I. Just. Saw. Toy. Story. 3.

I love movies. I'm a visual/tactile person, and so movies rock. But there's something special about animated movies that...I don't know...they just are so awesome. How To Train Your Dragon, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, stuff like that, but I think the best ones are the Toy Story Trilogy.

I know, my family is really behind the times. We just saw Toy Story 3 on Friday. I ADORE Toy Story I and II. I really hoped that III could wrap them all up satisfactorily.

You know how I was obsessed with Lord of the Rings? Well, Toy Story III is right up there with it! All the Toy Stories in fact.

OMGOODNESS!ILOVEDITILOVEDITILOVEDIT!

Ahem.

Andy looks so grown up! It's unbelievable! And El Buzzo...*insert screams of laughter*.

That movie is so good. I'm glad Woody stuck with the others.

"To infinity and beyond!"

Hugs & Blessings,

Izori

Movie Review: A Bridge Too Far

"A Bridge Too Far is a 1977 epic war film based on the 1974 book of the same name by Cornelius Ryan, adapted by William Goldman. It was produced by Joseph E. Levine and Richard P. Levine and directed by Richard Attenborough.^[1]

The film tells the story of the failure of Operation Market Garden during World War II, the Allied attempt to break through German lines and seize several bridges, including the bridge over the Lower Rhine, in the occupied Netherlands, with the main objective of Allied armor outflanking the Siegfried Line at its northern extremity.

The name for the film comes from an unconfirmed comment made by British Lieutenant-General Frederick Browning, deputy commander of the First Allied Airborne Army, who told Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, the operation's architect, before the operation, "I think we may be going a bridge too far."^[2]

The ensemble cast includes Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Edward Fox, Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, Hardy Krüger, Laurence Olivier, Robert Redford, and Maximilian Schell. The music was scored by John Addison, who served with XXX Corps during Market Garden."

*(Disclaimer: the above description was taken off of Wikipedia. I didn't write it, and I haven't checked out the links yet, so I don't know exactly what they lead to)*

A reenactor at a war event suggested this movie to us when he heard we were studying the world wars. According to him, it was "a great family movie! A classic!" As you read further, you'll see he has an unusual definition of 'family movie'...

Pros: I'm not sure how historically accurate it really is, but the reenactor told us it was pretty close to real (yeah, the same one who told us it was a family movie). It was very interesting, and I'm glad I watched it. No romance. It was a glimpse into World War II. The Germans actually spoke German instead of English in German accents, which I thought was cool.

Cons: Unnecessarily excessive cussing, violence and gore. There was also a very disturbing scene involving...well, without getting graphic, I'll just tell you that it was about an elderly lady.

Overall, it was definitely at least equal to a PG-13 rated movie. I'm not quite sure what it was really rated, but it certainly wasn't a 'family movie'. I actually really enjoyed it (aside from the cussing).

My rating: 2 3/4 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed the overall story, and it was very entertaining, but the language bumped the rating down considerably. I didn't mind the blood and violence as much, although some of you guys might.

And the moral of our story: don't believe everything that reenactors tell you! =)

My Opinion on 'Avatar'

No, I haven't seen it, but I have formed my own opinion of it. I've seen pictures and ads for it, and I think I would have to agree the most with Doug Phillips. Go HERE to read a very interesting post by him on this movie.

Izori

HA!!

Last night we watched the second half of 'Return of the King'! So that means that I've now watched ALL of the movies! So THERE!!

Ahem. Yeah, anyway.

Now I want to start all over again at 'FotR'. Oh well. It'll probably be ten years before I watch it again. My family's like that. You see a movie once, that's great. Now you never see it again. Especially if it's such a hassle, like The Lord of the Rings movies--Luthien and Galdor have to go to bed first, and by the time we start watching, it's about 9:00. Which means we end around midnight or past.

But it's fun.

