Mashed Thoughts: April 2011

There's a giant box of cereal in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery and today it was opened and we found out that 2012 Honda Civic was the prize inside! I think it's super cool advertisement strategy. Nothing gets attention better than super sized 20 foot tall cereal box that's for sure! It will still be there tomorrow so if you are interested in seeing it, the cereal box is on the Georgia Street side of the art gallery. You can't miss it.

The days leading to prom is an exciting experience for a highschooler's life while for others, it is extremely stressful. For Nova Prescott (Aimee Teegarden), it is both. As class president and organizer for the graduating class' prom night, she has worked overtime to plan the perfect evening only to have her dream go up in flames when a fire destroys all the decorations only three weeks before the big night. With all her friends now busy with their schoolwork, the principal assigns school rebel, Jesse Richter (Thomas McDonell), to help her rebuilt from scratch. At first the two despised each other and found every opportunity to clash heads but as the weeks pass, they eventually come to understand each other. Meanwhile, other classmates are desperately trying to find prom dates, dealing with betrayal and change. Friendships and close relationships will be tested before all converging on that one special night.

This film is told in the typical Disney-style with the good guys getting the girl and the bad guys getting burned and everyone except the bad guy gets a happy ending. How realistic is it though? The movie makes it seem that prom is the most important night of your life and everyone, with the exception of a few, seem too excited about it. However, the film does teach some important lessons: don't judge a book by its cover and stop waiting for life to happen, make the change yourself! Prom is a nice light movie that pre-teens and teens will enjoy, no matter how unrealistic the story seems.

Prom opens in theatres tomorrow, Friday April 29, 2011.

Like cars? Money? Badass women? A blatant disregard for public and private property? The newest addition to the Fast and the Furious series from Universal Pictures has it all. The film continues where the fourth movie left off with former cop Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) and Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) making a daring assault on a bus that is transporting Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) to prison. The three manage to escape and make their way to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The group get into hot situation when a car heist from a moving train goes awry when their Brazilian partners betrays them, leaving three DEA agents who were guarding the cars dead. As a result, the group find themselves hunted on two fronts by federal agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and a corrupt businessman Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), to whom the cars belongs. Now Dom and the gang must pull one last impossible job and steal 100 million dollars from Reyes, in a bold attempt to gain their freedom once and for all.

This latest Fast and Furious installment mixes it up by adding an Oceans Eleven type of mission to list of car heists. Planning to breaking into an impenetrable fortress with a team of experts? You have to admit there are similarities. Each character was given a "life before this" so that they had the expertise handy to put the heist off. Convenient. There weren't many races except for one in police cars but there are high speed car chases and the last one is particularly exciting! That scene alone must have cost millions considering all the damage done to everything. I really enjoyed the movie; the plot was fast-paced and visually amazing with exciting over-the-top action sequences and of course the good guys win in the end. Plus now you will know who will win in a fist fight between the Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel! LOL

Make sure you sit through the credits because a familiar face will turn up afterwards. Fans can look forward to a sixth installment coming in the future...

Fast Five is in theatres and IMAX this Friday, April 29, 2011. Go see it!

Textuality is about how texting has changed the way we handle our relationships. The film starts with a flashback history of a guy named Breslin (Jason Lewis). A series of short clips and pictures shows how a disastrous breakup his fiancee lead to his current situation - juggling a roster lackluster relationships with three different women which he manages through BBM and Skype. His outlook on life changes when he accidentally hits Simone (Carly Pope) with his car. Unbeknownst to Breslin, Simone also has a roster of three men while an affair with a married man who is promising to leave his wife for her. Both try to get out of their multiple relationships and try to get together with each other. Things take a turn for the worst when all the women in Breslin's life, including Simone, find out about his other relationships, one of which turns out to be Simone's art teacher!

The movie was ok. Funny at times but I couldn't relate to the characters very much. At least it was a happy ending. The film puts an emphasis on the one-to-one relationships instead of the texting and online relationships that is all too prevalent in today's society. And rightly so! I am guilty of living my life online as well. Hahaha. We were the only ones in the theatre yesterday night...but to be fair there was a tense Canucks game going on.

Thank you @VIAGiveaways for the tickets!

Textuality is in theatres now.

