Personal Update

As many of you know.. several months ago, I moved to a tiny, tiny, town. I now have even less options for movies to watch. I will be several weeks behind on any blockbuster movies that come out because we just don't get them here.

But I do think I am going to start writing these posts again.

Thank you for continuing to read my rambles.

Stacy

June Movies!

Alrighty. Here we go again.

The Edge of Tomorrow

>I hate to admit it, since he annoys me so much in the tabloids, but I love Tom Cruise movies. And Emily Blunt is pretty good too.

The Fault in Our Stars

>Oh my goodness. Going to cry my eyes out in this one, but I think it will be worth it. LOVE the book.

22 Jump Street

>I think the first one of these was hilarious. Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill are great together.

How to Train Your Dragon 2

>One of the best kids movies ever made (Well, the first one). This one doesn't look quite as good, but I think it will still be worth a watch.

Transformers: Age of Extinction

>Transformers movies are one of my many guilty pleasures of the entertainment industry.

A nice short list. And I actually think I will get to see at least three of these, if not all of them. :)

February Movies

Since starting my new job, I have struggled to find time or motivation to keep up with this blog. Today when I logged in, I was surprised to see that I am still getting page views! That was a nice boost to my self esteem. =)

Anyway, I think I am going to try to keep up with this again. Starting in February.

The Lego Movie
>I admit, when I first heard about this movie - I was not interested. But after seeing the trailer, I couldn't be more excited! This looks fantastic! I am looking forward to seeing this with my nephew next month.
The Monuments Men
>It's always nice to see war movies that do it from a different perspective. I think this could be one of the great movies of the year. Should be awesome.
RoboCop
>I actually don't think this looks very good. But it's sci-fi. And there is something about sci-fi that I just cannot resist.
Winter's Tale
>Hmm.. I guess this will be my sappy love story for the month.
Endless Love
>You're basic rich good girl falls in love with poor bad boy story.
Pompeii
>This could be an absolute disaster of a movie. Should be a good tear jerker.
3 Days to Kill
>Kevin Costner has decided to become a big star again, I guess. Might as well see if he can still act.
Non-Stop
>Well, Liam Neeson is playing Liam Neeson. Who doesn't want to see that?


Hoping to get to at least two of these. =)

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

I went into this movie cautiously. Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of young adult movies based on their best selling novels. But The Hunger Games surprised me, and so did The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. It did not follow the book very well though, so don't go in expecting that, but it had it's own charm.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is about a young girl named Clary Fray (Lily Collins) who lives a pretty normal teenage life. Her mother is a widow painter in New York City, doing her best to raise her daughter by herself. But Clary is not a normal teenager. On the weekend of her birthday she goes to a club, Pandemonium, and witnesses a murder. A murder that no one else could see. Not even her best friend, Simon (Robert Sheehan), who was standing right next to her.

At this same time, she has started drawing a weird symbol and she doesn't know why or what it means, but the night after the murder, she draws a million of these and hangs them up all over her room. The next morning, she gets in a bit of a fight with her mother, Jocelyn (Lena Headey) and goes out to the coffee shop with Simon so she can tell him about the weird symbol. But while she is at the coffee shop, she sees someone she doesn't want to see. The murderer from the club the night before. And Simon still can't see him. So she follows him outside to ask him why she can see him. 

She doesn't get many answers though, because she gets a phone call from her mother. Jocelyn warns her not to come home. She tells her that Valentine has found her and to go to her friend Luke's instead. Clary can tell that she is being attacked. So she ignores her mother's warning, and races home, leaving the mystery murderer and poor Simon behind with no explanation.

But she is too late. Jocelyn is gone when she gets there. The place has been turned inside out while her attackers looked for something. And one attacker remains. Clary turns one corner to come face to face with an angry rottweiler. Except... it has weird eyes and it's head splits in half right before her eyes. Okay, maybe not a rottweiler. So she tries to blow the creature up while hiding in the fridge, but it regenerates. Luckily, before it can kill her, the murderer from the previous night comes and saves her life. 

