Welcome to the fourth edition of love of movies carnival. How many of you saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince this last week? What did you think? I was surprised I didn't get a ton of movie reviews for it. I wrote mine at 3AM when I got out of the midnight premiere on Wednesday. I was very careful to leave spoilers out for those who hadn't read the book yet. I saw it again yesterday with my family and the majority agreed with my assessment of the movie. The one who didn't prefers more Voldemort and just more going on. The New Moon trailer (sequel of Twilight) at both show times was welcomed in screams by everyone in the audience. November will prove to be exciting too.
Behind the Scenes
Craig Sharp presents Public Enemies Press Conference posted at FILMSHAFT.COM, saying, "Covering the recent UK Press Conference for Public Enemies, featuring Johnny Depp and director Michael Mann"
Craig Sharp presents Public Enemies - Brand New Poster AND Press Conference Footage! posted at FILMSHAFT.COM, saying, "Follow up to the Public Enemies press conference, actual footage from the event."
Celebrity
Nancy Miller presents 10 Celebrities Who Are Insanely Healthy posted at Radiology Technician Schools.
Colin Timberlake presents Underappreciated Actors: Rick Aviles posted at colintimberlake.com, saying, "A look at the career of underappreciated actor Rick Aviles (Ghost, Carlito's Way)"
Movie Reviews
Eric Gargiulo presents DVD Review - Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling posted at CamelClutchBlog.com, saying, "The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling is a controversial release from WWE Home Video. The documentary was so good that by the time I finished, I felt that it should have been released as a major motion picture."
daveandginny presents Up: Where we belong posted at Buttery Toast Movie Reviews, saying, "Ginny from Buttery Toast reviews the Pixar movie Up."
daveandginny presents Twilight posted at Buttery Toast Movie Reviews, saying, "Ginny's review of Twilight on Buttery Toast."
daveandginny presents Scream posted at Buttery Toast Movie Reviews, saying, "Dave's review of Scream on Buttery Toast."
Eric Gargiulo presents Return to Sleepaway Camp review posted at CamelClutchBlog.com, saying, "Let's fast forward to 2008 (this was actually shot in 2003 and was delayed repeatedly) and we finally get the long awaited fourth installment "Return to Sleepaway Camp" with the tag-line - Kids can be so mean! For Sleepaway fans, this is the part two that we never really got since Hiltzik was not involved with the second and third parts."
Len Penzo presents Drive-By Movie Review: Gran Torino posted at Len Penzo . Com.
New Releases
steven germain presents Never heard of District 9? - You will soon... posted at Rough Fractals.
Eric Gargiulo presents WWE Allied Powers - The World?s Greatest Tag Teams DVD Review posted at CamelClutchBlog.com, saying, "WWE pays homage to tag team wrestling with its newest DVD release. WWE Allied Powers - The World's Greatest Tag Teams DVD hits the shelves today. The DVD set spotlights some of wrestling’s greatest teams with a collection of matches and vignettes."
daveandginny presents Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen posted at Buttery Toast Movie Reviews, saying, "Dave's review of the new Transformers flick on Buttery Toast."
Production News
larryniven presents July fools! posted at Rust Belt Philosophy, saying, "Ten best picture nominees? Whaaaaaat?"
That concludes this edition. If you have movie and actor/tress news please submit your blog articles to the next edition of love of movies using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Technorati tags: love of movies, blog carnival.
Online Stores
Jim Broadbent, formally known as Bridget Jones's Dad
in the romance community, played Professor Slughorn in Half-Blood Prince. He nailed the character so much so that I could not possibly imagine it played by anyone else, nor would I want them too. Slightly vague expression, attitude a little bit more than merely anxious, and self-serving tendencies of the character were all performed exceptionally. Broadbent has shown his talents and mere words could not do him justice.
Alan Rickman, I confess, I’ve been a little tired of seeing in the Potter films. There’s a lot of emphasis on Snape in previous films in part because of the character and in part because of the actor. Rickman’s screen time was just right in this film, neither too much nor too little, an excellent job via the scriptwriters. His part in this film had we seen before book seven was released would have revealed much of his true character that in print was hard to unwind.
Tom Felton as Draco… let’s just say his appearance reminded me a lot of a Nazi—bleach blond hair and bright blue eyes, highlighted because of his stark all black costumes. He looked much older than the rest of the cast of Six Years. Felton, like Broadbent, did a superb job. He really brought Draco to people. You could be sympathetic for this neophyte Death Eater, something that prior to this movie I would have deemed impossible unless you were Professor Dumbledore.
Which leads me to Dumbledore—Finally, he got a good size role and decent lines. When you see him in action in the cave sequence it blows your mind. It was also great to see flash backs to when Dumbledore was younger. Amazing what a little facial hair manipulation can do. Oh, and Gandalf the Grey/White of The Lord of the Rings
, eat your heart out.
Daniel Radcliffe finally mastered the ability to cry believably with sound—thank God! Those tight sweaters he was put in emphasized those shoulders and lean frame to perfection (watch out Pattinson—Radcliffe has got sex appeal too). Yum!
Emma Watson said for her part of Hermione in this film she put a lot of herself. For me, the acting was flawless. I did not see Emma overlay Hermoine’s character once in six, which is something I haven't seen since movie one
. Emma was Hermoine and Hermoine was never Emma.
Ronald Weasley acted by Rupert Grint was the comic relief as usual, but you never laughed at him you always laughed with him. The humor in this film really keeps the movie from getting too dark. There were lots of hoots and hollers in the theater.
Bonnie Wright who is Ginny Weasley gets the most screen time she’s ever gotten before in the Potter films. Readers of book six know why this is even if Rowling wrote it in such a fashion as to induce the gag reflex. On screen and because of the screenwriters it actually begins to be credible instead of merely ridiculously incredible. That was not something I thought I would say. I still don’t like her though.
Jessie Cave as Lavender was the perfect actress to cast. She was fun and intense, but never irritating or annoying. She’s a cute girl in both looks and expression. I don’t see how Won-Won could resist!
Evanna Lynch once more shows why she makes the best Luna Lovegood. I don’t think I need to say more than that because the picture below says it all.
There were some disappointments in the movie, but it was not because of the cinematography or acting. The disappointments lay elsewhere. One place was the Weasley home sequence, seeing it brought me around enough to like it instead of outright hating it (I'm a purist), but I wonder how it will affect the upcoming tale of Deathly Hallows
.
Movie six was smoothly told where book six
was choppy. A reader could infer most of what was going on with little doubt as to the correctness. A very attentive and smart viewer could do the same. The specifics I won’t reveal because that would ruin the movie for non-readers.
Suffice it to say, Half-Blood Prince earned it’s rating.
Rating: Five Stars, best yet in the set.
PS - you should have heard the crowd go wild for the New Moon trailer. It's going to be huge.
PPS- I went as Rita Skeeter after being forced out of her writing career by Hermoine. See picture below:
