This is a great commnity site: http://community.livejournal.com/prettybooks/

I need a bigger bookshelf. I would ask my Dad but, I think we’re planning on moving or so.

So I was on GoodReads and I am really intersting in purchasing the book Me and Mr. Darcy. I really want ot read it however looking at some of the reviews…seems like the book is a bore. Now I know I should be judging for myself but If i’m going to shell out some money for this book I want to know i’ll love it. Granted I can always borrow it from the library. Book reviews are meant to dicuss the piece of literature with an audience. Explaning the pros and cons of the books. I’m debating if I shold buy the buy the book now.

MMM WHAT TO DO!?

100 Best Novels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9POCgSRVvf0[/youtube]

I have to admit that I love Alice in Wonderland even before all of this hype. It is still my favourite book and Disney animated movie. At the age for 25 I can still admit I enjoy re-reading and watching the Disney animated film over and over again. Quoting the movie and all that jazz is one of the highlights to making me smile and laugh and hopefully others, understand my madness. I love the fact that Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll wrote the story. There are other issues surrounding the author and his relationship with the real Alice, and I will leave for another blog post.

Yesterday I got to see the movie Alice in Wonderland 3D Film. I love 3D films. I think that is how movies should be. Minus the dim-lighting which sucks sometimes. I have to admit Kevin Smith was right for not liking Tim Burton. I was expecting much more from this. I was naive. I forgot that this film was linked to Disney which has now become more Family Friendly than ever-before. I love to see characters come alive from literature. I thought this movie was unique. Telling a new story using all the adorable characters we all love (well I love), rather than recreate it again. There have been so many Wonderland recreations I was totally ready for a newish story. I thought Burton would tell the story using the more darker Alice like the video game – American McGee’s Alice: Video Games. However I was wrong. It was much more friendly than ever before. I thought Mia Wasikowska was great. And Johnny Depp is always fascinating. The movie had great graphics that were impressive. I loved the Cheshire Cat who is my fav character! Next to the Mad Hatter and Hare. I didn’t understand the Scottish Accent the Mad Hatter invoked. I also didn’t understand a lot of the characters. This is where I think Burton was trying to make sense of a nonsense idea. Which wasn’t Carroll’s vision at all – I believe. I don’t even know where to start and this blog would probably turn out crazy long to put it simply. I enjoyed the movie. I didn’t like the direction fully.  Clearly this version is more of a sequel than a retelling. Here Alice is nineteen and thinks what happened before was all a dream. She goes to a party with her mother only to find out it’s really her engagement party and everyone pressures (and expects) her to just accept the marriage proposal and be happy. She starts seeing a rabbit in a waistcoat and when the proposal happens, she’s just not sure she can go through with it, runs out of the garden, follows the rabbit, and falls down the rabbit hole and the real adventure begins…

They really did a good job of making this movie adventurous, magical, and fresh, as well as enjoyable, but still appropriate for kids. Quite a bit of the movie is computer generated which adds to the fantastical feel of the story–it also takes the edge off the scary scenes and creatures. Even the scene with Alice and the Jabberwocky feels a bit like the scene in Sleeping Beauty where Prince Phillip slays Maleficent. here is a scary scene where the Red Queen tries to behead the mad Hatter, but it ends happily thanks to the Cheshire cat. Which is strange because Cheshire doesn’t make such a clear sign of generosity.

I enjoyed the comment at the garden party about the gardeners planting the wrong roses, and Burton also milked the ever present “why is a raven like a writing desk” riddle (for which, there is no actual answer), and the Mad Hatter reciting the Jabberwocky poem with a Scottish brogue – which………was interesting.

An added bonus was the theme about finding your own place in the world and making your own path–even if other people are trying to steer you differently. At one point in time the Mad Hatter tells Alice that she “used to be much muchier. You have lost your muchness.” Alice does indeed try to find her “muchness” in the movie. In Wonderland everyone expects her to be the White Queen’s champion and at one point in time Alice says that she’s sick of being told what to do and from now on will make her own path. Even her constant size-changing could serve as a metaphor for Alice trying to figure out where she fits. In the end, she returns to the garden party, the would-be suitor waiting, and taking what she learned about herself in Wonderland, refuses to accept the path laid out for her and goes on to forge her own.