I was searching around for portal stuff last night and came across this awesome Portal hoodie made by ThinkGeek! I WANT IT. Too bad it's $59.99! I can't justify spending as much as the game for it. I'll just drool over these pictures. On the other hand, Valve's online store is selling the Test Candidate T-shirt for only $17.99 as well as other Portal 2 mechandise. I still like the hoodie better.

Now I'm also obsessed with the new Portal2 credits song "Want You Gone"! Don't watch if you don't like spoilers!

Unfortunately I have to work this long weekend so it's actually a short weekend. T_T But it's such a nice day I couldn't resist going outside and looking at the flowers. So pretty! Those yellow ones are the Dasystemon Tarda Tulips not the white ones I was talking about last time. Magnolia flowers are blooming!

See the full gallery on Posterous

As you might already know I'm currently obsessed with the song "Still Alive" from the game Portal. It's playing repeat while I'm working and at home. In fact I'm listening to it now! Here it is for those who don't know what I'm talking about:

Now I found out a couple of days ago that Portal 2 was coming out! It was released yesterday! Hurray! More GlaDOS! As I haven't played the original Portal yet, I just purchased The Orange Box which has the original in it. I can't wait to play it. Maybe this will motivate me to set up my XBox finally.

Filmed in the vast and beautiful Masai Mara reserve in Kenya, Disney's African Cats follows two mothers, a lion and a cheetah, as they struggle to raise their cubs in an unforgiving world full of dangers. The film focuses on a lioness Layla and her cub Mara as well as Sita, a mother cheetah, who is raising five newborn cubs. Samuel L. Jackson narrates this touching story of the ups and downs of life in the savanna as the mothers and their offspring experience courage, love, loss and dangers that threaten their very existence.

This is the third feature film by Disneynature, which previously brought us Earth and Oceans; it is a nature documentary but tells it as sweet story about the power of a mother's love. The film offers stunning cinematic and sweeping panoramic shots as well as close shots that let you experience the life in the lions' pride and the cheetah family up close and personal. Breathtaking is short of describing the beautiful and majestic kings of the savanna. An awesome soundtrack accompanies the film which enhances the deep emotions that the dramatic story will trigger. The script is works but gets cheesy at times; it targets children who will no doubt appreciate the simplicity of the narration and the lesson it teaches: there is nothing more powerful than a mother's love.

African Cats opens in theatres on Earth Day, this Friday April 22, 2011. You can also help save the Savanna by pledging to see the film. For every ticket purchased during opening week, Disneynature will make a donation to the African Wildlife Foundation. Make your pledge here!

I took the family out to see Cavalia yesterday and I really enjoyed it!. Currently located at the Olympic Village, Cavalia is an extravagant show that explores the relationship between humans and horses. It features acrobats, dancers, riders, 49 horses as well as musicians and a vocalist. It is hard to pick a favourite moment in the show but if I had to choose, the segment that I loved the most is where two girls fly over riders on two beautiful white horses. The flying acrobat is suppose to embody the spirit of the horse and they did it very successfully; they are so graceful. I also enjoyed the roman riding and fast paced segment where the riders do tricks while riding galloping horses. Awesome.

Cavalia has extended their stay in Vancouver to May 1st so there's still time to go! It doesn't matter if you are a horse lover or not, you will really enjoy it and be amazed at how connected these beautiful animals are with their trainers.

I had the amazing opportunity to go see Video Games Live at the Vancouver Centre of Performing Arts tonight courtesy of Futureshop. VGL is an awesome concert performed by a live orchestra and choir and featuring music from popular video games. Every night is different as they have many songs to chose from a vast collection of games. Tonight they started off with mashup of old classic games including Pong, Space Invaders, Frogger, Duck Hunt, Street Fighter II and Tetris then moved to more modern games including songs from Final Fantasy, Halo: Reach, Castlevania, Silent Hill 2, Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, God of War, World of Warcraft, Uncharted 2, Chronos Trigger and a bunch of others.

