I'm a little potato all mashed up.
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My online journal of my amazingly boring life. Don't expect anything juicy. I write those in my real journal at home safe away from prying eyes. Except for maybe my sister.
Elsewhere in the city, several varieties of Cherry blossoms are in full bloom and so are the Magnolias! The one in my garden is a 'Betty' and it tends to bloom a little later than regular magnolias. I really can't wait! I love cherry blossoms so much. Maybe next year I should purchase a tree! The problem becomes the size of my garden though. LOL I love spring!
Nothing at the show really caught my eye except maybe the Canucks Camero and Whitecaps car! And maybe also Subaru's sexy Sumo wrestler who was taking photos with people! Hehee! The Ford Fiesta was there again and some of them had awesome looking decals put on. I love the shininess of new cars. Too bad once in the real world, there isn't anybody that will give it a wipe down every half hour. Hahah it's a small world because we bumped into the same girl that works at these types of events AGAIN and we also saw our aunt and uncle who was also there!
On Saturday, we met up at 2pm to have tea. Each of us received our own personal pot of tea and I tried one called Angel Falls Mist ("a wildly, exotic strawberry and lemon character...a pinch of sugar boosts the flavor profile...makes terrific herbal tea - hot or iced!"). It is mild and has a nice fruity taste that I liked and it smells really good. Tea comes with a double-deck tray of petit sandwiches, tasty pastries, house-made scones and fresh strawberries with Devonshire cream. I liked the savory treats more than the scones and the sweet tarts and cakes. We each get two scones and we all agreed it was too much! It was a very filling afternoon snack and I had a nice time chatting and catching up with my friends.
Hop is a cute and fun movie that kids will enjoy but can't seem to make up it's mind on whether it is suppose to be a kids' movie or a bad adult movie. There is a joking scene with reference to the Playboy mansion that I'm sure only adults will get. The Mexican accent on an Easter chick seems kind of out of place especially when the bunnies have English accents! Scenes with Carlos are intended to be funny but the jokes don't seem to fly - pardon the pun. On another note, the animation is amazing! E.B. is so realistic and blends so seamlessly into the live action that it is hard to believe that he was never there. Also E.B. is so adorable! I especially love it when he wriggles his nose! The chicks are cute too except for Carlos; he scares me.
Hop is in theatres Friday, April 1st, 2011.
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Several things happened at the screening of Hop today. Being a kids movie, there were a ton of kids being loud and running and jumping around while we waited in line. When suddenly, this little boy pulled down his pants and to the horror of everyone, especially his parents, he relieved himself in the sidewalk! Ewwww!
When we got into the theatre, they handed out raffle tickets for a chance to win a few DVDs. They called everyone up but the last person didn't respond so they redrew and it was my number! I won The Tale of Despereaux! But that's not all...Being that the screening was sponsored by Winners and Homesense, the representatives had taped five $50 giftcards under random seats. Suddenly, the theatre was abuzz with all the children looking under all the seats. I saw a kid find one a couple of rows in front of us. After a while several woman started to look down our row and one of them asked me "Did you look under your seat?!" I had previously felt a little bit under but not completely. So I stood up and lo-and-behold a giftcard! Wow. LOL The other woman then said "That took you long enough! We can finally start the movie!" Hahahah!
A sense of urgency is instilled in the audience right from the start with the tense and ominous music playing throughout the beginning of the movie. Source Code is an awesome movie that is reminiscent to Ground Hog Day but with better looking people and a more exciting and intelligent plot. You start paying more attention to the passengers to see if you can't figure out the identity of the bomber before Stevens. Gyllenhaal plays Stevens with such passion and emotion; it was a very captivating performance that made you feel a lot for his character. It was very fun to watch him go through what he goes through in those eight minutes of eternity. Just when you think it ends, it starts up again and this happens several times in the movie. It could have ended at any one of those points and you'd still think it's a good ending but it just keeps pushing and pushing so that just when you think you have it all figured out, you don't and leaves you with the thought that the movie may have gone on a little bit too long. The way the director, Duncan Jones, has done it, it's not too bad, it just leaves you more to think about. Source Code is a highly recommended sci-fi action-thriller that will leave you craving for more.
Souce Code comes out in theatres on Friday, April 1st. Don't miss it!
Hall Pass is a funny movie but it also contains a lot of crude and vulgar jokes involving bodily fluids and genitalia which is also displayed in full force. The plot was ho-hum and I didn't like the side story of their wives. It seemed too rushed to be resolved properly. If you are looking for a few laughs, Hall Pass will deliver but it may also end up making you uncomfortable. If watching Rick and Fred's miserable attempts at picking up women is your kind of thing by all means go for it. If you don't have time then just watch the trailer. It basically contains almost everything in the movie minus the vulgarity.
