Tag: movies

Bright Star

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Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art–
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors–
No–yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever–or else swoon to death.

John Keats

I love poetry. There’s nothing more in this world that could make me feel as much emotion and imagine so much as it. It’s simply magical. It’s creation and writing at it’s finest. And there’s one poet who inspires me more than any other.

John Keats.

Every single one of his poems is written so articulately and beautifully that I could re-read it a thousand times over and still find it fascinating. It’s a true gift to be able to create works such magnitude as he did. It’s no wonder why the created a movie about him.

Bright Star is a film based loosely on the romance between Keats and Fanny Brawne. Even though story line is probably far from accurate, it’s an insanely beautiful movie. (Not to mention the casting is fitting and absolutely stunning.)

From start to finish your world becomes there’s and you find yourself immersed in 19th century England and into the lives and two young, ill-fated lovers. It’s captivating, and it my face, I couldn’t take a break while watching it. Every single detail is so accurate and the characters are so lovable that you wish that the movie would never end. Even the actor who plays John Keats, Ben Whishaw, has won numerous British acting awards, and in my opinion, irresistible in this movie.

It’s available on Netflix on demand. I would definitely recommend watching it.

My Current Thoughts (Literally)

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My thoughts as of this hour:

Why would you think of expanding the baseball playoffs Bud Selig? 10 teams by next year in the postseason? It’s kind of weird that we’re playing the October classic in November. If you want to watch your favorite team play the Fall Classic on Christmas day, let’s keep that as a fantasy.

Spaceballs was an awesome movie. Daphne Zuniga is totally hot and sexy in that movie and I wish I had a space winnebago. That’d be awesome.

My Kick Ass poster is falling off my wall, it’s a real eyesore.

I would love it for Facebook to stop sending me event invitations and offers to see who is viewing my profile. I don’t care because they never post anything or say hi. So stop giving me false hope by having the notification ad pop up! I’m a lonely soul folks!

I wish the Cate game didn’t get cancelled, I wanted to throw fire again. Go OVS Baseball!

I’m digging 90’s contemporary rock and punk music. Green Day, Soul Asylum and Third Eye Blind are really doing it right now.

Last but not least, it’s so refreshing to vent your emotions. You need to do it every once in a while. If you don’t, you’ll explode.

Definitely, Maybe

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Ever since my junior year I have been absolutely in love with one movie in particular: Definitely, Maybe.

Not only is Ryan Reynolds extremely good-looking, but the story line itself consists of a mixture of classic love stories and utter reality.

It begins with a man whose current divorce leads his daughter to question his past love lovers. He begins with his college sweetheart and ends with discovering the love of his life in the one that was right under his nose.

I think I love it so much because it is so relatable. Mostly everyone will have numerous loves in our life time. We may discover them in close friends, reignite old flames, and find out that we can love someone even more than we imagined.

I am definitely a hopeless romantic, and I do hope that just like the main character I will be able to discover love through different scenery, different experiences, and the inevitable trial-and-error.

Fairy Tales To Prance Into Theaters Soon

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I can remember being read the classic fairy tales by my mother. I remember my love for Snow White and the handsome prince that would come rescue her.

As a child, I couldn’t wait to read the next fairytale spin-off and of course the classic animated movies took up most of my free time.

About a decade later, these classic fairy tales are still just as popular as before. However, the cinema in particular has taken a sudden new interest in these story lines.

Of course the re-invention of age-old fairy tales is hardly new, but recently these love stories have been recreated into more twisted, dark movies. In order to fit the interests of young adults, these movies have taken out the innocent cartoons in exchange for sex, violence, and satirical humor.

The most recent production is that of “Red Riding Hood,” a production by Twilight’s Catherine Hardwick in which a teenage romance triangle is twisted in with the fairy tale’s gruesome wolf character.

Alongside little red riding hood is a twist of Beauty and the Beast entitled “Beastly.” This is the story of a shallow young man who is taught a lesson after he is turned into an ugly “beast” and forced to find love. In addition, three different features of “Snow White” will be entering the big screen, ranging from an action flick to a dark comedy.

Each twist of classic fairy tales is hoping to bring much revenue as well, so hop on your horse-drawn carriage and come watch!

Don’t Talk About the Fight Club

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Imagine a crowd of guys shouting and pumping their fists in the air, circled around a meaty, muscular goon and a buffed out Brad Pitt covered in sweat and blood. Now, imagine those same guys but a little bit shorter, with higher voices, and the [former] Justin Bieber haircut.

Moms all around the country are always bragging about how proud they are of their sons. “Oh! My boy is so smart! He makes me so proud. He makes so many good choices, he’s just so perfect!” Well, that may not be the case in Tacoma, Washington. Nine proud mothers discovered that their “perfect” little boys were not so flawless after all.

Sure! You should absolutely be proud of your kid if he knows how to defend himself physically. You don’t want your kid to get hurt do you? But, maybe it’s not so impressive when he’s bashing another kid’s brains out.

