FC Barcelona Sport

I've watched all of these, but haven't had the time to review them yet. I will get them up as soon as possible. I've decided to add TV shows on here, but only when I watch the entire season at once, so True Blood: season one will be on here first and soon I'll have my thoughts on Battlestar Gallactica: season one.

Visiting Liliana and Eli...

The stupid game:

They spent a few dollars with this thing hahaha

Managed to loose the house keys that night, that I proudly believed I would hand it back to Amanda before I leave the house. Last good impression, NOT!

Anyway still after heaps of good bye dinners, coffees, lunchs, presents :-), rodas, take downs (this one deserves a post) Nadia couldn't help herself and organized a surprise at Orbit Lounge!

It is no secret that Billy Wilder is my favorite director, but I can say that of all his films Sabrina is not one of my favorites.

In the film, Sabrina Fairchild is the daughter of the chauffer to the powerful Larabee family; growing up adjacent to the Larabee house has made young Sabrina become infatuated with the youngest Larabee son, David. The problem is that David doesn’t even know Sabrina exists, he is far too caught up in chasing after the daughters of the socialites in his circle. Sabrina’s father decides the best course of action to get Sabrina over David is to send her to cooking school in Paris; while in Paris Sabrina is absolutely miserable, until she meets a friend that helps her begin to mature into the sophisticated Parisian woman she can be. Upon graduation Sabrina returns to the Larabee estate and decides to use her newfound feminine charms to win the newly engaged David. In order to keep David from ruining his engagement (and therefore the plastics deal the Larabee’s are working towards) older brother Linus does his best to occupy Sabrina’s time.

I can’t name anything large or specific that makes Sabrina mark low on my list of Billy Wilder films. One of the key elements for me is that it tonally just feels very different from all of his previous films; Sabrina was made after some of his best - Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Blvd. and Ace in the Hole - and Sabrina is just borderline bland next to those.

I also have to say that I don’t know if I enjoy Humphrey Bogart in the role of Linus. Call me ageist but to me he is just too old to be playing Hepburn’s love interest. The tow also don’t seem to be performing towards each other; Hepburn is interacting with Bogart, but Bogart doesn’t seem to be responding to her.

I still enjoy this movie and think Wilder is a film god, I just think he made such astronomically great movies that this one just being “good” seems sub-par.

Director: Billy Wilder
Writer: Billy Wilder, Samuel Taylor & Ernest Lehman
Linus Larabee: Humphrey Bogart
Sabrina Fairchild: Audrey Hepburn
David Larabee: William Holden

Yes, yes. I saw Terminator Salvation two times in a row. What was I supposed to do? A friend wanted to go and so I went. It was fun.

I actually enjoyed seeing the film more on the second viewing and I have to day that is probably because through my entire first viewing I was constantly tense…I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was on pins and needles most of the film the first time because I love the first two films so much that I didn’t see any way that another installment of Terminator could add to the franchise after the disaster that was T3. Thank goodness my faith in McG paid off. I’d heard him speak so passionately about Terminator at last years Comic-Con and begun to get a sense that he of all people could make a worthy follow-up to Cameron’s visionary story. McG exceeded.

One of my favorite things in Terminator Salvation is that though the film has switched entirely to John Connor and away from Sarah we still get Sarah Connor in the film. Those that have followed the Connor’s since Terminator know that she recorded a series of tapes for John to prepare him for the future to come, the war with the machines and how he came to be. Now a grown man without his mother by his side to fight with him, John uses those tapes constantly in an effort to stay on top of the machines and the war to come.

As much as I loved McG’s vision of the future I still miss James Cameron at the helm. However, I hope that since Cameron isn’t there McG can perhaps get Linda Hamilton to reprise her iconic role if the story dictates it…

Marcus Wright: What day is it? What year?
Kyle Reese: 2018.
Marcus Wright: What happened here?
Kyle Reese: Judgment Day happened.

