The Hangover part III – Movie Review

Last week I went to the movies with one of my best friends Brian. I really wanted to see The Hangover part III and after a nice dinner made by Brian we went to the new movie theater in the city we live in: Vlaardingen.

I think most people have seen at least one Hangover movie. I mean, even my parents have. I totally love the first movie but the second one didn’t really entertain me, so I was kinda sceptic about this third part. But: THE MOVIE IS AMAZING!!

What’s it about? Phil, Stu, Doug, and Alan have been friends for a very long time and of course (as you can see in The Hangover I & II) they have experienced some stuff together they can only share with each other since it’s just too incredible.  “The Wolfpack” (Phil, Stu, Doug and Alan) is kinda falling apart after all the things they had to go through because they don’t want more drama. However, drama seems to be their middle names. After the death of Alan’s father the Wolfpack and Alan’s family convince Alan to go to rehab because he’s been out of control. Phil, Stu and Doug promise to take him to the rehab in Arizona; a long and quiet trip until they get kidnapped. Mob leader Marshall tells them that Leslie Chow, the creator of drama, escaped from prison. Apparently Chow stole Marshall’s gold, which is worth $21 million and Phil, Stu and Alan have to get it back. If they don’t find the gold and Mr. Chow within 3 days Doug will be killed. Against everybody’s expectations (they should’ve known better though) Alan still communicates with Chow every now and then and he sets up a meeting with the fugitive. And that’s the beginning of a freaking funny movie. THEY’RE GOING BACK TO LAS VEGAS!

I’m not gonna tell more about the story, because you just gotta see it! It’s hilarious.
‘C’est domage’ that Doug doesn’t really appear in the adventure but I didn’t really miss him. Mr. Chow is my all time favorite. He is so sneaky and funny at the same time. How can you hate a guy who jumps completely high off Caesar’s Palace with a parachute?
In the beginning there’s this cute giraffe and later on 2 dogs and some roosters. Well, let’s just say that if you’re an animal lover you just gotta close your eyes a couple of times.

I can’t believe this is the last The Hangover movie. I think they could’ve done a better job promoting the movie in The Netherlands. I just don’t want it to be over :p.
I still love The Hangover I the most, but this movie really is a badass finale!

I’d give this movie a 9 out of 10. I freaking love it!

Modern Family

I think most of y’all know about the hilarious series Modern Family. I follow so many series but lately I haven’t watched anything but Modern Family. It’s perfect for me since every episode only takes about 20 minutes. It’s so funny and if you haven’t started watching it then get your ass over to pirate bay NOW!!

Modern Family is about 3 households, all part of the Prichett family.
House 1:  Jay Prichett. He’s the father of Claire and Mitchell and lives with his beautiful second wife Gloria and her son Manny. Gloria is a real Latina from Colombia; very passionate and loud but above all she’s smoking hot and very kind. Manny is a smart kid that likes to act all grown up.

House 2: Claire and her dorky hubby Phil. Phil is a real estate agent who tries to be the coolest dad in town, while Claire stays at home and tries to keep the family together. They have 3 children: the popular Haley, nerdy Alex and ‘different’ Luke.

House 3: Mitchell and his boyfriend Cameron live with their adopted daughter from Vietnam: Lilly. Even though Mitchell and Cam are both very feminine, Cam is obviously the ‘lady’ in their relationship. Mitchell is a lawyer and Cam is an ex-clown who now stays at home and takes care of Lilly.

Ok. So now the family is complete. The way of producing is really fun. Every now and then the characters talk to ‘you’ about some of the events. It’s so funny when they say how they actually meant something while they said it completely different.

I think we can all identify us with one of the households, since they are modern but normal families (with a lot of money, that might be the little difference).