I think that my favorite movie (I can say this now that I've watched them all) is either 'FotR' or 'TTT'. Seems like such a long time since we watched either, though.

Izori

My Thoughts on 'Prince Caspian' (Wednesday Debate)

Okay, sorry that I didn't do a weekly debate thing for a while. Got kind of busy!


I posted something about this a loooong time ago, but my thoughts on that were kind of rushed and not very organized. So I think I'll expand.

First, the book.

I LOVE the book, which is by C.S. Lewis (although I know that everyone knows that). It has battles and rebellions and, very importantly, it's an allegory. It has Christ at the center, and that is what makes it so good to read. Unlike a lot of books that aren't Christian, we don't have to try and kind of 'ignore' the other parts in it that really are not very edifying to read.

The only parts I don't like is the part when (***SPOILER*** if you haven't read the book before) Peter and Susan are told that they won't go back to Narnia. And then, I don't like it because it's sad, not because it's un-godly.

Now, the movie.

Well...I'll say this for it--it was...entertaining.

If it wasn't supposed to be based on 'Prince Caspian', I would have really liked it. It has about as much romance as, say, 'Ratatouille'. But they added on the romance, making it really un-enjoyable for a purist like me, made Caspian really old, and COMPLETELY messed it up! They had Caspian and Peter going at each other's throats (nearly literally) when the book specifically said that they were good friends right off, Susan disrespecting her brother who happens to be the High King, and they really dampened down the allegorical stuff.

One good thing was that they made Edmund really good though. I'd watch it again just to see him. :)

I suppose I like the movie...kind of. I really liked "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" better.

What are y'alls opinions on it?

Izori

Oh, and Merry Day-before-Christmas-Eve!

The Caption Contest that I have promised!!

Well...if you read the title, you know what I'm talking about.

GUIDELINES:

--Caption Contest starts on Monday, November 2, and ends on Friday, November 6, at midnight on Eastern time. I know that some of you are rather spread out and won't be on the same time as I will be, so just a warning that it ends on MY midnight. Not that I'm going to be staying up 'till midnight to figure out who commented after the deadline. But I'll trust you guys to figure out when exactly to post to make it before 12:00 AM Eastern time.

--When you comment your caption, please number them according to what picture your caption is for (i.e. #1. Blah, blah, blah. #2. Blah, blah...etc).

--There will be no prize other than the satisfaction of knowing that you have won. And winners, what I will do is figure out the winner for each individual picture, and then the overall funniest caption will be the winning one.

--the link to the Caption Contest will also be on my sidebar.

RULES:

--Please do not use bad words or any language that you would not say in the presence of our Lord. Also please don't insult other people in your captions. If you violate any of that, I will have to delete your comment (or if I can) simply use a more politer word in its place. I don't think any of y'all would do this...but I'll just say it anyway.

--Be a good sport.

--HAVE FUN!!!!!

And here are your pictures, taken from 'The Princess Bride', 'Fellowship of the Ring' and 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'.


#1.



#2.




#3.




#4.




#5.




#6.




#7.





#8.



#9.



#10.



#11.



There's so much more that would be great caption pictures...but I thought eleven was enough.

BTW, the caption contest starts NOW!

Stayed up 'till midnight...but it was worth every second!!!! (aka Movie Review)

We FINALLY watched The Fellowship of the Ring last night!! We had to wait until nine or so for Luthien and Galdor to go to bed. And then...we watched it. I suppose I'll do an official review.

'The Fellowship of the Ring'

When Bilbo Baggins vanishes on his 111 birthday, he leaves a mysterious ring of power behind to his nephew, Frodo. Gandalf the Wizard, an old friend of Bilbo's, doesn't know much about the ring except for that it is dangerous and must be kept hidden from all eyes. More research about the ring reveals that it will be the end of Middle Earth, unless Frodo can destroy it in the place where it came from--Mordor.