In Terminator Salvation we are finally in the post-Judgment Day war, but we are early in it – the resistance is still learning to fight against the machines, and the machines are still fighting against John Connor. John Connor is finally dealing with the future his mother warned him about, the one he lived his life preparing for. He thought he was prepared for it until Marcus Wright arrives and shocks John completely – Marcus is a terminator but believes he is human. I have to say that no Terminator film will ever match Cameron’s original films, but this one is a good addition to the series.

What was so great to me about Terminator Salvation is how McG has explored the mythos of Judgment Day and John Connor. By placing the audience early in the war we get to see the continued journey of how John Connor becomes the leader of the resistance. You see when we come into the movie John is not the leader. John is high in the resistance but there is a central command that does not accept him as leader. The writers and McG have explored a very simple concept of John Connor as savior; because of Sarah, John has the knowledge of the machines and the war, and knows that he is who can end it all but while a great many people accept Johns story there is another group of people that think he is what amounts to a false prophet. John has to fight for his position as leader of the resistance.

This is the first Terminator movie that has not had a plot directly related to time travel. However, as the core of the films deal with time travel it does come up in this film. The primary thing that John Connor has to deal with is not only pushing forward to beat down Skynet, but finding his father Kyle Reese. At this point in time Kyle is actually younger than John, but John must find him, protect him and shepard him into the soldier that he will send back in time to protect his mother without Kyle ever knowing that this is what is happening. And after a lifetime of growing up never knowing his father, John Connor will finally meet him.

What I am still weighing in my mind is the character of Marcus Wright. I can’t say that I disliked the character, and I think that upon further viewing I will in fact like him more, but the character was a bit odd to me. I think my only reasoning is that never before has a main character entirely taken focus off one of the Connor’s. However, his character served a great purpose in the film and was pretty dang interesting so I can’t complain. I do however wish that Kate Connor was further explored as it felt like there should have been more to her in the movie.

Terminator Salvation has gotten a lot of crap, and I have to say that most of it is probably coming from people that still won’t accept McG as a credible director. However, he seems to be on a string of well done movies, it began with We Are Marshall and if it continues past Terminator Salvation I’d say I can safely call McG a dang good director. I’d take him over Michael Bay any day.

Director: McG
Writers: John D. Brancato & Michael Ferris
John Connor: Christian Bale
Marcus Wright: Sam Worthington
Blair Williams: Moon Bloodgood
Dr. Serena Kogan: Helena Bonham Carter
Kyle Reese: Anton Yelchin
Kate Connor: Bryce Dallas Howard
General Ashdown: Michael Ironside

John Connor: We've been fighting a long time. We are out numbered by machines. Working around the clock,without quit. Humans have a strength that cannot be measured. This is John Connor. If you are listening to this,you are the resistance.

Superman Doomsday is the straight to DVD release, animated adaptation of the Death of Superman series that made waves in the 1990’s in the DC universe. In it slowly, painfully Superman takes on an alien being who has been unleashed on Metroplois and Superman takes him on. He manages to defeat Doomsday, but in the process he is killed. The following weeks the world had to deal with the fact that their super man had died and how to cope.

While Superman Doomsday is an adequate representation of the comic book story arch, like all Superman projects to make it to film it is deeply flawed, and it’s flawed in ways that are entirely artificial – they weren’t in the comic book.

First, Lois is dating Superman. That’s right, not Clark Kent, but Superman. BY the time Doomsday rolled around Lois and Clark were engaged. The writers of the animated film wrote themselves into a corner – everyone knows Lois has a thing for Superman, by dati ng him and not Clark he has opened Lois up as a target and painted a huge red arrow over Clark’s head if he reveals his identity to her and they begin to date.

They don’t cover at all that the citizens of Metropolis take on the protection of the city themselves. Several upstanding people decide to try and make themselves like Supes. Even Brainiac gets in on the action. In Superman Doomsday only Lex counters by creating a Superman clone. However, this animated production does a lot better job than Smallville of handling Doomsday…and Superman in general.

Superman Doomsday is not a bad Superman project. However, if you are familiar with the Superman universe in the comics it may not be what you are looking for.

