Recently, I watched Hellboy 2 on my DVD player. Actually it such an entertaining movie with lots of action and special effects. Well if you haven’t seen this movie, don’t expect too much. Because I think the ending was anti-climax. After I saw this movie I rather confused because the action scene & the “comedy taste” seems didn’t quite mixed well. Felt a little weird. Overall I give this movie a score of 7.5 out of 10. But I still recommend you to watch this movie because it had quite good special effects and it was fun from the beginning till the end, not too boring. That’s it Bloggy, seek the movie and enjoy it ! See ya later !

This article originally appeared on Subba Cultcha.

“When was it decided that listening to music had to be easy?” John Maclean talks about The Aliens difficult second album.

The Aliens new album ‘Luna’ is a difficult beast. The follow up to their 2007 debut, ‘Astronomy for Dogs’, ‘Luna’ is a sprawling behemoth of a record, it’s songs span out in front of you creating rolling, expansive sonic panoramas. A third of the records tracks flow out well past the 6 minute mark, two making double figures, it is safe to say that this is not a primped and preened MTV pop record, where running over the radio sanctioned 3 minute timeline is tantamount to creative blasphemy. It is coincidentally, and possibly for exactly that reason, a mesmeric, psych tinged, honeycomb folk-pop masterpiece. It’s the album that The Aliens should have been able to make first time around but were perhaps not allowed to, where ‘Astronomy for Dogs’ felt muted, like a curtailed version of what could have been, ‘Luna’ runs free. Recorded in the remote Scottish home studio of chief Alien, Beta Band co-founder and Lone Pigeon man Gordon Anderson, the relaxed recording schedule the band adopted allowed them to explore each track with the focus and willful experimentation upon which they thrive.

“It (Luna) was actually a lot easier to make than ‘Astronomy…’ because with ‘Astronomy…’ we decided to do it in a largish studio in london so the pressure was on and we actually only had a week or two to actually record. So we didn’t get that much time to experiment and do what we usually do with tracks,” recalls John looking back to the first time The Aliens committed their singular space folk vision to tape. “ Whereas with ‘Luna’ we recorded it in Gordons cottage up in Scotland and spent 6 months on it. So much more time to experiment with tracks and scrap tracks and add things to tracks, and I suppose as well because Gordon’s slightly fragile at times so when it comes to big cities like London I think he found it really difficult getting to the studio and using the tube. Just moving through all the people and the hassle of a hot summer in london. Whereas with ‘Luna’ he was comfortable in his own fishing village and in his own cottage.” The fragility that John is alluding to reflects the well documented history of mental illness attached to Anderson, who spent the best part of 10 years institutionalised. It is something that has been with him since the Beta Band and inevitably informs both the process and the music of The Aliens, evoking further comparisons with other musical explorers who have flirted with the darker sides of the human psyche such as Brian Wilson and Syd Barrett, who both ploughed into similar psychedelic layered pop.  ‘Luna’ is an incredibly expansive record of glorious 60s tinged folk, songs like ‘Billy Jack’ and ‘Bobby’s Song’ stretching out forever creating giant sonic wormholes that suck the listener deep inside, yet it hangs around a uniquely intimate core, heard, as one might imagine, almost by accident, like a garden hopping youth pressing their ear to a window of Brian Wilson’s studio during the creation of ‘Smile’. It feels like you’re a voyeur to a moment of aural conception, the tinkerings of flawed genius.

