Director Tarsem Singh goes around the world filming in 18 countries to achive this artful and stylized movie. The locations and compositions are stunning. The full use of every inch of the frame makes every shot a piece of art with in it self. Which in turn makes this film experience as visually and thought provoking as if you went to a spectacular art gallery for an evening. I look forward to seeing this again to be able to watch the pictures unfold before me.

I think I may have to start to call myself a (DUN DUN Dunnn) a Southerner!

I was born up in Wisconsin. Yeah I did not live there all that long, maybe 6 months, soon to move to Florida then soon after moved to the heart of the south Atlanta Georgia. Even though I do not recall living any place but Atlanta, I have always called myself a Yankee, Cheese Head, rooted for the Packers if a game was on even if they were not playing <Yeah I am nuts & know nothing about football> & I feel more comfortable in the snow then the heat of summers. I got Northern Blood flowing through my veins; both my parents have long time family roots in the north. As I grew up & travelled the world I baffled foreigners with my lack of a southern accent. I did feel the need to have read Gone with the Wind before heading off for school in England.

Well here it is the big step in me becoming a “Southerner” I have found that I crave Sweet Ice Tea!

ACK! Quick think of something Yankee like Dairy Cows, Snow, Ice Fishing, Brautworst.

Oh No I think I my Northern Blood is thinning!

Pass me that pitcher of tea and lets watch some Packers! What? It’s Baseball Season!

The Strangers opens with a glimps of the horror to come and ends with a full bloody picture of the horror that was hinted at the start. Through out the movie you and everyone in the theater will jump and cringe as the bad guy comes into the screen. This was the scariest movie I have ever watched with closed eyes.

The Strangers Trailor

Years ago while I was going to school in England Kevin would send me off to the long flight with a book he read that he knew I would like or send me a care package with a book or two.  Two of these books are the first books in a series of books, one was by George R.R. Martin called A Game of Thrones and the other was Larell K. Hamilton called Guilty Pleasures.

A Game of Thrones grabbed me so tightly that I read this 704 page book, which by others have been called a door stop, in what felt like mere moments. I had a hard time putting this book down at night cause I just had to know what happened next to my favorite characters, with chapters devoted to each characters lives in different areas I would find myself trying hard to rationalize reading all the chapters between just to see if they made it out of the castle alive or what not. I was lucky that I had Kevin to send me the next book in the series. I am still on baited breath waiting for the next book.

But due to me finding myself lost in this story it helped me find other books that I would have passed by. Some by George R.R. Martin Fevre Dream & the Wild Card books, some just found me The Postman,

Guilty Pleasures showed me a world about vampires, magic detective work and assassination. Once again I found myself having a hard time putting the book down. Laurell K. Hamilton has put out 16 books to this date in the Anita Blake series. I did find that as the books went on that their was abit more of the sexual element then I would like so I stopped reading them somewhere in the single digits.

Even thou I did not stick with this series to the end, I did find other book series that pull me into a new world. Dead Until Dark, Grave Sight, Shakespear’s Landlord all first books in series by Charlaine Harris. Undead & Unwed, Sleeping with the Fishes, The Royal Treatment, Jennifer Scales & the Ancient Furnace all first books in series by MaryJanice Davidson. Moon Called first of two so far by Patrica Briggs. California Demon: The Secret Life of a Demon-Hunting Soccor Mom first in a 3 book series by Julie Kenner.

So what is my secret? I read what my husband calls Paranormal Romance. Ok ok they are paranormal and some have romance in them, but so do 90% fiction books out there & they do not call them crime romance novel or action romance novels. Grrrrrrrr. Just cause there are people in the story that date one another does not make it a Romance Novel. Anyways that’s the secret. Some may think it is nothing & others may laugh, but what they heck!

I read do you?

I love stories of crime be it true to fictitious, ancient to today, solved to unsolved, written to TV I find it all fascinating.

