Honeybeads Blog

Hey Brian & Melissa!
Since I just got your message to get blogging, I thought I would. How is your summer going? Too fast for me. We are getting hammered with storms tonight. I am so glad the girls have 1 more year 'till kindergarten. I need it to prepare for a lot of crying like you guys with Fletcher in a few weeks.
Nic

I saw a trailer for this on the DVD for Infection and it looked promising. It is about a man who is cursed with being shown various tragedies that will occur in the very near future via ghostly newspaper clippings. The first revelation costs him the life of his young daughter and the remainder of the movie chronicles his struggle with whether or not to intervene to save the lives of those he is foretold will die.

This is a Japanese film and I expected this to fall in line with the other great Asian horror movies I've been watching lately. That is, full of atmosphere, good scares, and creepy as heck. This is not what I got, but I was nonetheless not dissapointed. This movie has the typical atmosphere - uneasy, uncertainty, and an overall sense of tension throughout. The scares and creepiness, however, are replaced by sadness and fear for the character caught up in a seemingly hopeless plight. The film revolves around tragedy and you really get a sense of the grief that the man feels over the loss of his daughter and with the constant torment of his "premonitions". The movie has the usual Asian horror genre's slow pace and is mainly plot and character focused. The acting is quite good and you become very emotionally attached to the man and his wife as they struggle to find resolution within thier predicament.

Premonition delivers a strong ending, full of tension and emotion. There are few loose ends, though we are never told why this man became a target of the mysterious, ominous newspaper other than that his wife had run accross the story of the original victim of these revelations during her research into the subject of psychic photographic projection.

Brian's Bottom Line: Definitely worth a rental. Much better than similar American cinema like White Noise.

Okay, you would think this would be a winner. I mean, look, you've got Wes Craven directing and and the almighty Rick Backer doing creature effects - how can you lose? Well, I'll tell you how. Or, better yet, watch Cursed for an example.

The script here is pretty dull and the plot, very regurgitated. Nothing even near the originality or wit of Craven's Scream. There are a few scenes that are either rip-offs or homages to past werewolf movies. Giving Wes Craven the benefit of the doubt, I'll assume they were in fact included on purpose. The first couple of times we see the werewolf, it is a decent prosthetic mask, though the American Werewolf in London shot 20 years earlier looked much better. Then, when we finally get to see the obligatory transformation, it is done with 100% computer animation and let me tell you, it is a CGI mess. I've seen better, more realistic graphics on my PS2. It really was a let down.

I love werewolves and it is a shame that in the past 20 years, no one has been able to come up with a decent werewolf movie with transformations like we saw in the American Werewolf in London and The Howling. To this day, these blow away the CGI crap we see here. The best werewolves I've seen lately are in Underworld where the make-up is all prosthetics. They even devised a leg extension-like stilt for the actors to wear to simulate the canine-like opposed hind legs. But, I digress. It's just that there's nothing good to discuss when it comes to Cursed. If anything, I suppose I did laugh a few times and there are two or three decent gore scenes, but nothing new or shocking.

Brian's Bottom Line: Directed by Wes Craven, Make-up effects by Rick Baker? What a colossal waste of two very talented filmmakers.

for Before Sunrise
for Before Sunset

This review is going to be mainly for Before Sunrise.

Richard Linklater has always impressed me as a director, and more and more as I watch his movies, he impresses me greatly as a writer (Slacker, Tape, Waking Life). Like most of his movies (besides perhaps School of Rock, although it really ends up being a story of human relationships), these two films deal with Linklater's love of character development and the relationship between the people in the story (Before Sunset was actually nominated for an Oscar its writing). Before Sunrise finds Jesse (Ethan Hawke) riding on a train to Vienna where he is going to catch a plane the next morning to fly back to the States. Also on the train is Celine (Julie Delpy) who sits across the aisle from Jesse. They end up talking and moving into the lobby for more conversation. They hit it off and when it's time for Jesse to get off the train, he convinces Celine to spend his night in Vienna with him. Unlike most Hollywood films, Linklater stops there and does not add in unecessary subplots that take away from the realness of these two young people getting to know each other. Like many of the great plotless films about love (High Fidelity, Garden State, Lost in Translation, The Graduate, etc.), I think that this one stands out the most.

