Take This Waltz: My Review

                                                  

Michelle Williams has made a career out of playing women in unfulfilling marriages (remember her Oscar nominated turns in Brokeback Mountain and Blue Valentine). In the indie, Take This Waltz, Michelle adds another young wife role to her resume as freelance writer Margot, who after five years of being married to Seth Rogan's character Lou, a boring cookbook writer she finds herself falling for a sexy artist/rickshaw driver named Daniel (Luke Kirby).

Daniel meets Margot while she is on a writing assignment and they sit together on the plane ride back and also share a cab to their respective homes. As it turns out, sexy Daniel is Margot's neighbor from across the street (awkward) and the cat and mouse game begins.

I could see why Margot would be attracted to Daniel: he's funny, charming, easy on the eyes, with a wicked sense of humor. Lou on the other hand is nice enough, but I see his and Margot's relationship as more brother/sister than husband and wife. There is also a serious lack of sexual chemistry between the two, in fact you never see the two of them act sexual towards one another, although in one scene it is implied.

For a twenty eight year old woman, I can see where a marriage likes this would feel like an albatross and an emotional affair with a sexy guy would be just the thing that the doctor ordered. Even though the attraction is mutual, Margot and Daniel tread carefully, but I feel the rubber met the road when Daniel gave specifics to Margot as to how intense their encounter would be if they ever had sex. After that scene you saw the disintegration of Margot's marriage to Lou coming from a zillion miles away!

I never got the jest of why Margot and Lou got together in the first place. I wish Sarah Polley would have given the viewer more of a background on how these two crazy kids met, fell in love, and got married so young. I felt cheated by that, but no movie is perfect. I did enjoy Sarah Silverman's turn as Geraldine, Lou's alcoholic sister whose attempt at sobriety is an epic fail. The role isn't big, but Sarah does a good job in the few scenes she has.

The resolution to the love triangle was a little pat for my taste and the ending was too open ended.  Did Margot remain with Daniel, or did she go off on her own? That was not clear, but all in all I would suggest this as a movie worth seeing.

Have anyone of you seen it, and if so what did you think of the performances and the film overall?

The Authors of Beautiful Bastard Score Major Deal

Congrats to writers (and friends in my head) Lauren Billings and Christina Hobbs who wrote the bestseller Beautiful Bastard and the soon to be released Beautiful Stranger. They just signed a 5 book deal with Gallery Books to continue the saga of Chloe, Bennett, and the people that inhabit their world. 

Beautiful Stranger will be released in May with the Target exclusive going on sale later this month and after that readers will be blessed with another Beautiful Bastard spinoff and three (yes!!) three novellas featuring Chloe and Bennett. 

We fans can also expect another full length novel to hit book shelves just in time for summer 2014, and the Beautiful Bastard film is still underway. I can't wait!

Readers have you read Beautiful Bastard yet? If so will you continue to follow the characters and the various spinoffs?

Halle's Expecting!

Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez are expecting their first child together. Halle released a

statement today that she is three months pregnant with a baby boy.

 Congrats to Halle and Olivier!

My Take On the Latest Entertainment News

First of all I must give major kudos to the Queen B herself for waking up the Beyhive at 9 AM this morning with the 60 second Pepsi commercial/teaser for her single Grown Woman that will be released this coming Monday. I am happy to know that Bow Down will not be the first single since that cut did not catch on with listeners, plus the sound of it was so not the Beyonce we are familiar with. Grown Woman from I have heard sounds like a summer banger so I'm ready to hear the full track which will be released on I Tunes on April 8th.

Rihanna's 777 documentary will debut on 5/6 on Fox. This is a look at Rihanna's last tour where we will get a behind the scenes perspective to Ri Ri's world, a la Bey's Life Is But A Dream.

The Walking Dead which has taken a lot of criticism in the past from viewers due to its lack of diversity will be adding the characters of Tyreese and Sasha as regular members of the cast, along with  The Governor played by David Morrissey. Melissa Ponzito will reoccur as Karen, the lone survivor of The Governor's murderous rampage on Sunday's finale. The Governor is a great character although I hope the writers do not mess up a good thing by bringing him back for another season. From what I have read there is some great story ahead for the Governor, so we'll see.

Zoe Saldana may be expanding her alien role resume with Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. She is being considered for the role of Gamora, and if Zoe gets this, she will have 3 franchises to her credit (we cannot forget Star Trek and Avatar). Whether you are a fan of Zoe's or not, she is making things happen. I personally want to see her in a second installment of Colombiana which I really enjoyed.

Tyler Perry's The Haves and Have Nots will be getting a big launch thanks to Oprah Winfrey. The show will debut on May 26th and will be preceded by a Next Chapter episode featuring the movie mogul and a look at the making of the new OWN series. Oprah and TP are a powerful combination so I hope this new show draws in even more viewers for Oprah's network.

Leighton Meester may no longer be on t v but she is making great strides in her movie career. She will be joining Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall in the new movie The Judge. Leighton is set to play a one night stand of RDJ's. Lucky girl!

