*sniffles* Last Harry Potter Trailer Ever

I don't know about you but I have grown up with Harry Potter. Sure, there was a drought between Order of Phoenix but I still recovered and became a Potter head again. It's just devastating to see Hogwarts just destroyed like this. And now, readers, I will say my top 5 favourite parts of the movie:

1) Mummy Potter in the beginning
Mummy Potter telling little Harry to stay strong before she got killed by Voldemort. And little Harry's crying his eyes out. I feel a tear in my eye.

2) Contrast
I just loved how they showed the Qudditch pitch in a pretty bright background and then just transitioning to the pitch just being on fire and the stands are just falling off. Oh my goodness. My heart just... can't take the pain.

3) Snape
Gosh, I love this character. And Harry just shouting at him, telling him about the whole "Dumbledore trusted him", trying to make him feel guilty.

4) The Stone
*SPOILER*
Harry uses the Resurrection Stone to summon back Lupin, Sirius, Lily and James before he confronts Voldemort. A scene in the book that had me bawling my eyes out. I really wasn't expecting them to put this part in. Goodness, I'm crying just thinking about it.

5) NOSTALGIA!
They went back to all the previous movies and you see Harry and you'll go, "He's so grown up!" And you start crying. Or that's the case for me.

Btw, Dreamworks marketting team, this is how you're supposed to make a good trailer. Great blend of action and emotion.

Best. Trailer. Ever. Excuse me while I go blow my nose...

You Again (2010) Review

It's so hard to find clean live-action comedies nowadays. But here comes one: You Again

You Again is about a high-powered PR professional discovers that her brother is about to marry the woman who made her high school life a living hell in this comedy. Starring Kristen Bell and Jamie Lee Curtis.

I've heard many bad things about this movie. So, I decided to avoid it. But my mum rented it out of the blue and I thought, "Eh, why not?"

It wasn't as bad as other people say it is. Of course, to be fair, I did pause to go for lunch during the movie so that could've been a factor. I mean, it's pretty much clean comedy (no swearing, AMAZING!) with a few gags here and there. Some physical humour involved.

To be honest, I didn't find the movie funny... at all. I could just tell the jokes from a mile away. The jokes are extremely cliche or they just fall flat on the face. I really don't remember any time in the movie where I actually laughed. And just because you get Betty White as some sexy cougar doesn't equal to comedy gold.

The acting was fine. Nothing much to say. It was just... fine. Though, I did like the Rock's cameo. It was a very cute moment in the beginning.

But I have to give the movie some credit: They do attempt the whole "3-dimensional" character which I always appreciate in films. The "evil" character was not all out evil at all. Everyone had their reasons for being mean so, it's cool. Another thing I would give the movie credit for was that they didn't make Betty White this old lady that spouts vulgarities. Honestly, people, that's not funny. It's just sad to see them treating Betty White like that.

Overall, it was a pretty passable, extremely forgettable film. It was entertaining while it lasted but it wasn't funny. Period.

Despicable Me 2 Teaser

Following the 2010 box office success: Despicable Me 2!

The teaser's out pretty early. Darn, I want a How To Train Your Dragon 2 teaser now...

Desperate Hollywood

In the year of the sequels (2011 has the most number of sequels coming out), it's pretty evident that Hollywood's getting very desperate for ideas. Right now, Hollywood's rebooting classics or just shoving out unnecessary sequels just to get some money. And most "original" movies that came out are basically the same formula (save for movies like Source Code).

Reboot of a Reboot


I have to admit, I didn't watch both Wolfman(men?). But this is just the perfect example of how desperate Hollywood is. Wolfman (2010) bombed in the box office. Yet, they're still rebooting this movie? This doesn't make any sense at all!

Movies out of board games
Apparently, Risk and Battleship are both getting a movie. Remember those childhood games you might have played with your friends and families? Hollywood just wants to make money out everything, don't they?