The dialogue delivered by the actors seems so real and spontaneous that you forget you are watching a scripted film. You feel as though you are watching a real, documented experience between two people falliing in love with each other. There are many great scenes that deal with the awkwardness of beginning a relationship as well as conversations that will remind you of (or at least did me) things you have either thought before or actually discussed with someone before. The movie is truely touching and sincere. The time length of 110 minutes might seem frightening since the whole film is about two people walking around Vienna in short period of time, however it never feels slow or boring. The film just seems so real and fascinating that you really grow attached to the characters. And I'm sure you would become even more emotionally attached if you have a serious girlfriend/boyfriend or are married.

Overall: Both films are fantastic. Before Sunrise is one of the greatest stories about love I've ever seen, and seems the truest story about love as well. I think the two films would work much more effectively if I had actually seen Before Sunrise when it came out in 1995 and then did not see the sequel until it was made 9 years later. Watching it back to back took a bit away from the attachment that the first film gave me, however, it still works really great as a sequel. I highly recommend seeing Before Sunrise. If you have a heart as well as a belief in true love, you will not regret it.

This was a very interesting film. You could give it this tag line: "A heartwarming tale about an imprisoned, emotionally battered orphan who discovers the meaning of love and family from a blind piano repairman and his step-daughter". You could just as easily say of this film: "A killing machine who seeks revenge for the murder of his mother enacts his form of martial arts judgement within the criminal underworld." This movie successfully examines both extremes of human nature - the ability to love and show compassion; and the capacity for hate and man's darkest forms of evil.

Danny (Jet Li) has been raised like a trained attack dog. His lethal, violent rage is kept in check by a collar his master keeps around his neck. This master is his "uncle" (Bob Hoskins) is a vile, mean-spirited extortionist who shows us the dark side of man. Hoskins is brilliant in this role - you will find yourself hating this man from the start and by the end, you are so completely repulsed by him it becomes hard to even look at him on the screen. Hoskins uses Danny to beat people into paying for protection - pay up and the collar stays on, refuse and the collar comes off, or something like that. While not performing his attack dog routine, Danny is kept in an under-floor cage, forced to witness his "uncle" with prostitutes and, we imagine, other various forms of debauchery.

Eventually, Danny escapes and meets Sam (Morgan Freeman) and his step-daughter Victoria (Kerry Condon). Sam is a blind musician who tunes pianos. Sam and Kerry take Danny in as one of the family and teach him about compassion, love, and life. As usual, Morgan Freeman is excellent. Kerry Condon (I hadn't seen her before) plays her role with a vibrant energy. Even Jet Li manages to do some pretty decent acting.

Unleashed pretty much covers all the bases and does it well. I really liked this movie. There are some of the best martial arts sequences and choreography that I've seen. Woo-ping Yuen directed the fight scenes and it shows (he is also responsible for the fight sequences in the Matrix and Kill Bill Vol's I & II). The fight scenes have been noted as being Jet Li's longest and most intense to date. The script is simple but believable. The film does an excellent job at character development - you really do care for these people. The creates a good deal of tension when it's intended to be tense. My stomach was in knots with worry, hoping that things would work out for the three main "good" guys. I even felt tears welling up at one point.

Please note that this film is rated "R" and for good reason. There is plenty of violence, language, and some brief nudity. It's heartwarming, yes, but in an in-your-face, True Romance sort of way...

Brian's Bottom Line: Awesome martial arts film with a surprisingly touching story. Highly recommended.

This is another entry in the Asian horror realm from Japan. It was actually released in 2001 but has not been available here in the states. The US release is coming sometime in November 2005. Check out the trailer at the link below. Right click it and save it to your hard drive. Looks pretty creepy...

http://promo.magpictures.com/trailers/Pulse/Pulse_lrg.mov

Fletcher can finally ride a bike without training wheels!!! We started trying at the beginning of summer, but he just wasn't ready. Yesterday, he did it all by himself. He just took right off!!! We are so proud of him. He also has taught himself to swim like a fish. You should see him go!! He jumps off the diving board in the deep end of the pool without any floaties!! He is growing up so fast and learning new things every day. He will be starting kindergarten in just a few weeks. You'll be sure to find me crying as he goes off to school.

