On Guilty Pleasures & Vampire Copulation

We all have our guilty pleasures some more embarrassing than others. I like any good Trekkie or Star Wars fanatic wear my geeky love out in the open........You see I'm a Twihard ( couldn't someone have come up with a better monikor?)
What's a Twihard? Well a Twihard is someone obsessed with the Twilight Saga books and or movies....me I love them both. The writing us crap and full if cheese but the story.....well the story is fuckawesome. I read New Moon is five hours because I had to see how Edward back, I rushed through Eclipse in a day because I needed the triangle with Jacob to be done, Stephanie Meyer with all her faults knew how to keep her audience desperate for what came next.

After I read the books well next step was the movies and they are as campy as the books which is good in a way because I'm seeing the same story not a retouched or flanked up version. While some of the casting is horrid and some if the acting is cringe inducing I became just as hooked on the movies as the books.







I go see the midnight premiers and brave the rabid tweens and Twimoms to get my fix. Scour the internet for the scripts, read all the blogs see the ibterviews etc. The final book in the saga Breaking Dawn is currently being filmed as two movies to be released over the next two years. Eeekkk!!!! Almost two years to see VampBella?? Unfortunately yes, Breaking Dawn part 1 will release on November 18, 2011 and Breaking Dawn 2 which features Bella living as a vampire and the vampire human hybrid Renessme will release in November 2012. Both movies are being filmed at one time to reduce actor aging and to allow for extensive effects.
This will be the longest time between the release of a Twilight movie, which is frustrating as the big things happen in breaking Dawn:

Bella and Edward get married (sorry team Jacob you lost)
Bella and Edward trade in their V cards and have headboard shattering, flying feathers sex in Rio
A vampire baby but fear not the producers are releasing
The bad guys come a callin' etc.

Now even with all these things to look forward to, keeping the interest of an aging and evolving audience for a year and a half is hard which is why over the last few months as the movies filmed the producers have been gifting the loyal fans with
small glimpses of what's to come first up:






This photo was released on Thanksgiving as a gift from Director Bill Condon. When this photo was released I laughed....I mean talk about knowing your audience. See that there is Bella's arm surrounded by feathers....and well the feathers the mean Bella and Edward had an interesting wedding night. I think this was marketing genius it was subtle ,tasteful and left you wanting more. Well played Summit Entertainment, well played.

For Christmas we got this lovely postcard pic:







Sent with a tag line of 'Happy Holidays from the Swan House to yours". Again well done, this pic of what looks lime an ordinary living room is a picture of the house used for Bella and Charlie's house in the movies. Now if we look closely we will notice three very important things:

1----we have 4 stockings hung by the fireplace
2----1 stocking is small and meant for a child
3----the picture of the little girl in the background

This pic is actually a taste of Breaking Dawn part 2 when Bella and her husband Edward (sorry again team Jacob) take their daughter to visit grandpa Charlie for Christmas.

And looky what they released just after the new year:






This is the first official still(a photo of an actual scene) from Breaking Dawn 1 and it's kind of perfect. Twihards the world over were all a quiver over this photo. Twilight is a love story and Edward and Bella are the heart of this story and these movies. This pic is perfect in that is beautiful and tender and portrays the devotion that was detailed in the book. A photo of Edward and Bella doing the bump and grind would have gone against what they've been portrayed to be. This photo is smoking hot and yet classy. Beautifully lit and cropped it was the perfect glimpse at the next chapter in the story. And the actors well they look good, these two have made the movies worth watching. Others things can and have failed in this franchise but Edward and Bella had to be perfect and this casting was spot on.

Now as great as the tidbits from production have been the non official pics are much more telling of the storyline.

Sparing no expense (actually they are a pretty cheap studio) Summit decided to film the honeymoon on Location in various parts of Rio, being an exterior shoot this allowed some fans and the ever present and disturbing paparazzi to get some exciting pics:

Filmed in Lapa these pics show Edward and Bella strolling through the streets of Brazil as the land in Rio. Can I just say I'm loving the look these two are sporting, the Cullens are filthy stinkin rich and we are finally seeing them dresses accordingly and the look lime newlyweds having a fun walk.






Ooh Edwards boat






Filmed in Paraty these are pics of various honeymoon beach outings, again love the styling here and that they spent the money to do this right as opposed to green screening a beach.








The chess board is a cool throwback to the book cover





I have to say I never thought they would put her in a bikini after she wore pants and two shirts in the Eclipse beach scene. These pics are from a waterfall stunt doubles apparently did a jump into the ocean but no pics were taken






These show a bit more of the waterdall location and are pics of the actors in between takes, this is obvious because Edward and Bella don't smoke.







