Alice in Wonderland (2010) Character Portraits

Mia Wasikowska as Alice

Anne Hathaway as The White Queen

Helena Bonham Carter as The Red Queen

Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter

Images owned by Disney Enterprises.

Board Game Movies?

They should've stopped at Clue.

A string of board game inspired movies are set to hit the big screen, including Candy Land, Battleship, ANOTHER Clue movie, Monopoly, & (the pseudo-board game) Where's Waldo. There are really only two ways these movies could go: a giant flop or a huge success.

Candy Land: Universal Studios has gotten hold of the rights to film a Candy Land movie, & have hired the famed Etan Cohen to write the script & the director of Enchanted to direct it. link

Battleship: Universal also bought the rights to this classic board game, hiring Peter Berg, the director of Hancock to direct it. It is slated to become a naval action-adventure movie. link

Clue: Gore Verbinski, director of Pirates of the Caribbean is slated to direct this remake. link

Monopoly: link

Where's Waldo: link

SIMS 3 Review!

SIMS 3 came out yesterday, and being the SIMS addict that I am, I pre-ordered it, overnighted it & received it today. After realizing it wouldn't work on my Mac (although I'm getting leopard soon so it'll work then.) I loaded onto the ol' PC & gave it a try.

Immediately I noticed the clean animations and the awesome SIM customizer, an OBVIOUS upgrade from SIMS 2. You can tweak and change almost every little bit of your sim, from colour of clothes and skin (exact shade, a gradient bar rather than just a few choices!) to weight (from stick skinny to chubby bunny).

After customizing my family & picking out a small home to move them into, the second thing I noticed was the super amazing new interior (and exterior) decorating tools. You can now move the furniture and decor with more ease (and turn it DIAGONAL, making things fit against diagonal walls! This was something I've wanted since the original SIMS.) There are more choices, more colours, and you can buy more cars.

This leads me to the coolest feature. Not only can you BUY the cars, but you can DRIVE them... to actual locations around your town! You have free reign around your entire town, zoom out all the way to a town map view, then zoom back in on your house. You can watch your sims drive to work, to the spa, to the Italian restaurant downtown, and to the stadium for a concert!

Another small feature that I thought was rather neat was the cell phones. The ability to answer the phone no matter where you are is so much easier, and you take the phone with you outside of the home!

Between the graphics (which are beautiful), the ease of customization, and the overall gameplay, SIMS 3 is by far the best version thus far. I highly recommend a purchase if you have enjoyed past versions! I only bought the regular version, but was very tempted to buy the Collector's Edition (simply for the awesome 2GB USB plumbob!!). Go, buy!

As an added bonus, I'll give you guys my favourite cheat code for SIMS 3. I DO play games without using cheats, but while getting the hang of the game and getting a feel for it, a money cheat is very useful. (To use cheat codes, press shift+ctrl+c then type the command in the box.) Typing in "motherlode" without the quotes gets you $50,000 simoleons every time.

Enjoy the game. :)

Star Trek Review

I watched Star Trek last night, & I must say, I'm very pleased. I'm not much of a Star Trek fan originally, but the movie was incredible. The special effects / casting choices were impeccable, and the guest appearance of Leonard Nimoy was a wonderful choice.

I can't say much without spoiling the movie, but it's well worth the movie ticket! GO! SEE!

Where the Wild Things Are (October 16, 2009)

A live-action film of Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are". Who's excited? I most certainly am. Let's hope Spike Jonze doesn't disappoint. With Forrest Whitaker playing the voice of the wild thing, it's sure to be an instant hit in my heart. I read the book more times than I could count as a child, and I have a feeling I'll be watching this movie more than once (at least).

It doesn't hurt that The Arcade fire is played in the trailer, either. :) I'm crossing my fingers for an equally as memorable soundtrack.

EDIT: the video was replaced with one that works. sorry about that.

Looking Forward: The 2010 release of Alice in Wonderland

Another Tim Burton / Johnny Depp collaboration? I thought I would have grown tired of such a thing, but Depp as the Mad Hatter tickles me to the very core. I cannot wait to see him play this role. Here's hoping Burton follows his traditional route & shows the "darker side" of the story, and judging by this photograph of Depp as the Mad Hatter, he probably will. Kudos to him for sticking to his guns!

By the looks of things, this will be an incredible movie. The young, fragile looking blonde who is playing the part of Alice looks to be the perfect candidate for the role. Although the choice of Anne Hathaway as the White Queen is a bit shaky to me, (I can't stop seeing the little princess of Genovia every time I see that face) here's hoping she'll prove me wrong! And, of course, every Tim Burton film has to feature his wonderful wife, Helena Bonham Carter. She will be playing the Red Queen. I think this is a good choice, she can do sinister quite well, as she showed us in Sweeney Todd. My favourite choice was Stephen Fry as the Cheshire cat. Take a look at him! He is absolutely perfect for the role.

We shall see if Burton's most expected film of 2010 will excite or disappoint. Here's hoping for the former.

Movie Review: The Watchmen

Who watches the watchmen? I most certainly did, & I wasn't alone. Millions of people around the country rolled into theatres to watch this highly expected film. But was it worth it? I most certainly think so.

From the diverse cast (mmm, Jeffrey Dean Morgan) to the incredibly unique filming, this movie didn't even come close to disappointing me, although I can see where some people might have been less than thrilled with it. The artistic approach is rarely accepted by all. However, I greatly enjoyed everything about this film: the casting, the filming, & the editing. It was far from a disappointment.

I'd have to say Rorschach was my favourite character in the movie. But thank Jesus H. Christ they didn't show his face for most of the film, Jackie Earle Haley isn't a very pretty person. But Rorschach's snide comments and dry humor stole the show. If you were quick enough to catch his incredibly sarcastic jabs, you had yourself a giggle or two.

*SPOILER* My favourite scene? The scene in the jail when Rorschach followed the "little man" into the bathroom... the door swinging back & forth to reveal snippets of what you knew was happening was incredibly creative... and the toilet flush at the end sealed the deal.

All-in-all, the film was incredible. If you aren't a huge fan of the more creatively shot films, you probably want to wait until this one is out on DVD. It's well worth the movie ticket, regardless.