The Fault In Our Stars Casting News

Shailene Woodley who stars on the soon to be ending teen dramedy Secret Life, and charmed critics with her role as a grieving teen in The Descendants has landed the lead role in the much anticipated teen love story The Fault In Our Stars.

The Fault In Our Stars is based on a best selling YA novel by John Green and centers around two teens dying from cancer who fall in love. When I read the book I must say I saw Hailee Steinfeld as the lead, but Shailene has proven she has the chops for drama and angsty roles so I am looking forward to this one. Plus she is a young actress on the rise and her track record thus far is pretty good with upcoming roles in The Spectacular Now and the sequel to the The Amazing Spider Man. The male lead has not been cast yet, but I am hoping they pick a strong actor for Gus who has great chemistry with Shailene.

If any of you have read the book, who do you want to see as the male lead? Comment below!

Beautiful Bastard : Book Review

After 50 Shades of Grey came out there was an influx of erotic novels to hit the shelves. With the exception of the Crossfire series by Sylvia Day I haven’t gotten into any of the others, but then Beautiful Bastard was released.

BB (which started as a Twilight fanfic called The Office),is the story of Chloe Mills, an intern at Ryan Media Group who has the boss from hell. Bennett Ryan, the son of the head of the company is her boss, and Bennett is one tough M F, but has the looks of a Greek God. The two constantly butt heads but things quickly take a turn after an intense sexual encounter early on in the book. From that point on the fights continue as well as the sex and that’s what makes this couple so captivating.

Chloe and Bennett are a fun couple even when they argue. I think that is what makes this book, and hopefully the followup so enjoyable.  Romances should not be dark, and they certainly should not have such weak characters as Anastasia Steele. Sorry I am not a fan of the 50 Shades series and the doormat character of Ana is one of the main reasons why, not to mention EL James’ corny writing style which needs to be seriously re tweaked for the film version of those novels.  Plus the sex scenes in 50 Shades are not sexually appealing to me like BB’s.  I guess because Bennett wasn’t so dark and twisty (except for the panty fetish) and he was a man that genuinely admired Chloe’s business sense and independence which made him way sexier to me than a guy with a Red Room of Pain!

Christina Lauren are two writers who really appreciate strong female characters, and that’s why I will continue to follow their careers closely especially since BB is being made into a film and the next book is due out soon in the Beautiful series. Yeah I know 50 Shades hasn’t been cast yet, but I hope this film gets to the screen first. The story is better and with the right casting choices it could prove to be a huge hit.  I wonder if Bradley Cooper could free up his sched to take on the role of Bennett, and opposite him I would like to see Mila Kunis, Ashley Greene, or Jennifer Lawrence for Chloe. (Christina Lauren when you read this take note of these names! ;) 

If you have read Beautiful Bastard what was your opinion of the book? Who would you like to see take on these roles? Comment below!

Oz The Great & Powerful: My Review

When I first started hearing that Hollywood was doing a prequel to one of my childhood faves, The Wizard of Oz I groaned thinking"Why is it every great movie needs a reboot/prequel/sequel? Leave the classics alone already! (That goes for Star Wars as well). Nonetheless since it originally had Robert Downey Jr. attached, I was willing to give it a whirl.

When Downey dropped out (due to his Marvel obligations no doubt), and James Franco stepped in I wasn't too thrilled. I am not a Francophile. My friend Frances who loves the guy may throw up in her mouth when she reads this, but for some reason he just doesn't do it for me. Anywho, the film fell off my radar when he took on the role and did not register again until I saw the trailer for the movie. Needless to say I was impressed and was greatly curious over Sam Raimi's take on Oz and the man who became the Wizard. 

The film starts off in black and white and it shows Franco as a charlatan working for a traveling circus who plays people for profit and women for sport. The one woman he does care about is Michelle Williams (who unlike Katie Holmes keeps making great career moves post Dawson's Creek) and she comes to see Oz at the circus to let him know she has been proposed to by another man. While talking to her, a fellow circus performer comes looking for Oz after it's found out that the womanizing magician has been hitting on his girlfriend. Oz makes a quick getaway in an air balloon, gets caught up in a tornado, winds up in Oz, and that's when his journey of self discovery begins.

Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz play sisters Theodora and Evanora who figure prominently in this movie and in the original. Mila's character Theodora was a wide eyed innocent in the beginning of the film, but after turning wicked thanks to Evalora that's when her character became interesting to me. The makeup, costumes, and sets were amazing and the CGI was on point as well. Zach Braff's role as Oz's (human) lackey is small but he gives voice to the Flying Monkey who becomes Oz's best friend and confidante. China Doll is another character that Oz befriends along the way and his relationship with her brings out a paternal side to Oz that even he did not know existed. Michelle Williams' other role in Oz is that of Glenda the Good Witch and she helps Oz discover the importance of what it means to help others and to be a selfless person.

All in all I give the film high marks all around. I know there have been rumblings of a sequel and with its weekend gross so far I would not be surprised if the script for the next one is not already underway!

Ratings Guide: 

1 popcorn: Poor

2 popcorns: Wait and rent it!

3 popcorns: Good, but not great

4 popcorns: Excellent, worth the admission