The spectre of ill health raised itself again throughout the recording process and again after the album had been finished causing the band to cancel a string of scheduled summer dates. “We haven’t really got our teeth into playing a lot of the new stuff live yet because Gordon got a bit unwell again after the album was finished.” Notes John, “If we had serious funds to make a proper live show then we were talking about actually playing the album as it appears on the record because we think it might suit that…starting at the beginning and going straight through, and getting everyone involved who appeared on the record…but that’s just not possible so we’ve got to scale a lot of it back, I mean there’s so much going on on some of the record that we’ve really got to look at how to produce that live.” It would take a small army to reproduce the album note for note live as the list of vintage instruments and antique drum machines goes on and on, the bands love of excessive experimental sonics highlighted in the song title ‘Theramin’. “We’re all fans of rare instruments. I’m especially a fan of vintage electronic equipment. We use a lot of vintage drum machines and stuff, there’s one called a sonivox which was a really early vocoder used on the radio in the 1940s, but it’s getting harder and harder to afford them. With Ebay everyones a bit more savvy about what they have now. We’re fans of like the old BBC sound workshops where they make crazy psychedelic sounds out of computers they built themselves like. It’s an exciting area of sound.” Though, given the nature of the band and the uncertainties surrounding Anderson every time he steps onto a stage can lead to an audience not knowing what to expect from  The Aliens live the band do have plans to keep the shows as high energy as possible. “ I think there’s a lot more upbeat songs on this record which will translate well live, on the first record there were some songs we didn’t play live because we felt they were too downbeat. We always want the live experience to be a bit more like a club…we want people to move and dance and not just stare at us as we self indulgently moan,” says John. “I think for this tour it will end up being a mix of ‘Luna’ and ‘Astronomy’, The great thing about getting gordon onstage is that you never know what to expect, we never really have a set list so whatever he’s in the mood to play we’ll play.”

There seems scant danger of any self indulgent moaning taking over the sheer triumphant splendor of the songs from ‘Luna’. They pitch and glide, washing various hues over you, this is the sound of joy projected through a prism of stereotyped Scottish dour, songs like ‘Blue Mantle’ and ‘Boats’ find you just wanting to wallow in their sonics as they fall over you like giant aural snowdrifts. So what has been inspiring these mini-opera’s? A lot of salmon and cinema it would seem. Certainly tales of the various recording sessions that stretch back to 2007 have the band debating the finer points of salmon preparation with at least equal veracity to the benefits of diving chord changes. “After you’ve spent all day playing music and sitting in front of pro tools you really don’t want to listen to other peoples music, so we’re always watching films and there’s a lot of ‘Luna’ that’s more influenced by films than music or anything like that. The last film I saw at the cinema was Hell Boy 2 so we love the art house films and the mainstream movies as well.” The Aliens are definitely art house but with ‘Luna’ they may well have the sleeper hit of the year.

I watched Hell Boy 2 last week with some friends. Apart from Batman: The Dark Knight (which I saw in Leicester Square’ Odeon to ramp up excitement levels), this is pretty much the first big budget comic book adaptation I’ve seen.

I saw Ghost World back in the day, but that doesn’t really count.

Thora and Scarlet c. 2001

Anyway, the thing that struck me was how similar British actress Anna Walton looks to (also British) Samantha Morton.

Anna Walton

Spooky, huh?

Samantha Morton

If I had to choose, I know who I’d go with.

Control: The two Sams

For those at the back on June 24th, I was very excited to discover that the new Hellboy Film was soon to be released. Just think only seventeen days until it airs (as listed in the trailer below)

Well after waiting an addition forty days, today, (August 20th) I have finally seen it on the opening night in Cardiff, Wales (Great Britain), and I hate to say the film has been over-hyped.

Whilst that might have seemed like an odd way to start a review, I wanted to put this post in context. The original Hellboy film, holds a sentimental place for me, as it was the last film I saw as a student of my profession – no I don’t the last film I saw at college or university, it was the day I had had my last professional qualifying exam, and the day that followed was “results day”.

Hence I was predisposed to expect wonderous things from piece, which like so many that have come before it, it fell to the curse of the sequel (destined to be over-hyped past the original, but not delievering on the goods).