Recently nine pre-teen boys were expelled from their school because they were part of their very own Brad Pitt flick. Oh, and I would just like to emphasize the words “pre” and “teen”. Seriously, these guys are in sixth grade! Anyway, these nine prepubescent middle schoolers decided it would be cool to start a fight club. Underground gatherings, secret membership, blood, sweat, and soap, the whole shabang.

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Here’s tonight’s starting lineup for cinema

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Good evening ladies and gents, this is Ryland coming at you once again with another rocking review of life, cinema, and sports. Today, I will be combining all three for your reading pleasure. How awesome is that? Now as you all clearly know by now, I am a supreme movie buff who loves his sports teams and loves to describe things at length. First though, let me give you some background information. Not this one, but the coming Monday is Valentines Day. You know about that famous day that is known for chocolate, the color red, and hearts as far as the eye can see, giving Hallmark a bump up in the stock market for a day and reminding singles of their sad truths? It also brings the beginning of Ojai Valley School‘s baseball season. I thought it would fit well considering I love baseball so very much. So tonight, I thought it’d be fun to recap my top 5 favorite baseball movies of all time. Read up and I’ll be back in time for the 7th inning stretch.

5: Beer League
This one probably will not belong with the proceeding heavy weight talent, however this one is the brain child of one of my favorite comedians, Artie Lange. This is the story of Artie DeVanzo, a classic underachiever with a slow pitch softball batting average of .450 and a blood alcohol content of .16. Through the companionship of his love interest and determination to defeated the hated rival, Artie leads his rag tag group of teammates from softball ineptitude to the championship game leaving a ball busting trail of laughter and memories along the way.

4: The Natural
This movie simply shows that age is merely a state of mind. The classic tale of Roy Hobbs tells the story of a once promising baseball player derailed by a gunshot wound. His comeback and resilience in the face of constant sabotage is admirable and inspiring to say the least. His persistence through pain and tape measure home runs will leave any baseball player telling their bat boy to “pick them out a winner.” This coming season, I am going to name my bat “Wonder Boy” thanks to this piece of cinematic excellence.

3: Field of Dreams
The only Kevin Costner performance I have ever sat through 100%. This movie makes the list not necessarily because of the action, but because of the passion, the heart, the light hearted absurdity, the attractive impulsivity, and most of all the belief that the amazing can come true. The scene at the end can drive those who have a similar father/son bond to tears and if not, a lip quiver and the 1919 Whitesox were as real as could be pictured. Not to mention the classic speech delivered from the timeless wisdom of James Earl Jones. The speech I will admit I have on my ipod, and for good reason too.

2: The Sandlot
This is a story of friendship and about the summer of a life time. A memoir of the summer of 62′, Scotty Smalls moves to California with no friends and no baseball IQ whatsoever. When he sees the kids at the sandlot, he is driven away in embarrassment. Thanks to the leader of the gang Benny however, Scotty slowly but surely learns the game, about baseball, and what it is to be included. This movie will leave you reciting lines over and over again and the way Squints made the move on the lifeguard will go down in history. An absolute classic movie indeed, The Sandlot is the whole package, drama, comedy, romance, baseball. What could be better?

drumroll please………..

1: 61* Trust me, I didn’t pick this for number one just because I’m a Yankee fan. This made for TV movie was made with all the passion a life long Yankee fan like Billy Crystal could muster up. Filmed during the peak of Baseball’s infamous steroid era, this film offers a positive, informative, and action packed history lesson as it accurately captures the 1961 season and the tale of two Yankees. Mickey Mantle (a living legend who is loved by all and has all the charm and talent one could ask for) and Roger Maris (a soft spoken family man from North Dakota who was one of the most misunderstood people in sports history) both chasing Babe Ruth’s home run record of 60. This film does such a wonderful job of capturing every possible nuance of what it was like day after pressure packed day for both of them, that you will truly feel genuine emotions for all involved. The action is fast and realistic, the history is accurate to every last detail, and you could tell the director was a fan. 61* is number 1 in my book.

Devil

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Today my friend and I were planning on going to see The Town. You know, that flick where nuns throw grenades and for once, Ben Affleck isn’t terrible. I saw this movie with my parents and this time, I wanted to see it with my buddy. Now my friend is 16, and thanks to super fine small print, i can only get him in with me if I’m 21. This was much to my dismay indeed, so after arguing with the clerk and not wanting to run into OVS kids on the Promenade, we tentatively decided to see DEVIL by M. Night Shyamalan.

Now, we realized that this was a PG-13 horror flick which basically meant it was a “P word” movie to us teenagers, and it was from a director who has been on the decline ever since THE 6th SENSE. The movie was a thriller about how Satan supposedly takes human form to punish the damned before taking their souls. This was something that we understood from the narrative and didn’t feel the need for the small spanish security guard to mention over and over again. We get it, the Devil is something that isn’t to be messed with, but when mentioned too much, it becomes a dry and useless redundancy.

The story was interesting and consuming during the beginning and as it made it’s way into the middle, not because of any plot, but because the movie was trippy as hell and the effects were awesome. Mix in the terror factor and we have ourselves a decent horror flick.

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