Movie Review: The Twilight Saga: New Moon

The much anticipated sequel to Twilight has finally arrived. The Twilight Saga: New Moon had so much hype surrounding it that advance ticket sales skyrocketed through the roof. Yahoo!movies reported that New Moon has the third biggest opening weekend, after The Dark Knight and Spiderman 3, respectively.

New Moon drifts from the Vampires to the Quilete Tribe, where we find out more about the wolves that protect the reservation lands, and the growing relationship between Jacob Black and Bella Swan.

When Jasper tries to launch himself at Bella when she accidentally gets a paper cut during her birthday celebration at the Cullens', Edward and the Cullen clan decide that being around a human like Bella can be very dagerous for her. In order for Bella to get a more "normal" human life, Edward tells Bella that they're leaving Forks, Washington -- and that this would be the last moment that they're going to see each other.

For months after the "breakup", Bella remained in a catatonic state, with nightmares haunting her every night. The only way that Bella knows she could see Edward again was to try adrenaline rushing things - dirt bikes, cliff jumping, name it.

Enter Jacob Black. He makes Bella forget for a while the hole left in Bella's heart. Bella soon finds out the secret that Jacob desperately wants to tell her but can't: their tribes are descended from wolves, and to be able to restore the balance, chosen tribesmen morph into ginormous werewolves.

But Bella can't bear not seeing Edward and decides to jump off a cliff - recreationally. Alice sees her in a vision and discovers that she can't see past werewolves. Rosalie tells Edward about Alice's vision and phones Bella's house, disguising as Carlisle. When Jacob tells him that Charlie's arranging a funeral, Edward thinks that Bella's dead and decides to commit Vampire suicide by violating the laws set by the Volturi.

Overall, I think that the actors have grown into their roles, easily shifting into their characters. The story was kind of hanging in the end, leading viewers to look forward to the next installment.

The story has its deviations from the book itself, but then again, what movie doesn't do the book justice? It could've been better, though.

The Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars

Movie Review: Julie&Julia

Julie & Julia stars Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Amy Adams as Julie Powell. This movie was based on two true stories - Julia Child's life and Julie Powell's experience on trying 500++ recipes from Julia Child's cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". The movie jumps from the 1940s to the year 2000s, alternating from Julia's story to Julie's point of view. Julie & Julia is all about food and cooking, and the various relationships that they established and nurtured over the years. 

For the most part, this movie is all about food -- a subject I hold dear to my heart -- and cooking (which is necessary to love food. ^_^). There are also some side stories intertwined throughout the movie such as Julia's sister starting a family, her marriage to Paul Child, the support that her husband gave her, and Julie's life with her friends, family, her supporting husband, meltdowns and her blog audience. I somehow can relate to Julie's position, where she blogs her year-long experience with trying out Julia Child's recipes, since, hey, I'm doing this -- blogging about my thoughts on different views, right? And I know that it's so frustrating not to know if you really reach out to some people out there. Anyway, like what Julie does, it's sort of a reprieve from the monotony of daily life -- some sort of a break from the 9-5 job that we all have.  

Although it may be based on two true stories, I didn't find the movie that thought-provoking, or profound in any way, because, well, it deals with blogging experiences with cooking. I mean, anybody can do that. It really didn't have to be made into a movie. BUT, all aspects considered, it is a welcome break from all those movies that are so serious or so comedic or so dramatic or violent that you can't really appreciate the simpler things in life. 

With regards to the technicalities of the movie, there were some parts that lacked enough light, but I guess the director has her reasons for that. The flow and transition of the two time periods was smooth, and it wasn't confusing to which era you're watching at the moment. I think that they captured the essence of the each time through the location, the costumes, even the background music. 

All in all, I think that this movie can stand out on its own, although it's never a bad thing if it can still be improved, right?

The verdict: Four stars

Book Review: Have A Little Faith (A True Story) by Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom returns with another heart-warming memoir as a follow up for his best-sellers Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, For One More Chance among others. 

Have A Little Faith (A True Story) has two similar stories about faith but from two different religions. One story is about Mitch's childhood rabbi's last years starting on the day he asked Mitch to do his eulogy. The other is about Pastor Henry's life story - from his troubled past to how he ended up as a pastor. 

I just stumbled across this book during a trip to the bookstore with my boyfriend one day. I didn't even know that Mitch Albom had released a new book, but having read his other books, I knew that I just had to get a copy of this one. 

Having finished the book just this afternoon, it made me sit back and reflect on just how strong my faith is in my religion. Mitch Albom showed that it doesn't matter what religion you're from, as long as you have faith in one God, it transcends all boundaries of gender, race, culture AND religion. It doesn't matter if one is Christian, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindi, or Buddhist... all that matters in the long run is your faith in God and what you do with your life in order to fulfill the mission that God has you written down for. In the case of Rabbi Albert Lewis (fondly called the Reb), his faith led him to save a deteriorating Jewish community and establish it to a bigger, stronger community. This book also shows that it doesn't even matter what background you come from. Pastor Henry Covington started out as a smoker, alcoholic, drug addict, convict and still ended up as a pastor who takes care of the homeless in one part of Detroit. 

Like what his other books have been imparting, Have A Little Faith reminds each of us of our faith and that we should embrace and believe in it -- whatever it takes...

The Verdict: Four and a half Stars

Movie Review: G-FORCE

G-Force is a family comedy obviously intended for the children. But there were more adults in the cinema when we watched (including us, of course. ^_^).

The story is about a team of highly trained guinea pigs (and a mole) with high tech equipment who discover that the fate of the world is on their little paws. Darwin, Blaster, Juarez, Mooch and Hurley take it upon themselves to save the world from global destruction only to get rebuffed by the FBI. Determined to get their points across, they operate their mission on their own and save the world - and receive recognition due theirs. 

Seeing as the movie was more geared towards the younger audience, G-Force is not a disappointment in a child's perspective. I mean, how can you resist a cute talking guinea pig? The only weird thing was that it's a live-action movie, and the guinea pigs were edited with CGI. I guess it would have been better if the film was animated instead of live-action. THEN it would've been cuter (if that's even possible). 

The verdict: Three and a Half Stars

Welcome to review central!

Howdy all! Welcome to Review Central, where I'll give my two cents about anything new (or tried and true) under the sun. I'll give my take on different areas - books, music, movies, tv, food, gadgets, travel, places, current trends, whatever... 

So bear with me and always remember that everyone's entitled to one's own opinion! =) have fun reading!

:) jet