The Drastic Fantastic

Friday, March 15, 2013

Snooki

This last week Snooki did an interview for US Weekly about how she lost 42 pounds after having her baby. It is hard for me to admit that I subscribe and read this magazine regularly but that is not the point of this post. I understand how a story like this can be inspiring and that it might be of interest to people who are fans of the Jersey Shore, however, there were a few statements that really surprised me and kind of made me angry. It is great to feel motivated and to set goals to become healthy but it is not okay to base your personal value on what other people think.

Statement #1 (p.s. I totally agree about endorphins-Legally Blonde taught us that-it’s the last part that upsets me.) I have a lot of energy because I work out so much and the endorphins put me in a good mood. And when you’re skinnier, you feel so much better about yourself.

Statement #2 Snooki went off about how her chest is messed up and flappy, and then said “I can’t wait to get a boob job when I’m done having kids”.

Statement #3 (This is the real kicker. Part of me wanted to lose the weight for him [her fiancé Jionni] because I’m psycho-I don’t want him to leave me.

I think there are better ways to inspire our friends, mothers, sisters, and women.

For example Tyra Banks “Girls of all kinds can be beautiful -- from the thin, plus-sized, short, very tall, ebony to porcelain skinned, the quirky, clumsy, shy, outgoing and all in between. It’s not easy though because many people still put beauty into a confining, narrow box…Think outside of the box…Pledge that you will look in the mirror and find the unique beauty in you.”

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

At the Movies (March 12th)

Opening This Week March 15 (Friday)

The Call
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Welcome to the Punch
From Up on Poppy Hill (Limited)
Spring Breakers (Limited)
Upside Down (Limited)

New Trailers

This Bling Ring
Much Ado About Nothing

Video:My Favorite Scene from Enchanted.

Now Lucas Confirms Hamill, Ford & Fisher Will Return to 'Star Wars'

Another day, and another news bit for Star Wars: Episode VII gets thrown around. Yesterday, most of us were "duped" again as the word from Carrie Fisher about returning as Princess Leia was yet another joke in response to a serious question. However, one man who we can trust a little bit more with knowledge of the progress on the start of the new Star Wars trilogy is George Lucas. Though he's not heavily involved, the creator of the Star Wars universe is still a consultant, mostly to provide insight to the deeper parts of the characters and worlds. Now an interview with Bloomberg Business Week has him confirming Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford were essentially signed on to return before the announcement hit. Read more.

Disney Unsurprisingly Planning 'Oz: The Great and Powerful' Sequel

The film is just hitting theaters today, but Disney is already preparing a sequel to the prequel that isOz: The Great and Powerful. THR has word that Mitchell Kapner, who came up with the concept and ideas for the origin story of Oz (thanks in part to the books by L. Frank Baum), has been hired to write the script for the sequel which would continue following James Franco as he becomes the great wizard that the people of Oz come to admire so much. Kapner also worked on the screenplay for Oz: The Great and Powerful, but had help later from David Lindsay-Abaire who wrote the underrated Rise of the Guardians. Read more.

WB and Jay Roach Plan Different Film About Doping Cyclist Racer

While we were at Sundance earlier this year, news broke of Lance Armstrong admitting to using performances enhancing drugs to win Tour de France titles. Shortly thereafter, Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot teamed to land the rights to Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong, a book set to be published through Harper Collins that chronicles the rise and fall of the once inspiring professional cyclist. Now the race is to the big screen as Deadline reports Atlas Entertainment's Charles Roven(producer of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy) and Alex Gartner are working on the story from another angle. Read more.

Emily Blunt is Replacing Emma Watson for 'Your Voice in My Head'

When Harry Potter director David Yates left the director's chair of the film adaptation of Emma Forrest's memoir Your Voice in My Head, we weren't sure whether the movie would stay alive or be banished to development hell. It appears the project is still a go, as Digital Spy just conducted an interview with Stanley Tucci (one of the future stars of the film) and according to the actor, the project has just switched leading ladies from Potter star Emma Watson to Tucci's The Devil Wears Prada co-star Emily Blunt. She'll play a troubled young woman who purposefully hurts herself, visits a wise psychiatrist, and learns to live again. Read more.

