just a quick teaser for Big Sky...

New Moon

So obviously it's been a long time. I've had lots of thoughts on various things Twi-related, and yet nothing super serious enough to get me to stay up way late to blog about (since that's the only way I get free time for this blog).

However, some quickies.

#1. I still haven't seen New Moon. I can't afford to pay a sitter, pay for gas to get to the theater which is 20 min. away, and pay for tickets. And popcorn, drink, candy. Because I HAVE to have those at a movie.

#2. Despite #1, I'm fairly familiar with the film, due to the wonderful internet.

#3. I actually really like the soundtrack. A lot. After hearing Death Cab's song, (meh), and Lykke Li's song (meh again), I wasn't expecting much. But I adore almost all the other songs, and Sea Wolf has been playing non-stop in my house for weeks now.

#4. I am SO glad that critics and reviewers have FINALLY taken the time to check out some of Kristen's other projects!!! Gone are the days where she's judged solely on Twilight, in which she was way under her class. Sorry Twihards, but that's just truth. With Adventureland being on 2009 Most Underrated Films list, and Cake Eater's getting a little more exposure, people have been blown away by Kristen's ability to play a character who isn't in love with a vampire. And now that The Runaways has a distributor....well, let's just say, people are excited. I'm one of them.

#5. While I still think Rob is a hearthrob, (sexy, goofy, British, musician...yum), I think he's got some growing room in the acting department. I think he can be a great actor, and I'm really excited to see Remember Me, but I think Kristen is the star out of the two of them.

#6. I'm sure Ashley Greene is delightful as a person. But her acting is not my fave.

#7. Why has Jackson gotten totally shafted on the press tour? What's up with that?

#8. Chris Weizt has been the best thing to happen to the Twilight series/fandom so far. I'm adoring that man hardcore.

#9. WHO CARES IF THEIR DATING OR NOT?!

#10. Nikki Reed is gorgeous, and the fact that she's a little off makes me dig her even more. Why people expect stars to be perfect is beyond me, but they're people too, with quirks, flaws, and issues.


Anyways, that's it for right now, and I really hope I can make it back sooner and go into some serious details about some things that I've been pondering.....hopefully BEFORE my kids go off to college. :)

Adventureland

Not totally Twilight related, but a little...

Last night I watched Adventureland. I loved it, as I expected to, and I wasn't let down. I was actually a little surprised. My appreciation of Kristen Stewart is no secret, and I thought she did well as Em. I don't quite understand why all the interviewers were asking her how she found the inspiration to do the part, since she wasn't a damaged girl in her 20's working in a theme park. I mean, I think anyone could relate to that in some way. It's not about the specific scenarios, it's about life in general. EVERYONE is damaged, and I'm not the least bit surprised that Kristen pulled the part of, despite being born in 1990 (I'm old, oh gah!...) She's an actress, and she's alive. Something has happened to her in the course of her life to give her inspiration.

Like I said, she delivered what I was expecting. But the one who did not deliver what I expected was Jesse Eisenberg. He was so much better than I thought, and now I'm a fan. He was just human enough, just real enough, to let you connect with the character, and still look up to him a little bit. And he was charming, and adorable, and perfectly underwhelming. I loved him.

And I'm way jealous that Kristen gets to kiss all these hotties...I mean, Ryan Reynolds? Rob, Jesse, Adam Brody? Jealous.

Anyways, it's a good film, from someone who was born in '83, full of great tunes and performances. And the script is awesome as well. Check it out!

Quick Fast and in a Hurry

Sorry to have been so totally slack on this blog, but well, I've been anything but slack in the rest of my life, hence the lack of entries here.

And I still don't have a bunch of time, so this is going to be a super fast catch up recap kinda thingy.

Let's see....Rachelle has been replaced with Bryce Dallas Howard as Victoria in Eclipse. Rachelle is apparently going to be in a movie with Paul Giamati (loves him!), Minnie Driver, and someone else I can't remember right now. I say, good for her. While already there are teens across the world crying injustice, she obviously knows what's best for her career, and I think working with award winning actors on a serious film is a great choice, even if it means leaving a high grossing tween franchise. Art before money maybe?