Superman: Adam Baldwin
Lois Lane: Anne heche
Lex Luthor: James Marsters
Martha Kent: Swoosie Kurtz

Grumpy Man: Yeah, like we really needed him to bust up the mechanical spider, right? Lame!

12 jurors have just sat through a grueling murder trial where an 18 year old boy has been accused of murdering his father and they are tasked with convicting him. Upon entering the jury room 11 of the men are convinced the boy is guilty, but juror 8 is not sure, and for a conviction it must be unanimous. The fight begins with the 11 men trying to convince juror 8 he is wrong, but 8’s conviction never wavers – he insists not that the boy is innocent but that there is enough room for reasonable doubt that the boy didn’t do it and was an unfortunate victim of the system. At first the men are upset because to them the case was open and shut, but 8’s conviction and questions soon start to sway more of the men who realize that they need to truly consider what they are about to become – the boys executioner.

12 Angry Men is one of the classic cinema gems that I had very high expectations for and shockingly it exceeded them. I did not expect 12 men arguing in one room for 90 minutes to be that timeless and invigorating, I knew it could be done because “simple” movies can be amazing, but 12 Angry Men is phenomenal.

I’ve never really considered myself a Henry Fonda fan, it’s not that I don’t like him I just never through about him as an actor. Fonda was phenomenal in this film; he has to stand out as the man against everyone without being bigoted, pushy or anything that would make him unsympathetic to the audience and he excels as the juror who genuinely wants to do what’s right. He wants to do what he was tasked to do, leave all his prejudices and predispositions at the door and simply think about the murder case as an objective outsider.

What is fascinating about 12 Angry Men is that each character is so well defined. They may have numbers instead of names but through the course of the film their personalities become incredibly obvious and Lumet created the film in such a way that each character has their moment as the center of attention. This not only is great for the actors, but incredibly wonderful for the audience as a large ensemble in a cramped space could have been very confusing for the audience. Lumets choice of shots, edits and the level of performance he got out of all of his actors is a thing of beauty and what makes 12 Angry Men an essential film to anyone that claims to have good taste in movies. If you want to make movies I think it’s even more important as it will teach you that a good movie doesn’t need to be big – it just needs to be well made.

Director: Sidney Lumet
Writer: Reginald Rose
Juror 1: Martin Balsam
Juror 2: John Fiedler
Juror 3: Lee J. Cobb
Juror 4: E.G. Marshall
Juror 5: Jack Klugman
Juror 6: Ed Binns
Juror 7: Jack Warden
Juror 8: Henry Fonda
Juror 9: Joseph Sweeny
Juror 10: Ed Begley
Juror 11: George Voskovec
Juror 12: Robert Webber

Juror #8: It's always difficult to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And wherever you run into it, prejudice always obscures the truth. I don't really know what the truth is. I don't suppose anybody will ever really know. Nine of us now seem to feel that the defendant is innocent, but we're just gambling on probabilities - we may be wrong. We may be trying to let a guilty man go free, I don't know. Nobody really can. But we have a reasonable doubt, and that's something that's very valuable in our system. No jury can declare a man guilty unless it's SURE. We nine can't understand how you three are still so sure. Maybe you can tell us.

Honestly, the true test of how much I genuinely love a movie is how often I watch it or talk about it. Last year I genuinely fell in love with Iron Man and I am relatively sure it’s landing on the list of my all-time favorite films. This year I am falling head over heels for Star Trek and if the love affair continues it could also end up on my favorite films list.

What was so great about this viewing was that I got to watch Star Trek with an original Trekkie – my grandmother. My grandmother has followed the Trek universe since the first episode of the original series premiered and has been a faithful fan ever since. I considered this a true test of how the film would hold up against a real fan, someone who fell in love with the series because of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and Gene Roddenberry. She filled my childhood head with the world of the Federation, always had the coolest collectibles and would call foul when she saw the shows do something stupid; if there was anyone that I would genuinely listen to if they cried foul over Abrams updated Trek it would be her.