Clary discovers that his name is Jace Wayland (Jamie Campbell Bower). He is a shadow hunter, or killer of demons. Most mundanes (normal people) can't see them, but Clary can. So she must not be Mundane. They go downstairs to talk to the downstairs neighbor, Dorothea (CCH Pounder), and see if she knows what happens. She is a witch and doesn't really want them to but has them come inside. She shows Clary a set of Tarot cards that Clary recognizes as something that her mother painted and she attempts to read Clary's mind, but discovers instead that it has a block on it.

They hear a noise upstairs, and rush up there, hoping to find an answer about where Jocelyn was taken to. Instead of attacking an enemy though, Clary ends up smashing the fire extinguisher into Simon, who came looking for her. He is immediately suspicious of Jace, and maybe a wee bit jealous. But the three of them head over to Luke's to see if they can find some answers. They creep downstairs and find Luke (Aidan Turner) chained to a chair being questioned by two shadow hunters. They are asking him questions about the location of some cup. But Luke claims that he has never cared about Clary or her mother and only was close to them in an attempt to get the cup for himself. Clary is heartbroken to hear this and kind of goes distant, knocking down a glass vase and revealing their location to the shadow hunters. She runs out of the room while Jace fights the two shadow hunters, and back outside where Simon is waiting for them. A cop car has just pulled up, but Clary can tell that these cops are not real cops. Luckily Jace was right behind her, and kills the cops (much to Simon's dismay). He decides they need to go to the Institute. Which is the safe haven for Shadow Hunters in the Brooklyn area.

Once they get to the Institute, Clary collapses, and Jace notices for the first time that she was bitten by the demon during his attack on her apartment. When she awakes the next morning, she notices a tattoo on her arm like the ones that the shadow hunters have. Simon, in excited nerd mode, tells her that it is a healing rune and rambles on about other runes. Jace reveals that he took a chance by marking her, because if she didn't have shadow hunter blood, it would have killed her. Now she gets to meet the other two members of Jace's little team. Isabelle (Jemima West) and Alec (Kevin Zegers) Lightwood. And she gets called down to meet with Hodge (Jared Harris), their mentor.

Hodge tells Clary a little bit about Shadow Hunter history and her mother. He explains to her what the Mortal Cup is and why Valentine wants it. And who Valentine is, for that  matter. Then Jace comes in and tells them that The Silent Brothers are ready to see Clary. I might be mixing the book in a bit here, and I apologize for that.

Clary and Jace go alone to meet with the Silent Brothers, who are going to attempt to open up Clary's mind to see if it can lead them to the Mortal Cup. She sees a few things from her past, but nothing that leads her to the Cup. Instead she ends up collapsing on the floor and writing a name, Bane. Jace immediately know's this is referring to Magnus Bane (Godfrey Gao) and they arrange to go there to see him that night with Isabelle, Alec, and Simon.

Magnus isn't thrilled about seeing them at his party - which has a bunch of Downworlders (other supernatural beings that sometimes get in trouble with the Shadow Hunters). But he allows them to stay because he thinks that Alec is very pretty and he of course recognizes Clary. She follows him up to his room so they can talk in private and he tells her that Jocelyn had been taking Clary to see him for years so that she could have her memory tampered with. The spell he used caused her to forget anything that she saw from the Downworld even as she was seeing it. It was the closest thing he could do to making her Mundane. At this point, Isabelle rushes into the room with the terrible news of Simon being kidnapped by the vampires. Uh oh.

So, off they rush to rescue Simon from the vampire lair. First they stop by a cathedral to get some weapons. Clary learns that all religions aid the Shadow Hunters and keep a stockpile of weapons for them to use when they need to. Then they invade Hotel Dumort. It's pretty quiet and creepy at first. They get all the way to the top and find Simon. He tells them it's a trap to get Clary and find the Cup. So they try to make it out before they are discovered. Which they are obviously too late because that would be boring.