{SPOILERS}

• The opening offered the typical back log about the “goldern army”;
  
• John Hurt reprises his role as Professor Bruttenholm (“Father”);
• David Hyde Pierce doesn’t reprise his role as Abe Sapien (mistake IMO);
  
• Liz & Hellboy have now reached official “couple status” with a bun in the oven (not discussed until later);
  
• Hellboy is of royal desent, enabling him to “challenge” the main protagonist Prince Nuada at the film’s climax in a big “Boss-en-Boss” fight scene;
• The Tooth Fairy gets a horror story make over – pixie-like creatures that will eat most living organisms, but go for the “calcium deposits” first;
• Many “red-shirts” meet an untimely end within the first 30 minutes;
• Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense” gets a public ousting following Hellboy being blown out of a building into a very public area;
  
• The door way to the army, in the Giant’s Causeway, (County Antrim, N.Ireland);
• Prince Nuada shares a psychic bond with Princess Nuala (Abe’s Love interest) providing a very “emo-styled” end to the “Boss-en-Boss” battle
  
• Hellboy still has a prophecy to bring about all ruination (suspect Hellboy 3 to answer that).
  

THIS is the LAST week of summer vacation for the kids!!  Where did SUMMER go?!  Gee what did we even DO this summer?!  Did we take the vacations we said we’d do?  Did we play as hard as we could? Did we break “school rules”?  What did we do this summer?

Hmmm…let’s see…we swam, swam, and swam at the pool nearly every day during the week, visited the local museums, we watched Hulk 2 & Hell-Boy 2 (Hulk 2 was awesome by the way and Hell-boy sucked in my opinion…which my 7 year old son agrees but daddy not so much…LOL), we visited the NC Aquarium at Kure Beach, played in the Wilmington Beach sand, ate seafood at the beach, BBQ’d this 4th southern style with a “Pig Pickin’” and watched the BIG fireworks in the backyard of a relatives, rode bikes til 8/9pm, ran after ice-cream trucks, played flashlight tag after dark with the neighbors, stayed up REALLY late and slept in late…hmmm…I think we did the typical summer break the rules and have fun things…LOL

So this week it’s time to finish school supply shopping, get haircuts, put together funky cool outfits to wear our first day of school, and go back to our old boring nightime routine of showered/bathed and in the bed by 9pm…it kind of reminds me of our last day of our beach trip when it just rained as we stared out the windows on our drive home…

Bye-Bye summer…til next year…

I can’t front, this film was pretty good. Much better than the first one. Its actually pretty funny too, definitely worth seeing.

It’s all about Dark Knight Monday!

Yes, I’ve watched Journey to the Centre of the earth and I enjoyed it although it is not logic!!

Hahaha.. I’ve laughed on top of my voice after I was scared by mystical creatures created in this movie. Hahaha.. like the dinasour, the carnivore plant and the beautiful bird… but I would suggest if someone really wanna watch that movie,.. better go for 3D. Regretted now for not watching in 3D. Aih, what to do? The 3D movie ticket is much more expensive than the normal ticket (about RM17) when I can get normal ticket @ RM7 today *WEDNESDAY*.

Hahaha… worthy to watch that movie and this saturday, I am going for the HELL BOY movie. No one wanna watch that hancock with me. Probability letting it go and save my money for the MUMMY movie which is going to premiere on 31 July 08.

Argh.. now sleepy! Sleepy head gonna offline…

Thanks for checking out our Hellboy 2 review. If you’d like to see the video version of the Hellboy 2 review, you can see it at the bottom of this post.

When Mike Mignola’s creation “Hellboy” was brought to the big screen by Guillermo del Toro I was blown away by the results. Having only read a couple of the comics, I wasn’t sure how on earth they could bring this type of a character… this type of a world to the big screen in a way that general audiences would “get it”. Somehow they found a way and made Hellboy probably the most underrated Comic Book movie ever… Hellboy himself is one of the most interesting characters certainly in the entire genre on screen and was perfectly embodied by Ron Perlman. Needless to say I was very excited about the prospects of another Hellboy movies, and last night I had that chance to see it. Was my anticipation rewarded? Yes it was.

THE GENERAL IDEA

The synopsis for Hellboy 2 looks something like this: “The Golden Army begins when an ancient truce existing between humankind and the invisible realm of the fantastic is broken; Hell on earth is ready to erupt. Hellboy 2 tells the tale of a ruthless leader who treads the world above and the one below, defies his bloodline and awakens an unstoppable army of creatures. Its up to the planets toughest, roughest superhero to battle the merciless dictator and his marauders. He may be red, he may be horned, he may be misunderstood, but when you need the job done right, its time to call in Hellboy (Ron Perlman), and the B.P.R.D.