Disney: 'Beauty and the Beast' Remake + Emma Watson Not 'Cinderella'

Here's a strange web of interconnected news. Just at the end of last month we learned that Emma Watson was in talks for the title role in a live-action version of Disney's famous fairytale Cinderella. However, Variety reports that she is no longer taking the role. The move did seem surprising since Watson was said to be part of a new take on Beauty and the Beast with Guillermo del Toro producing. In a strange twist, there's news that Disney is working on their own live-action version of the familiar tale with they turned into the first animated Best Picture nominee in 1991. Sounds like they want to beat del Toro to the punch. Read more.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Sunday Social Week 40

1. What is one movie you are terrified to watch?

The Exorcist or any of the Saw movies

2. What is one TV show you have always wanted to get into but haven't yet?

I finally just started How I Met Your Mother. I’ve been dying to watch that for such a long time. Next on my list is Parks and Recreation or Raising Hope.

3. What is one daring activity on your bucket list?

I am a huge baby when it comes to extreme activities. I don’t think I could ever do sky diving. If you paid me a ton of money I might consider bungee jumping, but even that’s not a guarantee. So I guess the activity I would pick would be riding the Kingda-Ka, the world’s tallest roller coaster, in New Jersey. The Kingda-Ka in New Jersey is the world’s tallest, fastest roller coaster on Earth. For the mother of all roller coasters, go on this record-breaking ride which zooms from 0 to 128mph in 3.5 seconds and catapults you 45 stories into the sky. Get propelled horizontally at 128mph, shoot 90 degrees into a quarter-turn, blast 456 feet high, then plunge into a 270 degree spiral and experience weightlessness as you swoop down a valley and up a 129 foot camel hump.

4. Would you ever travel alone?

My answer would be that it depends on how far away I would be travelling, but overall I would say no. I have a tendency to get lost way too easily. If I learned anything from watching my favorite movie-there is safety in numbers.

5. What activities do you like to do alone?

This might be weird and it might mean that I am anti-social, but I really don’t have a problem going to see plays or movies by myself. If I can’t find a friend to go with me, why miss out on a movie I really want to see?

Saturday, March 9, 2013

You learn something everyday

Friday, March 8, 2013

Spelling is Bogus

In school I am learning how to teach phonics and reading skills to elementary age kids, and this quote came to mind. "I before e except after c and when sounding like a as in neighbor and weigh, and on weekends and holidays and all throughout May, and you'll always be wrong no matter what you say!"

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

Part of the problem-English spelling is extremely counter-intuitive! Why is it that words like “through”, “trough”, and “though” sound so different? It seems like for virtually every “rule” a prescriptivist writes down to try and model English spelling, exceptions can be found.

The fact is, although it’s possible to make rough guesses at English spellings using phonetics, in order to really know English spelling, you have to memorize the spelling of every word. Even words whose spelling seems straightforward and simple, you still memorize (maybe subconsciously without even trying) just because otherwise when you wanted to spell it, you’d have no way to know it was simple and straightforward.

For example, the words bones, gone, and done, are spelled exactly the same but they are each pronounced differently. Why? Why doesn't "buick" rhyme with "quick"?

In English, there are subtle ordering requirements which even English native speakers aren’t consciously aware of. We get them right every time, because we subconsciously know about them through practice, but that just makes it all the harder for foreigners, since these rules are so subtle and hidden.

The best example is adjective ordering. Compare, “a cute little puppy” to “a little cute puppy.” The first is fine, while the second sounds wrong. How is a foreigner to know which order to use? Can you explain it to them? Apparently there is a rule and method to the madness, but I don’t know it.

Because of its diverse, promiscuous etymological origins, English has lots of synonyms which, just from a dictionary definition, seem very similar if not identical in meaning. Part of becoming a master English speaker, is knowing which words to use when. Although synonyms are grouped up in a thesaurus, that doesn’t mean the words are identical. Even if their official meanings are identical, different synonyms convey subtly different moods and ideas.

You can watch a movie or see a movie, but you can only watch TV, never see it. You can’t view either of them, even though when you watch either of them, you become a viewer (and never a watcher, much less a seer!)

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which you can truthfully say when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

News at the Cinema (March 5)

Opening This Week March 8

Dead Man Down
Oz The Great and Powerful (in 3D)

New Trailers

Ironman 3

Oblivion

Rumor: Nolan Boards 'Justice League' with Christian Bale as Batman?