So ensues an epic mini battle with a couple hundred vampires. And just when they are about to be overwhelmed, werewolves jump in through the windows and save them. How convenient. They run outside and get into the sun, where the vampires cannot go without burning. Once they get back to the Institute, Alec corners Clary. He tells her to get out and leave Jace alone. Clary gets mad and tells him it's not her fault that he is in love with Jace, and maybe he should just man up and tell him. Which, of course, doesn't go over well.

She visits Simon in the hospital, where his vision has magically returned to 20/20, and cuddles up to him for a bit like they talk like they used to do before everything got so crazy. So, like two days ago. He falls asleep though, so she goes off with Jace, who has a birthday surprise for her. He takes her up to the greenhouse. It has a multitude of magical plant and is very beautiful and peaceful. They sit down on a windy staircase, and he gives her a gift. A witchstone (rock that lights up with gripped) of her very own. Jace believes that every Shadow Hunter should have one. Then it's midnight, and there is a flower that blooms at midnight and gets all glow-y, like it's from Pandora. And this is when they kiss, which we have all been waiting for. They get out of the greenhouse because the sprinklers come on and go back to Clary's room. They kiss again, just in time for Simon to see them as he comes out of the room. Jace gets mad and storms off, because he can see the feelings that Simon has for Clary even though she cannot. Simon confesses his love for her and leaves The Institute, leaving Clary feeling very alone.

So she goes to the library to practice drawing some of the runes from the Grey Book. But while she is doing this, she somehow puts the tea that she was drinking inside of the paper. And suddenly she knows where the Mortal Cup is hidden. 

The next day, Jace, Clary, Isabelle, and Alec go after the Cup, which Clary figured out is hidden inside the Tarot cards that her mother painted for Dorothea. Alec and Isabelle go upstairs to scout for demons while Jace and Clary go into Dorothea's apartment to get the Cup. She makes Jace remove all of his weapons before coming inside, which should have struck him as odd because she didn't make him do that when he was there before. He goes in and plays a few notes on the piano, notes that Bach proved drive demons crazy. And it worked, right after Clary removes the cup from the card, Dorothea reveals that she has been possessed by a demon and steals the Cup. She manages to overwhelm all of them and get outside, where she finds Simon, who was coming to see Clary. He sees Clary in her window, and the Cup in her pocket and hits her in the head with a shovel and tackles her back inside. Jace comes to his senses and kills her. Clary takes the cup and stows it safely back in the card. But Alec is dying. He get a bad wound in his back while attacking Dorothea and the runes aren't helping. They need Hodge's help.

They get him back to the Institute and Clary goes to Hodge to tell him what happened and show him the card. But things don't go quite according to plan. I'm hesitant to say anymore because I don't want to give anything away. There is still a lot that happens in the movie, but I think you should see it yourself to find out!

I'm going to include the rest because I want to to talk about it, but I'm warning you that if you read farther, I will ruin the end of the movie for you. Okay?

When Clary gives the Cup to Hodge, she is surprised to find him open the portal that is in the library and see Valentine (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) come out. Hodge hands the Mortal Cup over to Valentine, explaining to Clary that he had to do it because of the curse that The Clave put on him for being a part of the Circle in the past. Valentine had promised to free him from that curse if he got him The Mortal Cup. See, the Cup had the power of making new Shadow Hunters, and Valentine was interested in a cleansing of the race. 

Then Clary gets the shocking news. Valentine is talking to her as he does some weird stuff.. like jabbing spears and swords into the marble floor and slicing open his own hand so his blood is in the Cup. He tells her that she is his daughter. She of course doesn't want to believe this, but it's hard to deny his facts. Valentine is trying to get Clary to drink from the Mortal Cup. He shows her Jocelyn in the portal, but it doesn't give away her location. Clary makes and impulsive decision to jump into the portal to get to her mother, even though this is extremely risky and could leave her stuck in limbo.

Meanwhile, up in the infirmary, Magnus Bane has arrived to save Alec. He sends Simon and Isabelle off to find some medical supplies for him and Jace goes to see what is keeping Clary. When Simon and Isabelle are in the basement, they find not only the medical stuff, but Jocelyn Fray is there as well - floating in the air. Isabelle runs the stuff back up to Magnus but orders Simon to stay down with Jocelyn.