The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) will travel between the surface world and the unseen magical one, where creatures of fantasy become corporeal, along with his expanding team pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), aquatic empath Abe (Doug Jones), and protoplasmic mystic Johann Krauss (James Dodd), the newest member of the BPRD. Hellboy, a creature of two worlds who is accepted by neither, must choose between the life he knows and an unknown destiny that beckons him.

A slip-up results in the F.B.I. being forced to reveal the existence of BPRD to the general public. Brash old Hellboy doesn’t play well with the public, which only increases the instability of his already-turning-rough relationship with Liz. However, fellow paranormal Johann (who is a sort of ectoplasmic spirit held within a very special containment suit) is far better with the public — and with Liz, apparently. But in the end they’ve all got to come together to fight Prince Nuada (son of the Woodland King), who, with his army of ghouls, faerie, and the like, is attempting to resurrect a golden army once controlled by his father.”

THE GOOD

Del Toro does such a magnificent job creating this world in which the “normal” world and the world of the fantastic live together in close proximity. Other projects that have a fantastic world within the same realm of our own often come across as cheesy, but the way Del Toro weaves it all together is amazing.

The character design is just beautiful and very different from the run of the mill, cookie cutter creature design we see in a lot of other flicks. Del Toro designed a lot of the creatures himself and you can completely see the signature look that he also used for some of his creatures in “Pan’s Labyrinth”. All very original… all breathtakingly beautiful.

Good comic book movies need a solid antagonist. And Prince Nuara fits the need very nicely. The role is played by Luke Goss who also appeared in Del Toro’s “Blade 2″ as the main bad guy Nomak. He has a terrific intensity about him that make him something to dread. And this may sound odd… but I find the best “bad guys” are the ones who think they’re being “good”. They have a sense of honor about them. To me this is extra scary.

Perlman once again rules as Hellboy. It’s hard to imagine anyone else doing this role as well as he’s done it (although I’m sure I’d be saying the same thing if another guy had done it in the first place too).

The Mythology of the story is incredible. The movie starts with flashback of a young Hellboy going to bed and his father (who died in the first movie) telling him the bedtime story of the Golden Army. It’s a terrific tale with so many classic elements in it. It sets a wonderful framework for the movie as a whole.

I didn’t think I’d like the new character on the team, Johann Kraus, but as it turns out he was one of my favorite characters in the movie. I talked to some people after the screening that thought he sounded silly (strong German accent), but I thought he was hilarious and thought the accent really added to the character.

The visual effects were… WOW… just wow. Especially The Golden Army itself. Some amazing looking stuff.

THE BAD

I was actually pretty happy to hear that Doug Jones (The man who was in Abe’s suit for the first movie, but David Hyde Pierce did the voice) was going to get to do the voice of Abe as well this time around. Doug (for those of you who may not know) was also the body of the Silver Surfer in fantastic Four 2… but didn’t get to do the voice, and the voice of Pan the Faun in Pan’s Labyrinth… but didn’t get to do the voice I don’t think either. Unfortunately, i don’t think Doug’s voice worked for Abe. He did his very best to mimic David Hyde Pierce, but for me it fell short. I found myself constantly expecting to hear the first voice come out… but it never did. Too bad.

The movie isn’t a comedy per se, and I understand that… but the first one was a lot funnier. Don’t get me wrong, there are a couple of priceless scenes that had me laughing out loud… but not nearly as many as the first Hellboy movie, and I was expecting a little more of that with the characters you had here.

I can’t really put my finger on it… but Selma Blair (who I really like normally) just didn’t work nearly as well for me as Liz this time around as she did in the last flick. And it wasn’t just the character… it felt to me like Blair was bored or something. In sports terms it felt like she just mailed in her performance and didn’t give much of an effort. She didn’t suck… but she didn’t bring it either… or even tried to… shame.