Everyone put your rumor hats on, this one is going to be bumpy. After hearing many threads of rumors surrounding Warner Bros. seemingly unfocused attempts to get a Justice League film off the ground, no real solid information about the film or its direction have surfaced. From talks of Joseph Gordon-Levitt taking on the role of Batman following the conclusion of The Dark Knight Rises to script troubles, it sounds like the studio has no idea what to do. Well, they might finally have a solid idea if the latest scoop from Latino Review is true. Their source is saying that Warner Bros. is hiring Christopher Nolan to oversee any project from the DC Comics universe, and all things related to those superheroes, goes through him. Read more.

Emma Watson in Talks for Disney's Live-Action 'Cinderella' Adaptation

Well, it's just raining news for the stars of the Harry Potter franchise. Gary Oldman landed a role inDawn of the Planet of the Apes, Daniel Radcliffe is playing Igor in a new take on Frankenstein, and nowEmma Watson is entering a fairytale world. Variety has word that the star of The Perks of Being a Wallflower is in talks to put on the glass slippers as the Disney princess Cinderella in the studio's new live-action version of the story with Thor and Hamlet director Kenneth Branagh at the helm. The search has been on for the title role ever since the project was announced with Cate Blanchett as the wicked step-mother. Read more.

Daniel Radcliffe in Final Negotiations to Play Igor in 'Frankenstein'

Last fall we learned that Daniel Radcliffe was interested in taking on another horror tale after moving from Harry Potter to The Woman in Black, and now months later that news has finally become more of a reality. Variety has word that Radcliffe is in final negotiations to star in Frankenstein, a revisionist take on the classic tale from Mary Shelley that will see the young British actor playing Igor. At this time, we're not certain if this adaptation written by Chronicle scribe Max Landis completely revamps the story, but it will definitely be the familiar tale told from the perspective of the hunchback who assists Dr. Frankenstein. Read more.

'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' Gains a Leader - Gary Oldman Joining

As I wrote in the last casting update on Matt Reeves' Dawn of the Planet of the Apes sequel, "this is already a great cast so far that I'm sure will get even better." Indeed it just has. ComingSoon is reporting that another excellent actor has been cast - Gary Oldman, seen in Chris Nolan's Batman/The Dark Knight series as well as The Book of Eli, Harry Potter, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Lawless. While we only know few details about the sequel, set 15 years after the last movie involving two split groups of humans and apes, and apparently Oldman will be playing the "leader of a human colony", or as Deadline clarifies, the "leader of the human resistance". Awesome. Matt Reeves is rounding up quite an outstanding set of actors for this. Read more.

Paul Bettany Cast Alongside Depp in Pfister's Sci-Fi 'Transcendence'

We just got confirmation yesterday that Johnny Depp will definitely be starring in Transcendence, the upcoming directorial debut of longtime Christopher Nolan cinematographer Wally Pfister. It sounds like a pretty out-there science fiction drama, already being compared to 2001 and Inception, and a recent script summary revealed Depp's character's brain gets uploaded into a computer (along with some other spoilery details). Christian Bale was being courted to play one of the leads, but Deadline reports that Paul Bettany is in negotiations to star, so it looks Bale might have, well, bailed on the project but he's still unconfirmed. Read more.

DreamWorks Lands Band of 'Merry Men' with New Robin Hood Project

There's plenty of new takes on fairytales hitting the big screen. Snow White and the Huntsman andMirror Mirror arrived last year, Jack the Giant Slayer is in theaters today, Oz: The Great and Powerfularrives next week, and Emma Watson was just cast as Cinderella in a new live-action film from Disney. Now Deadline has word that DreamWorks has picked up Merry Men, a pitch for a film written by Brad Inglesby (who wrote Out of the Furnace for Scott Cooper and the remake of The Raid) with Act of Valorco-director Scott Waugh attached to helm the film which was purchased for quite an impressive amount. Read more.

Michael Keaton is a Washed Up Comic Book Movie Star in 'Birdman'

Towards the end of 2012, we heard that 21 Grams, Babel and Amores Perros director Alejando González Iñárritu would try his hand at comedy with a new film called Birdman set up at Fox Searchlight and New Regency. The project, described as a dark comedy, follows a former actor, who once played an iconic superhero, as he decides to take on a Broadway play based on a short story by Raymond Chandlerin order to reclaim past glory. Now the perfect man has been found for the role as THR reports Michael Keaton, who once played Batman for director Tim Burton, has taken the lead role of the comic book movie star. Read More.