Every character has its charms:
Jay: He’s old and a little bit grumpy but he loves is family and wife and really sees many as his own son. When he argues with Gloria about her Colombian habits: Fenomenal!
Gloria: She’s amazing. The way she pronounces English words is just hilarious. Her loud voice and stunning appearance make it hard to not look at the screen. She is a real family woman.
Manny: He’s a little weird. He’s like 13 years old now (season 3) but he usually acts like a 30 year old. He’s into girls and being himself. One of the good ones. Sometimes he does stupid things because Gloria will always tell him everything he does is simply amazing.
Claire: I don’t really like Claire. She’s neurotic and frustrated and I don’t like what she’s doing with her life. She makes issues out of stupid little things and doesn’t seem to realize how pretty she is. As long as her family’s there she’s happy.
Phil: The funny guy. He wants to be the most amazing dad in the world and tries to be a good husband. He’s very dorky but his son seems to understand him.
Haley: Little Miss Popular. She didn’t seem to care too much about college because she’s been too busy with her popularity. Being popular means everything to her.
Alex: I like Alex a lot. She’s very smart and nerdy and doesn’t care about the opinion of others about her looks.
Luke: Cute little Luke. He is so random and weird but totally makes the family rock! His best friend is his 80 year old neighbor but lately he’s getting closer to Manny.
Mitchell: Mitchell is… Well I can’t really describe Mitchell. He’s a ginger and appropriate and cares a lot about the opinion of others.
Cam: A drama queen, period
Lilly: Just cute.

I’m almost done watching season 3 and I’ve already downloaded some episodes of season 4 because I really can’t go a day without watching Modern Family. While deciding what to wear or cleaning your room you can watch it because it’s not a big drama if you’re missing out on a scene. But it’s still entertaining to watch when you’re lying down in bed.

This is THE perfect show to watch whenever you have time. But beware! An episode only takes 20 minutes but before you know it you’re watching 6 episodes in a row!

Movie review: easy A

My aunt told me I just had to see this hilarious movie. And she was right. 

In easy A Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) lies to everyone. After she tells her best friend Rhiannon she slept with a college guy, her friend Brandon comes up to her and asks if she wants to sleep with him so he can become popular. She knows he’s gay so she trusts him with her secret that she’s still a virgin. He’s totally cool with that and together they decide to fake his very first time at a party. It’s a huge success and Olive’s glad she could help Brandon. What she didn’t expect was a range of ‘customers’. Desperate guy after desperate guy ask her if they can fake kiss her or pretend to have sex with her in exchange for money or gift cards. Olive agrees and her new business is born. Of course it’s getting out of hand. Rhiannon doesn’t talk to her anymore, the strictly religious Marianne (Amanda Bynes) tries to ‘save’ her and everyone at school thinks of her as the new hot skank in town who’s spreading chlamydia. Olive decides to embrace her new self and stiches a big red A on her new, sexy clothes. Things get worse but fortunately her parents believe in her and her old crush Todd (Penn Badgley. Woohoo, Gossip Girl’s cute little Dan!) tells her he doesn’t believe a thing about the rumors. Olive and her mom come up with a plan to confess what she’s done: At a school pep rally she sings a song where she refers to her web page. At this page people can see her webcam posts where she tells the truth and nothing but the truth about the past months. Of course Todd tells Olive he likes her, because it’s still just an entertaining movie. But he, the rest of the story was actually really fun!

I’d give this movie a 7,5 out of 10. 
I think Emma Stone did a fantastic job playing Olive. I love her lisping voice and funny faces. She’s hot but not ordinary beautiful. I laughed so many times during this movie, because Olive really is a funny person. Or maybe it’s just Emma who embraced Olive and made her rock. Olive’s parents are hilarious. Todd’s cute, Rhiannon’s annoying and I should give some credits to Amanda Bynes who plays Marianne really good.
Anyway, if you wanna enjoy a fun, not too difficult movie you should watch easy A!

Facts: The movie came out in 2010. Written by Bert Royal, directed by Will Gluck and starring Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes and others. 

 

 

What’s your number?

Last night I wanted to watch an easy movie. Didn’t feel like paying much attention so I obviously chose for a RomCom. My aunt had suggested What’s Your Number, a movie about Allison who has had sex with 20 guys.

After reading an article in a magazine Ally realizes she can’t sleep with more guys, because the love of her life should be one of the 20 she already dated. Her neighbour Colin helps her to find all of her ex-boyfriends. Unfortunately, none of them is the one.

