He's just not that into you

So it was another hot Saturday night but we've actually had some stormy weather so it was humid as well and my boyfriend was playing the x-box with his friend so I settled in for this chic flick with a little apprehension. The last ensemble American film like this I'd seen was Valentine's Day last year and that was very disappointing. An American Love Actually it was not. But this one wasn't so bad.


Short summary:

Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) is the central character who is crap at interpreting signals from guys in the dating world. After another mediocre date, she meets Alex (Justin Long) who runs a bar and gives her insider tips e.g. he's just not that into you if he's not sleeping with you, calling you, asking you out on a date, marrying you etc. Ludicrousness aside, Gigi takes the gospel to heart and it releases her into not wasting time on the wrong guy. But then she believes she's read the right signals from Alex and thinks he's interested in her...
There's all the other side characters connected to Gigi in some way. Jennifer Connelly and Jennifer Aniston work with her. Connelley is in a marriage with Bradley Cooper where she gave him an ultimatum to get married, Aniston is in a happy long term relationship with Ben Affleck but he doesn't believe in marriage.
Then there's Scarlett Johanssen who meets Cooper and thinks they may be destined to be together thanks to her friend Drew Barrymore even though he's married.
Hook ups and break ups ensue.

If I had read this book (released in 2005) in which the movie is sorta based on in high school (which would have been impossible of course) I could have saved myself a hell of a lot of time with trying to decipher guys signals (or lack of). I was a hopeless crusher in high school and never had a date. I should never have bothered even thinking about those guys who had no interest in me and just concentrated on fun stuff like 80's movie marathons with friends (check out Electric Dreams). Sad stuff over.

Some likes

Ginnifer Goodwin: just loved her twee outfits, her hair, her cute little cherubic cheeks you just want to pinch, her interactions with Justin Long. She's really charming in this movie. I also liked Long's character as he wasn't a nerd, he's stuck as his Dodgeball character in my mind unfortunately.

Bradley Cooper is excellent at playing another douche bag.
Some dislikes
The ending between Jennifer Aniston's character and Ben Affleck.

Scarlett Johanssen's character. I know she's not meant to be the most likable but I just did not buy her in this role.

Drew Barrymore was a producer of this film and I felt her role was a little tacked on and trying too hard to be alterna-hippy. Which is weird because years ago Drew pulled off hippy really well.
And they tried to give her character the job of being lost in all this new technology of the dating world (My Space, texting, calling etc) which was good in theory but not executed well. For a start shouldn't they have tacked this complaint onto a younger character? Not that Drew is old, it is just more of an issue for 20 somethings.

This is my 100th post which makes me think I should have posted about something I felt more strongly about! It's also been nearly a year since I started fostering, which has had it's share of ups and downs. I hope to do a post sharing some stories about the fur children I've looked after the past year soon.
And also my birthday is coming up (and all this entails in becoming a late 20 something...eek) and I'm still trying to work out what I want to do career wise! Fun!

Do you come from the land down under?

Yesterday was Australia Day and we celebrate on the 26th January every year (hang on while I google it) to commemorate the landing of the first fleet in Sydney Cove in 1788.

So what does Joe Public do to celebrate this momentous day (some people claim it 'invasion day')?

Well we blow up a whole lot of fireworks over the river that runs through the city. I guess it's like the fourth of July for Americans, except without all that hand over your heart stuff (excuse me, I'm using all knowledge of fourth of July celebrations from how it was depicted in My Girl).

What did I do to celebrate this occasion? Well I met some friends at the pub for lunch and a drink where there was the traditional beer and sausage in a roll for lunch but I chose to have a cider and tomato tart with greens as I'm just that fancy. Also I am sick of sausages. And lamb. Why do we feel the need to eat copious amounts of lamb on Australia day?
Then I went home and had a long nap. Woke up, went to my parents house for the dinner I'd invited myself to, since I couldn't be bothered cooking.

Later I attended a late night screening of Black Swan. Holy crap, I wasn't sure what to expect with that movie, but I think Natalie Portman deserved her awards for that movie.
So you know Happy Australia Day! or something, at least we got a public holiday out of it. Oh and I hung my washing out to dry on our hills hoist. You can't get more Aussie than that.

*Please go to this link for a more thoughtful post about Australia Day.

Queensland floods

While over on my side of the country we're battling heat and bush fires, over on the east coast in Queensland there has been major destruction caused by flooding. The area affected is bigger than Germany and France combined to put it in any kind of perspective.
Nine people are confirmed dead with many more missing. Please send your good thoughts and a donation if you can.

Strictly Ballroom

Another Australian 'classic' with a good dose of cultural cringe thrown in.

Scott Hastings is the young son of ballroom champion dancers Bill and Shirley. He is on the verge of winning a huge competition with his partner Liz when he decides he is sick of the traditional way of ballroom dancing and throws in his own unique steps.
His mum, Liz and the ballroom officials are horrified and try to get him to dance traditionally. When he refuses, Liz decides to dance with a new partner and Scott's mum and officials continually try and change his mind and get him a new partner, so he can still win in the traditional style for the upcoming pan pacific championship.

Secretly though he begins dancing with Fran, an amateur in their spare time. She wants to dance his new steps at the competition. But will the federation accept their dancing style at the competition?