When Clary jumped through the portal, she did not end up next to her mother's side. Instead she ended up at Luke's, the last place she wanted to be. There is a funny part here with a creepy demon child being ripped to shreds by a werewolf. A werewolf that turns out to be none other than Luke! I know you are all surprised. ;)



Luke explains to Clary that he didn't mean what he had said. He was only saying that to try and protect her and her mother. Obviously it didn't work but he tried. At this point, Clary gets a call from Simon saying that he has found her mother in the basement of The Institute. So Luke calls up his werewolf pack and off they go to save the day.

At the Institute, things are not going good. Valentine had arranged the swords and spears into a pentagram and is calling up a demon army. Hodge has opened up the hatch on the roof so they can come in. Isabelle found out from Bane when she returned with his stuff that they were being invaded and goes off to fight. She finds Simon in the cell that Jocelyn had been in, but Jocelyn had been moved. They are heading back upstairs when they join up with the pack of wolfs and Clary. And the demons have found them. They start killing off the werewolves fast and corner the group back in the room that Jocelyn had been in. Luke is holding the door shut, but he can't keep it shut much longer. But Clary suddenly realizes she just needs to draw this rune on her palm and she can stop them. So using Isabelle's Stele she draws the rune and orders Luke to let go of the door. She holds out her palm and the demons all freeze in place.

The wolves all stay behind to finish off the demons while the children run upstairs to find out where the demons are coming from and stop Valentine.

Jace has been in the library while everything was taking place down below. Valentine was so happy to see him. And Jace is battling with some emotions because Valentine has just called him Jonathan and told him that his is his father. Very Star Wars, I know. He convinces Jace that he just doesn't remember him because he has had blocks on his memory too.

So when Clary comes back and holds a knife to Valentine's throat, because he is kneeling next to her mother, Jace stops her. He tells her that he needs to hear him out. That's when Valentine tells them both together that they are siblings. Enter disgusted sounds here.

But then Valentine tries to force Clary to get the Cup back out of the card for him and Jace gets mad. Because even if Valentine is his father, he cares more about Clary. So he rips one of the swords from the pentagram and fights Valentine. While they are fighting, Clary takes the card and hides.

Simon and Isabelle are up fighting the demons and trying to close the hatch. Hodge has started feeling guilty about what he has done and goes up to help them. They eventually succeed.

Clary returns to the library, and threatens to drop the cup through the portal if Valentine doesn't stop. He comes over to her and she surrenders the cup to him and pushes him into the portal instead, hoping he will get caught in limbo, no doubt. He comes back and tries to grab her though so she stabs the portal with a stele, causing it to freeze and shatter. After everything has calmed down, it is revealed that she has the true cup safely tucked away in her jacket and tricked Valentine with a replica.

She goes back to her apartment and gets a visit from Jace a while later. He tells her that he doesn't truly believe what Valentine said. That he knows in his heart that being with her is right. And they zoom off on a motorcycle together.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones was your typical book to movie situation. It keeps the characters and general story the same, but changes stuff either because it's easier on the budget, or because it will attract more viewers. I enjoyed it. The acting was actually pretty good, which can be surprising for a teen movie. The only one that I was extremely disappointed in was Godfrey Gao, who play Magnus Bane. He was TERRIBLE!! Seriously, worse than Kristen Stewart. Though that in itself is almost a talent, I suppose. They got the look spot on, at least for me. But he had zero emotion or personality. And Magnus is supposed to have kind of a big personality. He is one of my favorite characters from the books: the weird outsider that shouldn't be involved but is, because of love. 

Putting that aside though, the actors did a good job portraying the characters they way they are written in the book. Jace has just the right amount of cockiness. Simon is adorable. And Clary is beautiful. I do wish that Isabelle would have been a bit more fun like she is in the book though.

The brother/sister thing. I know that some people are really bothered by this part of the story, but you have to remember that they had no idea. Plus, they did only kiss. A lot of brothers and sisters have kissed when they were really little, so it's not as bad as it could be. At least it's not full on Game of Thrones, where there are kids that are the products of incest. Just a bit of kissing.