If you’re looking for a trippy adult movie, you might be disappointed, but if you’re looking for some visually-stunning family fare, you’ve come to the right place.

I’m giving it   out of Stars

Here is another movie review I competley agree with. Minus the money back etc.

So would subjecting yourself to a second viewing of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Even a first for that matter. I’m not quite sure where to begin with everything that went wrong here.

You know the story, no sense in completely rehashing it other than to say the basic premise is here. Girl falls down rabbit hole, finds another world completely separate from reality. The mouse, the white rabbit, the Cheshire cat (with snazzy cheshire grin), are all here as well. That’s where the similarities mostly end as well. In Tim Burton’s mess, Alice in Wonderland is turned into a teen coming of age movie, and a terrible one at that.

Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is being forced into accepting a marriage proposal with upper crust, elitist snob Lord Hamish (Leo Bill) in front of the rest of <ahem> society. Alice is told what to think and what do do, not exactly her own gal at that stage in her life. Just as she’s set to give her “yes” or “no” answer, Alice spots the rabbit checking his watch, chases him, and follows him down the infamous rabbit hole. The “eat me” cake and “drink me” potion are there, and eventually Alice steps into Wonderland. Actually “Underland” as it’s known here, where she meets the rest of this alternate reality’s inhabitants such as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the March Hare, and a hookah smoking blue caterpillar. There’s a Knave (Crispin Glover), a Jabberwocky, and the poster boy for this disaster, The Mad Hatter. It’s as she makes her Dorothy-like entrance into Underland where the movie really begins.

It’s also where the rest of the movie completely falls to pieces, and it doesn’t take long to realize that Alice in Wonderland is about to become a monumental waste of your movie going dollars, as well as the hour and forty nine minutes that you’ll never get back.

What should have been the most thrilling part of the movie, the second act, was as mind numbingly dull as the beginning. We’re never given a reason to care for any of these characters, with the possible exception of the Mad Hatter. The stretches of boring last for such lengths of time, you don’t even care when something remotely interesting happens. You’re pissed that your sense of boredom was interrupted at all. My sense of “dull” was more thrilling than this movie. The third act, a three way duel sequence between Alice in Armor against a Jabberwocky, the Mad Hatter against the Knave of Hearts, and the Red Queen vs. the White Queen, threw this train wreck right off the rails. Like the rest of the movie, I just have to ask, “What was the point to all of that?” I have no problem with re-imagining a classic. If you want to take something like Alice in Wonderland and make it your own, great! At least do something with it other than creating a movie where the closing credits becomes my favorite part.

If the Academy had an award for Flattest Performance, Mia Wasikowska would win hands down this year, next, and probably last year for good measure. If she had played the role badly, at least it would’ve been interesting. No such luck. Alice has no spirit, no soul, nothing for us to care about, zero emotion, off with HER head for that matter. A cardboard cutout would’ve done the same job (maybe better) and cost Walt Disney less. Helena Bonham Carter played a great over-the-top Red Queen, but Anne Hathaway’s Wicked Witch of the North portrayal of the White Queen was just plain annoying. Crispin Glover as the Knave of Hearts was the second most interesting performance next to Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter, a role suited for his brand of maniacal delivery. But even Depp’s inspired lunacy couldn’t save any of the scenes he was in.

Alice in Wonderland’s “Underland” world looks good. It has that much going for it. But the backdrop reality looked entirely disjointed from each performer, giving a distractingly fake appearance. There was little cohesiveness between actor and the world around them. Even when it looked good, it actually didn’t. That has to be an achievement. It looks more like an acid tragedy than an acid trip.  And the 3D? Don’t bother. Not that I was spoiled by the 3D in Avatar, the 3D in this movie is a mostly unnoticeable afterthought, almost as if it was put there as an addition to a marketing campaign. There’s nothing immersive, nothing that shoots through the screen. The 2D showing would be just fine for this.

