Movies to be Released July-August 2011

SO. Movies. I love movies. I just find it to be a fantastic entertainment format. An awesome tale spun out in the course of a couple to a few hours (depending on the movie). And as the available technology gets better and better, so much better to films continue looking (except this 3D fad we're in, which I could and should probably spend a whole entry complaining about).

However, as the case is with any form of entertainment, movies can range from amazing down to absolutely horrid. Which, in turn, gives people like me great opportunities to praise or criticize them, whichever the personal case may be.

But, seeing a bunch of movies and reviewing them would cost me money I don't really have, so actual movie reviews will need to, y'know, just hold on.

Movies that are to be released, however, are free game. So let's take a look at some of the wide-release films that will be coming out in the next month~


Cowboys and Aliens
Friday, July 29th
When I first heard of this movie, I ... didn't really know what to think. I mostly went along the lines of "'cowboys' must be a term they're using for astronaut-guys." But then commercials started to air and ... nooooo. They literally mean cowboys.
Now, I'll give the movie some credit; it's an original idea, and it doesn't seem all that bad-looking, for an action movie. However, the concept just seems so... dumb. I feel as though they were literally scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas and ended up at "let's take two things and make them one thing."
Honestly, I've never heard of a 'sci-fi western.' And frankly, it sounds just as ridiculous a combination as hot dogs and jelly. Looking at the trailer, I could see sci-fi fans genuinely taking an interest in the film. As a sci-fi movie, it looks pretty good. On the opposite side of the coin, though, it seems as though it's spitting in the eyes of fans of western movies, unless some of those fans also really like sci-fi's. I just can't imagine someone going to see this movie because of the "western" part of it.
Overall, if you like sci-fi movies, I'd say go ahead and see it.

Crazy, Stupid, Love
Friday, July 29th
I have mixed feelings about this one. The plot (basically; long-time married man finds himself single after his wife divorces him after having cheated on him and now needs to get on the dating scene again with the help of a long-time bachelor friend) doesn't seem that bad, for a romcom. It's a nice concept that I haven't heard of before put to a basic plot that has been done (off the top of my head; I can think of The 40 Year Old Virgin). On top of that, it stars Steve Carell, who I usually trust to do good work.
However, it IS still a romcom, which tend to have plots as predictable as children's movies, as well as all the usual tropes that go with them. It's just a matter of deciding if the pros of the movie out-weigh not watching a movie, but simply sitting there watching easy predictions take place.
However, I take nothing for granted. I still believe it is possible for movie writers to do something unexpected and surprise me with a plot twist I didn't see coming. I am more often than not disappointed, but you never know when it'll happen.
So, I'd say if you don't mind the predictability of movies/romcoms, and don't mind romcoms in general, then I'd say this actually looks like a good movie. If you're looking for more mental stimulation, though, I'd look elsewhere.

The Smurfs
Friday, July 29th
Oh. My God.
Since I read about this movie several months ago, I've been dreading its forthcoming. As predicted, too, it is WAY over-advertised. For any other movie trailer I see (primarily the two movies I've mentioned already), I see two The Smurfs trailers.
The plot is literally Ella Enchanted told with new characters. Magical people transported to, you guessed it, New York City. AND GOLLY HAVE THEY GOT TO GET USED TO THE MODERN AND REAL WORLD.
I had been dreading this movie simply because I had already seen what would happen in the maddening Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007). And I knew everything I hated about the chipmunks movie would be making the same appearance in The Smurfs. Which is that it's "modernized" (which is the best word I can think of to use) and filled with pop-culture references, and crude humor.
I'm not even kidding about the crude humor part, the film is literally rated that way; "Rated PG for some mild rude humor and action" by the MPAA. In other words; bathroom humor.
As someone who tends to not act his age, I don't often mind watching some children's movies. I can get past a predictable plot if the film itself is engaging. For example, and I'm probably putting on my hipster pants here, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. Which was an AMAZING children's movie, and was absolutely free of "the fart jokes, the pop-culture references, and the product placement," as MSNBC writer Alonso Duralde had put it, that is polluting children's/family movies.
Bottom line; would I suggest seeing this movie? Only if you are or have an easily entertained child. And if it's the latter, I'd seriously think about your options first.
Oh, but one compliment I'll give the film makers is that they did a great job making the actor playing Gargamel really look the part.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Friday, August 5th
Okay, before I get to the bad news, let me start with the good.
The movie actually looks good! Yeah it's a prequel, so we pretty much already know what's going to happen. However, look at the trailer, it looks like it'll be a decent movie. I gotta say, the animators that CGI'd the apes did a fantastic job of not only making them look real, but move very realistically as well (based on what I see in the trailers, anyway). The plot is the very well done "science gone wrong" plot ... at least seemingly. I want to say it's the same "science gone wrong" plot because that's how it appears to be played out, and, again, this is a prequel, so we KNOW. However the apes/their associates appear to be the protagonists of the movie. The fact that I know what happens in the end, actually, makes it all the more intriguing that there are human supporters. So is it science gone horribly right? Wrong? That's the intrigue!
However, I DID say there was bad news. That is; I can't get it out of my mind that this is an attempt to get popular by cashing in on the popularity of a well-established and popular franchise.
I want to think that they could've made this a whole movie in its own right, without relying on the Planet of the Apes film. However, I also realized that if it wasn't attributed to Planet of the Apes, we could easily just say it's a rip-off of the film. So that's precarious ground; take it as you will.
I will say, though, I'm genuinely interested in seeing this one.