OVERALL

Hellboy 2 ends up being a fun, beautiful looking fantasy / adventure type movie that manages to be a tiny bit better than the first one. No, it’s not as funny and the lack of David Hyde Pierce was painfully obvious, but other than that it’s a truly fun time at the theaters. Del Toro does it again! Overall I give Hellboy 2 a 7.5 out of 10.

All my projects are out the way and I am happy to say it all went well. The blog is live but if I let you know the URL it might give away who I am and where i work so you will not be able to see it. So now that’s out the way and I got the required pat on the back I think its time to pick up something new and bigger. Well let’s see if I can get work to send be abroad for a little while.

Oh the other day was the big summer party and I know in the morning there is going to be some carnage from the night before, and some stories to tell. Will As usual I was the sober one and was able to remember everything, Lol!

However I realised that I work with some of the biggest substance abusers in the industry, people are not even discreet about there habits anymore, I was in the toilet and I heard four different voices in the cubical next to me, not that I am jumping to conclusion but I don’t think these guys where gay so that only leaves one more answer they where selling/buying or using. However it seems that apart from a few incidents everyone was well behaved on Friday night…

Oh and I never mentioned I hit the magic 1k blog visits which is good and now that I have the logo for the new website I will be setting that up and migrating this blog onto that platform.

I came across this video on my many internet searches and thought it might be interesting.

In the news –

Sailing couple robbed by pirates – A couple from Greater Manchester have been robbed by pirates off the coast of Venezuela. The pirates fired shots at the couple before scrambling on board, tying them up and attacking their pet dog. Sorry I do not feel sorry for these guys, yeah no one should be robbed but really what is this the 18th centaury.

Man charged with raping girl, 11 – A man has been charged with raping an 11-year-old girl and the attempted murder of a man. Colin Miller (28), is accused of repeatedly raping the girl in Tottenham. This man needs to go prison and get the shit kicked out of him or anyone know how to speak Mexican?

Mexican Hit men Offer Services Online – Police in Mexico City are investigating online classified ads posted by people selling their services as assassins for as little as £3,000. Colin I would watch your back, but to be honest that’s really a good deal and in this current economic climate they are helping out the little man.

Credit Crunch: Worst Yet To Come – Two-thirds of financial chiefs among the UK’s top 350 companies believe the worst impact of the credit crunch is yet to come. Yep this is exactly what’s I need to hear on Monday.

Government U-Turn On Knife Crime – Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said youngsters caught with knives would be forced to confront the possible consequences by bringing them face-to-face with blade victims in hospitals.

But today, the Home Office said they would instead only be expected to meet doctors to be educated about the injuries caused by knives. Its official the government are smoking crack, but not the street kid the pure uncut kid. I wonder if it’s them that are supplying Amy or if they have the same dealer. This is the worse idea I have heard. This beats the idea by TFL to leave the doors open at night on the tube trains to reduce overheating in the day.

Hell boy II: The Golden Army has become the latest superhero movie to top the charts in America knocking Hancock (really crap, so it couldn’t have been that hard) of the top spot.

Grinding my gears – Porn yep that’s it I am adding porn to my list of things that are grinding my gears. I am also going to add porn to the list, but I will first explain why it is gridding my gears. Sex seems to be everywhere these days and I think porn fills people with false hope and expectations, its makes some men feel inadequate and then makes them believe that all women are like those in the films and in regards to women it fills then with false hope on how a men should look, perform or react.

Not its been confirmed that a red-light district under construction on the internet — the .xxx domain — is being billed by backers as giving the $12 billion online porn industry a great opportunity to clean up its act. Some sites even compound the false hope using women in there films that you would either never want to see or never will see in real life. The worse sites are spankwire.com, youporn, Porntube. Redhub, pornhub and for your fetish lovers hellfiresex.com. dear I mention two girls and one cup you will be so grossed out that if you did meet either of those women you would cross the road and run or ask them not to use any of the cutlery in your house (if you havent seen it search for it as the video is a must see). Why can’t these films be more realistic I know we all like to escape from reality but what’s the point of escaping if we have to come back down to earth with a crash. I think films should help bridge the gap between the two.

Yeah I wrote this post as I wanted to list some porn websites down and to try and see if I can get away with it.

Enjoy your day…

Upon figuring out exactly how to use my “Blog Stats” option for WordPress, I found out that some dufus happened upon my blog by typing “venti cell phone” into a search engine. I gave it some thought today during work and can only think of two possible things this person was looking for (because its DEFINITELY not me):

a. A cellular device the size of a refrigerator or

b. considering the Italian translation of “Venti,” 20 cell phones and he apparently was speaking Itanglish.

A quick search in my trusty Google (its a website to type stuff into and it gives you more websites) tells me that my blog is the most popular site that contains the words “venti” and “cell phone.” This can only mean one thing…

I’M FUCKING FAMOUS!

WHERE’S MY COKE AND FUCKING MONEY!?

The internet is fucking sweet.

So it’s officially been a full Monday through Friday for this writing project bull shit and I have to tell ya, the writing part is pretty easy. The difficulty comes with deciding what to write, presumably because of the limited amount of time I have to think about it. But once it pops into my head (usually from something I read or something a friend said) it’s pretty smooth yachting from there. Did you see the “I’m famous” upgrade I put into that sentence? So now that I’ve diagnosed the problem, I’m pretty sure a steady does of rambling will help cure it!

I’M SAVED!

This weekend is PACKED! Tonight I’m seeing WALL-E and Hell Boy 2, tomorrow I’m making my first trip to Atlantic City, followed by my friend Michelle’s birthday and seeing her band Fortune and Spirits play at a bowling alley. Sunday will be the day in which the Long Island Hitmen go for an unprecedented 2 WINS IN A ROW followed by a wedding. I’ve been putting off what I have to say about American weddings until I went to the ones I had coming up, so next week be prepared for a BOMBASTIC ASSAULT OF HALF-THOUGHT-OUT OPINIONS!!! Along with how my weekend turned out.

Wish me luck at the tables. I only hope by the time I get home I’ll still have enough money to buy the new Civilizations game for my 360 ::pushes glasses up off his nose::. Everyone have a momentous weekend!

Stay random,

tim!

We at FH were big fans of Hellboy back during his comic book days and thought the movie adaptation was quite entertaining. That’s why we were excited to hear about the upcoming sequel, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. Plus, Selma Blair is easy on the eyes and a nice contrast to the ugly baddies (and goodies) throughout the hell-ridden universe.

Check out their new movie website for the latest movie trailer and images. Make sure to check back here at FavoriteHero.com for the latest news on the upcoming flick with the red hornless guy.

By the way, we at FH will be giving out promotional comic books for the movie at random to those that post comments. Just make sure to give us a valid e-mail address or we won’t know how to contact you if you win. Good luck!

Day Twenty Two.

The days of torture were finally over…at least for a couple of days. Yesterday, I spent the whole day watching anime and dramas, today I went out to indulge on the few things that cheers me up: Movie, coffee, great food and booze. So I woke up at around 11 in the morning and got all dolled-up. I don’t really put on make-up when I go out plus I always wear the first thing I could find in my closet. But today, I wanted to be a girly girl. So I put on some eye make-up and blush and I also tried to figure out what an eyeliner’s for. Plus I actually thought about what I was going to wear. I even did the stuff that most girls do: trying on one outfit after another and standing in front of the mirror for hours before going out. And I accessorized! “Accessorize” that word was alien-like to me. I’ve honestly never done that before. When I go out the only ‘accessory’ I wear was the lucky bracelet my mom gave me. But today I wore earrings, a flashy ring and an elaborate beaded necklace. I guess I felt so crappy this past week that I really wanted to feel good about myself today. So I put on extra effort in getting ready to go out.