Also, Nikki Reed has finally come back to us, hooray! She looks gorgeous, so I guess love in Greece with Paris whatshisname is treating her right. While he gets two strikes for being Paris Hilton's ex, and for having ultra douchey hair, he gets a bonus point for having good taste with Nikki.

It was nice to see Nikki and Kristen together at Comic Con this past week. I miss them being together all the time. They just seem like two cool chicks I'd love to spend the day chilling out with.

Rob is well....Rob. Smoking, sexy, British. Still filming in NY, and putting to rest those pesky rumors that he hates the limelight. He apparently is only awed by it, not petrified. Glad to hear that Rob, since it would appear that you won't be leaving that spot any time in the near future.

Eclipse, to be helmed by David Slade, will start gearing up in the next few weeks, which blows my mind. I mean, Kristen and Rob both left New Moon, went directly to The Runaways and Remember Me (respectively), and they'll both finish up those movies, have a couple days tops to do their own thing, then they head right back into Edward and Bella mode. Wow.

From what I've seen and heard from all the fanatics at Comic Con, Chris Weitz knows his shiz and the movie is going to be awesome. If people would have just listened to me in the beginning, they would have known that already. ;)

Kellan is doing a remake of Nightmare on Elm Street, and I'm less then thrilled about that. Remakes are rarely as awesome, and I really want to see him in something dramatic, and unexpected, instead of all these action-type things, which seem totally typecast to me.

Ashley is beautiful, and all about town recently, showcasing her...interesting fashion tastes. Sometimes she is so gorgeous, and then she shows up in leather short things....ugh. Oh well, we all those days I guess. She and Kellan's movie, The Warrior, some sports movie I believe, should be out before too long, so we'll see. I'm not holding my breath, and again, I wish she could be in something totally awesome. But then again, I'll be she does too.

Billy Burke, please adopt me and be my dad? You're just so freaking cool dude. So freaking cool.

Mike, I mean Peter Facinelli, (A-man-duh), is adorable, and smiley, and sweet according to everything anyone has to say about him. His wife, who will forever be Kelly from 90210, has all the luck. First Luke Perry and now Peter Facinelle. She must have been really nice to Brenda to get that much good karma.

Christian Serratos is way skinny, and pretty, and apparently starting a jewelry line. I'm curious to see it, since she's usually rocking some interesting pieces in public.

Mike Welch just remains on my blah-list. Sorry dude, you're awesome as Mike Newton, but unless you're being him, I'm not interested.

Jackson Rathbone, aside from having an awesome name, will be in The Last Airbender, which looks pretty sweet, and in which he himself looks pretty hot. I'm excited to see his role in New Moon after seeing the preview scene where he freaks on Bella's paper cut. Way to let loose man.

Haven't heard much about Angerano, or however you spell it, and I'm not too worried about it. I don't care who Kristen dates, and I don't see how she's got time to wipe her butt before she leaves the bathroom much less live a fulfilling love life with everything she's got on her plate right now. She's badass no matter what tween girls think.

So that's it for now, I know it's not up to my usual par, I just don't have time right now to make it better. So until next time, hasta banana!

***SPOILERS***

Okay, if it looks this freaking fantastic with only tagged pictures and no dialogue, all I have to say is...


WOW.


Enjoy.

David Slade - Antichrist or Savior? Twilight Fans are...Fanatics

Sometimes I am seriously ashamed to admit I'm a fan of Twilight. Not because it's a Young Adult book, not because most people who saw the movie were half my age (& let me take this second to state that 13 year olds being half my age makes me sad). Because Twilight fans have taken the root word of fan, being "fanatic", to the farthest limits of that definition.

While this whole David Slade slam is only the latest in what I personally consider "non-news", I'm going to start with it, because I can personally relate to it.

Keep in mind, I'm writing this from my opinions, which are formed on what the media gives me, not from any personal experience with any of these people. While I'm pretty sure they'd all just love me to death, me being as completely awesome as I am, I've never had the opportunity to meet any of the starts and/or bigwigs affiliated with Twilight. And while I am probably more intuitive than a large portion of the intended audience of those media blurbs, I never fully trust anything they put out there. People are misquoted, edited, and basically remixed into whatever light the media gods (or devils) currently prefer. So here's what we've got going on, supposedly, with Mr. David Slade.