But I have to admit, I'm not as cynical with this option. I laughed and taunted at Hollywood for making a movie about the founding of Facebook. And The Social Network was one heck of a brilliant movie and made it on my top 10 list last year. I even rooted for it to win for Best Director (David Fincher lost to Tom Hooper).

Ruining everyone's childhood



So, we had Yogi Bear, Alvin and the Chipmunks and the new Smurf movie. And all of them just looks so awful. I've watched Alvin and the Chipmunks and I just hate how it's all cute and no story. I don't even feel the directors saying, "Hey! Let's make a movie about this particular show we watched as a child and pay a homage to it. Remind the audience why we loved it so much as a kid and why we still love it as adults now!" No! They downplay it to cheap slapstick jokes. They made those movies into a kids movie and not a family movie.

But I have to admit, the TinTin trailer (though not my cup of tea as a kid) looks very promising.



Not only that, Hollywood has decided to make sexy versions of our childhood stories like Red Riding Hood. Was it really necessary to sexify the whole d*mn story?! I mean, stop ruining our childhood Hollywood! Not everything's about sex! Seriously!


I think what Hollywood really needs to do is to think of new and creative ideas. And if they really can't, they can always dig out a formula and work on the storytelling. If your story's not original, then rely on your storytelling. Worked for many movies so far.

Movie to check out this week

In the late '70s, a mysterious train crash occured in a small Ohio town. Summer, 1979: a group of young friends are filming a Super-8 movie when a pickup truck derails a speeding train. When the locals start to disappear and even the inquisitive deputy can't come up with answers, suspicions emerge that the incident was anything but an accident. As the truth finally begins emerge, no one is prepared to learn what now stalks the unsuspecting citizens of this once quiet community.

Starring
Kyle Chandler
Elle Fanning

I've heard raving reviews about this movie. Unfortunately, I won't be able to review it myself due to time constraint. But I'll do a DVD review once it comes out. Always nice to go behind the scenes :)

OFFICIAL Twilight Breaking Dawn Trailer

I absolutely hate the Twilight saga. I read the books when everyone told me that it was the "new" Harry Potter or the "better" Harry Potter. I thought the first book was annoyingly boring, and I liked neither Bella nor Edward. In the second book, Jacob had more on-screen time. I liked him. I thought he was a pretty cool character. But by the end of the third and last book, man, did I loathe Bella and her terrible personalities.

And her boyfriend being a stalker that watches her to sleep every night. Jacob's in love with Bella's daughter. And they were all preparing for a fight that never happened. And Bella was just frustrating. I still remember I was so tempted to tear out one page where she said "oh, I was so ugly as a human, but now that I look like a vampire, I like GORGEOUS!" Honestly, Bella?!

But here's the trailer for the new Twilight: Breaking Dawn. I liked the trailer even though most people didn't. The music was epic and I was pretty fine with that. And I liked how they didn't show the wedding cards at first until Jacob's dad picked it up. I don't know. I liked it when most people don't. (And I bet you that this is probably going to be as good as it gets)

But what I don't get about Breaking Dawn is: Why is it split into 2 parts? I mean, for money, yeah. But I'm sure it'll be a total fluff the whole way through. At least in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, though they split it up for obvious economic reasons, it is understandable as well. Unlike Breaking Dawn, the last book was no fluff. It was story and emotions. And I don't mind that Warner Brothers is dragging it since the Harry Potter book and movie fans want to take their time to say goodbye.

So, what did you think of the Breaking Dawn trailer?

Kung Fu Panda 2 Review

To be honest, I've always like the first sequel in every single Dreamworks movie. For example, as much as I loved Shrek, I loved Shrek 2 more. I hated Madagascar but found Madagascar 2 pretty enjoyable. And it's no exception that I actually liked Kung Fu Panda 2 more than Kung Fu Panda (which I thought was good but just a tad bit overrated).