Now, if I could just get Chase potty trained...........
to be continued...........

Well, if you hadn't noticed, I am hooked on the recent Asian Horror movies that have been hitting the DVD's. Why? Initially, it was the American release of The Ring that peaked my interest. The Japanese original, Ringu got a lot of publicity here in the states due to the American remake and I tried it out. After seeing the surprising production quality, great acting, and effective creepiness in Ringu, I couldn't wait to see more. So I did.

Melissa and I watched Ju-on, Ju-on 2, Uzumaki, St. John's Wort, and The Eye. There were a few others, but these stick in my memory as being the best of the Asian horror films we watched at first. I love these films. They are such back-to-the-basics scary movies, compared to most of the CGI-ridden blockbusters from Hollywood. Asian horror is about atmosphere - the "feel" of the film. You're creeped out throughout the picture, feeling uneasy for the duration. When the scares come, you're already keyed up and jumpy. The scares themselves are shot with the old-school rule that says "what you don't see is more frightening than what you do."

For anyone who hasn't witnessed the Asian horror sensation and enjoys a good, scary movie, you owe it to yourself to try out Ju-on, The Eye, or Phone - I think you will be pleasantly surprised. These movies are pretty much devoid of gore, cussing, or nudity. They just exist to scare you. And don't let reading subtitles worry you - you won't notice it much after the movie starts.

That's my two-cents. Longtime editor of Fangoria, Tony Timpone summed it up well: "American audiences forgot what it was like to be legitimately scared. Asian horror films are the complete antithesis of Amareican-style FX-overdose pictures. They're subtle and get under your skin. They creep you out, unnerve and disturb you, without gushing, severed body parts and tons of pyrotechnics."

One common denominator in most of the recent releases in Asian horror is the slow pace of these films. Seance takes this to a whole new level. Slow-paced Asian horror films like The Eye and A Tale of Two Sisters work because the plot and characters are engrossing. Seance has neither and the end result is a very boring movie.

The premise of the film is quite rediculous and centers around a hardly credible set of coicidences surrounding the kidnapping of a young girl. The main characters are a medium who sees dead people, Junko and her husband, Sato. Junko is an unhappy medium (pardon the pun) bored with her going-nowhere life and her husband is some sort of sound technician. While out recording sounds in a wooded area, the kidnapped girl climbs into one of Sato's equipment cases. Sato locks and loads his case, unaware of the girl now trapped inside. Now, the police consult a medium for help in solving the kidnapping of said young girl. A few days pass and Junko finally realizes that the kidnapped girl is in thier garage still locked in a case. This is where the movie goes from bad to worse as Junko sees this discovery as an opportunity to make a name for herself as the seer who cracked the big case. The rest of the movie is a series of compounde "bad ideas" by Junko and hubby to make her plan work while hiding the truth from cops at the same time.

As a viewer, I was perplexed by the characters incredibly bad decisions and was totally unsympathetic toward this couple who brought thier miseries onto themselves. The performances of these two are the flattest, dullest characters I've ever seen. They make no facial expressions and mumble thier lines throughout the film. The film does manage to develop some atmosphere in a few scenes and has three or four pretty creepy moments, but it's not worth sitting through the 90% of the film that drags with little purpose.

Brian's Bottom Line: If you like boring movies with brain-dead characters, Seance is for you!

After seeing the 135 million dollar remake of War of the Worlds, my opinion of Steven Spielberg has been even more solidified. I just don't understand the fascination and credit that Spielberg receives. I mean sure, Jaws was a fantastic movie that scared people of the ocean and Jurassic Park broke ground in visual effects, that in my opinion still have yet to be topped. However, He just cannot tell a compelling story where the characters are interesting and make realistic decisions. And that holds most true with his latest effort in War of the Worlds.

