My top 10 movies of the decade

My mom just called me and asked for help making up her list of her top ten movies of the decade so here's mine. These are in no particular order. Now, I'm no movie critic and these are just movies I enjoyed immensely and they are by no means classic or anything, but they were good in my personal opinion. I've seen Transformers turn up in a bunch of worsts lists and it bugs me because it's like people don't know what to expect when they go to a movie like that.

Moulin Rouge: I adore this movie. I think it's romantic and very entertaining and I can sign most of the songs from memory at this point. It's a great romantic story, it's sweet and I can watch it a million times over.

Bourne Ultimatum: I love each and every movie of this franchise, but this one was by far the best. Amazing fight scenes, great action through the movie and a little hope at the end. It didn't hurt that it had a hot venezuelan actor called Edgar Ramirez.

Dark Knight: When superhero movies became serious and seriously awesome. I have always been a superman girl but this movie is absolutely amazing. It deserved all the hype it got and more.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Like I said, people criticize this movie a lot. I take it for what it is. A film with a bunch of explosions and in that aspect, it rocks. I love Optimus and I love Bumblebee, I love the soundtrack, I love Sam and I love this movie.

The Prestige: This is the definition of an intense, weird but excellent movie. It's crazy and confusing, but I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. The acting of everyone in the cast is absolutely unbelievable.

Futurama: Bender's Game: It was pretty lame that Fox canceled this great show, but the DVD movies were great. This one was my favorite by far since it had both the most interesting story and the most laughs.

Garden State: This is a chessy romantic story, but the way it's told is very real and very sincere. I loved this movie the first time I watched it and I freak out every time it's on tv.

The Italian Job: The cast of this movie is amazing, and I love any movie where there's a plot with lots of planning to see if the pieces fir together in the end. And come on... mini coopers kicking ass, I'm in!

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl: This is my favorite of the trilogy because it was unexpected, sweet, funny and interesting. Johnny kills as Jack and I will always have a soft spot for Will.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's (Philosopher's) Stone: I was a fan of the books way before the movies came out and seeing this movie was amazing. It does great justice to the book being very sweet and entertaining. I know some of the other ones have been too, like prisoner of azkaban and half-blood prince, but this one will always be my fave.

Half-blood Prince trailer

Movies Update

So, over my holidays I watched a couple of movies, some good and some downright terrible.
War, Inc. falls on the second category. I mean, I knew it wasn't going to be stellar, but it was horrible. It's supposed to be a reflection on large corporations and the war, but there's just something completely wrong about John Cusack playing an assassin. All in all, terrible movie.

I also watched Get Smart, which I'll admit I wasn't too excited about, but it's a funny movie. It has some random moments, but it made me laugh, even if I could see all the plot twists coming from a mile away. Anne Hathaway is also great. I don't know why but I seem to have liked the last movies I've seen with her, I guess I like her work more than I thought.

Speed Racer, not as bad as everyone said. I don't know what people wee expecting, but it was actually pretty much like the cartoons as far as me and my dad remember. I mean, you can't really expect realistic cars and races because that's not what it was about. I think they did a good job of combining real life with animation. The colors are beautiful, and the characters are well played. I mean the dad was just like in the movies. And also, my crush on Mathew Fox, grew after watching this movie.

"I wash my hands of this weirdness."

This what happens when you wake up sick of your hair, lol. It was long well bellow my shoulders and now I can barely tie it back, lol. And I love it. It was really odd to wash my hair, but it's awesome. It's a lot more comfortable and I have to worry a lot less about it. I think a couple of people didn't like it, but I do so I don't care too much, lol.

I went yesterday to test out Abe's Wii and it's pretty cool. He's got 'Wii Play' and we had a lot of fun trying to figure out the games, especially one with tanks and stuff. My arm hurts from playing bowling. Abe beat me, and then I played 2 rounds with my dad and we ended up tied 1-1.
Before that, I just watched PotC: At World's End during the day, hence the quote in the title. I love Jack, and my heart melts over Will, so it was really cool. I downloaded the soundtrack today, and it's pretty awesome too. Although, I was looking for the iTunes gift card my boss gave me and I can't find it at all, and it's driving me a little crazy, lol. I'm pretty sure it'll show up when I'm not looking for it.

Officially off

Today was my last day of work for the week, so I'm officially on holiday break. I'm pretty happy about that, because that means a lot more sleeping these days, lol.
What I'd really like is to go to Venezuela, but I don't have enough money to pay for the ticket, and it's really not enough time to really make the four hour trip worth it. I miss the holiday food, though. And I really want to see Robbie and Isa, but I guess I'll have to wait until may.

