a house party
That afternoon, Joon-Soo prepares for the party by going to the
grocery store and buying drinks & food . While at the grocery store,
he briefly leaves his shopping cart unattended to check out the liquor
selection. When he comes back to his shopping cart, he’s stunned to find
a baby in his cart. Even more confounding, after waiting for hours at
the store, nobody comes forward to claim the baby. And to top everything
off, theres a note on the baby which claims Joon-soo is the father!
***
My Thoughts:
This Korean movie has been recommended to me a lot of times already by some of my classmates. Now that I already sat down and watched it, I think I can also say the do the same. I can recommend this to anyone who wants a good laugh, yet triggers emotions from deep within.
In this comedy, Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) are life-long friends who almost ruin everything by having sex one morning. In order to protect their friendship, they make a pact to keep their relationship strictly "no strings attached." "No strings" means no jealousy, no expectations, no fighting, no flowers, no baby voices. It means they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, in whatever public place they want, as long as they don't fall in love. The questions become - Can you have sex without love getting in the way? And can their friendship survive?
*****
Movie Caution: Contains mature scenes (sexual content) and language.
While waiting for a large file to finish downloading last
night, I entertained myself by watching a movie. I watched more or less the
first ten minutes of several movies before finally deciding to watch a
romance-comedy starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher.
I found time to watch two movies tonight. These were some of the movies my friends and I were planning to watch on Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, there had been change of plans due to unexpected classes. So I watched it myself. I'll begin with the one I least liked.
The Art of Getting By [2011]
Rotten Tomatoes: The Art of Getting By stars Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) as George, a lonely and fatalistic teen who's made it all the way to his senior year without ever having done a real day of work, who is befriended by Sally (Emma Roberts - Scream 4), a beautiful and complicated girl who recognizes in him a kindred spirit. *** Date Watched: February 13, 2013 Rating: 2.5 Stars
Charlie [and the Chocolate Factory] meets Nancy Drew. That’s
pretty much how I saw it in the beginning. Freddie Highmore and Emma Roberts
teaming up for a movie that I really did not quite internalize. Honestly I
felt like there’s a deeper meaning to what I actually saw but I just couldn't grasp it. I got bored a few times with the story. But I did enjoy watching
Freddie and Emma on screen.
* Does anybody feel like Freddie still looks like that
goody-goody little kid who won the 5th golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s factory?
I guess I still see him like that. He has almost the same face as before, just
a deeper voice and way way taller. It’s like little Freddie in a tall lanky body.
Emma’s face hadn't changed much as well. Luckily, the adolescent stage was very nice to them.
** Yeah, not much comment on the movie. I did like George’s
witty intelligence and his weirdness. Let’s stick with that.
*** Ooooh!!! By the way... EMMA ROBERTS will play LENA HALOWAY in the TV SERIES ADAPTATION of Lauren Oliver’s DELIRIUM.
Keith [2008]
Rotten Tomatoes:
Tiger Beat teen idol Jesse McCartney takes the title role in writer/director Todd Kessler's drama about a second-semester high-school senior named Natalie (Elisabeth Harnois), who believes she has life figured out until happening upon Keith, a troubled and unpredictable youth who begins to alter her perspective in ways she never thought possible. Keith is based on author Ron Carlson's short story of the same name.
***
Date Watched: February 13, 2013 Rating: 4 Stars
It was actually pretty good. Though if you try to think
about the story, it kind of reminds you of the plot of another movie starring a Hollywood singer.
Anyway, back to Keith. Jesse McCartney plays Keith in the
movie, a senior that acts like he does not care about anything in the world
except his truck. He is suddenly paired up with Natalie in their chemistry
class. She is smart, beautiful and quite popular. Their story starts there.
There are a lot of things I just like to comment on. First
of all, Natalie. I don’t like her that much. She’s complicated and kind of
annoying. She wasn't appealing in the beginning, but through the end, she
eventually aligns herself. Next, the dialogues. Hmmmm... It does not have a lot
of powerful lines that will make a mark on the people. And some of the lines
delivered that should have made an impact to the viewers were a bit weak. Then,
the trailer. PLEASE, if you do not want to spoil your watching experience,
PLEASE DO NOT WATCH THE TRAILER. I watched it before I saw the movie and I
kinda already know what’s going to happen in the end. Or maybe it’s just me.
But still, I warn you.
Jesse McCartney was quite impressive in this movie. I’m not
the best judge for acting skills, but I guess I can say that I liked how Jesse
portrayed Keith’s character. He was actually great (based on my screwed up
judgement biased by my teeny crush on Jesse).
So there!!! Keith everybody! A tear-jerker for some but not
for me. It was touching and very emotional. Great!!!
Advance Merry Christmas everybody (or to anyone reading this). It is officially the start of my Christmas break! Yahoooooooo!!! I have a week and approximately 6 days until classes start again, and I am going to make the most out of my unsupervised days!! hahahahahaha!!! Well, my idea of fun is just simple - movies and books. What? Disappointed? No parties? No getaways? Hahahahaha... Sorry, that's not really my thing. I'm more of a home girl :).
Anyway, I just finished a book last night (Lost in Time by Melissa dela Cruz), and I think I'm going t start reading another later (Showtime by Chloe Kayne). I plan on reading a lot of books this Christmas break. Wish me luck! :)
Also, I have just recently watched PITCH PERFECT.
Rotten Tomatoes: Beca (Anna Kendrick) is that girl who'd rather listen to what's coming out of her headphones than what's coming out of you. Arriving at her new college, she finds herself not right for any clique but somehow is muscled into one that she never would have picked on her own: alongside mean girls, sweet girls and weird girls whose only thing in common is how good they sound when they sing together, in the new out-loud comedy Pitch Perfect. When Beca takes this acoustic singing group out of their world of traditional arrangements and perfect harmonies into all-new mash-ups, they fight to climb their way to the top of the cutthroat world of college a cappella. This could wind up either the coolest thing they'll ever do or the most insane, and it will probably be a little of both.
***
I liked the movie. It is funny and the songs were covered wonderfully. I love musicals and the movie reached my expectations. The blending of voices and their song choices were great. It definitely focused on the musical aspect of the movie. Musical in a sense that they are singing because they are required to sing, for a competition, not the musical wherein the songs tell the story. I like it both ways. The focus on music made the plot a bit bland, though. Nothing goes on much with the story. No deep emotions or drama or even romance. It was okay, for the plot part. Not really very remarkable.
What I also liked about the movie is Anna Kendrick. She seems to be gaining popularity nowadays. She had a lot of projects this year, and though I haven't seen a lot of her movies, I think I can say that she already played a lot of different/diversified roles. From Twilight, to Up In The Air, to Pitch Perfect. I didn't even know she can sing.
So there!!! I think their songs are going to be stuck in my head for a few days. If you ever watch it, I hope you would like it.
And another thing... I love this song.. SUPER LSS with it.
ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD
