Tag Archives: SPOILERS!

Movie Review! Pixels

Posted in Celebrities, Movies, Review by

Hello all! Today I’ll be doing a review of the new Adam Sandler movie “Pixels”.
I wasn’t too keen on seeing this film. I’m not a huge gamer so I wasn’t sure I’d understand the jokes & also…it’s an Adam Sandler film. Let’s be real. My expectations weren’t too high. I don’t hate Adam Sandler, but my favorite films of his are, “Little Nicky” & “Click” – older material. I haven’t been interested in his more recent films such as “Grown Ups” or “Jack & Jill”. Although too be fair, I don’t think many people liked “Jack & Jill”, so I don’t think I’m alone. Moving on!

“Pixels” centers around a time capsule sent into space in 1982 that is eventually intercepted by aliens. A video of the 1982 Video Game Championships is included in the time capsule featuring games like Donkey Kong, Centipede, Pac-Man, Galaga, etc. The aliens misinterpret the video games as Earth threatening to start a war. They retaliate with video game “soldiers” modeled after our 1980’s video game stars. The main cast, Sandler, James, Gad, and Dinklage, were all kids that competed in the 1982 Championships with Sandler and Dinklage coming in at second and first place, respectively. James’ character is now the U.S. President & he calls in his old buddies to help defeat the aliens as they are the best at playing the old games. Hijinks and shenanigans ensue – but do the nerds save the day?!

Keep reading to see my likes, dislikes, final thoughts, & rating of this film! Be warned – SPOILERS!!!
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Likes:
– I really enjoyed watching this cast work together. Yeah, you have to deal with Adam Sandler & Kevin James working together as they do for most of Sandler’s movies, but can you blame them? If I was a really rich/famous actor I’d want to make movies with my best buds all day too! It’s not the whole crew, no Rob Schneider or Chris Rock – which could be good or bad depending on your view. I was super excited to see Josh Gad & Peter Dinklage. They were a breath of fresh air in a typical Sandler film & played their parts excellently. Thankfully, overall the acting was pretty good. Even the celebrity cameos, like Serena Williams & Martha Stewart were well done.
– Obviously the film centers around ’80’s video games, so big icons like Donkey Kong & Pac-man make appearances. My favorite, video game “cameo” was by Q*Bert – SO CUTE!! To be totally honest, I don’t know who he is, I told you I’m not a gamer. Still, one of my favorite things about the film.

Dislikes:
– There were quite a few anti female “jokes”/references that I didn’t appreciate. Women are having a hard enough time making their presence known in the gaming & military world, & this movie jumped right on the “women don’t belong” bandwagon. Yes, Monaghan’s character is a high ranking officer but her main purpose is a love interest for Sandler. There were maybe only 4 other females in the film. 2 don’t speak at all & they all were love interests or assistants to male characters. In the trailers I saw a scene where Monaghan has efficiently killed some aliens, to the astonishment of Sandler and his crew, & she says something along the lines of, “What? You boys think you were the only ones that spent time in the arcade?”. However, in the film, they changed that scene to her killing an alien shaped like Smurf then saying, “Please don’t tell anyone I just killed a Smurf!” I was SO annoyed! The power of language is so amazing. Even while doing the same action – killing – one response makes her a total bad ass with non stereotypical feminine interests, while the other reduces her to a stereotype – weak & emotional, filled with regret over acting aggressively.
– There were some odd continuity issues/plot holes. When we first meet Monaghan’s character she’s drinking out of a baby’s sippy cup & I swear I saw baby food in her kitchen, yet there’s no baby. In another scene, Peter Dinklage’s character, Eddie, says he’s been in prison for a certain number of years, yet in doing the math it doesn’t come out to be 2015 or later. I assumed the film took place in at least 2016 as Obama has already served based on other dialogue. SPOILER!!! Another plot line I took issue with was in regards to the cheat codes, but this might have been confusing for me because I’m not a gamer. When Eddie reveals he used a cheat code written on his sunglasses to defeat Pac-Man, he says they’re the same sunglasses he wore to beat Sandler’s character at Donkey Kong in 1982. How does the same cheat code work for two different games? I might be showing my ignorance, so if someone could explain that in the comments I would be really grateful!
– Visually painful to watch. Super bright & fast moving with lots of explosions. I get headaches very easily, especially from 3D films. I didn’t see this film in 3D but I found I had to look away during the big action scenes as there was so much going on.

Final Thoughts & Rating:
– Overall, I suppose this was just a cute silly movie. Don’t dig too deep – which is probably the point of most films, especially Adam Sandler films. I’m not sure who the audience of this film was supposed to be. I don’t think children will find a lot of entertainment in the ’80’s references & I don’t think adults that can appreciate the references will find the rest of the content entertaining.
My Rating: C –

Have you seen “Pixels”? What did you think? I’d really to talk to someone that enjoyed this film & hear your reasoning. Please leave me a comment at the bottom of this post & let’s hash it out! If you liked this review, please feel free to share it (or any of my posts) on your social media! Thanks for reading!

Book Review! The Sisters by Nancy Jensen

Posted in Book Review, Books, Review, Sunday Book Club by

Lots of book reviews! I still have at least one more planned for this week 😀 “The Sisters” is going to be a quick one – too many potential spoilers!

Usually I write pretty in depth Book Reviews with Character Analysis and Quotes, etc. However, my Review of “The Sisters” is going to be much more general. I was so enthralled in the story I raced through without taking any notes. I considered giving it another read simply to take notes to write a better Review, but ultimately decided against it for a couple reasons.

1. There’s no way to talk about the story & characters without spoiling the main mystery, the “big reveal”, the catalyst that sets all the drama in motion. You find out the details in the first few chapters, but it’s still a journey you should experience for yourself, not through Spoilers in this review.
2. I have other books I want to read, haha! While I enjoyed this story & thought it was well written, the subject matter was fairly dark, not something I want to linger over. Plus, now that I know all the ins and outs of the story, there’s no…thrill of the chase, if you will. I know how it ends. Rereading all the pain and suffering this family experiences isn’t going to change anything other than this review. You should take my word that this is a good book without needing a full review, haha!

Rating: B
As mentioned above, the story was super sad, but definitely kept me intrigued. The basic story is about sisters & best friends, Mabel & Bertie, young girls in the 1920’s. When Bertie is 13, a tragic set of circumstances & misunderstanding separates them. The novel follows how, not just their lives, but the lives of subsequent generations are changed because of the actions taken by the two girls. It will tug on your heartstrings especially if you’re a woman and/or have sisters or just in general have had a relationship torn apart due to a misunderstanding. I couldn’t give it a full A because like I said, very dark, not something I’d really want to read again, it didn’t really make me think or inspire me in any way, & towards the end I did have some trouble keeping track of all the characters.

Have you read “The Sisters”? If you want to talk Spoilers, please be courteous of other readers & don’t leave them in the comments! All my contact info is listed at the top of the page – you’re always welcome to shoot me an email at MissAl.Leigh@gmail.com Thanks for reading!!

Book Review! Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Posted in Book Review, Books, Review, Sunday Book Club by

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OH MY GOSH! I’m FREAKING OUT over this book. It’s seriously THAT GOOD! I’m so stinking excited to talk to you today about “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”. The inspiration for this book is really unique. Ransom Riggs, the author, started collecting vintage pictures from thrift stores & flea markets. He felt such an intense curiosity to know the story behind these anonymous pictures that, rather than settle for never knowing, he created his own fantastical stories to explain what was going on in the photos. There are several odd photos placed in the book that you would think are Photoshopped, but are real pictures he found while writing. According to Riggs’ website, this series – there are 3 Miss Peregrine novels, the last one slated to be released September of this year – is being made into a film by Tim Burton. OF COURSE IT IS. I’m not a huge Burton enthusiast, but he’s a perfect choice in this case. Okay, onto the review. I’ll try my best to limit the spoilers because I really do want you all to read this book. Really, like right now, click on the picture of the book above & buy it from Amazon. However, if you insist on reading my full review before buying it, it’s fine, I guess. Here we go!

Plot: Jacob grows up idolizing his tall tale telling grandfather, Grandpa Portman. He grows disillusioned as a teenager when he realizes that Grandpa Portman’s stories about being shipped to an orphanage in Wales, a magical place where no one ever got sick or died & was protected by a woman who could turn into a bird, could not possibly be true. Tragedy strikes & through a series of insane events Jacob is forced to admit that Grandpa Portman’s stories were much more real than he previously believed. He embarks on a whirlwind adventure full of magic, danger, romance, and self discovery.

Initial Thoughts: I had no expectations going into this novel. I wasn’t even really sure what genre it was, fantasy, sci fi, children’s literature, zombies, all of the above? Right off the bat, Grandpa Portman tells stories of monsters in Poland circa WWII & I was thinking, “Hmm, real monsters or is this a veiled reference to the Nazi Party? What are we dealing with here?” The answer is, to a certain degree, both! After finishing the first two pages, I wrote a note, “I’m so excited to read this book, will I have nightmares?! Am I ready to welcome another series into my life?! I’m already in a very committed, long term relationship with Harry Potter..”. Riggs’ writing already had me hooked.
I was reminded of the movie “Big Fish”. If you’ve never seen it, you’re living life all wrong. “Big Fish” is easily one of my top 10 favorite movies.Everyone loves it, Yellowcard even wrote a song about it called “How I Go” which makes me weep every time I hear it. The bottom line is it’s an amazing film directed by Tim Burton (a pattern is emerging) about a man with a strained relationship with his father. The father always tells amazing, wild stories of his youth which the son stopped believing a long time ago. Through flashbacks you’re swept up in the father’s magical stories & in the end the film is really about how we stay in the hearts of those we love, even when we’re not around anymore. That’s all I’ll say, seriously, you should watch it. Back to the review…

Characters: Jacob is a wonderful character, well developed, & different from other characters in YA Fiction, which is technically the book’s genre. Usually I’m annoyed by teenage characters, but not Jacob. He admits to being odd, scared, & not macho, but continues on his adventure because he’s inspired by the life of someone he loved. I love that he cries! It’s rare to find young male characters so in touch with their emotions.
A character that helps my “Big Fish” tie in, is Emma Bloom. The main character in “Big Fish” is named Edward Bloom. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence but it made me happy to continue the connection between the two stories.

Quotes – SPOILERS HERE!!!:
– Not necessarily a quote, but on page 48 there’s a passage describing how Jacob’s family deals with the aftermath of Grandpa Portman passing away. If you’ve ever had to go through someone’s belongings after they’ve passed away – you will totally identify with this scene. Riggs writes the most accurate description of that process that I’ve ever read.
– pg 108, Jacob talks about how WWII has changed his family history. It’s kind of a long passage but I thought it was really powerful. “I thought about how my great-grandparents had starved to death…their wasted bodies being fed to incinerators because people they didn’t know hated them. I thought about how the children who had lived in this house had been burned up & blown apart because a pilot who didn’t care pushed a button. I thought about how my grandfather’s family had been taken from him, and how because of that my dad grew up feeling like he didn’t have a dad…[a]ll because of a 70 year old hurt that had somehow been passed down to me like some poisonous heirloom & monsters I couldn’t fight because they were all dead, beyond killing or punishing or any kind of reckoning. At least my grandfather had been able to join the army & go fight them. What could I do?”

Overall: I’m sure you can tell I loved this book with a serious passion. My one hiccup was the romance between Emma & Jacob. No Spoilers, but given her past, the romance between them was slightly uncomfortable for me. The twist near the end threw me for a loop! Again, to avoid spoilers, that’s all I’m going to say. My note literally reads, “Holy effin shit! Holy effin shit! I knew he was suspect but never expected THIS! The nightmares are gonna be so real tonight”. I have referenced nightmares a few times, but please don’t be afraid, I’m mostly being dramatic. While the story was intense, it tied into many other works of fiction that I have a soft spot for. As previously mentioned, “Big Fish”, but also “Peter Pan” because of the whole children on an island that never grow old aspect, “Harry Potter” because of the magic, plus Jacob & Harry seem like kindred spirits, they never know the important details until it’s too late & they’re left to fight on in the memory of those who inspired them, & “Supernatural”, because Grandpa Portman was a hunter, an absent father out fighting darkness, & Jacob continues on the family business. So if you like any of those things – you should enjoy this story.

Rating: A+! Obviously!! After all that raving could I really have given this book any other rating?! “Miss Peregrine’s…” was highly entertaining and engaging. I literally couldn’t put it down & finished reading it in about 3 or 4 hours. I realize a second more thorough reading may reveal plot holes or annoyances in the character’s personalities I didn’t notice before, but this first reading was pure joy. This novel was everything I look for in a “A+” work, well written characters & an engaging, relatable story that was able to suck me in, take me away, & make me care about everything it had to offer. I am definitely looking forward to reading the second installment in the series, “Hollow City”. I would also be interested in prequel books featuring Grandpa Portman’s adventures during WWII – maybe I should write a letter to Riggs suggesting that, haha!

Have you read “Miss Peregrine’s…” or the second novel “Hollow City”? Are you enjoying this series as much as I am?! If you haven’t heard of this series before, what do you think, will you give it a try? Please let me know what you thought of this review in the comments below! Send your book recommendations my way & I’ll add them to my list of Books to Read! Please click the FOLLOW button on the top right of this page to be notified by email when I post my next Book Review. Thanks for reading, until we meet again!

Movie Review!: Cinderella 2015

Posted in Disney, Movies, Review by
Promotional poster from Disney with my graphic add ons

Promotional poster from Disney with my graphic add ons

My childhood took place during a time in Entertainment known as “Disney’s Golden Age” or “Disney’s Renaissance”. I was raised on princesses and sing alongs. I saw Beauty and the Beast in a movie theater at least 30 times, according to my mother. For Halloween I have dressed up as Chip (the teacup from Beauty & the Beast), Belle, Ariel (The Little Mermaid) both mermaid and wedding version, Megara, Esmeralda, Pocahontas, Snow White, and Jasmine. I was an Annual Passholder to Disneyland and later, Disney California Adventure for many years. I completed 2 internships with the Disney College Program and worked at Disneyland for 2.5 years. To say that Disney is part of my life is an understatement. More recently, my love for Disney has waned somewhat as their prices go up and my bank account gets smaller (thanks, college education!), but I knew I wanted to see their live-action version of Cinderella ASAP!
Without further ado…here’s my Likes/Dislikes/Final Thoughts & Rating which contains SPOILERS! if you’ve never seen any version of Cinderella. Proceed with caution…

Likes:
– The cinematography/graphics/costumes/hair/makeup of the film are really beautiful. Disney’s huge financial resources were definitely put to good use. Supposedly one of Walt Disney’s favorite scenes of animation was Cinderella’s transformation & they definitely did it justice in this version.

– Disney is famous for controversy because a majority of their stories revolve around conventionally attractive Caucasian women waiting for a man to save them. This is a sticky issue for me because I understand they’re trying to be faithful to the original source material which in this case was written by Charles Perrault in 1697. Obviously in this time period society had certain rules & expectations. He could only write about what he knew. However, as a modern audience we know more and want to see films that reflect society as we know it. So I say to Disney, if we can believe that fairies exist and pumpkins can become carriages, give your audience some credit that we could suspend belief a little more to include other races & get rid of certain gender expectations, even if they don’t conform to society at the time the plot takes place. Also, there are other Cinderella stories throughout history, Perrault is not the only author, he’s not even the earliest author. Many cultures have their own version of Cinderella that fits their customs. These tales could have been blended together. Like I said, it’s a sticky issue everyone has a different opinion on. Getting back to the movie! I thought it was interesting that they tried to include other races through the inclusion of a African American/Black Captain of the Guards/best friend to the Prince and a Latina Princess that is engaged to the Prince. They also kind of changed the genders of Cinderella’s mice friends. As I recall, in the animated version there is Jaques, Gus Gus, and Suzy. In this version, there is Jacqueline and Gus Gus. She might have mentioned some other names but I didn’t catch them. My bottom line here is I appreciated their small attempt to include other races and use female characters – because let’s be real, they certainly didn’t have to & people still would’ve seen the film.

– There was a scene when Ella’s father is leaving for a business trip & asks Ella what gift she’d like. Her stepsisters ask for frivolous items, but Ella asks for a sentimental item. That scene is certainly not in the animated version, but perhaps is from the source material or another version. I like this because there is a similar plot point from an original version of Beauty and the Beast. I took it as a nod to Disney’s next live action fairy tale & my favorite Disney movie, so I was happy with that.

– I liked this version’s Prince Charming aka Prince Kit. He stood up for what he believed in and took charge of his own destiny. I appreciated the realistic relationship he had with his father.

– I appreciated the effort Disney put into creating a more in depth explanation for Lady Tremaine’s hatred for Ella. The message of the movie was obviously, “Have courage & be kind”, but also how love makes life beautiful and helps people be the best version of themselves. There was a scene where Ella confronts her stepmother and asks why she’s so cruel to her. She responds with something along the lines of “Because you are young, innocent, beautiful” etc. She trails off, and the implied rest of that sentence is “…and I’m not!” She was a very bitter woman and in another scene she explains why. Her first husband was the love of her life and she was completely destroyed by his death, not only emotionally, but financially. She touches on some of the societal expectations for a single women in that time period – she was basically required to marry again in order to keep her family alive. Her marriage to Ella’s father was a business decision – not a marriage for love. Marriage for love vs. marriage for advancement is a huge theme in this film & many other fairy tales. Imagine how hard her life must have been, to live every day grieving over the death of her husband plus have it constantly thrown in her face that her new husband and step-daughter would never give her the love she was missing because they were still grieving over Ella’s mother. Lady Tremaine lost love & lost herself. While I don’t condone the enslavement of your stepchild, learning a little more of her backstory made her a much more sympathetic character.

– I liked this version of Ella because she knew the way she was being treated was wrong. Eventually she stood up for herself somewhat, which was a vast improvement over animated Cinderella who didn’t really ever complain, if memory serves me right. I always felt that animated Cinderella was an airhead. She let her family push her around and she accepted it all with a smile & a song. I never felt like that made her brave or kind, I just thought she was dumb. At the end of the film when Prince Kit comes to take her away, Ella looks back at her stepmother as she’s leaving the house and with a little smirk says, “I forgive you” & that’s the last we see of the stepmother. In some versions of Cinderella, she totally forgives the family and marries them to Lords of the Kingdom. In other versions, Ella is not as forgiving and has them murdered. This ending was the perfect amount of polite sass, like, “Thanks for all the abuse! It put me on a path to marry the King who, in a twist of great fate, I’m genuinely in love with. Bye, have a great life!!”

Dislikes:
– Everyone kept hyping up Lady Tremaine’s laugh like it was spot on just like the animated film, but I’m not sure what they were listening to. It didn’t impress me.

– As mentioned above, I loved the extravagant costumes used throughout the film. HOWEVER, they needed to get the Captain of the Guards/Prince Kit’s best friend a bigger uniform. He was a big dude & every costume they stuck him in looked extremely unflattering and uncomfortable with his belly hanging out over the top of his pants. I felt bad for the actor.

– The dress tearing scene was really tame compared to what I remember from the animated film. That scene was a chance to really show the cruelty of the family towards Ella & it just fell flat.

– While I enjoyed the cast as a whole, Lily James (Ella) reminded me too much of Mia Wasikowska (Alice from Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland”). I know that’s random & not necessarily a bad thing, it was just odd. She did a lot of heavy breathing, a lot of chest heaving breathing throughout the movie that was kind of distracting. I kept looking at her collarbones moving around. I’m a weird person. I know that, & I’m fine with it.

– One plot point didn’t get resolved for me. Many wonder why Ella didn’t just run away/move out. In this version, Ella explains that she didn’t want to leave her house because that’s where her parents lived and all her memories of them were there. However, she didn’t seem to care about that ONE BIT when Prince Kit came to take her away. They never addressed what happened to her beloved childhood home after she left and she never hesitates to leave it all behind. I would’ve liked at least one line between her and Kit, or maybe her Fairy Godmother, about how the house doesn’t hold the memories, her heart does.

Final Thoughts & Rating:
I really enjoyed this film. It’s the right mix of modern and classic. I don’t have a soft spot in my heart for the Cinderella story, so I won’t be rushing out to buy this, but I still thought it was a well made film.
My Rating: B+

What do you think? Did you see Cinderella 2015? Are you planning on seeing it this weekend? Please let me know in the comments below – thanks for reading!

Book Review! Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale by Carolyn Turgeon

Posted in Book Review, Books, Disney, Review, Sunday Book Club by
Courtesy of Goodreads.com

Courtesy of Goodreads.com

I’ve already read another of this author’s novels, “Godmother. The Secret Cinderella Story”, which focuses on the fairy godmother from “Cinderella”. That book is DARK & I LOVE it! I generally always enjoy grown up books about fairy tales, “Beastly” & “Wicked” come to mind, but “Godmother…” is just beyond excellent. Not for the faint of heart, it’s pretty dark and sometimes confusing, but definitely worth reading. I loved “Godmother…” so much, I immediately put most of Turgeon’s other books on my list of books to read. “Mermaid…” intrigued me because I’ve always been fascinated by mermaid lore, and Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” is one of my favorite movies, Ariel is my 2nd favorite princess 🙂 (Belle is the first!) I started this book with really high expectations, but sadly they weren’t quite met…

Plot w/SPOILERS!:
Lenia, our little mermaid that longs to be part of the human world and have a soul. Unfortunately, she’s not even allowed to be on the surface, except on her 18th birthday. She breaks all the rules and saves a handsome sailor from drowning and of course, falls in love. She brings him to shore, but realizes that without legs, there’s not a whole heck of a lot she can do. Fortunately…or unfortunately, Lenia is able to mentally connect with a nearby girl and tells her to save the man. Lenia leaves, all the while thinking of ways to get back to her love.
Margrethe is the other woman, Princess of the North, keeping a secret identity and being hidden at a convent due to threats of war from the South Kingdom. After hearing Lenia’s mental message, she saves the man, who is revealed to be the Prince of the SOUTH, but oh well, she’s already in love with him.
Lenia, meanwhile, makes a deal with a sea witch…I’m sure you’ve heard this before…trading her fins and voice for legs. She must marry the prince because then he’ll give her part of his soul and she’ll become human. If he marries someone else, Lenia dies. She swims back to shore, the princes finds her and pretty quickly they become…uhm…close. This is where the book starts to take a more adult turn, womanhood’s being broken, sticky wet sheets, that sort of thing. The sex isn’t graphic, but you definitely know it happened. Lenia is stoked because her mom never warned her that nobody buys the cow when they can get the milk for free so she thinks sex means love/marriage, but the rest of the court is giggling because they know there’s no way the prince is gonna marry some random mute.
Margrethe, meanwhile, is also plotting how to get back to her love. She decides the best way to do that is to arrange a marriage with his family, thereby forcing their love and peace between the kingdoms – a true politician!
The prince is pissed that his father agrees to the marriage especially because LENIA IS PREGNANT! Margrethe has moved into the South Kingdom, and at first doesn’t recognize Lenia but finally does after spying on her while she talks to her mermaid sisters who have worked with the sea witch to come up with a plan to make Lenia a mermaid again. All she has to do is spill the Prince’s blood on her legs and she’ll be able to come home, good as new. Of course, Lenia refuses. With the wedding day upon her, Lenia is desperate to have her child see the light of day so she forces an early labor then heads to the ocean to die. Margrethe is horrified at the consequences of her actions and in an act of pure genius, spills SOME of her blood on Lenia’s legs because now that she and the prince are married, their blood and souls are connected. Lenia turns back into a mermaid, able to rejoin her family, while Christopher and Margrethe raise her daughter, start their own family and live happily ever after. THE END.

Thoughts:
While I loved the way this book was written, this story just didn’t get as dark as I wanted it to. I think if I had read this first then followed with “Godmother…” I would have thought this was an excellent book, but because I was comparing the two, “Mermaid…” was just good. This book was more true to the “twist on the classic” format. It simply told the original Hans Christian Andersen version of “The Little Mermaid”, but with Turgeon’s spin, as opposed to “Godmother…” which told the story of completely different characters and changed pretty much everything except the basic idea of “Cinderella”. I plowed through this book waiting for her to reveal that the story was really set in modern times, or Margrethe and Lenia were the same person or something dark and twisted! Sadly, no. Don’t get me wrong, great story, great writing, just not what I was expecting.

Lenia was a sad character. She’s that dumb friend that has sex on every first date she goes on and can’t understand why she doesn’t have a boyfriend. However, the prince WAS sending her some pretty mixed signals. At first he’s like “You’re fine – let’s do this. Hey btw, there’s this other girl, she saved me, I dunno who she is, but I love her. You’re cool with that right?” but then almost overnight he started telling her he loved her and wanted to marry her, but oh whoopsie, his father won’t allow that. I’m not sure the prince was really outraged by his arranged marriage because he wanted to marry Lenia instead, or because he didn’t want to be told what to do. Also, I generally dislike when characters fall in love at first sight, especially if it’s one sided, but hey! – that’s fairy tales!