I'm not gonna do much during the break, I'm gonna stay home and sleep late, catch up in a couple of movies, maybe even TV shows too. I used the 'watch instantly' thing from Netflix last night to watch National Treasure 2, and it works great. Good, movie too. I loved Helen Mirren even though she wasn't in it too much, I still think she's awesome and the plot was entertaining, and the movie moved well, and I -love- Riley, so I really liked it.
I also watched Hearts and Souls this morning at work, lol. It's this kinda old Robert Downey Jr. movie and I'm pretty sure I'd watched it before, but I still enjoyed it a lot. Robert looked great, he was really young in that one. I can't say the same for Numb with Matthew Perry. I started watching it and I ended up turning it off because it sucked. So, I'm gonna be looking around to see what other movies I can see there, and they have TV shows too, so that should keep me entertained.

Today I bought myself this bag:I've wanting it for a while, and I have the money and it's Christmas, lol. I mean, I could save up the money, but I have enough to pay for the first payment of my car (I start in January), to pay for my credit card and I still get a little extra to keep in the savings account. I just had the impulse to buy it today, because I haven't had much luck with presents this year. I mean my mom and dad gave a comforter, can you believe that? So I decided to get myself something cool. Maybe it's not too wise, but I need a bag for my laptop anyway, so I went ahead and bought it. If I want cool gifts, why not buy them myself, right?

Bender's game

So I watched Bender's Game this weekend. I loved it. It was less confusing than Bender's Score and so much funnier than Beast with a Billion Backs.
The entire movie is a parody/spoof/tribute to Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings. The plot is much more interesting and moves a lot better than the previous two movies and the dialogue is a lot funnier. Also, you don't have to be a D&D fan to get the jokes (I'm not and I didn't feel like I was missing anything) or of LOTR either, (it does help if you have watched the movies, specially with some of the visual references.
The animation is amazing as always, specially the ships, some of which you can really appreciate with a feature that allows you to see some of them on 3D.
I will admit that it takes a while to get to the main part of the story, but it doesn't feel slow or boring because it's written well enough to keep you entertained.
The movie is not completely centered on Bender, and you see a lot of all the cast, including Zoidberg, which leaves room for a lot more jokes.

All in all, best of the three movies so far. Let's wait for February when the see Into the Wild Green yonder.

Trailer for Bender's game:


Trailer for IWGY:


P.S. I want a tickle-me-Bender.

Resident Evil

I watched RE: Extinction today. I had watched the first two and I thought they were kinda gross, but this one takes the prize. It wasn't bad, but I have to admit I ignored a bunch of parts because it just looked horrible. I know that's the whole point of the movie, but yeah... I guess I was't expecting it to be that bad, lol.
I guess I didn't like it as much as the other because it seemed to me that Alice didn't do as much cool stuff as she did in the first too, but maybe that's just me. And we also saw a lot more of the zombies up close, so maybe that disturbed me... a lot more gross deaths too.
The cast is pretty great and the whole effect of the world being a desert was pretty good, specially Vegas.
If you like these types of movies, you should rent it.

I'm also watching the new Indiana Jones tonight. I'll admit the older ones are good, but they're not my favorite so we'll see how that goes. A bunch of people didn't like it, so I'm guessing I will, lol.

Sometimes...

I watched 'P.S. I Love You' tonight. If you know me, you know I'm a sucker for chick flicks even if I prefer a good action movie. It's kinda of a sad movie, so of course I cried (it's not like it takes that much to make me cry...) but I liked it. It's sappy and corny, but it's what you expect from a movie like this. I gotta say Hillary Swank is amazing, she makes her character really believable and relatable.
Also, I have fallen in love with Gerard Butler. Not only is the man gorgeous, but he's funny and I loved him throughout the whole movie. I think he's a really good actor, he plays the part of outgoing Irish man pretty well, lol. Also, even though he's not in the movie that much, Jeffrey Dean Morgan is great as well, I liked him more than I ever did on Grey's Anatomy.

And now I'm watching 'The Notebook.' Yes, I am in a sad and romantic type of mood today. The good thing is, all the crying is clearing my congestion, lol. I might sleep better tonight.

The lights are blinding...

Longest week ever, man. To go from not doing anything from 3 months to waking up every day at 6 (thanks Isa for the training otherwise, I wouldn't be able to do it...), then classes from 8 until around 12, and then work until 4:30... it's just taking it out on me.
Not to mention that I have to walk around campus, and I'm so completely out of shape. My back, my neck and my knees are all killing me.
Thankfully, work was pretty light this week so I had some time to get back on my feet. I know it'll probably start to get more demanding as the semester goes on, but I think I'll be able to handle it by then.

