A young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider who takes the youth under his wing.
So apparently this movie is a classic and was rated pretty high on IMDb and everything, but I just didn't like it. Maybe it was the whole 'finance' theme or the fact that I know absolutely NOTHING when it comes to stocks and stockbrokers and this movie didn't take the time to explain it to me.
Again I watched this movie for a class I'm taking, I don't think I would have ever ever ever watched this on my own time.
The main character is Bud Fox and he's played by Charlie Sheen (I'm not really a big fan of him either so this movie was destined for disaster in my opinion) who wants to be a big time stockbroker in the 80s. His father is all about hard work, but Bud just wants money. Lots and lots of money.
This leads to him meeting with the obnoxiously rich Michael Douglas who plays Gordon Gekko. Although I love the character name (the alliteration, the harsh reptilian vibe, etc.) I didn't love the character. Not to say the acting was bad at all, just I wasn't a huge fan of the script.
Actually the acting was a big part in why I could actually stand to watch this movie. Everyone in this movie really showed off their skills--even Charlie Sheen. It was very refreshing to see him in a serious role for a change...although there was still a heavy emphasis on the sex scenes.
Long story short, Gordon convinces Bud to do some shady things and keeps rewarding him when he does everything without getting caught. Then he gets caught. Some legal stuff occurs but then Gordon also gets caught and it's assumed he's arrested and blah, blah, blah. Bud goes to jail and that's the end of the movie.
For such a simple plot, this movie was forever long. It was 126 minutes which was wayyyy longer than it needed to be. For me the slowest parts were when Bud was actually working with stocks and money management. Like I said earlier, I know nothing about this kind of thing and no one took the time to explain it to me. I understood what Bud was doing was wrong, illegal and generally frowned upon by everyone he works with, but that's about all I got from those scenes. Which I guess in hindsight those scenes were pretty important and not understanding them definitely affected my understanding of and reaction to the movie.
Maybe someone with more interest in 80s finance would find this movie entertaining. But I will never watch this movie again of my own free will. Ever.
2 stars, for the awesome acting.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008)
The story centers on a 14-year-old girl who keeps a diary about the ups and downs of being a teenager, including the things she learns about kissing.
This movie is really cute. Granted, if you're not a 14-year-old girl then you have to be in the mood to watch one throw tantrums and have classic family issues.
The main character, Georgia, wants to have her first kiss, her first boyfriend and in short...get a life.
So she and her friend, Jas, see two new 'sex gods' on campus and decide to try to get them to like them. Very teen movie 101.
Their efforts don't go unnoticed and Jas gets one of the gods to ask her out. They start dating and Georgia gets pissed. She tries really hard to win over the other god, but turns out, he already has a girlfriend. I think her name was Lindsey. If it wasn't obvious, this movie was filmed overseas and the entire cast has British accents. For the most part the language wasn't too hard to follow but every once in a while they would use slang and talk so fast it just went right over my head.
But that stuff wasn't crucial to the story or anything so it doesn't really matter.
Anyway, Lindsey is really mean to Georgia, which offends the sex god because he kind of likes Georgia. Georgia tries to make him jealous by making out with a 'ladies man' and the sex god's closest friend. This just makes a mess of everything and no one ends up happy.
Then after some moping, everybody gets what they want. The end.
Now I said this movie was cute, not anything I haven't seen before or anything that I will be re-watching. There was just one HUGE part I didn't understand about the whole thing. Georgia complains that she's ugly, no one will ever like her, she's a loser...etc. Classic girl self-hatred.
Then she kisses one boy and he suddenly falls for her. She doesn't like him and tries to make that clear, but he chases her anyway. Then to make sex god jealous she goes out with his best friend who thought she was into him, but she wasn't so that was awkward. He's upset too and makes sex god upset.
I mean not to undermine this girl or anything (she really is pretty for a 14-year-old and there's generally nothing bad about her) but WHY ARE ALL THESE GUYS CHASING HER???
She just complains about herself all the time (except when she's with sex god) and didn't really do anything except talk to these guys to lead them on.
If I went up to a guy and we started talking and I happened to say you're funny, I don't think he would interpret it as a date. But all these guys did and maybe it's just because they're really young?