There's also a back story about his parents dancing and how his dad went against the ballroom community and his mum doesn't want Scott to make the same mistakes.

Like the so called sport itself, the film is over the top, cheesy with hilarious costumes. Released in 1992, and directed by Baz Luhrmann it features a lot of well known Australian actors like Bill Hunter and Barry Otto. The lead character Scott is played by a professional dancer named Paul Mecurio who is now more well known for being a judge on Dancing with the Stars, hosting a cooking show and releasing a cookbook.

I never released how similar it is in parts to Dirty Dancing. The teaching of the young inexperienced female to dance, the opposition from those older/in more power, the refusal to change from traditional steps and obviously the love story that develops between the two.

It's not all drama though: the scenes with Fran's foreign family, in particular her father and grandmother, who teach Scott their own traditional dancing and to dance from the heart are interesting and give Fran's character more scope. It show how her and Scott are both dealing with different traditional expectations on them.

If you like the style of Baz Lurhmanns films you will enjoy this in all its over the topness that is typical of his films. As much as I do like to mock ballroom dancing (in the same vein as synchronised swimming) I do appreciate their skill and wish I had one tenth of their co-ordination and grace.



I always crack up with these lines, the actress, Pat Thomson who played Scott's mum Shirley, sadly died before the film was released, but she just delivers it so well:

Shirley Hastings: And what about Les? He's taught you everything you know, and you're just throwing it back in his face!

Scott: I'm bored with it!
Shirley Hastings: I don't believe I'm hearing this! I've been with your father for twenty-five years! Do you think I get bored? Of course I do!





Scott's dad, played by Barry Otto: also more my style of dancing

 

Two useless lists & Tomorrow, when the war began

Firstly merry Christmas and happy new year! I hope you all had a more exciting time than me.

A list of things I should have done during my 9 day break:
Sand back the bathroom walls

Take the dogs to the beach

Cook those meals I always say I never have enough time to cook

Things I did:
Catch a super awesome summer cold (still counting the days until it leaves me)

Bought and installed an air conditioner in the bedroom - we are in the middle of an awful heatwave...bliss! Although I will see a white Christmas once in my lifetime. If you want to experience menopause early, call round!

Finally watched some movies -The Runaways, Julie and Julia, Running with Scissors, Scott Pilgrim vs the World

Finished reading The Tommyknockers

Watched the neighbours let off some (illegal) fireworks and set their palm tree on fire on new years eve

On to my review:
Tomorrow, when the war began is an Australian film released in 2010 based on John Marsden's book of the same title.
It is the first of a series of 7 young adult books released from 1993 to 1999.
Needless to say I was the key demographic when they were released and loved the books.
A group of 7 teenagers in a country town decide to skip the country show one year and instead camp in 'hell.' All their families attend the annual show where they display livestock, jams etc. Hell is a piece of hidden, natural bushland only accessible by hiking where they can camp and has a natural water source.
Ellie and Corrie are the organisers, they also invite Kevin, Corrie's boyfriend and Homer, Ellie's neighbour. Ellie decides to ask Lee, a Vietnamese student at their school she has always found interesting. The last 2 are Fi, a girly 'townie' and Robyn, daughter of the minister.
They embark off on a weekend of teenage hi jinks, and when they return to Ellie's house they realise something is desperately wrong. Ellie's dog is dead and no one is home, similar situations are found at all their houses. There is no Internet or mobile phone access and the group gets worried. The gang splits up to check and Ellie, Corrie and Kevin go into town to view the showgrounds where they can see something is happening. There, they get the confirmation that they have been invaded by a foreign force and the soldiers are holding everyone prisoner at the grounds.
I won't reveal much more, but I did enjoy this film and it is unusual for an Australian film to have a big budget and to be primarily an action film (and young adult centred at that), and I think they did it well.
Not to say it didn't have it's faults. As it sometimes the case with book to film translations some of the dialogue was a little stilted or awkward when I recognised chunks of it came from the book.
I thought it was also great that the main focus was on Ellie, and that she is actually a strong character with flaws but also great features: she's always honest, unsure about her decisions but the complete opposite of Bella Swan which is a relief.

The characters all appear age appropriate too, which helps the realism. When I read the books, I always fantasized about playing Robyn and now I'm almost 10 years old than the actress playing her! Is it depressing that I didn't picture myself in the leading role, that even in my fantasies I wanted to play a supporting character? I did find that she was played quite holy in the film and that didn't come across so much in the books, but it is good to have a religious character that wasn't a crazy zealot.

Anyway one interesting casting choice was the part belonging to Corrie played by an English actress named Rachel Hurd-Wood who played Wendy in 2003's underrated Peter Pan. She mostly got the accent right, but just a bit of poshness crept in to the dialect every now and again.
The race of the invading nation was never given, a deliberate move in the books that the filmmakers continued. I think it is the right choice, all we know from seeing them is that they are Asian and neighbours to Australia. Even their language spoken is fabricated and false.

Overall a good film if you can track it down, I'm not sure what its overseas release is like.
And now I must peel myself off the couch, step over the panting animals in various places on the floor and go get more ice blocks.

Please ignore the dust on my floor