Performances featured Tommy Tallarico, the creator of VGL, who was playing guitar, flutist and vocalist Laura Intravia and piano soloist Martin Leung. Intravia's first appearance on stage involved opera version of Tetris! Who ever thought Tetris could sound so opera-like! "Flute Link" also made an appearance with Intravia playing a solo from Legend of Zelda dressed as Link with Ciela on her shoulder that she arranged herself! It was very amusing to watch as Ciela had her own "flute" and kept interrupting Intravia and the whole piece was basically a flute playing war between them. Martin Leung played the theme from Super Mario Brothers and blindfolded at that! His fingers just fly across the keys; it is very mesmerizing to watch. I am really amazed at all the talented people that performed tonight. In fact both Intravia and Leung were recruited because Tallarico saw them playing on Youtube! I guess it is a breeding ground for stars! It's also the conductor, Emmanuel Fratianni's first time in Canada. If you look at the photos I took you will see that his conductor stand is actually a joystick!

Throughout the performance they also gave away prizes. There was also a contest which involved two audience members playing Frogger while the orchestra played the sound reacting to what was happening on screen. A Guitar Hero contest was also held prior to the concert and the top scorer was invited on stage to play "Emotion" by Aerosmith on Guitar Hero while Tommy Tallarico played real guitar. He only needed to get 125,000 points in Hard to win a prize but he choose to play it on EXPERT and hardly missed any notes! The audience went wild cheering him on. He took home the prize of a Kinect for XBox360 courtesy of Futureshop! Some lucky person walked away with a PS3 AND PSP courtesy of Sony from a random draw! I'm so jealous!

After the show, they held a meet and greet with Tallarico, Intravia, Leung, Fratianni and Chris Mair (?) and I got to meet them and get their autographs. Unfortunately Flute Link accidentally smudged her signature. ='(

Anyways I had an awesome time and will definitely go again next year! My favourite part must have been when they sang "Still Alive" (from Portal). (Oh my gosh! I found it on iTunes!) The lyrics are so funny and the images that accompanied the song in the background were hilarious! I wish I had taken a clip it. Here's one I found on Youtube:

Video Games Live is only in Vancouver for one more night, April 14th, so get your tickets now! And in honour of the Canucks win tonight they released the discount code: CANUCKS for 50% off any balcony seat ticket! Don't miss this opportunity to see them! Any one who enjoys music should go see Video Games Live, gamers and non-gamers alike!

More flowers this week! Small tulips, more daffoldils and some other flowers I don't remember the names of. And my Magnolia is starting to show it's colours!

I really want to buy a macro lens so that I can take super up close photos of my flowers!

I won some passes to this movie showing this week and went to go see it this morning. There weren't many people in the theatre; those who came were mostly parents with their young kids. I think more people went to the theatre to watch some kind of opera show instead of this showing. However this is to be expected of these types of movies.

Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure is an upcoming direct to DVD movie spin-off from High School Musical starring Ashley Tisdale. The film follows Sharpay Evans, a spoiled rich heiress, after she has graduated high school and looking to get her big break on Broadway. After seeing Sharpay performing a song and dance number at her country club with her dog Boi, Jerry Taylor, a famous producer, was impressed and told her that he was looking to cast a Broadway musical in New York City. Her father lets her go on one condition: either she makes it in one month or she has to come back home and work for her parents. At first Sharpay thinks that she has her rise to stardom all planned out but when she arrives in New York she gets kicked out of her penthouse and discovers that Jerry was only interested in casting her dog for the part in the show! Forced to take the help of the son of a family friend, Peyton, she moves into a studio apartment and plans to use her dog as a stepping stone to get to her fame. Sharpay goes head to head with a very competitive Roger Elliston who also wants his dog, Countess, to star in the show. Desperate, Sharpay becomes assistant to her idol and star of the show, Amber Lee Adams only to discover she is not the kind of person Sharpay thinks she is. With time running out and her spirit broken, Sharpay will have to act like the star she is again to get to make her dreams come true.

This movie was fun movie with a light plot filled with glitz and glamour. Sharpay is absolutely clueless and there were many funny moments revolving around this fact. It was kind of hard to feel sympathetic toward Sharpay since she is so rich and had everything handed to her on a golden platter all her life. There were a few musical numbers, which were catchy and in the lines of High School Musical. Justin Bieber song, Baby was even included in the movie, though it was played during the side love story between the dogs, Boi and Countess. Kids will definitely enjoy this movie.

Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure comes out on DVD and Blu-ray combo pack on April 19, 2011.

The official UBC LipDub is now live on Youtube! Watch and share! Pacific Blue Cross is donating a penny for every view to Make a Wish Foundation!

