Surprise! Wait... what?

I'm baaaaack... after a ridiculous absence. Apologies, time has not been my ally of late. But I bring word from the land of cinema. I was originally going to post about Alice in Wonderland but I feel the need to watch that again so it is fresh in my mind. Instead, I will be talking about fantastic twists in movies and my most recent film adventure, Repo Men.

I am giving fair warning now that I will not be revealing super important spoilers but if you do not want to know basic plot information, or if a film actually has a surprise ending, then do not read any further.

The two topics above, of course, tie in together. But I will get to that in a bit.

For years, certain movies have had twists so significant you feel as if you belong to a secret society once you have watched them. Jaw-droppers, I have come to call them, are probably my favorite genre. This is mainly because they make you think. The movie takes a turn and your brain says, "WHAT?! But no.... that can't... hold on!" And you go back and work the puzzle through the right way. Sometimes, and this has only happened to me a few times, you hate the ending at first. Then, a few hours later you think it over again and go, "You know... that was really clever."

I give writers credit; in a world of remakes, people still manage to give some films a brilliant, unique edge. Go to most theaters now, and you will see posters for nothing but re-adaptions and sequels. Now, don't get me wrong, I love me some revamping. However, one would think originality would be a little more abundant. I suppose not.

The two best movies with plot twists, in my opinion, have to be Fight Club and The Sixth Sense. Closely followed by Memento. Eastern Promises also had a great surprise moment.









The first stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter. Much more than fighting, this is a story of a man who is falling apart. Not for the squeamish or faint-hearted. Directed by David Fincher.

The second: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, and Haley Joel Osment perform beautifully in the tale of a boy whose seemingly simple childhood trauma is much more than his psychiatrist planned for. Supernatural awesomeness. Good chilling scenes too. M. Night Shyamalan filmed this.

Numéro trois est le film where Guy Pearce plays a man who, after his wife's murder, seeks vengeance on the killer. What's makes this so different is that his character, Leonard Shelby, sustained a head injury on the night of the homicide. He remembers life before but is unable to create new memories, having lapses at least three times a day. He covers himself in tattoo reminders, all hints on how to find the killer. Best part? The whole movie goes backwards by scene. This one is INTENSE. Done by Chris Nolan.

And last but not least at all: The Russian mob in London has to cover up their crimes when the diary of a deceased young mother falls into a midwife's hands. Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortensen, and Vincent Cassel perform admirably in this drama that's plot thickens with each turn it takes. Courtesy of David Cronenberg. Bit of gore, lots of violence. Just a heads up.

In case you have not seen these fantastic motion pictures, I will not mention more. But rent them as soon as you are able. I can almost guarantee you will not regret it.

Another recent film with a very intriguing twist was The Book of Eli.

Denzel Washington, Mila Kunis, and Gary Oldman lead in an apocalyptic thriller with a deeper inner meaning. Denzel, keeper of a sacred book, must elude Oldman, and sets off for the rightful wielders with Kunis. Not for those with weak stomachs.



And speaking of such, on to Repo Men.



If you know anything about this movie, you are aware that this is a film for people who A: have very strong stomachs, B: can differentiate movie makeup from real gore, or C: have that sixth sense (oh how fitting) of knowing when to look away.

I, fortunately, possess both trait B and C.

Here's the plot for those not in the know. Repo Men takes place in the future. The world of medical science has evolved wondrously and now, instead of getting organ transplants from a donor, one can simply purchase a top of the line synthetic organ made by a company called The Union. Do you see where this is going? Sure, these organs are great. But they're expensive. And if you can't make the payments someone like Jude Law's character Remy or Forest Whitaker's Jake will come to your house and repossess what belongs to The Union. And they are not there to make you comfortable, just to take back what is no longer yours. The point of all this? A faulty defib unit causes Remy to be hospitalized and he is given a replacement heart. Guess who can't make the payments.

That is not the twist though. Not even close. If you want a good "Whoa" moment, see this movie soon. It's not perfect, but nothing is, really.

So, now you know, if you want to psyche out your mind, these are a few of the movies to see. All of them are very enjoyable.

Have any movie suggestions for me? Twists I left out? Tell me. :] I always love a new cinematic adventure.

Time is a fickle thing.

And so I have barely been on here. Between make up homework from being ill and working, I haven't had time to do anything I'd like to. My to-do list isn't large but it's full of significant things. Reading books that aren't assignments, running so I can get my be-hind into decent shape, and going on www.livemocha.com to continue learning German. The latter is, I think, my top priority as I want to visit my aunt in Germany by summer. After that comes running. I need to get my behind moving. Anymore, getting weighed is the worst part of going to the doctor. Number's always going up. Granted it's mostly due to inflammation but still. Ah well, we'll see what happens. Anywho, luckily I had time to dye my hair. Or rather, my mom had time to.

Bad picture quality but I just wanted one that

showed the spectrum, front to back.

Since freshman year of high school, I have been dying my hair. And every once in awhile I stop and go brown or blonde, or attempt to grow it back out. And I think I do that because I have this belief that guys will like me if I look like a normal person. And usually I laugh at this but sometimes I'm not sure. What sucks is how torn I am between conforming and doing what I love.

I am always happier with color in my hair. I feel like something is missing when I'm natural. But I also don't like the judge-a-book-by-its-cover attitude I get geared towards me. It's win/lose and sometimes I really don't know what outweighs what. Single, judged, "weird", colorful, and a bit more upbeat? Or taken, invisible, "normal", bland, and bored to tears? I don't know which is better...

Drew Barrymore in Mad Love. I adore her haircut.

Maybe I'll find a happy medium. Chin length hair and one color? That means no more patterns though... it's amazing how much of a dilemma this is to me. To dye or not to dye? Cut or not to cut? I have much bigger things to stress over and yet, this is often what I worry about most. Well... perhaps third most.

Point is, I have way too much of a problem with my appearance. I'm a nit-picker and it's something I need to stop. Despite the fact that I'm in love with my hair, I keep telling myself, "After this, it's being grown out." I care too much about what others think. So, essentially, I think my number one goal has become training myself to not care. It's hard though.

For some reason, and I have yet to figure out why a million compliments never seem to take away the sting of half a dozen insults. Maybe it's because people significant to me have dished them out, or maybe I just cannot take criticism, whether it's bull or not.

Agh, I'm being a whiner. I didn't mean for this to be a complaining post. It just sort of ended up that way. So my apologies. I guess I just needed to vent. I have way too much on my mind and if I don't let some out, my eyes may pop out of my head.

On a brighter note, I saw Where the Wild Things Are. It was beautiful. I cannot lie though; I did cry. And I have only ever cried during five movies: The Green Mile, Brother Bear, The Perfect Storm, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and Where the Wild Things Are. My mom cried as well but, as she admitted in her blog, she cries during almost every movie. And even some trailers. ;]

I usually get more emotional with books. I'm reading The Lovely Bones for school right now and sobbed through the beginning. It's great though, I can't wait to finish. The last three Harry Potter books made me cry too. But that was because Rowling killed my five favorite characters. That's not really a spoiler right? I didn't say who. Another tear jerker was John Steinbeck's The Pearl, which I absolutely loathed. I read that sophomore year and threw it out of my room and down the hall at the end. Ridiculous book haha.

Okay, now I'm rambling. Enough for now. I'm going to try to sleep. I finally saw Gladiator today and I plan on attempting to keep the image of Russel Crowe in his gladiator get-up in my head before drifting off.