"Struck By Lightning" World Premiere

Backround:     
     One of the many benefits of living in New York is the annual Tribeca Film Festival. It is a great film festival that I have not previously had the pleasure of attending. So, when I heard that "Struck By Lightning" written by and starring Chris Colfer was being premiered here, I really wanted to go (even though I'm not a fan of "Glee"). Unfortunately, tickets were sold out. Fortunately, the Tribeca Film Festival has "rush" tickets available where you show up early and wait, and after the ticketed people go in, you can buy a ticket if there are any left. Me and my fellow movie watcher just reached the front of the line after a 2+ hour long wait only to be told that there were no more seats, but she said to wait a little longer just in case some become available. Lo and behold, there were very few more seats. We were going to see the film!

Red Carpet

     While we were still waiting on line, Mr. Colfer himself made his appearance on the red carpet set up and walked up and down the line for people with tickets and interacted with them... all of them. (I took pictures when he was close to me.) I'm always close to the famous people but never actually meet them **cough cough** Daniel Radcliffe **cough cough**

Hugs! (I swear the woman in red was my old science teacher...)

   


     Anyway, we finally took out seats in the sold out theater, the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. The seats for the "rush" tickets were not great, in the back corner of the auditorium. We still had a clear view of the screen. Now, the world premiere of "Struck by Lightning" happened.

Review:
     Colfer is certainly very talented, as I have heard "Glee"-fans tell me. He is a very funny performer, and his script is hilarious and smart.
     Colfer plays Carson, a high school senior struck by a bolt of lightning and killed. That's how the story begins, with Carson dying. We are then sent to his life in high school and how he ended up getting struck by lightning.
     Carson's main goal in this film is to get into SouthWestern, and he decides to publish a literary magazine in order to make him look better, on top of already being the editor of the newspaper and president of the writing club. In order to get any submissions for the magazine, Carson has to blackmail people.
     His parents divorce left his mother Sheryl (Allison Janney) a mess. His father Neal (Dermot Mulroney) is engaged to a pregnant pharmacist April (Christina Hendricks), who Sheryl meets at the pharmacy filling her prescriptions. At school, his classmates include his only friend Malerie (Rebel Wilson) and the bitchy cheerleader Claire Mathews (Sarah Hyland).
     The humor in this movie is very original; it feels like not a lot of it has been done before. Aside of being soley funny, I felt like this was one of the more realistic high school films (although no movie will ever be 100% realistic in terms of high school). The characters were all relatable to people I know.
     In such an amazing cast, Colfer was definitely a standout. He was funny and self-aware as a high school student in over his head.
     When this movie is released in theaters, I recommend it. Teenagers are not the only age group who will enjoy this movie.

Rating: 4.5/5

Q&A:
     The only reason I want to mention the Q&A is to say that Emma Watson was at the premiere and asked a question. I had no idea she was there until she after the question was asked and Colfer pointed it out. She wasn't that far from me and I was in awe. She is one of my favorite people and seeing her in person was my favorite moment of the night. Unfortunately, she left to quickly for me to take a picture of her.

Q&A

"The Hotel New Hampshire" by John Irving

John Irving is easily my favorite author right now. This is the second book I am reading by Irving and I have been immensely satisfied by both of them. "A Prayer for Owen Meany" was the first, and that became one of my favorite books of all time.

"The Hotel New Hampshire" follows the Berry family as they run several hotels. Their first hotel as a family is in New Hampshire. Eventually, they end up in Vienna to open the second Hotel New Hampshire.

A lot of insanity is revealed in this book, as told from the perspective of the second son and third oldest kid, John Berry. Some memorable and crazy story lines include incestuous feelings, a furry in a bear suit, a plane crash, and prostitutes living in one of the hotels.

Published in 1981, this novel holds up very well. It follows a typical pattern of Irving's book with a decade spanning story, something involving New Hampshire, and semi-autobiographical elements. I love his style. Irving manages to captivate the audience with stories of seemingly normal people who live abnormal lives.

With a wide array of characters and plots, "The Hotel New Hampshire" is an incredible book that tells an original story. I can't wait to read more of his books and watch the movie adaptation of this book starring Rob Lowe and Jodie Foster.

Rating: A

John Carter

I appear to be the only person who actually wanted to see John Carter. TO me, it looked like an interesting movie with great visuals, but I wasn't able to see it until a month after it's release. It's such a shame that this film made no money.