The movie starts out much like the original, with a voice over narration telling us that these beings of another planet have been preparing this attack on Earth for millions of years. With this narration given by Morgan Freeman, we are to believe we are about to embark on this mysterious, unknown journey with the characters in the movie against something we are unfamiliar with: Aliens. The only problem is, we are familiar with aliens. I think that plagues the film from the beginning, everyone has seen countless movies, tv shows and pictures of what we envision aliens to be. I think that's one reason why the original movie works so well as a film. It was made at a time where no one had really given much thought to the possibility of life forms on other planets. And it was made in the 1950's when technology was not that advanced. No one had traveled into space, there were no satellites, etc. So, basically any kind of alien spaceship would be way more advanced than what we were capable of. Now, our technology is so advanced that the spaceships in the new War of the Worlds seems silly to be designed as a tripod. Three extremely long legs does not seem like a stable, worthy vehicle to destroy Earth with. How did the films go from flying saucers to walking Pods? I think for this movie to have succeeded, it could have taken place back when the novel was written in the late 1800's, or even in the first half of the twentieth century.

Now, more specifically on the plot of this film. It begins with a divorced father (tom cruise) getting custody of his two children for the weekend. One is a sixteen year old son who hates his father and a young girl who seems more mature than her father. Once the aliens start to attack Earth, the plot turns into a series of run and hide events while the father tries to regain ties with his children by saving their lives. It really does become annoying. The only good acting was out of young Dakota Fanning, who has been in a number of films now. The scenes between Cruise and his son are just awkward. The characters never become developed and everything just seems forced when pivotal moments happen in their relationships. No one in the film ever acts realistically to what is happening around them. Many even become in awe of the aliens attacking and at one point some decide to run toward the big tripods shooting lasers at everyone because, "I just have to see this." And not to mention the insanely out of place character played by Tim Robbins. I won't ruin it for anyone, but I felt as though his character came off as something he was not, but then he ended up being a form of that in the end. Confused? Yeah, so was I.

The only saving grace to this film would have to be the special effects, and even then, they really weren't that much better than the original's. I mean sure, the original film's effects sometimes walked the line of hokey, but to think it came out in 1953, when the majority of films were in black and white, leaves something to admire. The use of color was a spectical back then, where here we are just left with clean looking cgi that suffered from no real creativity. Another thing that really bothered me was the end of the film. Not the overall ending, but a specific part of it. I can't really tell much about it without giving it away, but there was a specific part of the end of the film that angered me, but it's not really all that surprising.

Overall: If you want to be completely bored, then go see Spielberg's War of the Worlds, otherwise rent the original and/or read the H.G. Wells novel, but avoid this one. This one fails where the original succeeded, in that the original's characters acted like the audience watching the film: they were completely in shock and awe of the machines/aliens; While in this one everyone tries to play hero and act as though it's not a surprise the Earth is under attack by aliens.

Thank you so much Bri for working so hard on my site. You deserve all of the credit for getting our site where it is. I am very proud of you.

Google, the premier search engine on the web, recently updated thier page rankings. This rank, from 0 to 10, gives web sites higher placement in search results. I'm happy to report that after several months at a rank of 0, honeybeadjewelry.com is now ranked at a 4 for the main page. Our blog page has a 3 ranking. Hopefully, this will start to result in more traffic for the site. Only time will tell.

Two Sisters is another Korean entry in the ever expanding realm of Asian horror. As with Phone, the Koreans have shown thier ability to produce well crafted, well shot, creepy atmosphered movies. The cinematography in Sisters is brilliant. I commented while watching that I was reminded of the way Hitchcock used to position the camera or follow an actor. The use of color is also noted throughout the film. The actors are top notch - the older sister and the stepmother give exceptionally good performances.

My one complaint about the film may have been the result of a poor English translation in the subtitles. My version of the DVD came from overseas. I understand that The Tale of Two Sisters is being released in the States soon. Perhaps the translation will be cleaned up a bit. Whatever the case, the ending left a lot for the viewer to fill in. Not that I need or even want to be spoon fed the explanation, but I did feel a little more confused than normal. Once I had time to think it through, I believe I got it, but just don't expect the typical nice, tidy closure you get from many american psychological thrillers. Whereas Phone dwelled to long on the reveal, Sisters gives you the truth in short splashes that end rather quickly.