David Slade, best known for directing Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night, was snagged to direct Eclipse, adapted from the third book in the Twilight series by the same name. Shortly after that news was released on the rabid hoards of Twihards, some "news" came to light.

(If you're a fanatic, brace yourself)

It would seem that at an earlier time, somewhere around the release of Twilight in theaters, that David let some personal opinions out on Twitter. While that page has since been deleted, the term I've most seen to describe them is "biting"...which is either the most horrible pun ever, or people just really are that dumb.

Either way, shortly after tweeting about his Twilight feelings, he was interviewed on a radio station in DC, and he talked about those infamous tweets.

"So, yesterday we were trying to find a movie to see, and we'd seen all the good ones," Slade recalled. "And ... having directed a vampire film and really gone for something completely different to the kind of romantic, you know, repressed-hormone teen-vampire movie, we really weren't interested in seeing 'Twilight,' but a lot of people said, 'Let's go.' "

In response to his friends' overwhelming desire to see Bella and Edward fall in love on the big screen, Slade said he Tweeted: " 'Twilight' drunk? No, not even drunk. 'Twilight' on acid? No, not even on acid. 'Twilight' at gunpoint? Just shoot me.'

"[That's like] a poem in a way," he said about the post. "At this point, it excites me, even though people think I'm a really violent and unpleasant person, I actually do have this romantic violent side to me. Maybe I should have seen 'Twilight.' "

Okaaaaay....

(Brutal honesty coming up here guys!)

If ANY 40-something year old man went to see this movie without being forced to take his teenage daughter and her gaggle of swooning girl friends, or was coersed into seeing by a wife who promised to repay his generosity with never-ending sexual favors, I WOULD BE WORRIED!

Let's see...based on Young Adult fiction, adolescent love story, fairly cheese-ball script (which is the fans fault, but that'll be discussed later), and the film patriarch is only in his 30's in real life...WHY WOULD ANY MIDDLE AGE MAN WANT TO SEE THIS?!?!?!?

Okay, I know I freaked out a little bit there, and I'm sorry. But do you kind of see where I'm coming from with one people? It really sounds like a great way to torture a man when you look at it from that perspective.

And another thing...do you think that Chris Weitz was in line at midnight to see the Twilight premiere? Do you think he watched it, even a moment of it, before he saw that it was a ridculously huge trend, and that it would be a smart career move to direct the next big thing with the next big cast? I kind of doubt it. I like to think he saw the potential that Twilight had, and figured he could do something pretty amazing with it. But that's just me.

While it is slightly unfortunate that David Slade would go on to direct Eclipse, it's obviously not affected his directoral opinion. I'm sure he does, in part, see this as a golden ticket, and it is. I imagine there is a long list of directors clammoring for the job. Lots of money, lots of recognition, good and bad, and who doesn't want a little of that?

But I also doubt, as someone who seems pretty talented at his job, that he would do a film he truly thought of as crap. Why waste the time? He has to look at it and see something, something that he can lend his own vision and touch to too take it to the next level; to build off another's foundations with the same bricks but his own style.

Considering what Eclipse is all about, I'm pretty excited to see what he does. I personally am enjoying that Twilight is being slightly removed from the ultra-sweet, overly cheesy genre into something a little darker, a little scarier, a little more real. Because that's really what it is, to me at least. It's not perfection, it's imperfection at it's most extreme, it's dark, and it's scary.

I can feel that this is taking me into the realm of why fans hurt as well as helped the Twilight movie, and that's going to be another long rant, so I'll leave it at this:

I'm pretty sure that everyone on the cast and crew of all the Twilight Saga films can appreciate that parts of Twilight are unintentionally hilarious, some are silly, and a few are downright cheeseball. They probably laugh with each other, and make snide remarks of their own. That's not a bad thing, it's reality. Just relax people, and enjoy it for what it is, mmmk?

Movin' On Up

It's been a while since I've posted, and I'm sorry. Unfortunately, my real life is rather busy, leaving very little time for ruminating on all things Twilight. But since I've got a few minutes there are a few things I'd like to discuss.

(Insert quick daydream/thought of Mike Meyers on SNL-"Rhode Island...it's neither a road, nor an island...discuss.)

