Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

I’m not going to spend a lot of time reviewing this movie because honestly I think that if you’re reading this, you’ve already seen it, or you’re going to see it. Your mind is already made up. Instead I’m just going spend my time expressing my opinion, and I’d love to hear yours.

This was absolutely my favourite Harry Potter movie. Hands down, without a doubt. When I finished reading Deathly Hallows, I knew it was my new favourite. And I feel that was about this movie, also. It was brilliant. The scenes were breathtaking. I cried and laughed and squealed/ clapped excitedly upon the sight of certain characters (Snape, Luna, Dobby…). I found the acting intense, the scenes were everything

Some things I missed from the books that I know aren’t 100% necessary to the movie:

* The Lupin/ Tonks storyline. Also the scene with Harry and Lupin fighting

* Kreacher doing all he could to help Harry, Ron and Hermione (The book made me feel very fond of Kreacher, I would have liked to see that)

* More explanation on the relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, especially since he’s mentioned a few times in relation to Dumbledore (for example when Hermione points out that he’s in the book Rita Skeeter wrote). Maybe that’s coming in the second movie.

* Why didn’t they explain that saying Voldemort triggers snatchers to know where you are? I was fine with them not explaining that, except that Harry goes from saying Voldemort to calling him “You-Know-Who” which is completely uncharacteristic of Harry and that wasn’t explained. I feel they could have fixed this without explaining the trigger by Harry just saying “he”. We all know who he is.

Did you see Deathly Hallows? Do you intend to? What are your thoughts?

<3.Melanie.Kristy

Festive Halloween Movies I Can’t Do Without

(credit)

Sure I love horror movies, but during the Halloween season I’m more prone to watching those that aren’t going for cheap thrills or scary story-lines. I’d rather watch movies that are nostalgic from my childhood, or slightly newer ones (that are maybe reminiscent of older movies). When I worked at Blockbuster, we played Halloween movies for the entire month of October, it never got old! Here are some movies I love to watch every year:

Nightmare Before Christmas – There’s nothing like Jack & Sally and a good round of “Kidnap the Sandy-claws” to bring in the Halloween spirit. I saw this in 3D a couple years ago, it was fun!

Coraline – from the same visionary director as Nightmare Before Christmas (though NOT Tim Burton, whom a lot of people seem to think directed this movie) comes a movie about a girl who finds an alternate universe on the other side of the door of her new home. The Other-Mom is so awesome! Until… maybe she isn’t. This is based on the book by Neil Gaiman, and it’s a fun movie to watch!

Halloweentown – Sure I’m guilty of watching Disney Channel movies, probably more often than I’d like to admit to. But I have to admit to not changing the channel when any of these movies are playing.

Hocus Pocus – Classic Halloween nostalgia right here. I have nothing more to say except that I put a spell on you, and now you’re mine…

Rocky Horror Picture Show – Who doesn’t love dancing the time warp with some sweet transvestites? I really want to see this in a theater, but I really don’t need the big Virgin label put on me…

Harry Potter. I know these aren’t Halloween movies, but ABC Family seems to think they can get away with playing Harry Potter for entire weekends at a time around Halloween and Christmas time. I love when they do this!

What movies do you love to watch this time of year?

<3.Melanie.Kristy

Eat. Pray. Love. Movie Edition

Let me start here: I absolutely ADORED Elizabeth Gilbert’s book. I’ve read it more than once, gushed about it to multiple people and cooed over it when I see it in stores. I loved reading about those three countries, she mentions Lucca (“my city” in Italy where I stayed three years ago), and I feel like I can identify a lot with Elizabeth — not so much in the sense that I am married and do not wish to be married, but more like I feel like maybe I don’t want to marry, and I don’t ever want to be stuck in t hat position, also that I am a writer and I want to go everywhere and see places and write about them.

Movie Edition: First off, the previews made it look like Gilbert was rich, that she just up and WENT to Italy. The movie takes no time in explaining where her funds for the trip come from. This turned my friend off while she was still debating on whether or not to watch it. I had to explain to her; Elizabeth Gilbert lost everything she had in her divorce. The only way she could fund her trip was to propose it as a book deal and get an advance. Though this sounds like an easy thing to do, think about it: she had to have done a whole lot of good writing and publishing before this to have any sort of credit enough to request an advance.

Moving on to the movie itself, Eat Pray Love was cute, had amazing scenery and a few scenes really hit home for me. I’ll watch it again, and probably even purchase it because it’s definitely a good movie for background sound or simply a movie of comfort. It’s a reminder of things that are possible, and adventures left to come. I left the theater with a huge sense of wanderlust, an urge to go someplace right THEN and wanting ice cream because that was our real plan. I also left wishing that Elizabeth Gilbert played herself in the movie. She was much nicer to look at and I feel like her personality would have fit very well (though this is something one would hope seeing as she was being portrayed…)

 Unfortunately I felt there were many scenes that did not convey the real feeling that the book had. Parts of the book were glossed over or ignored in ways that I guess make sense, because this is a movie and not all things are “important” to the movie, but that didn’t make me feel any less disappointed with the outcome. Overall I would suggest the movie, but if you’ve read the book it’s one of those that will never live up. I guess that’s to be expected though, right?

<3. Melanie.Kristy