I saw the new Futurama movie a couple of days ago. It was funny and kinda gross at the same time. It wasn't as good as the first, but I liked it. I specially thought the whole Murderball sequence was brilliant.
I hated Atonement, though. What a horrible ending, it was very frustrating. I get why it was nominated for so many awards. It's incredibly well made and all, it's just the ending that pissed me off.
I also saw Rush Hour 3. I knew it wasn't going to be that great of a movie, but man... I got bored with it. Not nearly as good as 1 and 2, but then that's true for most sequels these days.
Except for the Dark Knight. Now that is an amazing movie. I went to see it with Lexi and it was great because since it had been out for so long, there were only a couple of people in the theater. But what an amazing film. There wasn't one dull moment, and it wasn't one of those movies where they just blow up stuff for free. The cinematography was brilliant, and the actors were unbelievable. Heath Ledger in particular, was absolutely great. I'll always love Michael Caine and Gary Oldman to death, so nothing else can be said about them. It was good enough that you didn't pay attention to the obviously impossible structure that they gave to Harvey Dent's face.

I finally got my residency! So the only paperwork I have left is getting my resident license and I'm good to go! No more paperwork, no need for job permit, and more importantly, a lot cheaper tuition. I'm extremely happy about it. It'll also mean entrance in the US is a lot more simple if I choose to travel. So it's very, very good.

Ah, yeah. I changed the layout to red again. I don't really know why, I just felt like it. I was sick of the green and this is what I came up with last night. The next one will probably be blue.

Boost

Pretty normal Monday. It's really cold here in Memphis, and I have this really annoying cough. I wrote like a crazy person today. I popped 3 chapters of my fic in a row. I was feeling really good about myself.
My math teacher gave the date for the exams today, and surprise I have one the day after the concert. The good thing is that he's giving 4 test and we get to drop one grade, so if I decide not to take I'll still be fine. It all depends in how me and my friend are the next day really. I'm not going to go crazy about it.
I got my travel authorization today so that means I can go to Venezuela to meet my new niece of nephew in the summer! I had to wait for the authorization because I'm in the process of getting my residency and if I just leave the whole process gets canceled, not good...

I know this is normal, but my parents are driving me insane. They're constantly checking up on me and trying to see what I'm doing. Don't they get it by now? I'm a relaxed person, I love sitting in front of my computer doing whatever and I don't really enjoy people trying to see what it is I'm doing.
I already did the whole partying and drinking back in Venezuela and it's not my thing, so if I want to just relax, it'd be nice if you just leave me alone and not keep asking me if I'm depressed or calling me anti-social for closing my door. Be thankful that I'm not one of those girls who goes out every night and ignores your calls to her cellphone.

I'm watching the Italian Job for the thousandth time. It is one of my favorite movies of all times. I love the plot, I love the entire cast, I love how it's made and the ending kicks butt! I was really happy when I learned they're doing a sequel. I hope it's good because otherwise I'll be protesting to whoever made it for ruining it for me.

Now I'm off because this cough is driving me insane!

Feels like a different day

I don't really know how I feel today. I was sort of sick on my parents today but hey, who isn't? I'm sorry but at 20 years old I don't really want a supervisor looking over everything I do, not at home anyway.

I got my muses with me today, so I was finally able to do something for the Mike birthday projekt, and I was also able to write 2 complete chapters for my fic for Mickey, who has said nothing but great things. I think I might have to go on for a while because otherwise she'll hate me for sure. It's ok, you have nothing to worry about I'm loving every minute of it. I just finished 9. I know I had most of it written, but it still surprises me that I have been written that much, I even lost count how many pages I've written, it's more a long story than a fic now.

One random question, I'm now surfing channels and there's ANOTHER Bring it on movie. I know the first one was kind of cool, but are these people ever going to stop? Yeah we get it, people like cheerleaders, you can stop making them.

By the way, I changed my mind, I decided not to cut my hair. I decided it's best to wait another week, and if it's still driving me crazy, then I'll go and chop it off. I like my hair short 'cause I don't worry too much about it, but I can't cut it too much because it's too curly and my face is too round. I don't know, I'll see how I feel a week from now.
Good news! I've lost weight. My pants are starting to fall down without belts and today I fit into a pair that I haven't worn in ages. I don't really pay much attention to my weight but I know it's better for my health and my ego! It'll do wonders for my knee too, I still have a little pain on it, but it's a lot better.