And one more thing. Georgia's friend Jas has the biggest mouth ever. Georgia confides in her A LOT and then Jas turns around and tells the people they're talking about everything Georgia said, which just makes everyone more angry. I don't know if Jas means to be so blabber-mouthy but she should really work on what she tells people. Just because she's going out with someone, doesn't mean she has to share everything she talks about with Georgia.
One good thing about Jas is that she's not afraid to tell Georgia's mom the stuff that she should know about Georgia. That was the one good thing that came out of all her blabbing.
Anyway, I think 3 stars is sufficient for this movie. Not bad, not great...but solid good.
This movie is really cute. Granted, if you're not a 14-year-old girl then you have to be in the mood to watch one throw tantrums and have classic family issues.
The main character, Georgia, wants to have her first kiss, her first boyfriend and in short...get a life.
So she and her friend, Jas, see two new 'sex gods' on campus and decide to try to get them to like them. Very teen movie 101.
Their efforts don't go unnoticed and Jas gets one of the gods to ask her out. They start dating and Georgia gets pissed. She tries really hard to win over the other god, but turns out, he already has a girlfriend. I think her name was Lindsey. If it wasn't obvious, this movie was filmed overseas and the entire cast has British accents. For the most part the language wasn't too hard to follow but every once in a while they would use slang and talk so fast it just went right over my head.
But that stuff wasn't crucial to the story or anything so it doesn't really matter.
Anyway, Lindsey is really mean to Georgia, which offends the sex god because he kind of likes Georgia. Georgia tries to make him jealous by making out with a 'ladies man' and the sex god's closest friend. This just makes a mess of everything and no one ends up happy.
Then after some moping, everybody gets what they want. The end.
Now I said this movie was cute, not anything I haven't seen before or anything that I will be re-watching. There was just one HUGE part I didn't understand about the whole thing. Georgia complains that she's ugly, no one will ever like her, she's a loser...etc. Classic girl self-hatred.
Then she kisses one boy and he suddenly falls for her. She doesn't like him and tries to make that clear, but he chases her anyway. Then to make sex god jealous she goes out with his best friend who thought she was into him, but she wasn't so that was awkward. He's upset too and makes sex god upset.
I mean not to undermine this girl or anything (she really is pretty for a 14-year-old and there's generally nothing bad about her) but WHY ARE ALL THESE GUYS CHASING HER???
She just complains about herself all the time (except when she's with sex god) and didn't really do anything except talk to these guys to lead them on.
If I went up to a guy and we started talking and I happened to say you're funny, I don't think he would interpret it as a date. But all these guys did and maybe it's just because they're really young?
And one more thing. Georgia's friend Jas has the biggest mouth ever. Georgia confides in her A LOT and then Jas turns around and tells the people they're talking about everything Georgia said, which just makes everyone more angry. I don't know if Jas means to be so blabber-mouthy but she should really work on what she tells people. Just because she's going out with someone, doesn't mean she has to share everything she talks about with Georgia.
One good thing about Jas is that she's not afraid to tell Georgia's mom the stuff that she should know about Georgia. That was the one good thing that came out of all her blabbing.
Anyway, I think 3 stars is sufficient for this movie. Not bad, not great...but solid good.
Friday, September 7, 2012
LOL (2012)
As a new year at school begins, Lola's heart is broken by her boyfriend, though soon she's surprised by her best friend, promising musician Kyle, who reveals his feelings for her.
This movie was terrible. The plotline was boring, the characters were predictable and the ending was lame. It was an after school special drawn out into a feature film.
Lola (Miley Cyrus) starts off the school year on a bad note. Her boyfriend cheated on her over the summer so they break up. Her male BFF Kyle is starting to seem like something more but they take it slow. Slower than molasses slow. I wasn't sure anything between them was happening until about 45 minutes into the movie.
So they officially couple up, then Kyle cheats on her with some slut in the bathroom. Lola breaks up with him and is miserable for a while. She gets in trouble in school, gets grounded and becomes a frequent party-goer.
Turns out Kyle didn't cheat on Lola, her female BFF has the same bag as the school slut and she was in the bathroom with the school loser (hence her lying about it). Lola tells Kyle it was all a big misunderstanding and they get back together. Just in time for the school trip to Paris.
In Paris, romance ensues and Lola and Kyle hook up. It's also kind of implied that Lola and her female BFF do some 'questionable things'. This is all revealed when Lola's mom finds and reads her diary.