Well there you go there's my look of what's coming in Breaking Dawn part 1. They are being much more secretive with what's coming in part 2 as the 2012 release date is so far off but I will leave you with the latest and most important addition to the ginormous Breaking Dawn cast :

Mackenzie Foy as Renesmee Cullen"




Again great casting at least visually speaking, while there no way to know what her acting ability is she certainly looks like she could be the daughter of the actors who portray her parents. The plan is to use the same CGI technology that was used in Benjamin Button to show her rapid growth. They will use Mackenzie's face and voice on the bodies of younger actresses. And her face will also be adjusted to show how she changes from infant to elementary school age.


PS: I couldn't leave this out, I love how much fun he's having here this is a downtime pic and it's made of win. I mean he's a super famous multi millionaire in his skivvies.







-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:NYC

Eclipse Spin-Off: Milking the Twilight Cash Cow or Reason To get Excited?

Yesterday a press release announcing that Stephanie Meyer would be releasing a 192 page novella titled "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner" based on a Bree a minor character from the third novel in the Twilight Saga made it's rounds in the media. Some Twihards are super excited about this, me not so much.
Stephanie Meyer is famous for maintaining close contact with her fans via her website, which includes multiple outtakes from the 4 books in the saga. Readers can also find the first 13 chapters of "Midnight Sun" on her site, for those who don't know, Midnight Sun was the planned 5th book in the Twilight Saga and is a retelling of Twilight from Edwards perspective. The first draft of the manuscript was leaked by an insider and Meyer decided to make it available via her site promising that her next book would be Midnight Sun.
Now it's two 2 years and 2 ridiculously successful movies later and just in time for movie number 3 she has decided to release this novella which is based on a character from book/movie #3.
The character Bree appears in one scene in the approximately 700 page Eclipse, part of the army of vampires sent to kill Bella she surrenders to the Cullen's who offer to show her the way but kick ass Volturi Hench-Woman Jane kills her instead. The novella will show her journey with the army of bad vampires(lead by Victoria and Riley) from Seattle to Forks.
It could be an OK story, but truth be told I simply do not care about the character(s). We all know why Victoria goes on her mission, we all read when Riley realized he was a tool in Victoria's quest for vengeance and we all read Bree describing how she and the other newborns were brought into Victoria's Army. All three characters die in Eclipse, we know who they are, what they do, why they do it, and we know how they reach their demise. There are an infinite number of spin off options and according to many online polls that were made after yesterday's announcement people would have preferred it if she wrote about anyone else.
Me personally I would prefer reading the completed "Midnight Sun", as the ""would be fifth book in the series it benefited from better writing and stronger story telling. It also let's the readers see the where Edward's darkness comes from.
My verdict is that this is not a reason to get excited but an example of further milking of the Twilight cash cow, you know the milking I'm talking about: Edward panties, Jacob ice cream bars, Bella lipgloss and a novella about insignificant characters.
On the plus side, it will be available for free online for a period of time and $1 from the 13.95 selling price will be donated to charity.

Chhhhherry Bomb!!!!

After months of going back and forth on getting this blog up and running I am finally making my first post. I think it is fairly appropriate that I am popping my "blogging cherry" with a review of "The Runaways" whose biggest hit was the song "Cherry Bomb". Eww cant believe
I just wrote that.
So I'm a big fan of Joan Jett....like a huge fan..."Bad Reputation" and "Little Liar" are two of my personal anthems. I'm such a big fan that I converted my six year old Hannah Montana loving niece into a Joan Jett fan.

When I read about the biopic based on The Runaways I was super excited especially when I heard that Kristen Stewart would be starring as Joan Jett because I think that girl is kind of a bad ass and if you're going to play the queen of bad ass you need to be one yourself.
Now I get that people hate Twilight but I really think that the actors should not be judged on the Twilight films, it's hard to make something out of source material that includes some of the corniest lines ever to be published.

But back to The Runaways, music biopics can be very good (Walk the line) but can also quickly fall into a kitschy costume piece that's more about big name actors wanting to play Rock N' Roller than about telling a story. The Runaways is a good movie, it's not epic and it wont turn the movie industry on it side but it holds it own which is not easy for independent movies in this day and age. Made for under 10 million dollars in the summer of 2009 the film rounded up a great cast, is visually gritty, honest and respectful of the story it is telling.

The movie serves as an inspiration/cautionary tale. Cherrie falls hard and fast, Joan stumbles but perseveres and becomes one of the biggest Rock N' Roll icons of all time(note I did not say female icons, Joan is too big for that, she is not a female rocker she is a rocker period.)
The strength of the film comes from the performances, Stewart as Joan Jett and Michael Shannon as the bands manager/svengali are the standouts.