Sleeping in saved me from shopping

Didn't have to go shopping today! Thank God for sleeping in. Since I got up so late, my mom didn't feel like going out anymore, so I was saved by own laziness! I reviewed some stuff online, and I watched a lot of tv and then I went to the movies with my bff. I saw Juno by the way, really cute nice movie, I really enjoyed it. It's a really sweet story, very moving. Also Ellen Page and Michael Cera just kill with their performances. Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman were a little disturbing though, maybe it was just me.

I also sent my fic to Mickey after a while of editing to make understandable for someone other than me. By the way I'm publicly giving you permission to hate it, it's really rough and well you know how it is. It's hard for me to see it how someone else would see it because I've had it for so long.

Now there's a possibility of ice and stuff, so I might not have class tomorrow, cross your fingers for me. How cool is this, if they cancel class, the University sends me a text, I find that completely awesome.

In tennis news, Federer won, Ferrero lost but more importantly Serena lost. Can you believe that? I seriously didn't pick Jankovic to have the slightest chance. Right now Nadal is doing what I predicted and he's beating Nieminem, which is why my tv is on a different channel tonight.

I felt a little more friendly today, but not very creative, no writing nothing for the bday projekt. I gotta get on that this week....

The Ultimate Gift.

Wow... that's the first I want to say. I just watched this movie "The Ultimate Gift" and it blew me away. I was expecting a soft movie full of these things saying how important life is and whatnot, and man, it surprised me. I got caught in the story and it turned out to be really intense. The plot, the characters were so great and so well played I just loved it. I can't deny it, the story is incredibly sad and I cried like a baby, but it has become one of my favorite movies for sure. I won't say anything about the plot because it'd be really hard to explain, and it would suck to just give it away but it really surprised me. I was just looking for something to do and I decided to watch this movie because I really like the actor and it caught me off guard but I felt so good after watching it. It's not a light movie but I'd still recommend it. The cast is unbelievable, it has James Garner who is brilliant, Drew Fuller who is amazing and Abigail Breslin who just steals the show. The setting is amazing and the cinematography is brilliant, I really fell in love with this movie. It was a great choice to watch it.

I read a lot of useless stuff on the net, but I have this 2 articles that I really liked this year and that I re-read today, both of them coming from EW:

The first one is about women in movies, I find this topic very interesting because I've been talking about a lot lately. I mean there are really no good role models for women in movies these days. The strong-woman character has disapeared, or they now come with the requirement of being half-naked. Here's the article:

Whaaaa?!?! Another piece of strangely obtuse pop-cultural analysis, this time from the Hollywood Reporter. Noting the recent announcement that Robert Rodriguez will direct a remake of Barbarella, the article laments the supposed dearth of female-driven action movies. This premise bugs me for a couple reasons. First, what dearth? The article cites several recent action-heroine movies — the Tomb Raider franchise, the Underworld franchise, Catwoman, Aeon Flux, Elektra — but complains that most of them have been flops. (No mention of the successful Resident Evil franchise, starring Milla Jovovich, pictured, or the Kill Bill movies, or Domino, or both halves of Grindhouse.) Yes, there have been flops, but that's true of male-driven action movies as well. Usually, the culprit is bad screen-writing or poor marketing, just as it is for the guys. Think about it: female action movies are now allowed to be just as mediocre and poorly received as male action movies, without execs pulling the plug on the genre. That's a perverse measure of progress toward gender parity, but it's progress just the same.
The other thing that irks me is the assumption that it would be a good thing to have more female shoot-em-ups. Why is that? Is it because the studios can't figure out how to make romantic comedies or adult dramas anymore, so the only way for an actress to gain box office clout is with a grenade launcher? The real problem isn't that there aren't enough female-driven movies with fantasy violence, it's that there aren't enough female-driven movies that reflect the reality of women's day-to-day lives in compellingly told stories.

Gary Susman May 31 2007

And I couldn't agree more.

The other article is a little longer than that which you can check out here, this one is about JK Rowling announcing that Dumbledore was gay. I know people have made a big deal out of it, but this article explains exactly why we shouldn't. I enjoyed reading it and that's why it's here.

R&R

Ok so I'm finally on vacation and I thought I'd spend a little time here. Well first of all I need you to click on the banner above for me so you can help me out with a contest I'm participating. Ok I needed to get that out the way, the thing is I've never been good with contests and I'd really like to at least give myself a chance.

Anyway, moving right along... I saw this movie the other day called Annapolis. It's this movie about the Navy and stuff but it was actually done without their support. It's not my favorite movie of all time but I actually enjoyed it. Sure, it has the typical "underdog" story-line that almost every movie has these days, but it kept me entertained. I always judge a movie by the number of times I feel an impulse to change the channel or get up and walk away and there were only a couple of those here. The worst one ever? Sin City... God I wanted to walk out that movie so many times and then when it was over I felt I'd never get those hours of my life back, I mean seriously, who does that to Elijah Wood? And Rosario Dawson? I mean she's so pretty and I hated her so much in that movie... whatever I'm off the subject. Annapolis is a good movie, I'm really into action movies so seeing guys beat the crap out of each other boxing was entertaining, even more when one of them is James Franco, and to be honest the movie is more about that than the academy. If you're ever bored and it's on tv, I recommend you watch it.