Lola throws a tantrum when her mother admits to the accidental-diary-reading and goes to live with her father for a while (her parents are divorced). Both mother and daughter think about how they have done things wrong and make up. Lola comes to live at home and everything is resolved.
This is just the main story. There are also some side stories about all Lola's friends, but those were unclear so I just stuck to the main plot.
Anyway, this movie was boring as hell. The dialogue was weird and the way the movie was edited didn't make sense to me at all. One scene would be with Lola and her mom. The next scene would be about the math teacher tutoring a student. I got so lost in the weird character details that the main story started to get fuzzy. Maybe if I was a beligerent teen who hated her mother off and on I could relate more to this movie. But because everything seemed so completely random I couldn't really invest myself in any of the characters at all. And if I can't do that, then what's the point of watching the movie in the first place?
I really liked Miley in The Last Song, so this was really disappointing. I guess there's a reason no one ever heard of this movie before it went on DVD...because it was a waste of time and effort from everyone involved. I will never watch this movie again. Ever.
1 star. Because I'm feeling generous.
This movie was terrible. The plotline was boring, the characters were predictable and the ending was lame. It was an after school special drawn out into a feature film.
Lola (Miley Cyrus) starts off the school year on a bad note. Her boyfriend cheated on her over the summer so they break up. Her male BFF Kyle is starting to seem like something more but they take it slow. Slower than molasses slow. I wasn't sure anything between them was happening until about 45 minutes into the movie.
So they officially couple up, then Kyle cheats on her with some slut in the bathroom. Lola breaks up with him and is miserable for a while. She gets in trouble in school, gets grounded and becomes a frequent party-goer.
Turns out Kyle didn't cheat on Lola, her female BFF has the same bag as the school slut and she was in the bathroom with the school loser (hence her lying about it). Lola tells Kyle it was all a big misunderstanding and they get back together. Just in time for the school trip to Paris.
In Paris, romance ensues and Lola and Kyle hook up. It's also kind of implied that Lola and her female BFF do some 'questionable things'. This is all revealed when Lola's mom finds and reads her diary.
Lola throws a tantrum when her mother admits to the accidental-diary-reading and goes to live with her father for a while (her parents are divorced). Both mother and daughter think about how they have done things wrong and make up. Lola comes to live at home and everything is resolved.
This is just the main story. There are also some side stories about all Lola's friends, but those were unclear so I just stuck to the main plot.
Anyway, this movie was boring as hell. The dialogue was weird and the way the movie was edited didn't make sense to me at all. One scene would be with Lola and her mom. The next scene would be about the math teacher tutoring a student. I got so lost in the weird character details that the main story started to get fuzzy. Maybe if I was a beligerent teen who hated her mother off and on I could relate more to this movie. But because everything seemed so completely random I couldn't really invest myself in any of the characters at all. And if I can't do that, then what's the point of watching the movie in the first place?
I really liked Miley in The Last Song, so this was really disappointing. I guess there's a reason no one ever heard of this movie before it went on DVD...because it was a waste of time and effort from everyone involved. I will never watch this movie again. Ever.
1 star. Because I'm feeling generous.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
Sixteen-year-old Violet has the unusual ability to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. She locates them by the echoes they leave behind...and the imprints they leave on their killers. Violet has never considered her strange ability to be a gift—more like a very disturbing nuisance.
But when a serial killer begins terrorizing her small town, and more and more local girls go missing and later turn up dead, Violet realizes she may be the only person who can stop him. Violet's best friend since childhood, Jay, is reluctantly helping her—and Violet is beginning to realize that what she feels for Jay is much more than just friendship. But even as she and Jay fall in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering the killer and becoming his prey herself.
Wow this book was intense. It was like a really good episode of Bones, except you had to read it. Which was the annoying part.
Violet was a decent main character, she seemed grounded enough (not one of those prissy girls who only wants to fall in love while the world is ending behind her) but when her and Jay did start to 'explore' each other the book started to fall into that PNR trap. That is the only reason this book took me forever to read. I got the e-book, took it everywhere with me, but it still took me over 2 weeks to finish it. Kinda pathetic I know, but the premise kept me coming back for more.
Violet senses dead bodies and happens to come across a serial killer in the process. Said serial killer finds out she's on his trail and chaos ensues.
I'm not going to give details because that was the best part of the book.