The Change-Up
Friday, August 5th
Hey. Remember Freaky Friday?
Hey. Remember how that plot device has been used and reused again and again and again and again until it's just become tiresome?
WELL THEY'RE DOING IT AGAIN.
I don't even know where to start into this one (other than my obvious initial digs). It is literally the same plot of 'two people switch bodies so that they can learn to appreciate what they have and to respect the other switchee for what they are.'
I can probably easily predict the same old plot points for this one, too.
I'm going to keep this one short, since that's literally all I have to say about it. If you want to see the SAME story told with different characters, then have a ball with this one.
Oh, and a woman takes a crap while talking about Thai food in the middle of it all. Enjoy.

30 Minutes or Less
Friday, August 12th
This one ... eeeeeeh, hard to say. It doesn't look horrible, I'll give it that. However, the trailer only gives me a basic idea of the movie; a guy is forced to rob a bank. But if my intuition is right, that's only the first act of the movie, I think there's a lot of the rest of the movie that I'm not being shown. Which I can infer means they don't want me to know about it, and therefore; probably not even up to par with what they do advertise.
It doesn't look like a bad comedy film, but it doesn't look like it's raising the bar.
I will grant, though, that because I only know about a portion of the film, I can't really figure out the rest of it without actually watching it. So it's got a little intrigue going for it.
So I'd say if you like comedy movies, this one might be worth looking at. Probably has a few good one-liners (80% of which are probably in the trailers), at least and probably has a few good laughs in it.
Personally, I'd rent it at best.

Final Destination 5
Friday, August 12th
Okay, so, I've never seen any of the Final Destination movies. In fact, it was around when the 4th one came out that I bothered to ask anybody what the series was about, if only because the name reminded me of Super Smash Bros. Oh my disappointment in their explanation. Which was furthered when I saw how true it was in going with the trailer for this 5th installment when I saw it.
I mean, I know I mention predictability in a lot of movie plots. But this is a horror/suspense movie that prefaces you with the knowledge that everybody will die. I'm not a fan of horror/suspense movies, so I'm only assuming here, but isn't the point of a suspense movie to make suspense? Without that, it's just a film about 'lol, let's watch people die.'
It's also worth poking fun at the fact of any kind of set of sequels that continue to include "Final" in the title. Just sayin'.
If you want to watch all the characters die in a movie, then go ahead and see this. Otherwise, I couldn't give two damns.

Conan the Barbarian
Friday, August 19th
So, this looks good. But I can only say that because I have so little material to actually criticize. The trailer seems to reveal no actual plot details other than 'there is a bad guy and the hero must save the day...'
But I do say it looks good. Some very nicely rendered graphics and some good choreography in at least the scenes in the trailer. As a fan of fantasy films, I can say I'll probably be looking into this one.
But take that with a grain of salt, of course. Like I said, we've only got a look AT it, not into it. I mean, I had equally high hopes for Beowulf (2007), and that turned out to be pretty MEH.
So I'd say yes to seeing this if you like action-y fantasy movies ... like me.

Spy Kids: All Around the World
Friday, August 19th
I just wish
this franchise would die.
Seriously. The first movie was BARELY good. And that's speaking from a perspective of being at an appropriate age to "enjoy" it when it came out (2001). And the continued releases of the second and third movies were just unbearable. I managed to sit through the second one, hating it and I didn't even bother with the third.
And now 8 years later, it's sticking it's head above the water for another desperate attempt at popularity with a different generation.
I hadn't bothered to keep track of the plot for this one, because I presume it's the SAME ONE; some asinine villain has somehow disposed of the adult spies, so the untrained children must save the day. Oh and there's a talking dog with an accent BECAUSE WHY NOT, which, if I remember the trailer, has already determined that the movie will contain more toilet humor. OH BOY.
Which brings me to my horrifying final point...
The movie is advertised to be shown in "4D." Because 3D wasn't bad enough a fad, we had to get CREATIVE.
And this fourth dimension is, I kid you not, "Aromascope." Seriously. I really wish I was kidding.
Somehow they think this is a good idea. Just ... no. I ... no.
No.