First I went to the nearby coffee shop. I ordered Strawberries and Cream Frappuccino and one of those unbelievably scrumptious sandwiches. Okay, so Strawberries and Cream’s not exactly coffee but I bought it from a ‘coffee’ shop and I ate “Coffee Beat” candy while drinking it. So I guess that counts as caffeine. I just didn’t want to drink coffee today because I might get addicted to it again. After the delicious moment at the coffee shop, I went to the movies. 10,000 B.C. ’s in theaters today. I often watch those big-budget Hollywood movies before anything else. Imean, who doesn’t? But today, I wasn’t in the mood for those kind of movies. I want something lighter. Something relaxing. So I watched a family flick. I watched “The Water Horse” even though I swore to myself that I would never ever watch it. The story of the Lochness Monster was probably the most over-used local legend. Growing up, I’ve seen a lot of movies, cartoons and even documentaries about the Lochness Monster. So when I saw the trailer for “The Water Horse”, I was like: “Great, another Lochness monster movie. How original.” But I still watched it. And it turned out to be everything I expected it to be. A typical heart-warming family movie. We’ve seen SO many movies like this. A sad kid finds a strange creature and falls in love with it. They become bestfriends and have tons of fun together. Then in the end the creature has to go so there would be a tear-jerking parting scene. Oh please, that is so ET! The only difference was that instead of the typical American kids and settings we now have a Scottish kid and a Scottish setting. Plus, they also took a page from Pan’s Labyrinth’s book in some aspects. The whole war thing going and the General living in their house, all the soldiers hanging out with them etc. But on the positive note, Crusoe, the water horse, was nicely done. The FX team really created a creature that looked real and believable. He was so cute and adorable when he was little and he was really scary and majestic when he got big. He even looked like the dragon in the Eragon book-covers from the neck up. Plus his facial expressions and movements when he was little were so detailed. He even reminded me of my pet cat. He was just so cute and friendly just like my cat. It was amazing. Oh and the sceneries were so breath-taking! So, eventhough the story and the concept of this movie was quite typical, the beautiful sceneries, the Scottish accents and the adorable little creature were enough to keep me satisfied. Besides, I didn’t watch this to be moved or to be impressed. I watched it to relieve stress and to relax.

Another thing that could help me relieve stress was watching movie trailers. The old me used to know every single upcoming movie long before their Productions dates. I used to do extensive research and was always ahead of everyone else when it comes to knowing upcoming movies. But now, because of my busy schedule and I haven’t been able to do that. So now, I just watch movie trailers to know what’s new. And today, I’ve seen lots of great movie trailers. There were a lot of really big-budgeted eye candies coming soon. Of course some of those Hollywood movies with huge budgets and big stars often disappointed me when it comes to the story. But they always provided good eye-candy because of their superb special effects and gorgeous cast members. So I always waited for them with enthusiasm just like everyone else. Some of the movie trailers I’ve seen today were Speed Racer, Hellboy 2 and Wanted.

I’ve always known they’re going to make a Speed Racer movie but I’ve never seen the trailer until today. They sure had a lot of big stars in this one. There’s “Into the Wild’s” Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Lost’s Matthew Fox, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman. And it’s directed by the infamous Wachowski Brothers. They directed the Matrix trilogy so we could be sure that Speed Racer would have kick-ass special effects! The trailer was outstanding. I’ve seen the anime when I was a kid and I never imagined it could be made into such a hi-tech movie! But the one thing that really surprised me was the Korean actor: “Rain”. I’ve always been a fan of his. I don’t think he’s that good-looking but he’s a decent actor, a superb dancer and has really great sense of style. And when I spotted him on the Speed racer trailer, I was shocked. I wasn’t even sure that was him. What would Rain, a Korean popstar who doesn’t make movies that often, be doing in a big-budget Hollywood film? So when I got home, I checked the cast list of Speed Racer on the net and it really was him! That’s pretty impressive! That made me want to see this movie even more. I just love it when fellow Asians get Hollywood exposure. But I sort of wish they casted a Japanese actor instead since Speed Racer was based on a Japanese manga and anime.

Hell Boy 2 looked worth-watching too. I didn’t like the first one that much. I guess it’s because I just didn’t like Ron Perlman. But Guillermo del Toro is one of my favorite directors. His movies always mixed a certain darkness and creep-factor with a fairy tale-like feel. His movie, Pan’s Labyrinth, was one of my most favorite movies of all time and the creatures in Hell Boy 2 looked a bit like the ones in Pan’s Labyrinth. So I must definitely watch it. Plus I’m a sucker for comic book inspired movies.