My grandmother loved Star Trek. A original Trekkie to the core, she told me that she thought Abrams understood the series perfectly and it was a great movie, her favorite Star Trek movie in years.

I challenge anyone out there that thinks Abrams defiled Star Trek to take on my grandmother. She knows her stuff better than most of the haters out there, and above all else since she’s been around the series since its inception she remembers that the series is supposed to be about the characters, the explorations and most of all the adventures – science always took a back seat when Rodenberry was at the wheel.

McCoy: Permission to speak freely, sir?
Spock: I welcome it.
McCoy: Do you? OK, then. Are you out of your Vulcan mind? Are you making a logical choice, sending Kirk away? Probably. But, the right one? You know, back home we have a saying: "If you wanna ride in the Kentucky Derby, you don't leave your prized stallion in the stable."

Went for the first time to Luna Park and for the first time I watched a cage fight. To be honest is a funny environment with all the "Macho" screams, outfits , entrance songs and of course when you're outside the cage how hilarious it is to see a punch face.

oooooooooooooooooooh hahahaa

With Nadia @ Luna park

Picking up 5 years after the conclusion of The Princess Diaries Mia is now the crown princess of Genovia, and now that she is 21 she is preparing to take over as Queen from her Grandmother Clarisse. However, Mia’s American heritage is unacceptable to Viscount Mabrey and he challenges Mia’s right o inherit the throne by dredging up a law that states no Queen can be unmarried and his Nephew Nicholas would be the rightful heir if Mia cannot marry. This forces Mia to pursue an arranged marriage in 30 days, and Clarisse invites Nicholas to stay at the palace while Mia plans her wedding to Andrew so that she can keep an eye on any mischief the Viscount may be planning. As usual, Mia manages to cause a lot of trouble, the biggest matter being that she and Nicholas’ tormented relationship slowly beings to become something more as the two fall for each other complicating both her engagement and the plans of the Viscount.

It may be true that since Pretty Woman Gary Marshall uses the same jokes over and over again, but I still find The Princess Diaries 2 to be adorable and charming. It probably helps that Grey’s Anatomy creater Shonda Rhimes wrote the screenplay and while Grey’s may have gone down the tubes, the woman can write great comedic women. I do adore this screenplay and think it is the perfect blend of a traditional Disney film and a romantic comedy.

One of the reasons I have always loved The Princess Diaries is because of the female leads – Anne Hathaway & Julie Andrews. I don’t think you could better match two actresses from different generations. Anne is grace, poise, talent and beauty - exactly what Julie Andrews is. The two play off each other so flawlessly that you would assume that they could possibly be related. Hathaway is perfect for the role of the unassuming princess and at this point in her career I do consider her the heir to the likes of Julies Andrews or Audrey Hepburn.

I do have to say that from the first time I saw this movie one of the big selling points for me was Chris Pine. I liked him before he was Captain Kirk. Pine plays Nicholas as the perfect romantic foil to Mia and I am glad he has gone on since to continue getting progressively larger roles. I cannot wait to see where his career takes him.

The Princess Diaries 2 is actually a film that I enjoy better than the first. Perhaps it’s because I grew up along the same lines as Mia’s character did, in the sense that in 2004 I was only a little older than Mia, and having grown up with Cinderella stories Mia meeting her prince charming did manage to resonate with me. Regardless, the film is funny, well made and an entertaining watch.

Director: Gary Marshall
Writers: Shonda Rhimes
Mia: Anne Hathaway
Queen Clarisse: Julie Andrews
Joe: Hector Elizondo
Viscount Mabrey: John Rhys-Davies
Lily Moscovitz: Heather Matarazzo
Nicholas: Chris Pine
Andrew Jacoby: Callum Blue

Mia Thermopolis: Oh, by the way, I'm getting married!
Lilly Moscovitz: To who?
Mia Thermopolis: I don't know.

Last minute stubbornness, is not worth it telling the all story! It was something like:
"I'm upset give me my credit card and a laptop...I'm going!" thanks Pedro I just needed your push to do it :)