Well, there's one more week I could go to, but that's still a month, if off by one day. Plus, the movie releases coming out on the 26th of August, I haven't even seen advertised on television. So maybe I'll just save those for next month.

Please comment if you have anything to say, I'm happy to discuss movies with anybody.
If there's anything you'd like to see me write about, feel free to say so~

Go blog about it, princess.

Getting a blog going seems to be a lot more complicated than I had anticipated. At least, it is when I complicated it beyond reason (something I seem to be able to do to just about anything).
Finding the MEANS to do so was simple. So much so, in fact, that I already had the space. I'm a time traveling wizard, see...
No but seriously, I made this Blogspot account over a year ago to post some poetry to for NaPoWriMo 2010, then kinda forgot about it. I'm not really much into poetry. I just don't get it. But the space was made, posted into for a month, then dropped like a hot dog with a bug on it. And just sat here.

One thing I'd always scoffed at was the idea of making money on the Internet. Mostly because my only context for the idea was junk email and the like. But then I started reading more about ad revenue. I am primarily familiar with the idea from bloggers and YouTubers. Generate content... people look at it... there are ads that, even when ignored, generate (usually a small amount of) money. Small amount multiplied by several viewers equates to profit! I mentally shortened this to; generate content=make money.
Blogspot even has an option that can be activated for users to easily put in some Google ads and generate revenue. I don't have it active now, of course, but future use will be looked at.

Now, is it all about money? The short answer is "no." The long answer is "no, and I'll tell you why." I have a lot of things inside of me. And those which aren't disgusting is a lot of feelings, opinions and WORDS. And once I realized "non-fiction" is more than just newspapers and history books, I saw an outlet.

My big problem for a while, though, was deciding what to output. This is where I really complicated the issue. I don't really have a lot of area of expertise, so what do I write about? I can't consistently do politics and general news because I just don't keep up with that. I'm no professional photographer, so a photo-blog was out of the question. I love criticizing things, so reviewing books, games, movies, etc. was an often considered option. But I hesitated because the idea just felt so... overdone. Not that THAT is what specifically stopped me. Despite my claims of being the hipster princess, I didn't not do a review blog because the idea is "mainstream." What stopped me was the idea that of all the review blogs to read, I didn't have any outstanding way to set me apart from any other reviewer. Sure, people could grow to like me as they read my stuff, but I didn't have anything to make me initially stand out above the rest.
Well you get the idea, I was eliminating all my ideas as I thought of them. So, I fished for ideas from others. I didn't want to really, out-right say "Give me ideas please," so I tried to remain a little subtle by asking things like "what would you read?" while trying to not imply, "what would you read so I can write it?" Most of the responses I got to varied related questions ranged from ideas I already had to stuff I couldn't consistently do to just "no."
After a few months of the idea floating up and down, and with the help of a couple friends, I finally settled on one train of thought; because there's a large number of things I could write about; I should. That is, I need to just write whatever I feel like going on a tangent about on a particular evening. Be it about news, games, politics, movies, books, writing in general, myself, others, whatever!
Here or there or somewhere, I'll write SOMETHING that SOMEONE will want to read about. And then my IMPECCABLE charm and wit will push them to read more.

SO! This is a milestone moment. The first of hopefully many posts of me just going on about whatever I feel like going on about. And despite what I JUST said; if there's something YOU want my opinion on or just want me to go on about, feel free to suggest it in the comments of the latest post.

Finally, there are three settings in which you are reading this post;
1) You're reading it as it is/is generally new. If so, thanks for stepping out on this adventure with me--!
2) You're reading this post as it is now quite old and have started here in an attempt to read my back log chronologically. Firstly, I'd like to thank-you for doing so (chronologically) and being organized. Secondly, thanks for being interested, I hope the rest after this is worth reading.
3) You're reading this post as it is now quite old and have read from newest to oldest. For YOU, I'd like to thank for reading everything I have written (everything after this is not related and you can ignore), and hope you'll keep coming back for all the newest stuff.

By the way; what do you think of the name "Wintermint Fruit?" I just used it as a silly name for the poetry thing, but do you think it is fine as a regular blog name, or do you think I should change it? I totally can.

