Beastly

A couple months ago, I went and saw Beastly with my friends. I saw it again yesterday, and I must say, it seemed a lot more superficial and cheesy this time.

I still love it though, and so when I saw a little pot of mini white rosebuds later in the day, I bought it. That's what I'm looking at right now; the pretty rosebuds. I hope I can keep them alive for over a month. The pointsettias I bought last Christmas didn't survive that long. I forgot to water it and put it in the sunshine, and so on. I think white roses are my favorite flower. So if I'm ever in the hospital with a life-threatening disease, send me some white roses and a singing telegram.

Anyways, I still love Beastly which is suprising, because I almost always go for movies that have genuine, 'feel-real' characters, which I'm sad to say, didn't really shine through in this movie. Maybe it's because I like white roses and guys with dead-looking tree tatoos all over their backs. And it was also nice to see Mary Kate Olsen in a movie (finally).

My Review: 3 out of 5 stars. Good message, but no high quality acting or real chemistry between the two of them. Sorry Vanessa Hudgens, but it just felt like High School Musical all over again. However, I give props to Neil Patrick Harris. Maybe a little bit too clean-cut for a "blind" guy, but you made me laugh. 10 sparkle points for you.

The Voice

I watched The Voice tonight for the first time tonight, and I have to say that I enjoyed it more tha I thought I would. Even though a good portion of it was wailing and forced vibrato, the Javier's and Dia's originals were impressive.

I found it amusing how the judges were totally into it when their 'star pupil' performed, but then acted completely indifferent to the other singers (especially Christina, gosh). Since tonight was the finale, the four finalists and the four judges put on a rockin' show.

Suprisingly, I am very interested in finding out the winner. But of course, they will have to have a long show before they announce the winner, because they like to go on and on and on. I probably won't tune in until the last ten minutes.

My Review: 2 out of 5 stars. The two songs that I enjoyed weren't enough to give it a good rating. My main issue is that there's too much hype and not enough talent. These people don't seem to really know how to sing. They don't know technique. They just like to damage their vocal chords and hop around like a little kid that needs to go to the bathroom. I think that is why I enjoyed Dia's song the best. Her performance of her original song was less hype and more talent. I really hope she wins. Fingers crossed!

The King's Speech

I just finished watching The King's Speech, and I have to say, I was very impressed. It was amazing how such a simple plot as a man overcoming his stutter could have such deep meaning. I know that other people think that the film is overrated, but I found it to be a well done, very touching story. Not to mention, the acting was exceptional on Colin Firth's part, as well as an enchanting performance by Geoffrey Rush.

So, my review: 4.5 out of 5 stars. As I mentioned above, the story was good. The acting was good. It was all good. To the people who thought it was a boring movie, shame on you for not listening. If you had listened, perhaps you would have been able to appreciate what a great movie it was. Maybe you think that I praise it too much, but I don't think so.

What made the movie for me was how he overcame emotional problems as well as mechanical problems. It inspires me to look back into my own childhood at the problems I faced there. I won't explain what those problems were, but that's what came to mind after watching this movie. He conquered over his emotions and Colin Firth did an excellent job portraying that here. I would recommend this movie to anyone.

Animal Hybrid #3

This week's animal hybrid is a Bushbaby + Toby Mac = BushMac Baby

I don't think of people as animals, but when I saw my Toby Mac poster on my door, then saw the little, pink bushbaby stuffy, I couldn't resist. I was planning on coloring it, but I never got around to it. I almost forgot to post it entirely. If you look at the time, you'll see how close I cut it. Nevertheless, here is Animal Hybrid #3.

Another Fondant Adventure

So hey, the fondant is back! This time it didn't go quite as planned. The fondant was very moist, and didn't hold together very well. At all. We had been planning on covering the two-layer cake with one big piece of fondant, but because it wouldn't work with us, we decided to cut circles out and layer them over the entire cake.

The circles and the flower were Nita's idea. Thanks Nita. ;)

As you can see in the picture on the right, the circles on the right side weren't staying on quite right. I hope they will stay on long enough for us to eat it tomorrow at sunday school.

Either way, I'm satisfied with the results of the cake. However, I have not mastered fondant yet. Not even close.

Austrian Sweets

A friend of mine went to Austria with her family and stayed there with her brother and his wife. She explored and admired and had a smashin' good time. She took tons of pictures of the fam, buildings, statues, and most of all, the amazing food. I swear, she took a picture of probably every dish she ate there, which made me extremely hungry.

While they were gone, I went and cleaned their house once a week. So, now that they're back, they came and visited me today. They paid me for the cleaning, and also gave me delicious Austrian yummy things. I received two packages of Manner, which are hazelnut sugar wafers, and Kinder Schokolade, which looks like a milk chocolate candybar. The only thing that I've tried so far are the Manner cookies, but I'm super excited for the chocolate.

The kid on the chocolate box kind of reminds me of Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but maybe that's just me.

Amelie

My mom and I watched a French movie together last week. It was called Amelie. The sweet, innocent beginning when Amelie is born and then in her childhood puts the story in a pleasant mood.

One night while Amelie is in her apartment, she discovers a rusted tin box hidden in the wall. The box is full of childhood knick-knacks and pictures. She decided to find the owner of the box. If it makes him happy, she would dedicate her life to doing good things for other people. If not, too bad.

When she finds him and returns the box, he is hit with nostalgia from his childhood. He is happy that the box has been returned to him.

So begins Amelie's journey.

Throughout the movie, she does anonymous kind things for other people. My favorite scene is when she takes the arm of the blind man on the street and leads him down the sidewalk, excitingly naming all the things she sees to the man, so he can feel like he can see again. Their walk lasts less than a minute, but when she leaves him, you can tell that he is happier than he has been in a long time.

Farther along in the movie, Amelie sees a man drop a photo album in the street. She decides to return it to him, but at the same time, she is shy about him. So, she asks him to meet her in different places, but never has the courage to go and talk to him face to face.

Finally, he goes to the place where she works, and one of Amelie's friends tells him where she lives. They finally meet. And then they fall in love.

It ends with Amelie and her true love riding through Paris on his motor-bicycle, and everyone else happy because of what Amelie did for them.

It was a very cute movie. However, it was R-rated for sexual content. Yeah, there was a lot of sexual content, but it talked about sex in such a light, silly way it didn't seem terrible.

My Review: I gave Amelie 4 out of 5 stars. It was a perfect blend of happy and melancholy. The whole overall feeling of the story was very satisfying. Because of the sexual content, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone under the age of 17. Even if they can handle seeing a lot of naked women doesn't mean they should. I know the movie sounds really dirty now, but I mean c'mon. It's a French movie.

Audrey Tautou gave an excellent performance. There were so many parts in the movie that I didn't mention that were probably worth mentioning. But that would take a very long time, and I'd prefer that you go and watch the movie for yourself.

I think that what I love most about this movie is how simple it is. She doesn't find the need to change the world. She just makes it a happier place one person at a time.