There are definitely some VERY creepy scenes you will not forget and the overall feel of the film puts you at unease from the beginning. This was a fun movie to watch.

Brian's Bottom Line: Rent this for sure. Try for the newer American release if you can. This is sure to please fans of Ju-on, Ringu, and the like.

It's been a while since my boys have had any "funnies" to blog about, but just yesterday they each came up with one.

I was getting Chase ready for bed and I was putting his pj's on him. The pj's had tractors and big machines on them. I asked him, what they were, and he replied, "They're butt wheels mom." I think he meant hot wheels. I have no idea where he came up with "butt wheels".

My mom had the boys last weekend. She had the tv on and left the room. When she came back in, Fletcher asked her what the show was that was on the tv. She told him it was a soap opera. He waited and watched for a minute, then asked her, "Nana, when are they going to start singing?"

One day not too long ago, when my mom had the boys, she had walked out of the room for a minute. She realized that the boys were too quiet and needed to go see what they were doing. When she walked into the room, they were sitting next to each other on the recliner, with a blanket on both of them watching HGTV. Mom told them that they did not have to watch that, and Fletch said, "No Nana, we like Divine Design!"

- No Stars - This film was touted as being from the creators of Ringu and The Ring 2. If you liked any of The Ring movies, you're going to hate Dark Waters. If you prefer your ghost stories with big budget special effects and plenty of CGI rendered spooks, you're going to hate Dark Waters. But - if you like slow-paced, plot driven movies with intelligent screenplays, you're going to hate this movie. See a theme developing here? I'm sorry to say that, for me, this movie fell flat on all areas.

Wow...where to begin. The plot behind this movie was unoriginal, uninteresting, and completely predictable. This is another iteration of the ghost-child terrorizing the living for a reason that is supposed to be revealed in the end. However, you will likely figure the outcome of the movie about 1/3 of the way through, especially when you see a certain landmark that is very out of place to begin with. The outcome is very simple and somewhat silly, really - the motivation for this ghost's hauntings turn out to be pretty boring. To top it off, the director pulls two cheap fades-to-black at the end of the movie. I assum this is an attempt to fool the audience into thinking it's finally over. This was especially infuriating because by the end, I really DID want it to be over.

The acting in the film by the main characters is decent but pretty flat. Jennifer Connelly does a decent job considering the corny script but you never really feel attached to her or really care about what happens to her. The guy that plays Connelly's separated husband looks like they pulled him out from under the dumpster of a nearby alley just prior to each shoot. He always looks dirty and disheveled, not the image of a man that you could picture the likes of Connelly's character having married. Tim Roth's character is unnecessarily wierd. He tells insignificant lies for no apparent reason. For some unclear reason, the film makers show some off-the-wall scenes with Roth that I guess were intended to make the audience suspicious of this guy. There is likewise a scene with Connelly's husband where she sees him chatting with two young punks who had just threatened her. Neither man's supsicious behavior is explained in the end, so I guess this was added just to throw us off track?

Perhaps the single saving grace in the film is John C. Reilly's performance. He's the building manager who sells Connelly on the apartment and his sales pitch is quite entertaining. That's about the only positive thing I can say about this flick. It didn't even manage to create a single good scare and there was nothing creepy about the atmosphere or the central ghost.

I was really looking forward to seeing this film and was very disappointed by it. I've really become a fan of the Asian horror movie and truly enjoyed the recent American remakes of Ju-on (The Grudge) and Ringu (The Ring). I hope that this movie is just a bump in the road and that the Asian movie market continues to turn out the back-the-basic, genuinely scary horror flicks that really get under your skin. I am looking forward to Hideo Nakata's American remake of the Pang Brothers' The Eye, which is a great movie in it's Chinese version.