But there were also these entries from the serial killer's point of view that I liked. They reminded me of the scenes in Criminal Minds where you see who the killer is and what he's doing while the police are trying to find him. Another point of view that's written well and has a distinct voice is ALWAYS an asset to a story. Especially a murder mystery novel!
Ok, so I'm done raving now, and I'm going to mention the stuff I didn't like so much about The Body Finder.
First, the Jay-Violet love story. We all knew it was gonna happen, the author didn't exactly write a curveball in that department. It starts off with Violet coming back to school from summer vacation seeing her BFF as something more. It develops into her pining over him for what seems like ever, until he kisses her. Then they are happy love birds and the story finally moves on.
Granted the e-book was only around 250 pages, but this sappy love tale lasted for at least 100 of them. Everytime something about the killer was mentioned, Violet and Jay spent the next 30 pages 'doing homework'...if you know what I mean. *winky face*
Second, the idea that since Violet senses imprints of the dead, if she walked around public places long enough, she was bound to bump into the killer. What the hell kind of stupid idea is that?!?!
She's going to randomly walk around to find the guy kidnaping and killing a bunch of girls her age? She was with Jay the whole time, but still two teenagers against an experienced killer isn't much of a match. I don't care how buff Jay thinks he is.
And lastly, I hated the ending. Again, I'm going to cut the details because it was worth reading just to get the point of the book, but still it bothered me. I fully believe that some characters should die. Some books end better that way. They just do.
Overall, 4 stars for effort and a compelling murder case. Cut out the stupid lovesick puppy story and it would have been 5 stars no problem.
But when a serial killer begins terrorizing her small town, and more and more local girls go missing and later turn up dead, Violet realizes she may be the only person who can stop him. Violet's best friend since childhood, Jay, is reluctantly helping her—and Violet is beginning to realize that what she feels for Jay is much more than just friendship. But even as she and Jay fall in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering the killer and becoming his prey herself.
Wow this book was intense. It was like a really good episode of Bones, except you had to read it. Which was the annoying part.
Violet was a decent main character, she seemed grounded enough (not one of those prissy girls who only wants to fall in love while the world is ending behind her) but when her and Jay did start to 'explore' each other the book started to fall into that PNR trap. That is the only reason this book took me forever to read. I got the e-book, took it everywhere with me, but it still took me over 2 weeks to finish it. Kinda pathetic I know, but the premise kept me coming back for more.
Violet senses dead bodies and happens to come across a serial killer in the process. Said serial killer finds out she's on his trail and chaos ensues.
I'm not going to give details because that was the best part of the book.
But there were also these entries from the serial killer's point of view that I liked. They reminded me of the scenes in Criminal Minds where you see who the killer is and what he's doing while the police are trying to find him. Another point of view that's written well and has a distinct voice is ALWAYS an asset to a story. Especially a murder mystery novel!
Ok, so I'm done raving now, and I'm going to mention the stuff I didn't like so much about The Body Finder.
First, the Jay-Violet love story. We all knew it was gonna happen, the author didn't exactly write a curveball in that department. It starts off with Violet coming back to school from summer vacation seeing her BFF as something more. It develops into her pining over him for what seems like ever, until he kisses her. Then they are happy love birds and the story finally moves on.
Granted the e-book was only around 250 pages, but this sappy love tale lasted for at least 100 of them. Everytime something about the killer was mentioned, Violet and Jay spent the next 30 pages 'doing homework'...if you know what I mean. *winky face*
Second, the idea that since Violet senses imprints of the dead, if she walked around public places long enough, she was bound to bump into the killer. What the hell kind of stupid idea is that?!?!
She's going to randomly walk around to find the guy kidnaping and killing a bunch of girls her age? She was with Jay the whole time, but still two teenagers against an experienced killer isn't much of a match. I don't care how buff Jay thinks he is.
And lastly, I hated the ending. Again, I'm going to cut the details because it was worth reading just to get the point of the book, but still it bothered me. I fully believe that some characters should die. Some books end better that way. They just do.
Overall, 4 stars for effort and a compelling murder case. Cut out the stupid lovesick puppy story and it would have been 5 stars no problem.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Joan of Arcadia (2003-2005)
Joan of Arcadia is an American television fantasy/family drama telling the story of teenager Joan Girardi who sees and speaks with God and performs tasks she is given.
This show is awesome. No wonder they cancelled it.
A lot of people have different perspectives about God and this show included that. They had athiests, priests, nuns (and ex-nuns)...and then there's Joan.
Living in Arcadia (haha the play on Joan of Arc) she thinks she's going crazy because God appears to her in different forms of people. There's old lady God, goth kid God, kindergartener God, etc. It's actually really cool.
Each week, God appears and tells Joan to do something. Nothing really hard or out of the blue but ordinary things like: sign up for an advanced class, study for this next history test, or help your mom out with laundry. None of these tasks are too far-fetched, but as the episode goes on Joan gets to see the outcome of her actions. (which again, was super awesome and mind-blowing!)
Because she signed up for an advanced class, she found new friends in serious need of help. Because she studied for a history test, she gave her teacher a reason to believe in himself again and not retire pre-maturely. Because she helped her mom with laundry, she appreciated all her mom does around the house and on top of that still holds down a full time job.
I understand that a lot of people won't even give this show a chance because it involves God. Which is sad and probably why it eventually got cancelled. TV today just doesn't mean anything anymore. There are few shows out there that are strictly about family values and a general person's moral compass.
So at the end of the series Joan finds out that she will be tested in some way and to believe everything that happened over the past two years to be true. And that's it. That's the end.
I'm not sure if the writers knew they were being cancelled or not, but they left a serious gap in the story. Some new guy comes into the weekly plot and everyone likes him except Joan and she doesn't know why. He gives her a weird look and that's about all we get. No explanation of who he is, what he wants or why he came to Arcadia. It was a disappointing ending to a great series.
But overall, your religious views aside, you should totally give this show a chance. Some episodes were better than others (like all tv shows) but most of them give the viewer something to think about.
I totally miss old tv :(
This show is awesome. No wonder they cancelled it.
A lot of people have different perspectives about God and this show included that. They had athiests, priests, nuns (and ex-nuns)...and then there's Joan.
Living in Arcadia (haha the play on Joan of Arc) she thinks she's going crazy because God appears to her in different forms of people. There's old lady God, goth kid God, kindergartener God, etc. It's actually really cool.
Each week, God appears and tells Joan to do something. Nothing really hard or out of the blue but ordinary things like: sign up for an advanced class, study for this next history test, or help your mom out with laundry. None of these tasks are too far-fetched, but as the episode goes on Joan gets to see the outcome of her actions. (which again, was super awesome and mind-blowing!)
Because she signed up for an advanced class, she found new friends in serious need of help. Because she studied for a history test, she gave her teacher a reason to believe in himself again and not retire pre-maturely. Because she helped her mom with laundry, she appreciated all her mom does around the house and on top of that still holds down a full time job.
I understand that a lot of people won't even give this show a chance because it involves God. Which is sad and probably why it eventually got cancelled. TV today just doesn't mean anything anymore. There are few shows out there that are strictly about family values and a general person's moral compass.
So at the end of the series Joan finds out that she will be tested in some way and to believe everything that happened over the past two years to be true. And that's it. That's the end.
I'm not sure if the writers knew they were being cancelled or not, but they left a serious gap in the story. Some new guy comes into the weekly plot and everyone likes him except Joan and she doesn't know why. He gives her a weird look and that's about all we get. No explanation of who he is, what he wants or why he came to Arcadia. It was a disappointing ending to a great series.
But overall, your religious views aside, you should totally give this show a chance. Some episodes were better than others (like all tv shows) but most of them give the viewer something to think about.
I totally miss old tv :(
So This Is Even MORE Awkward.
Since I seriously have a lack of attention span lately, I have been watching tv shows instead of the movies that I thought I would be watching. Forty minutes (or so) is much less of a time committment than at least an hour and a half.
So I will be adding tv show reviews to this blog also. Sometimes one episode at a time, sometimes a whole series at a time, because I really seem to like cancelled tv shows for some reason...
Anyway, in the direction this blog is heading I'll probably end up reviewing nail polish colors by next month. But I'll try to stick to books/movies/tv shows for now. I hope.
So I will be adding tv show reviews to this blog also. Sometimes one episode at a time, sometimes a whole series at a time, because I really seem to like cancelled tv shows for some reason...
Anyway, in the direction this blog is heading I'll probably end up reviewing nail polish colors by next month. But I'll try to stick to books/movies/tv shows for now. I hope.
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