(not so) Exciting part: She ends up with Colin. Of course the bitch does. Why wouldn’t she? It is a romcom pur sang! After 10 minutes you already know how the story is gonna end. However, the movie isn’t boring. It’s predictable but funny. I’m a perv so I like the sex scenes, they’re really funny!

Directed by Mark Mylod. Written by Gabrielle Allan, Jennifer Crittenden and Karyn Bosnak. And starring Anna Faris, Chris Evans, Ari Graynor and others!

I’d give this movie a 6 out of 10. But I’d definitely recommend it if you’re in for a nice romantic comedy!

 

The Walking Dead

It was all over Facebook and all my male friends talked about it : The Walking Dead, a television series by the AMC channel about a bunch of people who are trying to survive a world full of zombies. I do like supernatural stuff, but zombies? Nahhh. I’m a girly series girl. Or at least I was, until 2 days ago. I had to wait for a new Pretty Little Liars, 90210 and The Vampire Diaries so I basically had nothing else to watch and downloaded The Walking Dead season 1. And boy… I’m hooked!!!

I really like how it’s all so surreal when you think about it, but very credible while you’re watching. There are a bunch of badass scenes. In fact, almost every scene is amazing. It’s all perfectly produced!

Usually I watch series with incredible gorgeous actors who dress perfectly and talk neat. This show is different since the actors are very ‘real’.

The thing I don’t like… Might sound dumb since the series is about surviving zombies, but those zombies are so nasty! I really don’t like blood. It makes me nauseous. The fact those zombies like eating intestines makes it even dirtier but he, gotta cope with those little details when you’re watching an awesome show like this!!

So I’m about to finish season 1 and season 2 and 3 are already waiting for me 😀

Everything is Family

A couple of years ago the Dutch movie “Alles is Liefde” (Everything is Love) came out and I totally loved it. I watch it at least twice a year and I was more than excited when the script writer, Kim van Kooten, wrote a new story: “Alles is Familie” (Everything is Family). I hope you’ll be able to download these movies with English subtitles even though you’ll probably don’t understand a crap of Everything is Love, since it’s about the Dutch holiday Sinterklaas. Well maybe you won’t like neither of these movies, because there’s Dutch music and stuff, but I do so I wrote a review about it 😉

I just watched everything is Family last week because I was in Barcelona when the movie came out, and surprisingly it didn’t disappoint me! Everything is Family isn’t the same at all as Everything is Love (but you know how you’re gonna compare movies when they are written by the same writer and have a similar name). I’m very proud of this Dutch piece, because it’s a total new movie that I’m not gonna delete off my Macbook!

Everything is Family is about a family struggling with some issues. The parents are in their sixties and starting to realize they’re not happy at all with their marriage. Their daughter Anouk died 2 years earlier and nobody really wants to talk about it. The handsome son Charlie is an amazing cook but doesn’t like to take any responsibilities and his brother Rutmer is very successful in the music industry and always searching for inspiration. Rutmer’s wife Winnie, played by the famous Carice van Houten, is successful as well but she wants a child. A child Rutmer can’t give her because his sperm is practically dead. And then there’s Dick, who doesn’t want to go on with his life since his wife Anouk died, but he keeps going for his two adorable children.
When the story goes on every little drama is getting more complicated but in the end everyone discovers that happiness is the key to everything, even if you’re afraid of changing your life in order to be happy.

I looooooove this movie! And Benja Bruijning (google) with curls!
It’s a typical Kim van Kooten movie produced by Joram Lürsen and I enjoyed watching it mucho!
If you’re Dutch the crew might impress you: Carice van Houten, Thijs Römer, Martina Bijl, Kees Hulst, Tjiske Reidinga, Benja Bruijning, Chris Zegers, Willeke Alberti and others!

I’d give this movie an 8 out of 10 BUT I’m not sure if people who don’t understand the language will like it as much as I did.

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is one of the most famous books in the world and of course it is made into a movie more than once. Last week I saw the movie (a mini-serie by the BCC) by Jon Jones starring Ellie Kendrick, Iain Glen and Kate Ashfield a.o.

