Academy Awards

They definitely deserved it.

A New Year means...

Lists!

2011 Movies I'll Be Waiting For

#5 Water for Elephants

I hope Robert Pattinson doesn't blow his chance to redeem himself.


#4 Sucker Punch

Through the guns and girls, the storyline of reality vs fantasy could be a really cool psychological action movie. If not, it'll still be really cool.


#3 Your Highness











Looks high-larious.


#2 The Muppets

The Muppets + Ali G's James Bobin? Respek.

#1 The Hobbit
Haha I wish..


Random 2011 movies that I'll watch: 
-The Green Hornet because of all the Stephen Chow drama. I've got to see if his resignment as director and actor is justified.
-The Dilemma since I saw them filming live. Not expecting much, though.

My Favorite Movies of 2010 [so far]

#5 Shutter Island

I love psychological thrillers! Shutter Island kept me on the edge of my seat--and the ending blew my mind. Hmm sounds a lot like Inception.

#4 The Social Network

The Social Network tests the definition of friendship, reflecting on the technology of this era. Mark Zuckerberg, has so many layers to his character--playing a protagonist as well as the antagonist. 

#3 Black Swan

The Black Swan creates a darker world of ballet.  Beautiful and terrifying at the same time, Darren Aronofsky and Natalie Portman truly display art at its finest (or worst). 

#2 The King's Speech

Inspiring. The King's Speech touched me with a story about friendship and true courage. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush were absolutely enchanting together. Also, the British humor was hilarious!

#1 Inception

I love psychological thrillers! Inception kept me on the edge of my seat--and the ending blew my mind. Hmm sounds a lot like Shutter Island.

From the ensemble cast to the storyline, Inception was unpredictable and incredibly engaging.

I have yet to see more movies from 2010 since I mostly rely on Netflix dvds.

Filming Cheaters (now called The Dilemma) in Chicago!

I happened to walk by the filming of Cheaters (2011) and ahem...Channing Tatum and Winona Ryder!!

They were filming in Chicago Chinatown's Wentworth Street. The film crew totally transformed one of the gift stores into a movie set! They moved all of the nick-knacks out of the store and put some meat on display and random Chinese candies inside the store. There were extras and cars lined up on the street to pass through the scene at the right time. Only part of the street was blocked for filming, so the lucky tourists that happened to walk by were able to take pictures and watch the magic happen. Most of the Chinese people that lived in Chinatown just wanted to cross the street because they had no idea what was happening. Who the heck is Channing Tatum? I just want to get some bok choy!

Luckily, I lived near Chinatown so I could run to my house to grab my camera with huge zooming lenses to get clear pictures. Other people were caught by surprise and only had their phones and iPods. "There's lots of paparazzi here," the security guard said. Gosh...I'm sure he was just talking about me. The security guards blocked the streets when they were filming and told me that pictures weren't allowed, but someone with more authority told us that pictures were allowed, but no flash. I was going to take pictures anyways- it's much too exciting.

The Hollywood interpretation of a Chinatown store

Here's the scene: Channing Tatum parks his car and gets out, leaving Winona Ryder inside. He walks into the store and buys a roast duck from the Asian dude. The salesman dumps the duck into a plastic bag and gives it to Tatum. He gets out of the store, waving the duck at the woman. Then, he gets back in the car and drives away. They must have done the same scene at least ten times. 

Tatum with duck in a bag

Hollywood is hilarious... in the real Chinatown, the butcher chops the duck up and puts it in an aluminum take out box, all of the drivers aren't white, and the people walking aren't all young and hip.

If I walk around Chicago, I might just end up watching the whole movie!