Now obviously with the writer's strike there's not much going on with tv shows, but I spent yesterday checking out this blog from one of the producers of Heroes. It's really cool, there's a lot of behind-the-scenes- stuff and pictures. I like that there's a lot of technical stuff about how they do different things because I really enjoy all that, I find the whole thing really interesting. I would have really liked to read more about the final episode, I dunno. I was really looking forward to Scrubs, but none of that either. I guess the last season is not going as smooth as we were all hoping. I'm going to be really upset if we don't get a good final episode. But I understand the reasons for the strike, it's really them just fighting for what they deserve. It's still pretty funny how much people are complaining about this, but really weeks of sucky reality tv and re-runs? No one wants that. I must admit though, I've been watching a lot of Without Trace re-runs which is good because I've always liked that show but I stopped watching a long time ago and I don't know why. I also caught CSI last night which I haven't done in ages 'cause I'm usually changing between Scrubs and sometimes Grey's Anatomy, although that show has bored me to death lately. I find the story lines repetitive and uninteresting. I mean it all went down-hill when Izzie and George slept together. And well I'm sick of Meredith, she's the most unrelatable character ever. So, I haven't payer much attention lately. Private Practice is a little better, but they have some pretty stupid plots too. To be honest, the only reason I started watching that show was Tim Daly, I've always liked him. But now I'm in love with Cooper, he's by far the best character on that show.

I'm sick of Facebook. It used to be really cool and now it's full with spam. I mean I get like 20 invitations a day to add some completely useless application, and then 15 messages on my wall telling me to pass the bloody chain. Yeah we all thought Myspace was bad with spammers and now Facebook is even worse. No, I don't want to add 'The school bus' or 'become a vampire'. And they try to lie to you too, it's like you don't have to do anything just click here and then you have to download the whole thing anyway. Really people, don't send me that stuff 'cause you know I won't do it.

By the way, have I talked about being an aunt again? My sister-in-law is pregnant. It's cool after all those years without babies in the family, and thinking that there were none in the foreseeable future and then we got Isabella, and now another baby. I don't know why but ever since I found out she was pregnant I've had the feeling it's a boy. I can't really explain it but that's what I think. My brother apparently wants another girl, but my sister says she wants a nephew (she has been really into this aunt thing). My grandmother would love another boy in the family. Like I said I have a feeling it's a boy but I don't really mind as long as it's as cute and healthy as Isabella.

Ok, now this just made my day:
Spanish singer, Alejandro Sanz, who recently had problems over a concert venue in Venezuela, has made clear his opinion of the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez.During his latest gig in Miami, Sanz was happy to accept a black t-shirt from the audience which contained the words ‘Chávez Sucks’. He placed the t-shirt round his neck, to great applause, and continued with his performance which was the last date on his ‘El Tren de los Momentos’ tour this year.
Check out the pics here.
I knew there was a reason I loved that man. Yeah you could say it was the mesmerizing and beautiful lyrics he writes, or the amazingness of his music, or his incredible looks and yet approachable personality... but really a 'Chavez Sucks' t-shirt? Now that's a reason to love him forever. And by the way I want one of those shirts. No, I must have one of those shirts.
If you're interested here is a review of one of his concerts and here is a recent interview.

The whole story with the venue problem in Venezuela was that he was supposed to do a show in Caracas in November and the Gov closed the venue and requested that he used a private place. This all because he had made some remarks the last time he visited when I still lived there. The thing is that we just had a campaign to recollect signatures to have a referendum to take Chavez out, and the number of signatures reached 3 million but the gov refused to acknowledge them. During an interview Ale said two things that pissed off the gov first he said 'If I wrote a song about Venezuela it'd be called 3 million signatures' and he also said 'If I received 3 million signatures of people telling me to stop singing, I would'. He also compared Chavez to Fidel Castro. After that they started a website to try to get 3 million signatures to get him to stop singing, and they didn't even get close. Now that he was returning they tried everything to stop him for performing including denying him the venue. Anyway, that didn't work either and he's just re-scheduled the concert. And that just makes me happy to see him with that shirt. Seriously, get me one.

Well that's it for today. Since I have some free time I'll probably post more frecuently that usual. Have a nice day.