Brian's Bottom Line: Save your money. Rent The Eye instead.

and it's Kathy Bates

The new Thousand Foot Krutch CD comes out on 7/19/05. Check out this link for more info:

Thousand Foot Krutch - The Art of Breaking

TFK is one of my favorite Christian bands. They have a cool sound and offer a variety of sound throughout thier tracks. Thier previous releases, Set it Off and Phenomenon are incredible. If you like POD, 38th Parallel, or Linkin Park, you'll definitely want to look into TFK.

What a beautiful day! TGIF!

Missy and I will be going to see Dark Water tonight - I can't wait! I need to get my hands on a copy of the Japanese version from Hideo Nakata (mastermind behind Ringu) - anybody have one? I'll post my review of Dark Water this weekend.

I've seen this movie a few times and watched it recently this past weekend. I really liked this film and it is one of my favorite Sam Raimi flicks next to the Evil Dead trilogy. It really is a showcase of his talents at using the camera. The plot is nothing special but it works for this kind of film. This movie could be retitled "How to Compose Awesome Shots". If you a Raimi fan and haven't seen The Quick and the Dead (then mostly I question how you call yourself a Raimi fan), or if you just enjoy movies with very intelligent and unique camera work, you need to add this one to your Blockbuster/Netflix que post-haste.

The plot is nothing too elaborate, but it works fine for the purposes of this film. It's even a little creepy when you finally find out why Sharon Stone's character is so vengeful toward Gene Hackman's. The script is otherwise what you'd expect - pretty over-the-top but still seems to work.

Favorite Line:
Lance Henrickson: "You wanna play poker with me little lady?"
Sharon Stone: "Looks like you're having a pretty good time playing with yourself."

The best part of the film next to the aforementioned camera tricks has to be the characters. Each cowboy in this film has a very colorful persona that is either good or evil - no inbetween. The dude who takes advantage of a young prostitute is so disgusting in every way you are literally repulsed by him. The good guys - Sharon Stone, Leaonardo Decaprio, and Russell Crowe - are good looking and full of purpose. I really found myself rooting for the good guys, here. Gene Hackman, the head bad guy, gives, in my opinion, the best performance I've seen him give. By the end of the movie, if you don't want to personally climb into the screen and shoot this guy, you'd better check your own homicidal tendancy meter.

Brian's Bottom Line: Fun, fun, fun! This is a great take on the western movie and certainly the most interesting of the modern westerns. Don't expect a complex plot, but you will see some great directing. Buy this one - it's one of those you can watch again and again.

After a string of terrible, laughable Batman film, Christopher Nolan has resurrected the series in a powerful way, with the help of Christian Bale. Bale is the best Batman yet, even outdoing the nipple suit wearing George Clooney. The script for Batman Begins is an exceptional one. It relies on realism and you really delve into Bruce Wayne's head more than the past Batman films. We gain an understanding for his character and why he chooses the lifestyle he does. Unlike Burton's Batman films, Nolan has constructed a film that seems very possible. It's as though what happens in the movie is not unlikely. The film seems more plot driven and less relying on extravagent action scenes than the past ones.

I think what really helps out this film as well, is the incredible cast. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say perfect cast. Gary Oldman plays the good cop without flaw. Michael Caine was born to play the role of the Alfred. Katie Holmes fits her role well, and Liam Neeson delivers strong as well. And of course, you can't go wrong with Morgan Freeman.

My only mistake was going to the 715 showing of the film. I was sitting in the 3rd row, right in the middle, no one in my row, and during the trailers a family walks in and their little song (6 or 7 years old) comes running in and sits in the seat next to me. He as well as other little kids, talked during much of the film and kept asking questions irritating me.

If you plan on taking your kids to this movie, realize that it is a very creepy film. There is nothing really bad about the movie. Only a couple minor curse words and no blood that I remember. However, there are scenes (involving Cillian Murphy from 28 Days Later who was perfect for the role) that are extremely creepy. I even got a bit frightened. Nolan directs the scenes in such a way that anyone would be scared, even Batman.

Overall: Great comic book/super hero film. Great character development, perfect cast, fantastic writing and directing, well paced and never feels dry. The only thing is I never really felt any kind of emotional attachment to the characters...however, it could have been because I was distracted by children at times. SEE IT!