Kung Fu Panda 2 talks about Po (Jack Black) teaming up with the Furious Five to defeat their new enemy, a peacock by the name of Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), who created a weapon that could destroy kung fu and the whole of China. The problem now is "how can kung fu stop something that stops kung fu?" That and Po has some daddy issues.

After watching Kung Fu Panda 2, I realised what makes a sequel so great. Just like Toy Story 2, they never made their characters go to level zero again and learn everything from the start. Po can kick butt right from the beginning of the movie. He isn't some idiot that doesn't know kung fu like the first one. In fact, he improved alot! The movie decided to answer some unanswered questions in the first film or bring up some new questions for the viewers to ponder over instead. And, this is by far my favourite sequel out of all the Dreamworks movie in terms of a sequel (I still liked Shrek 2 more). It was a vast improvement from the original in terms of heart, story and visuals.

Po is still as likable as ever. Jack Black did a surprisingly fantastic job at the dramatic scenes. I actually forgave him for that horrid movie "Gulliver's Travel", which I went to watch because I love Jason Segal. I mean, that movie was just terrible! But I learnt that Black is a pretty good actor if given the right script. I enjoyed his presence. He made Po so funny and energetic but so vunerable at the same time.

Gary Oldman as Lord Shen was as good as I expected. That man is fantastic in everthing he does, that's all I need to say. I found Shen to be a very interesting villian. He has his sad backstory and you feel for him. You don't root for him but he's basically a Tai Lung from the first movie. He's a three-dimensional character and I was appreciate a villian that's 3 dimensional. Besides Tigress, the Furious Five didn't have much lines but I really loved their team dynamic in this film. Team Furious Five and Po! And Shifu and Mr Ping are as awesome as they are in the previous movie

I loved the Tai Lung/Shifu backstory. That was the reason why Shifu was my favourite character in the whole Kung Fu Panda series (even though he made a very brief appearance in this movie). However, though it made me feel for both characters, I never felt the urge to cry. Heart-wrenching as it was, it never pushed your emotions any further. KFP 2 is diffrent. When you find out what happened to Po (though the story was, admittedly, not original), you can't help but feel your heart being punched a thousand times and your tears are just threatening to fall down (and that's not good since I was watching it in 3D, which was superb and I would get on that later on). On the last note on the story's heart, loved Po and Mr Ping's relationship.

Visually, it was.... stunning. I mean, it's Dreamworks. Although they've got a bad record of making terrible movies (which I didn't think were THAT bad), their animation has always been very impressive. And they just keep improving with every single new film. Kung Fu Panda 2 is no exception. 3D: It wasn't dark and it was effective. I recommend 3D but it'll be fine if you don't watch it in 3D too.

Take note, though, that the humour in this movie was not as good as the humour in the first. Mostly because they replaced the humour with heart. Fortunately, this movie is well-balanced out between the humour and the emotional point of the story. And not one part funny and then sad and then funny again.

Now here's a very interesting part to this film:

The climax was just... wow. You would expect some big bad explosions with Po fighting off thousands of evil bad guys. But, no. The climax was nothing like that (though he does fight off hundreds of evil bad guys in the film for those who really want to see that happening). The climax was surprisingly.... a character moment. They never tried to do anything big (okay, to a certain extent, i guess it was pretty "big"). The climax was really all about Po and what he had learnt. And it was really really sastisfying. I was just sitting there going, "Wow.... I LOVE this movie" And it really proves to me that this movie never tried the "bigger is better" ploy. The climax was basically what the whole movie was about: The main character and the emotions that he was struggling with and I really respect the filmmakers for such a wise decision.

And I am really looking forward to the 3rd movie! (but, DW, PLEASE don't make 6 movies unless you have it all planned out like Harry Potter)

On this note, I would like to urge everyone: PLEASE! Watch this over Hangover Part II. This is a sequel that bothers with heart and telling the audience a good story instead of just being a cash cow.

And if you've watched the movie, tell me what you think of it

*superspeed hug* Thanks for reading!