One of my favorite parts was when Margrethe has realized who Lenia is and she kind of confronts her about being in love with the prince. All along Margrethe thought Lenia brought the prince to her, as some sort of gift, or sign from God that she should love him and bring peace to the kingdom, so she doesn’t understand why Lenia is pregnant with his kid. I LOVED that Lenia quickly puts an end to that delusion and straight up just shakes her head in confusion like “Uh, no, I never said any of that, you were just supposed to save him because you had legs, then leave him alone”. Naturally, this makes Margrethe feel like a complete idiot because now she’s broken up this relationship and condemned her friend to death. I feel like in a typical story, Lenia would have been really self sacrificing and demure and said something like, “Oh yes, of course sweetie, I only wanted the best for you”, while holding back tears because she’s about to die because this other girl got the message wrong. Nothing I like better than characters who respond like real people!

The ending of this book was kind of disappointing because it ended with happiness (I know that sounds bizarre, but I was expecting it to be darker), but I did enjoy that Margrethe solved my ago old irritation with the plan that turns the Little Mermaid back into a mermaid by spilling the prince’s blood. Why does everyone always think it has to be ALL the blood? Perhaps in the original version she’s told she must “KILL the prince”? I’m not 100%, but I’ve always wondered why she couldn’t just take a little blood, which is exactly what Margrethe does, despite the fact that marriage in no way connects two people’s blood, but I understand it’s symbolism being taken literally.

I would be really interested to know if Turgeon believes the things she writes about marriage based on personal or religious beliefs, or if she just thought the idea of souls/blood connecting when two people are married sounded romantic. I appreciated that the daughter ended up being the soul that Lenia wanted so badly, referencing the idea that children we leave behind will always be a piece of us and therefore we live forever in our bloodlines. She may not have gotten that soul that would let her live forever in Heaven, but now she’ll always have a bloodline out there somewhere, children that will always have a connection to the sea, long after Lenia herself becomes part of it. DEEP. Hopefully that’s the idea I was supposed to take away from the story.

Overall rating: B

Movie Review – Despicable Me 2 – LATE POST!

Posted in Movies, Review by

Movie review 6 of 7…

Despicable Me 2 – released July 3rd, 2013

Starring: Steve Carell, Miranda Cosgrove, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Russell Brand

Plot with SPOILERS!: A sequel to the 2010 “Despicable Me” which featured the exploits of villain Gru and how he came to adopt 3 little girls. In the sequel Gru is no longer a villain – solely committing himself to being a family man and dealing with eldest daughter Margo’s impending trip through puberty and dating. A villain is causing problems for the Anti-Villain League, so they ask Gru to work with an agent named Lucy to find the villain and bring him down. The film follows them as they fumble through the investigation, eventually realize they love each other, and save the day!

My opinion/rating: Super cute and fun! I don’t think it was as good as the first movie, but my expectations were REALLY high because I love the first one so much. Still a really good film, not just for kids – there were people of all ages at the theater for this movie. Overall rating – B.

Movie Review – Les Mis – LATE POST!

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Late Movie Review 2 of 7…

Les Miserables – released December 5th, 2012

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, talented newcomers like Eddie Redmayne & Aaron Tveit, and several Broadway vets.

Plot WITH SPOILERS!: Valjean (Jackman) is on parole, Javert (Crowe) is the police inspector dedicated to finding Valjean and putting him back in prison.
Valjean becomes the mayor of a town and helps out Fantine (Hathaway) a single mother to Cosette (Seyfried), who sells ALL her body parts to earn money to raise her. Fantine ends up dying & Valjean becomes Cosette’s guardian.
Cosette grows up, meets Marius (Redmayne), a revolutionary student planning to rebel against the French monarchy with his friends, they fall in love, which is really too bad because his best lady friend Eponine is already in love with him, but oh well. The fight against the French monarchy doesn’t go so well and all of Marius’ friends die, including Eponine. Marius almost dies, but is saved by Valjean, who also has a chance to kill Javert, who has been hunting him this whole time, but doesn’t. Javert doesn’t know how to deal with the split in his moral compass, he wants to keep hunting Valjean because it’s the “right thing to do”, but now he owes him a solid because he let him live. In order to escape this confusion, he decides to kill himself. Marius and Cosette get married. Valjean dies. There is singing. The End.

My opinon/rating: Eh. As you can probably tell by my overly enthused description of the plot, I don’t care a whole heck of a lot for the story of Les Mis. I enjoy the music, but the story itself doesn’t really have a special place in my heart. I thought this was a well done version, I just don’t have a personal connection to it, so it’s not one of my favorite movies. If you’re not really into musicals, I’d probably skip this one since there’s little to no dialogue, it’s JUST singing. All in all, this movie gets a B rating.