I had a lot of fun participating in this but my screen time is limited to 2 seconds. Hahaha. You can see me starting at frame 2:14.

There is also an official launch party tonight at Robson Square starting at 8pm which will include live bands from 30:Live Entertainment Group. Marianas Trench is rumored to be at the party as well. Come out and join us! Winning! LOL

Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) is a girl who lives in the wintery forests of Finland with her father, Erik Heller (Eric Bana), an ex-CIA agent, who trained her to be a perfect soldier - strong, quick, fearless and deadly with or without firearms. All her training is to prepare her for one sole mission: kill Marisa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), a ruthless intelligence operative, who will stop at nothing until Hanna and Erik are dead. A flip of switch calls Wiegler to them; however, unbeknownst to Hanna, she kills an imposter posing as Wiegler. As Hanna journeys across Europe to meet up with Erik, and with Wiegler and her operatives closing in, she uncovers secrets about her existence that lead her to question her own humanity which no amount of training could ever prepare her for.

Hanna is an intense movie with a lot of action but also has its tender moments. I was, however, slightly disappointed at what I thought would be a twist ending but instead the movie ended very predictably.
Cate Blanchett was brilliant as usual but her southern accent atrocious and tended to phase in and out. Her character needed more work as Wiegler was very one-dimensional; she wanted nothing more than the deaths of Hanna and Erik but you never really find out why. You get bits and pieces of the puzzle through flashbacks but never a clear motive. I find it hard to believe that it was only because of her job that drove Wiegler so hard to exterminate Erik and Hanna; she must have some personal grudge or secret that causes that kind of desperate dedication.

Saoirse Ronan also did a wonderful job as Hanna. She is so wonderfully innocent with a childlike fascination to everything. There are only a few moments in the movie that Hanna could be a child she is and these should be cherished as the pace picks up again very quickly. The score, by The Chemical Brothers, however funky, seemed to beautifully fit the movie. It reflects both Hanna's innocence and her deadly abilities. Nothing seems to be able to stop Hanna and Ronan does an amazing job with all the fight sequences - they were all believable and real.

Overall Hanna is a very enjoyable, interesting and beautifully shot movie but could have used much more character development and clearer motives. It is a good movie but could have been amazing. Still, I would recommend seeing it in theatres.

Hanna opens in theatres tomorrow, Friday April 8th, 2011.

Always living in the shadow of his quest-loving older brother Fabious (James Franco), lazy Prince Thadeous (Danny McBride) settled to just smoke weed and getting in trouble with the women of the neighbouring dwarven kingdom. But when evil wizard Leezar (Justin Theroux) kidnaps Fabious' bride, Belladonna on their wedding day, his father gives him a choice - either aid Fabious on his quest to rescue his bride or be banished from the kingdom. As the brothers venture out to prevent an ancient prophecy from being fulfilled, they face betrayal from their own knights, danger and adventure which brings them to join forces with the fearless warrior Isabel (Natalie Portman), who has secret agenda of her own. When the traitorous knights return and imprison Fabious, Thadeous must step up become the hero in order to save his brother and the kingdom and win the heart of Isabel.

Your Highness is a stupidly funny movie set in medieval times. Everything is exaggerated to poke fun of damsels and knights and what they do. There is a lot of swearing and the shock of a medieval character swearing was funny the first time we hear but it just gets old after the hundredth time it is uttered. There is very little character development and almost all the jokes are made up of lowbrow humor, gay jokes and vulgar shock factors. Still it will make you laugh (or at least chuckle) and the action and special effects are not bad. You can tell the actors loved making this movie and all did a fantastic job in delivering their lines.

Your Highness is in theatres tomorrow, Friday, April 8th, 2011.

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Finally my daffodils are blooming! My garden seems to be a very late bloomer. The daffodils in Richmond were in bloom several weeks already and mine have only started end of last week! Still I love them. The first photo is, I think, suppose to be Dasystemon Tarda tulips but mine are more white then yellow! D= They are still pretty though. I find it fascinating that the flowers close up when there is no sun! Also blooming are the Grape Hyacinth. I have planted a pink variety! I made a mistake in planting though. I should have moved the daffodils and tulips a row back. They are blocking some shorter bulbs from being seen. Oh well. Live and learn!