Hall Pass is in theatres now but won't be for long!
After UBC LipDub was complete and I'd eaten my fill of pizza, I headed downtown to check out the Futureshop Nintendo 3DS launch. It was midnight launch but I didn't plan to stick around for that long. I tried the device and was pretty impressed with the 3D effect! Playing for long periods of time may make you dizzy though but thankfully Nintendo put in a slider that lets you turn off the 3D effect.
The 3DS retails at $249.99 and comes in two colours - Aqua Blue and Cosmo Black. Personally I love the Aqua Blue colour. It has 3D camera and a built in motion and gyro sensor so the device can detect motion and tilt. Be careful when around other people, you don't want to whack them in the head by accident when you are playing!
The funny thing is that I ran into some friends also trying out the system! We always seem to run into each other at these types of events. Hahaha.
Sign in started at noon and while we waited for more people to join, we had to learn a dance for the flash mob portion of the dub. The LipDub crew managed to secure a helicopter to film the mob from above! We were given blue ponchos and filmed at the back of the Anthropology Museum. Unfortunately the ponchos made everyone very hot (and not in a good way) because we kept having to run in and jump again and again for several takes!
After the flash mob portion was done, my group went to the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre to set up. The part we were responsible for was to throw all sorts of junk down from the upper floors of the library while singing of course. You don't know how hard that is! There was a lot of confusion on when we where suppose to chuck our balloons, tissue paper, beach balls and army men. I hope they don't use the last take because that one was the most disorganized.
There were horses, dogs, bouncy houses, a trampoline, cars, a Transit bus and Josh Ramsay from Marianas Trench involved in the lipdub shoot! I even got a photo of Josh as he passed through Irving Library. It wasn't a very good one since I was on the 3rd floor looking down. I didn't see everything because we weren't allowed to leave our zone and a lot of the day was just waiting around but that's the film industry for you I guess. So a lot of what the video will look like is a mystery to me.
After that was finished, we headed toward the UBC Swimming Centre for the last shoot of the day. It was a underwater shoot which had scuba divers, divers and other random people in the pool. I don't get what the sign they hung up is suppose to mean though. Does anybody recognize it?
Shooting wrapped up at 7pm. Finally after a LONG day, the LipDub crew treated us all to much needed pizza and drinks. I had a lot of fun and I can't wait to see the finished product. The official premiere will be on April 8th!
Check out the UBC LipDub website here.
West is West is the sequel to East is East. This time the movie focuses on teenager Sajid, played by Aqib Khan, the youngest of the Khan family. Sajid is both plagued by school bullies who hates him for being half Pakistani and by his father George (Om Puri reprises his role) who's oppressing insistence in upholding Pakistani traditions is driving father and son apart. Desperate to instill at least some Pakistani values into his son, George flies Sajid to his house in rural Pakistan where the the wife and daughters he had abandoned 30 years ago resides. Not before long, Mrs Khan No. 2 follows them in attempt to sort out the mess George has made with his family.
I found the movie very funny. There were many jokes that played on the culture clash and greatly enjoyed watching it. Aqib brilliantly played Sajid, the brooding teenager who eventually opens up to some of the lessons this trip has taught him. The side story about Sajid's brother Maneer and how Sajid tries to help him in finding a wife was hilarious! Overall this is a feelgood coming-of-age movie with comedy, romance, tenderness, that I very much enjoyed.
West is West is playing in select theatres now.
Even though the movie screening was at 10pm, there was still quite a number of people who showed up. Even some of the costume designers were at the screening! I have to say WOW! It was a very interesting movie and it exceeded my expectations. It was way better than Watch Man which was also directed by Zach Snyder. The film was really surreal and had everything from evil Samurai warriors, Nazi zombies, dragons to robots. I LOVED the dragon. The special effects are stunning in this film. Everything was fast paced and you really get the sense of the desperation present in these girls. I think it will make a great video game with all the action! In Baby Doll's imagination, the mental hospital is a brothel and the costumes are very cool. All the racy dances the girls had to perform were cleverly overlapped by the missions that Baby Doll imagined them going on. The story could have been a little stronger; there are some minor loose ends that leave you unsatisfied and asking questions but overall I liked the film and was very impressed by the visuals.
Remember to stick around during the credits. According to the costume designers, that song and dance number costed a pretty million to make. Oh and get ready for the twist in the ending because you never see it coming.
If you want to see more of the costumes featured in Sucker Punch, and you are in Vancouver tonight, there is a Sucker Punch Ball being hosted at the Rio Theatre at 10pm followed by a midnight screening of the film. Tickets are $18 in advance and $20 on the night-of the event at Rio Theatre. Should be a fun evening!
Sucker Punch opens in theatres Friday, March 25, 2011.