#topfives

Need more ideas than you know what to do with to go along with your morning coffee?  Here they are, served up fresh!

Love - 1. Belle, the song. Loved it in the trailer, loved it in the film. Loved Emma’s singing voice in general. It was simple and British. Wouldn’t mind listening to it when I get a hold of the soundtrack. When she started with “little town, it’s a quiet village,” my heart was filled with glee and I had goosebumps all over. Autotune schmautotune, she sang sweet. 2. Maurice. Cartoon Maurice was a little neurotic, while Kevin Kline Maurice was a little subdued. That he was an artist and not an inventor worked for me. I also really liked his song and its continuation sang by Belle in Paris. How does a moment last forever? How does a story never die? 3. Be Our Guest. the whole scene was so psychedelic and Emma was so pretty. I don’t mind that they decided to forego Human Again cos Be Our Guest was too big a production already. 4. Something There. Perhaps my favorite part in the movie is when Belle put up her hood, just like in the cartoon, and sang “there’s something sweet and almost kind, but he was mean and he was coarse and unrefined,” cos this time, the writers put extra effort in showing how Belle and the Beast grew to like each other. Now, I’m a little less convinced that Belle has Stockholm Syndrome. 5. The lynching scene. Crazy Gaston and his mob were on point as they lit their torches and stormed to the beast’s castle. For me, it was the most well-performed number in the movie. Hate - (okay, I’m going to rant) 1. Emma’s acting. I really believed she could have been a perfect Belle. I was ECSTATIC when I first learned of the casting. I’ve had my fair share of the Emma Watson craze and as a person, you can tell that she’s more of a Belle than Belle herself. She has the same look, the same ideals, the same easy character, but put her in a costume and let her act like the Disney princess and ironically, you get disillusioned. Her acting in BatB was a little underwhelming and a little reminiscent of her subpar acting in the Sofia Coppola mistake that was the Bling Ring and that over-the-top meltdown she had in Goblet of Fire after the Yule Ball. She has got to learn how to snap out of her annoyed Hermione face cos she tends to set it as her default angry/anxious/worried face and it doesn’t make me happy. 2. The musical score. There was something off about it. I love Alan Menken; he writes such beautiful Disney songs that transcend generations, but there was something so uncomplimentary about the score for the live action version that didn’t sit well with me. Maybe the volume? Cos there were parts which required a grand orchestral sound but the music always fell short, killing potentially great scenes. I know, I’m nitpicking, but music ALWAYS makes or breaks a movie for me. Sorry, but this time, I just wasn’t awed. 3. The set. There’s a good reason why I get so giddy with live action versions of my childhood favorites; I love having my disbelief suspended every now and then and I don’t mind venturing into fantastical worlds, even musical ones. Having real actors play beloved characters bring me closer to the fairy tale that my 10-year old self so aspired to be a part of. I mean, the best thing about bringing the cartoon to life is the fact that you can put yourself in the actor’s shoes and picture yourself in a different world, right? They did it with Cinderella and Jungle Book (and even Tarzan), but Beauty and the Beast, the movie which could have really set the bar, felt a little too staged for me. The little town was too crowded and the castle was too Whosville-esque. It felt like a skit on film. Les Miserables 2012 was as broadway as it could be, but it was set in the real world. Why couldn’t they have done it with Beauty and the Beast? 4. How little it added to the cartoon version. In the words of my thesis adviser during the early stages of my project, “there’s no added value.” No spoiler alert for this post cos there’s nothing to spoil. It was exactly like the cartoon version, give or take a few songs and tweaks. I mean, yeah, the Paris scene was cool, but that took like, what, 5 minutes? Maybe even less. And I understand that Belle and the Beast are pretty dynamic characters and we can do away without the dramatic adjustments, but they could have given Belle more zest and the Beast more humanity. The effort was there, you can see it, but they did not pull through. Why, writers, why? Lynch me like they did the Beast but even Vanessa Hudgen’s Beastly had a more novel approach than Emma Watson’s Beauty and the Beast. 5. Beast’s transformation. There’s only one word (non-word) that I can describe it with - MEH. Admittedly, the magical transformation from beast to prince in the cartoon is one of my favorite Disney moments (others being Simba’s cub’s christening and the restoration of Pride Rock, Ursula’s defeat, and Mulan’s display of extraordinary strength rivaling that of a man). I love Dan Stevens and I’ve always had a crush on him, especially after watching The Guest, but in this film, I hope he stayed as a beast. The transformation was so anti-climactic and rushed, it bombed what I hoped would be the film’s saving grace.