Alice in Wonderland is the definition of missed opportunity. What could have been wonderful fantasy on a grand, epic scale turned into woeful fantasy on a grand, epic fail. I can only imagine the moods of theater owners who had to give up Avatar on their IMAX screens to make room for this. I want my money back. Off with your….whatever…

One out of five stars

My Obsession with Wonderland: There is a place. Like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it: You need to be as mad as a hatter. This was a great movie.  I enjoyed it and really I have to watch it again. Oh well. Thanks for reading my very contradicting review! HTML clipboard  I’m also currently reading: Alice I have Been

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This review may be a little…. bossy?

I have to admit that I love Alice in Wonderland even before all of this hype. It is still my favourite book and Disney animated movie. At the age for 25 I can still admit I enjoy re-reading and watching the Disney animated film over and over again. Quoting the movie and all that jazz is one of the highlights to making me smile and laugh and hopefully others, understand my madness. I love the fact that Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll wrote the story. There are other issues surrounding the author and his relationship with the real Alice, and I will leave for another blog post. So first off you – the reader knows. I have been a fan of Alice in Wonderland since I was able to pick up the book and the Disney animated film. Second, all this hype and crazy fandom girls falling in love with Alice is very ‘jumping’ onto the bandwagon kinda thing (which note: disappointing). It is just like Hello Kitty. I don’t mean to sound so agitated, rude, and self-centred but here we go…. I have always loved Hello Kitty probably because – living in the area I have been for the past 22 years – Hello Kitty has always been around me. Because of the culture and people that I’ve grown up in my small town. Very Asian town. So I’ve collected and enjoy the Cat that has no ‘mouth’. I have numerous things: purses, wallets, toys, pencils, erasers, jewelry, makeup…oh the list can go on forever.

My point is; when any major company get the opportunity to ruin classic story/characters they milk it as much as they can and its really disappointing when the turn out as a fail. Hello Kitty for example was branded by MAC (cosmetics company) and even before that Kimora Lee Simmons and Barbie. All of a sudden girls all over the world have fallen in love the cute cat. ((Possessive much – you all must be thinking)) – No I just think it’s really stupid that all of a sudden “what’s in” – can be very irrating to individuals who have always appreciated the richness of the character. I strongly believe we are now living in an age where we need to be told what is in so individuals can feel cool and unique about restructuring their identity. I guess the term I’m looking for is posers. Now please don’t get me wrong. There is a fine line between a poser and someone who is discovering the beauty of the popular theme or characters.

So Yes I have to admit it. I believe all those individuals out there who have finally found Alice and Hello Kitty are nothing but posers. But, I adore the fans out there who discover and want it to be apart of their lives forever. I strongly believe things like Twilight Movies, Hello Kitty and Alice in Wonderland is a phase and for individuals and will burn out which is really sad and disappointing. Basically saying your 5 minutes of fame will be up and all the merchandise and crap will be sold for 25cents in a garage sale.  I adore fans like me and others who have always appreciated these characters for years, and are not following the mass media and market to the laws of over-priced merchandise and such. Anyways moving on that’s my little rant. I also don’t appreciate it when people see my Hello Kitty compact mirror or wallet and are like: Oh you like Hello Kitty just like everyone else. NO or When the see I have Alice In Wonderland lip gloss from the limited edition Bath and Body set saying – Ohhh you like Alice because of the movie right!? NO!!!!

I can be a sucker for any Alice in Wonderland spin-off. Did you know OPI came out with an Alice in Wonderland line of nail polish. And Urban Decay has an incredible eye shadow palette devoted to it. I should talk about my obsession with makeup in another post. But, since I have all the colours of eye shadow – I didn’t buy it.

fin.

This post was suppose to be a movie review instead it was a rant. Forget it. I’ll make another post about the movie next.

Hope you all enjoyed my “i’m better than you” post. *laughs*