In “Wanted”, Angelina Jolie steps into her Assassin shoes once more. I even thought it was Mr. and Mrs. Smith part 2. But the surprising part about it was James McAvoy. He’s one of those really really good actors that didn’t have much opportunity to show their talent. He often had small roles and appeared most of the time in TV shows and TV movies. But I’m glad he’s finally getting the chance he deserves. He stole the show when he played the role of Mr. Tumnus in Narnia. The movie wouldn’t be as good if other actors played that part. But after playing such a child-friendly role, I was surprised to see him play a more mature role in “Atonement” opposite Keira Knightley. But at least Keira Knightley’s a fresh young actress. I wouldn’t imagine in a million years that he would play a role of a hitman opposite Angelina Jolie. She’s like one of the biggest names in Hollywood. She’s been super famous for a very long time. So to see her with a not-s0 famous James McAvoy was a real shocker for me. It was surreal. I never pictured him as an action star. Not to mention, he’s the main character in this movie and Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie were just in supporting roles. Now that is one lucky guy!

Anyway, after the movies I went to this really fancy bar to go drinking. I’ve seen girls drinking alone in bars in Korean dramas so I thought it wouldn’t be a problem if I did that. I haven’t had a real cocktail in a long long time. I’m not a heavy drinker. I only drink during special occasions but I’m a girl who could handle alcohol really well. I guess because my dad always let me drink sake with him ever since I was little. So I went to the bar and the weirdest thing happened. The waiter approached me and asked me if I’m a movie star. Was he on drugs? Even when I told him that I’m not, he wouldn’t believe me. And because of that even their manager kept coming to my table to ask me if there’s anything else I needed. That was really strange. But I guess it’s not everyday I get a star treatment so I might as well enjoy it. I ordered a glass of Margarita first but the waiter jokingly asked me: “Why not order a pitcher? One glass is not enough.” And since I wanted to see his shocked face, I said “Sure, why not?” So I ended up drinking a pitcher of margarita. The waiter and the manager kept coming to my table to see if I was doing okay. They were really surprised to see that I wasn’t drunk at all. The cocktail was stronger than I thought it would be but it wasn’t strong enough to make me drunk.

So, all in all, this was one fine day. I was able to drink my favorite beverage, eat delicious food, watch a relaxing movie and get enough alcohol into my system. I went home, feeling great. When I got home, I watched a a few episodes of Honey and Clover and Zombie Loan. Honey and Clover was finally getting interesting. I liked the relationship between Morita and Hagu. Truth was, I thought Ikuta Toma’s character was Hagu’s leading man so I found the show really boring. But now that a love story between Morita and Hagu was finally beginning, I’m starting to get interested in it. They make a great couple. I mean, he’s an exceptional sculptor and she’s a genius painter. He’s the oldest in the group while she’s the youngest. He’s loud, funny and confident while she’s shy, timid and quiet. Plus they’re rivals but at the same time, they inspire each other. So with Morita and Hagu making the show interesting, who needs Ikuta Toma’s character? You know what, you could remove his character from this series and no one would even notice that he’s gone. I felt bad for Toma for having such a boring character.

Zombie Loan was also getting interesting. I said before that the two male lead characters were a bit two dimensional. But now that I got to know them more, I’m starting to like them. In fact, Shito and Chika were just like Sanzo and Goku. Shito was serious, cold, rude and always says stuff like “You want to die” and “I’d kill you”. And Chika’s loud, silly, and trusting just like Goku. Plus the two of them certainly didn’t get along really well. But they were brought together by their strange fate. It was really fun watching them. But I still don’t like Michiru though. She’s still annoying as hell. But who cares about her, the two male characters were enough.

I also started reading the manga “Love Monster”. It has a lot of for-adults-only scenes and different guys were always trying to rape the main female character. But it has an interesting story and a lot of colorful characters. Plus, how often do you see a story about a Monster Academy where all the students are monsters? It’s like a Hogwarts for monsters. It’s really cool. And speaking of this manga, I have to read it right now so bye for now!
End of day Twenty Two.