Frodo and three friends, Sam, Pippin, and Merry, set out to deliver the ring to whoever can destroy it, and find that this ring has even bigger importance than they had realized. When they reach Rivendell, it is decided that Frodo himself will bear the ring, and that two men, Aragorn and Boromir, an elf named Legolas, a dwarf named Gimli, and Gandalf the Wizard will all accompany them. Thus starts the Fellowship of the Ring...

You must watch it.

With that said, I'll be more official. It was wonderful!! Now I understand what everyone else was raving about.

Good stuff: There's a lot of close friendship and awesome fight scenes. I really liked the Ringwraiths (not that it's my style or anything, they just did a good job of looking really creepy and evil). I greatly enjoyed finally seeing the movie that I had been dying to see for years, and I must say, it certainly was an awesome movie in a whole lot of ways.

There is some cautionary stuff, though (yes, I know this seems longer than the good stuff...but it really isn't): First of all, Aragorn and Arwen kiss. I see what people mean when they say that Arwen is definitely not as pure in the movie as in the books. And I could understand why Dad and Mom didn't want me and Erestor to watch it until we had reached the ages we are (also I think it was a good idea to send Galdor and Luthien to bed. Luthien wouldn't even watch parts of 'The Princess Bride') There's some brief torture scenes, and the bad guys are very real looking. I actually enjoyed the part where Aragorn lopped off the Uruk-Hai's (I think I spelled that right) head, but that could also be sort of disturbing.

I must say, I didn't close my eyes during the movie at all!! I also managed to not cry until the ending part (s). I'm usually the last to cry during movies, and if you ask any of my friends, they would most likely say that I'm not a crying type of person.

At the place where we do archery, there was one girl (she's not likely to appear on this blog very much, so I won't bother to give her a name) that said Erestor reminded her of Pippin. I definitely see the resemblence (haha). They even look somewhat alike!!

And now I'm going back to bed.

It seems like every time I make up a new character for a book, I like them to look somewhat like me. I have no clue why that is, but I do that. Almost all my main characters are tall (even though I've stopped growing and all of my friends are starting to surpass me in height, so I'm starting to feel really short). Ben and Kaela have blond hair, which I don't, but a lot of my characters have brown/black hair.

Ummm...I'm already getting off subject here. The real reason I posted was to talk about the Narnia movies. My brother and I just watched a little bit of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". I might review it, but not now, as we only watched the battle scene (my favorite) and the special features. And we watched "Prince Caspian" recently, too.

I really liked "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". At first, I didn't like it when Susan yells at Peter at the beginning, but now I realize that it's just showing how the Pevensie children mature during their adventure. The Centuars were very good.

"Prince Caspian" was way different from the actual book. It was entertaining, but I like the book better. Edmund was very good in the movie, though.

Anyway, those are my brief thoughts on the Narnia movies.

Izori

Movie Review: The Prince of Egypt

A movie review on a book blog? Well, it was a good movie...

The Prince of Egypt (rated PG)
A DreamWorks Pictures production

Moses, growing up with his brother Rameses, never dreamed he was anything but the son of the Pharaoh of Egypt. Until he runs into his real sister, a slave named Miriam, who tries to tell him the real story. He flees, but later he does some serious thinking, and finds out that Miriam was right, Moses' mother set him afloat in a basket on the Nile long ago to save his life, and he drifted to the palace. And was adopted into the royal family. Now facing the truth, Moses realizes that his path will take him another direction then Rameses'. One will become the ruler of the most powerful empire on earth, and the other the chosen leader of his enslaved people. Their confrontation will change the world.

It was really good. It did have some parts not in the Bible, like Tzipporah and Moses meet before he runs away, but nothing really bad (like Ra was the real person in the burning bush, or something like that). I thought the voice-actors (actresses) did a pretty good job. Though I would probably read the Biblical version before you watch the movie. My favorite part was when Tzipporah dropped Moses down the well, or maybe a little bit of the chariot race.

Izori