I liked the little things that they added to the movie for humor. Like at one point, one of Valentine's big cronies says something about not like basements. The bit with the creepy child being torn apart by a werewolf. The werewolf jokes. Simon's character is almost completely comic relief, in the book as well as the movie.

All in all, I think if you look past the end (which was totally butchered), it was done very well. But for those of you who read the books, you know that they are going to have to change something in the movies to come to compensate for Valentine not getting the Mortal Cup. Because that's kind of a big deal.

I did like it. But I didn't love it. Maybe Gao can really improve his acting and the next one will be better. (Plus it will have Sigourny Weaver)

I give it a 8 out of 10.

Red 2

Red 2 was just as good as the first one, if not a little bit better. Other than my boyfriend drooling over Helen Mirren the entire movie, it was very enjoyable.

I'll admit it, When Red came out, I was not impressed with it. I was so tired of the movies about government agents who get framed for something bad and then come back to kick ass. (The A-Team, The Losers, The Expendables, etc.) But after watching it again, I realized that my love for Morgan Freeman wouldn't let me hate this movie. Plus, Marvin (John Malkovich) is hilarious.

Anyway, back to the movie at hand. Red 2 had the same humor that the first movie did. Frank (Bruce Willis) and Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker) are pretty much in hiding. Frank wants to settle down and keep her safe from the dangers of his past. But of course, that can't happen. While shopping one day at the local bulk grocery store, they run into Marvin. He warns them that danger is coming, and then blows up in the parking lot.



Sarah and Frank go to the funeral. Frank doesn't believe that Marvin is dead though, and tries to wake him up at the viewing. Sarah eventually gets him to sit down and during his eulogy, Frank actually cries. When they leave the church, they are intercepted by government agents. Frank is needed for questioning for his apparent ties to an old mission, Nightshade. Frank has no idea what they are talking about, and ends up getting away after another agent, Jack Horton (Neal McDonough) starts shooting up the place in an attempt to get Frank for himself. He is helped in this escape from none other than his dead friend, Marvin. Who also brought Sarah.

Now they know how serious their situation is, and they start trying to figure out what Nightshade was and why they are tied to it. They find out that somehow, their old friend Bailey (Anthony Hopkins) is connected too but he died years ago, or so they thought.

It doesn't take long for word to get around about how dangerous Frank and Marvin are. Victoria (Helen Mirren) gets a call from MI6 to kill them, and an old nemesis of Frank's, Han Cho Bai (Byung-hun Lee) also gets called for the hit. He is the best hit man in the world, and has an old festering hate for Frank for getting him locked up years ago. And they run into Frank's ex, Katja (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who is after the same thing for Russia. She greets Frank with a kiss. Sarah hates her.



With Victoria's help, after she decides not to kill them, they find Bailey in a mental institution. They break him out after finding out that Nightshade is referring to a nuclear weapon that he built years ago from red mercury, in Russia. Then they go on a mission to find it. Which is complicated by Bailey's loss of memory.

The movie is filled with a lot of laughs, quotes, and pretty good action scenes. This group of characters has a really good on-screen chemistry. Sarah gets a taste of what it is like to be more than just a victim of circumstance like she was in the first movie. She is much more involved in this one, and even gets a gun.

Anthony Hopkins is fantastic, of course. When is he not? Bailey is a mad scientist. A genius locked up with nothing but his own thoughts for years on end. Hopkins plays this character perfectly.

And of course, Helen Mirren. Victoria is awesome. There is no other word for her. She really steals the movie with her nonchalance as she dumps acid over bodies in the bathtub while on the phone. Then is a total bad-ass in the car with Han, shooting guns out of both windows as he drives.



There are several twists in this movie. Some of them you can see coming from miles away, but there are a couple that really take you by surprise.

I definitely recommend this movie to anyone that loves the action/comedy genre. It won't disappoint. I give it an 8 out of 10.

Thank you for your continued support!

Comments are always appreciated.