I think I shouldn’t explain what the movie’s about because I hope everyone already knows, but in order to give a good review I’ll give a short summary:

World War II, Amsterdam 1942. The 13-year-old Anne is Jewish and starts keeping a diary because she’s missing a best friend in her life. Life for Jews in Holland is getting worse every day. Jews are not allowed to go to the movies, drive a car, travel by tram… They are all aware that they can be sent to one of the labour camps. When Anne’s sister Margot receives the message she must go to one of the camps the family decides to hide. They move into ‘the annex’, a small house above the company of Anne’s father Otto. His employees risk their lives by taking care of them while they stay in until war is over.  After a couple weeks the Van Daan family joins them and so does Mr. Dussel. They must be quiet during the day and cannot go outside or open a window. For two years they live in fear and boredom. Anne keeps writing her diary because ‘Kitty’ is the only person who’s not judging her all the time. While the years pass by Anne starts to fall in love with Peter van Daan. She notices that her body and thoughts are changing and she even kisses for the first time on the attic with Peter. When she’s writing her diary for the last time the police discovers them and takes them away to the camps. Someone has betrayed them.

Wow. What a movie. I was reading The Diary of a Young Girl at the time and I recognized everything that Anne wrote down. It is so confronting. I really liked how Anne’s thoughts and the actual scenes blended so perfectly. The anger that she shows in her diary isn’t really shown in the movie, but her good moods and feelings perfectly rendered. Ellie Kendrick did an amazing job performing Anne Frank. She acted like I pictured Anne when I was reading her diary. I’d loved to see more about the special connection with her father and the hate she feels for her mother, but for such a short movie they’ve done an amazing job showing what Anne Frank’s life was like. The romantic scenes are so good that I almost forgot I was watching a total different kind of movie and every time the hiders are scared you can really feel their fear. I cried my eyes out when they were caught by the police. The worst part is that their names, the camp they went to and their date of death is shown when they leave the annex. Otto is the only one who survived the camps and that is something we must never forget. So many innocent people got killed, just because of their race. This movie has given a face to some of those people. And just when you started to know them, they were taken away.

I give this movie a 9,5 out of 10. I think they could’ve done a better job when the movie would be a little bit longer, but those 100 minutes are worth watching it if you’d like to know what Anne Frank’s life was like.

Sarah’s Key

 

Sarah’s Key (original title: Elle s’appelait Sarah) is an amazing French drama based on the even more amazing book by Tatiana de Rosnay. I really loved the book and the movie didn’t disappoint me either, but since it’s a while ago I read it this post will be only about the movie.

The movie is alternating between the past and the present and is about the Jewish Sarah Starzynski and the American journalist Julia. The little Sarah locks her brother up in a hidden closet to protect him of the police. She promises him she’ll come back for him but unfortunately she doesn’t know that she and her family are being deported from Paris to a camp. She holds onto the key of the closet and is determined to save her little brother. In the present Julia finds out that the house of her husbands family has a past: It once belonged to the Starzynski family. Julia is driven by curiosity and tracks Sarah down until she finally finds what she’d been looking for.

Like I said, the book is simply amazing. I’ll read it soon again and write a review about it. I’m always kinda scared that movies are gonna destroy the images I had in my head while reading a book. Surprisingly, Sarah’s Key did not. The first part of the movie I spent crying because I felt the fear and frustrations of the little girl. It’s just so intense. When the movie shifts to the present it isn’t all tears and drama. The story gets more and more exciting when Julia gets obsessed by Sarah and tries to track her down.
Movies about war are my weak point. It makes me so mad to see that so many innocent people got killed. I think this is a to-see movie, not only because it shows a little bit about the camps in France (not only the Germans did bad things) but also because it is a helluva story!

This movie is directed and co-written by Gilles Paquet-Brenner and produced by Stéphane Marsil. It came out in September 2010 on the Toronto International Film Festival and is starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Mélusine Mayance Niels Arestrup and Frédéric Pierrot.

I’d give this movie an 8 out of 10, because it shows the pain of the Jews in France during WWII while still entertaining the audience with a good drama movie.

What I didn’t like? The end! Just like in the book Julia is happy with the answers her search gave her and she’ll probably live happily ever after, just a little bit different than expected.