First of all, Chris Weitz. I have a feeling many of the uber-obsessed fans are going to start frothing at the mouth here, so if you're one of those, just leave now.

When I first heard that Chris was taking over for Catherine Hardewicke, I felt pretty much the same thing I do now. Great.

I think it's perfect. Twilight started small, cult-ish, a little unknown despite the die-hards who'd read the book. Catherine was on a shoestring budget, and made what I think was a decent film. Could it have been better? Sure. But it was good. And she came out with this magically perfect cast, whom I'll leave alone for the moment. Because I could totally go off on a really long tangent about the perfection of casting each member, and we all know I adore Billy Burke as Charlie, and Kristen, Rob, Nikki....like I said. We'll leave that alone. For now.

But then Chris Weitz comes along. A man I know only from his bit role as the Smith's neighbor in Mr. & Mrs. Smith. And he was cute. And forgetable, which anyone would be next to the smoldering chemistry brewing between Angelina and Brad. But I digress.

I had hoped that someone with skill in special effects would take over, seeing as how the wolf pack figures so prominently into the story, not to mention Bella's cliff-diving, Italy, ect. And the man is a pro at special effects.

And he has brought in actors I wouldn't even believe would go near a film with "screaming hordes of tween girls and cougars" written all over it. But the man has convinced some of the most amazing actors right now to join in, turning this romantic tween based film into something for the masses. Michael Sheen, fresh of the Oscar nom'd film Frost/Nixon?! I don't even want to know what all went into those negotiations, but I am STOKED!!! Bringing in actors like him, people Hollywood takes as "serious actors" will help all the haters realize that just because 12 year olds pass out while talking about Twilight doesn't mean it can't be a great film. And I think it will allow more people to realize how truly talented the lead actors are. Kristen and Rob are great actors, and while I did like the movie, I think Twilight may have been, to date, the worst showcasing of their respective talents.

When I say worst, I don't mean they did bad. Au contraire, they did great. They took two characters who could never exist in reality, and made them believeable. But they're so talented beyond what they can showcase by being Edward and Bella.

While you know I'm obsessed with the movie Into the Wild, where I first fell in love with Kristen Stewart, she's done so many other roles that are amazing. Speak literally took my breath away. She was in Kate Hudson's 16 minute short, Cutlass, and managed to bring a fully rounded character to life in a few short scenes. Ms. Hudson wrote and directed the short, and got her dad and Chevy Chase to take roles in it. I suggest heading over to YouTube and checking it out. By the way, Dakota Fanning was in that with her....a little foreshadowing anyone?

Last night I watched The Cake Eaters for the first time, a little indie film directed by Mary Stuart Masterson. Kristen played Georgia, a girl suffering from Freidrichs Ataxia, a neuro-muscular affliction causing her to shake constantly and slur her speech. Her heart could stop at any minute. She's 15, and wants to experience a normal life.

To Kristen's absolute credit, I did not ONCE feel sorry for Georgia. There was not a moment where I pitied her for her tragic life. She was just a girl trying to find out what it's all about. Absolutely brilliant!!! And I could go on forever....

So we've got Michael Sheen, and also Dakota Fanning, the most precoscious child star ever. That girl is amazing. She's so young, and so deep, and believable in her roles. I can't wait to see her evil side as Jane. I think the casting is absolutely perfect there. Then we've got Jamie Bower, fresh of another Oscar nom'd film, Sweeney Todd. And that kid who always scares the crap out of me, Cameron Bright, playing Jane's equally evil twin, Alec. Again, perfectly cast if you ask me.

There are so many more actors Chris has brought to the cast, and I'd love to talk about each of them, unfortunately my kids are already pulling me away from the computer. So I'll just sum it all up with this:

By bringing in actors with accepted Hollywood street-cred, so to speak, Chris Weitz has brought Twilight "out of the closet". He's topped what was already a great cake with a delicious icing. People who may have been ashamed to admit their Twi-love will no longer be afraid. The Twilight Saga has become mainstream, for good or bad, and opened doors to a whole new audience.

So thank you Chris Weitz, for doing a good job. And for not playing the media game quite as much as Catherine. As a fan, I loved all the info, but as a human, I feel for the lack of privacy the actors get, and I thank you for keeping at least some of their time free for things like, oh, I don't know....breathing?