The first crime to ever capture my imagination was the death of King Tut the child Pharaoh, the thoughts as to if it was murder or accident, if murder was it due to want of power, politics, money, or return to old religion. This complex story lead me down the road of wanting to be an archaeologist so that I might be able to answer a question of “who done it?”. It was a simple thought process for a young child to want to know “who done it” but as I have grown I want other questions answered. With a unnatural death what was the catalyst, what was seen to have great enough value to take someones life, be it present, past or even ancient past. My questions are not limited to just the one on one crime but that of a large collective. As seen in societies it is found to be OK, if not needed, for the death of another to cause change or to provide examples. Change in politics, god’s favor, purity of race, power, territories, trade, greed, religion/morals or law can be seen as sanctioned reasons by Societies for unnatural/murder of others deaths through out history.  

I guess this is all to give some understanding as to how my seemingly macabre interest just comes around to the simple idea of knowing how a we all tick be it on our own or as a collective, what is our value?

With all of this said I hope that by stating that one of the main places that I want to go to if I should ever visit Los Angeles will be understood. A must visit stop for me is L.A. Morgue gift shop.

I enjoyed the book more then I thought I would, this is due to the book not being what I figured it would be. I thought it would be about boys with supernatural abilities who learn that there are consequences to using them. The book is about a boy who during traumatic moment with drunken abusive father uses an ability he is completely unaware that he has to get to a safe place. Story does not revolve around the ability but about the boy getting away from his father & making his way in New York with no money, no ID, no birth certificate, no S.S. and no high school diploma. While finding his way he ends up finding out more about himself as well as a cause to fight for.

The movie’s story is told in a manner reminiscent of The Princess Bride, flipping from the past to the story telling at a child’s bedside with insightful comments by Maya. Just like the daughter being kept in the dark as to which women is “the one”, by change of names, so is the audience. Each women is likable and a perfect fit to the point that you at one point or another you hope that Will ends up with her. Each relationship puts smiles on your face as you watch them learn about each other as does the interaction of father & daughter. Favorite moments also come about when Will slips in his story telling and mentions his bad habits that every parent hopes that they can hide from their kids.

 Leave the figuring out which women is “the one” to Maya, you will find yourself smiling all the way to the end. 

The premises for this movie is that this film has been found by the government during the recovery after a catastrophe has happened in Manhattan. The video is being made by a group of friends who are celebrating their good friend leaving to head off to Japan to start a new job. When the celebration is cut short by the attack of Manhattan by a monster of unknown origins. The partiers continue to film so as to document their exodus of the danger with the thought that others would want to know what happened.

Cloverfield is slow in getting to the action and the monster. This time is given over to letting you get to know the characters so that you care about the paths & turns they take in escaping. The camera work fits with the concept of recording on the run, to the point that the fast movement & unfocused moments that even those that are immune to sea sickness may find they wished they had taken Dramamine before the movie started as they walked out. Cloverfield has explosions, chases, military action, falling buildings, daring escapes, a touch of love & much monster destruction.

Those that went into the movie looking for a Monster Movie showing the destruction of Manhattan will be disappointed. Those that are wanting a story about people & their relationships as they deal with exiting a world of massive destruction with be pleased.

I tried for many days to think of something insightful to write for a review of this simple movie & came to a realization that simple is all that is needed to get my view across.

You could tell the path that the movies was going down which allowed you just sit back & laugh at the jokes as they played out. It was fun like getting drunk & dancing on a bar, you may not remember all the things that made you laugh, but man you laughed the whole time.

The problem that I may come to is complicated. My desire to read a series of books one after another which in turn means I quickly get to the end of the series. At the end of the series I curse the Authors for writing such good books but yet not writing the next book fast enough. Well I really can not blame them, I have found that I will read a book by a favorite author in as little as 6 hours. It made me oh so sad, I waited months for the book to come out & WHAM I am done. ^%*&^(#!@*&! Then I silently pout & sludge though other books till the Next Favorite Author comes along or a Past Favorite Author puts out a new book & the cycle starts again.

Maybe some of you will understand & maybe others will think “Man she is N.U.T.S.”. But as my husband does when I ask him if he thinks I am nuts, he looks at me lovingly and says “Honey I don’t think your nuts, I know your Nuts”!