Elsewhere in the city, several varieties of Cherry blossoms are in full bloom and so are the Magnolias! The one in my garden is a 'Betty' and it tends to bloom a little later than regular magnolias. I really can't wait! I love cherry blossoms so much. Maybe next year I should purchase a tree! The problem becomes the size of my garden though. LOL I love spring!

After afternoon tea, I joined my family at the Vancouver International Autoshow. This year's show was held at the Vancouver Convention Centre since the usual BC place is still under construction. There was a LOT of people there. Good thing I already had tickets because the line up was super long!

Nothing at the show really caught my eye except maybe the Canucks Camero and Whitecaps car! And maybe also Subaru's sexy Sumo wrestler who was taking photos with people! Hehee! The Ford Fiesta was there again and some of them had awesome looking decals put on. I love the shininess of new cars. Too bad once in the real world, there isn't anybody that will give it a wipe down every half hour. Hahah it's a small world because we bumped into the same girl that works at these types of events AGAIN and we also saw our aunt and uncle who was also there!

A Groupon-type site called Dealfind recently offered a deal for Afternoon Tea for 2 at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver for only $36. Deals at the Fairmont are often very popular and always sell out quickly. I'm more of a coffee drinker than a tea drinker but I do love the occasional tea. I enjoyed the smells of it mostly. So when a friend asked me to join her and some other friends, I quickly agreed.

On Saturday, we met up at 2pm to have tea. Each of us received our own personal pot of tea and I tried one called Angel Falls Mist ("a wildly, exotic strawberry and lemon character...a pinch of sugar boosts the flavor profile...makes terrific herbal tea - hot or iced!"). It is mild and has a nice fruity taste that I liked and it smells really good. Tea comes with a double-deck tray of petit sandwiches, tasty pastries, house-made scones and fresh strawberries with Devonshire cream. I liked the savory treats more than the scones and the sweet tarts and cakes. We each get two scones and we all agreed it was too much! It was a very filling afternoon snack and I had a nice time chatting and catching up with my friends.

The first ever movie about the Easter Bunny, Hop follows E.B. (Russell Brand), the teenage son of the Easter Bunny (Hugh Laurie), who ditches his duties as the next Easter Bunny and runs away to Hollywood to pursue his dream of becoming a drummer. Instead he gets accidentally run over by the out-of-work slacker Fred O'Hare (James Marsden) and then guilts him into letting him stay at the home Fred is house-sitting for his sister's boss. E.B. causes all sorts of trouble in Fred life as he tries to escape the Pink Berets, the Easter Bunny's guards who are tasked to bring E.B. back to Easter Island. Meanwhile, E.B.'s father is having some trouble of his own as Carlos, a power hungry chick, plots to take over and ruin Easter.

Hop is a cute and fun movie that kids will enjoy but can't seem to make up it's mind on whether it is suppose to be a kids' movie or a bad adult movie. There is a joking scene with reference to the Playboy mansion that I'm sure only adults will get. The Mexican accent on an Easter chick seems kind of out of place especially when the bunnies have English accents! Scenes with Carlos are intended to be funny but the jokes don't seem to fly - pardon the pun. On another note, the animation is amazing! E.B. is so realistic and blends so seamlessly into the live action that it is hard to believe that he was never there. Also E.B. is so adorable! I especially love it when he wriggles his nose! The chicks are cute too except for Carlos - he scares me.

Hop is in theatres Friday, April 1st, 2011.

...

Several things happened at the screening of Hop today. Being a kids movie, there were a ton of kids being loud and running and jumping around while we waited in line. When suddenly, this little boy pulled down his pants and to the horror of everyone, especially his parents, he relieved himself in the sidewalk! Ewwww!

When we got into the theatre, they handed out raffle tickets for a chance to win a few DVDs. They called everyone up but the last person didn't respond so they redrew and it was my number! I won The Tale of Despereaux! But that's not all...Being that the screening was sponsored by Winners and Homesense, the representatives had taped five $50 giftcards under random seats. Suddenly, the theatre was abuzz with all the children looking under all the seats. I saw a kid find one a couple of rows in front of us. After a while several woman started to look down our row and one of them asked me "Did you look under your seat?!" I had previously felt a little bit under but not completely. So I stood up and lo-and-behold a giftcard! Wow. LOL The other woman then said "That took you long enough! We can finally start the movie!" Hahahah!

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