Stewart serves as the spine/anchor of the movie and the band. She plays the role with the quiet intensity of the real Joan. She is vulnerable, open and I want to say raw in her delivery. In every scene that she is onscreen but not the focus of the scene you want her to be the focus. The role of Cherrie is undoubtedly more flashy and fun and has more screen time but the role of Joan has more depth (or is played with more depth) and more heart. Stewart literally becomes Joan, walking like her(like a boy), writing with her left hand, adopting an east coast accent, loses her own trademark ticks (lip biting and blinking) and taking on Joan's ticks.
An acoustic guitar player she learned how to play the electric guitar in 3 weeks so that she could do her own guitar playing and singing in the film. Her impersonation of Joan singing is so spot on it even confused me with her rendition of "I love Playing with Fire" almost identical to the original. For those who question her acting ability based on Twilight her performance in The Runaways is a great big fuck you....and an example of her believability and skill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXE9W3Ryk6Q

Her standout moments in the film are fairly evenly dispersed but as Joan comes into her own toward the movies end so does Kristen. The breakup scene is my favorite, we see her in this dark studio looking OK and as things start to fall apart she angrily tries to keep it together. The lights come on and we see what time, drugs and life on the road have done to her. The moment where she jumps at the glass and finally says fuck you is one of if not the most powerful moment in the movie.
Other great moments include the her first appearance onscreen where she pours a bag of loose change on a thrift store counter and tells the shopkeeper" I want what he's wearing" pointing to a guy in a leather biker jacket we then see her running down the Sunset Strip as the title card comes up.
There are a multitude of moments and I wont mention them all because I want everyone to see this movie not just read about it.

Shannon is a scene stealer, I have not seen his previous work but dude owns the screen whenever he is on. His character could have become a complete joke because of his outrageous wardrobe, makeup and one liners but truth is Kim Fowley really is that out there. He is given what have to be the best lines in the movie and he delivers them flawlessly and dynamically like when he finds 15 year old Cherie in a club and knows he's found the final piece to the all girl band and exclaims "Jail fucking bait, Jack Fucking Pot!". He delivers his outlandish and sexists one liners without letting his character become the joke, examples of this brilliance are:

"You bitches are going to be bigger than the Beatles"
"You pussies showed those punks how to cock fight"
"I'm teaching you bitches how to think with your cocks"
'Men want to see women in two places, in their kitchens or on their knees. Not on stage with guitars"
"This is not about women's lib it's about women's libido" speaking to Joan about what they are trying to build together
"Do the death dance bitches" this is a scene where he pays teenage boys to throw garbage and poop at the girls so they can prepare themselves for hecklers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTcDyZJ5DOQ

OK so this getting pretty long so I'm going to say what really worked and what could have been better. What works:
This film is the first biopic of an all female band and it takes that honor seriously writer/director Floria Sigismondi weaves her tale well, infusing it with humor, heart and bad ass attitude. A music video director this is her first feature and her gritty yet beautiful imagery is stunning at times. Her musical performance sequences are amazing and casting the movie with two leads who could sing their own parts was a good move as no one wants to see lip syncing.
Wardrobe, for a movie with a limited budget they went all out,the pieces are true to the late 70's but they never come off as costumey (except the actual stage costumes).
The little details, the details that only super fans notice. They are plentiful in this movie, for example we see Joan enter the English Disco and we hear a cover of her future hit "Do you wanna touch me". Later in a moment of reflection we see her listening to music from the street, the song is The Arrows "I love Rock N Roll" which Joan covered and it became her first number 1. We also see her pick up a white Gibson guitar in her panties singing along to the song while jumping up and down on her bed, the guitar in question is a Gibson Melody Maker and it was her signature guitar during her rise to solo fame. We also see her in a bathtub reciting lyrics and writing a song, the lyrics she is reciting are to Joan's song "Love is Pain" That attention to detail really adds to the movie.

The title of the Runaways is a bit misleading as it is really the story of Cherie and Joan. However a bit more of the other Runaways would have good. Lita Ford only comes onscreen for about 5 lines(Ford would not sign off on the film) and the fictional bass player Robin Robins does not say one word in the whole film.

There are no clear notations of the passing of time but if you pay super close attention you may notice Joan's haircut changes subtly throughout the movie this is done to depict the passing of years, however very few will notice these details. It seems that mere months have passed when in fact the film spans approximately three years.
There is also an out of place sequence where we see Joan in a tub the image transitions to her body floating in an ocean. This fantasy sequence is odd because it is not a dream, hallucination or fantasy sequence.

Finally my thoughts on Dakota Fanning as Cherrie. Fanning has some strong moments, her drunken grocery shopping is a favorite moment of mine and she plays the innocent well. She also delivers in the musical performance scenes, like Stewart she does her own singing but does not impersonate Cherrie's voice which is good because Cherrie was not a good singer. But I don't think she was quite ready for this role. There is no difference in her portrayal of a drug free girl dancing in her room to a coked up girl dancing in a Japanese hotel. She shares good chemistry with Stewart and you believe in their friendship she also works well with Riley Keough (Elvis Pressley's granddaughter) who plays her twin sister.

So the good outweighs the not so good by a ton. Go see this movie! If not for the great music see it because it's about women, directed by a woman and executive produced by a woman.

There you have it my first ever blog post!! My next post is all about shoe porn and the shoegasm's it leads to.