"The Unborn" Film Review

I loved the trailer. I just wish I didn’t waste so much money to actually watch the movie.

The Unborn is a supernatural horror film directed and written by David S. Goyer in 2009. The film stars Odette Yustman, Meagan Good, Gary Oldman, Cam Gigandet, Ethan Cutkosky, James Remar, and Jane Alexander.

Another one watch wonder, if it even warrants a “wonder.” To be fair, 90% of horror movies can only be watched once to get the maximum scare effect, a rewatch would simply be like replaying a live play. I’ve had more fun watching The Strangers, and I wasn’t too kind to that movie either. The thing is, The Unborn has no brain. I mean, it doesn’t require thinking. Or rather, it pretends to require you to think, before you realize that you’ll like the film more if you don’t invest your few precious neurons to it. In The Strangers, your curiosity is endlessly piqued because you want to know about those psychopathic killers and you’re constantly wondering what will happen next and why, so you do get some justifiable thrill. With the Unborn, sure, you’re wondering why, but then the movie feeds you these backgrounds, histories, and reasons that are totally unreasonable and then you figure out that the best way to enjoy the metaphysical-ness of the story is to ignore it all. And all you can do is just wait for the scary parts to do their job. But do they do their job?

The dog with the human mask was creepy as hell, all the kids were creepy as hell (extra kudos to Ethan Cutkosky), and the exorcist twist-off was creepy as hell, but everything else in between was just a waste of time. The scare factors itself weren’t all too bad, with the surround sound and dark ambiance of the movie theater, it can certainly give you chills, I actually felt a few good goosebumps that weren’t caused by the typical freezing temperature of the movie house. The audience reactions were also a hoot, I loved hearing the movie goers scream, and giggle, a lot.

Odette Yustman, also known as the Jessica Alba and Megan Fox hybrid, tried in vain to carry the movie. It was a little hard for me to take her acting seriously when she’s strutting her panty-clad ass towards the screen. The only sparkling personality is Meagan Good, who plays the inevitably killed best friend. That’s only a spoiler if you’re too dense to realize that best friends always die in these horror films. I kinda cheered quietly when I saw Gary Oldman on the screen. With his appearance, I thought maybe the movie would grant us a little sense to make the average intellectual happy. But then, he and his Christian priest friend decided to sprout off pretentious facts about the history of the world, religion, and the almighty dybbuk, and I just started to zone out until the final showdown.

Overall, The Unborn is twice as fun (which still isn’t as fun as you’d want) if you watch it in its run in the theaters, but was the ticket price ultimately worth it? Not to me.

To All Bloggers, I give you Blog Smog

As a blogger who has experienced being glued to her laptop for literally 24 hours (it was summer time, so the blatantly pathetic lethargy wasn't really my fault), I find this little vid especially funny. Watch it!

The Blog Smog film is part of Dentyne’s Make Face Time campaign reminding everyone to take breaks from technology and spend more time together in real life.

A Sad Goodbye To A Wonderful Actress

I haven't update in a while, and it's all thanks to that pesky organization called college. However, when I heard the news that Natasha Richardson died yesterday, I was absolutely dismayed, and I had to write a little post in tribute to my favorite movie that she starred in.

The 1998 remake of The Parent Trap was my 10 year old self's ultimate favorite movie of all time. I watched it three times a week and did the secret handshake routine with my friends for every little excuse we could think of. I longed to be both Hallie Parker and Annie James at the same time when I grew up. Not only was I totally riveted by the awesome life of those twins, I was completely charmed by their parents as well. I wanted to hang out with their mom Elizabeth James, played brilliantly by none other than Ms. Natasha Richardson.

Lindsay Lohan and Natasha Richardson in The Parent Trap

Natasha Richardson died because of a traumatic brain injury caused by a skiing accident. Her fans are understandably devastated, her diverse acting range, talents, and kind persona have touched millions. Deep condolences to Liam Neeson, her two sons, and the rest of her family.

Natasha Richardson
May 11, 1963 - March 18, 2009

Blair Is Looking For A Roommate

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester is currently in negotiations to star in a thriller called The Roommate.

Christian E. Christiansen, and Roy Lee and Doug Davison are set to direct and produce respectively.

Apparently, the movie is about a girl named Sara, Leighton Meester's character, who is a college freshman assigned to dorm with a strange girl named Rebecca. Things go badly when Rebecca starts wreaking havoc and hurting people in Sara's life.