5. If there’s one thing I would change, it would probably be on the relevance of the gift. Obviously, the ability to tell the future and act accordingly may be useful, but how it can be useful wasn’t shown. The end was what the lead character used as a means to keep things at bay, which explains a lot of things in the story, but other than that reveal, what other purpose is for humans to know these things?

Top 3 only cos nostalgia is exhausting

#musicnerdfamily #music #TopFives #MyFaves Can we talk about some of my favorites from this year?! Now, you might be saying... Didn't we already do the best albums of the year? We did! Thing is, there's a difference between what I consider the best and my favorites. The best are what I consider the leaders of thier genres that year... My favorites are the albums that I loved the most. The ones I kept coming back to. The ones that really stuck with me. This is a small preview of those albums. There are usually a few repeats, but there are also some albums that spoke to me more than other people. I usually cop the vinyl copies of these albums. I'll post one a day for the week...

1. Reality Bites 2. Wild 3. Laggies (obsessed with this film!) 4. Happythankyoumoreplease 5. Garden State

Possible spoilers ahead I love love love the X-men series, mainly because they’re comprised of superheroes who aren’t as much as superheroes as they are humans in an existential crisis (which always makes for a very good story in my book. Even sans the superhuman abilities). But the other night, after watching Apocalypse, I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed. I’ve been looking forward to seeing this installment since that post-credit scene in Days of Future Past (which is the best X-men, imo) and to sit in my movie chair for 2 hours plus and still feel.. uhmm... unconvinced, saddens me a great deal. I caught the last full show of the film the first day it was shown in Manila and I have basically shut myself off of social media, so my feelings about it are untainted by reviews but validated by discussions with a friend who was equally excited to see it. So these thoughts are pretty raw. 1. Apocalypse was a rushed villain. For someone who’s supposed to be the most powerful mutant in the world, he came off as an old spoiled brat who only wanted to live forever. I would’ve wanted him to advocate his vision some more and show us that his cause was worth joining. He was a less impressive Voldemort when I expected a more engaging Ozymandias. 2. The Horsemen were meh. They could’ve retained that ancient horseman girl and the others who fought tooth and nail to keep Apocalypse safe during his last transference. Angel was meh. Psylocke was meh. Even Storm was meh. I would’ve wanted to see good backstories, especially Storm’s, since she was going to be part of the X-men. I would’ve wanted to see their lives changed by Apocalypse. I would’ve wanted to see them convinced to devote their time and effort to a mutant, who while wise and ancient, was helpless for centuries. They joined the reigns so fast, it seemed like everything they did was merely for convenience and blind faith. 3. I love Peter and I love his scenes. That explosion scene in the campus was amazing. It’s just.. we’ve already seen that in Days. We know what Peter can do and we know how charming he can do it. That was a good 5 minutes which I would’ve wanted spent on dynamicizing (is that a word?) the newer characters. Jean Grey, Scott, Nightcrawler - such good characters, but a little flat. 4. - 5. - Okay, I guess those were my only complaints about the film. Pretty short considering how my friend and I talked for hours about what we would’ve done different if we were Bryan Singer and the writers. But I guess that’s the gist of it. Everything else I would retain. Well, except maybe that last scene when Professor and Apocalypse were telepathically fighting and X was like, ‘you won’t win cos you have no friend’ or something to that effect. It felt a little too Harry Potterish for me. I mean, I love HP and all but this is X-men. They’re mutants, not wizards. The acting was good tho. Oscar Isaacs - from Poe to Apocalypse - dayum dude got me hinged. And Sophie Turner, what a babe and a half. X-men always has a good cast. It’s a shame 2 hours weren’t enough to utilize such talent. But James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender.. ugh what great boys. Would endure the whole thing again for my babes. Despite all this, I’m still excited about Mr. Sinister! (There’s a post-credit scene in this one, guys. Don’t leave the theater just yet.) Please please please Bryan, make it work. Caveat: I’m only a fan of the movies. I have yet to read the comics. After the Bar maybe.

1. Mermaids 2. Heathers 3. Girl, Interrupted 4. Reality Bites 5. Edward Scissorhands Cos nostalgia