As of my viewing of John Carter, I have read the introduction and first two chapters of "A Princess of Mars" by Edgar Rice Borroughs, the first novel in the "Barsoon" series of books in which John Carter is based on. Except for the very first scene, I am happy that this film follows this book closer than I thought it would. The one major change in the first few scenes compared to the first two chapters is actaully kind of important, but kept the same idea. After the introduction scene, the first scene on Earth is exactly like the introduction in the book with the author being called to John's residence right before his death. This is where the manuscript of his adventures are discovered. Then the story begins:

Taylor Kitsch as John Carter

Instead of having the title character (played by Taylor Kitsch) end up in the cave after being chased by Indians after they attacked his best friend, the movie changed John into a person who was arrested and escaped jail. He is then chased by Indians after a three way battle between the INdians, the law, and john. It is very different from the book actually. Once John gets to Barsoon, I have no idea how closely the movie follows the book.

The story is actually quite entertaining, even though the beginning scenes on Earth (excluding the scenes with the author) and the introduction scene are a little underwhelming. They aren't bad, just a little cliched. On Mars (Barsoon), there is an alien species that is tall and green, but there are also groups of humans who are at war, as described in the opening scene. Their history gets a tad confusing, but it is never impossible to follow.

Kitsch and Collins

There is a staple strong female lead in Dejah Thoris (played by Lynn Collins). There are also several bad guys whose names I don't know; it got confusing after a while trying to figure who is who.

John gets drawn into this planet's war while becoming aquatinted with its natives.

The visuals in this movie are definitely a standout. They are never less then perfect and almost justify the film's insane budget, almost. The green aliens look amazing, the white apes in the arena battle scene look amazing, the landscape looks amazing, the air battles looks amazing; you get the idea.

John Carter fighting some White Apes

The acting is strong as well. Kitsch is a suitable enough lead, but there probably would have been a couple better choices (maybe Ryan Gosling or Chris Hemsworth?). Collins actually gave a really god performance. She breaks through her characters stereotypes and makes it her own.

Overall, a strong movie that was not perfect, but was definitely a lot of fun with amazing special effects and strong performances.

Rating: A-, 4/5, 8/10

The Hunger Games

I realized that my blog has become mostly an awards prediction site, so I am going to try to change that and post more reviews, especially outside of movies and television. SO, my next post will be about my love of The Hunger Games.

This was easily my most anticipated movie of March, the first half of the year, and possibly the whole year. I am a huge fan of the books and expected the movie to live up to that hype. Unfortunately, this film was unable to live up to the massive expectations I had set on it prior to it's release.

Don't get me wrong, this was a great film, and that is all that matters in the world of movie reviews. I am one of the few people who can look at a book and it's film adaptation as separate forms of entertainment and judge both of them equally.

The Hunger Games is an amazing movie. The book is even better, but the movie is still great. The movie follows the book fairly well, with only several differences that, if anything, improve the story.

katniss Everdeen is an amazingly well-written character, in my opinion. She is a female character who is strong and focuses on survival. (She is more like Lisbeth Salander than Bella Swan.) Katniss never needs a love interest, but one is forced on her by the expectations of the Panen viewers of the Games (and the general public). She is a very brave character, as shown in her volunteering to take her sister's place in the Games. Jennifer Lawrence is perfect for the role, even though there was a point when I doubted the Oscar nominees suitability for the role. She makes Katniss seem like a normal person who is scared, sad, and brave all at the same time.

Peeta Mellark, the male lead, is played strongly by Josh Hutcherson. He is never bad as Peeta, but he never becomes amazing, still a great fit for the role.

The supporting cast also does an outstanding job. Elizabeth Banks was a standout for her role as Effie Trincket (although they supposedly never say her name.) She really is the perfect Effie and delivers the classic line "That's mahogany!" I love that line. Woody Harrelson is also great as Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta's drunken mentor. It is a very kung fu-movie type role in which the mentor is a drunk who used to be a hotshot. Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Wes Bentley, Alexander Ludwig, and the rest of the tributes also do great jobs in their roles.

This film also looks amazing with perfect costumes, makeup, and great visuals. Even though a lot of people are complaining that this film would have been better with more violence and blood, I feel like that is very superficial and not true. That doesn't matter in any movie, unless they were to cut it out completely. The Copernicus scene was actually very violent.

I highly recommend this film, even more to people who have not read the book because a lot of high expectations will then be set, which will probably not be lived up to. When I talk to people about this film, I don't think they understand that I actually love this movie. My girlfriend even thought that after I saw it with her. I saw it twice for crying out loud.

Rating: A, 4.5/5, 9/10

P.S. The IMAX version was really great.