I've only got one question: Is Rebecca a Single White Female?

This seems like another typical horror slasher movie with girls running around a college campus. The premise reminds me of the horror flick Urban Legends, which starred Rebecca Gayheart and Jared Leto, and being reminded of that film is not a good thing.

I've been a fan of the Gossip Girl tv show, and although my interest has waned a bit (I blame the on/off Dan/Serena puke-worthy tandem) I've seen enough to be impressed by Leighton Meester's acting capabilities, and I'm kind of disappointed that she would choose such a mindless role.

I think Leighton Meester should only choose roles that Blair Waldorf would approve of.

Dardos Award

I got this award from Vanessa, creator of the awesome site TheMovieNess . This is the first award for Audientication so I'm kind of giddy right now.


The Dardos Award is given for cultural, literary, and personal values in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing appreciation and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.

The Rules:
1. Accept the award by posting it on your blog along with the name of the person that has granted the award and a link to his/her blog.

2. Pass the award to another five blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment, remembering to contact each of them to let them know they have been selected for this award.

Now I'm going to pass on the Dardos award to my 5 idols: The Beat Review, Pamper Me Love, Berg Loves Pizza, Cinematic Passions, and Get A Film.

I STILL want the Dollhouse

The premiere of the wildly anticipated show Dollhouse last February 13 was, admittedly, lukewarm. Lots of good, with an equal amount of "eh." The first ten minutes of the premiere episode, Ghost, was way too forced. That first little chat between Topher (Fran Kranz) and Boyd (Harry J. Lennix) was blatantly used for educating the audience about the set-up. It was like FOX expected the audience to be too stupid to get the premise. To be fair though, it was kind of needed. I get what they're trying to do, they want to reel in as much viewers as possible, so right now their storytelling is basically...well, basic. They want people to see the show and immediately get it, without too much of a headache. That's nice of them, but first of all, they should have expected Joss Whedon fans to be smarter that their average watcher. Haha, get it? Watcher.

Right.

And, despite the obvious tampering of the network executives, Ghost just isn't as bad most are making it out to be. It was actually good, not great, not bad, but good.

The second episode, The Target, was way better. More action, more backstory, more character introductions, more reasons why we should care. Extra kudos for bringing in Matt Keeslar, I love The Middleman! At this point, we get a glimpse of why Echo is the protagonist of the story.

(Harry J. Lennix as Boyd, Eliza Dushku as Echo, and Fran Kranz as Topher)

The third and latest episode, Stage Fright, is quite frankly, the worst. More of the cliched superstar "I want to be free" drama with obsessive and weird fans type of a story. The parallels of the Rayna character and Echo are obvious, but Rayna attracts very little sympathy (really, none). Although I loved the twist about Luboz (Enver Gjokaj), I wasn't necessarily surprised, after all I've been following the progress of the Dollhouse production, but it was awesome nonetheless.

Needless to say, Dollhouse has its ups and middles, but I haven't wavered in my optimism. Okay, I have. But only when I read those traitorous "fans" harshly criticisizing the show. But no matter what, I'm sticking by the Dollhouse. How could I not? I was ignorant enough to only learn about Buffy the Vampire Slayer during its 4th season, and I didn't even know about Firefly until I was flabbergasted by the awesomeness of Serenity. I'm not about to make the mistake of missing out on more Joss Whedon's genius. Plus, girls kicking major ass every week? Sounds like my kind of show.

Dollhouse can only get better, and despite some stumbles, it really does seem like the show is slowly but surely finding its stride. As for Eliza Dushku, so far she has done no wrong. I doubt she'll be brilliant in everything, but maybe there's an actual chance she'll prove me, and everyone else, wrong. At least Whedon seems to think so.

I actually can't wait for the 6th episode and onwards. Eliza Dushku has repeatedly said that the first 5 episodes were somewhat tailored for the FOX network's approval, and that the remaining episodes are where Whedon's novelist capabilities finally show. The themes are intriguing enough, questions like "Who are you without your memories?," "In the grand scheme of things, how much is one person worth?" and "Does personality make the person?" are already being subtly asked, and it can only sink deeper and induce more headaches. Good, healthy headaches, of course.

And for those who are ignorant, stupid, annoying enough to ask the infamous question "How will the audience relate/cheer for a heroine (Echo) who is a different character every week?"

Why don't you stop asking that question and actually watch the show and find out?