"Popper's Penguins" Premiers Proficiently

"Mr. Popper's Penguins"
π/5 Stars

This summer, theaters were presented with a pleasing picture featuring the purposeful Jim Carry and six positively precious penguins in the movie "Mr. Popper's Penguins." The plot is a partial parallel to the book published in 1938 of the same name. Though anyone familiar with the predecessor can note the perceptible difference.
Unfortunately, it experiences the predicament all pictures of its persuasion of having been produced for the progeny; the plot presents a problem of being poorly predictable.
Tom Popper is a New York realtor who grew up mostly separated from his adventurous father. But as his pop was away for progressively prolonged periods of time, young Tom grew to be somewhat emotionally cold. This proves problematic when he tries to relate to his prepubescent son and his petulant preteen daughter.
Popper finds himself perplexed at the presence of a penguin given to him through the will of his father who passes away early in the picture. When Popper tries to pass off the penguin, he unintentionally orders five more, and his family positively love the penguins before he can purge himself of the problem.
As Popper tries to protect the penguins from the prying eyes of his neighbors and a persistent zoo keeper, he grows to prize his pets, risking his job, home and family to keep them.
One thing I will perpetually praise the picture for is Carry's performance. I had feared it would be peppered predominantly by an over-powering portrayal of Carry like I've perceived in his earlier pictures. But I was pleased to see the performance played down, showing Popper as a positively mature character along with a hint of Carry's charm.
The apparent antagonists were puzzling to posit. The zoo keeper became the obvious villain of the film, but the other two forces were written rather poorly. Popper's bosses, whom he spent the primary part of the picture trying to appease for a promotion, would jump from pleasant to pessimistic throughout and proved to be no problem to Popper in the end.
Popper's pestering neighbor, Kent, spent his three scenes trying to prove the presence of Popper's penguins to the officials of the apartment building they shared (the place had a no-pet rule). But part way through the film, his story just petered out and he disappeared.
Another positive bit I can point out is that Popper's Penguins rarely passes into the present problem plaguing films made primarily for kids; the pitiful production of poop jokes. Although this movie doesn't suffer as badly as some other recent children's movies, it is present. It was especially prominent pertaining to the penguin promptly named "Stinky." The references are few and far between; but still present.
And as I pointed out previously; the plot is plenary predictable. Any particular plot event was easily seen coming several minutes prior to its prosecution. In my polite opinion, this made the picture very plain. I found myself purely entertained by a few jokes proffered by the comedy, and pushed through the picture just to see my predictions present themselves.
I did find myself predominantly entertained by the performance of the peripheral character, Pippi; Popper's personal assistant whose every line in the picture was peppered "P" alliterations.
Is Popper's Penguins a deep, preoccupying movie? Probably not. But is it a picturesque and pleasantly cute picture? In Popper's words, "yeah, absolutley."

NaPoWriMo -- 2010

And so we come to the final day of the month! Today's prompt isn't really a prompt, but just a call to write whatever we want! So I came up with something I like to think is clever. Today's poem contains a line from every poem I've written this month, in order from the 1st to yesterday, plus one final line original for today. WEW!

NaPoWriMo -- 2010

I am there
      the pages are coming out.

It's all poetry.
A stunning view at the ^top
relaxed and carefree.
"Hey there world!"

Until the day I found out
I can only eat dirt
it is over ripe.
Don't misunderstand, though.
Melt ten ounces of bittersweet chocolate.

All that remains are the flowers--
I watch, figuratively, as their petals dry and fall.
This is the time of burning         The cold's departing.
I'll just sit in the corner.
Weekends all around the year.

I am always.
Purr meow meow purr
after the explanation.

Up through the sky
the rules I forgot.
The steak is gross
to the ground;
"It keeps happening!"

With a little forethought,
I'll take to those sails,
to be happy together.
When the sun comes out,
when the rest of us

have written so many silly things this month.

Pope Falls Asleep

Today's prompt is rather fun. Me being me, of course, my first choice was to go to reputable news sources ... such as Weekly World News and The Onion. Hahaha. The story I chose is here.

Pope Falls Asleep

The pope fell asleep--
How could he do this?
That fiend!
How dare he fall asleep
when the rest of us
are trying to nap?

Pukuj

I ... couldn't make sense of today's prompt. It seemed to go in half a dozen different directions and I wasn't sure which was which. ...so another off-prompt day! Wew~

Pukuj

Red, green, orange, blue.
Every color of the rainbow...
Every color of the viper.
It lies in wait,
until after the rain.
When the sun comes out,
this giant snake appears
in the sky.

Run my friend,
back to your home,
away from the poison
of the great snake.
Sing to qualm its
great anger, so
that we might all survive.

Together

Wew, cutting this one close. Today's prompt is a simple acrostic poem. Easy!

Together

Love is such an
important thing to me.
A misunderstanding.
Really, nothing happened.

Can't you get past this?
He's only a friend, you know.
Every little thing seems to upset you.
All I want is for us
to be happy together.
Even you can't object to that,
right?

Wonderful! You're so forgiving.
How nice of you to be so caring.
One of your best traits.
Really, now, don't look like that.
Everything will be fine.